Reforestation, Ecosystem Resilience & Paper Technologies

Building the Green Economy, Quipu Economic Forum ::

30 May 2008 :: by J.E. Robertson

Reforestation is a necessary part of the process of any ecologically responsible development strategy. Forest cover is not only a potent natural resource feeding the overall resilience of an ecosystem, but the hydrological and soil-quality stability, along with the biodensity it can generate, mean it is now more clear than ever that natural levels of forest cover have a very high economic value over the long term.

Chinese government studies have revealed that the value —in ecosystem ’services’— of a standing tree far outstrips the market value of a felled tree. Such revelations are leading to a wholesale reconsideration of what sort of land-use policies should be applied by governments to industries that —of necessity or otherwise— reduce a region’s overall forest cover.

Three of the main driving forces for deforestation, globally are: 1. fuel use in low-income, forested areas; 2. the paper industry —which has expanded vastly with the advent of desktop printing—; 3. clear-cutting for transfer of land to agricultural use. Each of these practices can be modified or reversed, depending on the region, with more precise economic metrics and more adroit economic policies.

Both the Philippines and Haiti have experienced radical levels of deforestation due to logging, in many cases unlicensed logging driven by foreign enterprise. In both cases, the trend has been rooted in the needs of those living in the deforested areas, seeking to take advantage of the income potential of illegal or questionable timber sourcing.

Both nations have seen natural disasters exacerbated by the high levels of deforestation. Lack of forest cover in upslope areas has destabilized soil and led to massive, deadly landslides when heavy rains, common in both countries during certain seasons, push entire mountain slopes down toward valleys previously protected by dense forest cover and corresponding root structures.

Advances in data-security and digital document storage have made it possible to reduce the regulatory paper-use burden of many businesses, who may be required to keep records, but who can now take advantage of such advanced document storage systems, approved by law. Further advances in the portability, flexibility, storage capacity, interconnectivity and retail cost of electronic paper devices, will likely spur a move away from print-to-paper as the default in-office document preparation method.

In the United States, both in the Pacific Northwest and in the rich New England timber industry, logging firms and paper producers have learned not only to take advantage of the cost-benefits of recycling, but also to view the long-term stability and regenerative capacity of forests as real economic assets that make their own long-term prospects more promising. Reforestation, through planting and forest-management policies, is the positive outcome of this shift in consciousness.

New England’s forests have been replaced and expanded over the last several decades, as part of a regional effort to ensure the natural resources not be depleted by industry or by irresponsible development. But the confluence of new technologies, political will, political intelligence, and industry collaboration, is necessary if we are to see a future in which global forest cover is not severely reduced and irrecoverable.