Edson Vidal

Natural Resource Management in the Brazilian Amazon An integrated research approach

he Amazon region of Brazil contains billions of cubic meters of high-quality wood whose overall value after sawing would be several trillion dollars. Given this timber wealth, it is common to consider forestry as the natural vocation for Amazonia (Pandolfo 1974). Already, well over half of the wood consumed in Brazil comes from Amazonia, and this domestic demand for Amazonian roundwood is expected to grow (Verissimo et al. 1992). Foreign consumption of Amazonian wood, although low at present, is also likely to increase as Asian tropical hardwood stocks decline. Brazil, which possesses almost one-third of the worlds rain forest

Vine management for reduced-impact logging in eastern Amazonia

Abstract The presence of vines interconnecting the canopies of tropical forest trees has been thought to increase the damage to neighboring trees when a tree is felled during selective logging, resulting in larger canopy gaps and possibly prejudicting future timber harvests. To ameliorate this problem, vine cutting prior to logging has been recommended as a forest management tool. However, at present, little information exists on the economic and ecological impacts of vine cutting on tropical forest management. We undertook a study of vine management in a 210 ha forest stand. Our first objective was to determine vine species composition, stem densities, and the abilities of different vine species to resprout following cutting. Secondly, we assessed the degree of tree canopy connectedness due to vines and the amount of damage associated with felling trees with intercrown vine connections. Finally, we looked at the costs of vine cutting as a forest management tool. Vine density was found to differ among forest phases, being three times greater in young building phase forest than in mature forest. We encountered 63 species of vines in two (2 × 1400 m) transects and among the most common species, the degree of resprouting following cutting differed significantly. Typically, vines connected each tree to the crowns of from three to nine other trees. Felling trees with many vine connections resulted in canopy gaps that were twice as large as those created in the felling of vine-free trees. Although vine cutting prior to logging can reduce logging damage, it costs approximately

Rapid tree carbon stock recovery in managed Amazonian forests

16 ha −1 , on average. This is equivalent to 8% of the profits of a typical logging-only operation in the region. Reductions in the cost of vine cutting could come with the development of species-specific cutting prescriptions that would reduce the total number of vine stems cut by focusing cutting efforts on aggressive species likely to cause silvicultural problems.

Technical Challenges to Sustainable Forest Management in Concessions on Public Lands in the Brazilian Amazon

While around 20% of the Amazonian forest has been cleared for pastures and agriculture, one fourth of the remaining forest is dedicated to wood production. Most of these production forests have been or will be selectively harvested for commercial timber, but recent studies show that even soon after logging, harvested stands retain much of their tree-biomass carbon and biodiversity. Comparing species richness of various animal taxa among logged and unlogged forests across the tropics, Burivalova et al. found that despite some variability among taxa, biodiversity loss was generally explained by logging intensity (the number of trees extracted). Here, we use a network of 79 permanent sample plots (376 ha total) located at 10 sites across the Amazon Basin to assess the main drivers of time-to-recovery of post-logging tree carbon (Table S1). Recovery time is of direct relevance to policies governing management practices (i.e., allowable volumes cut and cutting cycle lengths), and indirectly to forest-based climate change mitigation interventions.While around 20% of the Amazonian forest has been cleared for pastures and agriculture, one fourth of the remaining forest is dedicated to wood production [1] . Most of these production forests have been or will be selectively harvested for commercial timber, but recent studies show that even soon after logging, harvested stands retain much of their tree-biomass carbon and biodiversity [2,3] . Comparing species richness of various animal taxa among logged and unlogged forests across the tropics, Burivalova et al. [4] found that despite some variability among taxa, biodiversity loss was generally explained by logging intensity (the number of trees extracted). Here, we use a network of 79 permanent sample plots (376 ha total) located at 10 sites across the Amazon Basin [5] to assess the main drivers of time-to-recovery of post-logging tree carbon ( Table S1 ). Recovery time is of direct relevance to policies governing management practices (i.e., allowable volumes cut and cutting cycle lengths), and indirectly to forest-based climate change mitigation interventions.

Forest certification in Amazonia: standards matter

Abstract Brazils new Public Forests law authorizes concessions-based industrial forest management in Amazonian national public forests covering 13 million hectares within the next decade, expanding eventually to 50 million hectares or an area, the size of Spain. Both logging and conservation industries have promoted concessions management as a solution to chaotic land tenure and widespread illegal logging in the Brazilian Amazon. Here we evaluate technical aspects of actually managing concession forests at the proposed spatial scale and time-frame. The current best-practices logging system in Amazonia, reduced-impact logging (RIL), is not widely employed by the logging industry and does not ensure sustained-yield timber production in the absence of silvicultural practices promoting growth and regeneration in logged stands. Current legislated logging standards—for example, maximum per unit area harvest intensity, minimum diameter felling limit, seed tree retention rate, and 25- to 35-year cutting cycles—guarantee commercial depletion or extirpation of many high-value timber species over multiple cutting cycles. An estimated 10,450 field technicians will need to be trained in best-practices forest management within the next decade in order to adequately staff the proposed Brazilian Forest Service whose mandate it will be to oversee this vast undertaking, to expand field staff of the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) and of state environmental agencies whose responsibility it is to regulate forest management, and to provide trained workers for the logging industry operating within concessions. What “sustainable forest management” means to various audiences must be clarified, and common ground identified among these audiences specifically addressing demands that will be made on national forests. Forest management systems integrating both operational and silvicultural practices must then be developed according to regional and local forest conditions. This will require renewed investment in technical research and capacity building, serving both the logging industry and government agencies charged with ensuring industry adherence to national forest legislation.

Carbon recovery dynamics following disturbance by selective logging in Amazonian forests

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification promises international consumers that ‘green-label’ timber has been logged sustainably. However, recent research indicates that this is not true for ipe (Tabebuia spp.), currently flooding the US residential decking market, much of it logged in Brazil. Uneven or non-application of minimum technical standards for certification could undermine added value and eventually the certification process itself. We examine public summary reports by third-party certifiers describing the evaluation process for certified companies in the Brazilian Amazon to determine the extent to which standards are uniformly applied and the degree to which third-party certifier requirements for compliance are consistent among properties. Current best-practice harvest systems, combined with Brazilian legal norms for harvest levels, guarantee that no certified company or community complies with FSC criteria and indicators specifying species-level management. No guidelines indicate which criteria and indicators must be enforced, or to what degree, for certification to be conferred by third-party assessors; nor do objective guidelines exist for evaluating compliance for criteria and indicators for which adequate scientific information is not yet available to identify acceptable levels. Meanwhile, certified companies are expected to monitor the long-term impacts of logging on biodiversity in addition to conducting best-practice forest management. This burden should reside elsewhere. We recommend a clarification of ‘sustained timber yield’ that reflects current state of knowledge and practice in Amazonia. Quantifiable verifiers for best-practice forest management must be developed and consistently employed. These will need to be flexible to reflect the diversity in forest structure and dynamics that prevails across this vast region. We offer suggestions for how to achieve these goals.

Efeito da exploração madeireira sobre o número de indivíduos férteis de três espécies arbóreas comerciais na Amazônia oriental

When 2 Mha of Amazonian forests are disturbed by selective logging each year, more than 90 Tg of carbon (C) is emitted to the atmosphere. Emissions are then counterbalanced by forest regrowth. With an original modelling approach, calibrated on a network of 133 permanent forest plots (175 ha total) across Amazonia, we link regional differences in climate, soil and initial biomass with survivors’ and recruits’ C fluxes to provide Amazon-wide predictions of post-logging C recovery. We show that net aboveground C recovery over 10 years is higher in the Guiana Shield and in the west (21 ±3 Mg C ha-1) than in the south (12 ±3 Mg C ha-1) where environmental stress is high (low rainfall, high seasonality). We highlight the key role of survivors in the forest regrowth and elaborate a comprehensive map of post-disturbance C recovery potential in Amazonia. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.21394.001

Fake legal logging in the Brazilian Amazon

Studies concerning the reproductive ecology of trees are important so as to better understand the impacts of logging and for the definition of guidelines to improve management practices. The aim of this study was to estimate (1) the number and proportion of reproductive individuals of Chrysophyllum lucentifolium subsp. pachycarpum, Lecythis lurida e Pseudopiptadenia psilostachya per size class, and (2) the impact of harvesting 90% of individuals > 50 cm dbh on the number of reproductive trees. We sampled 80 L. lurida, 76 P. psilostachya and 76 C. lucentifolium trees during one reproductive season. We estimated that 14.9% of all fertile individuals of C. lucentifolium, 35.9% of L. lurida and 72.4% of P. psilostachya were > 50 cm dbh in that year. Therefore, the harvest of 90% of these trees would cause a 13.4%, 32.6 %, and 65.2 % reduction in the number of fertile individuals of C. lucentifolium, L. lurida and P. psilostachya, respectively. If these proportions were stable over time, it would be necessary to keep 30% instead of 10% of individuals > 50 cm dbh in order to preserve half of the P. psilostachya fertile individuals. The results indicate that the effects of adopting a single minimum cutting diameter and of setting aside the same proportion of trees above that diameter on the proportion of remaining fertile individuals may vary by a factor of five among species.

Costs and benefits of forest management for timber production in eastern Amazonia

Weak control and monitoring of logging permits put the most commercially valuable Amazonian tree species at risk in Brazil. Declining deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon are touted as a conservation success, but illegal logging is a problem of similar scale. Recent regulatory efforts have improved detection of some forms of illegal logging but are vulnerable to more subtle methods that mask the origin of illegal timber. We analyzed discrepancies between estimated timber volumes of the national forest inventory of Brazil and volumes of logging permits as an indicator of potential fraud in the timber industry in the eastern Amazon. We found a strong overestimation bias of high-value timber species volumes in logging permits. Field assessments confirmed fraud for the most valuable species and complementary strategies to generate a “surplus” of licensed timber that can be used to legalize the timber coming from illegal logging. We advocate for changes to the logging control system to prevent overexploitation of Amazonian timber species and the widespread forest degradation associated with illegal logging.