Ecology and economics cannot be considered separately where the environment is concerned, as the two disciplines are inevitably interlinked. In the field of forest management, the linkages are particularly strong, and this extends particularly to the assessment of the environmental impacts of forestry projects. For our purposes, the environment can be defined as:
“the natural surroundings of an organised human society, taking account of the effects of that society, reflected back on to its population in both quantifiable and subjective manners. It is recognised that civilisation implies consideration for all natural objects, living or not, and their interactions” (Chambers Dictionary of Science and Technology).
We thus value the ecology of our natural surroundings, both in a manner which can be readily economically quantified and in a subjective way which is more difficult to include in the decision-making process through a simple analysis of costs and benefits to society. When we modify our forested surroundings, we need to take account of how these changes will ultimately affect us. Thus, we have a basic rationale for undertaking environmental assessment. However, to plan for or perform the assessment requires a good knowledge of the underlying conditions which will determine what impacts our actions will have.
This section on background to environmental assessment in forestry discusses basic ecological and institutional factors to be taken into consideration during an EA. Ecological factors are further related to biodiversity in Asian forests, an issue that is of increasing importance to both forest managers and those involved in the processes of development. Forests do not exist in isolation from a regional, national and international policy and institutional context. During an assessment, the implications of a development must be placed in as broad a context as possible. For example, it must be recognized that the nature and magnitude of economic impacts stemming from environmental changes hinge on these underlying conditions. These will also include land use and social issues, both inside and outside the forest.
It is impossible to perform an EA without consideration of the ecology of the site being assessed. Ecology is the study of the relationships between living organisms and their environment. This includes both physical and biotic factors:
Physical factors include climate, as determined by latitude, longitude, elevation, aspect and local or regional topographic features, and soils, as determined by parent rock, climate and history.
Biotic factors include positive and negative interactions between organisms both above and below ground.
In many cases there is a feedback between physical and biotic factors, for example a soils may result from vegetation growth and decay, or forests may alter climates and hydrology. These complex interactions between organisms and the affect that organisms have on their environment need to be taken into consideration during an EA.
Biotic and physical factors need to be placed into the context of a variety of scales of both space and time:
Space at global, regional and local scales.
Time at the scale of forest community dynamics, regeneration time of individual components of the forest, and at the scale of political decision making or the project cycle.
For example, a planned development may require deforestation or temporary change to the native forest of a catchment area during the construction phase, but natural species rich forest cover is required on the catchment during the operation phase for soil protection and in accordance with a national policy on biological diversity. To avoid change to the forest during the construction phase will require expensive alternatives. During the EA process it is necessary to know the ability of the native forest to respond to change: in other words, how resilient is it? If the forest is capable of recovering, then you can recommend the cheaper option of temporary change. If the forest is not capable of recovering, then the more expensive option of avoidance of change will be needed to fulfil obligations on catchment and biodiversity protection. Very often however, alternatives are not necessarily more expensive if full consideration is given to ecological constraints during the project planning phase, particular if other costs associated with ecological change are taken into account. The main ecological factors, viewed at different scales in space and time, are outlined below.
The main physical factors normally considered by ecologists are climate and soil. A further factor considered here is spatial arrangement. This is the shape of a forest, or its distance from other forests. Spatial factors are particularly important for conservation of biodiversity: simply by choosing an appropriate forest shape, or ensuring suitable forest linkages or stepping stones, it may be possible to conserve more biodiversity than if the wrong shape is used, or links between forest areas are lost.
| Box 2.1 | Wet and Dry Forests: Vulnerability and Response to Conversion |
Climate in subhumid tropical areas is more favourable for humans and cattle than the hot and wet weather of the humid tropics. As a result, higher population density and. therefore, higher pressure for conversion is found in dry forest regions. A severe dry season makes burning easier and more efficient during conversion and cultivation than in the wet tropics. During fires, most above ground biomass burns whereas root biomass is protected from combustion. Because the root:shoot biomass ratio is higher in dry than wet forests, dry forest may be less vulnerable to nutrient losses and erosion during clear cutting and burning since roots decompose in situ. Drought and fire greatly reduce soil cover in dry forest areas converted to agriculture. Low vegetative cover at the beginning of the wet season promotes soil erosion on these open agricultural areas. The annual drought causes shortages of forage and water during the dry period. This promotes overgrazing and, therefore, low soil cover that also increases the risk of soil erosion. A strong dry season restrains biological activity for several months, lowering pest problems. In wet forests, high rainfall and continuous cultivation accelerate the leaching losses of nutrients as well as nutrient depletion due to harvesting. A shorter growing season in dry forest areas reduces cropping possibilities, but also reduces the risk of soil degradation as a result of continuous farming and leaching. Soils in the humid tropics are more susceptible to soil compaction because wet soil has less resistance to the process than dry soils, provided the wet soil is not at or near saturation. The biomass of dry forest is less than moist/wet forests, which makes them easier to clear-cut and burn. Dry forest has a higher coppicing capacity than wet forest. Coppicing keeps roots alive for longer periods, reducing nutrient leaching (promoted by root decomposition), and increasing nutrient conservation through root uptake. Living roots are also important in reducing the risk of soil erosion by providing a retention matrix for soil particles. Coppicing appears to be particularly advantageous in dry habitats where the difficulty of seedling establishment may be great. Low stem diameter, combined with high coppicing capacity, makes dry forest trees good sources of firewood and forage. Tropical moist/wet forests have higher species diversity than dry forests, but the latter may have large numbers of endemic species. Taking this into consideration, it seems that the risk of losing species during land transformation is higher in seasonally dry habitats, even on small perturbed areas. Lower diversity as well as lower biomass of dry in contrast to moist/wet forests, makes dry forest a lesser source of potential natural resources.” Source: Reproduced with minor adaptation and omission of text references from J.M. Maass (1995). | |
Climate varies with latitude and elevation. The higher the latitude, the greater the seasonal temperature variation. The higher the elevation, the greater the daily temperature variation. Although sometimes these two gradients are equated, they are not equivalent. This can sometimes cause confusion in forest nomenclature, for example montane tropical forests are sometimes called “temperate forests” whereas in fact “temperate” more commonly refers to forests in the mid-high latitudes. Similarly, high elevation tropical vegetation is often referred to as “alpine” where-as in fact alpine vegetation occurs on mountains in temperate latitudes, taking its name from the Alps mountains of Europe. An EA must use a consistent forest classification terminology which can be correlated with physical factors and biotic content. Temperature, in addition to wind and species, determines the rate of evapotranspiration from forests. At low tropical elevations, a greater amount of rainfall is needed to maintain closed forest cover than at cooler high elevations.
Annual rainfall patterns vary throughout Asia, from places which receive a high rainfall thoughout the year, such as New Guinea, Borneo and Sumatra, to areas which show marked seasonality in rainfall, such as the Lesser Sunda Islands, Thailand and India. Comparisons between wet and dry forests in terms of their vulnerability and response to conversion are presented in Box 2.1.
Rainfall patterns also change from year to year. During El Niño years (Box 2.2), when there is a major southern shift of climatic patterns in the Pacific, droughts occur in some places and floods in others. An EA must take into account the frequency of very dry or wet years and take into account the risk of impact a development may have in drought or floods. Over a much greater time scale, of tens of thousands of years, global climate changes in response to changes in the Earth's orbit. Even though such climate changes are outside the scale relevant to risk assessment, they can have a marked effect on natural forest composition as they are within the time scale of forest regeneration and evolution of forest species. Forests with high biodiversity values are often those which have experienced a particular long term climatic or geological history. Knowledge of these processes enables predictions to be made of both the biodiversity values and resilience of forests.
Additional moisture is often gained by high elevation forests through horizontal or “occult” precipitation. This occurs when mist and cloud condense on forest tree leaves or plants growing on the forest trees (epiphytes). Whereas overall rainfall caused by large scale climatic processes, such as the monsoon, will not change if an area is deforested, local scale occult precipitation will be lost if forest is removed. In an EA it is very often necessary to determine the impact of a development on the hydrological cycle. Forests also regulate local microclimates, for example the high humidity climate in the forest understorey. There is less temperature and humidity variation in structurally complex forest than in areas cleared of forest. Forest regeneration may depend on the presence of a forest microclimate. Foresters recognise this in the use of nurse trees.
| Box 2.2 | El Niño |
Cold water up welling in the Peru Coastal Current is rich in nutrients and are an important fishery and support millions of sea birds. Occasionally, up welling fails, the sea becomes abnormally warm and mass mortality of fish and birds ensue. This anomalous behaviour of the Peru Coastal Current is known as the EI Niño (The Child) as in the infrequent years when it occurs, it develops soon after Christmas. The term El Niño or ENSO (El Niño/Southern Oscillation) is now used to describe occasions when large positive sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies develop in the South Pacific and heavy rainfall occurs along the coasts of Peru and northern Chile. The changes are erratic, major El Niño events occurred in 1891, 1925, 1941, 1957, 1965, 1972 and 1982. ENSO events are correlated with: lower rainfall in western Oceania, India, south-eastern Africa and north-eastern South America; higher rainfall in western South America and eastern equatorial Africa. The relatively small changes of the El Niño are correlated with large changes in the ocean-atmosphere relationship. The changes occur rapidly with no intermediate stage maintained for more than a few months. The effects can be far reaching: maize yields in Zimbabwe have been correlated with eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean sea surface temperatures. In 1991-93, a moderate ENSO event, corresponded to extremely severe drought in south-eastern Africa affecting nearly 100 million people. In South East Asia, ENSO events resulted in droughts and fires which affected extensive areas of forest in Kalimantan and Sabah. During the El Niño of 1982-1983 in East Kalimantan 8000 km2 of unlogged primary forest, 5500 km2 of peat swamp forest and 12,000 km2 of selectively logged forest were damaged by fire. The fires began in areas of forest disturbed by shifting cultivation and logging. Further drought related fires occurred in 1986, 1987 and 1991. Source: Malingreau, Stephens, and Fellows (1985); Cane, Eshel and Buckland (1994) | |
Once a natural forest is removed, it will not necessarily regenerate it's previous structure and species composition because of changes in the microclimate upon which young forest plants depend. The long time scales in which forests have been present in Asia can also mean that forests could have become established in former wetter climates and have subsequently maintained themselves through regulation of microclimates. Again, once removed the forest will not reestablish itself in its former state. These forests lack resilience to change. In contrast, forests which are adapted to frequent climatic disturbance, such as those in areas where cyclones occur regularly, are obviously resilient to dramatic changes. EAs often require an evaluation to be made of forest resilience.
Soil type is determined by climate, parent rock and inundation, and is influenced by vegetation. Soils are protected by forest cover, which reduce erosion and loss of mineral nutrients. On deep, well drained, fertile soils, forest productivity and resilience will be much better than on shallow, waterlogged, infertile soils. With the exception of volcanic soils, which are generally fertile, in the humid tropics soil fertility is usually related to the amount of humus present. Humus is organic matter derived from rotted vegetation, so soil fertility often depends on the type of vegetation cover. Soils derived from recent riverine silt deposits on flood plains are fertile, but prone to waterlogging or flooding and so support swamp forest. Peat swamp forest grows on areas with peat deposits. A distinctive forest type called heath forest grows on highly leached, often waterlogged, infertile podzols, for example on old beach deposits. A characteristic forest with a small crowned, low canopy can also be found on ultrabasic rocks, such as serpentine, which are poor in nutrients and often contain toxic metals. Limestone deposits produce fertile soils, but these are often shallow and prone to water stress during dry periods. In coastal areas mangrove forest occurs on deposited silt which is subject to marine tidal inundation.
If a forest area is to be fragmented by a development, and biodiversity conservation is an important objective, then careful design of a series of reserves can help conserve as many species as possible. Spatial considerations can be related to the equilibrium theory of island biogeography by MacArthur and Wilson (1963, 1967) which suggests that the number of species on an island is due to the extinction and immigration rates. The larger the island, the more species it will contain and the nearer the island is to a source of colonisers, the greater will be the immigration rate. Natural forest fragments are not equivalent to theoretical islands because if they have resulted from recent fragmentation, the species they contain were present prior to fragmentation. Other practical problems with island biogeography theory are that species are not necessarily interchangeable and that the chance of a species becoming extinct is not always related to its abundabce. However, if the equilibrium theory applies, then the original biodiversity will decrease until it reaches equilibrium for the size and degree of isolation of the forest fragment. This will be faster for mobile organisms such as birds, than for plants.
Corridors of forest habitat between forest fragments have been suggested as a means of improving migration of forest dependant organisms. Shape of a forest fragment is also critical. Because of factors such as microclimate changes at the forest edge, circular shapes are considered to be better reserves for forest biodiversity than long thin shapes. In practise, it may be more important to design a series of reserves that cover any natural forest variation in the area, for example on elevational or moisture gradients, or on different soil types. The type of land use between forests may also have an important influence on maintenance of biodiversity.
The composition of a forest is determined by more than physical factors. Species interact amongst themselves and with each other in complex ways. These interactions have given rise to concepts such as keystone species, which are those species upon which many other species depend. For example fig trees are an important food source for many animals, from the minute fig wasps to birds and monkeys. Many forest plants have developed mutualisms with animals, for example some plants contain to ant colonies which protect their host against attack by herbivores. The high diversity of tropical rain forests has been attributed to pest pressure, in which a tree carries increasing number of species specific pests over time, which then prevent its offspring from regenerating nearby by eating young seedlings. Low diversity in tropical forests has also been attributed to species interactions. Trees with ectomycorrhizal fungi associated with their roots -- for example, valuable timber trees in the family Dipterocarpaceae -- tend to grow in single species groves. An example of qualitative criteria used to evaluate biotic aspects of biodiversity values is given in Box 2.3.
| Box 2.3 | Qualitative Assessment of Biodiversity |
A qualitative assessment of biodiversity can be based on the type of species and vegetation communities present and their distribution patterns. For example, the following qualitative criteria could be recognised:
Source: Lovett, J.C., Hatton, J., Mwasumbi, L.B. and Gerstle, J.H. (In press). | |
Forests also change over time. Some of these changes are at time scales more in keeping with the life span of trees rather than foresters, and certainly at much greater time scales than political decisions. Other changes, particularly those following disturbance, can be quite rapid and knowledge of these successional changes is important to predict how forests will change following a management input. Many forests in Asia are subject to, or have been subject to, shifting cultivation or logging and so form a mosaic with different areas being subject to different types of management at different times. The concept of succession suggests that forests should reach a climax state that is determined by physical factors such as climate and soils. In fact, because of long term dynamics and the influence of chance events, a climax state is impossible to define. Nonetheless, the concept of climax forest is often invoked as a management objective for conservation. In an EA it is important to clearly define time scales and long term objectives for the management of a forest area.
A further subject of debate amongst ecologists is the synergy of interactions between organisms in an ecological community. Synergy is where the whole is more than the sum of the parts. For example, a species rich forest may perform ecological functions, such as maintenance of the hydrological cycle. Experiments in grassland and with weeds have shown that species rich communities are more resilient to drought, are more productive, and utilise nutrients more efficiently than less rich communities. An alternative theoretical view is that the more complex and interlinked a community is, the more unstable it becomes and so the more susceptible it is to minor impacts causing major changes. The functional aspect of interactions between organisms in a forest is particularly important in terms of the value of the community as a whole being greater than the sum of the value of each of the individuals in the forest.
Forest classification can be based on three main characteristics: physical factors, structure and species composition. If a classification is based on physical factors, it can be said to be deterministic as it is determined by climate and soils. If a classification is based on structure it is said to be physiognomic. If a classification is based on species composition it is biogeographic or biotic. The problem with physiognomic and biotic classifications is that they can describe a forest that is in a rapidly changing successional state and the classification may no longer be valid in a few years time as the forest grows. A deterministic classification relies on the concept of climax communities. In practise it is useful to combine elements of these different types of classification. A classification does not have to be rigid - variation in natural vegetation is very often continuous and where classification lines are drawn is arbitrary. In an EA, the important aspect of forest classification is that the system used is appropriate for the problem being assessed and that it can be linked to a regional or national system for comparative policy purposes.
In an operational sense, biodiversity can be viewed from a functional and genetic perspective. These two different perspectives can be contrasted by comparing two different forest types. A lowland rain forest can have a high genetic diversity, but may not be important for catchment protextion. A mangrove forest may have low species diversity -- at least for trees -- but has a high functional importance for fisheries. The two different aspects are described in Box 2.4 with extracts from the Global Biodiversity Assessment and the Biodiversity Convention.
Genetic diversity is described by the taxonomic nomenclature which divides living organisms into kingdoms, families, genera, species, subspecies and varieties. Although there have been recent developments in taxonomic methods using DNA sequences and cladistic analysis, ultimately the decision of the level at which classify a particular organism is arbitrary and varies from taxonomist to taxonomist. Some species are very clearly distinct, with no close relatives. Other species could be regarded as subspecies or varieties, depending on individual taxonomic viewpoints. The nature of species is an important consideration in an EA when biodiversity is represented quantitatively by species counts, although in practise it is usually very clear which sites are rich in genetic diversity. Arbitrary decisions are also made in terms of which species should receive conservation priority. This is a qualitative approach. Not all species are regarded equally, for example tigers attract a great deal of attention in comparison to many other threatened species.
Of particular interest are species with restricted distributions, also known as narrow range endemics. If a forest containing endemic species is replaced with an alternative land use as part of a development process, then those species are liable to become extinct. The degree of taxonomic distance between an endemic species and its nearest relatives may influence concepts of its value (see Chapter 4). A taxonomically isolated species will be more unique genetically than one which has a number of close relatives (see also the discussion of uniqueness as an economic concept in Chapter 4). Ethical considerations relating to extinction of species are of prime importance in this case, and these are likely to substantially influence decision-making.
| Box 2.4 | Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functions |
Global Biodiversity Assessment, 1995 “Ecosystems provide services to humans that are crucial to their well-being. These services are not widely recognised, nor are they properly valued in economic or even social terms.” “All ecosystem services are affected to one degree or another by reductions in diversity. This fact follows simply from the greater resource capture, i.e. of energy, water, nutrients, sediments, of diverse systems compared to simple systems. However, depending on the time dimension and functional types present, the exact relationship between function and diversity will vary.” “As society exerts ever greater control and management of the ecosystems of the world, great care must be taken to ensure their sustainability, which is due in large part to the buffering capacity provided by biotic complexity.” Convention on Biological Diversity, Rio de Janeiro, 1992 Article 1. Objective “The objectives of this Convention, to be pursued in accordance with its relevant provisions, are the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilisation of genetic resources, including by appropriate access to genetic resources and by appropriate transfer of relevant technologies, taking into account all rights over those resources and to technologies, and by appropriate funding.” Article 2. Use of Terms For the purposes of this Convention: “Biological diversity” means the variability among living organisms from all source including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems. “Biological resources” includes genetic resources, organisms or parts thereof, populations, or any other biotic component of ecosystems with actual or potential use or values for humanity. “Country of origin of genetic resources” means the country which possesses these genetic resources in in-situ conditions. Source: Global Biodiversity Assessment (1995); Glowka, L., Burhenne-Guilmin, F. & H. Synge (1994). | |
Rare species and widespread species are part of populations, which raises further issues. A species is actually a series of populations, or metapopulations. In order for a population to maintain itself over time, the numbers of individuals must be greater than a minimum viable population size and genetic variation in the population must be sufficient to avoid the deleterious affects of inbreeding. Functional aspects of biodiversity relate to the synergistic effects of many species occurring together that have been demonstrated experimentally in terms of increased ecosystem productivity, drought resistance, and nutrient utilisation. Again, from a purely economic perspective, the value of biodiversity functions needs to be evaluated when considering development options and combined with values attributed to individual species. Ideally, a development should be able to proceed without loss of either genetic or functional biodiversity, either through careful planning or appropriate mitigation measures.
Spatially, biodiversity is not distributed evenly. Some forests are much richer than others. Quantitative forest biodiversity has been related deterministically to environmental factors such as rainfall: the higher the rainfall, the greater the numbers of species. If species numbers could be related purely to environmental factors, in an EA it would be possible predict diversity from measured environmental variables. However, both quantitative and qualitative diversity are also determined by both the long and short term history of an area. Whilst environmental factors may indicate the potential of a site, it is historical factors that are more likely to be of importance during an EA. For example, a forest might be in a high rainfall area, but if it is subject to frequent cyclones, then it will be composed of relatively few, widespread species capable of tolerating disturbance. Summary details of different areas of Asian forests are considered below, based largely on Davis et al. (1995). This brief overview illustrates the wide range of different physical environments, climatic and geological, in which Asian forests grow, emphasising the need for EAs to be carried out individually on a site-by-site basis, rather than using a formulaic prescription.
Covering over 4.8 million km2 with a population of 1,160 million the Indian subcontinent includes India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanma, Sri Lanka, the Chagos Archipelago, the Maldives, Lakshadweep and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The subcontinent can be divided into two distinct geological areas. The Himalayan and Tibetan plateau are mountains that arose comparatively recently, in contrast to the much older peninsular India, Sri Lanka and southern Myanma. The older areas are considered to have been part of the super continent Gondwanaland, and formerly lay adjacent to Africa and Madagascar. It was the collision of this continental fragment with Asia that created Himalaya. The Himalaya are subject to a great deal of erosion as the recently constructed mountains weather. The high silt loads of rivers arising in the Himalaya may in part be a function of natural erosion, and is not necessarily entirely attributable to deforestation, though this has been linked to greater frequency of floods in the Ganges Delta in Bangladesh. Amelioration of floods in the Ganges Delta must therefore be included in the functional value of the Himalaya forests.
Biologically diverse forests with many taxonomically isolated and restricted range species are found in forests on the old Gondwanic fragment. Notable areas are the Western Ghats, Sri Lanka (see Appendix 4 for a case study of the Knuckles Wilderness Area), Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Myanmar, the biodiversity of which is not well documented.
Covering over 13 million km2 with a population of more than 1,484 million, China and east Asia includes mainland China, the Korean Peninsula, the Japanese archipelago, Hainan, Taiwan, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Macau.
The Himalaya range extends to northern China and the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau has been uplifted relatively recently, changing its climate from subtropical to being the world's highest desert. The Plateau determines the climate of much of east and south east Asia as a source of cold dry air. Warm, moist air from the Indian Ocean allows tropical vegetation to extend to 29°N in south west China where rich subtropical forest grows on granite and metamorphic rocks. China has a rich and unusual flora with many restricted range species of isolated taxonomic position. Three major regions of generic endemism have been identified: Eastern Sichuan -western Hubei, Western Sichuan - north-western Yunnan, south-eastern Yunnan - western Guangxi. The limestone area of Guangxi is one of the largest areas of limestone anywhere in the tropics or subtropics and has a distinctive biota with many endemic species. There are also limestone outcrops in southern Thailand with extensive limestone mountains in the north and west.
Covering more than 3 million km2 with a population of greater than 271 million, South-east Asia covers the Malay peninsula and Melasian archipelago of 15 major islands and about 20,000 smaller islands straddling the equator and extending over 6,000 km eastwards to north east Australia.
The region is exceptionally rich in biological diversity. Wide ranging topography and soils, with coastal mangroves, heath forest, limestone, ultrabasic rocks and an elevational range from lowland forest to mountains up to 4,500 m high in New Guinea, is one reason for this. Another reason is the climate, which generally favours growth of tropical forest. Near the equator, the climate is generally hot and humid throughout the year, with rainfall usually exceeding 2000 mm/year with at least 100 mm of rain in each month. The tropical rain forests of South East Asia together comprise the second largest area of tropical forest in the world after South America. Further from the equator the climate is more seasonal and the forests are monsoonal or give way to woodlands and grasslands which are less species rich than rain forest. A major reason for regional richness in biodiversity is that it lies at the junction of two continental plates which each possess their own biota. Biogeographically, the fauna and flora of these two plates are separated by Wallace's line (Whitmore, T.C. 1981). Parts of South-east Asia are very dynamic, both geologically and climatically. Volcanoes, earthquakes and typhoons can have catastrophic effects on forests, but also lead to habitat diversity. Climatically, the El Niño Southern Oscillation causes dramatic fluctuations in rainfall.
Covering 91,000 km2 with a population of over 3 million, the eastern Pacific Ocean contains about 1,100 islands. New Caledonia is the south-western and Micronesia is the north-western limit. The eastern limits are defined by the Hawaiian islands in the north and the Galápagos and Juan Fernández islands off the South American coast in the south.
The islands have a range of geological origins: young volcanic islands; old volcanic islands; volcanic remnants surrounded by coral reefs; coral atolls where the volcanic remnants are submerged; elevated atolls and limestone islands; mosaics of limestone and volcanic deposits; and islands which are at least partly continental in origin. The latter type of islands, such as New Caledonia, contain relict biota that are considered to be of great conservation value, for example New Caledonia has been placed in a unique floristic region. On geologically more recent islands, such as Hawaii, species have often radiated into a range of unique forms. Pacific Ocean island biota are thus distinctive, with a high level of endemism: 50% of plant species are endemic to New Caledonia and 83% of plant species are endemic to the Hawaiian islands. Forest formations on the islands include lowland, limestone forests on raised coral, montane and submontane types depending on elevation and soils. Scrub formations on the ultrabasic rocks of New Caledonia contains many endemic plant species.
Environmental assessment does not take place within a vacuum, but within a pre-existing social and political setting. Social issues are considered in Chapter 5. In this section, the policy and institutional context that is important for environmental assessment is briefly reviewed. As in an environmental review, policy and institutions must be placed in the dimensions of space and time. Policy affecting a forest might be at an international, national, regional or local level. International policy may be compatible with, or conflict with independently conceived national policy. Historically, different legal and administrative structures may be applied to resources within and outside a state or privately owned forest.
Forest policies inevitably vary from country to country in the Asian region, and a thorough treatment of these is beyond our needs here. Most countries have in place some form of national forest policy which spells out the manner in which the nation's forest resources will be managed. Key areas for policy-making vary with the importance of forests to the country: some countries have relatively small areas of forest (ie. China, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) while others have abundant forests (ie. Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Myanmar). This has influenced how forests are ultimately managed, since countries with less significant forest resources find that management of these resources is strongly influenced by considerations outside the forest sector but from within the country. In contrast, countries with abundant resources are more liable to experience international pressures over biodiversity conservation and global warming, to cite two examples.
Since Asia generally has higher population densities than Latin America and Africa, which now have greater surviving areas of natural tropical moist forest, it is not surprising that pressure on forests from adjacent or forest-dwelling inhabitants is a prime concern of policy. This relates to both encroaching migrants and tribal shifting cultivators. Furthermore, attempts are being made to recognize the role of non-timber forest products in contrast to more traditional timber products. Consideration of how to promote appropriate timber use has also been a focus, with the imposition of log export bans and related log import measures being especially controversial.
In addition to such obvious areas of forest policy, there are related issues of management responsibility, including decentralization of control and the revamping of forest financial and concessionary systems. Recognition of the role of local participation in forest management, if not fully implemented at ground level, is increasingly made in national forest policies.
Despite what may be written in forest policies, governments generally have not performed well in the area of forest policy, although Asia has not aways done as badly as other parts of the world. For instance, sustained yield management of forests has been practised in some countries of Asia for over a century. Some of the problems which have been important in government forest policies in many countries, and possible improvements, are discussed in Box 2.5.
| Box 2.5 | Government Forest Policies: Problems and Possibilities |
The effects of various government policies on resource depletion, forest investment, and timber supply have been overlooked. Governments have a unique fiduciary role to play in the setting of incentives to encourage long-term sustainable producrion of forest resources; to a great extent this role has been subordinated by other priorities. As forest owners, governments have undervalued timber and neglected non-timber goods and services. Potential policy reforms include reduction in the forest area under state ownership, change in the structure and awarding of concessions reform of the tax system, protection of and investment in appropriate forest areas, and creation of incentives for the valuation of forest services. As regulators of economic activity, governments would be well advised to reform existing investment codes within the forest sector as well as to promote multilateral and bilateral investment. As development agents, governments have tended to emphasize short-term development gains to the detriment of long-term resource sustainability, hence the emphasis on timber production and forestland conversion to other uses. A more enlightened view of economic development could focus on maximizing long-term benefits from tropical forest through multiple-use management that pays due attention to non-timber products and services in addition to timber. Finally, as authors of macroeconomic policy affecting the forest sector and the general economy, governments must seek to evaluate the effects of exchange-rate policy, fiscal spending, and interest rates on short-and long-term productivity of tropical forests. Policies determined at the level of ministry of Finance, Central Bank, or Executive Office can enhance or detract from the viability of the forest resource.” Source: Panayotou and Ashton (1992) | |
Sometimes the root cause of conflict during a development can be a contradiction in policy that requires a relatively simple legal or administrative change. For example, in colonial Burma, the administration focused on formation of forest reserves: 134 square miles in 1872–73, 3274 sq miles by 1883, and by 1900 reserved forests covered 17,153 sq miles. Within the reserves, the primary management objective of forest officials was growth of teak. This required elimination of fire and restrictions were placed on villagers activities to this end. Resistance to imposition of a new institutional structure on traditional lands took the form of continuing traditional practices: firing reserves in search of game, shifting cultivators not burning fire breaks, villagers burning grazing areas and not helping with fire fighting (Bryant, R.L. 1993). In colonial India the rights and needs of communities and watershed protection were contained in the National Forest Policy, but the Government of India had to reprimand its own Forest Department for restrictive interpretation of the National Forest Policy, which was meant to protect local rights and land uses.
The above examples illustrate the importance of institutional setting in determining access to natural resources and resolution of conflicting demands on natural resources. An institution is not only a state-controlled structure, but can be any authority, set of procedures for dealing with issues, or system of incentives and constraints which guide the behaviour of people. Institutions may be village councils, elders of a clan, a religious brotherhood or an agency of local government. It is through these institutional structures that individual participation in activities is mobilised and controlled; followers are made responsive to leaders; leaders are made accountable to followers; and competition and conflict are resolved and co-operation occurs (World Bank 1991).
Another form of institution, one which is often overlooked in environmental assessment, is property rights. For example, the forest resources in question may be subject to open access, where no rules apply and use of the resources may be open to all and unregulated. Instead, informal and traditional arrangements may govern their use as communal or common property resources. Finally, state or private property may characterize the forest resource base. Each form of property right may be characterized by quite distinct conditions of resource exploitation; for instance, open access resources are often overharvested.
A forest area may be formally owned by the state and managed by a specialised agency of government. Remote forested areas are often regarded as open access resources that need to be annexed by the state in order to control exploitation. But at a practical level, the forest area is a liable to be used by local communities, and their use will determine to a great extent what happens to the forest. Similarly, rights to farm land or fish may be vested customarily in a kin or village, but such rights may be informal and not be recorded or registered outside the area. Rights to the resources in an area may vary seasonally, often in rhythm with seasonal climatic variations, such as cattle herding, or as a result of interannual climatic fluctuations, such as famines or floods, and these may not be recognised in law.
Alienation of land from traditional usage usually affects those members of the community who are least able to represent themselves, often the poor and those without privately owned land. If traditional usage is prevented, social conflict can result, which is likely to severely affect the long term, or even short term, sustainability of a forestry project and achievement of environmental objectives. For example, a natural resource which might have been protected and tended for centuries can become rapidly overexploited when the community feels it is no longer under their traditional management and has been appropriated by another owner. Alternatively, a community can be severely disadvantaged by a change in access rights with consequent social disintegration. Both these problems can be avoided with sufficient consideration to social issues. More is said of these issues in Chapter 5.
Many of the deficiencies in the Asian forest management systems are considered to be institutional in origin and involve:
a need for rural land reform to relieve pressure on forested land.
a need for recognition of the value of customary communal land ownership.
As forestry projects become more complex, with multi-purpose management and inclusion of socio-economic issues in surrounding areas, then many state and civil institutional structures will become relevant to an EA. Project design needs to reflect external institutions, with appropriate linkages, or if necessary, structures that parallel pre-existing institutions. The relevant institutions may be remote from the project site. Forest projects may have long range and long term effects. For example, a project in a mountain catchment area needs to consider coastal fishing interests that might be affected by soil erosion and siltation.
In particular, a review of policy and institutions and how they affect a project should evaluate and look for constraints and incompatibility in environmental policy relevant to the project at an international, national, regional and local level, and in existing environmental institutional structures and how they relate to structures envisaged under the development.
Examples of weaknesses related to institutional constraints include:
Lack of continuity, because of changes in government, policy, budget or personnel.
Overambitious: expectations are unrealistic and resources are spread too thinly.
Costs are consistently underestimated and benefits overestimated.
Scale of projects is inappropriate, being including components that would be better separate, or not including areas where linkages are important.
Separate project management units prevents continuity and sustainability.
Delivery and efficiency targets are given greater weight than performance and effectiveness indicators.
Rural development projects only involve participants after project design is in place.
Human resources and capacity are often limiting factors, both from the perspective of quantity and quality of suitably trained personnel, and retaining good staff on a project. There may be insufficient equipment or office space. The project is more likely to be successful and conflict minimised if capacity is built within existing institutional structures, rather than by the creation of parallel structures. If it is necessary to create parallel structures: for example due to communication problems in a remote location, then formal lines of communication must be put in place that still leave effective local decision-making possible. The common institutional problem of responsibility without authority needs to be recognised and avoided.
Finally, there is little point in having a complex EA and monitoring programme if the project staff are not of a sufficient calibre to understand and implement it. During an EA, these limitations need to be borne in mind. The nature and structure of existing institutional frameworks are critical determinants of the extent, magnitude and sustainability of forestry impacts.
