By Vinay Grover
Sustainable forestry could be touted as a complex term, which purports dissimilar things to different people. Being a newer concept, it also means administering renewable forest resources with the sole aim of promoting and maintaining healthy and productive forest land base in an endeavor to improvise the environmental, economic, and social welfare of one and all. Sustainable forestry also focuses on logging equipment, categorized the demand of timber products and employs people to prevent economic problems. It also focuses on the fact that social sustainability is also crucial as environmental sustainability.
In the past foresters used to depend solely on using and cutting trees, but over time, by the middle ages, they started recognizing the ecological problems due to chopping of trees and started conserving and replenishing the timber resources. Today forests can be described as a source of oxygen. They play an all-important part in their fight against global warming. Broadly indicating the role of forestry is to exploit timber resources deliberately and efficiently, since timber products are used world wide for manufacturing a wide range of things, right from parchment paper for baking to homes. No doubt timber products have a huge need and they are available in abundance, but it does not mean damaging rivers as a result from establishing roads for logging, erosion due to clear cutting and commotion to wildlife due to helicopter logging. In this scenario a sustainable forester thinks of techniques through which forests could be saved from harm.
In sustainable forestry logging companies have also an important role to play; like use of state-of-the-art timber harvesting practices and automation, complying with local laws and regulations, make use of best practice forestry techniques which conserve soil, apart from wildlife and scenic values, employ various measures for following wood from forests to processing centers etc. In sustainability forestry, a timber company also provides that workers’ health and safety policies and practices are carefully abided by. It should also execute operations in harmony with a reliable business plan. The logging company employed should also embark for implementing improved harvesting practices.
Sustainability forestry improves forests by encouraging cost-effective and environmental responsible practices in all woodlands. It also improves forest health on a long-term basis and production by way of defending forests against pests, wildfires and diseases. Thus logging companies should also attempt to achieve the common goal of reaching sustainable forestry by way of achieving “responsible” forestry. By responsible forestry it means minimizing the affect of logging, setting a part elevated conservation value forests, ensuring the conservation of ecosystem services along with biodiversity whilst defending the rights of local and native people to administer and utilize forest lands and resources. In order to maintain transparency in their dealings, responsible forestry should also entail substantiation by third party auditors like FSC. A logging company, however, while implementing sustainable forestry should take measures in condemning the flow of illegal and recklessly harvested timber into consumer markets. If taken it seriously sustainable forestry would definitely improve the forests by espouse responsible and certified logging while squeezing out illegal operations.
