Choice of trees to establish a tree planted firebreak
(after D. Louppe, 1992)

The belt planted with Anacardium occidentale (Cashew), on the windy side, is evergreen, with low branches. The treee cover is dense, strongly limiting the grass cover. The resulting dead leaf litter is much less combustible than dry grasses and a fire can only spread slowly under these trees. If the fire reaches the belt of Gmelina arborea, there is a soil cover without any grass and with a litter composed only of dry Gmelina leaves, which are not easily combustible. Fire normally spreads slowly in such a firebreak, the trees do not burn, and a relatively narrow road is then sufficient to halt the progression of the fire.

Dichrostachys is a spiny shrub used as a live fence to protect the planted belt against livestock, which are only allowed to go on the road.

A significant advantage is that these tree species produce useful products.

| Cashew Tropical American tree (Anacardium occidentale) of the Sumac family, valued chiefly for its kidney-shaped nut, whose sweet, oily kernel is used for food and yields an oil used in cooking. The nut grows at the end of a red, white, or yellow pear-shaped fleshy stalk, or cashew apple, which is also eaten or pressed to extract the juice, which may be fermented to make wine. The acrid sap of the cashew tree is used to make a varnish that protects woodwork from insects.
| Dichrostachys cinerea

See Also

Raintree Nutrition, Inc., Cashew Fruit (Anacardium occidentale). http://www.rain-tree.com/cashew.htm

Arvores do Brasil. Anacardium occidentale. http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/alice/Portdemo/1.htm

Cashews from Guinea-Bissau. http://www.steele.com/cashew/cashew.html

McGregor, S.E. Chapter 5 (Tree Fruits & Nuts and Exotic Tree Fruits & Nuts: Cashew) in: McGregor, S.E. Insect Pollination of Cultivated Crop Plants. http://bee.airoot.com/beeculture/book/chap5/cashew.html

Studies on the Fast-Grown Wood Species Gmelina arborea (Part III) Kinetic Study on Kraft Pulping. Bulletin of the Taiwan Forestry research Institute. http://www.tfri.gov.tw/publish/104-15e.htm

Preliminary Results of 4-year-old Clonal Trials of Gmelina arborea in Côte d'Ivoire. http://www.conaf.cl/iufro/iufronet/d1/wu10700/unpub/kadio95.htm

Natural Vegetation Strips (NVS) and Gmelina Cropping Systems. May Ann E. Mamicpic, Richard L. Tinsley and Damasa Magcale-Macandog. ISBN: 0 86740 496 5, ISSN: 1324-587. http://cres.anu.edu.au/imperata/impab981.htm. To view in Acrobat format click on this icon
Non-timber Forest Products. A key to sustainable tropical forest management? by Jochen Statz http://gate.gtz.de/gate_mag/gate_97_2/texte/focus_1.html

Rajiv K. Srivastava. Controlling Forest Fire Incidences by Generating Awareness. A Case Study from Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, Coimbatore, India (IFFN No. 20 - March). http://www.ruf.uni-freiburg.de/fireglobe/iffn/country/in/in_2.htm

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