CFR 101 Forests and Society - Outline for 03/31/04
Issues and Unique Problems of Tropical Forests
Description of tropical forested landscape – what is, is not unique
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Definition of the tropics compared to the temperate zone (mean annual
temperature over 24 C).
The poorest people live here.
Low nutrient availability in soils. High aluminum (Al) toxicity and low
phosphorus (P) availability in soils.
Agriculture predominantly shifting agriculture. Few agricultural crops able to
grow in soil (i.e. cassava) because of low nutrient availability and soil chemical
toxicity.
People mainly lived along the varzea or riparian zones because they provide more
resources needed for their livelihood – agriculture, fishing.
People dependent on forests for medicine, building materials, game animals.
Close link between people and the forests from which they harvest only a few
products. Many resources harvested are valued for conservation by international
communities (i.e., parrots, monkeys, crocodiles, etc).
High hot spots of biodiversity.
Most Amazon terra firme forests are not dominated by widely marketable species
and most commercial species are widely dispersed.
Extractive economies lack large consumer markets for most natural forest
products. Low prices and income elasticity of world demand for these products.
Tremendous international interest and attempts to control resource uses.
Regions (i.e. Amazon) and activities occurring in them (i.e. deforestation) have
significant impacts on global climate.
Conflicts over land tenure and uses between local, regional, federal and
international communities.
Some of the highest hot spots of diversity for particular groups of organisms such
as insects, mammals so that there is a lot of international interest in this region.
Agriculture has been shifting agriculture in the American tropics because of the
poor soils that get depleted of nutrients quickly and lands have to be left fallow to
allow the nutrient reserves to come back.
The original perception was that these were lush forests because of the
tremendous growth that the early colonialists saw. However these soils have Al
and P problems and few options for what they grow and eat here. Grow mainly
cassava in the American tropics and many parts of Africa which is high in cyanide
that complexes the sugars in the plant and they have to have a process for getting
rid of these complexes.
People mainly lived along the varzea or riparian zones where the rivers play
important roles in bringing in nutrients and replenishing.
The high plant diversity is somewhat an artifact of the people’s management of
these resources for hundreds of years.
People are very dependent on the forests and fishing for survival. There is a very close
link between people and the resources where they have had to learn to manage well the
few products that they get out of the landscape. They eat a lot of what international
communities want them to conserve. The ban on killing crocodiles has created problems
with them now killing people because their numbers have gone up. Parrots are
agricultural pests and eat their food sources so they kill them at night. All of this results
in conflicts in the values of what local, regional, federal and international communities
want out of the forest.
Toral Patel-Weynand and Kristiina Vogt. P. 72+ Forest Certification book.
The tropical forest zone contains 1.76 billion ha or 52% of the world’s forest cover.
Nearly 500 million people, most of them poor, live in or near forests and depend on them
for food, fuel, fodder, timber and income. Forest wildlife is a significant source of
protein for forest dwellers. Forests contribute almost three times as much to the
economies of developing countries in comparison to the economies of developed
countries.
Continuing debate on how temperate and boreal forests should be managed but the area
of forests in industrial countries is generally stable or increasing slightly. However,
tropical forests undergoing rapid deforestation especially in developing countries.
At least ¾ of the worlds population are dependent on folk medicine – a significant
amount which comes from forests.
Fallacies or misinformation about the tropics
A. Lush and highly productive forests dominate the region.
B. Tropical forest regions are ‘virgin’ and have not been modified by human activity.
C. Tropical forests provide significant resources that allow indigenous communities
to achieve a higher standard of living.
D. Commercialization of non-timber forest products is a viable economic option for
local communities and can reduce deforestation rates
E. There exist no local level governance and management of resources.
F. High plant diversity is natural and a result of indigenous people not actively
managing or utilizing forests for their resources.
G. Tropical forests are fragile, highly susceptible to degradation with any human use.
H. Sustainability of tropical forests is unique from the temperate zone forests.
I. Human diseases commonly come from the tropical forests. (malaria was
introduced into the New World by Europeans)
There is no such thing as a virgin or non-human impacted environment in the Amazon
and other tropical regions (Roosevelt AC . 1999. p. 371-392. Twelve thousand years of
human-environment interaction in the Amazon floodplain. In: Varzea. Diversity,
development, and conservation of Amazonia’s whiteswater floodplains (eds C. Padoch, J.
Marcio Ayres, M. Pinedo-Vasquez and A. Henderson). The New York Botanical Garden
Press. Adv. Economic Bot. Vol. 13).
Some of Roosevelt’s 1999 comments:
Biologists and ecologists traditionally see Amazon as being fragile that even native
foragers and horticulturalists would destroy. Saw systems free of humans as best and
forest people were considered threats to conservation. Therefore sustainable
development projects and conservation projects by themselves tried to take control away
from native people. Biodiversity was viewed as being entirely due to natural factors and
excluded the role of people.
p. 383 Late prehistory period had impact of human populations which was not only
limited to deforestation, introduction of new tree species, encouragement of weedy
species and increased growing of cultivated species. The large garbage dumps of late
prehistoric settlements spread continuously along the branches of major rivers and in the
interior on the soils developed on volcanic rock and limestones.
Post European conquest resulted in one of the most enduring processes which was the
establishment of cattle in floodplain areas. Varzea cattle-raising had been economically
sustainable if not ecologically benign for several hundred years because of the constant
nutrient supply of the alluvium. As settlers and cattle moved into the Amazon in
increasing number, increased infectious disease, nutritional stress and war deaths
diminished the populations of Amazonian Indians. Maize was important before the
conquest but has been replaced by manioc or introduced starchy crops have become
staples.
Few parts of Amazon have not been affected by human occupation. Many trees in the
“virgin” forests are domesticates, escapees, or pre-adapted to human disturbance. Some
biodiversity in Amazon forests exists today because of anthropogenic soil enrichment and
plant introductions by humans.
Moran EF. 1995. Rich and poor ecosystems of Amazonia: An approach to management.
Ppl 45-67. In: The Fragile Tropics of Latin America. Sustainable Management of
Changing Environments. (eds. T Nishizawa and JI Uitto). Creation of anthropogenic
forests and soils in Amazonia. For agriculture, the preferred areas were the vine forests
because of their association with alfisols. Near villages, pops concentrated further
resources by creating palm forests, bamboo forests, food/fruit-rich forests – and the
garbage from their settlements built up over time anthropogenic soils which made the
soils usable in previously inferior areas from an agronomic point of view.
Problems and solutions being implemented in the tropics
A. Problems
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Deforestation – 85% of tropical forest (wet, dry) products go for fuel wood, 19%
local timber, 5% as timber exports (Goodland RJA, EOA Asibey, JC Post and MB
Dyson. 1991. Tropical moist forest management: the urgency of transition to
sustainability. Pp487-515. In: Ecological Economics. The Science and
Management of Sustainability (ed. R. Costanza). Charcoal production big in
tropical countries.
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Forest litter and understory harvesting
Road construction
People migration
High density of people/km2
Poverty
Mining – gold mining and the use of mercury to extract gold is being found in
river sediments, plants and fish in the Amazon – affects human central nervous
systems and have exceeded the World Health Organizations safety limit for
human consumption (Hilgard O’Reilly Sternberg. 1995. Waters and wetlands of
Brazilian Amazonia: An uncertain future. Pp. 113-179. The Fragile Tropics of
Latin America. Sustainable Management of Changing Environments. (eds. T.
Nishizawa and JI Uitto)
Oil and gas reserves (important reserves found west of Manaus in 1986; Hilgard
O’Reilly Sternberg 1995)
Cattle ranches
Water access and uses
Fishing
Growth of urban areas
Developing market values for forest products (i.e., trees, coffee, nuts, etc.)
Economic policies
Conservation of biodiversity
Human health link (i.e. malaria, Ebola virus - monkeys, etc.)
B. Solutions
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Economic incentives - Forest and coffee Certification labeled as being sustainable
by international organizations
Economic product development for non-timber forest products and forest
products (i.e., Brazil nut, palm heart, acai, hardwoods – mahogany, teak)
Integrated Development and Conservation Programs – promote conservation of
biodiversity, improve human living standards
Ecotourism
Forest reserves and Extractive reserves – protected forest areas collectively
managed by forest peoples (rubber tappers) and is considered an alternative for
conservation and development
Pharmaceutical harvesting of plants, microbes
Carbon sequestration in forests, Carbon credits for growing trees. Polluting the
environment results in CO2 being added to the atmosphere. Growing trees
sequesters CO2 and since trees grow faster in the tropics and land is cheaper,
tropical tree plantations offset CO2 accumulation and reduce greenhouse gases
risks. First started in 1988 when a coal-fired power plant in CT agree with govt
of Guatemala and others to plant 15 million trees that were calculated as being
necessary to offset the estimated amount of CO2 emissions expected from the
plant over the utilities 40-year life span (Goodland et al. 1991).
Trade embargos to control deforestation
Land tenure to indigenous communities
NOTE most of these are international ideas and do not consider the tropical indigenous
communities. There is a reason that that conservation has been linked to Sustainable
Development programs because there was recognition that conservation could not occur
if ignored the survival and livelihood of local people.
Extractive reserves worked when there has existed a high world market prices for specific
rain forest commodities and/or government subsidies. Most of the Amazon terra firme
forests are not dominated by widely marketable species. Most commercial species are
widely dispersed in Amazon so labor would have to be dispersed. A second major
impediment to large-scale corporate investments in extractive economies is the lack of
large consumer markets for most natural forest products, the low price and income
elasticity of world demand for these products that are consumed (look at coffee prices
that have gone down as other locations begin to grow coffee such as the World Bank
supporting coffee growing in the Ivory Coast today) (Browder J.O. 1992. Social and
economic constraints on the development of market-oriented extractive reserves in
Amazon rain forests. Advances in Economic Botany 9: 33-41)
“Marketing, especially small-scale wholesaling of forest and agricultural lproducts is a
refuge of many urban unemployed as well as farmers, fishermen, and forest collectors
down on their luck” p 45. Padoch 1992. Iquitos markets, in Peru, in March 1986 the total
number of retail vendors of locally produced edible and medicinal items was approx.
5,000 (Padoch 1992, p. 45). Rise and fall of the river isolates communities at times for
months from going anywhere because of the dangerous waters. Markets move to
accommodate the rise of the river and annually the river can change 9 meters in height.
Constraints to managing tropical resources: Historical Results of Solutions
Implementation
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Marginalizing general public at expense of a few participants in program
Little local level benefits from expanded markets for timber and non-timber forest
products
Resource depletion and waste
Expropriation of resource use rights by powerful urban dwellers
Exploitation of tribal minorities
Short-lived booms followed by devastating busts common
Lack of conservation
International community values over-ride local to regional values for resources
Conflicts of ownership and tenure among indigenous communities, companies, all
levels of government, international organizations.
Marginalizing general public at expense of a few participants in program, Little local
level benefits from expanded markets from NTFP, Resource depletion and waste,
Expropriation of resource use rights by powerful urban dwellers, ruthless exploitation
of tribal minorities, short-lived booms followed by devastating busts common, Lack
of conservation; International community values over-ride local to regional values for
resources (Padoch C. 1992. Marketing of non-timber forest products in western
Amazonia: General observations and research priorities. Advances in Economic
Botany 9: 43-50).
Most international community people are suggesting the implementation of a) C
sequestration and contributions to global C cycles, C trade offs with allowing power
plants to continue to spout out CO2 by planting trees in tropics, b) non-timber forest
products use and economic crops (problems with loss of species such as cinnamon,
pharmaceutical companies eventually make the chemicals that they initially extract from
plants), c) ecotourism.
The ban on killing crocodiles has created problems with them now killing people because
their numbers have gone up. Parrots are agricultural pests and eat their food sources so
they kill them at night. All of this results in conflicts in the values of what local,
regional, federal and international communities want out of the forest.
Constraints to managing tropical resources: Factors Hindering Development
of Sustainable Communities in the Tropics
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Wars
International trade and economies
Values of international communities
Ineffective institutional structures for managing natural resources
Growth of cities and urban development
Market transactions of timber and non-timber forest products are frequently
not legal
Local conflicts and assassinations
Between 1964 and 1988, some 982 rural workers (small farmers, landless peasants, rural
union activitists, rubber tappers and Indians) were assassinated in land conflicts in the
Amazon (Schwartzman S. 1992. Land distribution and the social costs of frontier
development in Brazil: special and historical context of extractive reserves. Advances in
Economic Botany 9: 51-66). This represents 60% of all the assassinations in Brazil over
land conflicts even though 10% of the Brazilian population lives in the Amazon (p. 54).