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Welcome to the Big-Leaf Mahogany Growth & Yield Model website! Please read the sections below to learn more about the model and to learn how to navigate the website. Thank you for visiting!

Model Info

In recent decades big-leaf mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) has been intensively harvested across its natural range in tropical South America. Future timber production from natural forests will depend on protection and stewardship of surviving commercial populations through sustainable management practices. The growth & yield model presented here uses the NetLogo 4.1.2 platform. It projects population recovery and timber production from simulated harvests of mahogany populations under study in the Brazilian Amazon since 1995. Simulations are based on current legal management practices (60 cm minimum diameter cutting limit, 20% minimum commercial retention rate, 5 commercial trees / 100 ha minimum retention density, 30-year cutting cycle) and on demographic parameters (growth, mortality, fruit production, and seedling recruitment rates) derived from annual field censuses during 1995-2009 for several thousand seedlings, saplings, and trees. Harvest parameters can be adjusted to view population and production outcomes under alternative management scenarios. Forest managers will be able to input population data from field inventories in order to project recovery and production outcomes following multiple harvests at legal management sites.

Navigation

The ABOUT US section provides information about the researchers involved in the modeling project. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS provides information about the organizations involved in providing funding, data, and other resources for the project.

THE MODEL hosts the online version of the model. The online version is more limited in its capabilities than the computer version of the model but is designed to demonstrate the model’s functionality. The computer version of the model and the User Manual are available here. VIDEO MANUAL hosts a video version of the User Manual.

The FIELD SITE section provides a description of the Marajoara field site as well as an interactive Google map for exploring the field site infrastructure. Maps of the field site are also available for download.

PUBLICATIONS provides a list of the publications by authors of the Big-Lead Mahogany Growth & Yield Model. OTHER READING provides a list of NetLogo resources and pertinent publications about big-leaf mahogany.

The contact details of the model authors and site webmaster are provided in the CONTACT US section. Thank you for visiting our website!

UPDATES

This site is still under construction. Please be patient as we get the site fully online.

The online and computer versions of the Big-Leaf Mahogany Growth & Yield Model are finished and ready for download. Please see THE MODEL page for details.

The interactive field site map is in construction but will be available in the coming weeks. The User Manual videos are also coming soon.

Please subscribe to our mailing list here. If you would like to recieve updates on our model, website, and research. Please provide feedback on the model and website by taking our survey here.

Thanks again for your patience!