Better Logging Could Slow Global Warming

The Nature Conservancy partners with loggers in Indonesia to limit the destruction of tropical
forests

October 15, 2014 |By Coco Liu and ClimateWire
SUNGAI NGIHIS, IndonesiaAt dawn, Peter Ellis
leads a group of environmentalists heading into the
tropical forests near this remote village on the island
of Borneo. They drive for hours. They climb
mountains and cross rivers. And finally, their eyes
lock on what they are looking forloggers.
But this encounter does not turn into an
environmentalists-versus-loggers fight, which
happens more often than not. Instead, the
environmentalists shake hands with the loggers, greet
each other by first name, and walk into the forest together to learn how to cut down trees.
Ellis and his colleagues are doing something unusualfighting against climate change by
helping to improve logging operations. This idea remains controversial in the conservation
community, but the Arlington, Va.-based Nature Conservancy, the environmental organization
for which Ellis works, believes that it is a realistic strategy for reducing forest carbon emissions
in a world where market demand for wood is unlikely to go away.
In theory, trees can lock climate-harmful carbon dioxide into centuries-long storage. But the
reality has often been that the prevailing economics simply level forests to make way for mining,
farming and other developments. The net result is a level of forest destruction that is causing
higher emission levels than all the planes, cars, trucks, ships and trains on Earth combined.
Devastating the once-rich forests in Indonesia has turned it into the world's third-largest
greenhouse gas emitter after China and the United States. Data from a 2013 study by the
University of Maryland show that at least 700,000 hectares (about 1.8 million acres) of forests is
disappearing each year in Indonesia, equivalent to nearly two soccer fields per minute.
Avoiding high-damage operations
Logging is a contributor to such forest losses. But scientists say about half of the damage from
logging operations can be avoided. According to a recent study published in the journal Global
Change Biology, a quarter of the trees that are cut down by loggers end up abandoned in the
forest because they are hollow and therefore have low commercial value.
Some trees are dragged down because loggers don't bother to pre-cut vines that connect treetops.
Others are gone due to a lack of thoughtful road planning for trucks operating in the forest.
Devastating the once-rich forests in Indonesia has
turned it into the world's third-largest greenhouse
gas emitter after China and the United States.
Credit: Department of Foreign Affairs via flickr
To ensure that only commercially viable trees are cut down, in 2006, the Nature Conservancy
and its partners persuaded the Indonesian government to launch a reduced-impact logging project
in East Kalimantan's Berau district, where 40 percent of the remaining forests are planned as
commercial logging concessions.
Scientists have spent four years tracking the cause of forest carbon emissions, and the fruit of all
that effort now is beginning to reshape the logging operations.
The other day, in a meeting room of a local logging company called Karya Lestari, scientists and
company executives discussed how wide the roads should be in timber harvesting areas. Loggers
traditionally construct wide roads so that the sun can dry the road easily, preventing trucks from
getting stuck in mud during the rainy season. However, the scientific study shows that narrowing
the roads from their current width of 32 meters to less than 25 meters can lower the carbon
emissions of the entire operation by 10 percent.
"If the road is from east to west, maybe we can use a narrow road. But if it is from south to north,
then we will have to make the road wider," one executive said.
"Do you think a drainage system can compensate that effect?" one scientist suggested.
"Then we will need gravel," the executive replied. "The operation will become more expensive,
and the working hours will become longer. It is also quite dangerous to have a narrow road,
because traffic is frequent."
"We can reduce the width of roads and combine this with traffic controls," another Nature
Conservancy specialist said, jumping into the conversation. "We can build passing locations
along the roads and let truck drivers communicate with radio or walkie-talkie."
Will many small changes have a cumulative impact?
Similar discussions will happen again and again in the next few months, as the scientists and the
company executives seek suitable techniques for a 100-hectare (247-acre) pilot project. The idea
is to prove those techniques are climate-friendly while not affecting the volume of timber
production. When it's perfected, the company plans to scale it up in other timber harvest areas.
A greener logging practice is badly needed. As Soeylino Soedirman, an adviser to the logging
company, explained, "it is driven by market demand. The market wants more responsible forest
products, so buyers require sellers to do so."
"Indonesia also has committed to reduce emissions for a certain level. Forestry is the most
important sector that helps us achieve the emission reduction target," Soedirman said.
Indonesia has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent using its own funds or as
much as 41 percent with the help of international aid. That compares with projected emissions of
2.95 gigatons by 2020 if the nation takes no action.
While the exact amounts of carbon dioxide the reduced-impact logging project will help mitigate
remains to be seen, depending on which techniques the company chooses to use, it could lower
carbon emissions from the logging operation by at least 30 percent, according to the Nature
Conservancy's analysis.
The organization believes the large emissions-reduction potential will lure more logging
companies in Indonesia to follow suit. It also hopes to spread the use of reduced-impact logging
to other nations. Already, Mexico and Peru are taking steps to replicate the approach in their
forestlands.
With nearly one-fifth of the world's tropical forests designated as commercial logging
concessions, more than double the area under full protection, the Nature Conservancy says that
sustainable logging is a viable complement to strict forest protection, as it retains the majority of
biodiversity and carbon stocks.
A 'smokescreen' for business as usual?
Not every forest protector agrees. London-based Global Witness, for one, has been lobbying
donors since 2009 to prohibit funding for "green activities" related to industrial-scale logging,
which threatened to end support for reduced-impact logging and the like. Other environmental
groups such as Greenpeace and the Rights and Resources Initiative hold similar positions.
In one report, Greenpeace calls sustainable logging "often a smokescreen for business-as-usual
destructive forestry." The organization also questions whether the logging sector, which is profit-
driven and riddled with illegalities, can be trusted to deliver real emissions reductions.
Ellis and others who are involved in the reduced-impact logging project in Berau acknowledge
that their work cannot eliminate all the forest damage caused by logging. They also agree that a
monitoring system will need to be in place to ensure that logging operations will not devastate
local communities and ecosystems.
Still, he believes that the benefits of cooperating with loggers overweigh its downsides.
"Forests have a certain degree of resilience," Ellis said. "Obviously, forests that are cleared and
turned into palm oil plantations will not grow back. But with time, logged forests have the
potential to regrow and maintain their conservation value, if you do logging correctly.
"It is funny that the Nature Conservancy as a conservation organization found itself partnering
directly with loggers, but I enjoy that challenge, and I think it is one worth articulating as
beneficial in the long run," he added.
Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC.
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