LUSHOTO SILVICULTURE RESEARCH CENTRE
Introduction
Lushoto Silviculture Research Centre (LSRC) is among the seven TAFORI centres which are distributed all over the country. Day to day research activities conducted by the centre are concentrated within Tanga, Kilimanjaro, Arusha and Mnyara regions. Centre’s headquarters are in Lushoto town in Lushoto district. The centre has a long history of forest research way back early 1990s. It has good facilities for conducting research works in silviculture, soils, seed, pathology and entomology. There is a well established and worldwide known herbarium containing over 10,000 specimen. The centre is a custodian of a lot of research information which is buffered by the presence of good library. The presence of Lushoto arboretum at Lushoto and Amani botanical garden within Amani Nature Reserve is an indicator of the richness of trees germplasm in the centre. A number of expertise can been obtained from the centre and wherever deficit is experienced hiring from other relevant institutions is done. The centre’s headquarter is strategically located for easy access to valuable forest sites.
Research activities
Some research activities are been conducted at centres headquarters while another proportion is done in the field. The later include establishment and management of various trial plots within the centre’s mandated areas. A number of experimental sites are distributed all over Tanga, Kilimanjaro and Arusha regions with 162, 48 and 70 trials respectively. Beside trials on exotic species presently emphasis is in shifting to indigenous tree species. Objectively these trials are mainly for tree increment, regeneration, thinning, progeny, provenance trials, seed sources and seed orchards. The centre is also involved with research on cloning and mass production of cloning products.
Training
The centre offers short term training to students of all levels in areas related to environment and tree growth and development. Training outside the centre is done to groups of farmers and any other people with interest in tree growing.
Publications
Publications done by different scientists are available in local and international journals and newsletters and some copies are locally available. These are in various areas including forest plantation, agroforestry, pathology, entomology, tree improvement, forest management and forest ecology.
Departments
Operationally the centre works under four departments and each has sections under it.
1. Department of forest management
Sections;
- Plantation Management
- Agroforestry
2. Department of tree genetics
Sections;
- Tree improvement
- Seeds and nursery
3. Forest ecology
Sections;
- Soils and climate
- Botany and herbarium
- Natural forest
4. Department of forest protection
Sections:
- Entomology
- Pathology
- Fire protection
The centre welcomes everybody who has stake in forest research or an interest in growing and cultivating trees for generation and exchange of knowledge.