Need advice

[jim king]

I am looking for information concerning logging in different forms.  Here in Peru in the state I  live in we have about 130,000 square miles of forest land of which 99.9% is virgin. 
Basic facts:  The state of Loreto is about 30% bigger than Oregon.
                    Oregon harvests 4.5 billion bf yearly and is about half desert I believe.
                     Loreto produces 24 million bf of lumber a year.
                     Loreto has at least 80 percent unemployment.
                     We have an average of 40,000 bf of tropical timber per acre.
                     

Problem:
We have a forestry law made by "experts" that says that the only way timber can be harvested is by using skidders as the use of chainsaws to cut a tree into cants to be carried out by hand is not permitted as it wastes to much wood.

Does anyone know how much forest would be destroyed by roads and skid trails on a 20,000 acre parcel using skidders  as compared to using chain saws and carrying out the cants ?

The first  major problem in the area is the clear cutting for the production of charcoal and firewood to earn a living and clear land for subsistence farming.  Reason being that the land owner is prohibited from cutting his timber with a chain saw to sell to buyers for export and cannot afford or does he want a skidder on his property.  Plus a permission that costs about  $300 is required and is out of the question financially.

My people that I have been able to put to work legally with a chain saw  have been able to raise the weekly family income from about $15 to $300 by selectively cutting a few trees  (about 2000 bf per acre).

The forest is simply falling over and rotting and the people are living in one of the greatest concentration of renewable natural resources wealth in the world and they cannot work.

I have just come back from the Capital of the country from meetings with many government agencies and congressmen and I have the support I need to change things if I have the facts to back me up.  I know I am correct but I do not have any degrees or pedigree to back me up but I do have a lot of respect in the highest levels so any pros with information would help me a lot to help the situation here.

Any information would be appreciated.  The attached photos says it all.  It is legal to slash and burn and sell the charcoal for $6 a cubic meter and illegal to sell the same firewood as a finished product for $2000 per cubic meter.

Jim King
Iquitos, Peru

[Gary_C]

I hope you realize your problem has nothing to do with Forestry, Logging, or the information you seek. It's all about politics. It's good that you gather this information and unfortunately I cannot help you with that, but in the end when you present any information to the government officials, the information you gather will not be as important as the GIFTS you carry. Specifically some of the beautiful products you have made from that wood will say more than all the data you can collect.

But you probably already know this.  ;D

[jim king]

Gary:  Those products are in most offices in Lima and were the major factor in opening the eyes of the powers to be and many have visited the business here and are getting the idea that producing charcoal and the suffering of the people due to a bad law is not correct..  That is why I need info to put together to present my case.  I have to be back in Lima in a few days , things are moving and I cannot loose momentum.

[Ron Wenrich]

A good rule-of-thumb would probably a 5% area loss due to roads and trails.  What will happen is that you'll put roads in to cut out the forest.  Then, when they skid the trees out, the soil compaction from the skidders will effect the ability to grow trees in that spot.  Wet areas are even worse.  Any rutting becomes another mosquito nesting spot. 

After logging is finished, then you will have the squatters move in.  The government (or whoever) will try to reclaim the land by planting trees.  I doubt you are talking about natural regeneration.  When the squatters move in, they will destroy those planted trees and grow crops until they exhaust the soil., then move on.

My concern wouldn't be so much on the logging, but what happens afterward.  Your forest is going to be really changed.  Instead of the uneven aged and very diverse forest you have, you will end up with a forest of only a few species.  Its great for growing fiber that can be used from an industrial standpoint, like eucalyptus for pulp. 

The impact is that through the loss of diversity, you will also lose species.  Some species will move on to smaller and smaller habitat, until there isn't enough.  Other species will just die off as their habitat will be altered too much for them to survive.  Its the symbiotic relationship that certain species have. 

There is no way that you are doing more damage than what a skidder and chainsaw would do.  You may have more waste, since commercial logging might use the slash for pulp.  But, you are keeping jobs within your district.  When they load a log on a logging truck, your jobs go along with it.  The value added is added somewhere else, and that doesn't help your people.

[jim king]

Ron:
The 5% you mention is ight on track with a study done in Guyana by the European Union to change the law as I want to do here.  We have a problem that is the opposite of the States.  Here the idea is to employ as many people as possible and not invest in heavy machinery to replace people.
I am not concerned about people moving into the jungle after cutting three or four trees per acre as they cannot live in the jungle without having a river near for water and fish.  I dont see how the removal of three of four trees per acre would alter the natural mix of the jungle as there are thousands of seedlings of every species per acre waiting for a tree to fall to sprout up and take its place.

As for waste it is all left in the jungle.  Logs are only cut from the tree until the first limb and the rest is left to rot.  There is no pulp or paper industry.  You are right in that this is all about value added.  My plan is to get the people bringing out the lumber in cants on thier back and sawing the cants on a thin kerf table mills.  Also the limbs and crotches and stumps can be used for 2-3 inch flooring 3 feet long thus increasing the yeild per tree dramaticly over present methods.

The market is China for dense flooring woods that grow here like grass.

I appreciate your comments.

[Ron Wenrich]

You may have misunderstood what I was saying about squatters.  I was referring to commercial clearcutting operations.  Not what you are talking about doing.

The other factor to consider is the certification factor.  Your methods of a few tree removals would be more sustainable than a clearcut.  Although certification might not be a big deal to China, it is a big deal in Europe. 

[jim king]

Ron:
The certification program is certainly accepted in Europe but the US and China really could care less.  I have very mixed feelings about it as we are in South America, I assume it is a bit more organized in Europe and the US.  If you want your forest certified here it is generally a photo copy of another certification and how much do you have to pay.  Not much seriousness involved.