Resource information
This paper disaggregates the term
"biodiversity" into components (landscapes,
ecosystems, communities, species/populations, and genes) and
attributes (structure, composition, and function). It then
disaggrgates "logging" by detailing the vast range
of activities subsumed under the term including variation of
logging intensities, logging methods, collateral damage, and
silvicultural approaches. Using the richness present in both
terms, a framework for considering the impacts of logging
and other forest management activities on the various
components and attributes of biodiversity is presented. This
framework is, in turn, used to evaluate the extensive
literature covering different studies of logging in tropical
forests. This paper does not conclude with uncritical
support for sustainable forest managmement of timber as a
conservation strategy. Such an endorsement is unwarranted
given widespread illegal logging in the tropics, widespread
frontier logging and logging of areas of high priority for
biodiversity protection, the persistence of poor logging
practices despite substantial efforts in research and
training, and the generally slow rate at which most loggers
are transforming themselves from timber exploiters into
forest managers. Rather the authors assert, from a
biodiversity maintenance perspective, that natural forest
management is preferable to virtually all land-use practices
other than complete protection.
