LOGGING
OVERVIEW
In most tropical countries forests are government-owned and ownership by parties other than the state is often
prohibited. Timber is often harvested under concession agreements awarded to private logging firms who, without
secure legal rights to the land, are reluctant to make investments in forest management. Thus it is no surprise
that a recent study found that less than 0.1% of tropical is sustainably managed and less than 1% of the area used
for logging is under any form of management. Nevertheless, tropical countries see timber as a major source of revenue
and continue to grant huge concessions at below their market rates. Forestry is important to both the world economy,
contributing 2% to world GDP (4% of GDP in developing countries) and making up 3% of international trade; and to
the local economies of many countries. For example, the logging of tropical timber provides work for 100,000 people
in the Sarawak province of Malaysia and generates US$ 1.5 billion annually in exports. However, the resource management
of tropical forests is grossly underfunded, causing numerous problems.
The International Tropical Timber
Organization (ITTO)
Numerous countries have passed forestry laws, sometimes as a genuine
effort, but more often as a nominal gesture to please international financing organizations. Where forestry laws
exist they are often ignored or widely abused. In the absence of regulation, loggers often ignore the negative
environmental impacts of their actions as they derive little or no financial benefit from mitigating them. For
example, Malaysia, one of the largest exporters of tropical wood, has a good forestry law that would almost guarantee
sustainable use of its forests. However, the laws are not put into practice for a lack of forestry officials and
a lack of government interest. Many in governments prefer the extra cash in their pockets from the intense lobbying
by timber companies instead of actually enforcing forestry laws. Thus Malaysia's national parks and reserves continue
to be exploited and the recommended maximum felling quantities are exceeded. Typical management problems include:
pre- and post-harvesting inventories are not properly conducted, re-logging at more frequent intervals than required,
cutting outside concession boundaries, and ineffective control and supervision by the forest ministry. Many governments
around the world partake in such activities in an effort to raise quick cash. However these governments are selling
themselves and their peoples short. Many are selling their wood at depressed prices while others are losing millions
worldwide from illegal logging activities by not enforcing their forestry laws. Instead of collecting taxes and
duties on all timber extracted from the forest, the government only receives partial revenue. The problem is especially
bad in Indonesia where an estimated 500,000 hectares (42% of annual logged area) of forest are illegally logged
each year at a loss as high as US$3.5 billion in revenues to the government.
What is desperately needed is a new type of forestry that departs from the older mentality where forests only exist
to serve immediate human demands and are non-exhaustible resources. New forest management adds both rural development
and conservation projects to traditional tree harvesting and aims to keep forests as functional ecological systems
while providing multiple economic benefits. Among the innovations of the new forest management are a greater involvement
of local communities, diversification of forest products to include NWFPs, and the development of plantation forests
on degraded lands. Great strides have been made in recent years to develop more sustainable management policies,
but traditional logging firms still have a long way to go.
