Can we productively manage natural forests

1
Can we productively manage naturalforests even
agricultural landscapesinterspersed with forests
in a way that maintains biodiversity?

• Biological constraints
• Socio-economic constraint

2
Biological constraints What evidence is there?

• Surprisingly most evidence shows that timber
  harvesting per se has modest impact on diversity!
• More often changes composition and favors certain
  species
• Why?
• Natural disturbance a part of every forest and
  species are adapted to a range of disturbance
  regimes

3
Trade-offs to maintain diversity in a productive
forest region

• "Lightly" or "Moderately" use manage all
  forested areas Vs.
• Mix of managements
• Preserve ecological important remote forests
• "Light" use of distant forests with sustainable
• practices and those that enhance biodiversity
  (pay attention to rare habitats, microhabitats,
  structure, rare species, etc.)

4
Trade-offs to maintain diversity(Continued)

• Intensively manage forests nearer to
  transportation, industry, and urban
  concentrations
• Use a mix of agroforestry systems and intersperse
  agriculture with forest blocks
• Use intensively managed plantations located close
  to transportation, industry, and urban
  concentrations

5
In a landscape containing a patchwork of forests
and agricultural lands

• For certain animals, loss of habitat area and
  structure major problem
• For plants, other factors likely more important
  than fragmentation or habitat size per se
• These include exotic species (diseases, plants,
  insects), altered environment (change in fire or
  flooding regime, eutrophication, N deposition,
  climate change, etc.) which are far more
  important in regulating biodiversity and
  composition

6
Results may differ for Wood Savanna Landscapes
than for Forests! . WHY?

• Woodland and savanna landscapes naturally made up
  of patchy forest, savanna and grassland
  elements..
• ....so heterogeneity of habitats (i.e. a mix of
  grassland and woodland patches) may be more
  important than a "critical patch or habitat
  size", if plants and an als are adapted to the
  mosaic landscape

7
Major threats to imperiled species (US) Wilcove
et al. 1998 (BioScience) 48607-615

• Logging provides a similar threat as disruptions
  of natural fire regimes
• Two to three times as many species threatened by
• Agriculture
• Land conversion for development
• Exotic species
• Outdoor recreation
• Livestock grazing

8
Socio-economic constraint - Can ecologically
sound forestry/ag occur given social, political
and economic realities?

• Must be either economic incentive for individuals
  to act in environmentally sound ways (
  sufficient capital to do so), or...
• Collective (i.e., government) "regulation" of
  resource use .....
• (e.g., either balance of short-term vs. long-
  term economic goals or a balance of
  environmental vs. economic goals)
• that directly or indirectly incorporate long-term
  costs (either value losses or provide for needed
  expenses)

9
Examples

• Preservation
• Pricing (e.g. of timber concessions or land
  sales) that incorporates long-term environmental
  and economic costs and benefits
• Subsidies that are based on long-term economic
  and environmental sustainability rather than
  short-term economic gain (or economic loss for
  society that benefits powerful classes or
  interests)

10
Examples (cont.)

• Regulation of spatial or temporal patterns (when,
  how much, spatial configuration of logging)
• Regulation of harvest protocol (requirements for
  numbers of species harvested, minimizing road,
  etc.)
• Regulation of post-harvest "site preparation"
  (i.e. tending for the future forest)

11
INBio and Merck- Valuing Biodiversity

• Kari Eichstaedt

12
Biodiversity in Costa Rica

• 4 of all living species are found in Costa Rica
• Costa Rica is only 0.01 of earths land mass
• Out of 500,000 species, 87,000 have been
  described
• 98.8 of vertebrate
• 90 of plants
• fungi, bacteria, and viruses 2
• Varied topography
• Climate variations

13
National Institute of Biodiversity (INBio)

• Non-governmental, non profit, public interest
  organization
• Directed by Founders Group and Board of Directors
• Created in 1989- A world leader in conservation
  for biodiversity

14
INBios Mission

• Biodiversity inventory, with emphasis on our
  national protected areas
• Search for sustainable uses of biodiversity by
  any and all social sectors and promotion of these
  uses
• Organization and administration of biodiversity
  information
• Transfer and dissemination of biodiversity
  knowledge

15
Merck-INBio Agreement

• 1991-Merck Co., Inc. (USA) agrees to pay INBio
  1 million to screen samples
• INBio provides Merck with a number of plant,
  fungal, and environmental samples from Costa
  Ricas protected areas for scientific evaluation
• Merck will help fund INBios classification of
  native species in exchange for access to all
  species

16
Merck and Co.

• Mercks Objective
• To obtain samples of wild plants and animals for
  pharmaceutical screening purposes, in the hopes
  of developing new medicines Search to discover
  new drugs to fight AIDS, heart disease or other
  incurable diseases
• Any profit earned from a Costa Rican derived drug
  will be shared with Costa Rica
• Merck will train Costa Rican biologists to test
  plants for medicinal purposes

17
What other examples have we studied/discussed?