0.13 Natural capital: forestry  (Page 13/14)

The marked shift in composition of tropical hardwood exports came in response to policies in exporting nations – especially in East Asia – intended to secure higher :domestic value-added” in timber exports. The expectation in every case was that higher domestic economic returns (wages, capital income) for exporting nations could be secured by adopting policies strongly geared to promotion of domestic processing of logs into sawn timber and plywood. These expectations for higher “domestic value added” have been often proved disappointing, especially in Indonesia, where subsidized plymills were far less efficient (more wasteful) than plymills in Japan and the U.S. Repetto, Robert and Gillis, Malcolm (1988). Public Policies and The Misuse of Forest Resources. NY: Cambridge University Press. In any case expanding investment in plymills and sawmills, especially in East Asia was responsible for a significant secular shift away from log exports and toward plywood and sawnwoods made from tropical hardwood. In 1980, logs constituted 75% of all tropical hardwood exports, sawnwood 16% ad plywood only 9%, out of the nearly 40 million cubic meters (m ³ ) of exports. By 1987, logs were but 45% of the total, while the shares of sawnwood and plywood rose to 28% each. The shift away from log exports continued into the 21 ^st century, so that by 2007, 85% of Asian exports were of processed tropical hardwood (FAO, 2009).

Ii. resource base

As late as 1980, the worldwide tropical forest estate (total closed forest area) was 1.26 billion hectares, largely concentrated in Brazil, East Asia and West and Central Africa. More than a billion people rely on this forest for a living, both directly and indirectly. The tropical forest endowments that have furnished wood exports from East Asia and Africa were once regarded as an inexhaustible resource. However, they have been severely depleted over the past six decades, especially since 1970. Logging for both export and local use has been a major, but far from the only, cause of widespread tropical deforestation in the second half of the twentieth century and the first decade of the 21 ^st century. Rural poverty itself has been a major cause of deforestation in the tropics. Harvest of tropical timber by poor rural dwellers in an ever-more desperate search for firewood has been a significant cause. In some tropical nations, firewood gathering has been the prime cause of deforestation. In Ghana, in the eighties, for every tree harvested for export, eight were cut down for firewood. In Indonesia in 1979, fuelwood consumption was nearly four times the volume of wood commercially harvested that year. In more recent years, forest clearing for palm oil plantations, to meet European demand for biofuels, has become a major source of deforestation in Indonesia (1990-2008). Other important causes of deforestation vary according to the country. Swidden agriculture (shifting cultivation) was a major source of deforestation in Indonesia and East Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak) until about 1980, and remains an important factor in parts of Africa today. Clearing of large tracts of forests for cattle ranches in Brazil has been the most significant cause of deforestation in that nation. According to one estimate, land clearing for cattle ranches accounted for fully 80% of Brazilian deforestation. Nepstead, et al. “The End of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon”, Science , Vol. 326, December 4, 2009. {For a worldwide perspective on deforestation see Repetto and Gillis (1988)}. Repetto, Robert and Gillis, Malcolm (1988). Public Policies and The Misuse of Forest Resources. NY: Cambridge University Press.