Benno Pokorny

Compliance with reduced-impact harvesting guidelines by timber enterprises in terra firme forests of the Brazilian Amazon

SUMMARY The paper presents the results and main conclusions of an assessment of compliance with technical guidelines for Reduced Impact Harvesting (RIH) in terra firme forests of the Brazilian Amazon. The assessment was carried out in two certified timber enterprises in the State of Para, Brazil applying the RIH-guidelines for a period of over three years. From a tool developed for Amazonian forest enterprises to monitor the sustainability of their harvesting operations, which uses a set of criteria and indicators (C&I), a total of 190 verifiers were selected for assessing the 61 RIH-guidelines. The assessment revealed valuable information with regard to the state of implementation and quality of the forest operations in the two enterprises and important insights for improvement of the RIH-guidelines. Two thirds of the RIH-guidelines were fully implemented. Their acceptance, however, differed according to the situation and interest of the enterprises. Among the reasons for incomplete implementation of the RIH-guidelines, the lack of systematic monitoring, insufficient training and qualification, and inadequate equipment appeared to be most important. The study also showed the need for the continuous assessment of the quality and relevance of RIH-guidelines.

How Successful is Tree Growing for Smallholders in the Amazon

SUMMARY Growing trees outside forests can generate rural income and rehabilitate degraded lands. The characteristics of existing smallholder tree growing in the Amazon and how much it contributes to livelihoods, however, remains largely unknown. Field surveys in Brazil, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador were conducted of smallholder tree growing initiatives. Of the studied initiatives, 61% were smallholder initiated and 39% established in donor driven programs. Smallholder schemes generally showed a higher species diversity (85 species) than initiatives in donor driven schemes (52 species). The performance of smallholder tree growing, in terms of growth, health, commercialisation options and contribution to recuperation of degraded areas is limited. Only in 30% of the cases reviewed could smallholders commercialize tree products. Cultivated non-timber forest products had the highest commercialisation rates. The growing of single trees within farm holdings, and the management of natural stands and homegardens showed the highest production efficiencies while depending on minimal inputs. Timber plantations are the least successful. More successful reforestation in the Amazon requires a more realistic view on the limitations of promoting smallholder tree growing, should emphasize non timber products, and better capture local knowledge and experiences.

Collaborative monitoring of production and costs of timber harvest operations in the Brazilian Amazon

Timber companies and policy makers in the Brazilian Amazon urgently need financial information on forest management. Results from a few experiments, case studies, and surveys have been groundbreaking, but are insufficient. A strategic partnership between timber companies and research organizations is needed to generate additional information. This paper presents a tool for monitoring production and costs of forest operations to facilitate such collaboration. The tool provides useful information for companies and, at the same time, generates reliable data for research. Selected results are presented on production, capacity, and costs to demonstrate the usefulness of the information that can be generated. These results are based on the first 2 years of implementation by a company in the State of Para, Brazil. This pilot project confirmed that the tool is simple and relevant. Its successful implementation requires significant investment, and will be applicable only to companies interested in changing from conventional logging to reduced-impact logging, especially those seeking Forest Stewardship Council certification. Successful implementation of the tool will also depend on it generating readily understood and highly relevant results for the companies, and receiving extensive support during the first 2 years.

What do criteria and indicators assess?: an analysis of five C&I sets relevant for forest management in the Brazilian Amazon

SUMMARY The diversity of criteria and indicators (C&I) sets is often a cause for uncertainty and confusion, and probably one of the reasons for the still unsatisfactory acceptance of C&I as a support for implementation of sustainable forest management. In order to address this erosion of confidence in C&I this paper evaluates the diversity of five C&I sets (CIFOR, ACM, FSC, ITTO and Tarapoto) relevant for the Brazilian Amazon by analysing frequencies of C&I in relation to parameters about content and quality. The study demonstrated that the C&I sets, although addressing the social, technical, ecological and economic dimensions of sustainability, exhibit different thematic foci. A general lack of validity was attested as well as missing specificity and practicability of the indicators. In order to increase objectivity and transparency, the C&I have to reflect more clearly and unambiguously what is actually assessed. It is recommended to include a discussion about verifiers and assessment methods in the development of C&I sets. To avoid misunderstandings and to introduce the possibility for less complex and more practicable C&I sets, the authors recommend constriction of the objective of the assessment to more clearly serve the potential clients and frame-conditions for its application.

Community forest management for timber extraction in the Amazon frontier

SUMMARY Amazonian communities have the potential for improving their livelihoods by efficiently managing their forest resources. However, there is limited understanding of how communities are managing their forests in the dynamic Amazon frontier. This issue was studied in four areas in Bolivia, Brazil and Peru. The most common approach to forest management was found to be informal timber rights negotiations between communities and logging companies. Much less common was community forest management (CFM) for timber extraction supported by NGOs. Case studies revealed that stocks of commercial timber species were depleted by logging companies in only a few years in the logged areas, while CFM initiatives planned rotational cycles but were abandoned when external support ceased. Families received limited financial benefits from both loggers (cash income US

Empirical Determination of Political Cultures as a Basis for Effective Coordination of Forest Management Systems

1.18/m3 and US

Smallholders and forest landscape transitions: locally devised development strategies of the tropical Americas

28.14/day) and CFM initiatives (cash income US

Legitimacy of informal institutions in contemporary local forest management: insights from Ghana

12.57/m3 and US

Participatory analysis of heterogeneity, an approach to consolidate collaborative initiatives at community level

8.69/ day). A critical debate on the real potential of these approaches to timber extraction needs to take place.

CERTIFICATION OF NON-TIMBER FOREST PRODUCTS IN CHINA: EFFECTS ON FOOD QUALITY, FOREST CONSERVATION AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

To design viable strategies to implement sustainable forest management, tools are needed that allow the understanding and management of the driving forces behind conflicting opinions and divergent solutions. The approach of Thompson et al. (1990) to cultural theory--because of its descriptive power--may be an ideal basis to create such tools. The possibility of determining empirically the cultural bias of the actors and groups involved is fundamental to this approach. We conducted a pilot study in the eastern Amazon region to explore the possibility of characterizing individuals according to the four types of political culture defined by Thompson et al. The findings indicated that the empirical classification of individuals is possible but complex. A relation between the types of political cultures and perceptions of sustainable forest management was observed. A systematic elaboration of adequate indicators and assessment methods is crucial in exploring the potential of transferring the theoretical approach into practice.