Is Community Logging Sustainable?
This entry was posted on 8/14/2007 11:02 AM and is filed under uncategorized.
I am quite reluctant to write
something around this topic because to me this is a complex issue that
even today no single model actually exists. For years, this has been
subject of debate and discussions among natural resource practitioners,
loggers and community leaders.
While waiting for a ride in the highway of Compostela Valley, I
observed something that seem to narrow down the concept of sustainable
community logging - the massive cutting of tree plantations in
the upland, evident by the piled logs and the mushrooming of seedling
vendors in the highway.
It gives me an understanding that, if there is an increase in cutting
of tree plantations in the upland, there is also increase in the demand
for seedlings. Most of the clients of the seedling vendors are those
who just cut and sold their planted trees. Anyone who plants tree and
profits from it is most likely to replace it and even increase
hectarage of his tree plantation.
If we could narrow down sustainable logging with these two indicators
without considering other factors like red tape, complex applications
for permit, delays, soil sustainability, bureaucracy etc., I
could say that community logging is sustainable.
