Benefits of forests for humans are perhaps uncountable. If look at the uses of wood only, non of the departments and aspects of human life is complete without it. We can easily find articles made up of wood every where, i.e. at homes, in bazaars, in offices, in vehicles etc. On the other hand forests maintain ecosystems, support wildlife, produce life sustaining oxygen, consume Corbin dioxide etc. If, a comparison is made, which kind of benefits worth more environmental that are long term or economic that are usually short term?
Hi Asad,
As you seem to acknowledge with your question, this is indeed a very complex issue. One thing I notice is that you seem to equate the contrast between harvest for wood products and maintenance for various ecosystem benefits with a contrast between economic vs. environmental benefits. I think this is a false parallel in many ways. The rapidly expanding study of ecosystem services demonstrates that many of the "long term environmental benefits" that you mention can be evaluated in terms of economic benefits to society --and some are even much more near term than previously thought. Given the variety of benefits that can accrue under almost limitless formulas of harvest, management, and protection in various parts of the world's forests (and potentially forest-restorable areas), it is important to model outcomes (usually using scenarios developed through best practices) that go beyond an "either/or" question and address such things as contribution to the maintenance of global life-supporting systems (since economic activity requires at least these), *overall* economic costs and benefits, the distribution of costs/benefits over *time*, and the distribution of costs/benefits *among socio-economic groups* (e.g. environmental justice). This paper (and many others) presents some methods for addressing many of these considerations:
Schwenk, W. S., Donovan, T. M., Keeton, W. S., & Nunery, J. S. (2012). Carbon storage, timber production, and biodiversity: comparing ecosystem services with multi‐criteria decision analysis. Ecological Applications, 22(5), 1612-1627.
Good luck with your research!
Thanks Peter Guild Cutter for your valuable and thoughtful views about the subject.
I dont support the fact that you gave that more researches are made on wood production than forests maintain ecosystems. Too much works have been done on both sides making them uneasy to compare, both forest benefits environmental or economic are independently unique regardless of long or short therm period. However, conservation should be given a priority in whichever way we chose to exploit forest resources...
Thanks Asemoloye Micheal for your valuable views. I have not argued that most researches are carried out on wood, I have quoted just an example, otherwise lumbering and collecting products of forests are thousands in number. Their environmental, economic and other benefits are perhaps uncountable.
Economic benefits are more visible. Although oxygen generation supports our lives.
Thanks Abhijit Mitra for providing detailed information about the subject.
Forests provide many natural resources. Monetary hence economical benefits including income from employment in the sector, value of production of goods, services from forests obtained and its contribution to trade and the sector of national economy.
Thanks Munira Nasiruddin
for your valuable views. Yes, forests provide many monetary benefits. It is even, hard to have a complete count of the products obtained from the forests.
Of course, we have to take both viewpoints. What I have observed is that tribal populations or indigenous populations use forests in such a way that they can gather what is required without harming forest's natural state. So, more long time research on these traditional practices is required to know the pattern in which forests can be explored.
Thanks Asha Poonia for your valuable views.
Sustained yield forest practices can be a reasonable solution.
- Badges
- Science topic