2 Sustaining the World’s Forests Janet N. Abramovitz
For millennia, humankind has influenced A major force driving these trends is forests, although much of the impact was the explosive growth in the global con- hard to see. In recent decades, however, sumption and trade in forest products, in the scale and impact of our footprint on part due to rising affluence. Since 1950, the world’s forests has changed. Almost the demand for wood has doubled, and half the forests that once covered the paper use has increased more than five- Earth are gone, and deforestation is fold. In the next 15 years, demand for expanding and accelerating. The health paper is expected to almost double again and the quality of remaining forests are as industrial countries continue their declining. already high levels of consumption and as Mechanization of forestry and agricul- demand in developing countries grows.1 ture has allowed large areas to be harvest- Our relationship to forests has evolved ed quickly and converted to other uses, so in some positive ways as well, however. old frontiers are being abandoned and In some places there has been a shift new ones are being exploited. Globali- from unrestrained boom-and-bust forest zation and free trade allow corporations exploitation and conversion to more sus- to roam the world seeking more prof- tainable forest management for a wider itable forest opportunities. Huge fires— range of goods and services. People who conflagrations visible from space—are have lived in and near the forest for gen- destroying vast areas and sickening mil- erations are being recognized as forest lions of people. Pollution blows in from managers in many places, not forest distant autos and industries, and the destroyers. New ways of satisfying the buildup of greenhouse gases has ushered need for forest products less wastefully in an era of climate change that further are also being pursued. threatens forests. Sustaining forests for the next century (2) State of the World 1998 and beyond calls for changes in the way and Alaska, the boreal forest of Russia, forestry is practiced on the ground. It also and the tropical forest of the northwestern calls for reforming policies and pricing, Amazon Basin and the Guyana shield reducing waste and overconsumption, (Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and strengthening land tenure and equi- northeastern Brazil, Venezuela, and ty. And it will mean recognizing that the Colombia). (See Figure 2–1.)4 real wealth of the forests lies in healthy Until recent decades, most forest loss forest ecosystems—and appreciating how occurred in Europe, North Africa, the much we depend on them. Middle East, and temperate North America. By the early part of the twentieth century these regions had been largely stripped of their original cover. Now forest RENDS IN OREST REA AND cover in Europe and the United States is T F A stabilizing, as secondary forests and plan- QUALITY tation forests fill in. In the last 30–40 years, in contrast, the vast majority of deforesta- Today, forests cover more than one quar- tion has occurred in the tropics, where the ter of the world’s total land area (exclud- pace has been accelerating. Indeed, ing Antarctica and Greenland). Slightly between 1960 and 1990, one fifth of all more than half of the world’s forests are tropical forest cover was lost. Asia lost one in the tropics; the rest are in temperate third of its cover, and Africa and Latin and boreal (coniferous northern forest) America lost about 18 percent each.5 zones. Seven countries hold more than 60 Broad regional overviews such as these percent of the world’s forests: in order of can mask even more severe forest loss that forest area, they are Russia, Brazil, is taking place in some countries and for- Canada, the United States, China, est types. Half of the tropical deforesta- Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic tion during the 1980s took place in just of Congo (formerly Zaire).2 six countries: Brazil, Indonesia, the The world’s forest estate has declined significantly in both area and quality in Million Square Kilometers recent decades. As noted earlier, almost 18 half the forests that once blanketed the Source: WRI Earth are gone. Each year another 16 mil- Cleared lion hectares of forest disappear as land is 14 Non “Frontier” Forest cleared by timber operations or convert- “Frontier” Forest ed to other uses, such as cattle ranches, plantations, or small farms.3 10 The extent of forest loss and fragmen- tation was made clear in a recent study by the World Resources Institute that identi- 6 fied what it calls “frontier forests”—areas of “large, ecologically intact, and relatively 2 undisturbed natural forests.” The study found that only 22 percent of the world’s original forest cover remains in these large Asia Africa South Oceania Russia America expanses, about evenly divided between and Europe North and Central boreal and tropical forest. More than 75 America percent of the frontier forest is in three large areas: the boreal forest of Canada Figure 2–1. Forest Area, by Region, 1996 Sustaining the World’s Forests (3)
Democratic Republic of Congo, Mexico, surveys by the U.N. Economic Com- Bolivia, and Venezuela. Tropical dry for- mission for Europe.9 est types, mangrove forests, and the tem- As troubling as the statistics on forest perate rainforests of North America have loss and declining quality are, the true also experienced very high losses.6 picture of the global forest situation is Deforestation is not the only threat. undoubtedly much worse. A major obsta- Serious declines in forest quality are cle to assessing forests is the quality of the affecting much of the world’s forests. data assembled by U.N. Food and Ironically, while many people in northern Agriculture Organization (FAO), the countries look at tropical forests with con- most widely used source. FAO relies on cern, they may be unaware that the tem- self-reporting by governments, and many perate forests in their own backyards are countries do not have the capacity to the most fragmented and disturbed of all carry out systematic forest assessments. forest types. For example, 95–98 percent Nor is there a system of independent of forests in the continental United States monitoring in place—either by satellite or have been logged at least once since set- by ground-truthing. tlement by Europeans. And in Europe, FAO also uses inconsistent and confus- two thirds of the forest cover is gone, while ing definitions, which in turn can result in less than 1 percent of old growth remains.7 some misleading conclusions. “Natural for- The secondary forest and plantations est” is estimated, and forest quality is not that are filling in are a very different type measured at all. Deforestation is defined than the original. The mix of tree and by FAO as the conversion of forests to understory species has changed, and the other uses such as cropland and shifting age is more uniform. The forests are high- cultivation. Forests that have been logged ly manipulated and highly fragmented. and left to regenerate are not counted as Plantations and even-aged stands occupy deforested, nor are forests converted to substantial areas of forestland. In the last plantations. Thus, some of the land report- 15 years, the area covered by forest plan- ed by countries as forest actually has no tation has doubled globally. And it is trees on it at all. According to FAO defini- expected to double again in the next 15 tions, 80–90 percent of forest cover can be years. Worldwide, at least 180 million removed by logging without “deforesting” hectares of forest have been converted to an area. Then when small-scale farmers forest plantations. These altered ecosys- reduce the remaining forest cover the next tems usually cannot support the full array few percent they have, according to the of native species and ecological processes official definition, “deforested” the land. that characterize natural forests. Many This is why “slash-and-burn” farmers are nonnative species—from tree species to often blamed for deforestation for which vines to insect and animal pests—have they are not responsible.10 invaded these woodlands.8 Atmospheric pollution is also taking a toll on forest quality. Exposure to pollu- tion weakens trees and makes them more vulnerable to the effects of pests, diseases, RISING PRESSURES ON FORESTS drought, and nutrient deficiencies. This is especially evident in Europe, North Widespread reports that poor agricultur- America, Asia, and cities throughout the alists and fuelwood gatherers are respon- world. More than a quarter of Europe’s sible for the rapid loss of the world’s trees show moderate to severe defoliation forests are greatly exaggerated. Closer from these stresses, according to regular examination reveals a different—and (4) State of the World 1998 more complex—picture. The rising the live trees that are cut for fuel are used appetite for forest products and trade is a to make charcoal or in other industrial major driving force behind the logging applications, such as brick-making and and conversion of many of the world’s tobacco-curing, and in cities. This commer- forests to other uses. Policies and subsi- cial fuelwood collection, especially when dies that encourage conversion (for tim- concentrated near cities, can cause signifi- ber harvest or agriculture and settle- cant local deforestation. On the other ments) also drive the process. This holds hand, the fuelwood collected by rural true in the temperate and boreal forests households is usually dead wood, which of Canada, the United States, and north- does not contribute to deforestation.14 ern Siberia as well as in the tropical Consumption of paper (including forests of the Amazon, Central Africa, and newspaper and paperboard) is increasing Southeast Asia.11 faster than any other forest product. The Trade in forest products—both legal world uses more than five times as much and illegal—is a strong economic force. paper today as it did in 1950, and con- Although less than 8 percent of timber sumption is expected to double again by and 26 percent of paper production are 2010. About two thirds of the paper pro- traded internationally, the legal and duced worldwide is made from virgin recorded trade of $114 billion a year in logs; only 4 percent is made from non- timber, pulp, and paper makes forest wood sources such as cotton or rice straw. products one of the most valuable sectors The rest comes from wastepaper. Soon in the global marketplace. Tropical tim- paper production is expected to account ber has received much attention, but for more than half of the global industri- nearly 90 percent of the legal and record- al wood harvest.15 ed international timber trade comes from Paper consumption is not evenly dis- temperate and boreal forests.12 tributed around the globe. (See Figure The demand for forest products has 2–2.) More than 70 percent of the world’s grown rapidly in recent decades. The paper output is used by the 20 percent of global production of roundwood—the the world living in North America, logs cut for industrial lumber and paper Western Europe, and Japan. While global products or used for fuelwood and char- per capita use of paper stands at about 46 coal—has more than doubled since 1950. kilograms a year, the U.S. average is 320 Population growth, however, is not the kilograms (the world’s highest), Japan’s is primary cause of rising demand. In fact, 232, and Germany’s is 200, while in Brazil most industrial roundwood use takes the figure is 31 kilograms, in China it is place in wealthier countries, where popu- just over 24, and in India the average is lation is relatively stable. Over half of the only 3 kilograms.16 world’s timber harvested for industrial Forest management for commercial use is consumed by the 20 percent of the exploitation is causing a number of fun- world who live in Western Europe, the damental changes in the world’s forests United States, and Japan.13 and adding to the pressures already According to FAO statistics, about half of described. Clear-cutting and selective har- the wood cut worldwide is used for fuel- vesting, and the activities used to support wood and charcoal, mostly in developing them, result in simplification, fragmenta- countries. In some areas, especially in the tion, and degradation of forests. So, too, dry tropics, the portion is even higher, does conversion to forest or agricultural up to 80 percent. But in moist tropical plantations and pasture. These changes nations such as Malaysia, the vast majority of diminish the ability of forests and lands to trees cut are for industrial timber. Most of provide the full range of goods and ser- Sustaining the World’s Forests (5)
Percent of World Total recent decades has been concentrated 35 Source: FAO, UN near roads. During the 1950s and 1960s Population the Brazilian government began building Consumption roads and infrastructure to spread popu- 25 lation and economic activity into its vast, untapped interior. The first big project was the highway to Brasília, the new national capital. Several million settlers 15 were encouraged to relocate along the highway, and soon vast areas were cleared for cattle. At first, little of the wood was 5 marketed, and billions of dollars of tim- ber was simply burned. As settlement and infrastructure developed, and as trans-
India portation costs fell in the 1980s, timber China Europe Africa Japan extraction began to play a major role in South AmericaUnited States the deforestation process. Since then, tim- ber production in the Brazilian Amazon Figure 2–2. Global Distribution of Population has increased 34 times. Transportation and of Paper and Paperboard Consumption, Selected Countries and Regions, 1994 corridors are also facilitating the conver- sion of forests to produce agricultural commodities bound for Europe. As a result of the ambitious road building and vices humankind depends on—from non- integration program, the area deforested timber forest products to the regulation in the Amazon increased from 30,000 of water supplies and climate.17 square kilometers in 1975 to at least Many of these fundamental changes 600,000 square kilometers today, with are brought about as harvesting and twice as much area affected biologically.20 roads create a checkerboard of discon- As forests are opened up by roads and nected forest fragments. And roads, high- logging, they become drier and more ways, waterways, and pipelines all open prone to fires. Over the last 20 years a new the forest for exploitation and change phenomenon is occurring in the moist brought by timber and agriculture opera- tropical forests: forest fires, previously tions, mining, hunters, landless settlers, rare in wet forest types, have become com- and invasive species.18 mon. Fires that raged in Indonesia and The network of roads built into forests Brazil in 1997 are part of this new ecolog- is extensive. One square kilometer of for- ical pattern.21 est can have up to 20 kilometers of roads. In Southeast Asia, the fires ignited In federally managed U.S. National regional and global concern as Indonesia, Forests, for example, there are more than Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and south- 600,000 kilometers of roads—enough to ern Thailand and the Philippines were circle the globe nearly 15 times, and 2.4 blanketed in smoke and haze for many times the length of the national highway months in 1997. The fires were started by system. And in one large timber conces- pulp, palm oil, and rubber plantation sion in Indonesia, building 500 kilome- owners to clear natural forest in ters of logging roads cleared 40,000 Indonesia, and then they spread to at least hectares more than was directly logged.19 2 million hectares of forest and under- Throughout Brazil, as elsewhere, the ground peat deposits. Tens of millions of rapid and extensive deforestation of people were sickened, hundreds died, (6) State of the World 1998 and schools, transportation, and business- As some Asian nations have depleted es were shut down. Enormous amounts of their forest resources, they have turned carbon dioxide—perhaps as much as elsewhere to satisfy their domestic con- emitted in the United Kingdom in one sumption needs and the demands of year—were added to the atmosphere. The their forest industries. Some of the tim- fire recalled the first great humanmade ber comes from northern temperate and conflagration on the island of Borneo in boreal forests—as in the logging of 1983, when Indonesia alone lost more Siberian forests by South Korean firms than $5 billion in standing timber.22 and of Canadian forests by Japanese com- panies—but much of it comes from other southern nations. In 1996 alone, the area of Amazonian forest under concession to Governments often look to their Asian timber companies quadrupled to forests as a standing asset that can more than 12 million hectares.25 be liquidated to solve financial prob- There are several reasons for the ris- lems. ing influence of roving international companies. First, in the past decade international trade restrictions and tar- iffs have been eased and global and As tree cover is lost, a forest’s water- regional trade agreements have expand- shed protection services are impaired. ed. Domestic policy measures—such as Year-round water supplies can become logging and log export bans, subsidies to seasonal streams, flooding during some timber processing industries, and even periods and dry during others. The costs better law enforcement and tax collec- of lost services can illustrate just how tion—have led companies to look valuable forests’ free services really are. beyond their home countries to find raw Deforestation in India’s Ganges river val- materials and higher profits. By operat- ley has caused heavier flooding and prop- ing in nations with less restrictive laws, erty damage of $1 billion per year. In the lower fees, and lax enforcement, timber U.S. Pacific Northwest, where many hun- companies can reap higher profits from dreds of landslides now occur each year, their legal—and sometimes illegal—tim- a study found that 94 percent originated ber harvest.26 from clear-cuts and logging roads. The The size and power of the timber com- torrents of water and debris from degrad- panies and the often desperate econom- ed watersheds caused billions of dollars ic situation of host countries allows the in damage in 1996 alone.23 companies to dictate very favorable A major force behind the large-scale terms. In the Solomon Islands, for exam- forest exploitation and infrastructure ple, landowners were paid $2.70 per developments just described are large cubic meter for timber that foreign com- transnational logging corporations, which panies then sold for $350 per cubic have long been heavily involved in the meter. In Suriname, companies from timber trade, and which are now expand- Indonesia, Malaysia, and China proposed ing their reach. As noted earlier, most investments of more than $500 million— internationally traded timber comes from an amount nearly the size of that nation’s temperate and boreal forests, and it is annual economic output. Yet what may harvested by companies from those appear to be a short-term boost to the nations. A new trend, however, is the national economy (and to the few indi- increasing role of companies based in viduals who benefit legally or illegally) southern countries, especially in Asia.24 often turns out to be both an economic Sustaining the World’s Forests (7) and an ecological loss long after the log- ones. And in Indonesia, an independent ging operations have departed.27 assessment of timber concessions con- cluded that in 1990 alone the government collected less than one fifth of the poten- tial revenues—a loss of $2.5 billion.30 HE MPACT OF ATIONAL Just as a small landowner will sell a few T I N trees for cash during hard times, govern- POLICIES ments often look to their forests as a standing asset that can be liquidated to National laws, policies, and attitudes have solve financial problems. In Russia, some enormous influence on how forests are cash-strapped municipalities are paying managed, and on who benefits from their creditors with forestland, and its Far East use or misuse. Where governments con- has been opened up to resource exploita- trol a significant portion of the forest tion by outside companies. The economi- estate—such as in Canada, where 94 per- cally desperate South American nations of cent of forestland is publicly owned, or in Suriname and Guyana considered bids Indonesia, where the state controls 74 that would give away half of their forests to percent—the role of government is obvi- Asian timber companies for pennies per ous. But even without direct ownership, hectare. When Indonesia’s military gov- government trade and economic policies, ernment came to power in the late 1960s, management regulations, and agriculture it took over a country with massive debt and land tenure polices exert significant and high inflation. The new leaders put in influence over the fate of forests.28 place a series of policies—from under- One common attitude that profoundly pricing logs to subsidizing timber process- influences the future of this life-support ing to give-away concessions—that precip- system is the undervaluing of benefits itated the deforestation of Indonesia. By provided by intact natural forests. These 1991, concessions to 41 percent of the are often viewed as vast uninhabited nation’s forestland had been granted to a spaces that are valuable only when con- small number of companies.31 verted to agriculture or mined for timber. The extent of underpricing and lost Standing forest is seen as wasted and revenue from timber on public land even unproductive. The economic benefits of in wealthy countries would astound most forest exploitation or conversion are rou- people. The subsidies can be so large that tinely overestimated, in large part because governments are in effect paying private the ecological and economic costs of the interests to take public timber. In the exploitation are ignored. Ironically, while United States, for example, 117 of 122 governments consistently overestimate National Forests returned less money to the benefits of the extractive timber the treasury than the Forest Service spent industry, at the same time they under- preparing the concessions for sale in 1995. price timber and other forest resources. From 1992 to 1994, the timber sales pro- The combined effect is to encourage gram lost $1 billion in direct costs alone. rapid forest exploitation, depletion, and And this figure does not include the costs waste, and to sacrifice public revenues of reforestation, stream erosion, loss of and benefits from intact forest.29 fisheries and water supply, loss of recre- Forests are routinely sold at prices far ation, and so on. The most heavily subsi- below what the timber alone is worth. In dized logging is in the coastal rainforests Canada, stumpage rates are half of what of Alaska. Even though timber sales from they are in the United States, with large federal lands have turned a profit in only companies paying even less than small 3 of the last 100 years, Congress continu- (8) State of the World 1998 ally mandates high harvest levels.32 that grant ownership and tax and credit Governments also underprice their benefits to those who “improve” forest by forests by levying a flat charge for timber clearing it, and even provide subsidies to rather than differentiating between more do so. A series of policies begun in the and less valuable timber species. And they 1960s to spur investment in the interior of may base fees on the volume of timber Brazil sparked the deforestation that has removed from a site rather than the vol- affected so much of that nation’s forests. ume available. This encourages conces- Roads built deep into the country’s inte- sionaires to remove and pay for only the rior, generous tax holidays, credit with most valuable species. Meanwhile, more negative interest rates, and other subsi- forest is degraded and less revenue is dies encouraged the conversion of mil- returned to the government. Short conces- lions of hectares of forest to cattle ranch- sion terms, where the loggers have no es that would otherwise not have been incentive to ensure that forests regenerate profitable. By 1980, 72 percent of the for- because they will not be there to re-harvest, est conversion detected by satellite was also encourage a cut-and-run approach. due to cattle pasture. After 1990, four One way that governments have times as much deforestation came from attempted to raise revenues and promote subsidized ranches as from nonsubsidized employment from forest industries has ranches, and about a quarter of the pas- been to encourage value-added domestic ture was already abandoned. Brazil lost timber processing. This can also be a way more than valuable forest. By 1988, the to reduce the pressure on forests. fiscal cost of all 470 subsidized ranches Unfortunately, in too many cases, the was $2.5 billion. Despite some tax effect has actually been to reduce rev- reforms, taxes are still higher and less enues and fuel deforestation. credit is available on land with forest In Indonesia, for instance, the govern- cover, and Brazil is pushing even more ment banned the export of raw logs in ambitious infrastructure and agriculture 1985 and gave heavy financial incentives expansion plans.34 to stimulate the development of proces- Governments also use forests as safety sors such as plywood mills. Without these valves, to reduce pressure in heavily pop- inducements and tax concessions, timber ulated areas by siphoning people off to processing in Indonesia would not have new areas. Indonesia’s transmigration been profitable. The effort to add value to program moved settlers from Java to the timber exports backfired as logs were nation’s less populated islands. During reduced in value in inefficient mills, and the 1970s and 1980s, 6 million people more forest was needed to meet mills’ were relocated. Nearly all these people demands. Even with illegal logging, some were settled in forested areas, much of it mills cannot operate at full capacity. already occupied by native Dayak tribes. Despite clear timber shortages and a 1993 An estimated 3 million hectares—5 per- World Bank assessment that harvests were cent of the country’s forest—were con- 50 percent above sustainable levels, the verted during this scheme. The cost to the Indonesian government continues to government was about $10,000 per family, encourage domestic processing, plans to an enormous amount in a nation where raise harvest levels by 57 percent, and is the per capita gross national product was pushing its timber companies into only $530. Despite the massive infusion of remaining forest frontiers and into look- funds, the ill-conceived resettlement ing overseas for additional timber.33 scheme fell far short of its objectives. Another manifestation of the failure to Many of the settlements have already recognize the value of intact forest is laws been abandoned, and the people have Sustaining the World’s Forests (9) moved on or returned to Java. Similar siders. One analysis concluded that “the resettlement programs have also failed in traditional...rights of millions of peo- Malaysia and Brazil.35 ple...have been handed over to a relative- Too often, forests are seen as vast unin- ly small number of commercial firms and habited spaces. When forest dwellers are state enterprises.”38 acknowledged at all, they are usually con- sidered impediments to development and encroachers in the forest. Rarely is the distinction made between shifting cultiva- Despite clear timber shortages, the tors—who have a long history of success- Indonesian government is pushing its ful forest management, like the Dayak of timber companies into remaining for- Indonesia—and shifted cultivators, set- est frontiers. tlers who have been relocated to forest areas often without knowledge of how the forests should be managed.36 Few forest communities have been suc- Little of the economic benefits from cessful in gaining recognition for their forest exploitation in Indonesia or else- customary rights to the very resource they where return to the communities who lost have often managed sustainably for gen- access to forest resources. In fact, their erations. Their occupancy has been made standard of living has declined. Most of the illegal in some cases, and disregarded in profits benefit a few powerful industries or others. Even when laws are passed allow- families. The liquidation of 90 percent of ing for the demarcation of tribal lands (as the Philippines’ primary forest during the in Brazil) or community forest manage- Marcos regime, for instance, made a few ment (as in India), they are often not hundred families $42 billion richer, but enforced, and encroachment by individu- impoverished 18 million forest dwellers.39 als and industry is tacitly allowed. In Domestic policies can also have unin- Brazil, hard-won indigenous reserves have tended consequences on the forests of been invaded by miners and loggers. other nations. After the devastating floods Sometimes loggers, miners, and settlers and landslides of 1985 that originated in will rush to stake a claim on land in antic- its deforested highlands, Thailand enact- ipation of indigenous claims. In nation ed a logging ban. Although legal domes- after nation, communities have lost their tic logging ended, domestic consumption ability to control access to their forest- did not, fueling logging (much of it ille- lands, to the detriment of both.37 gal) in neighboring Myanmar and In Indonesia, the government declared Cambodia. Some of the activity was aided in 1967 that it had sole legal jurisdiction by the army. Indonesia’s and Malaysia’s over the nation’s forests—74 percent of policies that encouraged rapid and waste- the land area. Customary rights, which ful exploitation of domestic timber had evolved as a complex and sustainable spurred the growth of large companies management system over many genera- and overcapacity in the industry. Now the tions, were not legally recognized. As else- companies roam the world looking for where, by removing power from local timber to feed their mills and coffers.40 communities, a real life “tragedy of the All too often, governments do not have commons” was created—the government, the capacity or the will to enforce their which has the authority, is unable to own forest laws and policies. Logging police the nation’s vast forests, and the beyond the boundaries of concessions communities who are in the forest have and in sensitive river and stream areas, tax no power to stop exploitation by out- evasion, and falsification of boundaries, (10) State of the World 1998 log volume, and grades are all common and 1996, for example, $400 million practices in timber concessions around should have been generated, yet only $10 the world. So too are the harvesting of million came to the treasury. The losses to protected species, exceeding quotas, and the people of Cambodia who depend on not mapping and reforesting as required. the forests and fisheries is far higher. The Penalties, such as they are, are too light forests are expected to be depleted in the and too rarely applied and paid to be a next decade, and the Tonle Sap—the genuine deterrent. Companies see bribes great lake, which is one of the world’s and fines as a very minor business cost.41 richest fishing grounds and the source of much of the nation’s water and protein— will be silted up in 25 years if deforesta- tion continues.43 Two thirds of Canada’s coastal rain- Nations with weak laws or enforcement forest has been degraded by logging capabilities or prone to corruption are and development. vulnerable targets for domestic or foreign companies looking for cheap timber. Suriname—where the forest service has a budget of $20,000–30,000, a few staff, and Many nations lose significant portions just one vehicle to monitor nearly 150,000 of their forests and potential revenues as square kilometers of forest—has little a result of failure to enforce existing laws. capacity to enforce even minimal contrac- Papua New Guinea’s losses from unmon- tual and environmental standards on the itored log exports alone, for example, proposed timber concessions that would were estimated at $241 million a year in have covered up to 40 percent of the 1994. In Ghana, about one third of tim- country had they gone through. Even in ber is harvested illegally. If the current nations with a relatively well staffed, fund- situation continues, Ghana will lose $65 ed, and monitored forest service, enforce- million a year and 10,000 jobs. The ment problems can occur. In the United Brazilian government reports that 80 per- States in early 1990s, it was discovered cent of timber extraction in the Amazon that timber companies were stealing hun- is done illegally.42 dreds of millions of dollars in trees from In Cambodia, the amount lost to the federal lands each year, sometimes with national treasury as a result of illegal log- the knowledge of Forest Service agents. ging alone is equal to the entire national The Forest Service eventually won a mul- budget. The co-prime ministers and the timillion-dollar lawsuit in court, but the military control the nation’s forests and money recovered was a small fraction of timber trade—most of which is illegal. the value of the timber lost.44 Profits bypass the official budget, and go In many nations, timber concessions, directly to a parallel budget that funds the subsidies, and contracts are used to ensure factions in the ongoing civil war. The two political and familial patronage. They prime ministers awarded timber conces- enrich powerful families, strengthen polit- sions for the nation’s remaining forests in ical power, and maintain the support of 1995, also in violation of the law. And log- the military. Philippine dictator Ferdinand ging restrictions have been violated by the Marcos granted vast timber concessions to Khmer Rouge guerrillas, who were mak- his allies, who deforested the nation in the ing $10–12 million a month selling timber 1960s and 1970s. The Philippines went to Thai logging firms from the areas from being the second largest log exporter under their control. Based on the amount in the world to a net timber importer of timber known to be exported in 1995 today. Strong ties between politicians and Sustaining the World’s Forests (11) their families, the military, and extractive 624 are at high risk. Salmon depend on industries thrive in many nations today, intact forested watersheds and streams for including Malaysia and Indonesia.45 survival and reproduction.48 Government policies and enforcement An audit by Canada’s Sierra Legal can be easily influenced or subverted by Defense Fund of timber cutting plans for powerful interests. Money from 10,000 forest blocks approved by the Indonesia’s reforestation fund is routinely Ministry of Forests after the Forest diverted by President Soeharto for non- Practices Code became law found a vast forest uses, such as aircraft manufactur- difference between the letter of the code ing, or for projects that benefit loggers. In and the plans approved. Contrary to the 1997, he ordered $115 million trans- code, clear-cutting was the harvest ferred from the fund to build a paper fac- method on 92 percent of the blocks, tory for timber magnate “Bob” Hasan, including landslide-prone slopes; 83 per- who also had a hand in crafting cent of streams were clear-cut to the Indonesia’s forest policy and is a business banks; fish-bearing streams were misclassi- partner of the president’s son. In fied or unidentified by the companies; Cambodia, forest department officials and destructive yarding—dragging logs who have tried to implement legally man- through streambeds—was approved and dated forest reforms have been dismissed, common. The annual cut was not intimidated, and murdered.46 reduced as promised, and harvest blocks In Canada, especially in the forest-rich were more than twice the allowable size. province of British Columbia, the forest None of the special areas for wildlife and industry is a powerful force in the eco- biodiversity protection or old-growth nomic and policy arena. More than $30 management called for in the code had billion worth of forest products are been designated. Of the million-dollar exported each year—making Canada by fines promised, only 9 of 120 fines levied far the world’s largest exporter. were over $10,000.49 Government-owned “crown lands” ac- These findings and others led many to count for 94 percent of the forests, and conclude that the Forest Practices Code’s more than three quarters of all timber standards were inadequate and that too revenues from Canadian crown lands much of the responsibility for identifying come from British Columbia. Forests are and protecting sensitive areas was left to leased to timber companies, and high-vol- the discretion of logging companies, who ume logging is stipulated.47 abused this obligation. Despite the lax In 1995, British Columbia enacted a rules and apparently laxer enforcement, Forest Practices Code in response to wide- the industry complained that the code was spread international concern over the too burdensome and was hurting its profits rapid degradation of the province’s rich and market share. In June 1997, the gov- temperate rainforest through industrial ernment eased the Forest Practices Code.50 clear-cutting. Cutting has tripled in the last 30 years and is well above sustainable levels—earning the province the label of “Brazil of the North.” Two thirds of USTAINABLE OREST Canada’s coastal rainforest, which is a S F rare and threatened ecosystem, has MANAGEMENT already been degraded by logging and development. The province also serves as Management for timber commodities and an important habitat for salmon—of conversion of forests to other uses has which 140 stocks are already extinct and reduced or curtailed the ability of forests (12) State of the World 1998 to provide many other benefits and ser- much of that need will be satisfied through vices. These include producing nontim- commercial forest management. Thus a ber materials such as food, fodder, fish, major focus of attention by foresters, ecol- and medicines; purifying and regulating ogists, and economists has been reforming water supplies; absorbing and decompos- forest practices. When many foresters use ing wastes; cycling nutrients; creating and the term “sustainable forestry” today they maintaining soils; providing pollination, usually mean “sustained yield”—that is, a pest control, habitat, and refuge; regulat- continuous supply of timber and fiber. ing disturbances; and regulating local and Even by that weak standard, so far forestry global climates. Forests also provide edu- has been failing to sustain the resource cational, recreational, aesthetic, and cul- base. For example, when the last estimate tural benefits. They provide sustenance was made, in the late 1980s, less than one and livelihoods for hundreds of millions tenth of 1 percent of tropical forests were of people, including those who are managed for sustained yield. Since then, excluded from the formal economy.51 some in the industry have accepted princi- ples of sustainable forestry that incorpo- rate other goals, yet timber production remains the bottom line.53 Many consumers want their buying Sustainable forest management (SFM), habits to be part of the solution to on the other hand, recognizes that forests forest decline rather than its cause. must be managed as complete ecosystems to supply a wide array of goods and ser- vices for current and future generations. As Kathryn Kohm and Jerry Franklin of Despite this array of benefits and bene- the University of Washington College of ficiaries, all too often it is assumed that the Forest Resources put it: “If 20th century greatest value that can be derived from a forestry was about simplifying systems, forest is maximizing timber and pulp pro- producing wood, and managing at the duction or converting it to agriculture. In stand level, 21st century forestry will be fact, not only are other uses more valu- defined by understanding and managing able, they can also be sustained over the complexity, providing a wide range of eco- long term and benefit more people. In logical goods and services, and managing one illustration of this truth, alternative across broad landscapes...managing for management strategies for the mangrove wholeness rather than for the efficiency forests of Indonesia’s Bintuni Bay were of individual components.” In recent compared. When fish, locally used prod- years, progress has been made in under- ucts, and erosion control were included in standing the complexity of forests, defin- the calculations of the economics of forest ing SFM, and describing how it can be use, the most profitable strategy was to applied in various forest types and keep the forest standing, yielding $4,800 nations. Some of this effort has gone into per hectare. In contrast, cutting the tim- developing international criteria and ber yielded only $3,600 per hectare. Not indicators to assess conditions in tropical, cutting down the forest would also ensure temperate, boreal, and dry forests, such as continued local uses of the area worth $10 the Helsinki and Montreal Criteria and million a year, providing 70 percent of Indicators of Sustainable Forest local income, and would protect fisheries Management, the Tarapoto Proposal of worth $25 million a year.52 the Amazonian Cooperation Treaty, and Still, it is clear that the world will con- the Dry-Zone Africa Initiative.54 tinue to need timber products, and that While the concept of sustainable forest Sustaining the World’s Forests (13) management continues to evolve, some tainable”—that create confusion in the elements are common to most definitions. marketplace. Unsupported claims also put First is that forests should be managed in producers using more sustainable meth- ways that meet the social, economic, and ods at a competitive disadvantage.57 ecological needs of current and future It became clear that for claims to be generations. These needs include nontim- meaningful and credible, independent ber goods and ecological services. auditing and verification were necessary. Management should maintain and To accomplish this, environmental enhance forest quality, and look beyond groups, foresters, timber producers and the stand to encompass the much larger traders, indigenous peoples’ groups, and landscape so that biodiversity and ecolog- certification institutions established the ical processes are maintained. When trees Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in are cut, the rotation period should follow 1993. This group has developed “Princi- the longer natural cycle of a forest rather ples and Criteria for Forest Stewardship” than a shorter financial cycle.55 (see Table 2–1) that apply to tropical, Sustainable forest management seeks to temperate, and boreal forests managed mirror the conditions in natural forests for forest products. Detailed standards that are heterogeneous, with many based on these principles are being devel- species, ages, and sizes. Natural distur- oped by national and local councils. FSC bances are enabled and mimicked. (While accredits certifiers who, at the request of industry often claims that its management companies wishing to use the FSC logo, and harvesting practices mimic natural audit forest management practices and disturbances, such claims generally cannot certify products for the entire chain of be supported.) Sensitive areas like streams custody, from forest to transport to pro- and important habitat such as dead tree cessing. By using globally consistent prin- “snags” are protected. Since forest species ciples and an easily recognizable single are interdependent, species that were label, FSC certification can help ensure once considered “pests,” such as fungi and consumer confidence and improve mar- insects, are kept because they are impor- ket access for timber from well-managed tant to ecosystem functioning. Finally, sus- forests around the world.58 taining forests requires the active and The FSC is a promising initiative that meaningful participation of all stakehold- has had a small but growing impact in its ers, especially local communities.56 first few years. In 1996, just under 3 per- At the same time that foresters and cent of the wood traded internationally ecologists have been redefining the sci- was certified timber, double the amount ence of forestry, many consumers have in 1994. Since worldwide demand for cer- indicated they want their buying habits to tified wood exceeds supply, there is room be part of the solution to forest decline for considerable growth.59 rather than its cause. This concern is Companies that pledge to produce, shared by a growing number of commer- market, and purchase wood products cer- cial buyers and retailers. In response, tified to FSC standards have said they do there has been a proliferation of “ecola- so because they believe their customers bels” for forest products and self-certifica- expect it and because they believe it tion schemes by industry and government, makes good business sense. Commitment some of which amount to little more than by industry can in turn promote better “greenwashing.” Many claims have been forest management by their suppliers. made—“five trees planted for each one The 75 companies in the “UK-1995 Plus” harvested,” “made from plantation grown buyers group, for example, that have trees,” “environmentally friendly,” “sus- pledged to phase out wood products that (14) State of the World 1998
Table 2–1. Principles and Criteria for Forest Stewardship
Forest management shall respect all applicable laws of the country in which they occur, and international treaties and agreements to which the country is a signatory, and comply with all FSC Principles and Criteria. Long-term tenure and use rights to the land and forest resources shall be clearly defined, documented and legally established. The legal and customary rights of indigenous peoples to own, use and manage their lands, territories, and resources shall be recognized and respected. Forest management operations shall maintain or enhance the long-term social and economic well-being of forest workers and local communities. Forest management operations shall encourage the efficient use of the forest’s multiple products and services to ensure economic viability and a wide range of environmental and social benefits. Forest management shall conserve biological diversity and its associated values, water resources, soils, and unique and fragile ecosystems and landscapes, and, by so doing, maintain the ecological functions and the integrity of the forest. A management plan—appropriate to the scale and intensity of the operations—shall be written, implemented, and kept up to date. The long-term objectives of management, and the means of achieving them, shall be clearly stated. Monitoring shall be conducted—appropriate to the scale and intensity of forest management— to assess the condition of the forest, yields of forest products, chain of custody, management activities and their social and environmental impacts. Primary forests, well-developed secondary forests and sites of major environmental, social or cultural significance shall be conserved. Such areas shall not be replaced by tree plantations or other land uses. Plantations shall be planned and managed in accordance with [these] Principles and Criteria.... While plantations can provide an array of social and economic benefits, and can contribute to satisfying the world’s needs for forest products, they should complement the management of, reduce pressures on, and promote the restoration and conservation of natural forests.
SOURCE: Forest Stewardship Council, in WWF-UK, World Wildlife Fund Guide to Forest Certification 1997, Forests for Life Campaign (Godalming, Surrey, U.K.: 1997). do not come from well-managed forests as awareness and demand for certification in defined by FSC principles represent this region could have a major positive about 25 percent of the U.K. market.60 impact on the world’s forests.61 So far the greatest impact of certifica- Certification is not a panacea, of tion has been in the United States and course. It is not a substitute for reducing Europe—which is significant because wasteful consumption or for sound legis- these regions are major producers and lation and policies. It does provide a vol- consumers. Consumer demand for certi- untary market-based approach to foster- fied forest products has barely surfaced in ing sustainable forest management and the important Asian market. The certifi- trade. It also provides a positive alterna- cation concept has recently been intro- tive to bans, which can boomerang and duced in Japan, which is by far the world’s make alternative land uses, such as ranch- largest importer of industrial round- ing or agriculture, more profitable than wood—37 percent of all wood traded maintaining forests. These voluntary internationally ends up there. Raising standards can complement the other Sustaining the World’s Forests (15) national and international initiatives able management from 4.5 million noted earlier.62 hectares today to 200 million hectares by 2005 has recently been endorsed by envi- ronmental and business groups as well as by the World Bank.63 ORGING A EW ELATIONSHIP One strategy for maintaining and F N R restoring healthy forests is to expand the WITH FORESTS protected areas network to ensure ade- quate ecological representation of all for- Clearly, people need forest products. But est types. Protected areas today serve a the majority of the world’s forests are much broader array of social and ecologi- managed in a way that precludes the cal functions than the scenic beauty parks other goods and services that people also of the past. The World Wide Fund for need and value from forests. Govern- Nature and the World Conservation ments, citizens, and nature pay too high a Union have proposed that a minimum of price for the continued misuse and 10 percent of each forest type be in pro- undervaluation of forests. With the tected areas by 2000. Currently only 6 per- demand for forest products expanding cent of the world’s forests fall in this cate- and forests declining in area and quality, gory, and in many cases that protection is how can we ensure that our needs for for- in name only. (See also Chapter 3.)64 est resources and services are met? By Rehabilitating and restoring forests forging a new relationship with forests— will become increasingly important as one that ensures conservation, sustain- nations seek to regain the social and envi- able use, and the fair and equitable shar- ronmental benefits that forests provide. ing of benefits from forests. To be successful, rehabilitation will need Elements of this new relationship to be different from current practices of include halting forest degradation and planting large areas of single (often exot- conversion, restoring forest health, im- ic) species with little consideration to proving management, reducing waste and local needs or environmental services. overconsumption combined with making The restored forests of tomorrow should consumption more equitable, getting the use a mix of native species and provide market signals right, returning the control multiple benefits. Preventing the acciden- of forests to communities, reforming and tal or intentional introduction of exotic strengthening national policies as well as species is also an important part of restor- international agreements, and improving ing forest health. Intensive plantations research and monitoring. have a role to play, if they follow these An overarching goal of the new rela- guidelines and are established on degrad- tionship is to halt degradation of remain- ed land. One of the stated rationales for ing primary forest and restore forest plantations—that they reduce pressure cover and health. Mining new frontiers on natural forests—does not hold true if and clearing natural forests to establish they convert natural forest or push people tree plantations or agricultural land has who depended on the land further into no place in the twenty-first century rela- remaining forestland. tionship. Sustainable forest management Improving management techniques is a long-standing practice in some com- will be of limited success unless the exces- munities, and now in some small com- sive levels of waste during harvesting and mercial forest enterprises. These practices processing are lowered and overcon- need to be expanded in scale. A proposal sumption and waste by consumers is to raise the area under certifiable sustain- reduced. One source of valuable wood is (16) State of the World 1998 the high percentage of trees that are cur- wood used to make finished products); rently damaged and left on the ground in the rest is discarded. Improving equip- many commercial forest operations ment maintenance and training workers around the world—50 percent collateral alone could increase processing efficiency damage is common. Better road place- by 50 percent. Combined with better for- ment and mapping of tree location and est management practices, companies felling direction can reduce damage in could use one third as much forestland to the forests.65 produce the same amount of lumber.67 Lowering waste and overconsumption by consumers would yield substantial ben- efits for forests and economies without A study in Brazil found that only one sacrificing quality of life. As noted earlier, third of each harvested log is turned more than half of the world’s industrial into sawn wood; the rest is discarded. timber and more than 70 percent of the paper is consumed by the 20 percent of the world who live in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan. Reducing Many species that are currently dis- their consumption and waste by even a carded have high potential value. In the small fraction would ease pressures on tropics, only a few of the many hardwood forests significantly. In the United species are currently marketed. One for- Kingdom, for example, 130 million trees’ est consultant stated that the “junk” woods worth of paper is discarded each year. A that are used to make rough shipping German survey found that 98 percent of crates for forest products in the tropics secondary product packaging is unneces- are often more valuable than the contents sary. Nearly a fifth of all lumber in the of the crate and have promise as valuable United States is used to make shipping specialty woods. In the forests of the U.S. crates and pallets, most of which are dis- Pacific Northwest, the yew tree once dis- carded after use. In fact, they account for carded as trash was found to yield taxol, 40 percent of all wood waste.68 an important cancer-fighting drug.66 Unless industrial nations reduce waste Reducing the waste in processing also and overconsumption as developing has enormous potential for diminishing nations expand their use of paper, even pressures on the forest and improving greater pressures will be placed on the economic returns at the same time. In the world’s forests. If everyone in the world United States, more than half the wood consumed as much today as the average brought to a sawmill leaves as “waste” such American (who consumes more than any- as chips and sawdust, and about three one else in the world—320 kilograms a fourths of this is used for pulp or fuel. year), the world would be using nearly Globally, there has been some success in seven times as much paper. And by 2050 increasing industrial output with less it would need more than 11 times as roundwood input by recycling more mate- much. If, on the other hand, paper use rials and residues, according to FAO. The stabilizes at today’s global average—47 organization suggests that if developing kilograms a year per person—and it were countries used this approach, it could pro- distributed more equitably, paper con- vide for growth in consumption “without sumption in 2050 could be held to 1.7 placing unnecessary stress on the forest times today’s level.69 resource.” A study by IMAZON in Brazil Recycling has been expanding and found that only one third of each harvest- there is plenty of room for continued ed log is turned into sawn wood (the growth. In the United States, 45 percent Sustaining the World’s Forests (17) of paper and paperboard is now recov- subsidies need to be eliminated, such as ered and recycled, up from 29 percent in below-cost timber sales, give-away forest 1987 (when industry began to record concessions, and subsidized forest conver- these statistics), thanks to high participa- sion. These subsidies waste money and tion rates by homeowners and municipal- degrade the environment. Other policies, ities. The U.S. industry has a goal of 50- such as granting land titles to those who percent recovery by 2000, a standard clear the forest, also need serious reform already met in many countries. The major in order to ensure that they do not con- obstacles to meeting this target is low par- tribute to forest degradation.72 ticipation by offices and businesses, who In the last few years, a new breed of are the largest source of high-quality economists—ecological economists—has wastepaper, and uneven enforcement of been trying to find ways to correct mis- laws mandating recycled content. Not leading economic signals and better esti- recovering and recycling waste paper also mate the contributions of nature. stresses waste disposal systems—in the Alternative measures of gross domestic United States, for example, paper product and methods for calculating the accounts for 30–40 percent of the waste benefits from forests and nature are being sent to landfills and incinerators.70 developed. Capturing the value of a for- Reducing the amount of wood con- est’s ecological services to support sus- sumed for fuel is also possible. As noted tainable rural development in places like earlier, most of the live trees cut for fuel the Amazon represents an important step in developing countries are for industrial forward. These new tools can help the and urban fuel users. Shifting these sec- market better reflect the value of nature tors to clean, renewable energy sources and guide decisionmaking.73 (such as wind and solar) could greatly A recent landmark study helps illumi- reduce the pressures on the forests and nate the importance of nature’s services improve air quality. in supporting human economies. It pro- Much forest mismanagement, waste, vides a first-ever overall estimate of the and overconsumption results from the current economic value of the world’s fact that only a fraction of forest goods are ecosystem services and natural capital. counted when they enter the market- The findings of more than 100 studies place, and that forest services—the life- were synthesized to compute the value of support systems—are not counted at all. each of the services that the world’s major The profit from deforesting land is count- ecosystem types provide. Robert Costanza ed as an addition to the national econo- of the University of Maryland and col- my, but the depletion of timber, fisheries, leagues from around the world calculated or watershed and climate services is not that the current economic value of the subtracted. This sends misleading eco- world’s ecosystem services is at least nomic signals to decisionmakers at all lev- $16–54 trillion per year, exceeding the els. As environmental consultant Norman gross world product of $28 trillion (in Myers puts it, “our tools of economic 1995 dollars). If every service for each analysis are far from able to apprehend, ecosystem type were measured, the figure let alone comprehend, the entire range would by much higher. Fixing a more of values implicit in forests.”71 accurate price for the benefits from Incorporating the full costs of manage- forests is essential, but so too is acknowl- ment and production into the cost of for- edging that not everything has a price. est products would encourage more judi- Much of a forest’s value is quite literally cious use by producers and consumers. beyond measure.74 To do this, many perverse incentives and Frequently the financial benefits from (18) State of the World 1998 forest exploitation go to private individu- described earlier. A proposed “Forests in als or entities, while the economic, social, Trust” act would allow communities and and environmental losses are distributed First Nations in British Columbia to deter- across society. Economists call this “social- mine management practices and objec- izing costs.” Simply put, while a small seg- tives and allow them to manage forests for ment of society profits from unsustainable ecosystem health and long-term econom- forest exploitation, the rest of society ic and community stability.77 (and future generations) pays the costs. There is significant room for improve- Thus there is little economic incentive for ment in national laws and policies gov- those exploiting a resource to use it judi- erning forests, as noted earlier. ciously or in a manner that maximizes Eliminating subsidies that encourage for- public good. In addition to the reasons est degradation or conversion, reforming noted earlier, one explanation for this is tenure policies, and improving revenue that over time, control over the forests has collection from public lands are impor- shifted from communities who have a tant elements. So, too, is better enforce- direct stake in the health of forests to the ment of existing national laws, including state and to corporate entities, where preventing illegal logging and trade. short-term thinking often prevails.75 These changes make good economic and A proven way to reconnect the costs and ecological sense. benefits of forest management is by return- Yet too often, illogical and inequitable ing—or devolving—control of forests to resource use continues in the face of evi- communities. Community control can dence that it is ecologically, economically, improve the prospects for the sustainabili- and socially unsustainable. The reason is ty of the forests and the quality of life of that powerful interests are able to shape people in and near the forest. In India, for or ignore government policy by legal or example, when the state assumed control illegal means, through corruption and over forests from local communities over a favoritism. Future progress will be diffi- century ago, they removed the only suc- cult if the current breakdown in the rule cessful safeguard from overexploitation, of law governing forests and forest prod- and the condition of forests declined. ucts is allowed to continue. After the policy was modified in the late Although most of the action on forests 1980s, thousands of communities regained needs to take place at the national level, control over state forestlands. Communi- there is also a role for international agree- ties now protect and control—and benefit ments, institutions, and initiatives. Forests from—the forests that they manage and are a global issue. They cross political rehabilitate. In Indonesia, reinstating cus- boundaries, as do many of the threats and tomary rights could help reverse the problems. And many of the services degradation and poverty caused by the last forests provide—such as storing carbon, few decades of state and industrial control regulating the climate, and sustaining bio- over the forests.76 diversity—are shared globally. Community forest control can also Governments need to renew the com- improve the quality of forests and com- mitments made in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 munities in industrial countries. In British and to accelerate action. In the years lead- Columbia, a shift from the current corpo- ing up to the 1992 Earth Summit, tropical rate control of public forestlands to com- forests were a major focus of internation- munity-based control has been proposed. al concern. When it came time to negoti- Current laws and regulations require ate a binding forest convention, southern high-volume, commodity-export-driven nations were concerned that northern forestry, which has led to the problems governments would use a convention to Sustaining the World’s Forests (19) impose controls on tropical forests that meeting in October 1997, the new northerners were unwilling to accept at Intergovernmental Forest Forum urged home—a tension that persists today. At nations to examine the underlying causes the eleventh hour a set of non-legally of deforestation and develop strategies to binding “Forest Principles” that applies to address them.82 all forests was adopted.78 Nations did agree to two legally bind- ing instruments that provide significant opportunities for cooperation and mean- Powerful interests are able to shape ingful action on forests—the Framework or ignore government policy by legal Convention on Climate Change and the or illegal means, through corruption Convention on Biological Diversity. The latter treaty, signed by 169 nations in the and favoritism. five years since the Earth Summit, has the conservation and sustainable and equi- table use of biodiversity—including One initiative still under consideration forests—as its mandate. Forests will be a is a global forest convention. Ironically, a major agenda item when the signatories forest convention could delay action, as meet in May 1998.79 negotiating and ratifying an international Agenda 21—the plan of action that treaty can take a decade, plus further emerged from the Earth Summit—con- years for substantive action to begin once tains a chapter called “Combating the treaty is “in force.” With few excep- Deforestation” that also provides guid- tions, governments have been unwilling ance for action. Nations agreed to sustain to accept international agreements that the multiple roles of all types of forests, to have “teeth,” so it is likely that a forest enhance sustainable management and convention would formalize weak, non- conservation, to rehabilitate degraded binding standards. Not coincidentally, forests, to value and use forest goods and many of the nations that now support a services more fully, and to improve the forest convention have powerful timber quality and availability of information industries. Given the political realities about forests.80 and the urgency of the forest problem, Given the lack of progress on combat- the most effective course of action is to ing deforestation since Rio—indeed, the use existing mechanisms and legal instru- situation has grown worse—the United ments, such as the biodiversity and cli- Nations set up an Intergovernmental mate change conventions.83 Panel on Forests (IPF) in 1995. Its goal There are also opportunities for inter- was to facilitate discussion by govern- national cooperation in regional environ- ments on a broad—some say too broad— mental and trade agreements and range of issues and provide concrete rec- forums. To date, many of these trade ommendations for moving forward. A alliances have been driving forest destruc- separate World Commission on Forests tion. In the future, they could be used to and Sustainable Development was also set secure a better future for their economies up, consisting of scientists, policymakers, and environments. Existing trade treaties and others.81 such as the International Tropical Timber At the United Nations’ five-year review Agreement, for example, could be of progress since the Earth Summit, a suc- reformed to cover the entire timber cessor to the IPF was designated to imple- trade, not just tropical timber—a step that ment its proposals for action and deal the parties failed to take when it was rene- with issues left pending. After its first gotiated in 1994. Likewise, the laudable (20) State of the World 1998 goals of its Guidelines for the Sustainable management is also needed. Funding for Management of Natural Tropical Forests forest-related research is a small fraction by the year 2000 could be expanded to of agriculture research, and both are apply to the temperate and boreal forest inadequate to meet the challenges of products trade, and be made binding. tomorrow. There is still much to learn The Convention on International Trade about forest species, functioning, and in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and dynamics and about the best manage- Fauna has had some success in halting the ment practices. Many nations do not have decline of a few listed species (such as ele- the budgets or resources to monitor and phants), but the record for tree species manage their forest estates adequately. has not been as good.84 More investment and a building up of International lending and donor agen- these nations’ capacities for forest man- cies also have a role to play by ensuring agement would reap substantial benefits that their loans and grants encourage pos- in ensuring the long-term health of the itive reforms and sustainable practices world’s forests.86 rather than deforestation. So, too, do the A key opportunity for international private investors who are now responsible cooperation is through improving moni- for the majority of financial transfers. toring of global forest conditions and (See Chapter 9.) Loans for dams, road threats. As noted earlier, major weakness- building, and agriculture and resettle- es exist in the data on forest conditions ment schemes are examples of projects and extent gathered by national govern- that contribute to deforestation. On the ments and FAO. In order to assess the positive side, however, the World Bank state of the world’s forests accurately, data announced that it will help client nations collection procedures and classifications meet the goals of having 10 percent of need to be improved, satellite monitoring each forest type in protected areas and used, in-country capacity strengthened, expanding the area under certified sus- and an independent monitoring mecha- tainable forest management by 200 mil- nism put in place. lion hectares by 2005. Recently, the Ultimately, the effectiveness of policy, United Nations, the International management, and market reforms will be Monetary Fund, and the World Bank determined by whether the decline of the made their future aid to Cambodia condi- world’s forests is arrested and reversed, tional on reforming and adhering to and the quality of life of people who national forest laws and not violating the depend on them is improved. And by laws of neighboring nations.85 whether future generations inherit More investment in forest research and healthy forests. Notes
Chapter 2. Sustaining the World’s Nations Research Institute for Social Forests Development, March 1996); temperate rain- forests in North America from Dominick 1. Wood demand from U.N. Food and DellaSala et al., “Protection and Independent Agriculture Organization (FAO), FAO Forest Certification: A Shared Vision for North Products Yearbook (Rome: various years); FAO, America’s Diverse Forests,” mapping analysis FAO Forest Products Yearbook 1983–1994 (Rome: (Washington, DC: World Wildlife Fund–US 1996); paper demand and projections from and World Wildlife Fund–Canada, 1997), and International Institute for Environment and from Conservation International, Ecotrust, Development (IIED), Towards a Sustainable and Pacific GIS, “Coastal Temperate Rain Paper Cycle (London: 1996). Forests of North America,” map (Washington, DC, and Portland, OR: 1995). 2. FAO, State of the World’s Forests 1997 (Oxford, U.K.: 1997). 7. Bryant, Nielsen, and Tangley, op. cit. note 3; Reed Noss, E.T. LaRoe III, and J.M. 3. Dirk Bryant, Daniel Nielsen, and Laura Scott, Endangered Systems of the United States: A Tangley, The Last Frontier Forests: Ecosystems and Preliminary Assessment of Loss and Degradation Economies on the Edge (Washington, DC: World (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Resources Institute (WRI), 1997). Interior, National Biological Service, 1995); DellaSala et al., op. cit. note 6. 4. Figure 2–1 from ibid. 8. FAO, op. cit. note 2; FAO counts palm 5. Nigel Dudley, Jean-Paul Jeanrenaud, oil plantations as agricultural area. If they were and Francis Sullivan, Bad Harvest? The Timber included under forest plantation extent, the Trade and the Degradation of the World’s Forests figure would be much higher; Dudley, (London: Earthscan Publications Ltd., 1995); Jeanrenaud, and Sullivan, op. cit. note 5. FAO, op. cit. note 2; WRI et al., World Resources 1996–97 (New York: Oxford University Press, 9. U.N. Economic Commission for 1996). Europe, International Co-operative Pro- gramme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air 6. Deforestation in 1980s from WRI, Pollution Effects on Forests, “Forest Condition World Resources 1994–95 (New York: Oxford Report 1996 (Summary),”
(CGIAR), “Poor Farmers Could Destroy Half “The World’s Forests: Problems and of Remaining Tropical Forest,” press release, Potentials,” Environmental Conservation, vol. 23, < http://www.worldbank.org/html/cgiar/ no. 2 (1996). press.forest.html>, viewed 23 October 1997. 18. Michael McRae, “Road Kill in 11. Agriculture as primary cause of defor- Cameroon,” Natural History, February 1997. estation from FAO, op. cit. note 2, and from CGIAR, op. cit. note 10; other causes from 19. Road density and length (reported as Dudley, Jeanrenaud, and Sullivan, op. cit. note 380,000 miles) in U.S. national forests from 5. Carey Goldberg, “Quiet Roads Bringing Thundering Protests; Congress to Battle Over 12. International trade volume and value Who Pays to Get to National Forest Trees,” from FAO, op. cit. note 2; position in global New York Times, 23 May 1997; length of federal marketplace from Environmental Investi- highways from Paul Svercl, Office of Highway gation Agency (EIA), Corporate Power, Information, Federal Highway Administra- Corruption & the Destruction of the World’s Forests tion, discussion with Ashley Mattoon, (Washington, DC: September 1996); portion Worldwatch Institute, 21 October 1997; L. of timber from temperate and boreal forests Potter, “Forest Degradation, Deforestation and from James McIntire, ed., The New Eco-Order: Reforestation in Kalimantan: Towards a Economic and Ecological Linkages of the World’s Sustainable Land Use?” paper presented at the Temperate and Boreal Forest Resources (Seattle, conference on “Interactions of People and WA: Northwest Policy Center, University of Forests in Kalimantan,” New York Botanical Washington, 1995). Garden, 21–23 June 1991, cited in Charles Victor Barber, Nels C. Johnson, and Emmy 13. FAO, Yearbook 1983–1994, op. cit. note 1. Hafild, Breaking the Logjam: Obstacles to Forest Policy Reform in Indonesia and the United States 14. Ibid.; FAO, op. cit. note 2; Emmanuel (Washington, DC: WRI, 1994). N. Chidumayo, “Woodfuel and Deforestation in Southern Africa—A Misconceived Associa- 20. Highway to Brasília from Emilio F. tion,” Renewable Energy for Development, July Moran, “Deforestation in the Brazilian 1997. Amazon,” in Leslie E. Sponsel, Thomas N. Headland, and Robert C. Bailey, eds., Tropical 15. Historic consumption trends and paper Deforestation: The Human Dimension (New York: sources from IIED, op. cit. note 1; Nigel Columbia University Press, 1996); amount of Dudley and Sue Stolton, Pulp Fact: The forest cleared for pasture from Dennis Mahar Environmental and Social Impacts of the Pulp and (1988), cited in ibid.; increase in timber pro- Paper Industry, World Wide Fund for Nature duction from Friends of the Earth (FOE) (WWF),
21. Michael Christie, “The Amazon Is Hillsides,” Washington Post, 18 December 1996. Burning Again, Officials Say,” Reuters Newswire, 3 October 1997; Schwartzman, op. 24. Dudley, Jeanrenaud, and Sullivan, op. cit. note 20. cit. note 5.
22. Robert G. Kaiser, “Forests of Borneo 25. Jonathon Friedland and Raphael Pura, Going Up in Smoke,” Washington Post, 7 “Log Heaven: Troubled at Home, Asian September 1997; “Rain Forests on Fire: Timber Firms Set Sights on the Amazon,” Wall Conservation Consequences,” World Wildlife Street Journal, 11 November 1996; Soltani and Fund,
Johnson and Hafild, op. cit. note 19. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1988).
32. Jim Jontz, “Forest Service Indictment: A 37. FOE International, op. cit. note 20; Mountain of Evidence,” in Sierra Club, op. cit. Mark Poffenberger and Betsy McGean, eds., note 23; Randal O’Toole, “Reforming a Village Voices, Forest Choices, Joint Forest Demoralized Agency: Saving National Management in India (Delhi: Oxford University Forests,” Different Drummer, vol. 3, no. 4 (1997); Press, 1996); Madhav Gadgil, “India’s “National Forest Timber Sale Receipts and Deforestation: Patterns and Processes,” Society Costs in 1995,” Different Drummer, vol. 3, no. 4 and Natural Resources, vol. 3, 1990, pp. 131-43; (1997); Paul Roberts, “The Federal Chain-saw Shelton H. Davis and Alaka Wali, “Indigenous Massacre,” Harper’s Magazine, June 1997. Land Tenure and Tropical Forest Management in Latin America,” Ambio, 33. Tax concessions from Repetto, op. cit. December 1994; Daniel Bromley, “Property note 22; government plans to increase harvest Relations and Economic Development: The levels from Barber, Johnson, and Hafild, op. Other Land Reform,” World Development, vol. cit. note 19. 17, 1989; “Whose Common Future?” The Ecologist (entire issue), July/August 1992; 34. Moran, op. cit. note 20; Repetto, op. “Brazil Cuts Funds Used to Demarcate Indian cit. note 22; Leslie E. Sponsel, Robert C. Lands,” Baltimore Sun, 11 October 1997; Bailey, and Thomas N. Headland, Sponsel, Bailey, and Headland, op. cit. note “Anthropological Perspectives on the Causes, 34; Marcus Colchester and Larry Lohmann, Consequences, and Solutions of Deforesta- eds., The Struggle for Land and the Fate of the tion,” in Sponsel, Headland, and Bailey, op. Forests (Penang, Malaysia: World Rainforest cit. note 20; taxes and credits for land in spite Movement, 1995). of reforms from Congressman Gilney Viana, Initiatives in the Defense of the Amazon Rainforest 38. Barber, Johnson, and Hafild, op. cit. (Brasília: September 1996); infrastructure note 19; Lynch and Talbott, op. cit. note 36. from Soltani and Osborne, op. cit. note 20; Angus Foster, “Brazil Seeks a ‘Sustainable’ 39. Robin Broad, “The Political Economy Amazon,” Financial Times, 19 April 1995. of Natural Resources: Case Studies of the Indonesian and Philippine Forest Sectors,” 35. Costs to government from Repetto, op. The Journal of Developing Areas, April 1995. cit. note 21; failed resettlements from Nigel Dudley, forest researcher, Equilibrium, letter 40. Global Witness, “Just Deserts for to author, 18 September 1997. Cambodia? Deforestation & the Co-Prime Ministers’ Legacy to the Country,” June 1997, 36. Myers, op. cit. note 17; Owen J. Lynch
Amazônia. Relatório. Brasília, 8 April 1997, Greenpeace Canada, op. cit. note 30. cited in Schwartzman, op. cit. note 20. 49. SLDF, Stream Protection Under the Code: 43. Global Witness, op. cit. note 40; The Destruction Continues, report written on “Cambodia: King Gives Backing to Report behalf of the Forest Caucus of the British Calling for Overhaul of Government’s Columbia Environmental Network (Van- Logging Policy,” International Environment couver, BC: February 1997); SLDF, Wildlife at Reporter, 26 June 1996; value of exports, money Risk, report written on behalf of the Forest to treasury from Daniel Pruzin, “Loggers Use Caucus of the British Columbia Environ- Loophole to Decimate Cambodia’s mental Network (Vancouver, BC: April 1997); Disappearing Forests,” Christian Science fines from Province of British Columbia, Monitor, 2 May 1997; Ted Bardacke, Ministry of Forests, “Annual Report of “Cambodia Failing to Curb Illegal Logging,” Compliance and Enforcement Statistics for Financial Times, 16 September 1997; impor- the Forest Practices Code: June 15, 1996–June tance of Tonle Sap from Janet N. Abramovitz, 16, 1997,”
Ruitenbeek, Mangrove Management: An Tropical Forestry (London: Earthscan Economic Analysis of Management Options with a Publications Ltd., 1993); WWF and IUCN, Focus on Bintuni Bay, Irian Jaya, Environmental Forests For Life (Godalming, Surrey, U.K.: Reports No. 8 (Gabriola Island, BC: 1996). Environmental Management Project, 1992). 56. Kohm and Franklin, op. cit. note 54; 53. Share managed for sustained yield Noss and Cooperrider, op. cit. note 17; WWF from Duncan Poore, “Conclusions,” in and IUCN, op. cit. note 55; Panayotou and Duncan Poore et al., No Timber Without Trees Ashton, op. cit. note 55. (London: Earthscan Publications Ltd., 1989); for sustainable forestry initiatives in industry, 57. Canadian Standards Association, see, for example, Sustainable Forestry Initiative, “Standards for Canada’s Forests,”
54. Kathryn A. Kohm and Jerry F. Franklin, 58. Forest Stewardship Council in WWF- eds., Creating a Forestry for the 21st Century: The UK, World Wildlife Fund Guide to Forest Science of Ecosystem Management (Washington, Certification 1997, Forests for Life Campaign DC: Island Press, 1997); E. Thomas Tuchmann (Godalming, Surrey, U.K.: 1997). et al., The Northwest Forest Plan A Report to the President and Congress (Portland, OR: U.S. 59. Ibid.; roundwood trade from FAO, Department of Agriculture, December 1996); Yearbook 1983–1994, op. cit. note 1. Gregory H. Aplet et al., eds., Defining 60. WWF-UK, op. cit. note 58, reports 2.4 Sustainable Forestry (Washington, DC: Island billion pound sterling turnover for UK-1995 Press, 1993); Narendra P. Sharma, ed., Plus groups; statements by Lennart Ahlgren, Managing the World’s Forests (Dubuque, IA: CEO Assi Domain, by Alan Knight, Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1992); Environmental Policy Controller, B&Q, and by international criteria and indicators from Richard G. Tarasofsky, The International Forests Nicholas Brett, Publishing Director of Radio Regime: Legal and Policy Issues (Gland, Times, BBC Magazine, at WWF Forests for Life Switzerland: World Conservation Union Conference, San Francisco, CA, 8–10 May (IUCN) and WWF, December 1995). 1997.
55. Kohm and Franklin, op. cit. note 54; 61. As of September 1997, there were buy- Herb Hammond, Seeing the Forest Among the ers’ groups in Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Trees (Vancouver, BC: Polestar Press Ltd., France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Spain, 1991); Noss and Cooperrider, op. cit. note 17; Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the Theodore Panayotou and Peter S. Ashton, Not United States; import data from FAO, op. cit. By Timber Alone, Economics and Ecology for note 1; Japan certification from Dudley, op. Sustaining Tropical Forests (Washington, DC: cit. note 35. Island Press, 1992); Alan Drengson and 62. WWF-UK, op. cit. note 58; Inter- Duncan Taylor, eds., Ecoforestry (Gabriola governmental Seminar on Criteria and Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 1997); Indicators for Sustainable Forest Manage- Duncan Poore, “The Sustainable Management ment, Background Document (Helsinki, Finland: of Tropical Forest: The Issues,” in Simon Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, June Rietbergen, ed., The Earthscan Reader in 1996). Notes (Chapter 2) (27)
63. Hectares certified from Francis 71. Herman E. Daly and John B. Cobb, Jr., Sullivan, Director, WWF Forests for Life For the Common Good (Boston: Beacon Press, Campaign, briefing, Washington, DC, 11 1989); Clifford Cobb, Ted Halstead, and November 1997; “World Bank and WWF Join Jonathan Rowe, Redefining Progress: The Forces to Conserve Earth’s Forests,” press Genuine Progress Indicator, Summary of Data and release (Washington, DC: WWF, 26 July 1997). Methodology (San Francisco, CA: Redefining Progress, 1995); Robert Repetto et al., Wasting 64. WWF-Netherlands, WWF, and World Assets: Natural Resources in the National Income Conservation Monitoring Centre, “World Accounts (Washington, DC: WRI, 1989); Myers, Forest Map 1996” (Gland, Switzerland: WWF, op. cit. note 17. 1997). Only 8 percent of tropical moist forests, 5 percent each of tropical dry and temperate 72. David Malin Roodman, “Reforming needleleaf forests, 6 percent of temperate Subsidies,” in Brown et al., op. cit. note 17. broadleaf forests, and 9 percent of mangroves have some protected status. 73. Alternative measures of GDP and other methods of calculating benefits from Herman 65. FAO, op. cit. note 2; collateral damage E. Daly, Beyond Growth: The Economics of from Government of Indonesia and FAO in Sustainable Development (Boston: Beacon Press, Barber, Johnson, and Hafild, op. cit. note 19. 1996); Cobb, Halstead, and Rowe, op. cit. 71; Repetto et al., op. cit. 71; Panayotou and 66. Wood used in making shipping crates Ashton, op. cit. note 55; Wilfredo Cruz and from Catherine Mater, Mater Engineering, Robert Repetto, The Environmental Effects of presentation at WWF Forests for Life Stabilization and Structural Adjustment Programs: Conference, San Francisco, CA, 8–10 May The Philippines Case (Washington, DC: WRI, 1997. 1992); Tim Jackson and Susanna Stymne, Sustainable Economic Welfare in Sweden—A Pilot 67. U.S. sawmill wastes used for pulp and Index 1950–1992 (Stockholm, Sweden: fuel from Maureen Smith, The U.S. Paper Stockholm Environment Institute, 1996); Industry and Sustainable Production (Cambridge Costanza et al., op. cit. note 51; conversion to MA: The MIT Press, 1997); FAO, op. cit. note sustainable rural development in the Amazon 2; IMAZON from Christopher Uhl et al., from Fearnside, op. cit. note 51. “Natural Resource Management in the Brazilian Amazon: An Integrated Research 74. Costanza et al., op. cit. note 51; gross Approach,” Bioscience, March 1997. world product from International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook, October 1996 68. Consumption in Europe, United States, (Washington, DC: 1996). and Japan from FAO, Yearbook 1983–1994, op. cit. note 1; U.K. paper discarded, German sur- 75. Lynch and Talbott, op. cit. note 36. vey, and lumber for crates and pallets from EIA, op. cit. note 12. 76. Ibid.; Gadgil, op. cit. note 37; Poffenberger and McGean, op. cit. note 37; 69. Paper consumption calculated with Broad, op. cit. note 39; Nicholals K. Menzies data from FAO, Yearbook 1983–1994, op. cit. and Nancy L. Peluso, “Rights of Access to note 1; population figures and projections Upland Forest Resources in Southwest China,” from United Nations, op. cit. note 16. Journal of World Forest Resource Management, vol. 6, 1991. 70. Barry Polsky, Director of Media Relations, American Forest and Paper 77. Burda et al., op. cit. note 47. Association, discussion with author, 30 September 1997; waste sent to landfills from 78. Tarasofsky, op. cit. note 54. Smith, op. cit. note 67. 79. Treaty signatories from CBD Subsidiary (28) Notes (Chapter 2
Body for Scientific, Technical, and Tech- New York City at the fourth meeting of the nological Advice,
81. Tarasofsky, op. cit. note 54. As of mid- 84. Opportunities for international coop- November 1997, the World Commission had eration include MERCOSUR, NAFTA, the not yet published its findings. World Trade Organization, the Central American Forest Agreement, RAMSAR, and 82. United Nations, “United Nations Panel Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, under Proposes Action to Implement Earth Summit negotiation; Tarasofsky, op. cit. note 54. Forest Accords,” press release (New York: 21 February 1997); “Plan on Forests Adopted by 85. Bardacke, op. cit. note 43; “World Bank Ministers Leaves Question Open of and WWF Join Forces,” op. cit. note 63; Negotiating Treaty,” International Enviroment Cambodia from “Consultative Group Meeting Reporter, 9 July 1997; UN Department for Policy on Cambodia, Paris, 1–2 July 1997,” Global Coordination and Sustainable Development, Witness,
83. “Plan on Forests Adopted,” op. cit. note 82; Janet N. Abramovitz, “Another Convention Won’t Save the Forests, World Watch, May/June 1997; “International Citizen Declaration Against a Global Forest Convention,” released by various nongovernmental organizations in