As a result of the extensive public criticism of large-scale industrial timber management, governments and timber companies around the world have developed a variety of practices that are being promoted as sustainable timber management. In many cases, these “new” approaches are simply conventional timber management in disguise or, at best, a more benign form of industrial timber cutting which still does not meet the tests of ecological responsibility.
We briefly describe and evaluate below some current approaches to timber management which do not, under most circumstances, meet the requirements of ecological responsibility. This list and discussion is not intended to be a comprehensive explanation or critique of these timber management approaches, but rather the list is included here to introduce key differences between ecologically responsible timber management and other types of timber management.
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Current Timber Management Approaches and Ecologically Responsible Timber Management: A Comparison
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One central concept is common to all of the approaches described below: as currently practiced, all of these timber management approaches begin with the assumption that the dominant forest use will be timber extraction and the subsequent growing of timber crops. In contrast, an ecosystem-based approach focuses first on maintaining and protecting forest ecosystem functioning, and secondly, on providing for a diversity of human uses, which may or may not include timber management.
Sustained yield forestry
Sustained yield forestry is a concept that designs timber cutting and regrowing of timber crops to provide a perpetual yield of timber from a particular forest landscape. Initially, this concept embodied the commitment to non-declining timber yields over time. However, the determination of annual cuts under sustained yield forestry has commonly been overly optimistic when considering both tree growth rates and the portion of a forest landscape that is suitable for the cutting and growing of timber crops over time. Thus, as a result, “sustained timber yields” have tended to decline through time as a result of excessive cutting rates that cannot be matched by the rate of regrowth of timber and by extraction of timber from land that subsequently proves to be unsuitable for timber growth and/or necessary to protect for non-timber forest uses. Sustained yield forestry confuses timber or trees with forest ecosystems and fails to recognize that fully functioning forests are necessary to have trees, which are necessary to have timber. In contrast, an ecosystembased approach protects forest functioning at all scales through time as the first priority; and then seeks to sustain, within ecological limits, a diversity of human and non-human uses across the forest landscape.
Multiple use
Multiple use is a system of forestry or timber management that assumes that a full spectrum of forest uses, from timber cutting and tourism to water production and nontimber forest products, can occur simultaneously throughout a forest landscape. When practiced across relatively large areas (500,000 hectares/1.2 million acres and larger), multiple use appears to work for a period of time. However, under this regime, all forest stands with merchantable and economically accessible timber are planned for eventual timber cutting. Thus, as logging progresses through the landscape, both forest functioning and non-timber forest uses are progressively degraded. Proponents of multiple use often attempt to convince other forest users that tree plantations are forests, and that society cannot afford to protect animals, plants, and microorganisms that stand in the way of economic growth. An ecosystem-based perspective maintains that human societies cannot afford not to protect forest functioning and maintain diverse forest uses that are the foundation for stable local economies.
Integrated forest management
Integrated forest management is a more recent version of multiple use, where timber managers attempt to “integrate” or merge forest conservation and non-timber forest uses with timber cutting and timber management across a forest landscape. However, as with multiple use, the vast majority of forest stands with economically viable merchantable timber are planned for eventual logging. Typically, integrated forest management includes extensive analysis of forest ecosystem features, such as wildlife, soil, terrain stability, and water. While this information could serve to significantly change both the amount of timber cut and the way in which timber is cut, such studies usually result in timber cutting levels and methods that best meet the short-term economic needs of the timber industry and government. In contrast, studies carried out as part of an ecosystem-based approach are applied to define ecological limits to timber management and to non-timber forest uses, and to provide for fair and protected land bases for all forest users, both human and nonhuman.
Ecosystem management
Ecosystem management is a confusing mixture of good forest ecology principles and integrated or multiple use forest management. Advocates of ecosystem management analyze and describe ecosystem functioning in ways that recognize the need to maintain natural composition and structures of forest ecosystems from the landscape level to the stand or patch level. However, while providing good information about forest functioning, practitioners of ecosystem management also continue to advocate methods and levels of timber extraction that degrade forest ecosystem composition, structures, and functioning necessary to maintain fully functioning forests through time. Conventional clearcutting and tree plantations are regular components of ecosystem management. In contrast, ecologically responsible timber management is ecosystem-based, which means that the character (i.e. composition, structure, and functioning) and condition of ecosystems determine what types of human use can be carried out and in what ways and at what level of intensity these uses can occur while ensuring the maintenance of fully functioning forests at all scales through time.
Conventional timber management approaches described above all utilize concepts oriented to exploiting natural forests for timber and to producing crops of trees in short time cycles. Most of these concepts have little or no application in ecologically responsible timber management, because conventional approaches are focused on timber, while ecosystembased, ecologically responsible approaches are focused on forests.
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Source : Ecosystem-based Landscape Plan for the Slocan River Watershed. Silva Forest Foundation.
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