Logging in the Brazilian Amazon

1. Logging in the Brazilian Amazon Michael Keller USDA Forest Service Int’l Institute of Tropical Forestry

2. Logging in the Brazilian Amazon • Extent of Logging • Logging Techniques • Logging Effects • Carbon • Long Term Sustainability?

3. Selective Logging

4. Logging Centers in the Brazilian Amazon Region Nepstad et al, 1999

5. AutoMCU Results 1999 2000 Asner et al., in press

6. Logging Approaches • Conventional Logging • Reduced Impact Logging • Sustained Yield Management • Sustainable Forest Management

7. Pereira et al. (2002) Forest Ecology and Management)

8. Pereira et al. (2002) Forest Ecology and Management

9. Logging and Carbon • Carbon losses and recovery following logging • Comparison of logging practices

12. Carbon Loss (Tg C) from Logging30 Year Integration, 15000 km2 y-1 (Keller et al. in press)

13. Logging and Sustainability • Biological • Water and Energy Exchange • Carbon Storage • Nutrient Cycling • Habitat and Diversity • Production system • Economic and social

14. Potential Nutrient Limitation: Selective Logging (30 m3 removed each 30 y) [Nutrients in kg ha-1 y-1] (*) Estimated maximum Mg owing to detection limit Data from Silver et al. 2000 and Fernandes et al. 1997

15. Logging and Sustainability • Production Systems • Given realistic inputs, costs, and benefits, at what rate can logs be selectively removed from the forest over a long period of harvest cycles? • A critical factor in determining production system sustainability is the range of species acceptable to the market.

16. CAFOGROM Model (Alder & Silva) Keller et al. in press

17. Logging and Sustainability • Long term sustainability of logging depends upon protection of the forest against risks such as fire.

18. Risk: Positive Flammability Feedback Susceptibility Forest Fire Logging Source: Nepstad et al. 2001 Forest Fire

19. Conclusions • Selective logging may release substantial carbon to the atmosphere but this is highly dependent upon area logged and the logging techniques. • Nutrients, with the possible exception of K, Mg, and Ca, are unlikely to severely limit productivity on most soils • With good management, current models suggest that log production may be maintained at presently profitable levels if the number of merchantable species increases in the future

20. Acknowledgements • Natalino Silva, Greg Asner, • MCT and the LBA Central Office at CPTEC • LBA-ECO Project • Johan Zweede and FFT • NASA, US Forest Service, USAID, DFID, EMBRAPA

21. Estimation of Potential Nutrient Limitation: Selective Logging (30 m3 removed each 30 y) [Nutrients in kg ha-1 y-1] (*) Estimated maximum Mg owing to detection limit Data from Silver et al. 2000, Fernandes et al. 1997, & Williams et al. 1997