Abstract
There is a common assumption that when sustainable forest management (SFM) is not practised the reasons are usually a lack of knowledge or lack of training in applying those techniques. We trace the intermittent development of techniques for SFM in the tropical rainforest of Guyana (South America), beginning with the classical observational ecology at Moraballi Creek in 1929. We reference the deliberate lack of application of SFM in spite of access to science-based information and repeated training. In this country, a precarious political democracy is destabilised by the gigantic profits from illegal logging and log trading which support corruption in the sector and generally across regulatory systems. The highest rate of graduate emigration in the world contributes to the difficulty of creating the core of moral leadership required to rise above the local tradition of under-the-table negotiation in place of the rule of law.
Highlights
Grulke et al [1] collected data from 51 commercial enterprises logging in tropical or subtropical forests
With its small human population concentrated in the treeless coastland and its naturally infertile hinterland soils, Guyana has mostly retained its cover of natural tropical rainforest since European contact in the late 1500s
The Moraballi Creek expedition is widely credited for its pioneering efforts to study canopy biodiversity using ladders and pulley systems [18], even though the limitations at that time meant that they could only write about canopy biodiversity in the most general terms
Summary
Grulke et al [1] collected data from 51 commercial enterprises logging in tropical or subtropical forests. In the 1930s, the publications on the 1929 observational research at Moraballi Creek, plus the Forest Department research on silviculture for various species but mainly greenheart (Chlorocardium rodiei (Schom.) Rohwer, Richter & van de Werff) gave a good basis for forest management planning at the concession level. This possibility was removed by the global economic recession during this decade, which caused less and less fieldwork as government staff were made redundant.
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