Sustainable Forestry in Bolivia - WUR

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Mar 3, 2003 - forestry law in 1997 and various ... Forestry in lowland Bolivia has taken great strides in the past few ... (Superintendencia Forestal) to enforce.
Sustainable Forestry in Bolivia

Todd S. Fredericksen

Beyond Planned Logging

ABSTRACT

Todd S. Fredericksen, Francis E. Putz, Preston Pattie, William Pariona, and Marielos Peña-Claros Forestry in lowland Bolivia has taken great strides in the past few years, progressing from a virtual absence of management to a system of regulated management planning. Nearly 1 million hectares of natural forests are now certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. To ensure sustainable forest management, however, Bolivian foresters need to go beyond the basics of planned logging and apply silvicultural treatments to secure regeneration, improve tree growth, and maintain stand quality. This change is a tall order in a developing country battered by a deep economic recession, where timber-mining interests are still powerful and silviculturists are in short supply. Keywords: certification; international forestry; silviculture; tropical forests

S

ince the implementation of a new forestry law in 1997 and various laws promoting decentralization and land reform, the management of Bolivian forests has vastly improved. The former system of high-grading is giving way to a regime based on management plans, prepared by foresters, that specify annual cutting areas and reduced-impact logging. One measure

of the scope of improved forest management in Bolivia is the nearly 1 million hectares (ha) of production forests now certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The nation has thus become a world leader in certified natural tropical forests (Nittler and Nash 1999; CFV 2002). Although inventories, forest maps, planned logging roads, designated annual cutting areas,

and reduced-impact logging have helped advance the sustainability of forest management in Bolivia, forest managers, certifiers, and regulatory agencies still have a long way to go in ensuring that forests will retain their ecological and economic value in future rotations. In this article, we review the history of Bolivian forestry, recent successes in implementing forest management planning, and limitations on the current Bolivian forestry model. The Past

Forest industries in Bolivia depend almost entirely on wood extracted Above: In Bolivia, selective logging without the use of silvicultural treatments is among the factors contributing to the potential for deforestation.

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Woody vines (lianas) present a major management problem for Bolivian foresters. Photo by Todd S. Fredericksen.

from natural forests, because the country’s poor infrastructure, lack of investment capital, insecure land tenure, and landlocked position have all limited the use of plantation forestry. Unfortunately, there has been a near absence of silvicultural tending of these natural forests. Instead, a tradition of virtually unregulated high-grading has left its scar on nearly all forestry concessions and community-owned forests in the country. Until recently, nearly all Bolivian timber trade comprised just three species—mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), Spanish cedar (Cedrela fissilis), and Spanish oak (Amburana cearensis). Mahogany alone accounted for more than 60 percent of total export value during the 1980s and early 1990s, and much of it left the country as raw or rough-sawn logs. Moreover, the value of the timber was reduced through poor harvesting practices and inefficient milling (Boot and Gullison 1995; Gullison et al. 1996). Harvestable stems of these species, particularly mahogany, are consequently now rare in many regions of the country. Unplanned logging has damaged residual stands, thereby reducing their value. Timber theft has further degraded forest stands, and wildlife poaching has compromised their biodiversity. Historically, attempts to regulate the extraction of forest resources in Bolivia have failed. A 1974 forestry law gave extensive regulatory powers to the Centro de Desarrollo Forestal (CDF), 38

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including administration of forestry concessions, national parks, and reserves. At one point, forestry authorities even prohibited log exports in an attempt to increase value-added processing by domestic industries. However, the institutional infrastructure of CDF was insufficient to monitor forestry concessions and enforce regulations. Most forestry concessions cut timber without management plans and paid little attention to sustainable management (Nittler and Nash 1999). The Present

The forestry law of 1996 replaced the ineffective 1974 law with more progressive managerial and enforcement provisions. Stipulations include the obligatory preparation of five-year management plans based on forest inventory data and timber stock mapping, annual operating plans, mandatory compliance with best management practices, and the confiscation of illegally harvested timber. The law created a forestry superintendent’s office (Superintendencia Forestal) to enforce forestry laws and review and monitor compliance with management plans. An area-based tax replaced one based on volume in an attempt to discourage concessionaires from high-grading the most valuable species and to encourage development of uses for lesser-known species. The rise of forest certification in Bolivia can largely be attributed to the new forestry law (Nittler and Nash

1999). Several companies have been aggressive in using certification to increase access to export markets for their products. However, many other companies with limited capital and less initiative have not yet sought certification. Certification is not free, and in the current Bolivian economy, many companies are working with extremely low profit margins. The scope of recent improvements in Bolivian forestry and the speed at which they were obtained should not be understated. In only five years, the virtual void in management planning was filled by the current system of regulated forest planning using inventories, tree marking, stand mapping, and reduced-impact logging techniques. Many of the companies and community forests that adopted these practices and improved their administrative efficiency have been rewarded with forest certification (Nittler and Nash 1999). Increased enforcement of regulations, such as those governing annual cutting areas, was important, but many components of planned logging were adopted readily because they increased profits. For example, the financial benefits of stock maps, planned skid trails, directional felling, and other components of reduced-impact logging (e.g., Boltz et al. 2001; Holmes et al. 2002) are recognized by many Bolivian loggers. Stock maps also open up the opportunity to harvest species by species, which has advantages for milling, kiln drying, and marketing.

Despite those substantial improvements, there are other obstacles beyond planned harvesting that must be surmounted before Bolivia’s forest management can be considered sustainable. For example, the forests need protection from wildfires, illegal harvesting, and colonization. At the stand level, the problems principally involve regeneration failures of commercial species after selective logging—the removal of only the best-formed and largest stems of the most valuable species—and diameter-limit cutting, both of which degrade stand quality. In a review of regeneration data and interviews with foresters and scientists familiar with Bolivian forests, Mostacedo and Fredericksen (1999) found that nearly 80 percent of commercial timber species were not regenerating at levels sufficient to replace harvested trees. One of the most common causes identified for these regeneration failures was harvesting practices that create conditions—small canopy openings, lack of exposed mineral soil for seedling establishment, a scarcity of seed trees due to high-grading—that discourage regeneration of shade-intolerant commercial tree species. Other causes included insufficient knowledge about the silvics of the tree species being harvested and absence of postharvest silvicultural treatments needed to enhance the recruitment and growth of commercial species. Various strategies for improving regeneration in Bolivian forests have been developed, and some promising low-cost solutions for promoting regeneration of commercial species in managed forests have been proposed (Fredericksen and Peralta 2001). Still, regeneration problems in Bolivian forests remain almost completely unaddressed, and this lack of regeneration receives little attention from forest managers, government forest agencies, and forest certifiers. For example, forest management plans are often approved despite omission of even the most simple diagnostics of regeneration within logged compartments. A similar lack of concern seems to exist about the composition and quality of residual stands after logging. Despite the use of reduced-impact logging

and low harvesting intensities, forests may still sustain high levels of damage because of insufficient training and poor supervision of logging crews (Jackson et al. 2002). Furthermore, in the absence of stand-tending operations, diameter-limit cutting is gradually leading to the commercial demise of many timber species (Fredericksen 1998), particularly mahogany. After logging, regeneration of valuable commercial species is sparse, logging gaps and future crop trees are covered with vines, and noncommercial tree species are left to dominate the canopy. The length of cutting cycles in Bolivia is also a cause for concern. In the first round of management plans after enactment of the 1996 forestry law, cutting cycles were estimated using growth increments from forests in other regions of the tropics because there were insufficient data on tree growth rates in Bolivian forests. Most cutting cycles were set using the 20year minimum established by the new forestry law, although most management plans included a promise to recalculate cutting cycles once local data were available. The law stipulated that for each 1,000 ha of harvested forest, a 1-ha growth-and-yield plot was to be installed to ensure that relevant data would become available. Unfortunately, after five years, fewer than 10 percent of managed forests have any usable growth data, either because plots were poorly installed and measured or because they were not established at all (unpublished data, Superintendencia Forestal of Bolivia). Growth data from the few useful plots available paint a pessimistic picture, suggesting that in the continued absence of silvicultural treatments, cutting cycles of 50 to 60 years may be required to maintain today’s already low (5–15 m3/ha) cutting volumes (E. Dauber and F. Contreras, unpublished data). The failure of Bolivian forest managers to embrace silviculture may be traced to a variety of causes. The most important reason is the disincentive for forest owners, concessionares, and managers to invest in the management of their forests, especially for treatments that will not yield economic re-

turns in the immediate future. The disincentive for silvicultural investments is particularly strong in Bolivia, where the cost of capital is high and where, until recently, there were few, if any, real restrictions on logging. The lingering economic recession, continued illegal logging, and insecure land tenure reinforce the lack of interest in implementing silvicultural treatments. Moreover, the Superintendencia Forestal lacks the resources and political clout needed to obligate forest managers to comply with existing regulations (such as establishment and monitoring of growth and yield plots), much less create new and technically more sophisticated regulations regarding the implementation of silvicultural treatments. The certification process also appears to inadvertently help validate the assumption that planned logging is enough to ensure sustainable forestry. If certifiers do not demand that forest owners and managers address problems with regeneration, growth, and stand quality, companies may feel that their management practices are already sustainable. Finally, conservation scientists and advocates of tropical forest preservation also discourage silvicultural treatments because their application represents additional stand disturbances beyond that of logging. When it is not possible to prevent timber harvests, these groups recommend that loggers cause as little disturbance as possible and minimize silvicultural interventions (see Fimbel et al. 2001). Some conservation scientists have even promoted rapid high-grading of forests as a means to encourage the abandonment of management as soon as possible, perhaps leaving the remnant forest available for purchase by conservation organizations at a low price (Rice et al. 1997; Bowles et al. 1998). The Future

The problems that Bolivian forestry faces are familiar to other tropical countries, including limited knowledge about highly complex ecosystems, little experience in the use of silviculture, scarce investment capital and high interest rates, and a limited ability to regulate natural resource use and enforce March 2003



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existing environmental regulations. In addition, Bolivia has endured several years of deep economic recession, in which the forestry sector has been particularly hard hit. Economic crises in both Peru and Brazil precipitated a drop in timber prices in these countries, thereby undercutting Bolivian timber values. The recent economic collapse of Argentina also shut off access to a major timber export market. At least partially because of these problems, Bolivian timber exports in 2001 were only 50 percent of levels reported three years earlier (CFB 2002). Unfortunately, the dismal economic conditions coincided with the progressive changes in the forestry law and the incipient forest certification movement in Bolivia. There was early skepticism among Bolivian companies about certification, but it has been embraced as a means to increase access to markets, such as those in Europe, where certification can command a premium. Many companies have not reaped the benefits of certification, however, in the current economic climate. As of 40

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this writing, the Bolivian congress is seriously considering the repeal of some restrictions in the new forestry law to placate the increasingly angry forestry sector. In such times, it is the role of foresters to hold a course toward sustainable forestry and to continue working to develop cost-effective approaches to silviculture. However, there is a disturbing scarcity of forestry professionals trained in silviculture in Bolivia and a reluctance within the Superintendencia Forestal to push for new reforms when powerful voices are calling for a return to unsustainable logging practices. In this environment, it is conceivable that there will be a loss in area of certifiably managed forests in Bolivia and increased degradation of the forest resource. It is now important for Bolivian foresters and regulators, as well as representatives of the forest certification movement, international development agencies, and the international forestry community, to continue to lend support to the faltering new forestry model in Bolivia. In particular, we must send a strong message that minimizing logging damage is not synonymous with sustainable forest management. If Bolivian forestry is to be truly sustainable and move beyond the basics of planned logging, forest managers must embrace the use of silvicultural treatments, albeit simple and modest, to ensure the viability of future timber harvesting in Bolivia. Literature Cited BOLTZ, F., D.R. CARTER, T.P. HOLMES, and R. PEREIRA JR. 2001. Financial returns under uncertainty for conventional and reduced-impact logging in permanent production forests of the Brazilian Amazon. Ecological Economics 39:387–98. BOOT, R.G.A., and R.E. GULLISON. 1995. Approaches to developing sustainable extraction systems for tropical forest products. Ecological Applications 5:893–903. BOWLES, I., R. RICE, R.M. MITTERMEIER, and A. DA FONSECA. 1998. Logging and tropical forest conservation. Science 280:1899–900. CÁMARA FORESTAL DE BOLIVIA (CFB). 2002. Bolivia Forestal. Año 3, No. 4. Santa Cruz. CONSEJO BOLIVIANO PARA LA CERTIFICACIÓN VOLUNTARIA FORESTAL (CFV). 2002. Boletín Informativo. Año 6. No. 1. Santa Cruz. DAUBER, E., and F. CONTRERAS. Unpublished growth and yield data. Proyecto BOLFOR, Santa Cruz, Bolivia. FIMBEL, R.A., A. GRAJAL, and J.G. ROBINSON, eds. 2001. The cutting edge: Conserving wildlife in logged tropical

forests. New York: Columbia University Press. FREDERICKSEN, T.S. 1998. Limitations of low-intensity selective and selection logging for sustainable tropical forestry. Commonwealth Forestry Review 77:262–66. FREDERICKSEN, T.S., and R. PERALTA. 2001. Opciones silviculturales de los bosques tropicales de Bolivia. In Regeneración natural y silvicultura de los bosques tropicales en Bolivia, eds. B. Mostacedo and T.S. Fredericksen, 157–172. Santa Cruz, Bolivia: Proyecto BOLFOR. GULLISON, R.E., S.N. PANFIL, J.J. STROUSE, and S.P. HUBBELL. 1996. Ecology and management of mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla King) in the Chimanes Forest, Beni, Bolivia. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 122:9–34. HOLMES, T.P., G.M. BLATE, J.C. ZWEEDE, R. PEREIRA JR., P. BARRETO, F. BOLTZ, and R. BAUCH. 2002. Financial and ecological indicators of reduced-impact logging performance in the eastern Amazon. Forest Ecology and Management 163:93–110. JACKSON, S.M., T.S. FREDERICKSEN, and J.R. MALCOLM. 2002. Disturbance and residual stand damage due to selective logging in a Bolivian humid forest. Forest Ecology and Management 166:271–83. MOSTACEDO, B., and T.S. FREDERICKSEN. 1999. Regeneration status of important forest tree species in Bolivia: Assessment and recommendations. Forest Ecology and Management 124:263–73. NITTLER, J.B., and D.W. NASH. 1999. The certification model for forestry in Bolivia. Journal of Forestry 97(3):32–36. RICE, R.E., R.E. GULLISON, and J.W. REID. 1997. Can sustainable management save tropical forests? Scientific American April: 382–86.

Todd S. Fredericksen (tfredericksen@ ferrum.edu) is assistant professor of forestry and wildlife, Life Sciences Division, Ferrum College, 212 Garber Hall, Ferrum, VA 24408; Francis E. Putz is professor of botany, University of Florida, Gainesville; Preston Pattie is chief of party, Proyecto BOLFOR, Santa Cruz, Bolivia; William Pariona is silviculturist and Marielos Peña-Claros is forest ecologist, Proyecto BOLFOR and the Forest Management Trust, University of Florida, Gainesville.