In virtually every country in the world with significant forest resources, wood-based industries have played and continue to play a key role in overall socio-economic development. Wood is an essential and practical material for all people - it is used as lumber for construction, plywood and other panels for furniture making, paperboard for packaging, paper for printing and writing, etc. Both large and small-scale enterprises that manufacture these products for domestic consumption as well as for export form an important part of the economic base in most countries. The production, harvesting, processing and trade of timber and forest products, together with associated secondary industries, are significant sources of employment and income, especially in rural areas with limited alternatives. Wood is the most commonly used raw material of which supplies are renewable; for many applications to which it lends itself, there are no environmentally benign, cost-effective alternatives.
At present, four-fifths of the world's industrial forestry production is concentrated in the temperate industrialized countries. For the developing countries, with four-fifths of the world's population and one-half of the world's forest resources, the development of forest industries is an important element of overall development efforts. The need for increased wood supplies for housing construction as well as adequate pulp and paper for educational purposes and the dissemination of information are two obvious examples.
Yet the development of forest industry in the Third World has become the target of widespread campaigns that portray it as a major destructive force rather than an essential element in the process of sustainable development. Proposals for bans on logging and imports of tropical timber, together with boycotts of products made from that timber, are the order of the day. An even more insidious effect is the erosion of investment in the promotion of sustainable forest industries in developing countries.
The concern of boycott advocates is commendable but, sadly, the result of their often misdirected efforts may be the exact opposite of that desired. Attempts to shut off the markets for tropical timber in many cases would decrease the value of the forests to governments and private owners and could well result in even less protection than currently exists. A reduction in returns from forest industry would inevitably be paralleled by a decrease in funding dedicated to forest conservation and management. Notwithstanding the value of external assistance, the backbone of financing for forest conservation activities is and will remain the internal economic base provided by forest industry - through rents, stumpage fees, export revenue, etc.
Most importantly, anti-forest industry campaigns have the potential to slow the pace of development, thereby prolonging the suffering of local people and forcing them to continue the wasteful, unplanned depletion of forest resources in a struggle to eke out a subsistence.
This must not be allowed to occur. In contrast to the passive or reactive postures assumed until now, those genuinely concerned for the future of forest resources, forest industries and the people whose lives depend on them must mount a vigorous campaign aimed at ensuring reliable and accurate public information, appropriate technical approaches and adequate funding.
A massive public information effort should be launched to correct the misinformation labelling forest industry as the primary cause of tropical deforestation. Rather than being directed against the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are the primary source of these misunderstandings, the campaign should be aimed at informing and involving these very groups. NGOs have played a key role in improving environmental standards in the pulp and paper industries of the main producing countries, and those industries have emerged stronger as a result of this collaboration.
Under the prevailing circumstances of dire need for revenue and a lack of investment capital, logging in the tropics is often not being carried out according to sustainable forest management practices, although sustainable harvesting is technically possible and economically feasible. To present a convincing argument, forest industries in the developing countries must substantially step up their commitment to appropriate technology and the sustainable management of forest resources and, moreover, publicize this commitment.
A key to the development of sustainable industry is adequate financial investment. Across the developing world, forest industries are suffering because of antiquated equipment and infrastructures that do not permit an efficient use of precious forest resources. Potential funders of or investors in forest industry must recognize that adequate investment is the only way to ensure provision of the long-term, self-sustaining financial support needed for wise forest management and use.
In conclusion, to anyone who is genuinely concerned for the future of both the world's forests and the populations who depend either directly or indirectly - on the use of these forests for their livelihood, it should be apparent that, rather than being a force for the destruction of forest resources, forest industry is and must continue to be an essential element in the process of valorizing these resources and thereby ensuring the socio-economic base for sustainable development.
