INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND FOOD SECURITY

Tropical Forests: A Lifeline for Millions

Charlie Pye-Smith

Mr Pye-Smith is a freelance writer contracted to the Center for International Forestry Research, Indonesia.

Despite their importance, tropical forests are being cleared at an alarming rate. During the 1990s, approximately 120 million hectares of tropical rainforest were lost, and if we carry on at this rate, we will continue to lose an area of tropical forest the size of Greece each year. The consequences will be dire—more and more species of animal and plant are likely to disappear, and millions of mostly poor people will be deprived of the very resources they need for their survival. Some wildlife conservationists suggests that the best thing we can do is put a fence around as much forest as possible and keep the people out. There is no doubt of the need for well-managed protected areas designed primarily with conservation in mind. But simply cordoning off as much tropical forest as possible would be both wrong and unworkable—millions would be evicted from their homes and deprived of their livelihoods, leading to alienation of people who live in or near forests. This is an invitation to plunder the forests instead of manage them sustainably. The trick lies in finding ways in which people—not just forest dwellers, but timber companies and others—can make a living from forests without destroying them.

• Clamping down on illegal logging should be a major international and national priority, backed by a concerted effort at many different levels. Countries where illegal logging is a problem will need to improve their law enforcement while ensuring that their legal systems don't continue to discriminate against forest-dependent people.
• There is clear evidence to show that the use of sensitive harvesting practices makes economic as well as ecological sense. Besides ensuring that much of the biodiversity remains intact, ‘reduced impact logging’, as it is known, means that timber companies still have a resource to harvest in the future.
• Politicians, decision-makers and others who currently determine what happens to forests must realise that if the forests are to be used in a sustainable way, local communities must be involved. Forest-dwelling people especially must have a say in their management.

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