Futures of tropical production forests

Putz, Francis E.; Romero, Claudia

doi:10.17528/cifor/005766

Cited by 7 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 133 publications

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“…Instead, we advocate first of all for scrupulous use of RIL practices and for yield maintenance in designated portions of the logging landscape that are ecologically and economically appropriate. We also endorse at least gentle silvicultural intensification with interventions designed to increase growth and yield, such as cutting lianas on future crop trees (e.g., Putz and Romero, 2015;Mills et al, 2019). In addition to accessibility, site capability, and environmental or cultural constraints, spatial planning of management in logging landscapes in the tropics should also consider adjacency, connectivity, and patch size (e.g., Llorente et al, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Intact Forest in Selective Logging Landscapes in the Tropics

Putz

Baker

Griscom

et al. 2019

Front. For. Glob. Change

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The selective logging that characterizes most timber extraction operations in the tropics leaves large patches of logging blocks (i. e., areas allocated for harvesting) intact, with no direct impacts of the harvest. For example, in the ∼10,000 ha we sampled in 48 forest management enterprises in Africa (Gabon, Republic of Congo, and the Democratic Republic of Congo), Indonesia, Suriname, and Mexico, an average of 57% (range 22-97%) of the area in logging blocks was not directly affected by timber harvests. The proportion of intact forest within logging blocks decreased very slightly with increases in harvest intensity in the accessed portion of the logging blocks (9-86 m 3 ha −1) but decreased strongly with harvest intensity in entire logging blocks (0.3-48.2 m 3 ha −1). More forest was left intact in areas farther from roads, on slopes >40%, and within 25 m of perennial streams, but the effect sizes of each of these variables was small (∼8%). It is less clear how much of the intact forest left after one harvest will remain intact through the next. Conservation benefits without reductions in timber yields will derive from better management planning so that sensitive and ecologically critical areas, such as steep slopes and riparian buffers, constitute permanent reserves of intact forest in selectively logged landscapes in the tropics.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Intact Forest in Selective Logging Landscapes in the Tropics

Putz

Baker

Griscom

et al. 2019

Front. For. Glob. Change

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“…Remarkably high numbers of species that are common in many tropical differ in growth requirements, growth rates, marketability, ecological roles and other relevant traits. Thus, simple silvicultural guidelines such as fixed MHDs or cutting cycles are unlikely to be satisfactory [13]. In Venezuela's case, the lack of sound ecological information on growth patterns of commercial species, density and structure, along with limited long-term information has been highlighted as a major limitation [23,24,69,72].…”

Section: Enrichment In Transversal Stripsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In terms of forest management, more than 400 million hectares (ha) of natural tropical forests have been designated as production forests [8][9][10]. Moreover, nearly 40% of sawn wood traded annually in tropical regions has an origin in natural forests [11], often under a "selective logging" approach in which large trees of a relatively low number of tree species are harvested in rotation cycles of 30 years on average [9,12,13]. The dynamics driving how tropical forests respond, and ultimately recover to this type of intervention is a function of several ecological and socioeconomic factors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Silvicultural Practices in Venezuelan Natural Forests: An Historical Perspective and Prospects of Sustainable Forest Management

Vilanova¹

2021

Silviculture

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More than four decades of cumulative silvicultural experience in Venezuelan forests represents a significant progress towards sustainable forest management in the tropics. Here, based on an extensive literature review, expert opinions and discussions with forestry stakeholders in the country, we offer a broad overview of the history and current state of silvicultural practices in Venezuela’s natural production forests. Despite important research advances, several factors including institutional and policy limitations, along with the lack of sound technical guidelines have hampered a more positive influence of silvicultural research for sustainable forest management across the country’s managed forests. On an industrial scale, after an often poorly planned selective logging, and despite increasing evidences against for, a strong prominence of assisted natural regeneration (i.e., enrichment planting) characterized the post-logging management compared to other approaches. With very few exceptions, using artificial regeneration did not produced the expected outcomes in terms of tree growth, expected timber yield and survival. Finally, amidst the current political and economic upheaval in Venezuela, a broad range of lessons and policy recommendations is proposed including the strengthening of research on silvicultural options for multiple use of forests and for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

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“…More than 400 million hectares (ha) of natural tropical forests have been designated as production forests globally [1][2][3]. Moreover, about 40% of sawn wood traded annually in tropical regions has an origin in natural forests [4], often under a "selective logging" approach in which large trees of a relatively low number of tree species are harvested in rotation cycles of 30 years on average [2,5,6]. With some exceptions, one of the main features of selective logging across the tropics has been the insufficient adoption of reduced impact methods with negative environmental effects on forest structure and function [7,8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Low-Cost and Robust Landsat-Based Approach to Study Forest Degradation and Carbon Emissions from Selective Logging in the Venezuelan Amazon

et al. 2021

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Selective logging in the tropics is a major driver of forest degradation by altering forest structure and function, including significant losses of aboveground carbon. In this study, we used a 30-year Landsat time series (1985–2015) to analyze forest degradation and carbon emissions due to selective logging in a Forest Reserve of the Venezuelan Amazon. Our work was conducted in two phases: the first, by means of a direct method we detected the infrastructure related to logging at the sub-pixel level, and for the second, we used an indirect approach using buffer areas applied to the results of the selective logging mapping. Pre- and post-logging forest inventory data, combined with the mapping analysis were used to quantify the effects of logging on aboveground carbon emissions for three different sources: hauling, skidding and tree felling. With an overall precision of 0.943, we demonstrate the potential of this method to efficiently map selective logging and forest degradation with commission and omission errors of +7.6 ± 4.5 (Mean ± SD %) and −7.5% ± 9.1 respectively. Forest degradation due to logging directly affected close to 24,480 ha, or about ~1% of the total area of the Imataca Forest Reserve. On average, with a relatively low harvest intensity of 2.8 ± 1.2 trees ha−1 or 10.5 ± 4.6 m3 ha−1, selective logging was responsible for the emission of 61 ± 21.9 Mg C ha−1. Lack of reduced impact logging guidelines contributed to pervasive effects reflected in a mean reduction of ~35% of the aboveground carbon compared to unlogged stands. This research contributes to further improve our understanding of the relationships between selective logging and forest degradation in tropical managed forests and serves as input for the potential implementation of projects for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+).

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Futures of tropical production forests

Cited by 7 publications

References 133 publications

Intact Forest in Selective Logging Landscapes in the Tropics

Intact Forest in Selective Logging Landscapes in the Tropics

Silvicultural Practices in Venezuelan Natural Forests: An Historical Perspective and Prospects of Sustainable Forest Management

A Low-Cost and Robust Landsat-Based Approach to Study Forest Degradation and Carbon Emissions from Selective Logging in the Venezuelan Amazon

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