causes_ deforestation.doc

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CAUSES OF DEFORESTATION

Deforestation is the product of the interaction of the many environmental, social,

economic, cultural, and political forces at work in any given region. The mix of theseforces varies from decade to decade, and from country to country. As a consequence,

generalizations are dangerous. In most cases, deforestation is a process that involves a

competition amongst different land users for scarce resources, a process exacerated

y counter!productive policies and weak institutions. It creates wealth for some,

causes hardships for others, and almost always rings serious consequences for the

environment.

This section discusses four aspects of the causes of deforestation ! the predisposing

conditions, the direct causes, the indirect causes, and the role of forest exploitation

and plantation development in the loss of natural forests. The predisposing conditions

create an environment where deforestation can occur. The direct causes are the most

visile, the most easily identified and are readily associated with the agents of

deforestation. They are driven y the other less visile, socioeconomic forces !! the

indirect causes.

Predisposing Conditions

"redisposing conditions are those factors which comine to create an environment

where deforestation can occur. They are conditions created y society, at times

intentionally and at times the consequence of human nature, that pervade all aspects

of society and are not #ust related to land use. They are some of the most systemic,

most difficult issues that frustrate human progress and sustainale development.

$ithout a dout, one of the most important predisposing conditions that underlies

tropical deforestation and many of the world%s other prolems related to achievingsustainale development is our growing population. &ur numers are currently

growing at the rate of ',((( million new individuals every decade. In the last half of

the )(th century, we will have more than douled our numers from ),*(( million to

+,((( million people $-I, '/0. 1ost of the population increase is occurring in

developing countries, those nations least equipped to asor them. 2early all of the

expected 3./ illion increase in our gloal population y the year )(*( will come

from the developing countries 4imons, '50 !! 3./ illion more people requiring

food, energy, shelter, water, wood, paper, and all the other goods and services that

come from the forests.



Approximately /.* illion people, or 6* per cent of the world%s population, live in the

developing countries and a ',((( million of them live in a#ect poverty. 1ost of those

countries are in the tropics where deforestation is a serious prolem 7A&, '50.

7urthermore, an estimated ).5 illion live in rural areas and are dependent on

agriculture to meet their asic needs. The exact numer of people who live y clearing

the forest to plant susistence crops is not known, ut the accepted figure is at least

*(( million people or aout ' person in every ') on the planet.

Another predisposing condition of deforestation is poverty, particularly poverty in

rural areas. Although poverty is not a 8cause8 of deforestation, it is a condition of life

that the ma#ority of people in this world must endure. $hile greed and power can e

the motivations of some groups in society that deforest, survival and the desire to

escape from poverty is what drives most people. "overty is the socioeconomic

environment that limits peoples% economic options, damages health, limits the

formation of rural capital, reduces income generating opportunities, and limits

institutional and infrastructure development. It is an underlying condition that

facilitates deforestation. There is some evidence from the industrialized countries of

the 2orth that suggests as societies ecome more economically secure they reach a

point where the economic development pressures that drive deforestation are replaced

y a growing environmental concern and a greater appreciation of environmental

values. 9owever, for most developing countries that point is off in the far distant

future.

The rural poor have very few options. There are few prospects of off!farm

employment in either the uran centers or the rural areas. 7or those opportunities that

do exist, there is intense competition for the few #os availale. Illiteracy further

limits the options of many ecause they do not have the asic tools needed to pursue

other economic alternatives to susistence farming. In some cases, people migratefrom the overpopulated, depressed regions to the forest frontier in search of a more

prosperous, more secure life. 9and!in!hand with poverty comes food insecurity and

chronic undernourishment. $ith few alternatives availale to them, the rural poor

look to the forests as a short!term solution to their economic prolems.

4tudies have een carried out on the relationships etween rural poverty and

deforestation and population growth and deforestation. At times the correlations have

een inconclusive ecause the dynamics of rural land use are very complex, and

deforestation is rarely the consequence of one single cause, rather it is the product of



the interaction of many forces. 7or example, on the island of :ava in Indonesia, high

population densities have not resulted in the elimination of forest cover. &n the other

hand, high population densities in the Andean highlands led to settlement pro#ects in

the Amazonian lowlands, resulting in deforestation. The effect of population pressures

as a predisposing condition for deforestation is dependent on the influences of the

carrying capacity of the land, the prevailing land use practices, the importance of

forest!derived products and services to the local people, and the strength or weakness

of the institutional framework in place. In most cases, a rising population pressure and

a prevailing climate of rural poverty are important conditions that facilitate

deforestation.

;reed and the quest for economic and political power are important underlying

forces. Individual and corporate greed that seeks excessive profits at the expense of

human suffering and environmental degradation can e witnessed in the actions of

many of the agents of deforestation. <nregulated land uses and monopolistic national

markets favour the politically influential at the expense of the ma#ority. This can e

manifested in competing land uses that favour export oriented agricultural crops or

exploitative logging practices. 4lash!and!urn farmers are some of the poorest, least!

privileged people in the world. They live in the more remote areas of their countries,

areas that receive little or no attention from the political and economic decision!

makers. They do not have access to more modern technologies that could increase

their productivity and economic security.

Indirect Causes

5.1 Fiscal and Deelop!ent Policies ! ;overnment policies outside the forest sector

have profound impacts on the forest resource, as do international policies on det

repayment, structural ad#ustment, and trade. 4tructural ad#ustment programs have

encouraged the expansion of foreign exchange!earning export crops, which have inturn encouraged the liquidation of forest capital either y accelerating timer

harvesting or y converting forests to agricultural uses. The expansion of agricultural

cash crops means that either forests are cleared directly for these crops or susistence

farmers are displaced for them, forcing the farmers to relocate to the forest where they

practice slash!and!urn agriculture. Incentives e.g., low interest rates or tax

exemptions0 to industries that would otherwise e less economical, or even

uneconomical, have permitted them to prosper at the expense of forests when they

couldn%t otherwise. ;overnment policies that have een adopted to facilitate economic

development in other sectors that have resulted in deforestation include=



susidized credit for agricultural and livestock expansion, e.g. lower than commercial

interest rates on loans for agricultural development,

reduced rates of income and corporate taxes for competing land uses,

tax 8holidays8 for the importation of equipment for new industries that negatively

impact on forests,

high taxes on imported petroleum products that discourage the use of alternative fuels

to firewood,

infrastructure and energy development pro#ects that do not account for the value of

forest capital lost,

reliance on cash export crops y commercial farmers that force displaced small

farmers to cultivate marginal forest soils.

;overnment!sponsored colonization schemes, such as the transmigration program in

Indonesia or the Amazon colonization schemes in "eru, have een used as

8development8 pro#ects y many governments. 4ometimes they have een officially

sanctioned y governments and sometimes they have occurred more spontaneously.

They have een attractive to governments ecause they allowed them to avoid the

politically sensitive issues of population control and land reform, relieve the pressure

of overcrowded and underserviced uran areas, defer otherwise needed investments in

uran infrastructure, and avoid investments in agricultural research and extension to

increase agricultural productivity on existing arale lands. 1any countries have used

colonization schemes as a way of asserting national sovereignty on their frontiers.

"easant farmers were encouraged to relocate to the forests of order areas to estalish

a physical presence there. The watershed of the -io "utumayo is at the convergence

of the orders of >cuador, "eru, and ?olomia. All three governments have sponsored

settlement programs over the last two decades for the specific purpose of exercising

sovereignty. 7orests have een cleared to e replaced y marginally productive

susistence farming.

>conomic structural ad#ustment and macroeconomic reform programs eing

implemented in many countries have the potential to e a serious threat to tropical

forests. >conomic reforms have aggravated unemployment in some sectors, causing

greater poverty which has, in turn, motivated people to migrate to forested lands to

practice slash!and!urn farming. The greater emphasis on exports has, at times,

resulted in unsustainale timer exploitation and the encroachment of commercial

agriculture upon forested lands. The $orld @ank and some of the ilateral donor

agencies have een advocating the privatization of pulic resources in the structural

ad#ustment programs and have made it conditional for loan approval. The



privatization of state forest resources favours those management alternatives that can

produce a short!term economic gain for the new owners whether they e local

governments, communities, or the private sector. "rotection forests or forests that are

8rich8 in non!monetary values like soil conservation are held in very low esteem in

such a market!driven environment.

In '+, the total external det in developing countries was <4 ).' trillion and still

growing $orld @ank, '50. @razil and 1exico, two of the principal deforesting

countries, have the largest external dets of all developing countries. Det affects all

countries. It drains the availale financial resources that could otherwise e used for

routine operations of government, including conservation and the wise management

of the country%s forest resources. 7unds are not availale to pay staff, to pay for

operational costs, to develop infrastructure, or to pay for education and training. The

average detB;2" percentage for the 8Top '(8 deforesting countries rose from )+ per

cent in '6* to +( per cent in '+ $orld @ank, '50. 7orest!rich countries can e

tempted to service their det in part y liquidating the standing capital in their natural

forests through an accelerated exploitation program.

The policies and institutional weakness of governments have significantly contriuted

to deforestation. $hy have government policies failed so often in the pastC

4ometimes the policies were devised without a complete understanding of all of the

issues involved and all of the potential impacts. This is often the case when decisions

are made that result in deforestation ecause political decision!makers do not

appreciate the real value of forests% goods and services compared to other land uses.

"rolems can also reflect the general weakness of the national forest institution and its

inaility to formulate and execute sound policies. In other cases, delierate decisions

are made to favour a small group of politically and economically powerful individuals

at the expense of society at large. In general, government policies reflect the political

will, the power structures, the democratic processes, and the level of pulic awareness present in the country. >ven when policies are adopted with the est of intentions,

they can have unforeseen negative impacts !! a consequence of the complexity of the

issues eing dealt with and the multiple impacts they can have. Institutions can find

that rescinding a policy is a daunting task. 1any countries, however, have made

sustantial progress in reforming their policies and legislation that contriuted to

deforestation in years past. @razil, for example, has repealed its susidies to promote

cattle ranching in the Amazon, and ?osta -ica is starting to account for the

destruction of forest capital when doing its national economic accounts.



5." #and Access and #and Tenure ! In most developing countries, the arale land

ase cannot support the growing population. 7irst, the amount of land suitale for

farming is limited. The real arale land that can sustain long!term cropping is, for the

most part, currently under cultivation. Increases in agricultural production can come

from increased productivity through the use of improved technology, ut they cannot

come from extending the land under cultivation into forested areas ecause there are

no large 8reserves8 of unused forested land suitale for farming. 4econd, as the

farming population grows and the land passes on from generation to generation

through inheritance, the individual farm plots ecome too small to e economical.

Third, much of the truly arale land is held y large landowners or y corporations

and, therefore, is not accessile to the ma#ority of the farming population who really

need it. In many countries, particularly in atin AmericaE large landowners !!

latifundistas !! have traditionally controlled most of the farming land, a ad situation

made worse in the second half of the )(th century when many small farms were

ought out to ecome more economically viale. The introduction of new agricultural

pesticides and fertilizers and the greater mechanization of farm laour shifted the

profitaility in farming to those landowners who had the availale capital to invest.

The small farmers were displaced and often went to the forest frontier to start over

again.

<nder these circumstances, the only solution for most families is to either move to the

towns and cities to look for work or to relocate to the forest frontier to clear the trees

to make a new farm. 7orested lands, oth fertile and infertile, have een a social

safety valve for land pressure. 7or governments, it has een politically less painful to

look the other way and ignore deforestation than to deal with the difficult issues of

land reform, #o creation, and population control. &viously, the issue of lack of

access to arale land is one of the most compelling for the rural poor who have very

few alternatives availale to them.

and tenure has an important influence on people%s attitude towards land use. The vast

ma#ority of the world%s slash!and!urn farmers do not have formal land title !! at est

they have customary rights, at worst no rights at all. $ithout some guarantee that the

land will remain theirs, farmers have no incentive to invest in making it more

productive. <nder these circumstances, clearing the forest and planting annual crops

for a few seasons efore moving on to clear more land is a logical farming strategy.

;overnments are either unwilling to title state lands to small farmers or their land

titling procedures are so complicated and so costly that small farmers find it



impossile to otain legal title. The lack of ownership excludes them from otaining

credit for much needed farm inputs and discourages any long term investment that

could lead to increased productivity, prosperity, and enhanced well!eing. The short

term alternative is to slash!and!urn the forest.

In many countries, settlers must clear the land to exercise their tenure rights. In this

case, deforestation is considered an 8improvement8 to the land and an expression of

the occupant%s good faith in developing the property.

Tree tenure systems can also discourage the planting and tending of tree crops as an

economic alternative to agriculture. 4ome countries like the Dominican -epulic and

;uinea have had laws that extend state ownership to all trees and forests whether they

e on private property or state land. $hen tree ownership rests with the state, there is

no incentive for the rural population to invest their laours in forest management

ecause the enefits derived are only en#oyed y the government. In fact, this

situation has encouraged deforestation ecause many farmers illegally removed the

trees on their property so there would e no government interference in the way they

used their land.

5.$ %ar&et Pressures ! &ften mentioned as causes of deforestation are the demand

for forest products and the demand for other goods mostly food0 that are produced on

deforested lands. ?learly, without any demand there would e no economic reason for

cutting down the trees. As human population continues to grow, so does the demand

for forest!derived goods. 4imilarly, as we ecome more prosperous, our per capita

consumption rises. This is evident in the great discrepancy etween per capita

consumption of almost all goods y 2orth Americans in comparison to the less

affluent peoples in developing countries. 7or example, paper consumption per capita

rises as individuals ecome more prosperous. "aper and paperoard product

consumption in 2orth America averaged 33 metric tons per '((( people in '*compared to 3 metric tons per '((( people in Africa and 3' metric tons per '(((

people in atin America.

The importance of our consumption patterns to the exploitation of forest lands cannot

e denied. $hat is deatale is the importance of the export market in deforestation.

As mentioned in section ).) of this issues paper, developing countries produce aout

)* per cent of the world%s industrial wood products !! sawnwood, panels, wood pulp,

paper !! and almost ( per cent of its fuelwood. In the case of industrial forest

products, it is difficult to generalize the importance of international market demand. A



graph is presented that illustrates the '* sawnwood and plywood exports as a

percentage of total production for the 8Top '(8 deforesting countries 7A&, '50.

4awnwood and plywood are good indicators of natural forest disturance and

susceptiility to susequent deforestation0 and exports clearly show the relative

importance of the international markets. In the case of Indonesia, 1alaysia, and

1yanmarE exports accounted for over *( per cent of the total production and are

oviously a ma#or force ehind timer exploitation in those countries and its

contriution to deforestation. In contrast, exports in @razil, 1exico, and Thailand

account for a modest '( per cent of total production with the ?ongo, @olivia,

Fenezuela, and 4udan registering negligile exports.

"ulp and paper are important commodities in world trade, accounting for over <4 5(

illion in gloal exports in '+ 7A&, '50. The industry has witnessed dramatic

growth in many countries where deforestation is a prolem, particularly in Asia. 4ince

'5(, paper and paperoard production has increased six!fold in Thailand, eleven!fold

in 1alaysia, and a reathtaking seventeen!fold in Indonesia. The ma#ority of

production comes from plantations of fast!growing species that were estalished on

non!forest lands, forest fallow lands, or logged over forests that were not eing

managed sustainaly. In some cases the natural forest was cleared to estalish the

plantations. To a very limited degree, natural forests have een harvested to supply

mixed tropical hardwoods as the raw material for pulp and paper production.

1ost new pulp and paper production in developing countries has gone to meet the

demands of growing local populations, populations that are, in many cases,

increasingly more affluent. In terms of paper and paperoard products, only Indonesia

and @razil have had significant exports 7A&, '50. In '+, Indonesian exports of

'.) million metric tons of paper and paperoard products accounted for )5 per cent of

the total production of /./ million metric tons. In the same year, @razil%s exports of '.)

million metric tons represented )' per cent of its total production of *. million metrictons. In contrast, the other paper and paperoard producers were primarily satisfying

their local demand with less than '( per cent of total production eing exported. The

situation in the wood pulp market is very similar with most of the increased

production eing consumed in the country of origin.

In summary, the demand for forest products continues to rise as population and

affluence grow. The national demand for forest products within the countries where

deforestation is occurring is a much more important cause of deforestation than the

demand for these same products on the international markets. This generalization



varies from region!to!region and from country!to!country within each region. It

should e noted that this conclusion is contrary to the opinion held y many 2orthern

2;&s that it is the industrialized countries% insatiale demands for tropical timer that

is driving deforestation.

In the agriculture sector, the importance of export crops as a driving force ehind

deforestation is, again, difficult to generalize. -ice is the staple food crop in Asia, ut

it is not an export commodity in most Asian countries that are losing their tropical

forests. 7or example, Indonesia and 1alaysia are net importers of rice, and of the

important deforesting countries only Thailand is a significant exporter of aout /( per

cent of its '+ production 7A&, '50. In ?entral America, the single most

important crop of the slash!and!urn farmers is maize. All countries in the region are

net importers of maize, which indicates that all of the forest land converted into maize

production is for internal consumption only, not for export. In '+, ?entral America%s

production of ).56 million metric tons had to e supplemented y importing '.(6

million metric tons of maize and maize products to feed its population. In Indonesia,

exports of palm oil have een more or less constant at + to 5 per cent of total

production over the last decade, although the area under palm plantations has steadily

grown for the same period. The conclusion to e drawn is that most of the demand for

palm oil is coming from within Indonesia, driven y its large and still growing

population.

The situation in the livestock sector is very similar. &ver the last two decades, eef

production in @razil has risen sharply from ).5* million metric tons in '5( to /.+

million metric tons in '+ 7A&, '50. This rise in production corresponds with

dramatic increases in deforestation as ranchers, farmers, and land speculators

occupied the forested regions of the Amazon watershed. @eef exports, in terms of

total volume exported and as a percentage of total production, peaked in the mid!

'5(s at approximately *((,((( metric tons or aout '* per cent of total production.$hile production was still growing in '+, exports had declined to less than )6(,(((

metric tons or aout * per cent of total production. ?learly, the oom in eef

production and its devastating impact on @razil%s forests is eing driven y the

domestic eef market not y the demand from >urope, 2orth America, or :apan. @eef

exports from ?entral America accounted for )( per cent of total production in '*.

Despite the early importance of the American market as a driving force in the growth

of the ?entral American cattle industry, most of the production went to satisfy the

local demand, not for export sales. >xports as a percentage of total production peaked

in the early '6(s at approximately /* per cent ut then fell to etween )( and 3( per



cent of total production in the following two decades 7A&, '5E eonard, '560. It

is a popular myth that the ?entral American forests were sacrificed to satisfy the

Americans% love of cheap, fast!food hamurgers ut, in fact, that is only a partial

explanation.

ike the growth in forest products, the growth in agricultural production and its

consequent impact on deforestation has een more a response to the growing national

markets than an attempt to satisfy the international demand. $hile international

market pressures are important factors in understanding the causes of deforestation,

their importance should never e overemphasized. The causes of deforestation, like

the solutions for controlling it, are to e found within the orders of each of the

countries affected. International trade offers some leverage to halt or reverse

deforestation in some countries, ut it is far from a panacea.

5.' Underaluation o( Natural Forests ! In economic terms, there is little

understanding of the value of the goods and services provided y tropical forests or of

the real costs of forest management eing orne y resource users. As a consequence,

forests are undervalued and play a less significant role than they should in the

decisions affecting resource allocations, development priorities, and land use. They

are, therefore, more susceptile to eing converted to other land uses which are

perceived to e more eneficial. Tropical forests are undervalued ecause=

they produce many different products that are consumed in many unrelated markets

often outside the cash economy, therey creating the perception that they are less

importantE

they produce many non!market goods e.g. forest food, game, resins, fires0 and

environmental services e.g. climate control, water regulation, soil conservation0 that

do not enter into the national economic accountsE

8downstream8 enefits of 8upstream8 conservation are en#oyed ut not paid for y eneficiariesE

the harvest cycle rotation0 of natural forests in the tropics is very long compared to

agricultural crops, even outside the realm of conventional commerceE

the estalishment of natural forests incurs no direct costs for the exploiter henceE they

are viewed as 8free8 commoditiesE

there is still much unknown aout the potential value of the forests, a consequence of

the lack of systematic research,

market knowledge is imprecise, except for the traditional timer products,

prices are often set y monopolies government or private sector0 and do not



necessarily reflect society%s value of forest products and services,

forests are important to the rural poor, a social group that has little political influence

and therefore little economic influence.

7orests that are perceived to have low value will e cleared and replaced y other

more attractive land uses. It is important that people%s perceptions e ased on as

complete an understanding as possile of the true value of all the goods and services

that forests provide.

In recent years, much has een said and much written aout the potential of oth

ecotourism and pharmaceutical research as saviours of the tropical forests. $hile

these can e important alternatives to slash!and!urn farming at a very local level,

they have a limited potential to impact gloal land use. The magnitude of the

challenge and the need for meaningful enefit!sharing with the hundreds of millions

of persons involved dwarfs their limited potential to generate grassroots enefits. &n

the other hand, the economic potential of the forests% caron sequestration and storage

capacity could e enormous under the #oint implementation agreements that are

coming out of the climate change convention.

5.5 )ea& *oern!ent Institutions ! 1any institutional failures have een identified

as contriuting factors to deforestation. In most countries, forestry departments have a

low status within governments relative to competing land uses, reflecting the

economic power ase in the countries. Typically, forestry departments are

handicapped y poorly paid staff, inadequate udgets, lack of staff, and lack of staff

training. As a consequence, the departments have een ineffective in successfully

putting forth pro!forestry arguments to the political decision!makers and to the pulic

at large. >ven when there are adequate policies and legislation in place, the weakness

of the departments in enforcing the law, resisting political pressures, and maintaining

a field presence has red contempt and indifference for the law.

?orruption in government has had a disastrous impact on forest conservation. It has

een evident at all levels of government and includes such actions as influencing the

granting of timer concessions and timer!cutting permits, giving approval to clear

the forest for ranching or agriculture, undergrading the value of timer exports,

condoning illegal logging, even allowing the cutting of endangered tree species.

;overnment officials have looked the other way in return for under the tale cash

payments or for political support. The end result has een that government decisions

have een taken with an eye to the personal enefits for the ureaucrats taking the

ries rather than to sustainale forest management, a loss in government revenues



that could otherwise e used to fund sustainale forestry, and a lack of incentives for

the private investors to practice sustainale forest management. ?orruption also

undermines the respect for forestry departments at large as administrators of the law.

This has had a direct impact on people%s attitudes towards the forestry departments%

efforts to stop deforestation.

Although universally recognized as a prolem, the lack of coordination of the policies

of the various government agencies continues to frustrate sustainale development

efforts. 2arrow sectoral analysis and planning processes have led agencies to adopt

conflicting o#ectives, having produced them without due consultation and

consideration of their impacts on neighouring sectors. ;overnment leadership in

land use planning has een universally very weak, due in part to a planning process

that has een non!participatory in nature. If interest groups do not uy into the land

use plan for their own perceived enefits, the plan ecomes non!functional. -ealizing

this, international donor agencies are choosing to work more and more with non

governmental partners that have strong links to the local populations.

1any government agencies, not only the forestry departments, have prepared

amitious plans that are far eyond their capacity to implement. The resulting failures

contriute to the growing distrust and lack of respect for government and to the

current disillusionment with government and its role in society.

Internationally, forestry has suffered from the lack of strong leadership. This has

manifested itself countless times in international fora where forestry and forest!related

concerns have received lower priority than other sectors y decision!makers when

allocating resources.

5.+ Social Factors ! 7aced with political decisions aout uran migration, food

production, agrarian reform, employment generation, national security, economicstructural ad#ustment, and all the other issues that demand their attentionE many

governments have opted to ignore deforestation. Deforestation has een a safety valve

that has helped to take the socioeconomic pressure off other areas, therey avoiding

political turmoil that would inevitaly come. $hile politically expedient, this has

een a very short!sighted approach that is not in the long term interest of anyone.

In many cultures, 8common8 resources like pulicly owned forests are not looked

upon as opportunities for collective management of valuale resources. They are

perceived as 8free8 commodities to e used y anyone, free from government



regulation. -ather than eing managed for the common good, they are aused and

neglected. $ithout a sense of ownership, there is no incentive to manage the resource.

In most countries, forestry development has een characterized y centralized

planning and management of the resource. ;overnment departments have een

created to act as the pulic%s custodian of the trees and the land upon which they grow.

7orestry department activities like tax collection and cutting control have usually een

more important than extension and cooperation with rural communities. As

populations have grown and their demands on the resource increased, governments

have egun to look for new, more democratic approaches to managing forests.

1any countries lack a 8forest culture8, an appreciation y the population of the value

of forests to their society and a tradition of managing the resource for the collective

enefit of all. 7orests are often looked upon as impediments to development. In other

societies, communities have traditionally managed their forests ut recent changes in

their political systems have destroyed the custom. 7or example, the forests of the

$estern "rovince of Gamia were managed y the "aramount ?hief through the

8induna8 system where the harvest was regulated, taxes collected, fines levied, and a

rudimentary system of forest management employed. This system, which functioned

well for generations, was dissolved at independence. -ural people now have less

respect for the forests ecause they do not perceive them to e theirs, rather they are

seen as eing the property of the 4tate. &ther land uses, like the cattle ranching

industry in atin America, have een a traditional part of the local culture since

colonial times. The image of the cattle rancher is a role model much respected in

atin American societies.

In terms of forestry development, the types of interest groups can e very diverse !

indigenous peoples, forest communities, small farmers, livestock herders, forest

industrialists, forestry department staff, charcoal urners, asically any group thatuses the forest resources.

4pecial Interest ;roups ! Different

"erspectives on Tropical 7orests

4pecial interest group 7orestry perspective

environmentalists ! concerned aout preservation of forests, conservation of

iodiversity, and possile negative impacts of development e.g. flooding, climate

change0



small farmers ! interested in clearing the forests provides land to grow crops and

provides family with economic security

ranchers ! interested in clearing the forests to sow pasture for cattle

foresters ! interested in managing forests for the sustainale flow of their goods and

services and the maintenance of the iological functioning of their ecosystems

loggers ! interested in cutting commercial timers to produce wood products

communities H indigenous peoples ! want more economic enefits from forests,

guaranteed access for hunting and harvesting forest products, continued water supply

politicians ! developing the forests for agriculture or logging creates immediate #os,

prosperity and tax revenues for governmentE also temporarily relieves the pressures of

need for farm land, #os, and poverty alleviation

international community ! concerned aout sustainale economic growth, the future

of a world heritage, preservation of forests and their iodiversity

source= adapted from $?74DE http=BBwww...

&ne of the lessons of the last 3( years of trying to contain deforestation is that the

people who are meant to enefit from the forests must e full partners in the process

of identifying and implementing solutions. The word participation means many things

to many people, and it is often descried in forest conservation programs from the

wrong perspective. -eferences are constantly made to 8involving the communities8,

8insuring people%s participation8, or getting a 8consensus of stakeholders8. The

implication in these phrases is that the o#ective is to get the people to uy into some

notion of development conceived y planners from outside the locality. It is

mistakenly elieved that the community%s involvement through consultation will fine

tune the planned activities of a pro#ect so it will e more successful. Those intentions,

although well meant, approach participation from the wrong perspective. True

participation is the process y which people identify their own prolems and agree on

a course of action to solve them. ;overnments can assist with the material and humanresources that people do not have at their disposal. In this sense, participation really

means government and development agencies helping people to solve their prolems,

not people ecoming involved in pro#ects conceived y government. The distinction

etween these two approaches is significant, with profound implications for

conserving the tropical forests.

"articipation can e oth active and passive. "assive participation was the typical

involvement witnessed in past decades when people were consulted after the

conceptualization and planning of a pro#ect, when merely employing people was a



measure of participation, or when people were the involuntary, and at times

unknowing, 8eneficiaries8 of development pro#ects. >ssentially, development

proceeded on people%s ehalf and in spite of them. 1ost efforts to cur deforestation

met with resistance. Active participation is the current approach taken y many 2;&s

and too few government departments. In this case, people lead the development

process to solve their prolems according to their priorities. Their local knowledge of

their forest and other natural resources and their traditional skills in managing them

are the asis for development and for protection of the forest.

"articipation means the self!empowerment of the resource users through their own

efforts and their acceptance of oth enefits and oligations. It means sharing power

in the making of decisions, it means sharing the enefits that come from resource

management, and it means acquiring tenure to the forest resource.

Direct Causes

5., Slas-and/urn Far!ing ! @y far the most important agents of deforestation

gloally are the slash!and!urn farmers who live in or on the margins of all of the

world%s tropical forests. It is estimated that small farming families account for nearly

)B3 of all deforestation -owe et al, ')0. 84lash!and!urn8 farming includes a

diverse collection of farming systems from long fallow shifting cultivation to short

fallow shifting cultivation to forest pioneer farming. <nlike traditional farming

methods that were used in harmony with the forests% recuperative capacity, current

slash!and!urn farming depletes the very soil resource upon which all agriculture and

forestry depend. &ne of the strong commonalities of all slash!and!urn farmers is that

they are among the poorest, most marginalized groups of their societies and have little

or no influence on the important land use policy decisions made in their countries.

long fallow shifting cultivation short fallow shifting cultivation forest pioneer farming! long fallow rotation

! traditional

! mainly susistence crops

! mainly self!generated capital

! far from uran areas

! minimal to moderate cause of deforestation ! short fallow rotation

! semi!traditional

! mixed susistence H cash crops

! mixed capital sources



! intermediate distance to uran areas

! moderate to serious cause of deforestation ! no rotation

! modern

! mainly cash crops

! mainly outside capital

! close to uran areas

! serious cause of deforestation

source= adapted from @rown and 4chreckenerg, '50

In his landmark ook, The "rimary 4ource 1eyers, ')0E 2orman 1eyers coined

the phrase 8shifted cultivator8 to descrie the peasant farmer who has left his

traditional farm lands in search of new opportunities on the forest frontier. $ith a

growing local population, restricted access to arale land, and few economic

alternativesE the shifted cultivator has een forced to migrate to forested state lands to

estalish a new farm and homestead. The shifted cultivator is the typical slash!and!

urn farmer of 1exico and ?entral America, the Amazon, parts of $est Africa, the

"hilippines, and the settlement schemes in Indonesia !! the typical slash!and!urn

farmers of the second half of the )(th century. They are unlike the traditional farmers

who have practiced sustainale shifting cultivation for centuries. At times, the shifted

cultivators have moved to ecosystems unfamiliar to them where many of their

traditional practices are not applicale, as was the case of the "eruvian farmers who

colonized much of the east slopes of the Andes.

-ather than the villains of the deforestation cycle, small farmers are its victims.

"risoners of illiteracy and endemic poverty, and driven y the lack of access to arale

lands and the lack of alternative employment opportunities, susistence farming

families must survive y clearing the forests to plant their crops.

Typically, they cultivate less than two hectares in a year and their important crops are

corn, eans, cassava, plantains, and upland rice, depending on the region. 4econdary

crops include coffee, cacao, citrus and other fruits, vegetales, and a few head of

livestock. In times of low population density and land aundance, slash!and!urn

farming has een an environmentally sustainale and economically sound alternative

for growing food crops on fragile tropical soils. 9owever, as populations have grown

and land has ecome scarce, farming has ecome more intensive, making it

unsustainale with diminishing economic returns. Their farms are on soils not suited

to sustainale farming and, as a consequence, they must aandon their fields after two



or three years of cropping and move on to new forests to clear. 7or most, it is a day!

to!day fight for survival with their family%s future dependent on the fortunes of the

next uncertain crop. Their laours are rewarded y only meager cash incomes that

keep them well elow the poverty line.

5.0 Co!!ercial Agriculture ! In contrast to susistence farming, commercial or

plantation agriculture is often agriusiness practiced y corporations. Important

plantation crops in the tropics include sugar, palm oil, natural ruer, coffee, cacao,

and tropical fruits ananas, citrus, etc.0. ?ommercial agriculture%s role in

deforestation is two!fold. 7irst, agriusiness can indirectly result in deforestation.

?ommercial farms occupy the est, most fertile agricultural soils located in the

valleys. As a consequence, this land is not availale to the growing rural population

that depends on agriculture for their susistence. $ithout access to farmland in their

immediate area, farming families have had to relocate to less fertile, less productive

forested land. In 9onduras in the '6(s, thousands of small farmers and ranchers

were displaced from the north coast valleys to make way for the estalishment of oil

palm cooperatives. They were pushed onto the steep forested slopes and enchlands

and proceeded to clear them for farms and pasture.

4econd, agriusiness can e a direct cause of deforestation. Through a concession

agreement, land purchase, or an informal land occupationE companies take possession

of forested land with the intention of converting it to another use. As illustrated in the

preceding graph, the area of oil palm plantations in Indonesia has skyrocketed in the

last '* years. This has een at the expense of the natural forests and of the fallow

rush that comes in after slash!and !urn farming. The Indonesian experience with oil

palm has een replicated in many other tropical countries in recent years. >xamples of

other important agricultural tree crops that are cultivated on forest lands include

coffee, cacao, citrus, and ruer.

In addition to the negative environmental impacts that are common to all forms of

deforestation, commercial agriculture often rings with it a series of prolems related

to the use of agrochemicals including deterioration of workers% health and the

contamination of crops, soils, and ground water.

5. Cattle Ranc-ing and #iestoc& *ra2ing ! ?attle ranching, particularly in atin

America, is a ma#or cause of deforestation. -anchers either occupy large tracts of

forests and clear the land themselves or they uy the 8improvements8 made y small

farmers. Traditionally, ranchers favoured the more easily managed range and pasture



lands of the dry forest zones, ut for the last four decades there has een intensive

clearing of the moist tropical forests in oth 4outh America and ?entral America.

&pen!range grazing as is practiced in the dry woodlands and savannas of Africa can

e a ma#or contriutor to deforestation when herd populations exceed the carrying

capacity of the range. It can also seriously degrade the composition and quality of the

forest when practiced too intensively.

&ne of the more well!known regions where the expansion of cattle ranching has

caused serious deforestation is ?entral America. -anching has een part of the culture

of rural ?entral America since colonial times. Dominated y large landowners, it was

concentrated on the fertile valley soils of the central highlands of the isthmus and

along the dry "acific coast. $ith the opening of American markets for cheap eef and

improved local infrastructure in the second half of this century, ranchers expanded

their operations y moving into the humid forests of the Atlantic watershed. ?attle

pasture was originally estalished in the flat valley ottoms on soils est suited for

permanent agriculture, ut eventually spread to the forests in the surrounding

mountains. 1any ranchers took possession of large tracts of forested land and

contracted laourers to clear it with chainsaws and fire. A more common method of

acquiring new pasture land was to purchase the 8improvements8 to the untitled land

held y slash!and!urn farmers. These so!called 8improvements8 were little more than

a few opening in the forest made y the farmers to plant their crops. After otaining

the squatter%s rights, the rancher would then finish the land clearing, sow the grass,

and fence in the property. &nce the land was transferred to the rancher, the farmer

would vacate the property and move deeper into the forest to repeat the same cycle of

deforestation.

Although reliale land use data is not availale, it is estimated that the area of land

under permanent pasture in ?entral America increased from 3. million hectares in

'** to '3./ million hectares in '* 4underlin and -odriguez, '+E 7A&, '50.The more than tripling of the pasture area was at the expense of the region%s tropical

forests. -anching was a very attractive alternative to other land uses in that it was

reasonaly profitale in the short term, carried only moderate levels of risk and

uncertainty, required little laour, and had well estalished markets with less volatile

price fluctuations than other cash crops. @eef production rose until '6 when it

levelled off ecause of a softening in the demand and the imposition of American

importation restrictions.

In conclusion, cattle ranching has een an important direct cause of deforestation in



the latter half of this century, particularly in atin America. The expansion of cattle

pasture is closely linked to slash!and!urn agriculture through land speculation in

forest land.

5.13 %ining and Petroleu! E4ploration ! 1ining and oil exploration are locally

important to deforestation. arge mines like those of ?ara#s in @razil and the

?opperelt of Gamia consumed vast quantities of indigenous woodlands to supply

fuel to their smelting operations efore plantations of fast!growing species were

estalished. The impact of gold mining has een widely pulicized, particularly placer

mining in the Amazon, ut its negative impacts have affected the indigenous peoples

and the quality of the water more than the ad#acent forests. &il exploration activities,

such as the clearing of the seismic lines in the forests of eastern >cuador, not only

destroy the forests ut also open them up to colonization y susistence farmers who

follow the exploration crews.

5.11 In(rastructure Deelop!ent ! The construction of new roads has a profound

impact on the forest. The Trans!Amazonian highway opened up millions of square

kilometres of previously inaccessile forest to colonization and expansion of the cattle

industry. 1ain arteries were soon followed y secondary roads that penetrate deeper

into the forest, eventually producing a wide swath of deforested land on either side of

the road. All roads that are constructed with the purpose of providing etter access to

less developed regions within a country tend to push up real estate values for non!

forest uses and encourage land speculation and deforestation.

ogging roads are among the most important types of access roads that facilitate

deforestation. 9ydroelectric development is another important factor in deforestation.

-eservoirs flood forest lands and transmission line right!of!ways are cut out of the

forest to carry the energy to consumers, causing permanent losses of forest cover.7orests are also encroached upon y industrial and residential development as

populations grow and cities extend outward.

Role o( Forest E4ploitation and Plantation Deelop!ent

7or the most part, firewood collection and logging are not direct causes of



deforestation, however, they do produce a change in the composition of the natural

forest and can increase the risk of a susequent transition in favour of other land uses.

In some circumstances, deforestation can result when harvesting occurs under very

sensitive environmental conditions or when it is very intense over a long period of

time. In the case of tree plantations, replacing the natural forest with plantations

results in a loss of natural forest area ut it does not cause deforestation ecause there

has een no permanent change in land use.

5.1" Fuelood Collection and C-arcoal %a&ing ! 7uelwood is the most important

wood product in developing countries where it accounts for 5( per cent of all wood

used. >ven with predicted fuel sustitution from electricity, kerosine, and propane, it

is not expected that this dependence on fuelwood will change significantly efore the

end of the )'st century. $orldwide, nearly 3,((( million people use fuelwood as their

principal source of energy, particularly in rural areas and particularly among the least

privileged groups in society.

In many places, fuelwood collection, while not completely destroying the forests and

woodlands, significantly impoverishes them and alters the haitat y the selective

removal of preferred species. 9owever, around uran areas there is often a ring of

denuded land that has een stripped of all its comustile material y people trying to

meet their asic energy needs. $ith very intensive collection over a long period of

time, the original trees and shrus loose their aility to coppice and die out, giving

way to a different mix of plant species. 2iamey in 2iger and usaka in Gamia are

two well known African examples of this process. 7uelwood is collected mostly from

unregulated commons and, as a consequence, is very sensitive to overexploitation as

the population increases.

5.1$ #ogging ! 7A& '30 reports that there are almost six million hectares logged

annually in the tropics and that the rate of logging has douled in the last 3( years.ike most forest sector statistics, these estimates are not precise due to the poor record

keeping and lack of field supervision of logging operations. The greatest increase in

activity can e found in Asia and atin America while the annual area logged in

Africa has remained somewhat constant.

Fery few natural forests in the tropics are managed professionally. "oore, in his well!

known and much quoted ITT& study, estimated that the less than ' per cent of the

total productive forest area in the tropics was under some system of sustained yield

management "oore et.al.'50. ogging in the tropics does not in any way resemle



scientific forestry and is often characterized y a 8cut!and!get!out8 mentality in

logging companies. 7orestry uses science and management skills to manipulate the

natural vegetation to favor the long term production of a selected numer of goods

and services. In contrast, most tropical logging involves the short term exploitation of

only industrial wood products with no eye to the future of the forests. This approach

has led many oservers to the conclusion that sustainale forest management is not

possile in tropical forests.

Although the intensity of logging is low in most tropical forests with most of the

original timer eing left standing, there is high felling damage and residual waste, no

long!term regulation of the harvest, and poor natural regeneration of commercially

useful species. The intensity of logging in 4outh >ast Asia%s diptocarp forests is much

higher than in the tropical forests found in atin America or Africa. The removal of

high volumes per hectare has led to serious degradation of the diptocarp forests, even

causing their destruction in extreme cases where clear!cutting has een used. "oorly

designed logging roads damage watercourses and cause severe soil erosion. The

intrusion of men and logging machinery with the resulting changes in the forest

ecosystem, displaces many forms of animal life, particularly irds and larger

mammals. >nvironmentally appropriate silviculture systems have failed in the tropics,

not for ecological reasons, ut ecause they lack the appropriate policy and strong

institutional frameworks in which to operate. $ithout question, logging continues to

e the principal cause of forest degradation in the tropics ut not one of the principal

causes of deforestation. 9owever, there are examples of logging eing the direct

cause of deforestation. Intensive logging in 4outh >ast Asia has resulted in the

invasion of Imperata grass !! a noxious weed that excludes most other vegetation !! on

thousands of hectares of once forested land. In this example, deforestation has

occurred without the intervention of one of the competing land uses like farming or

grazing.

In terms of its contriution to deforestation, the single most important failing of

governments and forest products companies has een their inaility to maintain a

permanent forest estate. 4ustainale forest management assumes that once the forest

has een logged, it will remain a forest until the end of the rotation or to the end of the

next cutting cycle and eyond. In most cases, this does not happen. $hen the logging

is finished, the farmers, agriusiness agents, ranchers, and fuelwood collectors move

in to clear the land for other economic uses. "reviously inaccessile tracts of frontier

forest are opened up y logging companies when they uild new haul roads, open new



skid trails, and remove a portion of the forest iomass, making it easy for the other

land users to clear the remaining trees. In short, logging provides them access to the

forests. Throughout the tropics, production forests are inadequately protected from

this type of encroachment, despite the fact that management plans and concession

agreements olige oth government and industry to do so.

Although usually well meant, many government policies in the forest sector are

counter!productive in that they produce undesirale, unforeseen impacts that are

detrimental to the sustainale development of tropical forests. 7or example, logging

concession agreements are meant to e a tool to regulate the commercial exploitation

of forests ut they can have negative impacts on the resource and increase the

susceptiility to deforestation. ?oncessions are given out for timer extraction

without consideration to the other goods and services produced y the forest nor the

impact exploitation can have on local people. ?oncessions are usually short term,

often less than '( years in duration and always less than the rotation of the timer

crop. $ithout a long term commitment, the concessionaire has no incentive to protect

the forest from encroachment or invest in forest management.

4tumpage, the tax the government charges loggers for uying pulic timer, is almost

always lower than the real cost of forest management. This type of depressed pricing

undervalues the resource and makes it appear less economically attractive to other

land usesE i.e. it is an incentive to deforest. ow pricing encourages waste which in

turn results in degradation of the forest and susequent deforestation.

5.1' Tree Plantations ! It is estimated that in '* there were more than /+ million

hectares of tree plantations in developing countries, excluding those found in ?hina

7A&, '60. The annual rate of plantation estalishment in the '5(s was

approximately '.* million hectares of which 3* to /( per cent were industrial wood

plantations and the remaining +( to +* per cent were community woodlots,agroforestry, and environmental plantings 7A&, '60. 7or the most part they are

even!aged, single!species plantations. There has een a growing interest in Indonesia

and @razil in estalishing plantations to produce fast!growing fire of >ucalyptus and

Acacia for the gloal pulp and paper industry. There are many issues concerning tree

plantations that are not related to deforestation that will not e touched on here ! e.g.

sustainaility, genetic impoverishment, soil depletion, danger of insect and disease.

arge tracts of heterogenous natural forests have een cut down in the past to plant

more uniform, more easily managed monocultures. The :ari pro#ect in @razil is a well



known example of this practice, as are some of the recently estalished plantations in

4outh >ast Asia. arge areas of forest fallow and 8logged!out8 forests in Indonesia are

eing converted to Acacia plantations to grow pulp wood. The current area of tree

plantations of the 8Top '(8 deforesting countries is estimated as follows=

Tree "lantation Area of the 8Top '(8 Deforesting ?ountries

hectares0

?ountry '*

area Annual area

planted . ?ountry '*

area Annual area

planted

@razil /,((,((( '*,((( . Fenezuela )*3,((( '6,(((

Indonesia +,')*,((( 33),((( . 1alaysia ''',((( +,(((

".-. ?ongo *+,((( 3,((( . 1yanmar )6+,((( )(,(((

@olivia 33,((( ',((( . 4udan )3(,((( ,(((

1exico '3(,((( +,((( . Thailand *),((( ),(((

source= adapted from= 7A&, '6E $-I, '/0

The annual area of new plantations estalished in the 8Top '(8 deforesting countries

is approximately +)(,((( hectares or less than '( per cent of the 6./ million hectares

deforested in those same countries each year. Tree plantations have the potential to

produce sustantial enefits in terms of supplying wood and fire and sequestering

atmospheric caron that could potentially outweigh the costs of losing natural forest.

?aron sequestration and storage is still an emerging issue and the values that will e

assigned to caron!sink plantations are still not known. In theory, the sequestration

and storage values could sustantially exceed those of the values of the wood andnon!wood forest products. <niversal standards will have to e developed to guide

plantation estalishment to ensure that natural forests are not destroyed in the name of

ameliorating gloal warming. The vast areas of unproductive forest fallow found

throughout the tropics could e made availale for new plantations, making it

unnecessary to distur the remaining natural forests.

Are tree plantations a cause of deforestationC 2o, they are not. Along with the natural

forests, plantations form part of a country%s forest estate. True, they are different from

natural forests in their species composition and complexity, in their contriution to



iological diversity, in their management regimes, and in the enefits and values they

ring to society ut they are still forests !! a different type of forests. Analog forest

plantations can also e the first step in a long!term strategy to restore degraded lands

with forests of similar species composition and structure to the original forests. $hat

constitutes a 8forest8 is an issue of pulic deate in some countries with many

environmental groups proposing that plantations are not true 8forests8 and equating

them to agricultural crops like corn or wheat. This is a deate that goes eyond mere

semantics to our perceptions and expectations of forests% roles in the environment and

their potential contriution to the welfare of 9umankind.

It should e noted that the term 8tree plantations8 is understood in this issues paper to

include only those plantations that produce wood and non!wood forest products. In

4outh!>ast Asia, the term 8tree plantations8 is also used to refer to agricultural

plantations like oil palms, ruer, coconuts, fruit trees, and the like. They are treated

in 4ection *.'( ?ommercial Agriculture.

causes_ deforestation.doc

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