Natural Hazards: Causes and Effects - Disaster Management Center ...

exploitable timber available per person in the world is falling; in the words of the U.S.
government’s Global 2000 study, we face a “transition from a period of global forest wealth to a
period of global forest poverty.” 8 Real prices of commercial wood products are certain to rise,
choking off projected consumption increases, fueling inflation, and denying low-income people
everywhere many of the benefits that forest products provide.
Soaring firewood prices are also another inflation source. Almost everywhere that commercial
firewood markets exist, prices over the last decade have multiplied . In one town in Upper
Volta, a donkey cartload of wood that sold for 350 Central African francs in 1970 cost 1000
francs in 1975 and 1750 francs in 1979. In parts of West Africa and Central America urban
families spend one-fourth of their income on wood or charcoal for cooking. As market prices
have outpaced the purchasing power of the urban poor, many state governments in India have
had to establish special firewood depots that sell low-priced fuel to the poorest groups.
Subsidized firewood has joined subsidized food as a measure necessary to prevent starvation
in India.
Recovery Strategies and Problems
Forestry planning must incorporate both a long-term horizon and a humane social vision. One
of the most positive developments in the global environmental scene over the last decade has
been the new recognition of the importance of forestry among aid agencies and Third World
governments. But the sources of deforestation are deep.
The Role of Foresters
Meeting the forestry challenge requires radical changes in the roles of foresters and national
forest agencies. Their traditional mandates have been to protect and manage the exploitation of
forest reserves. Good foresters have always been concerned as well with protecting
environmentally crucial forest areas and sustaining the long-term output of the forests in their
care. But even these desirable traits are not enough. Today foresters need to move outside the
forests and help people meet their basic forest needs.
As an alternative to large plantations, integrating trees and wood production into small-farm
systems holds great potential in both semiarid and humid areas. Spatially-dispersed forestry
practiced by many farmers can often provide far greater environmental benefits than a woodlot
concentrated in one place.
Impact on Communities
To an outsider, prompting rural communities to grow some badly needed trees may not seem
like such a tall order. But the experience of countries such as China and South Korea, which
have already implemented participatory forestry on a wide scale, demonstrates that actually
doing so requires changes in the attitudes and activities of governments and aid agencies, and
reforms in villagers’ social organization and land use.
Foresters, and development planners in general, are used to running things from above. What
contact they have had with villagers has usually been in their roles as policemen, denying
destitute people access to protected lands and wood.
Yet experience has shown that tree planting cannot be imposed from above and carried out in
the face of a hostile population. New forms of land use impinge upon the daily activities of
everyone. When the local people are not active supporters, saplings have a way of
disappearing overnight. With fodder usually as scarce as firewood, uncontrolled goats or cattle