Natural forest management in the humid tropics: ecological, social and economic considerations.
1990
Buschbacher, R. J.
Commercial logging is theoretically a relatively benign form of exploitation for tropical forests, but in actuality has not been practised on a sustainable basis. This article begins with a brief overview of natural forest management systems which have been used, showing that several have been sustainable from a silvicultural viewpoint. Descriptions are given of 4 such methods: the Malayan Uniform System, which was developed shortly after World War II; the Tropical Shelterwood System, as practised in Nigeria and Ghana in the 1940s; polycyclic felling systems, or selective logging with diameter limits, which are the 'standard' modern management prescription in tropical forests (e.g. the Modified Selection System in Ghana in the 1950s, the Selective Management System in Malaysia in the early 1970s, and the Indonesian Selective Cutting System); and the strip-clearcut system, a new method being practised in Peru. However, these types of methods have never been carried out on a large scale because of economic and social limitations. To overcome these obstacles will require improved economic analysis methods that recognize the long-term and external benefits of forest maintenance, elimination of incentives for forest conversion, redesign of concession agreements and royalty and tax systems to provide incentives for long-term management, and the involvement of local populations in forest management, both in terms of planning and receipt of benefits.
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