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'Local Timber'


Low impact timber production in Nepal 
Peter Cook explains all...

Trekking in the foothills of Nepal’s Annapurna Mountains, my companions and I entered a forest of rhododendrons. Not the shrubs you see in Surrey gardens, but huge, gnarled, twisted trees, like oak or perhaps hornbeam, in over-crowded woodland. From the lichens, which encrusted their bark, grew delicate orchids in full flower. 

Here and there was a species of what looked like fir, tall and straight, in contrast to the rhododendron and sought by the local people for their housing.  Mostly they chose trees that had fallen naturally. In this land of scarce resources, conservation is a stark necessity, not just a moral duty. Using only hand axes, groups of villagers transformed the raw tree into planks and rafters, so perfect that you could have sworn they had been finished with a planer. The axes were razor sharp and very heavy, with lots of metal surrounding the short, rough-hewn shaft. 
First the trunk was sliced into rough planks, using wooden wedges, presumably driven with the after side of an axe. I never saw a hammer or beetle of any kind. These planks were split into smaller ones, which were held firmly in place by stakes driven into the ground. Using the axe alone, the woodsmen then trimmed the rough planks into perfectly squared off and uniform four by twos, or six by threes, according to what was required.  Close examination showed only slight indentations from the axe. A machine could not have completed the job more perfectly.

Nothing was wasted. All the chippings and off-cuts were gathered into the huge baskets carried on their backs, the weight taken by a strap arrangement passing across the top of the forehead, and taken down the mountain for firewood. The finished timber must be carried down too. There are no internal combustions engines in this part of the world, no chainsaws, no trucks, no lifting machinery – just the rhythmic chop of the woodsman’s axe, the wind in the trees and birdsong.

 

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