Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Balancing Conservation and Economic Sustainability: The Future of the Amazon Timber Industry

  • Published:
Environmental Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Logging has been a much maligned feature of frontier development in the Amazon. Most discussions ignore the fact that logging can be part of a renewable, environmentally benign, and broadly equitable economic activity in these remote places. We estimate there to be some 4.5 ± 1.35 billion m3 of commercial timber volume in the Brazilian Amazon today, of which 1.2 billion m3 is currently profitable to harvest, with a total potential stumpage value of $15.4 billion. A successful forest sector in the Brazilian Amazon will integrate timber harvesting on private lands and on unprotected and unsettled government lands with timber concessions on public lands. If a legal, productive, timber industry can be established outside of protected areas, it will deliver environmental benefits in synergy with those provided by the region’s network of protected areas, the latter of which we estimate to have an opportunity cost from lost timber revenues of $2.3 billion over 30 years. Indeed, on all land accessible to harvesting, the timber industry could produce an average of more than 16 million m3 per year over a 30-year harvest cycle—entirely outside of current protected areas—providing $4.8 billion in returns to landowners and generating $1.8 billion in sawnwood sales tax revenue. This level of harvest could be profitably complemented with an additional 10% from logging concessions on National Forests. This advance, however, should be realized only through widespread adoption of reduced impact logging techniques.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alston L, Libecap G, Schneider R (1996) The determinants and impact of property rights: land titles on the Brazilian frontier. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 12:25–61

    Google Scholar 

  • Asner G, Knapp D, Broadbent E, Oliveira P, Keller M, Silva J (2005) Selective logging in the Brazilian Amazon. Science 310:480–482

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Asner G, Broadbent E, Oliveira P, Keller M, Knapp D, Silva J (2006) Condition and fate of logged forests in the Brazilian Amazon. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 103:12947–12950

  • Azevedo-Ramos C, de Carvalho O, do Amaral B-D (2006) Short-term effects of reduced-impact logging on eastern Amazon fauna. Forest Ecology & Management 232:26–35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barreto P, Amaral P, Vidal E, Uhl C (1998) Costs and benefits of forest management for timber production in eastern Amazônia. Forest Ecology & Management 108:9–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barros G (2002) The economics of beef production in northern Brazil (translated from Portuguese). Indicadores Pecuários, Centro de Estudos Avançados em Economia Aplicada Piracicaba, SP

  • Bauch SC, Amacher GS, Merry FD (2006) Cost of harvest, transport, and milling in the Brazilian Amazon: estimation and policy implications. Forest Policy and Economics 9:903–915

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campos M, Nepstad D (2006) Smallholders, the Amazon’s new conservationists. Conservation Biology 20:1553–1556

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chenery HB (1949) Engineering production functions. Quarterly Journal of Economics 63:507–531

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Costanza R, d’Arge R, de Groot R, Farber S, Grasso M, Hannon B, Limburg K, Naeem S, O’Neill RV, Paruelo J (1997) The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature 387:253–260

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gullison RE, Frumhoff PC, Canadell JG, Field CB, Nepstad DC, Hayhoe K, Avissar R, Curran LM, Friedlingstein P, Jones CD, Nobre C (2007) Tropical forests and climate policy. Science 316:985–986

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Holdsworth A, Uhl C (1997) Fire in Amazonian selectively logged forests and the potential for fire reduction. Ecol Appl 7:713–725

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holmes TP, Blate G, Zweede J, Pereira R Jr, Barreto P, Boltz F, Bauch R (2002) Financial and ecological indicators of reduced impact logging performance in the Eastern Amazon. For Ecol Manag 163:93–110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Houghton R (2005) Aboveground forest biomass and the global carbon balance. Global Change Biology 11:945–958

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Houghton R, Lawrence K, Hackler J, Brown S (2001) The spatial distribution of forest biomass in the Brazilian Amazon: a comparison of estimates. Global Change Biology 7:731–746

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hyde WF (1980) Timber supply, land allocation, and economic efficiency. Resources for the Future, Washington, DC

  • Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis (IBAMA) (2002) Commercialization of wood products from the Amazon (translated from Portuguese) 1999–2000. IBAMA, Brasília

    Google Scholar 

  • Lentini M, Pereira D, Celentano D, Pereira R (2005) Fatos Florestais da Amazônia. IMAZON, Belém, Brazil

    Google Scholar 

  • Lima E, Merry F, Nepstad D, Amacher G, Azevedo-Ramos C, Resque F, Lefebvre P (2006) Searching for sustainability: forest policies, smallholders, and the Trans-Amazon highway. Environment 48:26–37

    Google Scholar 

  • Mattos M, Uhl C (1994) Economic and ecological perspectives on ranching in the eastern Amazon. World Dev 22:145–158

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCauley D-J (2006) Selling out on nature. Nature 443:27–28

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Merry F, Amacher G-S (2005) Forest taxes, timber concessions, and policy choices in the Amazon. Journal of Sustainable Forestry 20(2):15–44

    Google Scholar 

  • Merry F, Amacher G, Nepstad D, Lefebvre P, Lima E, Bauch S (2006) Industrial development on logging frontiers in the Brazilian Amazon. International Journal of Sustainable Development 9:277–296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MME (Ministério das Minas e Energia) (1973) Projeto Radam—Levantamento de Recursos Naturais. Departamento Nacional de Produção Mineral, Rio de Janeiro

    Google Scholar 

  • Morton DC, DeFries RS, Shimabukuro YE, Anderson LO, Arai E, del Bon Espirito-Santo F, Freitas R, Morisette J (2006) Cropland expansion changes deforestation dynamics in the southern Brazilian Amazon. Proceedings of National Academy of Science USA 103:14637–14641

  • Nepstad DC, Schwartzman S, Bamberger B, Santilli M, Ray D, Schlesinger P, Lefebvre P, Alencar A, Prinz E, Fiske G, Rolla A (2006) Inhibition of Amazon deforestation and fire by parks and indigenous reserves. Conservation Biology 20:65–73

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nepstad D, McGrath D, Alencar A, Barros AC, Carvalho G, Santilli M, Vera Diaz M (2002) Frontier governance in Amazônia. Science 295:629–630

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nepstad DC, Verissimo A, Alencar A, Nobre C, Lima E, Lefebvre P, Schlesinger P, Potter C, Moutinho P, Mendoza E, Cochrane M, Brooks V (1999) Large-scale impoverishment of Amazonian forests by logging and fire. Nature 398:505–508

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Oliveira P, Asner G, Knapp D, Almeyda A, Galván-Gildemeister R, Keene S, Raybin R, Smith R (2007) Land-use allocation protects the Peruvian Amazon. Science 317:1233–1236

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Phillips OL, Aragão LEOC, Lewis SL, Fisher JB, Lloyd J, López-González G, Malhi Y and others (2009) Drought sensitivity of the Amazon rainforest. Science 323:1344–1347

    Google Scholar 

  • Pimm S (1997) The value of everything. Nature 387:231–232

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pontius RG, Schneider L (2001) Land-use change model validation by a ROC method for the Ipswich watershed, Massachusetts. Agriculture Ecology & Environment 85:239–248

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Putz FE, Zuidema PA, Pinard MA, Boot RGA, Sayer JA (2008) Improved tropical forest management for carbon retention. PLoS Biology 6(7):e166

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Putz F, Pinard M (1993) Reduced-impact logging as a carbon-offset method. Conservation Biology 7:755–757

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reid WV, Mooney HA, Capistrano D, Carpenter SR, Chopra K, Cropper A, Dasgupta P, Hassan R, Leemans R, May RM, Pingali P, Samper C, Scholes RJ, Watson RT, Zakri AH, Shidong Z (2006) Nature: the many benefits of ecosystem services. Nature 443:749

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Saatchi S, Houghton R, dos Santos Alvala R, Soares J, Yu Y (2007) Distribution of aboveground live biomass in the Amazon basin. Global Change Biology 13:816–837

    Google Scholar 

  • Silva J, de Carvalho J, Lopes J, de Almeida B, Costa D, de Oliveira L, Vanclay J, Skovsgaard J (1995) Growth and yield of a tropical rain forest in the Brazilian Amazon 13 years after logging. Forest Ecology and Management 71:267–274

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith VK (1986) Another view of the state of engineering production functions. Economica 53:529–532

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Soares-Filho BS, Nepstad D, Curran L, Voll E, Cerqueira G, Garcia RA, Ramos CA, Mcdonald A, Lefebvre P, Schlesinger P (2006) Modeling conservation in the Amazon basin. Nature 440:520–523

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Soares-Filho BS, Dietzsch L, Moutinho P, Suarez A, Rodrigues H, Pinto E, Maretti C, Suassuna K, Scaramuzza C, Vascocelos F (2008) Reducing carbon emissions from deforestation: the role of ARPA’s protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon. IPAM, Brasília. Available at: http://www.climaedesmatamento.org.br/biblioteca

  • Stone S (1998) Using GIS for applied economic policy modeling: a case study in the Brazilian Amazon. Ecological Economics 27:43–61

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Terborgh J (1999) Requiem for nature. Island Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Veríssimo A, Souza C, Stone S, Uhl C (1998) Priority areas for establishing national forests in the Brazilian Amazon. Conservation Biology 12:128–136

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Verissimo A, Cochrane M, Souza C Jr (2002) National forests in the Amazon. Science 297(5586):1478

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research has been generously supported by (in alphabetical order) the Blue Moon Foundation; the Brazilian Large-Scale Biosphere Atmosphere Experiment (through a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration); Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Brazil; the David and Lucille Packard Foundation; the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; the National Science Foundation; the U.S. Agency for International Development; and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. We wish to thank Peter Schlesinger for his participation and work early in the development of this model and Maria Bowman for excellent editing and research support. Opinions and errors are the authors’ alone.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Woods Hole Research Center, 149 Woods Hole Road, Falmouth, MA, 02540-1644, USA

    Frank Merry & Daniel Nepstad

  2. Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia (IPAM), Belém, Brazil

    Frank Merry & Daniel Nepstad

  3. Centro de Sensoriamento Remoto, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Britaldo Soares-Filho & Hermann Rodrigues

  4. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    Gregory Amacher

Authors
  1. Frank Merry
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Britaldo Soares-Filho
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Daniel Nepstad
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Gregory Amacher
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Hermann Rodrigues
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Frank Merry or Britaldo Soares-Filho.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Merry, F., Soares-Filho, B., Nepstad, D. et al. Balancing Conservation and Economic Sustainability: The Future of the Amazon Timber Industry. Environmental Management 44, 395–407 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-009-9337-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-009-9337-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation