Dozens of Ecoforestry operations around the world are pioneering a path toward sustainable forest management. Yet many of them are still searching for suitable markets and decent prices for their woods. Ecoforestry will succeed only if the market supports it.

The problem of deforestation

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Natural forests worldwide are disappearing at a rate unprecedented in human history. This has already negatively impacted biological diversity, wildlife habitat, soil and water quality, climatic stability, and the human communities that depend on forests for their survival.

In the tropics, the deforestation rate is approximately 100 acres per minute. The underlying causes of rainforest destruction are complex, but there is no question that uncontrolled logging is a major contributing factor. According to the International Tropical Timber Organization, as of 1990, only about one-eighth of one percent of tropical logging is conducted on a sustainable basis.

The destruction of tropical rainforests-home to more than half of the planet's plant and animal species-is an incalculable loss. The genetic biodiversity of the rainforest has vast potential medicinal and food reserves. In addition, rain forests help to maintain the global climatic balance. If current trends continue unchecked, the earth's oldest ecosystems (some tropical rainforests have been in continuous evolution for 70 million years) could be all but wiped out in a generation or two.

Deforestation and forest degradation extends beyond the tropics to forests in temperate and boreal regions as well. In the US, about 95% of the original old-growth forest has already been lost, and the destruction continues to this day. This is due in part to industrial forestry operations that clearcut natural forests and replant commercial species, converting biodiverse forest ecosystems into evenage monocultures. These tree farms bear as much resemblance to a natural forest as a corn field does to a wild meadow. In addition to harming wildlife habitat, large scale clearcutting often causes extensive damage to soils and watercourses, relies heavily on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and compromises timber quality.

Ecoforestry offers a solution

One effective solution to the squandering of the world's forest resources is a move to ecologically sustainable forest management. Sustainable forestry, or ecoforestry, balances economic and ecological needs by providing an alternative to destructive forms of forest exploitation such as uncontrolled logging, cattle-grazing or most kinds of agriculture. Ecoforestry aims to provide a continuous yield of quality forest products while preserving the essential biological and ecological integrity of a healthy, self-perpetuating forest. Ecoforestry can sustain both forests and the human communities that depend on them for their livelihoods.

Ecoforestry for natural forests embraces the following principles:

1. Ecological balance
   Forest management activities should strive to maintain the habitats of all native plant and animal species.
2. All-age management
   Trees within the forest should be of various ages, and openings created by logging should be tailored to the biological needs of the trees that grow there.
3. Explicit management planning
   Forestry operations should produce long-term adaptive management plans that state clear objectives.
4. Soil conservation
   Conventional forest management techniques often destroy soil organisms that support forest health. Logging should be done with light, small equipment, and road building should be minimized.
5. Sustainable yield
   The amount of timber removed from a given area must not exceed the amount that will grow in the interval between harvests.
6. Social responsibility
   Workers and local communities need to be stakeholders and beneficiaries of forest management practices.

To help you make sure that ecological forest products are used in your projects, we have drafted some sample specification guidelines.