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Felled canopy tree in Peru. (Photo by R. Butler)
Reduced-Impact Logging
Sustainable Logging and Improved Forest Management
Although numerous companies claim to practice "sustainable
logging", virtually none actually do. Few companies even replant seedlings after logging, especially when forestry
regulations require a 35-year fallow period after logging, a length of time much greater than their 15-20 year
concessions. However, damage to the surrounding forest and the forest ecosystem can be tremendously reduced by adopting
certain reduced-impact logging practices including: 1) cutting climbers and lianas well before felling;
2) directional tree felling to inflict the smallest impact on the surrounding forest; 3) establishing stream buffer
zones and watershed protection areas; 4) using improved technologies to reduce damage to the soil caused by log
extraction; 5) careful planning to prevent excess roads which give access to transient settlers; 6) reducing wood
waste for cut areas (anywhere from 25-50 percent of the wood from a given cleared patch is wasted); 7) limiting the gradient
of roads to prevent excess erosion. These steps can limit damage to the surrounding forest, cut erosion
of topsoil, enable faster recovery of the forest, and reduce the risk of fire. The biggest drawback to such harvesting
methods is the great management expense, because more supervision, planning, and training are required and fewer
trees can be removed, reducing output and income. Nonetheless, it seems clear that some short-term sacrifices will
have to made to establish new forest management for long-term benefits. The big question is whether it is in the economic interest of timber operators to adopt these methods without prodding from government agencies or specific market demand for "greener" products.
Increasing the transparency of business transactions and standardizing the procedures of awarding concessions will
also improve forest management. By stimulating open competition through auctions, questionable concessions granted
to political friends can be reduced. Instead of bribes, concessions could be granted to bidder who make the
best offers, both in terms of cash and minimal environmental impact. Governments could also require a "performance bond"
worth 10-15 percent of the value of a firm's investment for companies exploiting the forest. The bond is held to guard
against environmental degradation and used to repair damage caused by poor logging practices.
Sustainable management
implies the maintenance of the productivity of the asset base. Thus, in theory, under sustainable forest management,
logging should meet the needs of the present without compromising the continuity of the ecosystem and the goods
and services that it provides. There are sustainable methods of harvesting rainforest hardwoods, although these
appear to have the most success at the local level. For example, the Amuesha Indians in the Yanesha Forestry Cooperatives
Project of Peru employ a technique sometimes known as strip logging, based loosely on a rotating concept much like
their traditional technique of slash-and-burn agriculture. They log a strip of forest 65 feet wide and use their
oxen to take trees to a local sawmill. The gap is narrow enough to allow rapid plant colonization and seed dispersal
across the clearing, while the soil is relatively undisturbed by the use of animal transport. The surrounding forest
rapidly fills in the gap and within 20 years the strip is covered with secondary forest. In the meantime, the
Indians take timber from other strips. When the forest has recovered, the Indians can again return to log the secondary
forest. The rotating cycle only impacts a relatively small area and is a renewable practice. Commercial logging
companies could follow an adaptation of this renewable technique. Though in the short run it is more costly and
inefficient, in the log run it helps preserve the rest of the forest and the services and resources it provides.
In any case, it is important that some stretches of forest be left completely untouched to accommodate those
species that cannot tolerate life in disturbed forest.
Studies have found that reduced-impact logging can be used to
reduce carbon emissions by up to 40 tons per hectare of forest compared to conventional logging. This, combined
with the preservation of higher levels in biodiversity in selectively logged forests, lends a strong case to sustainable
forest management over standard timber-harvesting techniques.
Using Alternatives to Tropical Timber
There is much potential for using alternatives to tropical timber. If we continue to use wood products for construction
and other purposes, timber companies could plant plantation forests in the northern temperate zone or on degraded
forest lands for use instead of logging primary tropical rainforest to satisfy timber needs. The temperate forest
ecology is far less delicate and recovers faster than the biologically rich and fragile tropical forests.
Demand for pulp wood for paper manufacturing is increasing, which adds further strain on tropical rainforests.
More than 40 percent of the world's industrial timber ends up as paper, of which two-thirds is consumed by Europe, Japan,
and the United States. However, also increasing is the use of non-wood fibers like bamboo and straw. According
to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, in 1970 six million tons of non-wood fibers were produced, accounting for 4 percent of the total amount of fibers produced. By 1994, the use of non-wood fibers had doubled to 8 percent of the market (21 million tons). There is hope that non-wood
fibers may replace the use of tropical trees in the manufacture of pulpwood. Besides, is it really necessary to
use tropical rainforest wood from virgin forest for pulp?
Reused and Recycled Wood Products
Tropical rainforests are used as sources for pulpwood in paper manufacturing. However, with improved methods of
paper recycling and more dependence on plantation forests, less wood need come from natural forests. Instead, rainforest
wood can be used for more important purposes, for which it is more critical. As demand increases for pulpwood
sources, more and more paper products are recycled and reused. International trade in waste paper is up 365 percent from
1980 levels, while consumption of such paper is up 217 percent.
Plantations
Increasingly, timber firms are turning to plantations to provide forest resources, without the high environmental
costs of harvesting from natural forests. Forest plantations are essentially tree crops planted for the particular
purpose of providing a specific source for wood products, like industrial roundwood, fuelwood, and pulpwood, or
providing services like soil stabilization and prevention of erosion, carbon emissions mitigation, and preservation
of clean water flow. Forest plantations are generally composed of a few tree species which have useful attributes like rapid growth, low management
requirements, and high product yield.
Despite their potential to serve both as sources for wood products and as environmental servants, plantation forests
make up only a fraction of the world's forests. However, interest in plantations is growing and according to FAO
1997, plantation coverage in developing countries has doubled since 1980. Unfortunately, many of these plantations
come at the expense of natural forests which are cleared for plantation land. This practice must be revised to
make full use of our resources, especially since properly planned plantations can be grown on highly degraded forest
and non-forest lands and make ideal candidates for multiple-use reserves as buffer zones surrounding natural forests.
Plantations are also useful in that they provide work and resources for local populations. For example, small rubber
plantations in Indonesia provide a livelihood for seven million people and are responsible for producing 70 percent of
the country's rubber export revenues. Plantation species, primarily used for oil, food, and rubber production,
are increasingly being used as secondary fuelwood sources by local families after harvesting primary products.
Review questions:
What are some ways to reduce the impact of logging in the rainforest?
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.
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.
Impasse over palm oil emissions at RSPO meeting
(11/04/2009) Environmentalists and palm oil producers meeting at the annual Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) were locked in an impasse over how to account for emissions from converting forests and peatlands to oil palm plantations, report conference attendees.
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.
