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Writing from Iquitos, Peru, forester and woodworker James King presents a solution for the deforestation of the Amazon: Practice sustainable logging. Slash-and-burn farming by locals is the cause of deforestation, and selling the Amazon's beautiful hardwood can provide people with non-farming income, says King.

Included in the essay is a photo series on the logging process.

The author next to Purpleheart logs.

By James King

In order to discuss logging in the Amazon a number of things must be understood. Possibly the most important and misunderstood fact is that people have been led to believe there is a huge lumber industry in the Amazon. This is simply not true.

In the Amazon there are but a handful of species exploited for world markets. Generally speaking, tropical lumbermen are small businessmen of little means.  They work in a form that could be best related to as subsistence living.

The Amazon, as with any tropical forest, is biologically diverse and it is not unusual for 100 species of trees to grow on one acre. No one knows in fact how many species exist.

Making a Case for Responsible Lumber Harvesting

The people of the Amazon forest near Iquitos survive on the equivalent of $19 per month, according to a local census done in 2001. Few know how to read and write. For these local subsistence farmers, the big hardwood trees on their own property have little value for lumber or other products that could be sustainably extracted from trees – such efforts require mountains of paperwork and costly cutting licenses (approximately $1,000 for every 100 acres). The people of this region have one primary concern: how to feed, clothe, and shelter their families for $19 a month.


Right or wrong, they slash and burn to make space for crop and grazing lands. Now the problem escalates. Cleared rainforest land has no long-term value as crop land. The soils are very poor in nutrients and high in pH due to the heavy rainfall, and clay soil makes growing corn and beans — nonnative plants — virtually impossible. Because it’s all they have, locals must clear new forest areas every couple of years in order to keep growing food. Deforestation continues on.

It stands to reason that the people who live in the Amazon must learn to utilize the forest as a source of products to sell, not just chop it down, in order to exist. The most logical thing is well managed productive forests.

People must be trained as to what they have as a renewable resource in their forest.  A typical low-value tree such as the Cumala, which is the most harvested, is sold by the logger for about $35 which can represent up to a days work. Mahogany, another lower class wood can value several times that much as the value is higher and the size of the tree is much larger. 

The next and virtually uncharted area of forestry in the Amazon is the harvest of beautiful woods such as Sacha Cumaceba, Pink Flame, Arco Iris, Amazonian Blackwood and others. These species can earn a family upwards of $300 for a single tree. In the US retail market these rare woods sell for $50 per board foot (the standard unit of measurement: 12 by 12 inches and one inch thick).

In processing wood for export and selling a finished product 75 percent or more of the log purchased is lost in the process. The export and import costs with freight and paperwork are expensive. The investment in the wood inventory is substantial but the business is viable and profitable. One board foot of wood goes from fifty cents to a dollar in log form to fifty dollars by the time it gets to a consumer. This time lapse can be one year. By cutting one or two trees a month a family can feed and educate their children and save the forest and stop the slash and burn.

According to INRENA, Peru’s natural resource agency, 88 percent of the trees cut are used for firewood and charcoal as a result of slash and burn. Logging does not cause deforestation. What gives incentive to slash and burn farming are bad forestry laws that do not allow people to work and earn a living. People living in one of the richest parts of the world should not be forced to live in poverty by unwise and damaging forestry laws.

Caring for the Forest
When tropical trees reach maturity and reach the top of the canopy they normally just fall over and rot. They have virtually no root system and the slightest breeze will blow them over, creating light for the hundreds of seedlings below. One of seedlings will fight and fill this opening. Most tropical trees do not have dominant growth rings, make it difficult to age them. Most experienced foresters in the tropics agree that a tree that lives to 80 years is uncommon, and a life cycle closer to 60 is average. This lays out the scenario that an old growth tropical forest can be created in much less than 100 years.

The future of the tropical forests depends on proper use and proper management of the forest. People living in the Amazon need a way to feed their families that is not destructive and that they can be proud of.

The Amazon has a major renewable resource: wood. If managed properly, logging will feed the Amazon’s people and create a society that is not dependent on international welfare and without harm to the tropical forest.

The forest, as with any other resource, has no value unless it is used and managed. According to the website Friends of the Earth, Brazil produces some 6 billion board feet of lumber each year, legally and illegally. This is virtually the same as a typical years’ production for the state of Oregon. The Brazilian Amazon is 1.5 million square miles whereas the Oregon is 98,000 square miles. The Peruvian Amazon, which also is much bigger than Oregon, produces less than one percent of the annual sustainable production of Oregon. The US has 21 percent of the forest land of the Amazon and sustainably produces 19 times the production of the Amazon.

So again, there is really not much lumber coming out of the vast Amazon.

The world should know that if they would buy tropical lumber products they would be helping save the tropical forests from clear cutting and destruction. Buy tropical lumber and save the tropical forest.

tags : jungle Amazon Oregon homemade log

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7 Comments

# Joaquin Boehnert says :
3 February, 2010 [ 04:55 ]

Interesting statement in the article of James King:

"The Amazon, as with any tropical forest, is biologically diverse and it is not unusual for 100 species of trees to grow on one acre. No one knows in fact how many species exist."

Therfore it would be better to know first this rich forest well, before cutting him down. Or at least do a very selective cutting of trees and harvest no-timer products of this rich tropical forest, like rubber, nuts, etc.. befor cutting him down in a slash and burn method!

Joaquín Boehnert
Member od "IINCAGRO - Pozuzo - Perú
www.zonasdeamortiguamiento.org

# William Belisle says :
4 February, 2010 [ 06:39 ]

I have been a professional woodworker for 20 years, I have also been blessed to have met and married a beutiful Peruvian woman. This article is near and dear to my heart, I would love nothing more than to be able to work with these people and help them to grow their economy through proper forestry.  Any one know of how a gringo can be a part of this and help people doing something I love?

I know from where I come from ( Northeast USA) many people look down upon woodworker using the exotic woods, veneers possibly, but using solid stock is frowned upon due to the perception that greedy forestry priactices are destroying the Amazon. I would love nothing more than to give my life to the cause of preserving the forestry in the Amazon, to share the beautiful with the world but alos to help build a sutainable industry that will bless the people there with a good business to be able to provide a better life for them and their families.

Anyone in Peru know how I can get involved and be a part of this?? Please let me know.

Muchas gracias y Viva el Peru!!!

Sinceramente,

William "Guillermo" Belisle
Connecticut, USA
wm.woodworker@gmail.com

# Fernando Yengle says :
4 February, 2010 [ 12:08 ]

What is the first thing the peruvian government should do to develop forestry in the Amazon region and what next? Would it help to hire American or other experts in the matter to develop a plan?
I am a peruvian living in California and would love to see many improvements in the live of peruvians, but ultimately I believe these improvements would be good for all humanity.

Fernando Yengle
mfyengle@comcast.net
Cell: 408 890 1859

# Jim King says :
5 February, 2010 [ 11:02 ]

I will try to answer the points that have been made.

Joaquin Boehnert says :
3 February, 2010 [ 04:55 ] Interesting statement in the article of James King:

"The Amazon, as with any tropical forest, is biologically diverse and it is not unusual for 100 species of trees to grow on one acre. No one knows in fact how many species exist 

Joaquin.

I have lived in the Amazon about 25 years and I can tell you without question the more you know the more questions arise.  Many of whom are called experts estimate we may have identified as few as 20% of the flora species here.  The fact is no one knows.   Every year there are millions and millions of dollars of research money donated from all over the world but the results are slim at best.  The US government thru USAID  and other governments donate huge sums of money ( Millions of $$ )to some of the most famous Ecology Groups in the World for use in Peru, where it goes and what results can be shown I have no idea.  Living here in Iquitos and knowing most people involved in forestry I know that none of them have met these people or seen a result.

It appears that the monies received are all used in Lima to write theoretical documents and play the ecological game but I wonder how many have boots and machetes.

William Belisle says :
4 February, 2010 [ 06:39 ]William:As I mentioned above millions of dollars are poured into Peru each year to work on the problems of the Amazon.  If you were to do a Google on “NGO Iquitos forestry” you will find over 60,000 web sites saying what good things they are all doing for the forest in the Iquitos, Amazon and 95% have a note in the corner where to send them money.  If each one actually had one employee we would have no unemployment in Iquitos and no motor car drivers.  Obviously there are some serious ones but not many.There is this whole misconception promoted by the Ecology Industry for their own self promotion that forestry is the same as deforestation and as most people do not understand they fall for it.  All in the Eco Industry carry on about the incredible diversity of the forest.  That is one point that no one can disagree with.  Now that is also the exact reason that logging for timber products will never cause deforestation .  There are no stands of Oak or Pine here that can be clear cut and reforested by helicopter.  The same biodiversity that gives one or two or no viable trees to a hectare is its own forestry control.  Of the hundreds of species that grow here only a handful are commercially viable.Lumber people here are not the rich lumber barons, 99% are subsistence loggers when they can be,  They don´t have the time or money to be cutting down a forest for the fun of it.Fernando Yengle says :
4 February, 2010 [ 12:08 ]Fernando:I agree in that what the Amazon does so goe the future of tropical forests all over the world.  We have had a tremendous problem over the past few years in that there have been forestry laws pushed upon Peru by the International ECO Industry.  These laws were dreamed up over a table in New York or in Europe by people who obviously have never set foot in a tropical jungle for logging.  The laws were and are so absurd that if in fact someone did pay attention to them they would have created the biggest deforestation project in the History of the Upper Amazon.The laws were made to give out 5,000 hectare parcels to anyone who could spell logging.  These parcels were all several kilometers inland from any river access and just the primary and secondary access roads would have created thousands and thousands of deforestation.  Fortunately the vast majority of logging or what little there is, is done illegally and without damage to the jungle or the biodiversity.The biggest problem we have now is that the small logger with his kids cannot afford $1000 for a permit to sell a couple of logs off his own land and has turned to cocaine and the kids go into prostitution due to the Eco Industry laws.There are now thousands of people growing cocaine as they can market it easier than getting piles of permits to cut a tree.This is a very complicated subject and has great socio economic issues that are going to come to a head again if not addressed.   You cannot train these people to live without eating and the Eco Industry had best soon understand that.Please let the people work and live and don´t blame the deforestation of the US and Europe and the resulting pollution problems on the Amazon. The key is EDUCATION and that must start in North America and Europe.

# Genaro Cabada Rosas says :
5 February, 2010 [ 02:04 ]

About forestry it will do fine if "Living in Peru" interview to Mr. Jose Climper, please try to do it I'm sure that you will support his plan.
Mr. Climper was interviewed in "La hora N" (Feb. 4, 2010) it's quite important to promote his idea.

# Jim King says :
6 February, 2010 [ 07:36 ]

# Genaro Cabada Rosas says :
5 February, 2010 [ 02:04 ]

Genaro:  Do you have any idea where Jose Climper can be found ?  Can you give an outline of his ideas ?

jameskingpe@yahoo.es

# amylynn says :
15 February, 2010 [ 01:01 ]

Several people were seeking ways to help this area and its people.  I invite everyone to visit ninosdelaamazonia.org  You will learn about everyday indigenous life in the Peruvian Amazon and see amazing photos, all of them taken by the indigenous children.  AND - you will have the opportunity to help educate indigenous youth if you so desire.  Through education  - we give a hand up - not a hand out.  Thank you.

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