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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Mahogany
Tree's Survival in Doubt Due to U.S. Demand
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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org
http://forests.org/ -- Forest
Conservation Archives & Portal
10/04/00
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY
Commercial
logging of mahogany is a major catalyst for increased neo-
tropical
deforestation, and threatens the existence of the
magnificent
mahogany tree. If mahogany is cut at
its current rate
without
efforts to harvest the wood sustainably, big-leafed mahogany
is
likely to become endangered with a high risk of extinction. The
United
States accounts for 60 percent of the global mahogany trade,
driving
the unsustainable harvest of lucrative mahogany trees. The
desire
for conspicuous consumption of luxury goods, such as those
made
from mahogany timbers, must not be allowed to endanger the
world's
species and ecosystems upon which all live depends. Mahogany
and the
ecosystems it occupies must be granted immediate strict
protection,
and financial resources made available to offset incurred
economic
losses by developing countries.
g.b.
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ITEM #1
Title: Mahogany Tree's Survival in Doubt Due to
U.S. Demand
Source: (c) Environment News Service (ENS) 2000
Date: September 28, 2000
WASHINGTON,
D.C., September 28, 2000 (ENS) - Without increased import
tariffs,
consumer education and international protection, one of
South
America's biggest trees will become endangered, in turn harming
the
plant and animal species it supports, said a report released
Wednesday.
Demand
in the United States for big leaf mahogany threatens some of
the
world's most biologically diverse Amazonian rainforests,
according
to the report from TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring
program
of World Wildlife Fund and IUCN-The World Conservation Union.
"Mahogany
is often considered the Rolls Royce of trees, but if we
aren't
careful, it may become the Edsel - commercially unviable and
threatened
with extinction," said Chris Robbins, author of "Mahogany
Matters:
The U.S. Market for Big Leafed Mahogany and its Implications
for the
Conservation of the Species."
"All
of the data we analyzed point to a not too distant future in
which
we could harvest big leafed mahogany out of commercial
existence,"
said Robbins.
Big
leaf mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) is a tropical tree species
whose
range extends through 13 Latin American countries, from Brazil
and
Bolivia to Mexico. The largest area of naturally occurring
mahogany
is in the Brazilian rainforests of the Amazon basin.
The
tree is distributed sparsely throughout the forest, occurring
either
as single trees or in small clusters. Densities of more than
four to
eight trees per hectare are rarely found naturally. Overall
density
of intermediate sized trees of this species is rarely more
then
one tree per hectare.
The big
leaf mahogany tree takes about 100 years to mature and is a
magnificent
deciduous timber tree with an umbrella shaped crown
reaching
35 to 40 meters (114 to 130 feet) tall, often emerging above
the
dense rainforest canopy.
It is
known for its incredible beauty and durability, its distinctive
grain,
and smoothness and patina found in no other wood. Like other
species
of mahogany, it is used for high class furniture, fine
joinery
and panelling.
But its
economic value pales compared to its ecological worth, argue
environmentalists,
who point to the multitude of plant and animal
species
it supports, as well as the healthy local economies it
sustains.
Demand
has exhausted Caribbean mahogany, which is now considered
endangered,
and supplies in Central America are dwindling. As the
tree
disappears from these areas, so harvesting has increased in the
tropical
forests of Peru and Brazil, some of the most ecologically
diverse
areas in the world.
Unless
demand is checked, big leafed mahogany could disappear, too,
warns
Robbins. If this happens, the incentives for sustainable
management
of high value timber species will be lost.
Roads
designed for felling high value trees like mahogany allow
access
to migrating farmers who convert the forests to farmland,
increasing
the loss of plant and animal species.
In
Peru, Robbins says, the distance from mahogany forests to mills is
increasing,
indicating that forests are being "mined, not managed."
Efforts
to regulate and protect big leaf mahogany without actually
outlawing
trade have proved fruitless. Three attempts to have the
species
listed on Appendix II of CITES (Convention on International
Trade
in Endangered Species) failed in the 1990s.
CITES
is an international mechanism for the maintenance of
biodiversity
through the regulation of international trade of
wild
species. A listing of mahogany on Appendix II would force
exporting
countries to demonstrate that exported mahogany had been
obtained
sustainably and legally.
Two
other closely related mahogany species, Swietenia humilis and
Swietenia
mahagoni, were included in Appendix II at previous CITES
conferences,
but only Swietenia macrophylla now plays a significant
role in
international trade.
Several
environmental groups contend that most mahogany in Latin
America
is harvested illegally. In 1997, they obtained some
documentary
evidence to back this claim.
During
CITES 10th biannual meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe in June 1997,
Brazilian
newspaper "O Liberal," obtained a leaked report from the
Brazilian
government's own intelligence agency, the Secretariat for
Strategic
Affairs, confirming what groups like Friends of the Earth
had
always claimed, that 80 percent of timber extracted from the
Brazilian
Amazon comes from illegal sources.
In a
secret ballot at the Harare meeting, 67 countries voted in favor
of
listing big leaf mahogany on Appendix II but 45 were opposed. The
protective
measure, which was backed by the U.S. and Bolivia, fell
short
of the requisite two-thirds majority by eight votes.
At the
1994 CITES conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a similar
proposal
fell six votes shy of passage.
According
to Friends of the Earth, the most vigorous opposition to
the
proposal to protect big leafed mahogany was conducted by the
International
Wood Products Association of the U.S., along with trade
representatives
from Bolivia, Brazil and the African Timber
Organization.
Robbins'
report maintains that a CITES listing is integral to the
solutions
for saving big leaf mahogany. He also recommends building
greater
awareness of sustainably managed forests among consumers,
importers
and governments so that they will demand and buy mahogany
products
that are certified environmentally friendly by the Forest
Stewardship
Council.
The
council is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental
organization.
Led by the World Wide Fund for Nature, it was founded
in 1993
by a diverse group of representatives from environmental and
conservation
groups, the timber industry, the forestry profession,
indigenous
peoples' organizations, community forestry groups and
forest
product certification organizations from 25 countries.
It
accredits certifying organizations. They in turn certify forestry
organizations
that meet FSC developed Principles and Criteria and
other
specific standards identified at the national and/or regional
levels.
Awareness
campaigns have been particularly successful in the United
Kingdom,
the world's second largest importer of mahogany. Friends of
the
Earth UK's Mahogany is Murder campaign has seen the nation's
mahogany
imports drop by nearly 70 percent since the campaign's
launch
in 1992.
Robbins'
report calls on the U.S. government to increase import
tariffs
on minimally processed mahogany from Latin America, which is
currently
exempt, while lowering or waiving duties on products of
non-threatened
tree species.
"Big
leafed mahogany is a valuable component of many local economies
and
should continue being harvested," Robbins said. "It simply needs
to be
done in a more methodical fashion that ensures a long term
supply
and the survival of threatened and endangered species."
The
report found that the United States accounts for 60 percent of
the
global mahogany trade. In 1998, about 57,000 big leafed mahogany
trees
were harvested and shipped to the U.S. to supply a booming
business
in mahogany furniture. That figure represents 57 percent by
volume
of U.S. imports of tropical hardwood lumber, worth about $56
million.
Thirty
nine percent of the big leafed mahogany imported in
the the
U.S. goes to North Carolina. Mississippi is the next
largest
importer followed by Florida, Pennsylvania, Louisiana
and
California. Fifty percent of the big leafed mahogany
imported
into the U.S. comes from Brazil.
To read
the full TRAFFIC report, visit
http://www.worldwildlife.org/forests/attachments/mahogany.pdf
ITEM #2
Title: ENVIRONMENT: US Demand Threatens Tropical
Tree's Survival
Source: Copyright 2000 InterPress Service
Date: September 27, 2000
By: Danielle Knight
WASHINGTON,
Sep 27 (IPS) - Logging rates and practices of harvesting
lucrative
mahogany trees in the Amazon rainforests of Latin America,
fuelled
by demand in the United States, may push the species toward
extinction,
warn conservationists here.
Harvesting
mahogany is a valuable component of many local Amazon
economies
and should continue, according to Chris Robbins, author of
a new
report released Wednesday by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade
monitoring
project of World Wildlife Fund and the World Conservation
Union
(IUCN).
''It
simply needs to be done in a more methodical fashion that
ensures
a long-term supply and the survival of threatened and
endangered
species,'' he says.
The
United States accounts for 60 percent of the global mahogany
trade,
says the report. In 1998, the equivalent of about 57,000
mahogany
trees, known as 'big-leafed mahogany'' was harvested and
shipped
to the United States to supply growing furniture industries
in the
states of North Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Pennsylvania,
Louisiana
and California.
Big-leafed
mahogany trees account for 57 percent, by volume, of US
imports
of tropical hardwood lumber, worth about 56 million dollars.
European
colonists beginning in the late 15th century once harvested
a type
of mahogany wood in Caribbean and Central America, but now
that
type has been virtually cleared from those regions. A similar
mahogany
species, the big-leafed variety, is currently being
harvested
mostly from the denser, tropical forests in Bolivia, Brazil
and
Peru, with some being harvested in Guatemala, Nicaragua and
Belize.
Robbins
warns that if mahogany is cut at its current rate without
efforts
to harvest the wood sustainably, big-leafed mahogany could
suffer
the same fate as the Caribbean mahogany.
''All
of the data we analysed point to a not-too-distant future in
which
we could harvest big-leafed mahogany out of commercial
existence,''
he says.
Mahogany
in Latin America is harvested predominantly through the
practice
known as selective logging, in which only mahogany and other
valuable
timber species are extracted.
Biologists
have long argued that this practice typically does not
create
conditions that foster regeneration and it results in removal
of
nearly all mature mahogany trees within a population, drastically
reducing
its ability to reproduce successfully.
In
order to maintain production levels, loggers are continually
moving
into increasingly remote unlogged old-growth forests, rather
than
harvesting within set areas from regenerating stands of trees,
said a
letter sent to the US government last year by the Center for
International
Environmental Law and other ecological advocacy
organisations.
Because
of such logging methods and levels of logging, scientists say
the
population of mahogany are in decline.
Escalating
retail prices for mahogany indicate that supplies of the
wood
are growing increasingly tight, according to the report. Prices
are 25
percent higher today than a decade ago, it says.
Perhaps
to avoid the financial costs and public pressure associated
with
big-leafed mahogany, US companies boosted their imports of
mahogany
from Africa from 4,100 cubic metres in 1991 to more than
20,000
cubic metres in 1998.
''The
phenomenon of replacing increasingly costly or scarce American
mahogany
with more competitive timber species raises valid questions
about
whether, and to what degree, potentially heavier harvest of
substitute
tree species will alter their biological status or role in
the
ecosystem,'' says the 57-page report, Mahogany Matters.
Environmentalists
have long warned that logging mahogany is a major
catalyst
for increased deforestation. As loggers expand operations
into
untouched forests and protected areas, road construction
facilitates
settlement by farmers and conversion of forests for
ranching
and agriculture, they say.
Some of
the countries exporting mahogany have imposed logging
moratoria
and improved national legislation to protect mahogany.
There
has been a drop in US imports from Bolivia since the government
implemented
restrictions to reduce mahogany harvests.
This
just shifted US imports of mahogany from Peru, which is boosting
its
mahogany production by selling logging concessions to foreign
timber
companies. From 1995, to 1998, US imports from Bolivia
decreased
by 200 percent while imports into the United States from
Peru
surged by nearly the same percentage, according to the report.
Robbins
recommends that consumers in the United States support
conservation
efforts by purchasing products that carry the Forest
Stewardship
Council (FSC) trademark. The FSC certifies that the wood
comes
from forests that are managed according to principles and
criteria
endorsed by conservationists worldwide.
Currently,
only two US companies (both based in California) are known
to
import big-leafed mahogany derived from forests certified by
companies
accredited by Mexico-based FSC.
But as
concerns about conserving the rainforest increase, the number
of
wholesalers, manufacturers, retailers and municipalities
purchasing,
using or pledging to buy FSC-certified wood is increasing
in this
country.
Echoing
previous demands by environmental organisations, the report
also
calls for governments worldwide to place mahogany on the list of
endangered
species, under the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
So far,
Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Mexico have listed their
natural
populations of big-leafed mahogany in a category of the
convention
known as Appendix III, which has improved the regulation
and
record keeping on trade in these nations, according to the
report.
The
report calls on governments, especially those supplying the
mahogany,
to move mahogany to the next level of CITES protection
under
Appendix II. Under this listing, trade in mahogany would not be
banned,
but it would provide a legal basis for exporting countries to
regulate
exports in the interest of survival of the species.
If
mahogany was listed on Appendix II it would also provide a
mechanism
for importing countries to monitor imports, therefore
stemming
illegal harvesting and trafficking.
''An
Appendix II listing for mahogany would reassure overseas
consumers
that the mahogany used in their furniture was exported in a
sustainable
and legal manner,'' says the report.
Repeated
attempts, however, to get the highly profitable wood listed
on
Appendix II have failed.
TRAFFIC
also urges the United States to impose or increase duties for
imports
of mahogany. ''The US government could levy a nominal duty on
imports
of mahogany from Latin American (nations that export
mahogany)
and redirect funds derived from duties back to exporting
countries
for mahogany conservation and management,'' it says.
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