TABLE OF CONTENTS “FORWOOD”

“FORWOOD” 2The concept of sustainability in relation to forests has been an accepted principle for thousands of years. Early people realised the importance of their forests as their source of their livelihoods. They must have acted to protect them and to promote the growth of useful trees.

3By the end of the 19th century, the importance of forests for the sustainable supply of goods (not only timber but also firewood) and services, especially watershed protection had been recognised. Reservation, which included both physical demarcation of boundaries, as well as the control of logging, had started in India since the First India Forest Act of 1862 and continued in Burma (now Myanmar) and subsequently in Straits Settlements (now Malaysia). It was the main forestry activity in colonial Africa and the Caribbean in the 1900s, 1930s, and into the 1950s.

The first management systems for tropical forests were those developed for teak forests in India and Burma (Myanmar) from the mid-19th century while plantation techniques were developed for many other countries.

The original principle of sustained yield has gradually been broadened to a more inclusive principle of sustainable forest management (SFM). SFM entails the management of forests to maintain their full range of environmental, social, and economic values.

Notwithstanding 200 years of efforts to operationalize the concept of sustainability, its exact application in forestry remains troublesome.

The development of silvicultural systems for the management of most tropical moist rainforest types were not developed until the 1950s and 1960s, such as the Malayan Uniform System, the Timber Stand Improvement of Uganda, and the Tropical Shelterwood System of Ghana. They combined yield control by minimum girth/diameter limits and the poisoning of “weed” trees to liberate the “desirable” species for which there was a market.

Decades later, these systems were no longer used for several reasons, including high costs, and the lack of staff. Some countries did not find increased regeneration or a balanced size class distribution, after many decades of harvesting regulation applications.

Since the end of the 1980s, the concept of sustainable development has gained general acceptance, but much uncertainty still exists on how to operationalize this concept. The experiences with its application in forestry may contribute towards obtaining a better insight into the implications and operational significance of the concept of sustainability.

In reviewing the history of sustainability in forestry, in recent times, there must be included the various social values on which its interpretation has been based.

The dynamics in social valuation of forest resources resulted in various attempts at practical operationalization of the principle. Three lessons are drawn: (1) the need to recognize the

2 Ball J Sustainable Forest Management Chapter 2 An overview of the Commonwealths’ Forest Resources. Commonwealth Forestry Association 2005. 3 Ball J Sustainable Forest Management Chapter 2 An overview of the Commonwealths’ Forest Resources. Commonwealth Forestry Association 2005.

different nature of ecological limits and social dynamics, (2) the role of dynamic social values with respect to forest resources, and (3) the significance of operational experiences in trying to attain sustainability within a concrete context.

PNGAF Magazine Issue # 9D1 of 25th September 2021 addressed the issue of “Is it possible to achieve balanced land use of forested lands in the tropics?”. It surmised that the challenge by 1975 was, and it still is, to ensure the retention of sufficient forested land area to provide for the future PNG population needs of major and minor forest products together with the indirect benefits forested lands provide. In 19754, the multiple use concept was and has always been, embodied in the practice of forestry in PNG, i.e., managing the forests, to satisfy as best as possible, the reasonable needs and desires of the community.

The aim of forest management in any area should always be to balance the various purposes against each other to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number in the long term.

Whilst in various areas, one or other of these uses will predominate, and exclude some of the others, in most cases it is possible to achieve a balanced management regime which serves most purposes.

Since 1975, variations of the same theme of the multiple use concept have been further refined to now be known as sustainable forest management (SFM).

ITTO in 2005 defined SFM as the process of managing permanent forest land to achieve one or more clearly specified objectives of management with regard to the production of a continuous flow of desired forest products and services without undue reduction in its inherent values and future productivity and without undue undesirable effects on the physical and social environment.

To elaborate the definition and assist the monitoring, assessment and reporting of SFM, ITTO has developed a set of key criteria and indicators (C&I) for the sustainable management of tropical forests. These comprise the essential elements of SFM and are consistent with the seven thematic elements of SFM specified in the Non-Legally Binding Instrument on All Types of Forest (United Nations General Assembly 2007).

Since the 1920’s, PNG has studied the various global silvicultural systems for the management of most tropical moist rainforest types designated for the sustainable supply of forest products. Today the outcomes of those multiple use concept systems have evolved and been further refined to what is now known as sustainable forest management (SFM) as per the ITTO definition.

Forest management in any natural forest area is beset by issues. However, the greatest multitude of issues come from managing moist tropical rainforest areas. This magazine issue outlines some of the challengers, causes for concern, and policy issues encountered by PNG forest managers yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

4 Forestry and Timber Bureau Australian Department of Agriculture 1975. MULTIPLE USE OF FOREST RESOURCES. ISBN 0642008655.