Selective logging

The red areas show where selective logging disturbance in Brazil.

                                                                                   

Selection cutting is the practice of harvesting a proportion of the trees in a stand. It is the practice of removing mature timber or thinning to improve the timber stand. Management objectives can include the protection of forest soils, maintenance or improvement of wildlife habitat.

                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Selective logging is destroying the forest as the felling of a single large tree can bring down dozens of surrounding trees. The thinning of the protective canopy exposes the forest to increased sunlight and drying winds that can kill soil organisms essential for decomposition and nutrient-fixing, drying leaf litter and increasing the forest's vulnerability to fire. Further, the use of tractors for removing trees tears up the soil and increases erosion.

It believes that selective logging is creating an additional 60 to 123 percent more damage than deforestation alone while resulting in 25 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than previously.

Logging and the environment• Change in water cycle• Removal of trees will loss the nutrients. Trees providing midday shade to streams which may

alter the stream's temperature either by preventing the sun from shining on the water or by preventing the water from radiating the heat back at night

Decrease in Soil fertility• Modern logging operations require the use of heavy machinery in the forest. In some areas

roads must be built which causes habitat fragmentation and increased edge effect. The f heavy machinery can also cause soil compaction. Harvesting on steep slopes can lead to soil erosion, landslides, and water turbidity. Logging on saturated soils can cause ruts and change drainage patterns.

• Global Warming• the carbon release due to possible burning associated with logging, or possibly with wood

processing, the removal of trees prevents carbon from being captured by the trees from the atmosphere.

• Deforestation and Sandstorm• frequently associated with logging, has been assessed to be in fact responsible for 17 percent

of annual global carbon emissions

• Loss of homeland and habitatDue to deforestation, there are lots of natives and species lots their living places .In the last 200 years, the total area of rainforest has decreased from 7.1 billion acres to less than 3.5 billion acres.

Decrease in biodiversity there are over 1400 species being extinct everyday and the

rate of biodiversity decreased rapidly.

• Pollution

Forest machines use oils which can cause pollution. Roadbuilding for access to timber in frontier forests often opens up areas previously not which facilitates further development such as farming.

Benefits• removing damaged or diseased trees

• opening up the canopy to promote growth of smaller, healthier trees. Branches other non-marketable parts of the tree provide shelter for wildlife. It is an important food source .

• Select cutting can improve the forest and bring to market trees that would otherwise decompose.

• In the past, logged over areas were sometimes sold or donated to the state. Following the maturation of new growth, usually of different tree species, the reclaimed land became the basis of certain outstanding recreation areas,

TFF's Sustainable Forest Management Project brings together conservation and industry leaders in an effort to improve natural forest management in the Brazilian Amazon by promoting the use of low-impact logging (LIL) practices.

. The new TFF program, will demonstrate to producers the tangible economic and ecological benefits of LIL in the five principal forestry. .

Sustainable Forest Management Project in Brazil

Reduced Impact Logging

Conventional logging systems could be described as "unplanned, haphazard timber harvesting". Reduced Impact Logging (RIL), refers to a timber harvesting technique where there are well-planned stages for the operation. These aim to reduce the negative impacts of the harvest on the forest.

RIL techniques include the following key elements: Pre-harvest inventory and mapping Tree selection Pre-harvest planning of roads and skid trails Pre-harvest climber cutting Directional felling Optimum recovery of usable timber Winching of logs to planned skid trails

Land policy reform

Amazon is essentially an open access resource so there little incentive for farmers or developers to use forest lands or resources in a sustainable manner. Simply clear some land then move on to another area when the land is no longer viable. Developers can also acquire rights to unoccupied forest land simply by "using" it for at least one year .

Some lawmakers has restricted the trade of certain rainforest tree species or enforce some of the existing laws like the 1996 law that forbade Amazon landowners from cutting more than 20% of the forest on their land

Expansion of protection areas

The protection within the Amazon region is to maximizing survival of biodiversity.

prioritizing areas for protection -- focusing on biological hotspots ensuring sufficient enforcement agencies and funding exist for the maintenance of protected areas .

encouraging the involvement of locals --local people must be made both partners and beneficiaries in conservation, and improving their living condition but not enemies of it.