Beyond Reaping the First Harvest: Management Objectives for Timber Production in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

Millions of hectares of future timber concessions are slated to be implemented within large public forests under the forest law passed in 2006 by the Brazilian Congress. Additional millions of hectares of large, privately owned forests and smaller areas of community forests are certified as well managed by the Forest Stewardship Council, based on certification standards that will be reviewed in 2007. Forest size and ownership are two key factors that influence management objectives and the capacity of forest managers to achieve them. Current best ecological practices for timber production from Brazil's native Amazon forests are limited to reduced-impact logging (RIL) systems that minimize the environmental impacts of harvest operations and that obey legal restrictions regarding minimum diameters, rare species, retention of seed trees, maximum logging intensity, preservation of riparian buffers, fire protection, and wildlife conservation. Compared with conventional, predatory harvesting that constitutes >90% of the region's timber production, RIL dramatically reduces logging damage and helps maintain forest cover and the presence of rare tree species, but current RIL guidelines do not assure that the volume of timber removed can be sustained in future harvests. We believe it is counterproductive to expect smallholders to subscribe to additional harvest limitations beyond RIL, that larger private forested landholdings managed for timber production should be sustainable with respect to the total volume of timber harvested per unit area per cutting cycle, and that large public forests should sustain volume production of individual harvested species. These additional requirements would improve the ecological sustainability of forest management and help create a stable forest-based sector of the region's economy, but would involve costs associated with lengthened cutting cycles, reduced harvest intensities, and/or postharvest silviculture to promote adequate growth and regeneration.

Negative incentives and sustainability in the amazonian logging industry

“…Other aspects of RIL implementation include inclusion actions; construction of roads for the removal of cut trunks; use of directional logging techniques; minimization of heavy machinery usage; direct control of degradation monitoring, as in the case of fi res; and strengthening the role of conservation in the granting of property rights Vincent, 2000;Coe et al, 2013;Sist;Ferreira, 2007;Zarin et al, 2007).…”

“…RIL can reduce forest damage from timber harvesting (involving cutting and transport), greenhouse gas emissions, and depletion of the forest's carbon stock. RIL also favors maintenance of biodiversity in the forest Vincent, 2000;Coe et al, 2013;Valle et al, 2007;Zarin et al, 2007).…”

Avances y perspectivas del manejo forestal para uso múltiple en el trópico húmedo

“…El manejo de las especies maderables para la extracción continua ha sido difícil en la cuenca del Amazonas (Zarin et al, 2007). En la tala selectiva, las primeras cosechas producen altos volúmenes de madera porque tienen lugar en bosques con un capital natural muy alto, sin tala previa.…”

Regulating the Sustainability of Forest Management in the Americas: Cross-Country Comparisons of Forest Legislation

“…Donoso et al (1998) [43] question the capacity of legally-established selective cutting thresholds to sustain long term production of temperate forests in Chile. For much of the Tropics, there is growing concern that legally established harvest thresholds are inadequate for producing sustained future harvests or for protecting existing stand dynamics, given that all too often harvest volumes outpace the forest's growth rate even when efficiently planned and compliant with governmental regulations [41,[44][45][46][47]. Moreover, legally established harvest limits are rarely based on timber species population ecology or natural and historical disturbance regimes [46,47].…”