Commercial timber harvesting by international companies has a major impact on the tropical forests. Every year 12 million acres of tropical forests are logged, (an area about half the size of the British Isles -England, Scotland and Wales. Selective logging practices, which involve removing only trees of commerical value rarely results in total clearing of the forest. Yet through careless logging techniques, cutting 10% of the forest also destroys 30-60% of the non-commercial trees in the area.
Logging roads enable "slash and burn" cultivators to move into areas of the forest opened up as loggers leave. Without the protective layers of tree cover, heavy rains pound the barren soil and wash the existing nutrients into nearby rivers and streams. In fact, the leading "export" of most tropical forest nations is topsoil.
Sound practices in the forest industries can insure that a forest will always be there. Yet self-regulation is a glaring problem. Laws written by tropical countries on overcutting and the taking of undersized trees go largely unenforced. Countries should diversify their forests product industries. Sustainablility could be achieved by more careful harvesting. The woody vines that connect the crowns of the trees could be cut first, then only the desirable trees would be removed. Trees could be lifted out by helicopter rather than dragged out, killing all the other trees along the route. Replanting or reseeding results in future forests. Biologists could be hired to help save plants and animals in the logging area. Forest products could also be salvaged such as nuts, bamboos, latex, rattans, turpentine and gums.
Sustainable logging can only be accomplished if it takes into account not just the need to control logging but the needs of the local people to make a living and maintain their local ecosystem and the valuable resources contained within.
