– Sustainable Forestry Management –
a start to the proposals dossier

This start of the proposals dossier is the result of an individual effort.
It expresses the author's opinions solely and does not represent the experiences and considerations of any group of persons whatsoever. It is written on the basis of individual experience and of those recounted by other persons. Nevertheless, its purpose is to trigger debate open to all who wish to express themselves and who want to participate in the Alliance for a responsible, plural and united world: a wide-ranging movement that promotes  thought, debate and action related to the issues facing humankind today.

Foreword.

Today, it is no longer possible to conceive of ecological, social and economic systems that do not involve forests, either directly or indirectly. Their role in climatic events, water quality, and as a reserve of biodiversity is widely acknowledged. Some civilizations have been founded entirely around trees and forests and the regression of the latter jeopardizes their survival. Finally, the increasing use of forests as a resource for wood, whether due to changes in lifestyle or due to demographic growth, obliges us to completely reconsider forestry management methods and their interactions with other uses to which rural and urban land is put. 

The subjects dealt with by the ‘Sustainable forestry management’ workshop.

Rather than focusing on the optimization of forestry management as such, the aim of the 'Sustainable forestry management' workshop is to focus its work more on the implications that cultural and socioeconomic expectations have on forestry management, i.e. the needs of human beings and societies should not take second place to forestry management techniques. 

The current trend of deforestation must be stopped and changed to one of reforestation, since the benefits of increasing the surface covered by forests no longer need demonstrating. This is the basis on which we want to work. What impacts does reforestation have on our local and global bio-climatic system? How can the utilization of wood as a resource be integrated in energy and food production? Why is the development of forests close to cities and towns a real benefit for the physical and mental health of urban populations? What social-economic repercussions can be expected from the development of forests?

The thematic directions of the ‘Sustainable forestry management' workshop and the participants in the debate.

The Sustainable forestry management' workshop is structured around three main themes. However, the way in which a question is approached always influences the consideration developed during the debate. Therefore, part of the consideration will be devoted to permanently verifying the pertinence of the premises on which the debate is founded, leading to possible changes in the way we set out these premises.

Moreover, this workshop is part of a broader approach taken by the Alliance for a responsible, plural and united world and as such must work in relation with the other workshops and colleges. Therefore there is a specific direction that requires that the debate be given a clear framework, not only as part of the global approach of the Alliance in relation with the other movements, but also between the participants of the 'Sustainable forestry management' workshop, by attempting to eliminate misunderstandings over words and their meanings. This task is essential in order to permit open debate between different cultures and situations.

These three directions are:

1-	Conflicts with other uses of land, primarily the expansion of urban zones and the over-exploitation of farmland: one of the main causes of deforestation is the expansion of land given over to farming and urban development, especially in the South. How is possible to consider the development of land given over to forests without calling into question the economic and social balance of these territories, and which does not jeopardize the supply of food, itself difficult to maintain.

2-	The economic and environmental impacts of increasing the land surface covered by forests: we will not dwell on the positive effects of forests on climate, water, soils, biodiversity, and fixing CO2, all of which are known. However, increasing forest surface has effects on economic organization (new production and processing activities, the notion of private and collective property of land, the use of wood for heating and construction, development and international trade).

3-	The role of urban and outer-urban forest areas: forests play a role in the general, physical and spiritual well-being of urban populations. However, forests also participate in forming landscapes, which in turn create strong social links. This fact should be taken into account in territorial management.

Thus, every participant in the debate can, in this framework or in any other he or she feels pertinent (cf. above), make proposals and counter-proposals, based on their experience and considerations or on those of which they have knowledge. This is why, besides the proposals, we will provide a certain number of texts and sheets describing these experiences and considerations that can be shared by the participants and used to enhance the debate.

The debate is open to anyone who would like to participate. However, it is addressed mainly to:
.	forestry workers and forest communities, the professionals in the forestry and wood industries,
.	public and private forestry managers,
.	administrations associated with forests, development, natural resource management, territorial management, etc. at local, regional and international levels,
.	the users of wooded areas and those living close to them. 

This workshop is intended to participate fully in breaking down mental barriers and to promote meetings between persons who live in forests and who manage them with the users and "consumers" of forest areas.

La Bergerie, 15th November 2000.

Olivier Ranke

Direction 0 – the links and words of the debate.

What is the context in which we wish to situate the debate in the “Sustainable forestry management” workshop?

Firstly, many things have already been said about the subject. Thus we should take into account what has been said before so as to avoid rediscovering the wheel! What we want to do is to create new and original links between the forest, forestry management as such and the need for regions to grow in importance in parallel with the phenomenon of globalization.

The forest represents very different realities for different people around the world. What are the links between the tended forests of Western Europe and the great primary tropical and boreal forests? How can we talk of the stunted larches of our mountaintops in the same breath as giant redwoods without embarrassment creeping in? What cultural perceptions do the forest dwellers of India have of their habitat; likewise, how do the inhabitants of London and New York perceive the forest?

You will find a number of texts below, some of which are taken from other alliance workshops, whose purpose is to better situate this debate. Furthermore, you will find attached to this document an initial attempt to present a map of the links we have established between the forest and the environment in its broad meaning. This map is intended to be changed, corrected and completed as a function of our exchanges.

Text 1: What is a forest?

When we speak of forests, everyone seems to agree on what they are. However, apart from different types of forest (Mediterranean, oasis type, tropical, temperate continental, etc.) and the regional characteristics of native fauna and flora, forests do not represent the same thing to a landless peasant forest farmer, a lumber company, landowner or citizen.

Problematic: “Save our forests!” is a slogan heard often around the planet. But what is meant by the word 'FOREST'? This debate, which one might imagine anodyne, nonetheless requires attention, since the generic term 'forest' covers very different realities according to regional and social situations. For example, primary forests cover vast ecosystems that include spontaneous natural species sometimes associated with species that are cultivated more or less intensively. In the perspective of sustainable development and integrated territorial management, is it possible to speak of forests for pleasure as opposed to those for production or those set aside as natural reserves? The different ecological, social and economic roles of forests are not separate from each other. It is possible to link them together by giving timeframes to each of these functions and by organizing genuine very long-term forest rotations, in the region of 500 years. These rotations were carried out in certain primal forests by the sparse populations living in them. As populations increased in the basins of modern civilization, the pressure thus generated broke down the "taboos" that permitted this type of very long-term management, which was based on thousands of years of accumulated knowledge.

Today, we make a distinction between forests as natural "reservoirs", forests for production and forests for leisure. However, the reasoning behind the separation of these functions from each other is partial. 'Life' in the naturalist meaning of the term, does not develop exclusively in natural spaces but continues its development in cultivated areas, which is what happens frequently with forests. The challenge is to quit this logic of the 'natural' versus the 'anthropocentric'. Thus the multifunctional role of forested territories needs bringing to the fore. The forest is a place of production, socialization, learning, recreation and spiritual resourcing at the same time as being a natural space. In each case, this requires management adapted to local ecological, political and social conditions. Drawing up a charter defining the 'sustainable forest' as a multifunctional space of production, resourcing and conservation of biodiversity, could stimulate awareness of these complementary roles. One of the indicators of a forest's sustainability is the capacity of its ecosystem to regenerate itself. 

Comment: Many forms of forest exist related to an equal number of bio-socio-technological systems. Our approach is both global, though founded in local realities, and pragmatic, though strongly colored by utopian principles, hence we must attempt to take this diversity into account. This is why, in order to set the stage for clear debate, we need to elucidate the stakes in play related to the diversity of places, actors and practices. An approach that compares the concepts underlying the definitions of the forest existing here and there could be completed by reviewing the links between the stakes directly related to the forest and other subjects which may appear to be implicated less directly.

Direction 1 –conflicts with other uses of the territory, essentially the expansion of urban zones and the over-exploitation of farmland

The increased use of land for urban and agricultural development is strongly linked to the needs of a growing population, with, in parallel, urban development being fueled by rural desertification. The latter phenomenon is apparent in both the North and South. Whereas in the North, desertification results in the development of little or badly managed forest areas, the forests in the South are under strong pressure sometimes resulting in the total deforestation of certain areas. However, in both cases rural territories are losing their vital forces since populations are excluded from local systems of farm production and they are unable to acquire the land that would permit them to avoid rapid decline into marginalization. This holds good for both the North and the South: our territories produce populations that are excluded from the socioeconomic system by farm production systems, by a system of regulated access to land and its labor, leading to major social, economic and ecological imbalances.

On the basis of experiences from different persons involved in such fields as forestry production, forestry management and integrated local development, can we formulate a program capable of limiting this massive rural exodus which is leading to local imbalances? 

Proposal no. 1: The tree, an opportunity for agriculture.

Summary: In many regions of the world, forests act as essential counterbalances to agriculture. The continued progression of cultivated areas, leading to forests being marginalized to poorly or scarcely managed parts of territories (or even their disappearance) could jeopardize the productive capacity of these regions.

Problem: Forests and farming have been closely linked throughout history: the forest represents the ultimate stage of domination by vegetation (i.e. it exists spontaneously), while agriculture is an artificial state that satisfies man's need for food. In former times, apart from providing wood for building and heating, the forest helped to regenerate soil fertility, maintain microclimatic conditions, regulate the water system, etc.

The increasingly intensive use of cultivated land has led to farmers substituting the regenerative role of forests with organic fertilizers. When soil becomes too exhausted to produce crops, it is left fallow and used for pasture, leading to its use for livestock breeding to the detriment of regenerating soil fertility. Thus forests continue to be cleared to give room for planting crops. The regression of forests also leads to climatic phenomena such as drought, in turn leading to impacts on agricultural productivity. 

Therefore it is vital to restore the role of the forest in regenerating soil fertility, by implementing a voluntarist policy of plantation.

Proposal: Policies of progressive replanting should be implemented in regions concerned by these agricultural areas now suffering from pauperization, (eastern Brazil, Indonesia, India (?), West Africa (?)). For example, 1% of these lands could be replanted with indigenous species at a rate of 1% per year for 10 to 20 years. This leads to three problems: 1- food security in these regions; 2- the distribution and ownership of these replanted areas; 3- financing these operations.

1-	Regarding short term food security, the low level of replanting should not have a great impact on production capacities, especially since the distribution between food production and cash crop production would be done to the profit of food production. In the medium term, regional systems of reciprocal aid could be set up to ensure sufficient supplies.

2-	The problem of land ownership is a wide-ranging one. It impacts on a large number of factors, mostly on the distribution between cash and food crops, on the capacity of food self-sufficiency in general via access to land, etc. In many cases it is not possible to consider a responsible, plural and united society without radical overhauling of land use rights. In our case, we can only recommend leaving the community to make a collective decision on the status of the land in question. If the financial situation does not progress, it appears preferable to choose the poorest land, by offsetting any loss of ownership by transferring the latter to good quality arable land. 

3-	Different ways can be found to finance this type of operation. For example, a tax on fertilizers: the use of fertilizers from other regions of the world leads to intensive farming resulting in soil being considered as a neutral support, rather than setting up a system of soil fertility regeneration. Another possibility is to tax cash crops, in order not to penalize the production of local food production. These operations could also be financed by international funds or funds from the countries of the North. Moreover, the problem is not one of financing, rather of political stability and putting these funds to good use.

Comment: The distribution of territories between agriculture, forests and towns is often done to the detriment of the forest. Its role in ecological and social equilibrium is often neglected in contrast to the economic role of agricultural production and the role of housing provided by towns. However, to ensure the regeneration of soil fertility, stabilize climatic conditions, provide fuel for heating and simply as a place of well-being, the forest is irreplaceable. In certain regions of the world, reforestation cannot be delayed for too long, otherwise entire ecosystems risk being disturbed irremediably.

In addition, account should be taken of the correlation between the challenge represented by expanding forests, and the concomitant questions of land distribution, food security, and political stability, which may permit or compromise work carried out in the long term. 

Implementation: To implement this project, three major problems must be solved, either locally or regionally. They confront most of the countries of the south, where most of these problems of deforestation and soil fertility regeneration are concentrated, i.e. food self-sufficiency, access to land, and access to finance and stability permitting long term actions. That being said, reforestation is one of the major questions that needs solving in several of the world's regions in order for the latter to maintain decent living conditions for future generations.

Direction 2 – the economic and environmental impacts of increasing forested areas

Besides the very positive and long known effects of expanding forest areas over the entire biosphere (climate, water, soils, biodiversity, fixing CO2), expanding forest areas can also affect the economic (new production and processing activities, the notion of individual and collective use of land, the utilization of wood for heating and construction, the development of international trade) and social organization of territories (jobs, changing social relations, and political organization).

These new social and economic organizations of territories must be formulated now as an efficient means of combating every type of exclusion, origin and symptom of desertification. Many innovative experiences of integrated territorial development exist that are capable of providing solutions to this challenge.

Proposal no.  2: Prohibiting the use of pesticides in forests.

The use of pesticides participates in destroying a large amount of fauna and flora associated with the forest. These products, long used by agriculture, risk causing the same effects through time, i.e. setting up production systems that are increasingly intensive and thus fragile.

Problem: The intensification of the forestry industry, which entails the forever more rapid alternation of felling and replanting with one species of tree, sometimes makes the use of pesticides inevitable (herbicides, insecticides and fungicides), likewise that of mineral fertilizers. The damage caused to the environment by these products is still relatively limited. Nonetheless, the current development of forestry reflects that which agriculture underwent in Europe forty years ago and which has since been generalized throughout the world. Doesn't the increased use of pesticides in forests risk canceling their capacity for depollution through time? The extreme vulnerability of these single species plantations to attacks by parasites (e.g., plantations in tropical areas) and to specific meteorological conditions (e.g., the storm of December 1999 in Western Europe) has already become apparent.

Proposal: The prohibition of pesticides and mineral fertilizers in forests would restore the central role of the forest in preserving local ecosystems; however, this would not prevent the social and economic exploitation of forests.

Comment: The forest constitutes a natural biotope that protects water, air and soil. It also promotes biodiversity. This regenerative function of the forest should not be jeopardized by the increased use of pesticides, since it is attenuated by the planting and production of only one species of tree.

This proposal aims simply to prohibit forestry practices made possible by pesticides, such as single species regeneration. These areas reforested with only one species (or a variety or a clone) are areas whose treatment is indispensable. They do not correspond to any natural balance and favor the propagation of fungi or insects harmful to the species planted. 

By contrast, this proposal aims to bring the multifunctional role of forest areas to the fore, since this role is not only economic but also ecological and sociological. None of these functions can be considered by taking a purely industrial view of the forest, which aims at optimizing one type of production at the expense of other uses.

Implementation: This proposal could be a direct application of the 1992 Rio agreements on biodiversity: forests are places that privilege the generation of biodiversity, whereas chemical treatment reduces that role.

Proposal no. 3: Levy a 'Tobin tax' on CO2 emissions.

Fossil fuels (petroleum, coal, etc.) and organic carbon emissions are extremely destructive for the forests of certain regions of the world and / or on the quantity of carbon fixed for long periods. A tax on carbon emissions would act as a brake on such emissions in regions obliged to import energy resources.

Problem: The emission of greenhouse gases is one of the crucial questions confronting humankind. We have already reached the point where the quantities of CO2 present in the atmosphere cannot be sustained and risk causing major ecological disasters. Apart from simply reducing our emissions (reduction by at least 60% of emissions by the entire human race), it is necessary to fix durably a major part of the carbon emitted via combustion on a massive scale of fossil fuels and thus, on the one hand, limit the transfer of mineral carbon from producing countries to those that consume, and on the other hand limit the consumption of carbon fixed durably and promote the fixing of carbon by forests and soils.

Obviously, the use of forests as carbon sinks is only temporary. Indeed, fixing is maximum only while the forest is growing. Once it matures, its net capacity to fix carbon becomes practically nil. This raises the question of fixing this carbon durably by maintaining the forest and/or using the wood as a resource (construction, etc.), and / or the slow release of the carbon into the biosphere (organic fertilizer for agriculture, etc.). Nonetheless, it can be estimated that massive fixing accompanied by an equally massive reduction of consumption could have a direct and significant impact within a fairly short period on global warming mechanisms.

Proposal: Levy a tax on emissions of carbon outside national borders. This tax, in the region of $0.00001 per kilo of carbon transported per kilometer could be collected by the United Nations Development Program to finance several types of action: 

1-	Replanting areas undergoing rapid deforestation involving local development projects;

2-	Financing development plans for areas that freeze their fossil fuel resources;

3-	Financing large and small scale projects that promote the use of renewable energies;

4-	Financing major infrastructures in low income countries by using fossil fuel resources. 

Comment: This proposal for a low tax on carbon emissions should not have a big impact on the international wood trade, given that the tax is minimal and the volumes involved small. However, there is a risk of affecting paper production, though this activity consumes energy and is of no utility in fixing carbon, since paper is generally incinerated rapidly after use.

The direct effect should be the same for petroleum. However, using this fund of usable resources for poor countries with their own petroleum and gas reserves, in order to promote integrated local development projects without having to rely on 'letting the crude gush out', may create serious problems for the rich countries within a very short space of time. Either the latter should use their own petroleum reserves (e.g., the USA), or they should profit from this fund to radically modify their production and energy consumption methods.

Implementation: This measure must be presented as one of international solidarity between different countries, on the one hand between the rich and poor countries, by placing the burden of using fossil fuels on those who consume it, and, on the other hand, between petroleum and gas producing countries and the non-producing countries, since it separates access to finance from the presence or absence of fossil fuel reserves. Implementation of this proposal should be controlled by the United Nations and more especially by the UNDP, since these funds would be intended for integrated development projects.

Proposal no. 4: Promoting the use of eco-certified wood for public buildings.

Wood has been used throughout history but has been replaced by more 'modern' materials. Restoring its use for public buildings would stimulate the wood industry and promote the use of an ecological resource.

Problem: Wood is a traditional building material. However, the arrival of new materials such as concrete and the technological difficulties of producing wood-based construction material industrially have led to its almost total disappearance from construction. Some of these limitations have now been overcome and wood can be used in a large number of constructions. At the same time, the ecological properties of modern construction materials (concrete, plastics, aluminum) are far less interesting than those of wood, an ecological material 'par excellence'. Nonetheless, we know that current conditions for producing wood for construction are not always up to standard, ecologically or socially. Thus, an eco-sociological certification system should be implemented to guarantee the conditions under which the wood is produced and marketed.

Proposal: A charter for all territorial authorities in which they commit themselves to requiring that 50% of the constructions they finance, either directly or indirectly, be made of eco-certified wood. This would also concern associated items such as outbuildings, heating, furniture, etc.

Comment: The use of wood for construction satisfies several criteria: environmental, social and economic.

-	Environmental, since wood, apart from transport costs, is an ecologically neutral material, whereas concrete, plastics and aluminum consume non-renewable resources (petroleum, gravel, sand, cement, etc.).

-	Social, since eco-certification would guarantee that the use of this resource benefits local populations.

-	Economic, since the development of a local wood industry is a source of employment. What is more, the cost of recycling wooden buildings is also far lower than that of 'hard' buildings.

Implementation: A charter could be drawn up quite easily by a network of partners interested in this question. Getting local authorities to sign such a charter should not be too difficult as it responds to their concerns.

Proposal no. 5: Natural parks or multifunctional spaces

Natural parks express a closeted vision of territories. Sustainable development requires widening conceptions and impacts on surrounding territories. 

Problem: The first natural parks were set up in the United States. They met the need to protect sensitive natural areas from the expansion of human activity. However, this rationale now has perverse effects. Whole areas are overprotected while surrounding areas are managed in ways that jeopardize the balance of the biosphere. Without falling into parody, it is possible to say that the world has been divided into two zones: natural zones where human beings intervene as little as possible, and those in which mankind can do anything it likes. 

This schematic view can be illustrated by the following. Firstly, the development in Switzerland of 'Ecological Compensation Areas' intended to offset the effects on natural agricultural cycles. Secondly, in Brazil, with the Natural Park on the border with Argentina, where intensive farming is practiced right up to the boundaries of the park, which is wholly forest.

Proposal: The proposal is twofold: Firstly, Natural Parks should be surrounded by an area of staggered protection. Thus Natural parks should be designed so as to have two concentric areas: an inner circle (50 kilometers around the boundaries of the park) providing a given level of protection to nature (meeting 70% of the specifications of the park, for example), and a second circle (100 kilometers around the park) with a lower level of restriction (e.g., 30% of the parks specifications). Secondly, these concentric circles could progress through time by 50 kilometers every 5 years and thus cover all the territories with a minimum amount of protection for natural environments, thus permitting the development of human activities within the boundaries of the Natural Parks themselves.

Comment: Preserving the major balances that regulate the biosphere is a major challenge for humankind. This implies that not everything is allowed outside the natural parks. Therefore it is essential to avoid developing natural parks as a pretext for avoiding the management of the entire territory, and following the American policy of dealing with global warming, i.e. developing carbon sinks that justify consuming as much, if not more, fossil fuels.

Balanced management of territories requires respect for a series of micro-balances and not simply an overall balance. If humankind were able to manage these micro-balances, it might be able to do without natural parks.

Implementation: Only the public authorities are capable of implementing this measure. They alone have the resources to impose, via development plans, urban schemes and territorial master development plans that set out the standards and rules on land use. 

Direction 3 – the role of urban and outer urban forest areas

After primary forests, areas of spontaneous vegetation of which only a few remain today, and then secondary forests, which are the result of voluntary and increasingly intensive exploitation by humans, a third type of forest is coming into being: that of the urban forest for leisure purposes. The increasing involvement of citizens in the future of urban and outer urban areas, augurs a new social role for forests. Populations that have, for the most part, lost any link with the rural world are looking to find landscape, health, leisure and well-being in these forests.

These territories demand a specific type of forestry management, with new amenities that are sometimes intangible. Thus owners and managers must change their mentalities, though new modes of governance are also needed in order to identify, arrange and implement these new requirements. 

Proposal no. 6: Forests are also health sinks!

The role of the forest is changing rapidly owing to pressure from an increasingly urbanized world. Once seen as the hearths of life, they are now becoming places for refreshing both mind and body. How can this role be given concrete expression?

Problem: Our lifestyles are becoming forever more urban. The retreat of rural society is leading to the rapid expansion of urban and outer urban areas to the detriment of surrounding rural ones and, consequently, agricultural and forest lands. Paradoxically, this pressure is associated with a very strong demand for 'natural' spaces. This decreasing 'supply', correlated with growing demand, means that access to 'nature' is increasingly difficult for poorer sections of the population due to the privatization of these outer urban areas. However, these spaces are often indispensable to urban populations for material reasons (e.g., wood for heating), and sometimes for immaterial ones such as physical and mental well-being. The challenge is therefore to preserve freedom of access to these resources as a function of the needs of the urban population, though without jeopardizing its existence. This calls for privileging the management of these outer urban areas by the inhabitants.

Proposal: Each conurbation with a population of over 250,000 should set up a management plan for the surrounding woodlands that would involve each inhabitant of the conurbation in the management of the space in question. Thus people would benefit from the resources produced from the forest according to local needs. 

Comment: It is obvious that needs and possibilities differ according to socioeconomic and geographic contexts. This is why the goals of these plans cannot be defined without the active participation of the population. After all, it is they who are most capable of expressing their need for such and such a forest. The consensus conference method appears that best adapted for dealing with inevitable conflicts between the owners, existing users and the potential users of these wooded spaces. 

Implementation: This management plan should be implemented by the local authorities in agreement with the population. The goals of the management plan can be defined via participatory processes such as exchanges of experiences and consensus conferences. Financing could come from national authorities responsible for development and international authorities, such as the World Bank, the WHO, UNEP and UNDP.