“FORWOOD”

“FORWOOD”

“Is it possible to achieve balanced land use of forested lands in the tropics?”

Tropical rainforest countries are faced with dual problems in balancing land use of their forested lands.

One difficulty is to ensure that adequate areas of forested lands are retained in the face of increasing agricultural and other pressures to provide for all current and future needs from the forest itself.

The other difficulty is to maintain a wise balance within it’s forest estate of all the direct and indirect benefits that forests provide. This difficulty manifests itself because those direct and indirect needs are sometimes compatible, sometimes conflicting.

For example, watershed protection and water harvesting against the needs of major and minor forest products.

For example, the preservation of flora and fauna and recreation pursuits against the need for provision of major and minor forest products.

Many countries in ensuring adequate areas of forested land are retained, attempt to identify the significant needs. They include:

• The preservation of representative and undisturbed examples of all the natural forest types for scientific study. This includes environmental effects as atmospheric, hydrological, soil and biodiversity. These effect carbon storage, nutrient cycling, water, and air purification. Population health effects include the provision of areas for current and future bioproducts for medicinal purposes. • The protection of all critical catchment areas and the maintenance of stream flow. • The preservation of habitat to maintain viable populations of native wildlife. • Social and cultural benefits as traditional resource uses (including food gathering), spirituality, recreation through the provision of adequate areas of forested land for these needs.

Over time, the need most open to contention is the retention of forested areas for timber supplies. Hopefully, if populations were ultimately to reach stability, then an estimate could be made of the likely annual requirements of forest products in the future.

Because timber products are bulky, freight charges contribute to a large proportion of the final cost of those timber products. It is argued that for this reason alone, countries should aim to be as self-sufficient as possible in timber.

The actual amount of forested land to produce that timber volume will vary, dependent on the intensity of natural forest management applied, combined with the quantity of forest plantation established.

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2 Newspaper Article WANTOK NIUSPEPA - BISNIS NIUS Disemba 9-15, 2004 pes 25. 4