Sustainable management in the tropical forest?
Water and trees
Case-studies on small-scale forest harvesting
Forest economics
No timber without trees: sustainable management in the tropical forest D. Poore et al. 1989. London, Earthscan Publications Ltd.
This is one of the most politically important books on tropical forests to be published in the past decade. It belongs on the shelf of every student and practitioner of tropical forest conservation, management and policy development.
Based on a study conducted in 1989 for the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), No timber without trees poses the question: "Can the tropical forests be managed for long-term timber production in an economically, socially and environmentally acceptable manner?" The answer arrived at by the authors is a qualified "yes", if certain conditions are met and certain urgently needed steps taken by the governments of the tropical countries with support from the international community.
Can the tropical forests be managed for long-term timber production?
Although the study covered only producer member countries of ITTO, it is noteworthy that these countries contain at least 70 percent of tropical forest resources.
Several of the main conclusions of the study are worth quoting in full:
· The extent of tropical moist forest which is being deliberately managed at an operational scale for the sustainable production of timber is, on a world scale, negligible.· There seems at last to be some awareness in most of the producer countries, particularly among their foresters, that action is needed. Many countries, especially with the assistance of FAO and through the Tropical Forestry Action Plan, are now taking some of the necessary steps to attain sustainable management. Nevertheless, progress in establishing stable sustainable systems is still so slow that it is having very little impact on the general decline in quantity and quality of the forest.
· The future existence of large areas of tropical forest, perhaps even the majority, arid of the highly significant ancillary goods and services of the forest, depends equally on the establishment of sustainable systems of management, many of which must have timber production as their basis.
The report found that governments consistently undervalue the timber resources of the forest and the environmental services of forest lands, and rate too highly the value of converting forests to other uses.
If the forest estate is to be secure, the authors conclude, the most important condition for sustainable production is the control of the whole harvesting operation. Sustainability of production can technically be assured by the control of harvesting alone. Subsequent silvicultural treatment is desirable, but not essential.
The authors set out the following "clearly identified conditions of success" required for sustainable management of tropical forests:
· government resolve to set aside a forest estate for the production of timber and to manage it sustainably;· a sound political case for the selection of a permanent forest estate as part of a national land use policy;
· guaranteed security for the forest estate, once chosen;
· an assured and stable market for forest produce;
· adequate information for the selection of the forest estate and for planning and controlling its management;
· a flexible predictive system for planning and control based on reliable information about growth and yield;
· the resources and conditions needed for control;
· the will needed by all to accomplish effective control.
Few of the book's conclusions or its recommendations should come as a surprise to a reader of Unasylva. However, they are significant in that the findings of a group representing international timber producers and their consuming clients confirm what others, including FAO, have long asserted: that for much of the tropical forests, economic use and environmental protection can coexist, but only if sustainable management programmes are put in place; and time is running out for the governments, the forests and the people.
R. Pardo
To the hands of the poor: water and trees. R. Chambers, N.C Saxena & T. Shah. 1989. New Delhi and Oxford, IBH Publishing Co.
Once again Robert Chambers has managed to come up with a stimulating and new way of looking at development issues. This time, Chambers joins forces with N.C. Saxena and Tushaar Shah, two well-respected Indian researchers, to examine how poor people in India could gain more from available natural resources. They conclude that ground water, lift irrigation and trees can offer great opportunities for disadvantaged rural people when managed within an appropriate policy framework.
One of the keys to the approach of the authors lies in a passage from the Preface:
We have been driven to conclude that official and professional misperceptions of the priorities of poor people have hindered seeing how to help them; that efforts of NGOs are often good but overperceived...; that a portfolio of programmes of the middle range is promising; but that, in contrast with all these, crores [tens of millions] of the poorer could gain at once and on a vast scale by abolishing restrictions, changing regulations, and clarifying rights, supporting these reforms with multiple channel communication to inform the poor of their entitlements.
With regard to water resources, the authors propose administrative changes related to electricity tariffs, regulations on placement of wells, and the creation of competitive markets. They stress that these changes would allow landed poor who have water under their land more access, including the opportunity to sell water, and those who have no water greater possibilities to purchase it.
With regard to trees, the authors affirm:
To realise the vast potential of forests and village lands to support the livelihoods of the poor requires putting their priorities first, pointing away from single products like timber and poles, and towards a diversity of labour-intensive products, with open competition between public and private buyers and good market information.
However, the really unique approach is contained in the twist of the management goals the authors suggest for public and private land. They propose that rather than being raised and cut as monoculture plantations, public forest lands should be kept as mixed forests and managed for multiple products used and needed by local people. The authors acknowledge that it will not be easy to turn forest management of public lands over to the villagers in the short term; they recommend as a stop-gap measure that villagers be ensured individual or communal usufruct rights to forests managed for multiple products.
On private lands, Chambers, Saxena and Shah suggest agroforestry where suitable. They also argue that if farmers were not subjected to unfair competition with government-subsidized timber and pulpwood production, they would be able to produce these products on a sustainable basis and at competitive prices on their own land. For this to be done, however, current regulations that control species to be planted, when to cut, and movement of logs would need to be removed. As an example of the potentially negative effects of these well-intentioned regulations, they note that despite their value, sandalwood trees are becoming scarce, largely owing to restrictions on harvesting and sale of sandalwood by private individuals, thereby removing any incentive for farmers to grow them.
Some of the conclusions of the authors stop just short of the revolutionary, and may not apply in certain circumstances. However, each of their assertions is accompanied by careful documentation, in some cases including examples of the dynamics of change in benefit distribution as regulations are changed.
Although this book is written about India and is a must for people working in resource management in South Asia, the new ways of viewing regulations and access to water and tree resources will surely excite the imagination of people working in other regions as well.
M. Hoskins
Small-scale harvesting operations Or wood and non-wood forest products involving rural people. V. de la Cruz. 1989. FAO Forestry Paper No. 87. Rome, FAO.
Highly mechanized, capital-intensive forest harvesting systems allow only minimal participation of the rural people who live within or in the vicinity of the forest. It is thus important to introduce or improve small-scale forest harvesting systems for both wood and non-wood products that rely on basic or intermediate technology.
The specific objective of this publication has been to investigate small-scale forest harvesting operations; to develop time and production standards; and to recommend improvements in work phases and tools. It is hoped that the case-studies will prove useful for countries in which similar conditions exist.
Part one deals with a case-study on harvesting of a bamboo plantation and a natural bamboo stand in the Philippines. The study investigates cutting as well as transportation techniques, emphasizing appropriate technologies, and, with the aid of time and work studies, arrives at recommendations in respect of tools for cutting and means of transportation.
Part two of the publication refers to the results of a case-study on the production of firewood from the bark of dipterocarp logs in Tagum, in Mindanao, the Philippines. The study notes that the production and marketing of bark fuel are an important source of employment and income for families in the region, as well as for the drivers of logging trucks who allow debarking of the logs they are transporting. The case-study describes methods and tools used in the various steps of bark fuel production and offers recommendations for improvements in both production and marketing.
The third part deals with the results of a case-study on harvesting operations in a mangrove forest on the west coast of peninsular Malaysia along the Strait of Malacca. Details are given on the management working plan, yield, species and silvicultural systems, as well as on equipment and tools used for harvesting and short-distance transportation. Time and production standards are developed for a number of labour intensive production methods. The study also briefly summarizes management and harvesting systems for mangrove forests in Thailand, Venezuela, the Philippines, Viet Nam, Bangladesh, and Sabah and Sarawak in Indonesia.
R. Heinrich
The theory and applications of forest economics. C. Price. 1989. Oxford, Basil Blackwell Ltd.
Deforestation, shifting cultivation and population growth are resulting in major and dramatic transformations in the pattern of land use throughout the world. These frequently controversial changes are often presented as a confrontation between economic development on the one hand and social and environmental considerations on the other. The theory and application of forest economics shows that economics has a more central and subtle role to play in taking into account financial as well as social costs and benefits, and in reconciling the long-term needs of society with the short-term objectives of households and commercial enterprises.
The book is divided into four parts, plus a glossary, references and an index. The first part of the book comprises 12 chapters and dwells on profit-maximization and capital theory, drawing examples primarily from forest harvesting operations. The nine chapters of part two, focusing on the economics of silviculture, will be of particular interest to forest managers facing decisions regarding specific silvicultural treatments, or choice of the optimal forest rotation. The third section of the book concentrates on the valuation of social costs of forestry activities and a review of cost-benefit analysis. The final section examines broader issues related to forest policy, including government intervention and regional income and employment.
The first two parts correspond roughly to subjects treated in standard texts on forest economics and require a good basic understanding of how demand and supply (cost) curves are derived, as well as of profit-maximization theory (marginal costs/marginal revenue). Parts three and four, on the other hand, deal with social and environmental issues and the topic of government intervention, themes with far-reaching policy implications for forestry today, in particular at the level of project design and implementation.
One of the particular merits of this book is that it examines the profitability of forestry activities not only from the financial point of view but also from the economic/social one. In effect, many forestry endeavours in developing and developed countries cannot always be justified on financial grounds alone, and therefore forestry investment opportunities must be analysed from a broader perspective.
The book is well written and highlighted with many tables, graphs and figures. It will be most useful to forest managers, forestry development planning and policy analysts, and graduate students who already have a good knowledge of forest or natural resources economics. As it draws from forestry examples in developing countries, it should be of particular interest to people working in these countries or in the development assistance field.
Y.C. Dubé
