Stopping Forest Loss

Just back from IWPA’s convention in Miami Beach. Great convention – lots of attendees, informative speakers, and a general sense that the worst days are behind us. Full press release, convention presentations and additional details at http://www.iwpawood.org/.


Lots of business got done in the hallways, over dinner, and even at the pool!

One of the most satisfying programs on the convention agenda were Producer Market reports. These were formal presentations by Ghana, Guyana and Malaysia. Since our industry depends on the sustainability of the resource we trade in – it is imperative that we have knowledge of the forests. To paraphrase, “the state of the forests is strong.” Guyana, Ghana and Malaysia reported on their successful efforts to keep their forests sustainable and valuable.

Coincidentally, during our convention the National Academy of Science released a surprising report that found from 2000 to 2005 Brazil and a number of other tropical countries had lower percentages of forest loss than both the United States and Canada!

The report entitled “Quantification of global gross cover loss” used satellite imagery to quantify forest loss. The researchers found that North America lost the most forest of the six forest covered continents. The U.S. lost six percent of its forest cover during this period for an estimated 120,000 square kilometers. The culprits – fire, insects and, yes, logging.

The report went on to attribute the amount of tropical forest loss that was occurring to forest conversion to croplands and farming.

Hmmm, isn’t that what occurred in the U.S. during the 1800s when land was cleared to support family farms and supply agricultural trade with Europe? So what we have in emerging economies is a development model much like that of the U.S.

Bottom line, despite the doomsday rhetoric, global forestry practices are improving. Global deforestation has slowed. And U.S. design and specification of imported wood products helps support forestry dependent communities and advance sustainable forest management in our world’s great forests.

Unfortunately, as we know from experience here in the U.S., if there is no value to forests they will be cleared.