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Looking up from the base of a kapok tree. (Photo by R. Butler)
LOGGING
OVERVIEW
In most tropical countries forests are government-owned and ownership by parties other than the state is often
prohibited. Timber is often harvested under concession agreements awarded to private logging firms who, without
securimg legal rights to the land, are reluctant to make investments in forest management. Thus it is no surprise
that a recent study found that less than 0.1 percent of tropical forests are sustainably managed and less than 1 percent of the area used
for logging is under any form of management. Nevertheless, tropical countries see timber as a major source of revenue
and continue to grant huge concessions at below their market rates. Forestry is important to the world economy,
contributing 2 percent to world GDP (4 percent of GDP in developing countries) and making up 3% of international trade; it is also vital to
the local economies of many countries. For example, the logging of tropical timber provides work for 100,000 people
in the Sarawak province of Malaysia and generates US$ 1.5 billion annually in exports. However, the resource management
of tropical forests is grossly underfunded, causing numerous problems.
Many countries have passed forestry laws, sometimes as a genuine
effort, but more often as a nominal gesture to please international financing organizations. Where forestry laws
exist they are often ignored or widely abused. In the absence of regulation, loggers often ignore the negative
environmental impacts of their actions, since they derive little or no financial benefit from mitigating them. For
example, Malaysia, one of the largest exporters of tropical wood, has good forestry laws that would almost guarantee
sustainable use of its forests. However, the laws are not put into practice because of a lack of forestry officials and
a lack of government interest. Many in government prefer the extra cash in their pockets from the intense lobbying
by timber companies instead of actually enforcing forestry laws. Thus Malaysia's national parks and reserves continue
to be exploited, and the recommended maximum felling quantities are exceeded. Typical management problems include:
improperly conducted pre- and post-harvesting inventories, re-logging at more frequent intervals than required,
cutting outside concession boundaries, and ineffective control and supervision by the forest ministry. Many governments
around the world partake in such activities in an effort to raise quick cash. However these governments are selling
themselves and their peoples short. Many are effectively selling their wood at below market prices while others are losing millions
worldwide from illegal logging activities by not enforcing their forestry laws. Instead of collecting taxes and
duties on all timber extracted from the forest, governments receive only partial revenue as illicit wood goes untaxed. The problem is especially
bad in Indonesia where an estimated 500,000 hectares (42 percent of annual logged area) of forest are illegally logged
each year at a loss as high as US$3.5 billion in revenues to the government. Worldwide, the World Bank estimates, governments lose about US$5 billion in revenues annually as a result of illegal logging while overall losses to the national economies of timber-producing countries add up to an additional US$10 billion per year.
What is desperately needed is a new type of forestry that departs from the older mentality where forests only exist
to serve immediate human demands and are considered non-exhaustible resources. New forest management adds both rural development
and conservation projects to traditional tree harvesting and aims to keep forests as functional ecological systems
while providing multiple economic benefits. Among the innovations of the new forest management are a greater involvement
of local communities, diversification of forest products to include NWFPs, and the development of plantation forests
on degraded lands. Great strides have been made in recent years to develop more sustainable management policies,
but traditional logging firms still have a long way to go.
Developer uses cover of national holiday to clear rainforest near Colon, Panama
(11/06/2009) On Tuesday, November 3rd, while Panamanians celebrated Independence Day Holidays, heavy machinery unexpectedly entered and began cutting down tropical forest and mangroves near Galeta outside of Colon, Panama, report local sources. mongabay.com confirmed that the latest clearing has been carried out "almost in secret during national holidays so there would be no reaction from the public or the media." The clearing, conducted by a transportation cooperative called Serafin Niño, from Colon, is occurring in the buffer zone of the Galeta Protected Landscape and near Galeta Point Marine Laboratory, a facility of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. The land will likely be used to store transportation equipment that moves cargo to and from the ports of Colon and the Free Zone.
Important safeguards to protect rainforests lacking in REDD negotiating text
(11/06/2009) Important safeguards to protect natural forests are still lacking in negotiating text on REDD, a proposed mechanism for mitigating climate change by paying developing countries to keep trees standing, reports an alliance of activist groups.
House resolution condemns plunder of natural resources in Madagascar
(11/04/2009) A House of Representatives resolution introduced by Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) condemns the illegal plundering of natural resources in Madagascar, reports the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
Conservation and Carbon in Borneo’s Heart and Ours
(11/04/2009) My friend Rezal Kusumaatmadja contacted me in July to ask if I could join him and some of his associates for a couple of days in the village Mendawai, located along the Katingan River in south central Kalimantan. The purpose of the gathering was to bring everyone in the group up to date on progress and challenges related to the Katingan Peat Conservation Project, as well as to give the group an opportunity to meet one another. The Katingan Project aims to create a forest-based carbon containment facility defined and guided by REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Destruction in the developing world) principles and methodology. Currently, nearly 25% of human-generated greenhouse gas emissions are caused by felling, burning and converting the world’s remaining primary forests. While areas surrounding the Katingan peat forest vividly express this statistic, Katingan is part of a growing strategy to reverse the trend. The Katingan project endeavors to transform conservation into a product that might offer strong competition against illegal logging and expansion of industrial agricultural plantations - whose practices cause enormous emissions of greenhouse gasses, as well as destroying biodiversity, depleting and polluting watersheds and corroding native cultures.
REDD in Colombia: using forests to finance conservation and communities in Colombia's Choco, a former war zone
(11/03/2009) Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD), a climate change mechanism proposed by the U.N., has been widely lauded for its potential to simultaneously deliver a variety of benefits at multiple scales. But serious questions remain, especially in regard to local communities. Will they benefit from REDD? While much lip-service is paid to community involvement in REDD projects, many developers approach local communities as an afterthought. Priorities lie in measuring the carbon sequestered in a forest area, lining up financing, and making marketing arrangements, rather than working out what local people — the ones who are often cutting down trees — actually need in order to keep forests standing. This sets the stage for conflict, which reduces the likelihood that a project will successfully reduce deforestation for the 15-30 year life of a forest carbon project. Brodie Ferguson, a Stanford University-trained anthropologist whose work has focused on forced displacement of rural communities in conflict regions in Colombia, understands this well. Ferguson is working to establish a REDD project in an unlikely place: Colombia's Chocó, a region of diverse coastal ecosystems with some of the highest levels of endemism in the world that until just a few years ago was the domain of anti-government guerillas and right-wing death squads.
