THE WORLD BANK POLICY PLANNING AND RESEARCH STAFF Public Disclosure Authorized Environment Department Containing Thopical Deforestation A Review of Priority Areas for Technological Public Disclosure Authorized and Policy Research John Spears Public Disclosure Authorized October 1988 Environment Department Working Paper No. 10 Public Disclosure Authorized This paper has been prepared for internal use. The views and interpretations herein are those of the author(s) and should not be attributed to the World Bank, to its affiliated organizations or to any individual acting on thekr behalf. This paper has been prepared by John Spears of the Environment Department and Zormerly Forestry Adviser in the Agriculture and Rural Development Department of the World Bank. The author gratefully acknowledges comments on earlier drafts by many research scientists, polioy planners and aid agency colleagues (see acknowledgments in the Foreword). 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ABSTRACT This paper reviews promising sociological, technical and economic policy research topics that have potential to make a decisive contribution to containing tropical deforestation, ensuring the basic needs of the rural and urban poor for food, fuelvood, fodder and shelter, preserving the biological diversity of tropical rainforests, and maximizing the potential.o of forests to contribute a sustainable source of employment, income generation and export earnings. FOREWORD Tropical Deforestation: Its Negative Impact Deforestation threatens the sustainability of development. Millions of people living in the tropics depend on forests for their survival. Forests and trees are a major source of food, fuel, fiber, fodder and other necessities. Forests and farm trees improve the productivity of farming systems, thus contributing to food security. They stabilize watersheds and reduce erosion and flooding. They provide wood for energy, raw materials for construction, fiber products such as paper, and countless other goods and services needed to improve human welfare. In r -e subtle ways, forests contribute to global welfare -- for example, pro,.ding the genetic material which now underlies many of our basic foods and generating employment opportunities. Tropical forests will become increasingly important in meeting the future needs of an epanding global population. Despite the significant contributions made by forests and trees in the tropics, every year more than 11 million hectares are being destroyed. Investment in forest conservation and reforestation is lagging way behind the levels needed to sustain forest cover on adequate stock of farm trees and an assured supply of essential forest products. The negative impacts of deforestation, forest degradation and loss of farm trees in the tropics are growing. They include: o increasing soil degradation and desertification which lead to food insecurity; o declining water quality, which affects human health; o rising costs for hydropower and irrigation projects as dam reservoirs become filled with silt from erosion; o hardship and misery for a rising population of people who cannot fAnd fuelwood and who cannot afford alternative fuels; o declines in productive employment because wood, both as a raw material and a fuel for industry, is becoming scarce and expensive; o declining foreign exchange earnings and increasing import bills for forest products as forests are depleted of commercial woods; - 2 - o lose of biological diversity and the gene pool which has been so important in supplying the basic genetic material underlying many of our important food products and medicines; 0 the cutting and burning of tropical forests is contributing to atmospheric emissions of greenhouse gases, thereby amplifying the problem of global warning. The Tropical Forest Action Plan: Bellagio I In mii 1987 the Rockefeller Foundation, World Bank, UNDP and FAQ jointly sponsored a meeting of 26 world leaders at the Rockefeller Bellagio Centre to discuss the issue of tropical deforestation. The meeting reviewed and endorsed a Tropical Forest Action Plan (TFAP) jointly sponsored by national governments and leading aid agencies that would address these issues. This TFAP focussed on five main aspects of the problemt o Forestry's role in land use, in particular the potential of forests and farm trees to contribute to sustainable agriculture and to protection of soil and water resources. o Conservation and increased supplies of fuelwood. o Sustained forestry and forest industries management for production of essential wood nroducts (saw logs, wood based panels, pulp and paper). o Protection of biological diversity in natural forests. o Strengthening of forestry education, training, research and extension. The TFAP called for at least a doubling of aid agency flows for forest conservation within a three year period and accelerated assistance for long range forest conservation strategy in the 56 developing countries that are worst affected by deforestation. International response has been positive. About 50 countries have requested assistance for strengthening of forest conservation plannirg. Aid community allocations for forest conservation have more than doubled. The TFAP has been adopted as a central theme of the work prsgram of FAO's Forest Department. Forest conservation strategy planning exercises have been completed in nine countries and are ongoing in a further 13. Many of the conclusions and recommendations of these studies are being incorporated into national development plans. NGOs and environmental agencies are playing an active role in trying to ensure that local concerns are adequately taken into account in sector policy dialogue. An interagency Forestry Advisers Group has been established to help developing countries focus on cross-cutting issues that could act as a constraint to implementation of the TFAP. -3- Strengthening of Forestry Research: Bellagio II At the 6th meeting of the Advisor's Group in late 1987 it was agreed to focus on the issue of the current weakness of the tropical forestry research base. Compared with agriculture, there exists in forestry nothing remotely similar to the CGIAR Centers that played such a decisive role in bringing about the 'Green Revolution' and making possible a significant increase in developing country food supplies. By contrast, past forestry research has been spread over a very wide range of topics, often with little coordination. Partly because of the long term nature of forestry research, funding has been erratic. Many forest research projects with promising potential have been abandoned before they have had time to produce meaningful results. A Second Rockefeller Foundation Forestry meeting will be held in November 1988 to review forestry research needs for underpinning the TFAP and institutional options for strengthening forestry research. This paper has been prepared as an input to that meeting. It reviews some of the more promising research technologies that could underpin the TFAP. It provides a starting point for a review of the institutional options for strengthening forestry research which are discussed in the main Bellagio II Conference Paper, 'A Global Research Strategy for Tropical Forests., Acknowledgments The research priorities identified in this paper take into account the responses to a questionnaire on research needs sent by the Bellagio II Task Force to the directors of 85 mainly developing country research institutions. They also incorporate helpful suggestions from: Jean-Paul Lanly and Lennart Ljungman (FAO); Bob Buckman and Oscar Fugalli (IUFRO); Gary Toenniessen (Rockefeller Foundation); Chuck Lankester (VNDP); Peter Haslevood (World Resources Institute); Hans Gregersen (Univ. of Minnesota); George Holmes (Bellagio Task Force Chairman); Matthijs Heering (Chairman, TFAP Forestry Advisers Group); Curtis Farrar (CGIAR); Larry Roche and John Hall (UCNW-Wales); Russell Mittermeier and Mark Plotkin (World Wildlife Fund); Norman Myers (UK); Koy Thomson (Friends of the Earth); Arvind K. Khare (India); Ronnie de Camino (Costa Rica); Louis Huguet, Rene Catinot and Jean Clement (France); Donald Pickering, Chip Rowe, Kathleen McNamara, Mikael Grut, Francois Wencelius, Jerry Warford, Ridley Nelson, Mary Dyson and Bill Magrath (World Bank);