Fig 1 Participants of the refereed seminar at the College of Forestry, Wildlife and Tourism
The postgraduate committee at the College of Forestry, Wildlife, and Tourism at the University hosted refereed seminars on the 13th-14th and 24th-25th of July 2024. These refereed seminars are part of the Sokoine University of Agriculture guidelines, in which every postgraduate student must participate to be evaluated. However, in practical terms, the refereed seminars, beyond this evaluative scope, provided a platform that enabled me to refine my work through the critiques and insights received from participants in general, and particularly from discussants and examiners.
Due to the diversity, relevance, and current affairs of the themes presented by students, which encompassed among others, ecology, silviculture, management, agroforestry, wood science, climatic change, and the commercialisation of forest products, the seminars were a unique opportunity for-me to enhance and update my knowledge in the different areas and current dynamics and topics that the forestry sector are addressing.
In the context of my work, I had the opportunity to discuss some findings from my research. Among these, I highlighted aspects related to current forestry techniques and legislation, such as the adoption of the minimum cutting diameter, which, in a dualistic manner, protects the forest while simultaneously posing a potential obstacle to more active silviculture practices centred on trees below the minimum cutting diameter. Additionally, it was gratifying to perceive the relevance of my research in the allometric area, by combining the modelling of biomass, wood volume, and heartwood volume. This approach allows, beyond the mere quantification of wood volume and biomass, an assessment of wood quality, an aspect not commonly present in many articles addressing this theme.
