A Call to Plant Native Forest

Dear Reader,

In December I attended the Traveling Forestry Conference to South East Asia with stops in Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. Low Impact Forest Management was the topic of the conference. At all stations of the conference I asked local foresters in what kind of forestry operations they would personally love to work in. Many of them answered that they would like to work in sustainable managed forestry systems which include natural forest management and diverse forest plantations. What I saw on my trip, however, was the opposite to their answers. Entire landscapes were covered with exotic tree plantations managed in short rotation cycles of 5-10 years.

Is it ignorance that holds us back from going towards a more sustainable and productive forestry? I do not think that this is the case. We know that close to nature forests and sustainable managed mixed forest plantations help to clean and retain water, store carbon and preserve valuable biodiversity, contribute to stable weather conditions, provide a place for living and working for millions of people, etc.

So why do foresters not follow their intuition? Why not going for high quality timber from sustainably managed natural forests or plantations? (Do not get me wrong, of course societies will always need to a certain extend these cheap commodity timber to feed their industries. These kind of plantations should not be demonized!)

I see two major reasons: First, investments for the establishment of natural forest management are very high and liquidity is very low (currently not bankable). Second, natural forest management is far more complex and requires special silvicultural skills as well as efficient forest information systems as a basis for decision making.

What is the conclusion, how can we bring hearts and practice together? Are there any examples of sustainable and productive forestry in place?

We have recognized that more and more examples of productive and sustainable projects appear in the market. Some you can find at our marketplace. We believe that in the next years numbers will increase strongly as sustainable forestry approaches are the only viable way to secure the big bundle of multiple benefit streams from timber and non timber forest products as well as ecosystem services for our common future. A future with clean air and water, healthy soils, with biodiverse and beautiful forests as well as a stable flow of resources and safe employment.

To make this possible we are working with our clients on forest valuation and financing systems which will help to guide more responsible investments into sustainable forestry (e.g. FairForest). For forest practitioners which want to work in sustainable forest operations we provide easy access to accurate and timely forest information via web based Forest Information Systems.

We want to thank all clients, partners and members of the OpenForests team to work with us towards this goal. Simple:

A More Sustainable Forestry

By Alexander Watson

Open Forest