THE DESTRUCTION OF TROPICAL FORESTS

Dear Dr. Barendse:
In my prior posting on the destruction of tropical forests, I failed to
give you some information on one of those tremendously big concessions you
mention. I am referring to the JARI project, an area of 
80 000 km2 (=roughly equal to the kingdom of Belgium) on the North shore of
the Amazon river, which was granted to Mr.Ludwig, an American shipping
magnate. He intended to replace the forests of his concession with
plantations of a fast growing hardwood species (Gmelina Arborea), very
desirable for pulp production. He therefore started to clear-cut (and
probably burn) great stretches and at the same time ordered a floating pulp
plant to be built and towed to the Amazon. What he failed to do before
starting such a big project, was to analyze the soil, which turned out to
be unfit for planting the mentioned tree-species. He also failed to pay
attention to the eminently logical advice of a British forester in his
employment, whom I met in 1981 at the Interamerican Institute for Tropical
Agriculture in Turrialba. His advice to Ludwig was, that he should thin out
his forests, use the mature trees of valuable species for lumber or veneer
and all other mature or misshapen trees for pulp. THUS HE WOULD HAVE BEEN
ABLE TO START USING HIS PLANT IMMEDIATELY, WHILE THE THINNED OUT FORESTS
COULD LATER BE HARVESTED PERIODICALLY WITH EVEN BETTER RESULTS. He ended up
losing some 1000 million dollars, which at that time (the late seventies)
was an immense amount of money and had to sell his holdings to some
Brazilians for an undisclosed sum. I do not know, whether they really paid
him, but suppose, that he only recovered a small %.
This shows that human stupidity and stubbornness has no limits and how
destrucive such traits can be.

Though this example fits in with opinions posted by Mr. Blaut, it was and
still is an isolated case. Most tropical forests are still being logged
selectively for the most valuable species, which though it is almost never
complemented with measures for fostering the regeneration of such woods,
does NOT DESTROY THE FORESTS. The real enemy is still the fire; remember
the conflagration which devastated vast areas in Borneo and Sumatra 2 years
ago!

One last point: the alcohol produced from new sugarcane plantations in
Brazil was used for automotive fuel, replacing imported oil, which became
very expensive after the foundation of OPEC. Probably this scheme was later
abandoned and the land used for grazing cattle.
Regards Paul Riesz