“FORWOOD” Globally FAO estimated that there are some two billion hectares of degraded tropical forests in the world. Often, these are remnant forests, left over from harvesting of wood and nonwood forest products. The soils in these areas are usually susceptible to erosion and have low fertility. These forest areas are often susceptible to forest fires.
Tropical forest ecological zones (FAO) However, some species of trees thrive in these degraded ecosystems and often, due to the poor soils, such sites have few alternative uses (other than to be used as forests). The role of foresters in a cost-effective way, is to apply the use of natural regeneration techniques/agro forestry/conservation techniques as currently known and yet to be developed, across some two billion hectares of degraded tropical forest lands in the tropics. In tropical forest where the harvesting operation is based on a selection system with only merchantable stems above a certain diameter being removed, the theory being that the smaller stems will grow over a nominal 35-year period. Concerns re the selection system of management include: • • • •
That without proper monitoring, harvesting operators may remove smaller species. That even if smaller stems are not removed, poor harvesting techniques can damage the remaining smaller stems and they may not recover from that damage. Excessive logging may so change the character of the forest, that the resultant smaller stems may not survive. In areas of high population density, the proliferation of unsustainable practices is a major problem. Logging in accessible areas of these moist tropical forests is intense and deforestation and forest degradation prevails. 7
