Frank Merry

Interactions among Amazon land use, forests and climate: prospects for a near-term forest tipping point

Some model experiments predict a large-scale substitution of Amazon forest by savannah-like vegetation by the end of the twenty-first century. Expanding global demands for biofuels and grains, positive feedbacks in the Amazon forest fire regime and drought may drive a faster process of forest degradation that could lead to a near-term forest dieback. Rising worldwide demands for biofuel and meat are creating powerful new incentives for agro-industrial expansion into Amazon forest regions. Forest fires, drought and logging increase susceptibility to further burning while deforestation and smoke can inhibit rainfall, exacerbating fire risk. If sea surface temperature anomalies (such as El Niño episodes) and associated Amazon droughts of the last decade continue into the future, approximately 55% of the forests of the Amazon will be cleared, logged, damaged by drought or burned over the next 20 years, emitting 15–26 Pg of carbon to the atmosphere. Several important trends could prevent a near-term dieback. As fire-sensitive investments accumulate in the landscape, property holders use less fire and invest more in fire control. Commodity markets are demanding higher environmental performance from farmers and cattle ranchers. Protected areas have been established in the pathway of expanding agricultural frontiers. Finally, emerging carbon market incentives for reductions in deforestation could support these trends.

Timber production in selectively logged tropical forests in South America

Selective logging is an extensive land-use practice in South America. Governments in the region have enacted policies to promote the establishment and maintenance of economically productive and sustainable forest industries. However, both biological and policy constraints threaten to limit the viability of the industry over the long term. Biological constraints, such as slow tree growth rates, can be overcome somewhat by management practices. In order to improve the likelihood of success for sustainable management, it is important to accept that forests change over time and that managed forests may be different than those of the present. Furthermore, education campaigns must convince decision makers and the public of the value of forest resources. We recommend that the forest sector be governed by simple, understandable regulations, based on sound science and consistent enforcement, and that governments work with, instead of against, industry. Problems of tropical forest management are far from being solv...

Company-Community Logging Contracts in Amazonian Settlements: Impacts on Livelihoods and NTFP Harvests

As a result of government-sponsored colonization, more than 500 000 km2 of the Brazilian Amazon is managed by settlement households. By law, 80% of this land must remain as standing forest. In this study, we examine the potential for timber harvesting through company-community partnerships (CCPs) as a means to increase forest-based revenue without compromising household use of non-timber forest products (NTFPs). Using participatory rural appraisal, resource diaries, and household questionnaires, we study the impacts of CCP logging contracts on livelihoods, including household income and NTFP harvests. Our results show that annual household income from the CCP logging is equivalent to more than 8 years of household gross income from agricultural production. We also found that there were no significant differences in NTFP harvests between households with CCP logging and those without. In CCP-logging communities, households caught 11.9 ± 13.6 game animals, totaling 74 ± 88 kg of game meat. In the communities without CCP, households caught 9.5 ± 13.0 game animals, totaling 73 ± 172 kg of game meat. Annual forest fruit harvests averaged 9.8 ± 13.2 kg in CCP-logging communities and 13.5 ± 15.9 kg in non-CCP communities. Overall, the CCPs brought improvements in household income without compromising NTFP harvests.

Selective Logging and Its Relation to Deforestation

Selective logging is a major contributor to the social, economic, and ecological dynamics of Brazilian Amazonia. Logging activities have expanded from lowvolume floodplain harvests in past centuries to high-volume operations today that take about 25 million m3 of wood from the forest each year. The most common highimpact conventional and often illegal logging practices result in major collateral forest damage, with cascading effects on ecosystem processes. Initial carbon losses and forest recovery rates following timber harvest are tightly linked to initial logging intensity, which drives changes in forest gap fraction, fragmentation, and the light environment. Other ecological processes affected by selective logging include nutrient cycling, hydrological function, and postharvest disturbance such as fire. This chapter synthesizes the ecological impacts of selective logging, in the context of the recent socioeconomic conditions throughout Brazilian Amazonia, as determined from field-based and remote sensing studies carried out during the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia program.

Forest Taxes, Timber Concessions, and Policy Choices in the Amazon

Abstract In many countries of Africa and Asia, timber production is dominated by concession contracts in public forests. In the neo-tropics, however, timber production occurs on both public and private lands; a mixture that moves countries of the neo-tropics towards the complex systems of forestry sectors in the developed world. Therefore, much of the forest taxation and public forest management literature that currently exists is pertinent to new forest policy decisions in developing countries. Unfortunately, the similarities between forest policies in the neo-tropics and those of developed countries have largely been ignored. This paper begins the process of bridging that gap to show how existing literature is important to the design of timber concessions and accompanying policy instrument design. Although the principles we discuss here apply in any mixed harvest forest economy, we use Brazil as an example because it is in the process of adopting a system of timber concessions in national forests. In our discussion, we suggest that concessions are not a perfect substitute for private forestry in the neo-tropics; concession and other instrument policies must be designed jointly; and because concession policies and government revenue objectives may be linked, the expansion of concessions must be carefully monitored.

Road Impacts in Brazilian Amazonia

We examine the evidence on Amazonian road impacts with a strong emphasis on context. Impacts of a new road, on either deforestation or socioeconomic outcomes, depend upon the conditions into which roads are placed. Conditions that matter include the biophysical setting, such as slope, rainfall, and soil quality, plus externally determined socioeconomic factors like national policies, exchange rates, and the global prices of beef and soybeans. Influential conditions also include all prior infrastructural investments and clearing rates. Where development has already arrived, with significant economic activity and clearing, roads may decrease forest less and raise output more than where development is arriving, while in pristine areas, short-run clearing may be lower than immense long-run impacts. Such differences suggest careful consideration of where to invest further in transport.

Three Years After: Early Stand Re-Entry in Reduced Impact Logging of Neo-Tropical Forests

Several polycyclical harvest systems define the process of reduced impact logging (RIL) in the neo-tropics. As a rule, after the first RIL harvest, the area is left undisturbed for 25 to 35 years or the chosen rotation. This constraint reduces the ability of the forest manager to adjust to changes. The option to re-enter a stand after a given period but before the planned rotation age would allow the forest manager to examine trends in timber prices harvesting when prices are high or delaying harvest when prices are low and to accommodate changes in species demand, harvesting species that were previously noncommercial. Indeed, to accommodate delays due to problems such as heavy rain or broken machinery, current forest legislation in Brazil allows for re-entry into a harvested stand for up to one year. Although an anathema to many RIL advocates, a re-entry harvest would introduce muchneeded flexibility into the system.