[List of Publications]

[Anual Report 97 :
Table of Contents]

Controversy on the environmental effects and social impacts of tree planting in the tropics is primarily due to industrial plantations, especially those comprising single, short-rotation species. Risks for the environment include impacts on soil water, soil nutrients, soil erosion and biodiversity. In addition, a potential source of social conflict arises where land acquisition for forest plantations is in direct competition with agriculture.

Plantation forests, on the other hand, have avoided major confrontations on environmental issues. Concerns of the international community are directed primarily at the loss and degradation of tropical natural forests due to human activities. The recent international initiatives taken for natural forests suggest that a logical step in this process will be the need for scientifically sound criteria and indicators of the real environmental and social impacts and sustainability of plantation forestry. For natural forests this process has been driven largely by efforts to introduce independent third-party certification of sustainably managed forests and labelling of the resulting timber. Active in the discussion of criteria and indicators at the forest management unit level have been international and regional NGOs and, increasingly, the timber industry and governments.

With support from the ACIAR, CIFOR has started testing and developing criteria and indicators (C&I) for sustainable management of plantation forests. Whereas several international efforts have concentrated on developing C&I at the national or global levels, this project is the only international effort directed at the forest management unit level.