Background Document
Costa Rica, 18 - 22 January, 1999

North America

The North American Workshop to Address the Underlying Causes of Deforestation and Forest Degradation was co-hosted by Biodiversity Action Network (BIONET, USA) and Taiga Rescue Network North America (Canada). The group included 22 representatives of NGOs, community-based organisations and indigenous peoples; three academics; one scientist; six Government and intergovernmental organisations representatives; six representatives of Labor and Industry; and some others.

Hans Verolme and Juliette Moussa (BIONET) gave short opening remarks regarding the background for this initiative and how BIONET came to be the focal point for the North American component of this initiative to contribute to the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF) work program. With underlying causes on the agenda for substantive discussion at the third session of the IFF in May 1999, this workshop was scheduled to take advantage of the opportunity to bring concrete recommendations to address underlying causes to the intergovernmental table, through a multi-stakeholder process inspired by on-the-ground case studies.

On the first day, after the presentation of the case studies and shorter, lunch-time, presentations, participants split into three working groups. Each group identified the major underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation in one of the three countries in North America, and ranked them in importance. The groups were intentionally heterogeneous in order to facilitate the exchange of perspectives from participants coming from different countries.

This executive summary version of the workshop results has been compiled for quick and easy dissemination to participants and other interested individuals. A full report will be available in early 1999. In the meantime, for the full text of the case studies and for more on the initiative, please visit BIONET's website at http://www.igc.org/bionet.

Major Underlying Causes by Country

1. Mexico Working Group

The group identified the lack of empowerment of affected communities in general and indigenous women in particular; the effects of drug trafficking and forest fires; corruption, impunity and the inadequate enforcement of existing laws; and the dominance of industry interests in the way that forests are managed as significant issues. All of these seemed to be encompassed in the fundamental flaws in the current economic development model that embodies large-scale, investment-intensive infrastructure. These flaws are manifested in the way that forest ecosystems are valued, and lead to high demand and unsustainable consumption levels of timber products.

Population growth was seen by some to be an underlying cause in Mexico, but consensus was not reached on this item.

2. Canada Working Group

Discussion focused on the differences between the ways in which forests are valued and treated according to particular interests - e.g., for timber output versus conservation. Issues of land tenure, taxes/tariffs, consumption (mostly by the U.S.), cultural differences, institutional capacity, and public participation were addressed. The group ended up identifying the following major underlying causes in Canada:

• lack of recognition of multiple values;
• institutional fragmentation; and
• an economy largely based on the extraction and use of natural resources.

3. United States Working Group

The group identified issues from 'human nature' to differing definitions of 'forestation', addressing free markets, the desire for individual security, and the relationship between these economic forces and individual action as leading to deforestation and forest degradation in the United States. An important point was made about the political and legal differences that exist between public and private lands. The major underlying causes identified were:

• Inadequate institutional capability to provide technical and financial support and assistance to small private forest landowners;
• Lack of investment in monitoring and research;
• Patchwork systems of laws and responsibilities;
• Undervaluation of forests and the goods and services they provide;
• Lack of recognition of the economic diversity of forests;
• Perverse incentives;
• Pressures exerted by trade and globalisation; and
• Certain aspects of human behaviour, such as the competitive nature of humans, and greed.

Thematic Areas Discussion and Proposed Solutions

On the second day, based on plenary presentation of the results of the previous day's working groups, the group again split into three, this time based on broad thematic areas. The purpose was to concentrate discussion on a few underlying causes in order to arrive at specific, action-oriented solutions to address those underlying causes. The different underlying causes clustered into three categories, and formed the basis for the discussions in the working groups on the second day. These were:

(1) The Economic Development Model, which included issues of consumption and demand, values, incentives, perspectives, trade and competition;

(2) The Nature of Human Relationships and Social Organisation. This group discussed issues of law, policy, ethics, corruption, autonomy, and communication between stakeholders; and

(3) Science and Information, which addressed the lack of adequate information to combat deforestation and forest degradation and the failure to apply existing knowledge. It should be noted that some felt that adequate information exists and that only its application was lacking.

Working group 1: "The Economic Development Model"

An important observation made by this group was that there are significant sub-regional differences - between Mexico, the United States, and Canada - which necessitate setting different objectives for the different countries. For the United States and Canada, a moratorium on old-growth cutting was strongly supported by some participants as a way to halt unsustainable consumption, but consensus was never reached as to whether this was a realistic, or even desirable, objective.

Similarities were noted between the situation of native peoples in Mexico and Canada, especially with regard to their control over natural resources. Specific recommendations proposed for the three stated goals of reducing consumption; increasing autonomy and local control over natural resources; and establishing the appropriate legal framework to regulate large investment; were as follows:

Reduction of consumption

• Aim for reduction of consumption at the global level - as opposed to focusing on 'developed' countries alone;
• Increase education and awareness about the impacts of current levels of consumption and demand, e.g., by creating a model curriculum to be integrated into school programmes;
• Implement a world-wide aggressive recycling program;
• Establish government policies consistent with consumption reduction, using financial incentives for conservation. For example, taxing undesirable forms of consumption, and providing tax credits for the reduction of current levels of consumption; and
• Promote forest management plans with community involvement, such as by establishing a pilot project demonstrating how a community can live sustainably (although it should be noted that there are significant legal international trade barriers that would need to be overcome in order for this to be demonstrated).

Increase autonomy of affected people

• Create standards that measure well-being, beyond GDP;
• Create standards that judge whether we've reduced options for future generations;
• Increase technology transfer for waste disposal and recycling.

Create a legal framework to regulate the environmental effects of big investments and multilateral institutions

• Oppose the Multilateral Agreement on Investment;
• Increase local control over multinational investment, e.g., by establishing local control and veto power over development activities;
• Strengthen environmental standards in multilateral agreements;
• Engage in debt for nature swaps for forests;
• Make more use of national environmental trust funds

Working Group 2: "The Nature of Human Relationships and Social Organisation"

The group identified the issue of communication among stakeholders as the one item that drew together the diverse topics of land tenure, democracy, the role of government, and corruption. The following specific actions were proposed, but the group emphasised that these could only be carried out assuming three significant conditions were met: proper funding made available, lack of corruption, and free and full access to all available information pertinent to forest management and decision-making:

Review local and or national legislation and implementation relating to forestry

• Taking a holistic approach to address issues of human equity, forest protection, including wildlife protection, and management; and
• Specifically making sure to recognise the role of First Nations / Indigenous governments.

Publicly review public forest management plans

• Addressing, for example: environmental impacts, fiscal issues, and non-timber values.

Enforce and implement mechanisms for existing regulations

• Governments are recommended to ratify and comply with relevant local, state, national, and international laws, regulations, and treaties.

Working Group 3: "Science and Information"

Discussions in this group revolved around information concerns, the whole forest ecosystem, and multiple values. The group recommended the following specific actions:

Practice integrated and balanced use of science and traditional knowledge

• In all forest activities use the best available - of reasonably attainable - information, including science, traditional ecological knowledge, spiritual values, etc. to identify uses, trends, values;
• Take measures to build capacity to generate and/or gather the information needed; and
• Apply the Precautionary Principle.

Ask/frame questions in a way that is conducive to finding complete and useful answers

• Ensure that local, traditional, and indigenous communities and forest practitioners are integrally involved in developing issues and questions to be addressed;
• Through open participatory process at the initial stages of projects, select carefully who collects information, including cultural information; and
• Ensure peer and public review of scientific information, highlighting disagreement in scientific information, conclusions, and interpretation.

Ensure access to information

• Review differences between Mexico, Canada, and the United States, with regards to right to information;
• Identify points in the UN Convention on Access to Information that need to be implemented;
• Ensure public review and access to information prior to final decisions; disseminate information widely to e.g. libraries, churches, internet, etc.; and
• Ensure decision-makers have complete access to information that is both relevant and formulated in a way that they can understand.

Final Remarks

The diversity of situations illustrated by the case studies and the other presentations were matched only by the contributions made by the participants through their statements and interventions. The myriad perspectives, factors, and pressures underlying deforestation and forest degradation in North America became clear. As complex and sensitive as the issues were, this multi-dimensional group reached consensus on several proposals of concrete solutions to address those underlying causes. Although disagreements occurred, the participants were respectful of each others' views, and focused on making use of the opportunity to provide input to the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF). The workshop did illustrate two things:

• Despite the ecological, economic, and societal variances within the region, certain commonalities exist: For example, the lack of recognition of the multiple values of forest ecosystems (e.g., their biodiversity, recreation, spiritual, aesthetic, and other non-timber values) was found to be at the heart of deforestation and forest degradation in all three countries. Similarly, common approaches toward counteracting the different underlying causes focused on the importance of building awareness of the links between individual human behaviour and its long-term and sometimes irreversible effects on our forests; and the insistence on the need for equal participation by all stakeholders in decision-making processes.
• Despite the heterogeneity of the stakeholders involved, and the diversity of the case studies, a common understanding was reached. This type of multi-stakeholder, bottom-up, dialogue is thus not only a plausible but also a desirable alternative to the more traditional policy forums in which major international policy decisions are usually made. This unique combination of a diverse group of stakeholders and the presentation of real on-the-ground experiences has limitless potential to inspire the inter-governmental policy-making process and take it into the next century.
• Despite the fact that this initiative originated as a contribution to the IFF's work program, the organisers of the North American process intend to promote and build upon the conclusions reached at both the regional and the international levels. We encourage their use as tools for work not only in the international policy-making arena, but also in local, national, and regional efforts to curb deforestation and forest degradation.

Case Studies Summaries

1. "purepecha plateau" case study michoacan, Mexico, by Hernandez Rojas

In Mexico, forestry has characteristically been a highly destructive activity. Paradoxically, the communities and "ejidos" who nowadays live in the worst poverty and marginal conditions are at the same time the owners of the majority of the country’s forest resources. At the national level there are 48.6 million hectares of forest, but 370.000 hectares are lost each year because of:

• population explosion and survival needs;
• expansion of the agricultural frontier and agrarian distribution; and
• laws and policies favouring tree felling: the Green Revolution, Wood cutting programs, Agrarian Law Reform and policies of support to cattle raisers.

This year 531 thousand hectares have been lost because of fires. On the Purepecha Plateau in Michoacan, and more specifically in the municipality of Paracho, which is the area examined in the case study, a regional ecological deterioration has occurred. It is not an isolated case but a constant process of degradation of social and political conditions (policies and public programs, basic needs of the inhabitants, their resolution proposals), and the damage to the natural ecosystems keeps increasing.

This study has brought us to analyse the still existing forest resources in this region, their degradation, the causes of this degradation, and the damaging consequences for two neighbouring regions. It discusses policy proposals and participation of the region’s inhabitants, and uses a specific case of deforestation to suggest specific actions.

2. Deforestation in Alaska’s coastal rainforest: causes and solutions
by Rick Steiner, University of Alaska

The Alaska coastal rainforest is part of the largest temperate rainforest on Earth, and is perhaps the most intact. As coastal temperate rainforests are one of the most severely threatened ecosystems in the world, protection of the remaining stands, particularly in Alaska, offer an important conservation opportunity. This study describes the rich ecological characteristics of the forest, and the history of deforestation. Much of the deforestation in the Alaska coastal forest occurred as a result of 50-year timber contracts offered by the Forest Service in the 1950s to help develop a pulp industry in Southeast, and the Alaska Native corporation logging in both south-central and Southeast Alaska in the past decade. The pulp mill era and the bizarre tax loopholes that encouraged the unsustainable logging on Native lands are described, as is the downturn in the international market for Alaska forest products. The beginnings of forest protection in Alaska are described, particularly the political determinants in Washington. The new era in the Alaska coastal forest appears much more hopeful and sustainable than the past 50 years.

Proximate causes of deforestation in the Alaska coastal forest have been mainly the Asian market, and the desire for political power and wealth accumulation. The fundamental causes though, relate to our predisposition toward competitive, selfish inter-relations with others. These underlying causes are bound with our rather primitive psychological and social motivations. The influence of monotheism in the development of the ideology of domination over and disconnection from the natural world is discussed. Solutions discussed include the participation of world religions, and several other short-term approaches - campaign finance reform, tax restructuring, license limitation, a moratorium on loss of old-growth, a $10 billion world forest conservation fund, citizen’s coalitions, alternative product development, and others.

3. The proliferation of chip mills in the South Eastern United States

Today the proliferation of chip mills presents a growing threat to forest sustainability in the south-eastern United States which is a patchwork of recovering ecosystems that are among the most critically endangered in North America. The proliferation of chip mills and increased logging to supply them is driven by excessive consumption and an intensely competitive forest products market which are damaging already weakened south-eastern ecosystems. In response to the growth in logging in the past decade and the increased demand for wood fiber in the South, and in light of the predicted increases in global consumption and southern production over the coming decades, the federal government in concert with state governments should undertake a regional assessment of the impact of chip mills and adopt a moratorium on permitting new chip mills until appropriate responses are in place. Individual communities and local governments should carefully scrutinise the potential impacts of new chip mills to determine their full impacts and sustainability. Chip mills should not be permitted unless it can be shown that they will not be unsustainable and that they will not detract from non timber values desired by communities affected by them.

4. Commercial forestry operations in North West Québec: ecological questions and cultural concerns, by Alan Penn and Geoff Quale

In the last thirty years, commercial forestry operations in Québec (Canada) have extended northwards into the drainage basins flowing into James and Hudson Bay, the homeland (‘Eeyou Istchee’) of a group of Cree aboriginal communities. Commercial forestry, now affecting an area of roughly 100,000 sq. km., is generating significant land-use conflicts as the forestry frontier moves northwards. Approximately 500 sq. km of land are clear cut each year. Evolving forestry practices have raised a number of questions about forest management objectives and about the relationships between commercial harvesting and forest ecology. As a society seeking to maintain a hunting economy within a forest setting, the Cree have a direct interest both in the issues of forest ecology and commercial harvest practices. This case study examines a number of topics in forest management and forest ecology from the vantage point of the Cree communities in Northern Québec.

The setting is the boreal forest ecosystem, the target of both the pulp manufacturing and sawmill industries of the region. The primary commercial species is black spruce, with smaller volumes of larch, jack pine and balsam fir. Deciduous (hardwood) species occupy a few per cent of the cover, and are concentrated along water courses and the southern slopes of hills. The terrain is complex and typical of the Canadian Shield; widespread lakes and wetlands, and the clays and muskegs of proglacial lake systems, are major physical constraints on forestry operations. Four Cree communities – Mistissini, Oujébougoumou, Waswanipi and Waskaganish (combined population of ca. 6,000) are located within the forest zone defined as commercial.

The boreal forest ecosystem, despite its geographical spread, is not well understood. The dominant black spruce cover has a dominating influence on soils, temperature and water regimes, and the transport both of nutrients and trace metals. Soil organic matter and below-ground biomass constistute major carbon reservoirs. Growth rates are slow, and the forest newly opened to logging is typically 125 – 200 years old. A lack of site-specific information on the interrelationships between soils, water regimes and biogeochemical cycles makes it difficult to assess forest composition and growth in relation to site characteristics. Indices of biodiversity and their interpretation, the role of ‘old growth’, and the processes involved in regeneration after disturbance have received limited attention. The rapid penetration of commercial logging into such a system has raised concerns that, in this northern zone, the forest is in practice being treated as a stock rather than as a renewable resource.

Forest tenure has evolved considerably during the period 1965-1995. The original forestry concessions were replaced in the early 1970’s with a system of annual cutting rights granted by a government department (Lands and Forests), also responsible for regeneration on clear cut land. Wood harvesting rights were guaranteed in the licences issued to the operators of the different mills in the region. Timber harvesting rights through most of the case study area were issued in a short period (1973-1977), apparently with limited information on the resource being allocated. A problem of over-allocation was evident, and subsequent forest management decisions have been strongly influenced by the difficulties in involved in accommodating the principle of sustained yield in the context of severe competition for a primary resource substantially more limited than originally believed.

Within a decade, the system of government-administered annual harvesting rights, and the accompanying silvicultural responsibilities were abandoned in favour of timber management agreements (known as CAAF’s). Licensed pulp and saw mills are granted long-term access to a defined area of land. Annual allowable cuts (AAC’s) are determined by the government on the basis of a standard forest growth model using existing information on the forest stock. The new regime replaces administrative discretion with detailed prescriptive rules for habitat protection and for silviculture. The authorized harvests by companies are a function of approved silvicultural activities, which are used to revised upwards the permitted AAC. It is argued in this paper that this is a system which lacks checks and balances through which forestry operations are adapted to experience acquired both about the forest stock and regeneration mechanisms. There appears to be a built-in asymmetry which tends to encourage over rather than under-exploitation of commercial species. There are no parks or reserves in the case study area, and the prescriptive rules mean that the companies have left to them very little discretion in forest and habitat management in general.

Despite the language of the legislation governing forestry, there are several indications that the northern extremity of the commercial forest is being harvested as a stock rather than a renewable resource. In recent years, significant additions have been made to the CAAF’s from northern ‘forest reserves’. There is considerable doubt as to to capacity of these additional areas to support commercial operations as they are now planned. Against this background, and in view of the time scales involved in forest regeneration, we draw attention to the uncertain future evolution of forest composition after harvesting in the context of regional climate change, atmospheric deposition of sulfur and nitrogen, and nutrient export in the course of forestry operations.

We offer several conclusions. The first is that in the face of the apparent uncertainties in the response of the forest to commercial harvesting, it is not at all clear what ‘sustainable forest management’ means in practice. We believe that it is important not to confuse the essentially economic concept of stabilising the rate of production of a natural resource (whether stock or renewable) with the larger ecological issues involved in multiple-purpose forestry. In this case, current forest management practices do little to accommodate the needs of the Crees as users of the forest. There is here a problem of equity, in that the Cree are also largely excluded from economic participation in the forestry sector. Problems of non-sustainable forestry (in both the ecological and economic sense) are compounded when there are sharply defined problems of equity and participation. Commercial forestry operations in such a region require carefully thought-out mechanisms for adaptive management – learining from experience, which includes the possibility of recognizing and learning from management or allocational errors. The present regime offers little scope for such adaptation, and we argue the case for a thorough re-appraisal of the kind of information generated in the course of forestry operations – in the fields of both forest ecology and community social and cultural development.

5. La construcción social de la deforestación en México: un estudio de caso de los incendios de 1998 en la selva de los Chimalapas by David Barkin y Miguel Angel Garcia.

La Selva de Los Chimalapas, ubicada en el corazón del Istmo de Tehuantepec, México, es una zona de alta importancia geopolítica . Es considerada por los especialistas como la región de mayor biodiversidad en México y Mesoamérica. Propiedad ancestral de comunidades indígenas, ha venido sufriendo una serie de presiones ejercida por diversos y poderosos intereses que buscan su apropiación y depredación en una lucha permanente con dichas comunidades. Uno de los últimos fenómenos que afectó gravemente a esta importante región ecológica y a sus comunidades, fueron los incendios forestales de 1998, que tuvieron una magnitud nunca vista antes, convirtiéndose en un factor principal de la deforestación.

Los Chimalapas es único, tanto por sus caracteristicas biológicas como las sociales. Aunado a su biodiversidad, es el resurgimiento de las comunidades indígenas como actores informados y capaces de emprender la gestión de los recursos naturales y sociales de la región, como parte de un plan de desarrollo regional sustentable, compatible con las aspiraciones de muchos otros pueblos mexicanos y las necesidades de la nación. Actualmente enfrentan una embestida de fuerzas ajenas a la región, tratando de reconformar esta zona en aras de un plan de desarrollo regional e industrial compatible con la integración internacional.

El análisis del contexto social en que se presentaron el terrible fenómeno de los incendios de 1998 revela las causas subyacentes de la deforestación. Para detener este proceso, sería fundamental reconocer la capacidad autónoma de las comunidades para ejercer una gestión participativa en la región, aserguar sus propias necesidades y diversificar la producción, tanto para defender y rescatar su biodiversidad como para asegurar un nivel de vida adecuado para sus miembros.

Actualmente, hay un reconocimiento incipiente de la capacidad de las comunidades entre algunos sectores oficiales y de la sociedad civil. El recrudecimiento de los ataques por los intereses mezquinos regionales refleja un último intento de apropiarse de los recursos en la región y de limitar el campo de acción de las comunidades para implementar su propio plan de manejo. Las terribles consecuencias del conflictio en 1998 muestran la importancia de los esfuerzos de las organizaciones de base y su significado para el país en su conjunto.

List of case studies and presentations

Case studies

• Deforestation and Social Conflict in the Chimalapas Rainforest (Mexico) David Barkin, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana/Unidad Xochimilco and Miguel Angel Garcia, Maderas del Pueblo del Sureste

• Deforestation in Alaska's Coastal Rainforest: Causes and Solutions (United States) by Rick Steiner, University of Alaska

• Deforestation in the Meseta Purepecha, Michoacan (Mexico) by Cecilia Zaragosa Hernandez, UNORCA (presented by Eusebio Hernandez Rojas)

• Underlying causes of Deforestation and Forest Degradation in the Southeastern United States (United States) by Doug Sloane, The Southeast Forest Project

• Boreal Forest Management in Northern Quebec: Ecological and Cultural Issues (Canada) - Alan Penn, Grand Council of the Crees

Presentations

• Underlying Causes of Deforestation and Forest Degradation in the Boreal Forest Natural Region of Alberta, Canada Richard Thomas - Independent

• Biodiversity Conservation in Canada's Model Forest Network Mike Waldram - Manitoba Model Forest

Poster Presentations

• Deforestation and Forest Degradation in British Columbia - Canada: Potential Solutions Paul Mitchell-Banks - Central Coast Consulting

• Community Involvement in Natural Resource Management in Toplitepec, Guerrero - Mexico Rogelio Alquisiras Burgos - UNORCA

• Global Forest Watch - Canada Gaile Whelan-Enns - Consultant

• Communities and Forest Management in Canada and the United States Claudia D'Andrea - Working Group on Community Involvement in Forest Management

• Incorporating Biodiveristy Conservation in Forest Operations Caroline Caza Leon - Wildlife Habitat Canada

• Underlying Causes of the Increased Hardwood Utilization in the Boreal Forest of the Three Western Provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba Don Sullivan - Taiga Rescue Network North America

Additional Submissions Received

• The Underlying Causes of Deforestation: A Case Study in Northern Idaho, USA (working draft) William J. Snape III and Katherine M. Carlton - Defenders of Wildlife

• Forest Restoration and Conservation: Challenges and Opportunities based on a Systematic Study of the Demand for Forest Products Jaime Navia - Grupo Interdisciplinario de Tecnología Rural Apropriada

• Searching for the Underlying Causes of Deforestation (working draft) Doug MacCleery - United States Forest Service

• Forests Forever: Response to Chip Mill Issues in the South Ross E. (Pete) Thompson - Pulp & Paperworker's' Resource Council (PPRC)
• North American demand and consumption in a global context Janet Abramovitz- World Watch Institute

List of Participants

back to UC Process