part of the forest to fell again). Over a large area, trees of no commercial value such as
figs, especially the so-called ‘strangling’ (epiphytic) varieties, together with Cynometra,
Celtisspp. and Lasiodiscuswere treated with a potent arboricide containing 2,4,5-T and
2,4-D dissolved in diesel oil. This was done so they would not compete with the
mahoganies and in order to open the canopy and give the mahoganies more light, which
was believed to stimulate growth. By mid-1966 a total of 80 000 acres had been treated,
with a then current rate of treatment of 12 000 acres a year, which was to increase
to 17 000 acres a year (Rukuba Forestry in Uganda, p. 223, quoted in Paterson 1991
p. 186; for details of the arboricide treatment see Dawkins 1954, 1955). The effects of
arboricide treatment on the regeneration of species in Budongo Forest has been studied
by Bahati (1995).
Elephants were shot because they ate the tender young mahogany saplings. When my
wife Frankie and I were in the Budongo Forest doing our first chimpanzee study in
1962, we saw tree poisoning and elephant shooting. On our return to Britain we met
with Colyear Dawkins, a British forester based at the Oxford Forestry Institute, who had
16 The Budongo Forest
untreatedBudongo Forest
showing arboricide treatmenttreatedFig. 1.3: Use of arboricide in Budongo Forest.