Deforestation and timber production in Congo after implementation of sustainable management policy

A reaction to the article by J.S. Brandt, C. Nolte and A. Agrawal (Land Use Policy 52:15–22)

authored by

Alain Karsenty, Claudia Romero, Paolo Omar Cerutti, Jean Louis Doucet, Francis E. Putz, Christelle Bernard, Richard Eba a. Atyi, Pascal Douard, Florian Claeys, Sébastien Desbureaux, Driss Ezzine de Blas, Adeline Fayolle, Timothée Fomété, Eric Forni, Valéry Gond, Sylvie Gourlet-Fleury, Fritz Kleinschroth, Frédéric Mortier, Robert Nasi, Jean Claude Nguinguiri, Cédric Vermeulen, Carlos de Wasseige

Abstract

This viewpoint paper presents a reaction to the article by Brandt et al. (2016). It highlights the complexities inherent to the attribution of deforestation impacts to policy interventions when using remote-sensing data. This critique argues that in the context of the Congo a suite of factors (i.e., population density in particular) other than those considered by Brandt et al. (e.g., type of forest, distance from roads and markets) play essential roles in determining the fates of forests. It also contends that care is needed when making decisions regarding which units will be included in the comparison group so that contextual factors and on-the-ground information are properly considered (e.g., when logging operations are inactive or when a concession is used for ‘conservation’ purposes). Finally, it proposes that a focus on an analysis of deforestation rates for a given level of timber production might be a metric that more accurately represents one aspect of the consequences of forest management, which should also consider the appraisal of trade-offs associated with a larger set of social, financial and ecological objectives.

External Organisation(s)

French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD)
University of Florida
Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF)
University of Liege
TTI Production
Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) France
World Resources Institute
Rainbow Environment Consult
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Commission des Forêts d'Afrique Centrale

Type

Article

Journal

LAND USE POLICY

Volume

65

Pages

62-65

No. of pages

4

ISSN

0264-8377

Publication date

01.06.2017

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Forestry, Geography, Planning and Development, Nature and Landscape Conservation, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 15 - Life on Land

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.02.032 (Access: Closed)