Why Poor Logging Practices Persist in the Tropics

Abstract

Abstract: Despite abundant evidence that both the environmental damage and the financial costs of logging can be reduced substantially by training workers, pre‐planning skid trails, practicing directional felling, and carrying out a variety of other well‐known forestry practices, destructive logging is still common in the tropics. Based on our collective experience with loggers in tropical forests, we discuss seven possible reasons for this seemingly irrational behavior. The principal reason poor logging practices persist is apparently that the widely heralded cost savings associated with reduced‐impact logging relative to unplanned logging by untrained crews may not be realized under some conditions. In particular, where compliance with logging guidelines restricts access to steep slopes or prohibits ground‐based timber yarding on wet ground, reduced‐impact logging may be synonymous with reduced‐income logging. Given that under such conditions loggers may not adopt reduced‐impact logging methods out of self‐interest, fiscal mechanisms for promoting sustainable forest management may be needed.