会议名称：2013世界木材日研讨会(2013 World Wood Day Symposium)
会议时间：2013年3月19-20日
会议地点：Karimjee Hall, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
报 告 人： Dr. Hans Beeckman 

　　　　　Senior Scientist and Curator of Xylarium, Royal Museum for Central Africa 

Abstract
Woody plants characterize most of the Central-African biomes, including the dense forests, the woodlands and most of the savannahs. As trees and shrubs consist for the major part of wood, this material is by far the most common forest product. An important commodity of the Central-African material culture are the world famous wood sculptures that also inspired artists from all over the world.
The species diversity of trees in Central Africa is particularly high and for this reason also the wood ethnographic objects are quite diverse. In general, the choice of wood depends on locally available species, technical common sense or religious considerations, as is the case for masks made of wood from the sacred tali tree (Erythrophleum suaveolens) which is very difficult to carve.
Wood carvers from different ethnic groups often prefer to work with different species, but there are remarkable strong trends: Crossopterix febrifuga, Ricinodendron, Alstonia and Vitex are used very often by different ethnic groups and in certain regions also Milicia excelsa, Nauclea and Pterocarpus are important. Timbers that are actually important for the international trade are rarely used for sculptures. Milicia excelsa  that is a source of iroko or kambala wood is an exception to this.
Crossopterix febrifuga frequently grows in tree savannahs where it can be a shrub or small tree up to eight meters. The wood is semi-hard and remains quite stable during the process of drying. The wood can be easily carved in all directions. It is an excellent wood for carving. Throughout tropical Africa, from Ghana to Tanzania, where a considerable amount of kitchen utensils and mortars are made from it, traditional African wood carvers value the Crossopterix’s properties. The Kuba people (in the Kasai province of the DRC) make approximately two-thirds of all their objects from Crossopterix.
Many masks worn during ritual dances are carved from Ricinodendron species which grow into large trees in secondary forests close to villages. This tree easily reproduces and its light, easily carved wood is ideal for masks. Another species from which many masks are made is Alstonia which also grows into large trees and occurs in wet sites and gallery forests.
Most objects from the Chokwe people in the DRC and Angola are carved from Vitex which also carves easily and without splintering.
Teke people often use the orange-yellow wood of Nauclea latifolia or N. pobeguinii for their maternal statues. Those maternal statues are to be considered as a metaphor for the care for the next generations. They could serve as emblems for sustainable management of forests which should be a key condition for wood utilization.

Speaker Profile
Hans Beeckman studied Forest Engineer at University of Ghent, Belgium, where he started his career as Junior Scientist and Lecturer at the Laboratories for Plant Ecology and Wood Technology from 1983-1991, and then completed his PhD thesis in 1992.  He is now Senior Scientist and Curator  at the Laboratory for Wood Biology and Xylarium at Royal Museum for Africa, Tervuren, Belgium. He is also an associate editor of Dendrochronologia, and reviewer of several important periodicals in the field of Forest science. He has authored 4 books, and published more than four hundreds of papers and reports. He teaches vegetation ecology, numerical ecology, system ecology, wood features, and wood identification at university.  His research interests are wood biology (wood anatomy and tree growth), structure and function of trees in tropical Africa, sustainable wood production in the Congo Basin, and carbon dynamics in tropical forests.