Analysing Forest Inventory Data from the Companhia do Búzi area

Mozambique has an area of 780,000.00 square kilometres, of which 620,000.00 square kilometres are covered in vegetation and 87,000.00 square kilometres in protected areas. The forest area in Mozambique covered 40.6 million hectares in 2007, of which 26.9 million hectares were productive forest, where forest concessions are established. The provinces with the largest areas of productive forest are: Niassa, Zambézia, Tete and Cabo Delgado (Marzoli, 2007). In 2007, Sofala province had around 2,849,700 ha of total area covered by forest. This forest has an average of 7.1 m3/ha of commercial volume, 48.3 m3/ha of total volume and 94.8 trees per hectare (Marzoli, 2007). Forest inventory is the basis for making land use decisions. The concept of forest inventory is becoming increasingly comprehensive. The evolution of the concept of multiple use of forests is tending to include non-wood species for utilisation beyond the timber industry, according to Da Silva (2000). The area inventoried belongs to the Búzi company (agro-forestry areas of the Búzi Company) and was used in the past to provide firewood for the sugar mill's boilers and to supply timber.