There is significant social and ecological value in conserving larger areas of biodiversity-rich natural forests and reducing economic demands on those forests by increasing yields from planted forests. This suggests that the total value in plantations is not simply a financial equation.
While intensive forestry and biotechnology are not panaceas, in the absence of concerted efforts by governments and the private sector to expand protected areas, they remain important tools that support sustainable forestry programs. This article will focus on the necessities and strategies for conserving forest trees.
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Forest Biotechnology and Conservation Challenges
The world’s forests are under severe pressures from unsustainable logging and road building. The threats are especially acute in the tropics, where just 45% of the original extent of habitat remains, and the remainder is being lost at a rate of 1% per year.
Current rates of tropical deforestation are equivalent to an area half the size of Florida being removed from the lower 48 annually.
Of course, commercial timber production is not the only contributing factor, since many other forces are driving the global forest crisis. However, the infrastructure associated with timber extraction is often at the forefront of habitat conversion and threats to endangered species.
A compelling example was published recently in Nature: gorilla and chimp populations in Gabon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo dropped by 80% from 1983 to 2000, leading scientists to recommend immediate designation of the species as “critically endangered.
The decline was attributable to illegal bushmeat hunting and the Ebola virus epidemic, but a significant root cause was the expansion of new logging road networks into remaining intact tropical forests in western equatorial Africa. Trends in the tropics are highly relevant to the future of forests and the forest and paper industry in North America.
A new report commissioned by AFPA and conducted by Seneca Creek Associates found that illegal logging mostly, but not entirely, in the tropics—significantly depresses U.S. timber prices. Tropical deforestation accounts for 20% of the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming and the threat of climate instability.
Global warming, in turn, presents enormous risks to the world’s biodiversity. Research findings estimate that one-third of all species could be committed to extinction under current global warming scenarios as a consequence of disruption of habitat ranges and other effects of changing climate patterns.
Moreover, forest destruction is a major driver of the loss of terrestrial and freshwater resources that provide essential ecosystem services for humanity and critical habitat for endangered species around the world.
For example, the Global Amphibian Assessment recently published by Conservation International (CI), IUCN, and NatureServe concluded that more than 40% of salamanders, frogs, toads, and other amphibians are in decline, with habitat loss as the major driver underlying this threat.
Fortunately, the ingredients exist for a convergence of interests between the business world, the conservation community, and global consumers.
Conservation of Forest Trees: Necessary Approaches
Reports by WWF-International titled “The Forest Industry in the 21st Century” concluded that meeting projected increases in global wood demand over the next five decades will not require significant expansion of commercial logging beyond the estimated 600 million hectares of timberlands that currently account for 90% of the world’s industrial wood supply.
A broad consensus may be emerging around the elements of a strategy that produces benefits for industry, communities, and biodiversity. Thus, forest trees can be conserved by a strategy that produces benefits for all parties involved.
One element of the strategy is a shift away from commercial logging and road construction in biodiversity hotspots and major tropical wilderness areas. Another critical need is to secure and expand protected areas around the world.
An additional component is to achieve best environmental practices on existing plantations, without tapping into substantial new areas of natural forest for fiber production. The strategy must also include efforts to build international pressure on “bad actors” conducting egregious logging, and strengthen enforcement systems to crack down on illegal timber.
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Role of Biotechnology in Forest Conservation
Stepping up appropriate strategies for the future in research, development, and technology transfer in forest biotechnology, as well as addressing associated societal and regulatory issues, seems very demanding.
A general response is that the R&D strategy should focus on whether and how forest biotechnology might contribute to achieving the objectives of conserving threatened forests and biodiversity while meeting society’s needs for forest products.
For example, does forest biotechnology have the potential to enhance fiber production while enabling reduced chemical applications and improved water efficiency on intensive plantations established on degraded agricultural lands?
It is important to recognize that intensified timber management on existing plantations, while clearly a preferable alternative to liquidating remaining tropical forests, does not unto itself guarantee positive results for conservation.
Intensive forestry or biotechnology should not be oversold as a panacea in the absence of concerted efforts by governments and the private sector to expand protected areas, stabilize and rebuild populations of endangered species, and create conservation corridors that combine protection of key biodiversity areas with ecologically compatible economic uses across the larger landscape (Buis, 2000).
The forest has been the reservoir of biotic components. Its elimination exposes both biotic and edaphic factors to adverse conditions with grave consequences on the human population as well. Biodiversity should be taken care of in carefully structured, transparent, and independent regulatory frameworks.
If shortcuts are taken on regulatory issues, public participation could result in lengthy delays or loss of valuable new technological innovations.
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