Books

Conserving forests and foresters

Forest island dynamics in man-dominated landscapes. Eds R.L. Burgess and D.M. Sharpe. New York, Heidelberg, Berlin, Springer-Verlag. Ecological Studies 41. 310 p. ISBN O-387-90584-7.

Reviewed by Laurence Roche

The International Biological Programme (IBP), initiated in the mid-1960s. was a primary stimulus to many ecological studies. As a cooperative effort among scientists of many nations," write R.L. Burgess and D. M. Sharpe in the preface to this hook, the IBP undertook to augment our meagre knowledge of the biological processes that govern ecosystem function, and to analyze, synthesize and interpret biological productivity and its relationship to human welfare."

By the late 1970s, ecological studies in the United States stemming from the IBP had indicated the clear need for a deeper assessment of ecological systems in relation to man' s past and present influences. As a result, a symposium organized by the Ecological Society of America met at Michigan State University in August 1977 together with the American Institute of Biological Sciences. The volume under review is based on the proceedings of that symposium. Its contents, however, have been brought up to date and, as the preface indicates, several additions have been made to broaden and deepen the concepts and examples included.

Throughout recorded history, man has slowly but surely reduced the area of the earth's surface covered by forests. Over much of the industrial world, only remnants of primer forests now remain, and in the semi-arid and moist regions of the tropics deforestation continues apace. At present it is tropical deforestation, rather that what has happened and is happening to forests and wood-lands in industrialized countries, that attracts the attention of conservationists and the media. This one-sided concentration on tropical deforestation is often misplaced, and it is an error to assume that conservation problems stemming from deforestation are serious only in the tropics.

The broad-leaved hedgerows and fragmented woodlands of industrial. England arc the remains of once-great forests, and even these remnants are subject to continued erosion. It is believed that there has been greater disruption to the ecology of rural England during the past 40 years than during the preceding four centuries. Canada has undermined its primary forest resource in relatively recent times, as have the united States. Australia and New Zealand. The wholesale grubbing up of hedgerows in England and the ecologically - and also, in the long run, economically-unsound clear-felling of Canada's primary forests have, in their different ways, been as damaging to world conservation interests as anything that is happening in the tropics.

England's response to massive disruption of its natural ecosystems is typical of that of the industrial world as a whole. Reliance has been placed principally on a system of protected areas. Such a system is essential but, in terms of total area protected, it invariably represents the merest fraction of the total terrestrial anti aquatic environment of any one nation. Therefore, the establishment of a system of protected areas, however adequate its representation of natural ecosystems, provides no justification for, and no protection against, the destruction of nature in much of the rest of the nation.

AN UNDISTURBED FOREST IN ITALY: the focus of conservation groups

The often single-minded emphasis of many conservationists on national systems of protected areas - an essentially static approach to conservation - has tended to downgrade conservation as a dynamic science with its own methodology, with a particular management point of view, and with a major role to play in industrial development, including industrial forestry and agribusiness.

It is in this context that the hoof; under review assumes its very considerable importance. It may well prove to be a milestone both in the development of conservation science anti methodology as they apply to woodland ecosystems and in the development of woodland management plans for specific conservation purposes,

While the social, economic and environmental consequences of deforestation have received considerable publicity, less attention has been paid to the scientific basis for the management of secondary forest, particularly in the tropics, and of what remains of often fragmented forest ecosystems lying outside forest reserves. There are many questions to be answered. Here, put simply and generally, arc some of them.

· Is there a scientific basis for the management of multispecific tropical moist forest to ensure the production of goods and services in perpetuity?

· What is the minimum area required to maintain the ecological integrity of a reserved tropical forest ecosystem surrounded and buffered by a forest managed for production purposes'?

· What is the minimum area required to ensure the integrity of a forest ecosystem isolated in a large agro-urban environment?

· If conservation emphasis is placed on tree species rather than on ecosystems, how many breeding individuals are required to ensure the permanence of the species within the ecosystem?

· How can intraspecific variability be maintained?

· To what extent is island biogeographic theory applicable to forest islands in human-dominated landscapes?

Some of these questions are dealt with in this book. While the data presented stem primarily from research on the fragmented Eastern Deciduous Biome of the United States, the principles discussed and conclusions reached have universal application.

The principal thrust of the research programmes outlined in the book is on the accumulation of data allowing the development of management regimes for multiple purposes, including conservation. Even the chapters dealing with modelling, like chapter 10 ("Modelling seed dispersal and forest island dynamics"), do not stray too far from practical considerations. Thus, the book is a rich mine of facts and figures. Woolly exhortations calling for conservation or preservation per se, and at all costs, are notably absent. The underlying philosophy of the book is clearly stated:

"It is no longer possible to look at the way things should be in regional landscapes. Ecologists, planners, engineers, and politicians must deal with things as they are. Identification of regional norms may consequently provide prescriptions for planners that are more than simply advisory. And regional landscapes then become a resource to manage rather than an ecology to maintain."

Although all 13 chapters of the book will be of major interest to forest researchers, a number of them will also be of direct value to field foresters concerned with the management and conservation of remnants of natural forest ecosystems. In this regard, chapters 2 (" The minimum critical size of ecosystems"), 3 (Woodlots as biogeographic islands in southeastern Wisconsin"). 6 (The importance of edge in the structure and dynamics of forest islands") and 12 (Artificial succession - a feeding strategy for the Megazoo") deserve special mention. Surprisingly, the vitally important subject of minimum critical size is given rather cursory treatment, in chapter 2. However, since the subject is so central to the theme of the book, it frequently surfaces in other chapters and the deficiency is more apparent than real.

Chapter 8 (Effects of forest fragmentation on avifauna of the eastern deciduous forests") is in a number of respects different from all the other chapters of the hook. It is by far the longest and least succinct and somewhat pedantic in style. Moreover, its underlying conservation philosophy is clearly at sharp variance with that of the rest of the book. After the briefest of literature reviews, the six co-authors conclude:

"The lesson of these studies for conservation suggests that the multiplicity of factors generated by habitat fragmentation precludes, absolutely, any combination of small forest fragments acting as avifaunal preserves of eastern deciduous forest. Such reserves must be large."

They go on to state that the rest of the chapter is a detailed exposition of the case for this conclusion. It is no such thing. Nor is there anything in their brief literature review to justify such dogmatism. There are other similarly strong assertions, based on inconclusive data, scattered throughout the text. In reality, what data are presented in this chapter testify (for the most part) to the very opposite conclusion from that reached by the authors, namely that fragmented forests have exceptional value as habitats for avifauna. Nevertheless, the authors principal conclusion is that the maintenance of forest bird communities requires wooded tracts of hundreds or even thousands of hectares".

This sweeping statement may indeed be applicable for certain bird species and certain habitats, but the fact is that it is supported neither by data presented in chapter 8 nor elsewhere in the book. Indeed, data presented in the other chapters refute it. James Levenson, for instance, in chapter 3 concludes that just four hectares is the approximate size required for a forest island to develop a mesic (moist) core sufficient to sustain the mature northern hardwood forest type. For the southern mesic habitat, he recommends protecting areas greater than four hectares.

Conservation of humankind's patrimony of plants and animals in perpetuity means, if it means anything, the management of this patrimony. Even protected areas will eventually require management if conservation objectives are to be maintained. The forester often has jurisdiction over large areas of land. Even in industrial countries, he or she may well have management responsibility for more than 25 percent of the land mass of a nation. These lands provide, to a greater or lesser degree, habitats for a diversity of species of plants and animals. Foresters, therefore, can do more than talk about conservation: they can practice it. But if they are to practice conservation, as distinct from preservation, they must be knowledgeable about conservation as a dynamic science and as an integral part of forest management.

If foresters do not accept their share of responsibility for conservation, that responsibility will be taken away from them. This, of course, has already happened in a number of nations. For those foresters who wish to retain that responsibility and who wish to increase their knowledge of conservation science, this hoof; is strongly recommended.

In conclusion, this reviewer would make one plaintive admonition to the editors of this excellent book. Neither they nor their colleagues have seen fit to include a single reference to a book in the same series published in 1974 and entitled The genetics of forest ecosystems (Stern and Roche; Berlin, 1974. Springer-Verlag). This latter book is wholly complementary to Forest island dynamics in man-dominated landscapes, which pays little or no attention to the genetic basis for the survival and adaptation of forest ecosystems. Furthermore, had the editors of the book under review been aware of the existence of the earlier book, they might have written their introductory chapter differently. As it is, they merely repeat, even to the extent of reproducing the same graph. what Stern and Roche said earlier in greater detail.

A MANAGED FOREST IN TURKEY: this type of conservation is also needed

There are two other important complementary texts in the general field of conservation literature which ought to be mentioned. These are Conservation biology (Soulé and Wilcox; Massachusetts. 1980. Sinauer Associates, Inc.) and Conservation and evolution (Franker and Soulé; 1981. Cambridge Univ. Press).

Laurence Roche is a Professor of Forestry and Head of the Department of Forestry and Wood Science. University College of North Wales, Bangor, Wales, UK.

How to tax timber

Forest revenue systems in developing countries. John Gray. FAO Forestry Paper 43. Rome. 1983.

This new publication is concerned with the problem of setting the price at which timber is sold from public forests, particularly from tropical forests in developing countries.

GRADING TIMBER IN MALAYSIA: tax revenue depends upon stumpage appraisal

A basic theme of the book is that the charges for timber in the forest should reflect the stumpage value determined from the price of the logs or the products made from them, minus the combined costs of production, transportation and harvesting, and allowing for a normal return on investment.

Prices, in addition, are set with the objective of obtaining revenue. Revenue charges, besides being used simply to generate tax income, may also be designed to reinforce sound management of the forests to encourage the fuller utilization of species, or to contribute to the equitable distribution of income or the foresting of local manufacturing and employment opportunities.

The need for administered pricing arises from "imperfections" of the market. These imperfections arise from the uncertainties of a volatile market, the distance of the forest producer from the final users, the ability of many international traders such as multinational corporations to obscure true market prices and costs, the lack of adequate information on trade in particular products and the long-term nature of forestry production.

The book develops a conceptual framework for the establishment of revenue systems, the value to buyers and to sellers, criteria for evaluating alternative systems for charges from the point of view of revenue obtained, administrative cost and practicality impact on forest management and equity anti economic distribution effects. Methods of stumpage appraisal and alternative systems for sale and charges are described in detail.

An important aspect of the presentation is the inclusion of descriptions of the forest revenue arrangements and methods of appraisal actually applied in a number of important tropical timer-producing countries in Africa and Southeast Asia. The book also describes systems of stumpage appraisal used by two major producers in the temperate region, the United States and Canada.

Producing biofuel

Biofuel production strategies for UK agriculture. S. P. Carruthers and M R Jones. Centre for Agricultural Strategy, University of Reading, 1 Earley Gate, Reading RG6 2AT. United Kingdom. 1983, 144 p. Price: £6.50.

This study, the first in a series on energy in agriculture, reviews biomass conversion technologies and provides detailed estimates of the potential contribution to national energy supplies of different biofuel opportunities. The constraints that are likely to affect the development of biofuel production in the UK are discussed, as are the implications for UK agriculture, employment and national policy of a large-scale biofuels production programme. Sample budgets and energy analyses for some of the more promising biofuel production systems are included.

The hook is illustrated with eight photographs of potential fuel-crops and operating and experimental conversion equipment. At the end, there is a directory of firms and institutes involved in research, sales and consultancy in the field of biomass energy.

Getting started in pulp and paper

Establishing pulp and paper mills: a guide for developing countries. FAO Forestry Paper 45. Rome, 1983, 93 p. Available free of charge from: Distribution and Sales Section. FAO, Via delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome. Italy.

Such major problems as very heavy capital requirements, high energy requirements, questionable sources of raw materials, lack of technology and trained manpower, competition from countries with a long established pulp and paper industry, questionable profitability, etc., seem not to daunt developing countries into joining the seemingly prestigious group of pulp and paper manufacturing countries, because this industry is one of the indications of development."

So writes Pedro Picornell in the lead article of this most recent book in the FAO Forestry Paper series. Picornell's article, which is entitled Why do developing countries go into the pulp and paper industry?", answers the very question it raises. Developing countries, he argues, need pulp and paper plants to create new employment and to remain self-sufficient in paper supply, thereby saving on foreign exchange.

The results, however, have been mixed. Some new mills built in developing countries. Picornell says, have been resounding economic successes": some have fulfilled their function with moderate success but without any real profits: and others have been resounding failures".

The present book. while not intended to guarantee "resounding successes", is at least an attempt to help countries avoid "resounding failures". The 14 major articles it contains address themselves to (1) the essential phases required for the establishment of new pulp and paper industries in developing countries: and (2) special features relating to their installation. While some articles are quite practical in nature, others treat more general issues relating to pulp and paper. There are, for instance, three articles which take differing views on the question of protection from foreign exports for the pulp and paper industry.

Other topics covered include: identification of concept and feasibility studies: financing of projects; contracting, plant construction and training; appropriate pulp and paper machines; implementation of projects; operating efficiency and marketing needs: technical auditing; and social integration. The authors of these articles come from diverse backgrounds: state-owned industry, private industry, international finance agencies, consulting firms and FAO.

The articles included in the book were all presented as papers during the twenty-second to twenty-fourth sessions of the FAO Advisory Committee on Pulp and Paper between 1981 and 1983. Discussions held during these sessions are summarized in a 13-page section in the second part of the book.