Introduction: Working Forests in the Tropics: Policy and Market Impacts on Conservation and Management

Abstract

Tropical forests are very rich in biological diversity and form an important economic and ecological resource. This biodiversity is of great value for communities living in or near these forests as a ready source of subsistence and cash income, and for the world at large as a source of tropical timber and non-timber products and a repository of genetic and chemical information. However, this biological complexity is diminishing rapidly. We analyze the main human (anthropogenic) actions causing loss of tropical forest biodiversity along with the strategies of management for forest biodiversity. Not only is the biophysical component important in management for biodiversity, but the active participation and support of local people, national governments, and the international community as a whole are essential to effective and sustainable development of tropical forests. This development strategy ensures that socioeconomic and environmental benefits are provided for present and future generations.     

Sustaining Tropical Forest Biodiversity

Abstract

Tropical forests are very rich in biological diversity and form an important economic and ecological resource. This biodiversity is of great value for communities living in or near these forests as a ready source of subsistence and cash income, and for the world at large as a source of tropical timber and non-timber products and a repository of genetic and chemical information. However, this biological complexity is diminishing rapidly. We analyze the main human (anthropogenic) actions causing loss of tropical forest biodiversity along with the strategies of management for forest biodiversity. Not only is the biophysical component important in management for biodiversity, but the action participation and support of local people, the national government and international cooperation as a whole, arc essential for an effective and sustainable development of tropical forests. This integrated development strategy ensures that socio-economic and environmental benefits are provided for present and future generations.     

Forest resources and timber production of Ghana: Current instruments for sustainable development

The decline of the natural tropical high forest has reached a critical stage in Ghana’s forestry history. Timber resources are over-exploited, degraded and further production prospects are questionable and of concern to forest management. The objective of this paper is to discuss some of the institutional measures and development instruments being taken in Ghana towards the feasibility of achieving sustainable management of the high forest for timber and other commodity products, as well as conserving other forest resources. This paper, therefore, provides institutional measures and structures, regulatory and economic instruments, currently being taken to ensure effective forest management and increase the productivity of the land and logging. The role of collaborative management approach of both natural reserved and unreserved high forests and to promote integrated farm forestry is explained. Effective management of the high forest resource demands close harmonizing of instruments and mechanisms, both internal and external to forestry, and which encourage stakeholders to participate actively in decision making that affects the resource quality and its production status. Currently, different instruments including regulatory, property rights, motivational, hypothecation, information supply and economic are being applied in Ghana to achieve sustainable forest resource management and timber production. These instruments are not mutually exclusive in their current application, but rather complementary. Thus, an effective mix of instruments is necessary to promote and make feasible, sustainable forestry in Ghana’s socioeconomic development objectives.     

中国热带地区次生林经营现状和技术

文章分析了中国热带地区次生林经营相关资料,在对广东、海南、广西和云南重点热带次生林林区或典型经营区进行实地调查的基础上,分析和总结了中国热带次生林经营管理政策、经营现状和经营技术。中国的热带次生林经营在中华人民共和国成立后不久的1951年开始提出,但在20世纪50至80年代中期,主要以利用为目的,经营方式以封山育林为主。到了80年代后期,经济相对发达的地区如广东开始从木材生产为主向生态营林方向转化的大规模经营活动,自然保护区建设规模加大。1998年发生严重的洪涝之后,中央政府加强了以林业为主题的生态环境建设,热带次生林开始得到有效的保护,这一阶段的经营特点是生态建设,经营方式以政府主导的生态公益林、天然林保护等工程建设为主。经营技术除封山育林外,强调了退耕还林、提高物种的多样性和地带性乡土树种的开发利用。但是,中国的热带次生林经营始终未能走出木材利用或是生态防护的两个极端,缺乏既提高生态效益又提高经济效益、能满足生态和林区居民生存经济需求的可持续经营技术和实践。     

Sustainable Forest Management in Tropical Rain Forests

Abstract

In planning of sustainable forest management, economic, environmental and social demands often conflict. Forest management in Southeast Asian tropical dipterocarp forests has been particularly biased towards maximizing immediate economic return from extensive logging. Overexploitation and other forms of uncontrolled land use within these forests have led to the situation where the remaining natural forests, most of them in Indonesia, will be liquidated within the next 10-15 years at the current rate of deforestation. In this paper we present an approach for sustainable forest management planning in which economic, environmental and social sustainability are considered simultaneously in order to define an optimal management strategy from a set of available alternatives.

We carried out a case study within a rain forest logging concession in Indonesian Borneo by using a participatory planning approach involving interviews of the local people, environmental assessment and economic analyses. We used the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method for resource allocation and priority setting in order to identify an optimal strategy which yields a sustained economic output from timber production, while at the same time being environmentally and socioculturally sustainable. Despite their relatively high costs, strategies involving selective harvesting combined to complete restoration of original dipterocarp stock in logged-over areas were superior in terms of economic, environmental and social sustainability. Priorities set by local communities for the strategies to meet their socioeconomic and cultural needs coincide well with those ensuring the restoration and biodiversity.     

Tropical Forestry

An overview of the forestry sector in Costa Rica was undertaken to determine whether the existing management practices of timber resources hold the potential to meet the country's demands for timber in the immediate decades to come, and to identify changes that might be needed in the management of forested lands. To meet these goals, we examined the present status and potential future contribution of the two newest forest sectors: the management of natural forest and plantation forestry. Rcsults indicate that the present management of Costa Rica's timber resources does not hold the potential to meet the country's demands for timber for more than the next ten years without severe loss of its forests. Substantial progress is occurring, but at an insufficient rate. Moreover, despite the considerable headway made in conservation in recent years, the rate of deforestation remains high. A number of factors limit advancement in natural forest management and plantation forestry, both of which have the potential to deaccelerate deforestation. In natural forest management, constraints are the rate at which forests are being brought under management, lack of budgetary provisions for fiscal incentives to private owners who alone cannot be expected to bear the cost of benefits of natural forest management that are national or even global in their distribution, and the weak infrastructure, extension services and research support to meet management goals. In the case of plantation forestry, the capability of this sector to produce commercial timber is not known. Moreover, inadequate management and extension services together with the misuse of the incentive system by private owners is likely to limit the potential of plantations. Institutional constraints include outdated legal and bureaucratic framework, market interventions, absence of clear policy toward natural forest management and plantation forestry, poor investment in infrastructure, extension and research support, and inadequate interaction among various agencies responsible for the development of the forestry sector. Such institutional constraints have allowed the proliferation of disincentives against the development of a sustainable timber sector. If the Costa Rican government's objective is to encourage sustainable forestry, it must first clearly articulate the policy and then create the appropriate legal, economic and institutional framework for implementation of the policy. Costa Rica, with its enlightened public administration system, vast technical and scientific knowledge about its forest ecosystem and extensive assistance from international organizations, must succeed, otherwise prospects for sustainable forestry in thc less fortunate tropical countries would be bleak.     

Landowner-Driven Sustainable Forest Management and Value-Added Processing

Summary

The Massachusetts Woodlands Cooperative, LLC (MWC) is working to help members conduct sustainable forestry of the highest standards while increasing financial returns from harvest activities. The forests of Massachusetts, the third most densely populated state in the United States, are threatened. Decades of high grading and the threat of forest conversion to alternative use present challenges for maintaining a forested landscape. Despite being 60% forested, Massachusetts imports approximately 98% of the wood fiber that its citizens consume.

The Massachusetts Woodlands Cooperative is a forest management, processing, and marketing cooperative organized by and on behalf of forest landowners in western Massachusetts. An umbrella group certification protocol was developed to provide cost-effective forestland management certification. Members benefit from cooperative management of harvest operations, above-market stumpage payments, and value-added processing and production including marketing traditionally low-value and small-diameter material. The added revenue from developing these new markets is used to fund timber, wildlife habitat, recreation, and other sustainable forest management activities. The cooperative works in partnership with local wood-processing businesses to spur community economic development. This study on cooperatives may be a successful example of sustainable forest management that can be applied in other regions with private land ownerships.     

Incorporating Values into Community-Scale Sustainable Forest Management Plans: An Application of Q Methodology

Incorporating people’s values into forest management plans is an important component of sustainable forestry practice. Q methodology was used to identify perspectives on sustainable management of a community-owned forest reserve in a village in Puebla, Mexico. The study demonstrates the value of Q methodology in characterizing the views of citizens toward the forest and accommodating these views in a sustainable forest management plan. The plan we developed based on our research enjoyed widespread community support and far outdistanced its support of two alternative plans developed by outsiders. Our plan reflected the village’s strong preference for non-consumptive uses with regulated timber harvesting to sustain the ecological health of the forest and to provide short-term economic benefits.     

奥地利森林可持续经营对湖南林业的可借鉴经验

通过在奥地利的学习、考察和交流,深入了解奥地利林业在森林可持续发展经营、近自然林业经营技术、木材资源利用、林业扶持政策、林业人才培养、湿地型国家公园管理、林业科学研究和科技推广应用等方面的先进理念,对比分析湖南林业发展的不足之处,借鉴奥地利林业健全的林业法律规章和制度体系、扎实的林业人才培养与技能培训和深入人心的社区林业经验等可持续发展经验,为进一步推动湖南林业转型升级和实现森林可持续发展提供参考。     

广东林业生态建设与社会经济可持续发展

文章针对当前我省林业生态建设的实际需要,根据社区对林业的不同需求,从林业可持续经营的原则出发,探索了旨在提高生态和经济效益的林业经营方法和可持续发展经营模式。     

中国热带次生林生产潜力与经营模式研究

在完成对中国热带地区次生林现状、经营情况的相关资料分析和重点地区的实地调查后认为：从目前次生林的生态效益来看,对比人工林,次生林在涵养水源、保持水土、维持地力等方面表现出较好的效益;与原始林比较,次生林在吸收CO2和释放O2和改良土壤的功能相对强,而固土效益和蓄水效益则较低。在经济效益方面,通过样地的调查分析,由于缺乏经营,次生林的木材生产能力相当低,单位面积平均蓄积量约仅78m^3／hm^2,为世界平均森林蓄积水平的68％左右。通过经营,中国次生林有较大的生态和经济潜力开发空间。由于中国经济仍然比较落后,特别是在农村,环境保护和生存问题都很突出。因此,要保护和发展次生林,只有选择生态和经济效益同时兼顾的经营模式,才能实现其可持续性。通过一年的调研,根据中国的经营传统和结合现实状况,归纳出目前在中国可以普遍推广的三个主要经营模式,即：社区综合经营模式、天然林的恢复与重建模式和经济物种套种经营模式。     

两种常见林地有偿使用方式对森林经营的影响分析

以福建南平一般杉木中指数中径材经营类型生长指标结合现行市场有关技术经济指标,对林地拍卖与逐年支付地租两种常见林地有偿使用方式对森林资源资产经营的影响进行分析,为林地经营权所有者与林地使用者进行森林资源资产经营提供借鉴。     

转型中的亚洲林业(续一)

在过去的20年里,亚洲林业经历了引人注目的转型,包括从计划经济到市场经济的转变,从天然林供给木材到人工林供给木材的转变,木材替代品与非木质林产品的增加,地方分权与当地群众的参与,生态时代的发展与生态系统管理。在促进亚洲可持续森林资源管理中,市场工具、社区参与和环境服务都得到了应用。亚洲林业的转型表现出多样化,其森林、社会与环境之间的联系是丰富多彩的。     

转型中的亚洲林业(续二)

在过去的20年里,亚洲林业经历了引人注目的转型,包括从计划经济到市场经济的转变,从天然林供给木材到人工林供给木材的转变,木材替代品与非木质林产品的增加,地方分权与当地群众的参与,生态时代的发展与生态系统管理。在促进亚洲可持续森林资源管理中,市场工具、社区参与和环境服务都得到了应用。亚洲林业的转型表现出多样化,其森林、社会与环境之间的联系是丰富多彩的。     

Capacity for Timber Management in Small and Medium Forest Enterprises: A Case Study from the Peruvian Amazon

With the implementation of a new legal framework for more responsible forest management in Peru, private small-medium forest enterprises (SMFEs) have become the most important social actors engaged in commercial forestry in the Peruvian Amazon. Despite the role of SMFEs in contributing to employment and local economic growth, there is little information with respect to their economic performance and capacities. This is a hindrance to efforts aimed at better characterizing this important sector and its influence on the development and conservation of tropical forests. For this study, 29 private SMFEs were surveyed to inventory their capital assets in order to evaluate their capacities to carry out timber management. Results indicate that SMFEs vary greatly in terms of their produced and natural capital assets, and consequently in their forest management capabilities as well. While most SMFEs lack adequate capacity for sustainable forest management, those that had more valuable timber resources and physical infrastructure attained forest certification. SMFE capacities depend greatly on external mechanisms to ensure consistent technical and financial assistance.     

葡萄牙林业发展现状

介绍葡萄牙森林资源、林业政策法规、林业机构和管理体制、森林经营、森林保护、林产品贸易、林业科研教育现状, 分析其林业发展存在的主要问题, 在此基础上提出对我国林业发展的3点建议:1)在完善分类经营管理体系的基础上, 划分出适当区域和适当比例的森林作为多功能森林, 并且按照相应的经营管理体系对公益林、商品林和多功能林进行管理; 2)为了降低林产品对外依存度, 维护木材安全, 大力发展用材林特别是珍贵用材林战略储备基地建设; 3)大力培育林农合作组织, 提高森林经营管理效率。     

Compatibility of timber and non-timber forest product management in natural tropical forests: Perspectives,challenges, and opportunities

Tropical forests could satisfy multiple demands for goods and services both for present and future generations. Yet integrated approaches to natural forest management remain elusive across the tropics. In this paper we examine one combination of uses: selective harvesting of timber and non-timber forest product (NTFP) extraction. We analyze the current status of this combination and speculate on prospects and challenges regarding: (i) resource inventory, (ii) ecology and silviculture, (iii) conflict in the use of multipurpose tree species, (iv) wildlife conservation and use, (v) tenure, and (vi) product certification. Our conclusions remain preliminary due to the relative paucity of published studies and lessons learned on what has worked and what has not in the context of integrated management for timber and NTFPs. We propose at least three ways where further research is merited. One, in improving ‘opportunistic’ situations driven by selective timber harvesting that also enhance NTFP values. Two, to explicitly enhance both timber and NTFP values through targeted management interventions. Three, to explicitly assess biophysical, social, regulatory and institutional aspects so that combined benefits are maximized. Interventions for enhancing the compatibility of timber and NTFP extraction must be scaled in relation to the size of the area being managed, applied timber harvesting intensities, and the dynamics of multi-actor, forest partnerships (e.g., between the private sector and local communities). In addition, training and education issues may have to be re-crafted with multiple-use management approaches inserted into tropical forestry curricula.     

Three stories under the same hut: Market preferences and forest governance drive the evolution of tourism construction materials

Forest resource extraction evolves with commodification and shifts in product use and demand. Tourism is a major economic sector that represents approximately 10% of the global GDP and has the potential to drive major changes in forest activities. In the last three decades the boom of coastal tourism created new markets for the emergent community forestry sector in Quintana Roo (SE Mexico). Employing ethnobotanical and archival research methods we analyzed the evolution of management and use of three distinct forest products used in tourism architecture: polewood, thatching materials and chicozapote tree (Manilkara zapota) posts. Current models explain processes of forest product substitution and management intensification either in terms of economic efficiency and resource depletion, or power differences. Our results suggest the need to expand our understanding of extractive cycles to explicitly incorporate multi-scale governance, shifting values, and external shocks (i.e., hurricanes) as major drivers of change of forest products.     

1973～2003年中国林业生态足迹的研究

生态足迹是评价可持续发展能力重要指标之一,该方法自提出以来得到广泛关注和迅速应用。首先,本文分析了中国1973-2003年木材生产、进口和出口情况,结果表明,中国在1973-1995年期间木材生产呈明显波动变化趋势,1995年后呈现连续下降趋势;木材进口在1995年后特别是天然林保护工程实施后呈增长趋势,而木材出口在1995年后呈逐年下降趋势。然后,采用改进的生态足迹方法(即森林可持续产量法与森林实际生产法)计算了中国1973-2003年间的林业生态足迹(包括进口与出口林业生态足迹),分析表明,1978-1988年期间,实际生产法计算林地真实面积小于可持续产量法计算结果,而1989-2003年正相反,上述两种方法的计算结果均大于用全球产量计算的林业生态足迹。说明中国在1978-1988年间森林资源消耗量大于生长量,林业发展是不可持续的;1989年后森林资源消耗出现长大于消的局面,林业朝着可持续的方向发展,但同林业发达国家相比仍有较大的差距。最后,讨论了林业生态足迹与国家重要政策(包括外贸、经济与森林保护政策)的关系,并提出了减少林业生态足迹与增强林业可持续发展能力的几点建议。图3表1参31。     

“一带一路”背景下利比里亚林业发展状况及中利两国林业合作探析

利比里亚森林资源丰富,但由于内战以及林业管理水平不高等原因,林业开发缓慢,迫切需要外资介入以增强发展动力,改善发展模式,以实现林业产业的可持续发展。近年来我国经济发展迅速,国内木材生产量远低于木材需求量,与利比里亚开展良好的林业合作将是缓解国内木材需求紧张局面的可行途径。文中介绍了利比里亚森林资源概况、林业法规、林业管理机构、林产品生产与贸易和林业开发面临的主要问题,提出了中利两国开展林业合作的领域和建议,以期为两国林业合作提供决策参考。