Forests Sourcebook - HCV Resource Network

Reforms) provide the framework for participatory development
of national strategies and, where available, project
preparation should draw on their work. Because forestry is
a long-term endeavor, a correct focus and vision for the
intervention is critical at the onset—it is a template for the
future.
Species selection. Productive plantations are usually
established for one of two purposes, sawtimber or pulp, and
to a lesser extent for NTFPs, such as rubber, or in multipleuse
agroforesty and silvopastoral systems. Plantations established
for pulp usually emphasize high volumes of fastgrowing
trees with good pulping characteristics, particularly
high specific gravity and long fibers (hardwoods) or tracheid
(softwoods). Such plantations in developing countries
are frequently established using exotic pines from the Americas,
eucalypts from Australia, or acacias. Trees selected for
sawtimber plantations must produce wood appropriate for
the intended end use, which can be highly variable and
includes wood for structural framing and construction, furniture,
veneers, or crates and pallets, among others.
In all cases, species needs to be carefully selected to
ensure that the desired end products (or services) are eventually
obtained. At the same time, market demands and
trends should be taken into account to ensure that the trees
will be marketable at maturity. Planting programs that fail
to take market factors into account can, and have, resulted
in large areas of plantations with limited or negligible financial
viability and consequent loss of investors in the sector.
For many countries, this poses a paradox because they are
unable to attract or develop wood industries until an adequate
resource base is developed or assured. In such cases,
planting programs with productive aims should carefully
analyze projections of needs at local, national, and international
levels during formulation to ensure their program
gets off to the right start.
Management practice. Plantation productivity is normally
much greater than that of natural forests. Wellmanaged
plantations in some developing countries have
annual growth rates in excess of 40 m 3 /ha. The most productive
native forests (those of the southeastern United
States) show internal rates of return (IRRs) of around 4–8
percent, whereas, P. taeda plantations in Brazil have achieved
IRRs of 17 percent, and plantations of Eucalyptus grandis in
Brazil have recorded IRRs of 24 percent (Cubbage et al.,
2007). The large differences in returns between plantations
and natural forests are attributable to the application of
management practices, the selection of the best species for
production, optimal stocking, and lower land and labor values
in developing countries. Industrial plantations also benefit
from site preparation techniques, the use of improved
seeds, pest management, and higher levels of stocking over
natural forests. Natural forests may not need these initial
investments. If natural forests are managed as going concerns,
they can be and often are economically viable.
Use of native species. Because many species of trees grow
much faster outside their native ranges, they provide
improved opportunities for increased financial returns. This
has given rise to an extensive use of eucalypts (from Australia)
and southern yellow pines and Monterrey pine (from
the United States) in industrial plantations and development
programs. In the developing world, about 44 million
ha of plantations are found in Asia, the bulk of which are
located in China; 11 million in South America, mostly in
Argentina, Brazil, and Chile; and another 10 million in
Africa, in Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Rwanda, and others.
Smaller areas of exotic plantations are common throughout
the rest of the developing world. While the use of exotics is
popular from an economic perspective, concerns about
their environmental impacts have been growing. A recent
CIFOR study concluded that there are situations where
plantations have affected critical habitats, but it also concluded
that such claims may be exaggerated (World Bank
2003; Cossalter and Pye-Smith 2003). Still, the widespread
use of exotics has led to an increasingly polarized debate
concerning their use and potential impact on the environment.
For World Bank projects, this means potential reputational
risks, and the need for good public outreach and
consensus building during project preparation and implementation,
as well as safeguards monitoring.
While World Bank–financed projects should endeavor to
use native species whenever possible, in reality, client countries
and producers are more likely to favor the use of
exotics over native species because financial returns on
investments are frequently much higher. In such cases, finding
a middle ground and ensuring that any impacts from
the use of exotics is mitigated or avoided is essential. To
achieve this, specific measures must usually be employed to
integrate biodiversity conservation into exotic plantations.
Examples of such techniques include maintaining biological
corridors and integrating native species into plantations;
establishing set asides for wildlife and biodiversity conservation;
favoring smaller patches of plantations rather than
large contiguous blocks of monocultures; avoiding invasive
exotics; and generally following standard best management
practices, which emphasize the control of nonpoint pollu-
118 CHAPTER 3: MEETING THE GROWING DEMAND FOR FOREST PRODUCTS