Democratization of forest uses and sustainability issues (4/4/07)

• History leading to democratization of forest uses• Key turning point for democratization was Sustainability

– environmental, economic, social values needed to be included

• In Industrialized countries: Societal values recognized and formally included in forest management and assessment of sustainability (forest certification)

• In Developing countries: Societal values not recognized and Industrialized countries pursuing their societal values in the developing country

• Indonesia case study – Globalization through Forest Certification - developing countries moving towards democratic forest use

• New issues threatening sustainability

General timeline in Ownership and Policies for Forests

• 2500 BCE – 1800 = ruling class, government owned and controlled forests for themselves; exploited forests outside country bordersResult: some forests protected when set aside as reserves; over-exploitation of forests in other regions after over consumption locally

• 1800-1900 = ruling class and state begin to loose control [under influence of Adam Smith’s economic theories]; vast areas of ruling class/state forests sold in Europe but exploitation in colonies continues; US Forest Service formed 1905Result: massive deforestation as lands sold to private individuals

• WW I – WW II = massive deforestation after 1800 caused stringent laws passed on private forest uses in EuropeResult: regulation of how forests used on private lands

• Post 1940-present = International organizations providing technical knowledge to manage forests globally, wider knowledge of forest conditions globally.Result: more difficult for a country to exploit forest resources elsewhere

• Post 1970 – present = Industrialized world SOCIETY is part of forest decision-making; not management organizations alone; Developing world SOCIETY has community forests but governments own forests.Result: forests conserved in industrialized countries and exploited in developing countries, further marginalization of lower social strata with community forests in developing countries; ENVIRONMENTAL DIPLOMACY BECOMING A REALITY.

Definition of Democratization

• Active participation of the public in policy and management decisions regarding forests

• Wide range of social values needing to be included in decision-making in forests (many having no economic value in the market place)

History leading to Recent Democratization of Forest Uses

2500 BCE – 1800s CE = With exceptions, mostly period of ruling class or state government dominance and control of forest uses

• Ruling classes (kings, nobles) setting aside forests as their own private and exclusive hunting preserves. Records go back to 2500 BCE on ruling class setting aside lands for their own use.

1. Babylonia – 2500 to 1000 BCE2. China during Chou Empire – 1027 to 221 BCE3. Assyria - ~700 BCE4. Persia – 350 to 500 BCE5. India emperor and religious leader Ashoka – 273-232 BCE6. Roman emperor Hadrian _ 76-138 CE7. Frankish period – 7th century

LA BOURGOGNE EST L'UNE DES REGIONS LES PLUS FORESTIERES DE FRANCEhttp://www.foret-de-bourgogne.com/index.cgi?RUBRIQUE=FB

Kings forest in France

medieval hunting scene taken from a manuscript from the Hereford Cathedral Library http://www.smr.herefordshire.gov.uk/education/hunting_scene.htm Deer and boar favorite

hunting animals

HUNTING – always big part of forest use

King William I and King Harold II of England hunting with hawks in the Bayeux Tapestryhttp://www.answers.com/topic/medieval-hunting

Medieval women hunting, illustration from a period manuscript. http://www.answers.com/topic/medieval-hunting

PAST NO DEMOCRACY IN DECISIONS ON FOREST USES: Forests were set up in reserves by the ruling class and local peasants were kept out of the forests

An example of a lord bringing a case against someone who cut wood in his woodland in Herefordshire, is from a manorial court document of 1344: "The lord as plaintiff opposes Hugh de Wotton in a plea of trespass that Hugh and his household? have cut his wood at Heckwood to a damage of 20s and a value of 20s and he brings his suit?"

“Whilst people were punished for taking or damaging trees in medieval England, the law was not as brutal as the Old German laws mentioned by the Roman author Tacitus. He noted that the penalty for someone who dared peel the bark off a living tree ( and thus killing off the tree) was to have his navel cut out and nailed to the tree and then to be driven round the tree until all his guts were wound about its trunk.“http://www.smr.herefordshire.gov.uk/education/Medieval_Countryside.htm

picture of the king discussing his trees with his subjects

European Conservation and Regulation of Forest Uses

• Still forests owned by rulers and governments, and regulated to maintain resource supplies for their uses but principles of sustainable use or conservation of resources creeping in as defined by the ruling class

• European sustainable use did not transfer to areas that they colonized

Louis XIV King of France and of Navarre (1638–1715), by Hyacinthe Rigaud (1701) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XIV_of_France

1669 : The Colbert ruling on Waters and Forests.http://www.foret-de-bourgogne.com/index.cgi?RUBRIQUE=REG

Bust of Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683) Antoine Coysevox. Marble, replica of the bust commissioned by the Royal Academy of painting and sculpture for Colbert himself, then patron of the institution.

1669 : The Colbert ruling on Waters and Forests.http://www.foret-de-bourgogne.com/index.cgi?

RUBRIQUE=REG

Bust of Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683) Antoine Coysevox

Motive of Colbert’s Ordonnance des Eaux et Forests of 1669 was:

1. Hunting

2. collective use of forests to provide material for building warships. This influenced forest politics in many countries in Europe. Need to own big oak forests within a country boundary.

• Spanish Armada in 1588 attacking south coast of England ordered to first destroy royal forests

Why setting aside forests by the ‘ruling class’ protected forests and

wildlife living in them

• Restrictive hunting to ruling class only so protected wildlife

• Not allow plowing for agriculture – eliminated agricultural expansion and encroachment into forests

• Kept local peasants from collecting materials in forests such as timber and firewood

Post 1940-present = International organizations providing technical knowledge to manage forests globally, wider knowledge of forest conditions globally.

Result: more difficult for a country to exploit forest resources elsewhere or hide how using resources

Post 1970 – present = Industrialized world SOCIETY is part of forest decision-making; not management organizations alone; Developing world SOCIETY has community forests but governments own forests.

Result: forests conserved in industrialized countries and exploited in developing countries, further marginalization of lower social strata (mainly women) with community forests in developing countries.

In INDUSTRIALIZED countries, Society demanding Sustainability Paradigm be used to manage forests. This triggered

democratization of forest uses.

Sustainability and Resources

• Sustainability - we should use resources in ways that do not diminish them

• Sustainable development: “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”

Time-line of Operationalizing Values by Industrial Country Societies

• Post-2000 – struggles with operationalizing sustainable management to include

1. poverty alleviation

2. livelihoods of forest-dependent communities

3. tenure rights of local or indigenous communities for forests

4. less funds for conservation and international organizations focusing on poverty alleviation

Striking a Balance. Ensuring Conservation’s Place on the International Biodiversity Assistance Agenda. By Nicholas P. Lapham and Rebecca J. Livermore. Conservation International. 2003

CONFLICTS OVER DIFFERENT SOCIETAL

VALUES Polarizes resource discussions

We do not explicitly state what values are being introduced to the

dialogue

Tri-partite model of Sustainability = economic, social, environmental

requirements

Categories of Human Values for

Resources (Kellert 1993)

Aesthetic – sensory enjoyment, making world more beautiful or appealing to the senses (cool hike in forest)

Emotional – values beyond sensory enjoyment (sense of place), bond to certain natural areas, plants or animals, not like certain animals

(snakes, rats)

Economic – linked to tangible productsthat can be bought or sold (food, timber, energy)

Ethical - beliefs

Environmental services – intangible ‘services’ allow humans to exist on earth (O2, clean HOH)

Utilitarian – use resources (farmers)

Cultural – traditions part of a group of people, a community or country (forests important -Scandinavians)

Categories of Human Values for Resources (Kellert 1993)

Green Tree Python

Negative

Positive

Capybara (a rodent)

Margay, Belize http://www.belizezoo.org/zoo/zoo/mammals/mar/mar4.html

WE VALUE: THE ‘WILD’ or non-human or virgin systems

But WE also VALUE: ‘PETS’ OR ‘COLLECT ITEMS’ OR AS ‘MEDICINALS’- maintains active illegal trade or smuggling

Rare Brazilian Parrot Rescued From Animal Smugglers November 13, 2002 . Reuters

News Picture Service (Photo by JAMIL BITTAR)

Brazil: Illegal animal smuggling big business, 2nd only to drug, arms trafficking

VALUE CONFLICTS: Indigenous survival activities versus economic activities driven by others

Value: Utilitarian, Economic, CulturalINTRODUCING NEW LAND USE PRACTICES THAT NEVER EXISTED HERE

TRYING TO CHANGE TRADITIONAL LAND USE PRACTICES

Values Conflicts:

International organizations:

• stop shifting agriculturalists (slash/burn ag) in Amazon to increase carbon storage in forests

• want shift to intensive agricultural farms (nutrient poor soils would not allow this to be sustainable)

Values: Environmental, Economic, Emotional, Aesthetic

Tri-partite model = economic, social, environmental requirements

ORIGIN of Sustainability Model (i.e. certification) - formalized

• reactions to global DEFORESTATION and failed attempt to use economic embargos to stop

deforestation (developing countries did not like being told that someone else would tell them what they

could do with their resources)

• recognition of the need for Sustainable Livelihoods for Resource Dependent Communities and tenure

rights for indigenous groups to forestlands instead of being owned by the government

• not enough to do good forest stewardship

“A lone Brazil nut tree remains in a deforested area of the Amazon, which loses an area the size of New Jersey to clear-cutting and timbering every year.” Lalo de Almeida for The New York TimesA truck carried logs of native trees along Highway BR-319. The new plan will bring large-scale logging into the heart of the rain forest for the first time. by Larry Rohter, Brazil Gambles on Monitoring of Amazon Loggers. Published January 14, 2007. New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/world/americas/14amazon.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Certification used by International Organizations and Conservation groups to control forest use in Developing Countries because not like Deforestation occurring in these countries

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/world/americas/14amazon.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Lalo de Almeida for The New York TimesA cattle farm in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. The needs of such ranches

often conflict with efforts to preserve forests.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/world/americas/14amazon.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Approaches Used to Control Resource Uses and also get our Values

Sustainability Assessment Approaches:

A. Voluntary - third party assessment to verify sustainability that is market based (forest certification, coffee certification, organic foods) – get the customer to decide what buy and pay more for resource

B. Involuntary (regulations, laws, federal income tax, property tax) – customer has no say in making decision; not work well when values included with no economic return

Rationales for Forest CertificationIn Developing country context lead by

industrialized countries to control how resources were used or conserved in developing countries:

• Social movement in tropics

• Dislike of past landpractices

• Mistrust of landowners• Disjunction between

production andconsumers

In the industrialized west was driven by dislike of certain forest practices because of their impacts on conservation :Clear-cuttingUse of single species in monoculturesRoad construction to harvest forests

                                                                

DO YOU KNOW WHERE AND HOW THESE WERE PRODUCED? Why we need 3rd independent party evaluation.

Disjunction betweenproduction andconsumers

CHICAGO/NEW YORK - U.S. consumers, long besieged and sometimes bewildered by food makers' claims about "organic" products, are about to get a government seal of approval on their premium-priced groceries. New US organic food rules to level playing field

 

USA: October 7, 2002

Reuters News Service

Starbucks Preferred Supplier Status – contracts awarded to those who satisfy certification criteria

Why need certification for

COFFEE? Why did Starbucks hire

someone to certify their program?

CI’s Conservation Coffee™ program provides farmers with technical assistance in growing, processing, marketing high quality coffee

CI identified regions to be included in program with high environmental value

Starbucks preferentially buys coffee grown under forest shade, & where create, maintain forest buffer zone around Reserves

http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/conscoffee.asp

Starbucks Preferred Supplier Status – contracts awarded to those who comply; http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/conscoffee.asp

In 2001, farmers in Mexico producing Shade Grown coffee received 60% price premium over local prices for coffee and exported 50% more than the previous year.

Nicaragua produces arabica coffee but getting 45cents/lb – not enough to cover cost of production (Reuters 11/11/2002)

BUT

BUT Less Industrialized Countries

• Most indigenous communities in less industrialized countries have not been part of the democratization process in forest uses even though they are affected by decisions made in industrialized countries

• International organizations see forests as the key to poverty alleviation in developing countries. However, this will not happen

1. if use forests traditionally (mainly fuelwood) and do not adopt technology being developed in energy sector to convert wood to higher energy source

2. If developing countries continue to be suppliers in traditional uses of forests for timber

3. If local elites and governments control forest access and use4. If forest area increasing in industrialized countries but

decreasing in less industrialized countries5. If the trade-offs are forest community survival vs

conservation and forest dependent communities are not allowed to collect materials from forests

Indonesia – empowerment of local

communities when forests certified because local people forged links with global communities that allowed them to by pass

traditional power structuresUNINTENDED

CONSEQUENCES OF CERTIFICATION

Woodfuel – traditional uses not sustainable nor

environmental nor healthy

• The people first choice after kerosene price is increasing significantly: – From Rp. 3,500 to Rp. 4,000 per liter

in the market, – The Price far more than the maximum

retail price set by the government of Rp. 2,275 (US 24 cent per liter)

• Traditional ways to use wood as energy

• The silent killer (WHO)

Indoor Concentration of Health-Damaging Pollutants:Typical Wood-Fired Cooking

Stove

Why forest certification?

• Certified Forest Management Unit is a necessary condition to achieve renewable level of forest biomass supply

• Consistency and accuracy of data has been checked by expert panels and assessors

DATA BECOMES IMPORTANT TODAY – ENVIRONMENTAL DIPLOMACY BASED ON IT

• Recognized by public as well- or sustainably-managed forest

Teak trees in agroforestry

Source: Asep Suntana 3/26/07

Teak Plantation

New Issues Threatening Sustainability of Forests

Todaythat Negate Achieving Societal Values from

Forests

Ranger Dan Abbe patrols Sequoia National Park, from which 44,000 marijuana plants were removed last year. With drug lords cultivating pot on an agribusiness scale, parts of the park are no-go zones for visitors and rangers during the April-to-October growing season.(Luis Sinco / LAT)

August 9, 2005, latimes.com War of the weedPublic lands are seeing anexplosion in pot growing,and not by hippies.By Joe Robinson,Times Staff Writer

New Conflicts in Forest Uses: Growing or Making Drugs in the Forest

Coils of irrigation hose used by Sequoia pot growers.

A Merbau Tree in Indonesia's Remote Province of Papua. INDONESIA: February 18, 2005

A Merbau tree in Indonesia's remote province of Papua.

Environmental activists said on February 17, 2005 they had uncovered the world's biggest smuggling racket involving a single type of wood, the merbau, with huge shipments of logs being shipped from Indonesia to China.

Photo by HANDOUT-ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTIGATION AGENCY-TELAPAK/HANDOUT EN/DH, REUTERS NEWS

PICTURE SERVICE

New Conflicts in Forest Uses: ILLEGAL LOGGING

Between 1992-2001, forest wildfires emitted 65 million metric tons of CO2 in Oregon

= equivalent to C in ~740,700,00 barrels crude oil

Singapore – smoke haze from fires in Indonesian Borneo & Sumatra 10/3/02. REUTERS NEWS

PICTURE SERVICE

Forest fires significant source of CO2 emissions and air pollution

New Conflicts in Forest Uses: FOREST FIRES and CLIMATE CHANGE

New Conflicts in Forest Uses: CLIMATE CHANGE