Forest inventory by statistical methods — an evaluation of the sampling error of cruises in the Bonkoni Forest Reserve at Mim, Brong Ahafo Region
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Date
1981
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Abstract
In recent times, the timber industry in Ghana engaged on enumeration wor1c with the aim of acquiring information on all trees which are in the forests and not only on those species which have hitherto been regarded as primary or, economic to the timber industry, In the light of this development, a hundred per cent enumeration survey in the Bonkoni Forest Reserve was initiated by the Mim Timber Company, the concessionaire, with the following objectives:
1.To ascertain the actual stocking of all trees which have girth sizes of five feet and above in this Forest Reserve; 2. To teach the Company’s enumeration team the techniques of identifying the lesser known species and also the enumeration survey procedures. As expected, the field works very costly and time consuming. It is the purpose of this thesis to utilise the results of this enumeration and to find out whether satisfactory inferences can be made using statistical methods. Six compartments each were having an area of 129.5ha. (0.5 sq. ml) constituted the unit of assessment and the species on this 77a (3sq, ml.) of total area constituted the ultimate unit. It is intended to verify whether a sampling fraction of less than 10 per cent could give a useful guide as to the nature and composition of the parent population.
The results of this study demonstrate that for most of the species, a sampling fraction of 5 per cent could be considered adequate for most purposes. Average deviation for Pycnanthus angolensis and Pterygota macrocarpa was nil at that level of cruising. On the other hand, if sampling were to apply to Triplochiton sclerexylon and Celtis adolfi-friderici, a 1.25 per cent cruising could be considered satisfactory.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Board of Postgraduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Master of Science in Wood Technology and Management.