US Green Building Council states: "Build Green. Everyone profits." Can we trust this statement?
A Balanced View
There is a lot of sensationalism in the media. We all know what sells hard copy. Here is an opportunity to take a look at the logging practices in tropical forests, which we feel are generally misunderstood. As a matter of good business, our goal is to discuss some of the issues regarding rainforest logging and to help our customers make smart decisions regarding lumber products from tropical countries.
Generally tropical logging is NOT clear-cutting. The greatest danger currently is the expansion of agricultural areas to grow food crops and raise livestock. Landowners and locals need a way to get value from their land. With reasonable market prices and consumer support for tropical lumber products, the incentive to convert tropical forests to agricultural use is minimized. It is a way of adding value to the standing forest.
Realistic Sustainability
Selective logging is the best way to add value to a standing forest resource. People live in these forests and will use the forest resource for their livelihood. The wood industry is well positioned to play a key role in helping to preserve tropical forests by providing value and jobs without chopping the forest down.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has issued a response to a study that found selective logging in the Amazon highly destructive. The research, conducted by scientists from the Carnegie Institution at Stanford University, was published in Science (October 2005).
"However, selective logging is not in principle that destructive. Sound logging practices allows the use of the forest without losing it or risking its regenerative capacity," said Wulf Killmann, Director of the Forest Products and Economics Division at FAO.
Reduced impact logging (RIL) refers to widely accepted practical steps taken when logging, including specific measures such as assessments before and after harvesting, careful construction and maintenance of forest roads, and cutting down trees at a certain direction and of climbing vines. RIL is not a fixed prescription but rather an adaptation of the best possible harvest techniques to local site and market conditions.
A Global View
According to a global study carried out by the combined efforts of the FAO, the University of British Columbia and the Lakehead University in Canada, RIL logging, if done properly, reduces not only disturbance to the remaining tree stands but also logging waste, compared to more conventional practices.
Killmann said "Selective logging can sustainably deliver timber with minimum detrimental impact on forests. If forests do not generate income, forest owners tend to convert it to other land uses, which is worse than selective logging."
What is needed is a new type of forestry that departs from the older mentality where forests existed only to serve immediate demands; considered a non-exhaustible resource. New long-term forest management should be all inclusive of both rural development and conservation projects to traditional tree harvesting. Aiming to keep forests as functional ecological systems while providing multiple sustainable economic benefits.
Moving Forward
Forward strides have been made in recent years to develop more sustainable management policies, but traditional logging firms still have a long way to go. We agree the following points will encourage these policies to become reality:
- Restrict the trade of certain rainforest tree species. In 2002, CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) did just that with big-leaf mahogany.
- End Subsidies. By ending subsidies for sawmills and road construction, logging of tropical rainforests will more accurately reflect the true costs of harvesting.
- Use reduced impact logging practices (RIL).
- Establish plantations on degraded lands.
In many cases, government agencies will require that companies also replant areas that have been cleared in the past. This is typically done with teak or mahogany plantations that can replace ranching areas. In these climates, it doesn't take long to turn a bare patch of land into a plantation forest; after only 5 years, the average height of these plantation trees is already 15 feet.
Many countries have passed forestry laws, even sometimes as a genuine effort; however, more likely laws are not put into practice due to a lack of forestry officials and a lack of government interest. In the absence of regulation, loggers often ignore the negative environmental impacts of their actions, since they derive little or no financial benefit from mitigating them.
Forest Stewardship Council and SmartWood Program of the Rainforest Alliance
An increase in global awareness has encouraged the development of government agencies and third party certification agencies such as the FSC, Forest Stewardship Council, that require land management plans, which are based on selective and responsible logging practices.
Certification is good business: good for our world and us. "You're going to need certification just to stay in the market," predicted Brazil's Forestry Director Fernando Ludke. And to such an end, West Wind Hardwood Inc. has made a global commitment and offers FSC "Chain-of-Custody" and SmartWood Rediscovered Wood Certification.
SmartWood Program of the Rainforest Alliance
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SmartWood was the world's first independent forestry certifier. Established in 1989, they pioneered the concept of forest and forest-products certification, which has since taken hold around the world. Today, SmartWood is the world's leading non-profit forestry certifier.
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SmartWood's purpose is to to conserve biodiversity and support local communities through certification of good forest management practices.
- Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Forest Management Certification
For forestry operations worldwide, including large and mid-sized forest managers and groups of small landowners.
- FSC Chain-of-Custody Certification
For forest-product operations including manufacturers, distributors and retailers that purchase and sell FSC-certified products.
- FSC Non-Timber Forest Products Certification
For operations that manage and harvest non-timber forest products (NTFPs).
- SmartWood Rediscovered Wood Certification
For operations that purchase and sell reclaimed, recycled and/or salvaged wood products.
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The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international network to promote responsible management of the world's forests. The FSC shall promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's forests
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The Rediscovered Wood Program was designed to acknowledge good practices for the recovery, recycling, and reuse of wood products through credible independent certification of the wood recovery practices as well as tracking of the products.
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