The Deniable Truth of Sustainable Forestry

Email: [email protected] Let’s start with the deniable truth—at present sustainable forestry is rare or localized. This is apparent when looking at global scales but also at regional and local scales. Globally, deforestation and land conversion continue. There is less forest each year (-5.2 million ha yr-1), and conversion of frontier (primary, or ancient) forests to second growth forests of shorter rotations of non-native species and lower tree diversity is common (-40 million ha 2000-2010, FAO 2010). The extraction of historic timber has been used to build economies from one part of the planet to another. This is deniable because in a global economy, timber use and extraction are often disconnected. Deniable because we have defined sustainable forestry so broadly that we can all agree that it is “good” without having a common understanding of the term. Finally, deniable because forestry operates on rotations that exceed human life experiences and expectancies, meaning any collapse of a system comes long after generations who initiated the process.