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Chainsaw milling, the on-site conversion of logs into lumber using chainsaws, is supplying a large proportion of local timber markets with cheap lumber. While it offers socioeconomic opportunities to local people, it is very often associated with corruption and illegalities. Regulating and controlling the practice is a challenge due to the mobility of these chainsaw milling operations. Domestic timber production and trade are to a large extent unrecorded. Information in this issue of ETFRN News shows that in some countries it represents a high percentage of total timber production, ranging from 30–40% (in Guyana, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo/DRC and Uganda), to more than 50% (in Ghana, Cameroon and Peru), and almost 100% in Liberia. Governments of tropical countries around the world have failed to address the domestic timber demand and struggled to deal with the CSM subsector, which is often informal. International negotiations and agreements on tropical timber production also tend to disregard local timber consumption, although the local timber trade might be affected by these international agreements and vice versa. The European Union (EU) Action Plan for Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) and the (future) climate change agreements (through Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, or REDD+) might be able to provide incentives to regulate local timber trade. The 28 articles in this issue of ETFRN News cover 20 countries: seven in South America and the Caribbean (section 2); four in Asia (section 3); and nine in Africa (section 4), providing a good overview of the opportunities and challenges of chainsaw milling as a supplier to domestic and regional timber markets. This issue aims to establish the scale and impact of chainsaw milling in the domestic timber trade, and flag it as an important issue to be addressed by national and international forest policies.
Editor: Marieke Wit and Jinke van Dam
The role of logging in the loss and degradation of tropical forest has become an issue of popular concern and political debate across the world. Over the years, the insight has grown that responsible management of forests for timber production may also make a positive contribution to biodiversity conservation. The promotion of socially and ecologically sound forest management through forest certification is now widely embraced as a strategy to conserve the world’s forests and the biodiversity they contain. Approximately 8% of global forest area has been certified under a variety of schemes but in African, Asian and tropical American forests this is less than 2%. Increasing the extent of certification in the tropics remains a goal for many organizations – including some international conservation NGOs. So far, so good, but many details about certification’s effectiveness remain uncertain, including those on biodiversity. In this issue of ETFRN News on Biodiversity conservation in certified forests, a wide variety of authors involved in certification and/or the conservation of tropical forest biodiversity provide their views on the question whether certification is a good conservation strategy for tropical forests. The 33 articles report on practical experiences from concessions and community forests, on the challenges of monitoring biodiversity, high conservation value forests and a range of other subjects. The results of a dedicated on-line survey devised especially for this ETFRN News provide additional context to the views expressed in the articles. The general message that emerges is a positive one, but not without qualifications. Most authors and respondents agree that certification has helped to improve management practices and to conserve forest biodiversity within certified forests in the tropics. However, the true extent of conservation benefits remains unknown due to a lack of rigorous and independent information. Many agreed that certification is not equivalent to full conservation and point at the limitations of certification in reducing deforestation rates. This issue aims to inform and advance debates concerning the role of forest certification in biodiversity conservation, and to stimulate efforts to better demonstrate and explore these.
Editor: Douglas Sheil, Francis E. Putz and Roderick J. Zagt
Climate change is generally recognized as one of the greatest challenges of this century. Forests contain a substantial part of the planet’s carbon; therefore, current rates of forest loss contribute to almost 20 percent of total emissions of carbon dioxide. Climate change and forests are intrinsically linked: climate change is a threat to forests, and protecting forests from conversion and degradation helps mitigate the impacts of climate change. To address climate change, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was established at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. It was followed in 1997 by the more powerful and legally binding Kyoto Protocol. The protocol recognizes that developed countries share the main responsibility for the current high levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, and places a heavier burden on them under the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities.” Under this protocol industrialized countries are allowed to meet part of their emission reduction targets abroad through so-called ”market-based mechanisms,” such as the Clean Development Mechanism. The first Kyoto commitment period ends in 2012. At the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties in Copenhagen in December 2009 (COP 15) countries are expected to concur on a new agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol in 2012. One of the challenges in Copenhagen will be to engage developing countries in reducing their emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change. In 2007 an Action Plan was agreed to in Bali, including a mechanism for reducing emissions from avoided deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). In the run-up to Copenhagen the challenge is to guarantee that the new protocol will be effective and efficient in terms of carbon reduction, and at the same time equitable and non-detrimental to the Earth’s biodiversity. REDD could become a centrepiece for the financing of forestry reform after 2012. How to put this mechanism into practice after Copenhagen will be a challenge, however. Objectives for climate change mitigation and adaptation need to be integrated with sustainable forest management and biodiversity protection, and at the same time must allow for the improved welfare of rural people in developing countries. With this issue of ETFRN News, containing more than 20 wide-ranging articles on forests and climate change, we wish to contribute to the discussion on the potential role of forests and forest management in mitigating and adapting to climate change.
Editor: Van Bodegom, Arend Jan, Herman Savenije and Marieke Wit
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