This study examines the evidence for the biological sustainability of forest plantations. Biological sustainability is largely a silvicultural and forest management issue. Can forest plantations be grown indefinitely for rotation after rotation on the same site without serious risk? More specifically, can their long-term productivity be assured, or will it eventually decline over time? Are current intensive management practices, often with greater yields, more damaging than earlier practices? And does the better growth from these practices, along with rising atmospheric carbon dioxide, disguise evidence of site degradation or increasing risks from pests and diseases?
Understanding sustainability also applies to non-industrial uses of plantations. Does for example, the perpetual removal of leaves, twigs and litter from beneath tree stands, so widespread in India and China for example, degrade the site? What is the impact of management practices on other valuable non-timber products?
Specifically this paper addresses:
The focus is on developing countries - a fuller analysis is given by Evans (1999b).
