The Future of Forests
Why we need Forests
Some scientists say, that climate changes have existed on Earth since its creation, and they are perfectly right. However, when they say that mankind is not contributing to it, they are wrong. There is a lot of evidence that carbon dioxide and methane are contributing big time to global warming.
Nature provided two perfect mechanisms for the atmosphere to balance out the impact of methane and carbon dioxide: oceans, where wind and waves wash those substances out of the air and have them neutralized by algae and micro organisms; and trees, where carbon is stored away in solid matter.
Better than a tree is an entire forest, which provides a lot more functions such as water management inside the soil, water management by evaporation and creation of rain, which also means clear portable water, protection of the soil against erosion and finally giving home to a huge biodiversity of plants and animals, who's symbiosis is still far beyond what is known by science so far.
Anyway, there is no question, that the forest is of big importance to maintaining an environment where mankind can survive. In the end most of the surfaces of the land masses of the globe were originally covered with forests for a reason. It also makes no difference whether we talk about northern forests close to the arctic circle, the forests of the industrialized northern hemisphere or tropical rain forests. Each of these forests are in big demand: in industrialized regions for filtering the contamination out of the air right where it is happening, to improve the SMOG situations in cities from Detroit to Peking; in the Mediterranean where the ancient romans deforested wide countrysides, to stop erosion and rebuild the water management; and in the tropics, to stabilize the global weather all together and to prevent more hurricanes and other cyclones.
Reforestation, where the Damage is Done
All over the world there is a large demand for rebuilding the natural cover of the surface with forests. Luckily there are meanwhile quite some initiatives all over the planet. Locally there are programs of administration giving away trees for free to motivate people to plant trees in their backyards, and yes, every single tree counts. Governments set up programs to donate thousands of trees to reforest agricultural or pasture land. Though started with a lot of enthusiasm some of these programs fail, as the poor little tree, once planted is often left alone thereafter.
But there are more and more professional organizations like Futuro Forestal, who specialize in tropical forests, or the Arbour Day Foundation, specializing in Northern American forests, who show a sustainable approach. Reforestation is run here in a professional way, starting with a business plan, searching the right lot of land, planning the right mix of trees best suited for the soil and climate conditions and planning a layout that provides a reasonable forest management platform, taking biodiversity, firebreaks and management access into consideration to an equal extent.
Depending on the preconditions of the site Futuro Forestal either chooses a mix of local species with different growth rates and specifications which are known to thrive well together, to form a perfect ecosystem, which also helps to prevent all kinds of pest on a natural base, and which work well in a schedule of thinning and harvesting after about 30 years. A similar approach can be reached with a patchwork plantation style approach, where islands of about 80% of the total area are reforested with a single species, which are embedded into a framework of 20% of the area reforested with a mix of local species giving home and shelter to a wide biodiversity and meant to permanently last, while only the plantation areas will be harvested upon maturity.
Why Manage Sustainable Reforestation?
Ecological activist may demand to leave the forests to themselves and have nature have a go on closing their scars. Unfortunately the example of the Caribbean islands or Africa shows, that this is no way to go. The secondary vegetation usually is a worthless bushland of Cassi bush. Not only worthless in the economical sense, but also for the environment all together. Those bush lands give home to goats, if at all and have no impact on the water management at all. So human action is required. Planning and managing a forest is an ongoing process and involves expenses throughout the entire period of growth. The right planning in the first step, the cleaning around the young trees until they are tall enough to survive on their own, the thinning to give them space for growth and extension, the permanent monitoring for pest, forest fires and the action taken against it is a serious task to ensure the survival of the forest.
The guiding objective – production of fine tropical hardwoods in a ecologically sound, socially just and economically sustainable manner – is articulated clearly, as is the market justification for the work that is outlined above. Harvesting the timber on the areas in a random schedule makes sure, that the entire area remains covered with trees of different age and state of growth throughout the revolving cycle. Producing wood of high quality and bib demand makes sure, that the carbon bound in the wood there is safe for the next 100 years or so in form of a wood floor, a yacht deck, a chair or a staircase, while the next generation of trees is already binding more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
How to Protect Reforesting Projects and Existing Forests
Every year large areas of forests are lost due to forest fires of many creations. Some are set for legal reasons, as laws prevent construction inside forests in some countries. Creative minds tend to burn down the forest to make space for resort or residential projects by paying people to set the forest on fire. In those cases an adjustment of the law, for example, by permitting construction in those areas only under the condition of reforesting twice the area elsewhere would solve the problem and even benefit the environment.
In the far bigger number of cases it is jut the rural population looking for income alternatives, and selling beef to fast food chains is just too tempting. Unfortunately this is doing twice the damage: burning down the trees releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and the cattle thereafter produces tons of methane gas. Education and alternatives need to be employed here.
Great Britain's HRH, Prince Charles, is doing a lot in this sector with The Prince's Rain Forest Program to protect existing forests. In the field of reforestation Futuro Forestal has an excellent record of just integrating the local population into the programs, keeping whole families employed on good salary for long terms and having them living inside the projects. Thus they have a mutual interest to maintain the forest, instead of setting it on fire, they guard it and man watchtowers to take fast action in case a forest fire is discovered.
Higher and Better Use of Forests
Forest projects promise a good and solid return on investment, however it is pretty obvious that a forest needs 30 years to grow and there is only one thinning cut of round wood after about seven years to create some revenue. Thanks to Kioto, carbon trade offers an early income stream by trading carbon points throughout the entire growth period of the forest. Still this is not the only chance to create revenues out of forests. A number of forest lodge resorts show, that tourism opens chances to use the forest during it's growth period in multiple ways. There is a great many of second and third uses which can easily be integrated into a forest program. As forest projects are by nature rather large, a small amount of the area can be set aside for residential or resort projects to bring people to the forests, both for recreational reasons as well as for education about the environment To upgrade a basic residential or resort project, there can be added sub projects such as:
wildlife park
adventure park
trail riding
polo field
golf course
shooting range
aquaculture projects
arts and crafts centers
energy production
harvesting of natural plants for pharmacy and cosmetics
mixed cultures with spices, energy seeds, cacao or other cultivated species
For each project there is an individual approach to be chosen based on the location, access to transport, water and energy, soil quality and weather conditions. A small project on 5000 hectares might encompass a 200 bedroom hotel with a 250 villa residential park and a jungle cottage camp of 50 units combined with riding facilities, an aquaculture project raising sturgeon, producing caviar, and collecting certain other substances from the forest like rosewood oil. As a general concept, the side products of the caviar production and the substances like rosewood oil can contribute to a spa health and beauty line, making the resort a high end living and recreation spot with a range of permanent revenue streams, which can be used to maintain the surrounding forest at the best possible level.
As a final step, one might even go as far as starting to reforest large ranges of territory, for example in Brazil, using the already existing roads as a transport grid and putting high rise self sustaining cities every 50 kilometers or so. Using high rising structures, the consumption of area for living, working, and construction space would be comparably small. In a group of a dozened interlinked sky scrapers, a closed infrastructure of living space, schools, shopping and service centers, offices and factories can be created, with a fantastic view over the green canopy of the rain forest, no traffic impact except the traffic between such satellite cities which would be on low scale and the rest of the traffic by elevators inside the buildings.
Instead of having a Central Park inside the city, the recreation grounds would surround the city to a large extent, would rebuild the formerly intact nature and would contribute to the well being of the environment and mankind at the same time. So-called forest kindergartens show how kids learn to live with nature and to respect the environment and at the same time are healthy and have a happy childhood. Maybe it is time to take it to the next level and share this beautiful experience with the entire population.
