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| Saving What Remains |
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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. The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) 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.
[full photo version] Continued: Sustainable logging (continued) Bibliographic citation for this page Other pages in this section: |
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