Multiple Resource Management of Natural Forests
The main focus for the Reduced-impact Logging (RIL) field research was again in Sabah, Malaysia, where carbon-sequestration payments have encouraged the adoption of reduced-impact logging since 1993 (see pages 24-26). The results of a pilot study on the impacts of RIL on methane emissions suggest that these impacts are not important at this time. During the field assessments, it became clear that in the long term bridge abutments and culverts create serious problems when not properly constructed and maintained. Stream sediment rates may decline, on average, within a few years after even destructive logging. However, major storms may result in significant pulses of sediments when bridge abutments and culverts fail, an unavoidable event when they are constructed from untreated wood. Two papers based on the research in Sabah were published this year. CIFOR is currently negotiating to undertake a similar study at timber concession scale in Indonesia. Other studies in Cameroon and at two sites in Brazil began in 1996, and another is planned for Bolivia in 1997. A workshop on research methods for studies on RIL was organised jointly with USAID, the USDA Forest Service and FAO in Bogor and East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Seventeen participants from Asia, Africa and Latin America attended. A second workshop, mainly for Latin Americans, is being planned next year in Bolivia. Research to synthesise and help transfer previous research results on the management of lowland rainforests of humid Africa (known as FORAFRI) started in January 1996. In the first five months, collaborative links were established with the different potential partners in five countries: Cameroon, Congo, Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire and Gabon. This "initiation" phase concluded with a workshop in Bangui (Central Africa Republic) of about forty representatives from the full range of project "clients": NARS, private sector, NGOs, and training institutions. In December 1996, FORAFRI jointly organised a workshop on the definition of research programmes for natural forest management with the Congolese Ministry of Research and CIRAD-Congo. Output of this workshop will serve as the basis for defining priority forestry research in the region. As part of the review and synthesis work under way on natural forest silviculture in the American tropics, a seminar-workshop was held in Pucallpa, Peru. It was attended by sixty Latin American researchers and practitioners, to exchange experiences on silvicultural practice in the region's natural forests and identify priorities for research. (The proceedings of the meeting will be jointly published early in 1997 in Spanish by CIFOR and CATIE.) An annotated bibliography on natural forest management in the American tropics was completed for publication by CATIE and CIFOR in early 1997. CIFOR and CATIE in 1996 conducted collaborative research on the management of secondary forests in the American tropics. The main aim is to improve resource management options by integrating production from secondary forests into the wider context of land use, especially for resource-poor people on the forest margins. Secondary forests are the woody vegetation which develops on land abandoned after its original vegetation was destroyed by human activities. The research will be initially conducted at two sites in the Amazon region of Brazil (Zona Bragantina, Para State) and Peru (Pucallpa), and one in the Atlantic lowlands of Nicaragua (Rio San Juan). A planning workshop with collaborating institutions was held in Pucallpa in June, and a second project meeting focusing on research methodologies for the biophysical and socio-economic components in October at CATIE, Costa Rica. This first phase is funded by the Inter-American Development Bank. Principal Collaborators: |