I'm doing a remote-sensing-based comparative analysis. I know that there are plenty of forests that have been hunted but not industrially logged. But small-scale (often illegal) logging is almost as widespread as hunting. Does anyone know of tropical forest areas that are (or have been) hunted, but where it's verifiable that there has not been any recent, even small-scale, logging?
I think the best bet for such forests in SE Asia would be Laos. Manichanh Satdichanh - you may be aware of such landscapes?
Irrespective of whether hunting is practiced or not, primary forests are forests of native tree species, where there are no clearly visible indications of human activities and the ecological processes are not significantly disturbed. The Food and Agriculture Organization's State of the World's Forests is available at http://www.fao.org/publications/sofo/en/.
Thank you both for these answers! I looked at the FAO report, but it does not appear to contain any maps of what it considers to be "primary" forest, or the distribution of logging (industrial or illegal)
I have some (unconfirmed) ideas for Central Africa and if you would like can reach out to the folks would would know for sure.
Also many parts of Papua New Guinea. Vojtech Novotny would be the right person to contact for PNG
There are large forest complexes in Laos that have probably never been logged (interior of Nakai Nam Theun, Xe Sap NPA). Proving that beyond a shadow of a doubt may be difficult. But sure, there are places where very few people have been.
To expand Andrew Tilker's answer a little bit, the forests in, and around, Hin Nam No NPA in Laos are reasonably protected. There are a few areas that are so remote and difficult to approach that I even doubt the small scale logging is common, as there is practically no way to transport any heavy thing out.
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