The primary cause of forest degradation
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OVERVIEW & SOURCE by EE
The World Wide Fund For Nature reports on research which has
concluded that "the primary cause of forest degradation" is the
international timber trade. It is nice to have the WWF join the
grassroots forest movement in this realization. This piece
provides good overview of timber industry impacts on forest
ecology, and concludes with a country by country profile of
current forest status. The following article comes from WWF's
very impressive new web server at:
http://www.panda.org/home.htm
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The Timber Trade and Global Forest Loss
Copyright 1996, The World Wide Fund For Nature
http://www.panda.org/tda/forest/forest2.htm
Research carried out for WWF suggests that the international
timber trade is now the primary cause of forest degradation and
loss in those forests that contain the highest levels of
biodiversity. This conclusion is based on a number of important
findings.
* correlating logging sites with species-rich forests
* looking at forest quality as well as quantity
* extending the assessment to all forests, rather than just
rainforests
* including an assessment of illegal logging
Background
For many years, the timber trade has claimed that it plays a
negligible role in forest loss, and that most deforestation is
caused by agricultural clearance or fuelwood collection.
Population growth, rather than industrial exploitation, has been
blamed as the underlying problem. Research by WWF leads to the
opposite conclusion. Taking the survival of biodiversity as a
major criterion, WWF concludes that the timber trade is currently
the most important cause of loss and forest degradation around
the world. This judgment is based on several factors as examined
below.
The timber trade and forests rich in wildlife
Following centuries of degradation, most forest ecosystems are
severely threatened. Surviving areas of natural or semi-natural
habitat are of primary importance in maintaining biodiversity.
The Earth currently contains large areas of recently cleared
forest, young regenerating forest and middle-age forest. Far less
common, particularly in the North but increasingly also in the
South, are old-growth forests. These generally have a specialised
flora and fauna that can only survive in forests that have been
relatively undisturbed for hundreds of years. In many of these
areas, the timber trade remains, or has become, the primary agent
of change. Some examples are given in Table 1
There is no accident in the overlap between biologically-rich
forests and forests with large timber operations. Areas of high
biodiversity tend to contain the oldest, and thus in many cases
the most commercially valuable, trees. Natural forests are often
virtually unclaimed, under the stewardship of politically weak
indigenous groups, or nominally under state control. Forests with
high biodiversity are, by their very nature, likely to draw the
attention of the global timber trade.
Quality and quantity
The timber trade is also responsible for a major reduction in the
quality of many forests. From the perspective of biodiversity,
there is often little to choose between replacing a natural
forest with a tree plantation or losing it altogether. In either
case, the vast majority of the original native wildlife species
do not survive. Even if total number of species remains constant,
the rarer natural species are often replaced by exotics and weed
species. Loss of forest quality has already occurred over most of
Europe, North America and Australasia. It is becoming significant
in several Southern countries as well. Analysis of the timber
trade's impact should consider more than just the loss of area
under trees. It also should consider the biological quality of
the forest that remains.
Including all forests in assessments
Previous emphasis on problems in tropical rainforests has
obscured issues in other forests. The WWF study looked at all
forests. The role of the timber trade immediately grows in
significance. Unlike tropical moist forest, where there have been
endless arguments about cause and effect in forest loss, in
almost all temperate and boreal countries still possessing
substantial old-growth forests, the timber trade is now
undoubtedly the primary cause of natural forest loss.
Illegal logging operations
Assessments from the industry tend to draw on official studies of
the legal timber trade. In fact, in some countries undergoing
severe deforestation, the timber recorded by the Ministry of
Forests is only a small proportion of the actual fellings and/or
exports. Much illegal timber enters the international trade, with
or without the knowledge of importers. Often, illegality is
tacitly accepted by the buyer. Countries where illegal logging is
having an important, and largely unquantified, impact on natural
forests include (not an exhaustive list): Kenya, Zaire, Thailand,
the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brazil,
Bolivia, Ecuador and the Russian Federation. Until recently, 80
per cent of the mahogany leaving Brazil was exported illegally.
Changing global forest conditions
Time has also increased the relative impact of the timber trade.
Primary forest has now been reduced to fragments in many
countries. As the amount of high quality, natural forest
declines, and is increasingly confined to areas which are
inhospitable to human settlement, the proportion of this remnant
that is damaged by the timber trade continues to grow. The
actions of the national and international timber trade are now
critical to the survival of most of the world's biologically
richest forest ecosystems and therefore to the majority of
species.
The way forward
The next two or three decades will decide whether or not we enter
the future with a full range of rich and diverse forest
ecosystems. The future actions of the timber trade will play a
vital role in this implicit decision. Although the situation is
serious, there are some optimistic signs. A substantial, and
growing, section of the timber trade is prepared to take
environmental issues seriously, and is making real efforts to
change its practices. Developments such as the establishment of
the Forest Stewardship Council, and efforts to promote
certification in countries such as Belgium, Sweden and the UK,
provide a framework for changes in forest management that will
have important benefits to wildlife.
On the other hand, some sections of the trade are responding to
the perceived "threat" of environmentalism by resisting change
and fighting back; pressuring governments and aid agencies,
funding front groups to discredit the environmental lobby,
cutting fast to beat planned controls, moving into areas where
environmental controls are lax, and delaying reforms. These
timber traders will come under increasing pressure in the future.
WWF supports the use of wood from well-managed, environmentally
and socially sustainable forests. The needs of the timber trade
and the environmental movement are not as far apart as people
often assume. Clearcutting an area and moving on might benefit a
handful of people at the top of a timber company, but it
certainly doesn't benefit the workers on the ground any more than
it does wildlife, the environment and local people. Recent
abandonment of worked out concessions in countries as far apart
as C"te d'Ivoire, the USA and Indonesia all bear witness to the
human costs of bad forestry.
WWF has responded to the problems posed by forest degradation by
setting the world two important and challenging targets:
* Establishing an ecologically representative network of protected
areas covering at least 10 per cent of the world's forests by the
year 2000, demonstrating a range of socially and environmentally
appropriate models.
* Ensuring the independent certification of 10 million hectares of
sustainably managed forest by 1998.
Getting forest management right - for people and the environment
- is in the interests of everyone. We call on the timber trade to
respond positively to the challenge of forest sustainability, and
to work with the environmental movement in realising the vision
of a world full of high quality forests.
Country Status and details
Europe *
Finland Only 1-2% old-growth forest remains;
this is till being logged in places.
Logging has increased 700% in the last
Latvia few years, mainly for the export
market, threatening many important wet
forests.
Logging of remaining old-growth forest
Norway has increased since plans for
additional conservation legislation
were suggested.
Logging has intensified since 1989, and
Poland is taking place on the edge of the
internationally important Bia_owieza
forest Biosphere reserve.
Logging of old growth forest continues
Sweden in the boreal region, despite being
reduced to 1-2% of the original.
UK Illegal felling of broadleaved trees to
sell as firewood is on the increase.
Logging is occurring in many
biologically rich areas of Siberia and
Russian Federation European Karelia. In the latter case
there is currently a growing
cross-border trade in birch with
Scandinavia
North America
Boreal forest logging is taking place
on a large scale in many areas,
Canada including particularly Alberta. In
Ontario, two thirds of the remaining 1%
of old-growth forest is slated for
commercial felling.
Logging of old-growth forests in the
Pacific Northwest looks likely to
USA increase again in response to
Republican aims to deregulate the
industry and overturn environmental
legislation.
South America
Temperate forests are rapidly being
Argentina logged by foreign companies, including
many from North America.
Bolivia Forest loss has now reached critical
levels in some areas.
Illegal logging of mahogany is having a
major impact on the ecology, and the
Brazil survival, of forests in many areas, and
until recently 80% of mahogany exports
were of illegal felled trees.
Large areas of beech (Nothofagus) have
been logged to make way for pine
Chile plantations in the last decade, often
by foreign companies, and Araucaria
forest is also threatened.
Increased logging by foreign companies
Guyana is now threatening one of the largest
remaining areas of pristine rainforest
in the region.
Malaysian, Indonesian and Chinese
Suriname companies are preparing to log in
pristine rainforest.
Africa
Numerous transnational companies are
operating in the country, including
companies from Belgium France, Germany,
Cameroon and Italy. A survey in 1993 identified
100 forest operations, 60 of which were
foreign-owned. Logging has increased
100% in the last few years.
90% of the forests have been allocated
Central African Rep to 10 companies, including 4 from
France, 2 from Romania and 1 from
former Yugoslavia.
At least 15 of 36 active timber
companies are foreign-owned,
Congo controlling about half the cut and
based in Germany, the Netherlands and
France.
Less than 14% of the original forest
C"te d'Ivoire remains. Companies from Denmark,
France, Germany, Italy and Holland
remain active.
Most timber production is under
European control, predominantly from
Gabon France but also from Germany, Italy and
Switzerland. Latest estimates for
deforestation are 0.6%/year.
More than 90% of forests have been
logged since the 1940s. Danish and
Dutch companies operate, and in the
Ghana late 1980s a state-owned timber company
was rehabilitated by a UK company; this
was abandoned after allegations of
corruption.
Much of Nigeria's small area of
Nigeria remaining forest is threatened by legal
and illegal timber operations.
Around ten timber companies are
operating in Zaire, and most logging is
Zaire carried out by foreign-based firms from
Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France,
Germany and Italy. Logging is
increasing rapidly.
Asia
Illegal timber felling has increased
Cambodia enormously over the past few years and
is rapidly depleting the country's
forests.
The government intends to replace 2
million hectares of forest with
Indonesia plantations by 2000. Commercial
forestry is a major cause of forest
loss in Kalimantan, Irian Jaya and
outer islands such as Siberut.
Illegal logging has increased rapidly
Laos as a result of a ready market created
in Thailand due to the latter's logging
ban.
Logging is the major cause of forest
Malaysia loss in Sabah and Sarawak, and is still
important in some areas of Peninsula
Malaysia.
Logging has already caused major
deforestation in the country. Illegal
Philippines logging is now more important than
legal operations and is still a major
source of exports.
Illegal logging continues despite a
Thailand logging ban, particularly in the north
east and on the Burmese border.
Large areas of the country are being
Vietnam cleared of natural bamboo to feed pulp
mills.
Pacific
Logging is the major cause of forest
Australia degradation and loss, particularly in
the south west and Tasmania
Logging, including illegal logging, is
Papua New Guinea the major cause of forest loss in PNG,
mainly involving expatriate firms from
south east Asia.
Solomon Islands Legal and illegal logging is the major
cause of forest loss.
Logging is increasing rapidly, mainly
Vanuatu controlled by expatriate Malaysian
companies.
The preceding information sheet draws on the text of Bad Harvest,
by Nigel Dudley with Jean-Paul Jeanrenaud and Francis Sullivan,
Earthscan, London in association with WWF.
1996, The World Wide Fund For Nature
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