Mozambique's charcoals: anatomy of nine native species

Abstract

Most of the charcoal commercially produced in Mozambique is from natural forests, including high value species. This production often negatively affects the environment and one of the main reasons is the lack of sustainable forest management techniques. To facilitate forest control, we characterize the anatomy properties of charcoal made from Afzelia quanzensis, Amblygonocarpus andongensis, Combretum imberbe, Dalbergia melanoxylon, Guibourtia conjugata, Khaya nyasica, Millettia stuhlmannii, Pterocarpus angolensis and Swartzia madagascariensis. All these species possess high commercial value. The samples were carbonized at 450 °C for 1 h. Some shrinkage-related ruptures were present in charcoals, but the structure kept good definition of the cells features and did not influence the distinction of the species. The propagation of this knowledge would relieve pressure on valuable species and may also help with control of the charcoal supply chain.