International Science Roundtable for the Media During Prepcom4 of the World Summit on Sustainable Development

Summary

Forests for the People

4 June 2002 – Bali, Indonesia – In the 1980s the rates of deforestation in Southeast Asia ranged between 60,000 hectare per year in Cambodia and 600,000 hectare per year in Indonesia. Twenty years later it became uncontrollable with larger ranges and greater magnitudes from 200,000 hectare per year (Cambodia) to 1,600,000 hectare per year (Indonesia).

Wood and timber demand has largely accelerated tropical deforestation, both for export and local forest industries. "Industrial demand is far greater than the capacity of the forest to supply the raw materials. Land needs for settlement, plantation and agriculture have also accelerated deforestation", says Dr Daniel Murdiyarso, Bogor Agricultural University, speaking today at an International Media Roundtable organised by the major global environmental change programmes during PrepCom4 of the WSSD.

Currently two important issues are associated with forest management: illegal logging and forest fires. Illegal logging is associated with the excess capacity of industries compared to the availability of legal timber supplies. Tropical forests have been extracted in an unsustainable way because they are treated as vast but cheap public goods.

With the current rates of deforestation, which continue to increase, it is very unlikely that tropical forest will be sustainable. "For Indonesian forests one of the greatest challenges it faces is weak governance in this time of transition", says Dr Murdiyarso.

Tropical forests should support the needs of indigenous people who depend on the forest socially, economically and ecologically. Tropical forests should be managed to support their livelihoods. They should get the opportunity to access commercial markets of forest products and ecosystem services.

So how can science and the international community help?

Science can help by quantifying goods and environmental services that tropical forests can offer;

Science can suggest options to enhance the productivity of degraded forest resources for the benefit of forest-dependent inhabitants;
Science can help bridge the information gap in public policy-making process by conducting research that is policy-relevant;
Science can help to develop sustainable forest management which benefits the indigenous people.