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Forest Management is an environmentally friendly practice that enables the use of forest resources without depleting it for future use; management for timber products comprises harvesting the older trees and leaving the younger ones to the benefit of future generations.
The benefit of such concept is that one can make use of the forest and preserve biodiversity at the same time.
The legal definition of environmental management was established only in 2006 in Brazil, with the enactment of the Public Forest Management Law, as "the management of a forest for economic, social and environmental benefit, respecting the ecosystem’s sustainability mechanisms and giving consideration to the cumulative or rotational use of multiple timber species, multiple non-timber products and byproducts and the use of other forest products and services".
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Forest Management is associated to the history of forest sciences and silviculture, which studies natural and artificial methods of regenerating forests. The first field experiments were conducted in Germany, in the 19th century. The goal of the first tests was to determine the maximum production capacity for temperate forests during a managed period. While Europeans were developing this technique, Brazil remained apathetic to the subject for almost a century. In this country, pioneering forestry schools emerged in the 60s. The earliest experiments performed in Brazil were in 1958, in Santarém in the state of Pará. It was the starting point for further studies and research.
Since then, the Brazilian government has paid closer attention to the country’s forests. In 1965 the Federal Government approved the first Brazilian Forestry Code. The Code was innovative for its time and stated that forests in the Amazon region could only be explored under management plans. But progress in subsequent years was slow. The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) and the National Institute of Amazonian Research (Inpa) leaded the research on forest management in the 60’s and 70’s.
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In order for Forest Management to be performed correctly and efficiently, an action plan is required; this plan can be divided into three phases: forest inventory and pre-harvest activities, forest harvesting, and post harvest activities.
Forest inventory and pre-harvest activities: this is the planning phase, which is usually performed up to a year before harvest. Technicians make the forest inventory by collecting information about tree species, quality, distribution and volume. The objective is to access how much of the resource can be harvested of each species. Along with this inventory, biological values, watersheds and streams are mapped. By doing so, specific locations of what must be protected when planning the harvest are identified. Apart of that, roads and yards are planned using landscape information. The wood stock assessment is submitted to IBAMA (the Brazilian institute of environment and renewable natural resources) approval on an annual basis.
Forest harvesting: the selected trees, normally 3 to 5 out of more than 100 per hectare, are logged according to reduced impact techniques that comprise: controlling felling direction, removing lianas, using the right equipment and skilled workers. Trees are sawn close to the ground; hollow specimens are kept untouched. By that, it is possible to minimize damage to surrounding trees, and to minimize the risk of labor accidents. After felling, the trunks are crosscut into 6,5 m long logs and are skidded to the storage yards. The skid equipment follows trails that are planned to minimize as much as possible the impact on the forest ground, as well as to reduce operational costs.
One important point to mention is responsible harvesting. In many FSC forests only a limited percentage of each species is harvested to ensure natural regeneration of the whole species composition. Differently from traditional timber operations, only a small volume of commercial species is explored. On the other hand, various lesser known species are also harvested and, consequently, certified companies usually have a larger product mix.
Once the trees are felled, a monitoring process begins. Experts measure forest continuous growth and its dynamics. This monitoring information is not only to assess the impact of the human action, but it is also useful to improve forest operations.
Post harvest activities: whenever needed, seedlings are planted, either to enable the forest to better recover from the harvesting operations, or to enlarge the volume of valuable species. Once the area is harvested it is kept untouched for 30 years, giving the forest the opportunity to recover its initial wood stock.
Part of the management area is designated as conservation zones to be left intact forever to protect most vulnerable and biologically valuable parts of the forest. Reserve zones are established to protect high conservation value forest, followed by buffer zones to make a transition between operational areas and conservation zones.
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The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) label was created to encourage responsible forest management. It ensures that the timber comes from a project that is not depleting environment, nor putting local people aside.
The FSC label for the chain of custody assures the possibility to trace each piece of wood from the finished product through the supply chain back to the certified forest.
How Forest Management is implemented by Orsa. Watch the animation.
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