No Timber Without Trees

Sustainability in the tropical forest

Duncan Poore

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781849710244
• eBook ISBN: 9781134064212
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Environmental Law
• Index: Law

Much of the world's tropical timber is still supplied from natural forest, but under current systems of management the forests are rapidly becoming exhausted. Unless management practices change to become genuinely sustainable, neither the forests nor the essential contribution of the timber industry to many economies will survive.

Duncan Poore reviews the extent to which natural forests are already being sustainably managed for timber production, and looks at how these practices can be enlarged. He places management for timber in the wider context of tropical forest conservation and outlines a strategy for further action. Thoroughly researched and accessibly written, this book will be useful for everyone working or interested in the subject of tropical forests.

Foreword by Dato Dr B.C.Y. Freezailah

Originally published in 1989

1. The Sustainable Management of Tropical Forest: the Issues

Duncan Poore

There can be few people now who are not aware that “the tropical forest” is in danger. This has become one of the clarion calls of environmentalists, a call which is now echoed in the statements of political leaders in both the developing and the developed world. It is one of the main issues identified in the report of the World Commission on Environment, the Brundtland Commission,¹ and there is no dearth of international action. But there is still much misunderstanding about the nature and scale of the problem and, above all, about what might be done about it.

This widespread concern about tropical forests is based on a number of issues: that these forests are disappearing at an alarming rate; that the loss of so much forest has potentially disastrous environmental effects – on soil, water, climate, the genetic richness of the globe and the supply of possible future economic products; that the uses to which the land is being converted are often not sustainable – that the forest in fact is being destroyed for no ultimate benefit, and that forest-dwelling peoples are being arbitrarily displaced. All of these are true – partly and in some places. And, as usual, it is drama and disaster that seize the headlines.

But there is another side of the coin. Successes can be chalked up here and there, examples of good planning and management, of conservation. They too make news – with the better correspondents. But they are still pitifully puny and infrequent in relation to the scale of the problem; and often, good though they may be, they are of only local relevance. The challenge is to extract from these local successes some general principles and to apply these widely and rapidly at a scale which will have some real impact.

First, though, it is necessary to find out what the real issues are, to separate what is important from the verbal froth. How vital really is it to preserve forest cover in the tropics? How much forest should be preserved intact and where? Is it possible to use some parts of the forest for economic purposes while maintaining environmental values? How might this be done? Where have planning and management failed? What are the reasons for failure and success? What can genuinely be done to solve these problems in the prevailing political and economic context of the tropical countries in which the forest is found?

This book does not set out to be a comprehensive account of tropical forest destruction; others aspire to do this. Instead, it concentrates on the management of tropical forest for the sustainable production of timber. It cannot do this, however, without trying to set this very important use, the production of timber, in a more general setting and examining some of the truths and myths of the tropical forest story.

It is justly pointed out that in the past much forest has been cleared elsewhere in the world, indeed that development has apparently often been based on forest clearance. Why should tropical countries be denied the same opportunity? But this clearance has been mostly in those climatic zones of the world in which agriculture has proved readily possible – the temperate regions, Mediterranean climates, the semi-arid zone, the subtropics; only in the boreal zone has most of the land surface remained under forest. Even in tropical and equatorial climates fertile alluvial soils were deforested centuries ago for irrigated agriculture. What then is so different about the remaining tropical forests?

Three points can be made here. First, it is now recognized that the deforestation in many of the long-established seats of agriculture was a very destructive process which led to much unnecessary loss of soil; if it were possible to develop those areas now with all the advantages of present knowledge, any wise government would hope to do it very differently. Second, there are good reasons why most of the remaining areas of tropical forest remain as forest: many, though not all of them, are on lands which have been inherently difficult to settle or cultivate, either because of disease or the infertility of the soil. And third, the forests of the wet tropics are exceptionally easy to destroy utterly, with all the plants and animals they contain. In most other parts of the world, forests can be destroyed but most of the tree species survive; and even many of the other woodland organisms can exist outside the forest or in small fragments of it. This does not seem to be the case in the wet tropics; so exceptional care is needed if it is wished to develop these lands in ways which do not waste their resources.

There is another consideration. Everyone is the product of the age to which he or she belongs. Developments which occurred in previous centuries took place in a climate of opinion and balance between population and potential resources which were very different from those of today. Liberties were taken with human rights and with the environment which would no longer be acceptable to world opinion. It is mistaken to suggest that these concerns are confined to the developed world, and that it is solely those from developed nations who are attempting to force their values on other less fortunate countries. It is evident that similar concerns are being voiced spontaneously by thinking people in the developing nations too and that these changes are signs of an inevitable progression in human conscience.

It is as a result of this new consciousness, and conscience, that the Tropical Forest Action Plan (TFAP) has come into being and that the International Tropical Timber Agreement (ITTA) contains the historic clause about “sustainable utilization and conservation of tropical forests”.

What then is necessary for the sustainable utilization and conservation of tropical forest lands? In the following section of this chapter, we examine some of the concepts involved and try to set out the questions that need to be asked, and the standards that should be set, if sustainable utilization and conservation are to become realities in practice.

SOME DEFINITIONS

In order to make the study as exact and as useful as possible, some definitions are necessary; much confusion and misunderstanding can be, and have been, caused by the imprecise use of terms and we wish to avoid this as far as possible. Even in the subject of the study there are two terms that may be misinterpreted: “natural forest” and “management for sustainable timber production”. Some explanation is given below of the sense in which certain key terms are used in this book.

Natural forest

This term is used in contrast to forest plantations (“forest crops raised artificially either by sowing or planting”), which are in general areas in which the naturally occurring tree species have been totally replaced by planted trees. Natural forest includes a range of types which have been subjected to varying degrees of modification by man and which grade almost imperceptibly into one another. The following list illustrates this range, starting with those that are least modified:

(a) virgin forest (compare with b, c and d below), essentially unmodified by human activity; this will contain gaps caused by the normal death and regeneration of trees and may include areas or phases which have been affected by natural events such as landslides, typhoons or volcanic activity

(b) forest, similar to the above, the composition and structure of which may have been modified by the hunting and gathering activities of indigenous peoples

(c) forests which have been subjected to a light cycle of shifting cultivation or in which cultivation has been abandoned, so that a full tree cover of indigenous species has been able to develop

(d) forests which have been subjected to various intensities and frequencies of logging, but which still remain covered with a tree or shrub cover of indigenous species. These may be of two kinds: those in which new tree growth is entirely derived from natural regeneration and others where this has been supplemented by “enrichment planting”.

The first two of the above categories will be referred to as primary forest, the second two as secondary forest.

The following, both of which can make an important contribution to timber supplies, will be excluded from the definition of natural forest: areas which have been so intensively modified by cultivation, fire or other disturbance that they remain covered with grass or nonforest weeds – degraded forest lands; and forest plantations (as defined above), whether of native or introduced species.

Sustainable timber production

This phrase requires considerable explanation, both in itself and in relation to the more general term, “sustainable management”. The relation between these two will be explained below.

When primary forest is first logged it normally contains a high standing volume of timber, a variable proportion of which is marketable, depending upon composition and market demand. Because this standing volume has accumulated over a long period, the commercial timber is likely to be of a quality and volume that will probably not be matched in future cuts (because it contains slow-growing specimens and species, large diameters, etc.) unless the logged forest is closed to further exploitation for a century or more. In this sense the first crop is, in practical terms, not repeatable.

If production of timber is to be genuinely sustainable, the single most important condition to be met is that nothing should be done that will irreversibly reduce the potential of the forest to produce marketable timber – that is, there should be no irreversible loss of soil, soil fertility or genetic potential in the marketable species. It does not necessarily mean that no more timber should be removed in a period of years than is produced by new growth; overcutting in one cycle can, at least in theory, be compensated by undercutting in the next or by prolonging the cutting cycle.

But even this description of sustainable production begs several questions. For example: markets will certainly change between one phase of logging and the next – new species will become marketable and current fashions may decline. So the “timber production” to be sustained will not be the same from one cutting cycle to the next; it will contain a different mix of species. One consequence of this is that valuable species may be over-exploited initially for economic reasons.

Moreover, the forest will certainly alter somewhat in composition as a result of selective harvesting and there may even be some loss of soil fertility.² But potentially damaging changes of this kind can be compensated by new investment – in these instances by the application of fertilizers or by enrichment planting. Whether to invest or not is essentially an economic decision.

The best silvicultural practice requires the calculation of the volume of timber which may be cut in one year in a given area (the “annual allowable cut” – AAC), a volume which should be set at a level that provides the maximum harvest while ensuring that no deterioration occurs in the prospects for future sustainable harvests.

When an area of virgin forest is cut the AAC depends upon the volume of marketable timber in the area which may be cut while leaving enough stems on the ground for the next crop. This is calculated from an inventory of the standing stock and an estimation of the length of the cutting cycle – the period between successive loggings. If the forest is well stocked, this figure may be high. But the situation alters for subsequent cuts, because the rates of growth of the remaining trees are changed when the first crop is removed. At this later stage it should be possible, by measurement of permanent sample plots, to determine a stable AAC which corresponds to the annual growth in volume of the forest in question. This is likely to be different from, and often but not always lower than, the AAC from the primary forest.

Sustainable production per unit area and sustainable supply

There is sometimes also confusion between these two terms because of the use in trade statistics of “production” in quite a different sense from that defined above – to mean, in effect, the supply of timber from whatever source. We have found representatives of some countries using “sustainable timber production” to mean continuity of supply from the natural forest, implying that when one source is exhausted, another will be found. It need hardly be remarked that this usage is dangerous, for it need not include any provision for continuity of production on sites exploited and can lead to the total destruction of the resource. In fact, in this sense, supply is sustainable until it runs out; then it is someone else’s problem.

Management and its intensity

Management in the broadest context can be defined as taking a firm decision about the future of any area of forest, applying it, and monitoring the application. Dr Synnott, in his account in Chapter 4, writes:

The term “management” is sometimes used loosely. Some activities are called “management projects” which actually consist of demonstrations and trials. Equally it is often said that management would be uneconomic when it is meant that silvicultural treatments would be. Here, management is understood to include many possible components: silviculture is one component of management, but it is possible to have effective management with few or no silvicultural interventions, and with only a few of the more important management activities.

Here we distinguish between the characteristic tools of silviculture…regulation of shade and canopy opening, treatments to promote valued individuals and species and to reduce unwanted trees, climber cutting, “refining”, poisoning, enrichment, selection…and management objectives, yield control, protection, working plans, felling cycles, sample plots, logging concessions, roads, boundaries, prediction, costings, annual records, and the organization of silvicultural work.

The tropical forest can be managed for the sustainable production of timber at a number of different levels of intensity. This is often misunderstood and it is assumed that, if the forest is not being managed intensively, it is not being managed at all. We may take five different levels as examples, starting at the lowest:

Wait and see

Where forest is remote and there is, as yet, no market for logs, the most effective management may be to demarcate the forest and protect it from encroachment until...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1. The Sustainable Management of Natural Forest: the Issues
• 2. Queensland, Australia: an Approach to Successful Sustainable Management
• 3. Africa
• 4. South America and the Caribbean
• 5. Asia
• 6. Management of Natural Forest for Sustainable Timber Production: A Commentary
• 7. Conclusions
• 8. Recommended Action
• 9. Recent developments
• 10. Postscript: an Uncertain Future
• Additional Reading
• Index