Abstract
Although tropical forests harbour most of the terrestrial carbon and biological diversity on Earth they continue to be deforested or degraded at high rates. In Amazonia, the largest tropical forest on Earth, a sixth of the remaining natural forests is formally dedicated to timber extraction through selective logging. Reconciling timber extraction with the provision of other ecosystem services (ES) remains a major challenge for forest managers and policy-makers. This study applies a spatial optimisation of logging in Amazonian production forests to analyse potential trade-offs between timber extraction and recovery, carbon storage, and biodiversity conservation. Current logging regulations with unique cutting cycles result in sub-optimal ES-use efficiency. Long-term timber provision would require the adoption of a land-sharing strategy that involves extensive low-intensity logging, although high transport and road-building costs might make this approach economically unattractive. By contrast, retention of carbon and biodiversity would be enhanced by a land-sparing strategy restricting high-intensive logging to designated areas such as the outer fringes of the region. Depending on management goals and societal demands, either choice will substantially influence the future of Amazonian forests. Overall, our results highlight the need for revaluation of current logging regulations and regional cooperation among Amazonian countries to enhance coherent and trans-boundary forest management.
Highlights
By storing about 30% of the Earth’s terrestrial carbon [1] and half of the world’s biodiversity [2], regulating hydrological cycles [3], and furnishing a wide range of timber and non-timber goods, tropical forests are critical for human welfare and climate-change mitigation
These areas correspond to the lowest values on above-ground carbon and potential richness maps, explaining why they are allocated to intensive logging when those ecosystem services (ES) are optimised
Similar to the Carbon and Biodiversity strategies, heavily logged areas are concentrated on the peripheries of the Basin, especially on its southeastern border and low-intensity logging is concentrated in the south and northwest whereas central, western and northeastern Amazonia remain mostly unlogged
Summary
By storing about 30% of the Earth’s terrestrial carbon [1] and half of the world’s biodiversity [2], regulating hydrological cycles [3], and furnishing a wide range of timber and non-timber goods, tropical forests are critical for human welfare and climate-change mitigation. These benefits notwithstanding, tropical forests are being converted into cropland at a higher-thanever rate (1.1 Mkm between 2000 and 2012 [4]) and are facing increasing pressure from other human activities [5]. Arguments are made for the integration of selectively logged forests into forest conservation schemes [14]
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