Rainforest Permanently Damaged by Logging

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

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http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest Conservation

8/24/99

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE

Following is a short account of one of the most comprehensive studies

to date on the long-term effects of logging on rainforests. The

findings are not encouraging for selective, sustained yield logging in

the tropics; and may even prove problematic to assumptions held by

certified, "sustainable" timber advocates. Even "sustainable"

practices are found to be too intensive of management to protect

rainforest ecology. "For rain forests... to be logged sustainably,

harvesting must mimic natural treefalls - consisting of no more than

one large tree per hectare per century, done by hand to minimize

forest disruption." Logging at this scale and intensity, within the

context of otherwise intact forests, appears to be the limit to

rainforest timber harvests that are ecologically sustainable. The

time to act on these findings is now. Eco-forestry practiced by local

peoples, within the context of vast, intact rainforest preserves, may

prove the key to tropical forest sustainability. The tropical timber

business as currently practiced means the rapid, inevitable loss of

remaining large, functional rainforest ecosystems worldwide.

g.b.

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Title: Rainforest Permanently Damaged by Logging

Source: Environment News Service via ForestNews Now,

http://www.forestworld.com/news/ensnow.htm

Date: August 24, 1999

DURHAM, North Carolina, August 24, 1999 (ENS) - The delicate

ecological web of the tropical rain forest is permanently unraveled by

heavy logging, according to the most comprehensive long-term study yet

done of the effects of timber-cutting on a rain forest. Although

tropical rain forests cover less than 10 percent of Earth's surface,

they contain more than 50 percent of all species.

The researcher, Duke University biologist Thomas Struhsaker, concludes

that even so-called "sustainable" harvesting practices used in some

countries are far too intensive to protect rain forest ecology. He

advocates that rain forest preserves be spared completely from

logging. And, for rain forests that are to be logged sustainably,

harvesting must mimic natural treefalls - consisting of no more than

one large tree per hectare per century, done by hand to minimize

forest disruption.

The findings describe the results of 23 years of studying the 560

square kilometer 216 square mile) Kibale rain forest in Uganda. The

study represents the first time the interrelations of both plants and

animals have been incorporated into a long term study of logging, said

Struhsaker.

The Kibale Forest National Park is home to the highest concentration

of primates in the world. Eleven different species have been counted

here. (Photo courtesy Kilimanjaro Adventure Travel)

"This is a study that really looks at the impact of logging on the

wildlife," he said. "Most of the others have looked primarily at

commercial timber species, not even considering the rest of the

flora."

Such breadth was particularly important in understanding rain forest

ecology, Struhsaker said, because in tropical rain forests, animals

are more important to the perpetuation of the trees and plants than in

temperate forests.

The findings by Struhsaker and his colleagues have been published in a

book, "Ecology of an African Rain Forest: Logging in Kibale and the

Conflict between Conservation and Exploitation," University of Florida

Press, Gainesville, Florida.

"The destruction of these forests is indisputably one of the greatest

ecological disasters in the history of Homo sapiens," he said. He

estimates that an area of tropical rain forest the size of Greece or

the state of Florida is being converted to agriculture each year.

Struhsaker says it is impractical to manage tropical forests to

increase timber yield beyond that of a natural forest or even to

restore damaged ecosystems - while at the same time maintaining viable

populations of plant and animal species found in old-growth forests.

Such management is expensive and requires an investment in a project

that may not yield returns for 75 to 100 years.

"Far more time, labor and money must be invested in post-logging

management in order to achieve adequate forest regeneration than if

the damage due to logging had been minimized," he wrote. In any case,

such management is likely to fail, given the complexity of the forest

ecosystem and the fact that loggers invariably push to maximize short-

term profits.

In general, these systems are so complicated, and there's so much

natural variation in them, that you cannot separate the impact of the

harvest from the natural variation until often 20 years or more after

the fact. In the meantime, you've likely made some wrong management

decisions."

Struhsaker's observations of rain forest logging worldwide lead him to

believe that logging will accelerate, and with it the loss of tropical

rain forest.

"As timber resources around the world become depleted, more and more

species that are not considered valuable today will become valuable

tomorrow, and will be logged, he said. What's more, he said, timber

companies will move into new areas of untouched forest.

"Already, we know that the big timber companies in Indonesia and

Malaysia are moving to South America. They've finished the resources

in Southeast Asia and now they're moving on."

Struhsaker's experience has convinced him that the only long-term

solution to conserve forests in developing countries is population

control, energy conservation to reduce wood use and strong forest

management policies by stable governments. Developed nations, the

principal market for tropical woods, must reduce their rates of

consumption of natural resources.

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