Problems & progress in tropical forests - Special Coverage: Forests on a Shrinking Globe

American Forests, July-August, 1991 by Diane Jukofsky

Despite worldwide concern, tropical forests continue to disappear at alarming rates -the latest studies estimate that 50 million acres a year are lost.

Turn to any tropical country and you are likely to uncover reasons for this crisis:

* struggling economies desperate for the foreign currency that timber can provide growing

* populations starved for fuelwood and land for crops and livestock;

* shortsighted loggers greedily and often illegally grabbing all the logs they can, sometimes with the blessings of corrupt government officials.

Fortunately, thousands of scientists, nonprofit groups, foundations, and governments continue to invest in projects that just may make a difference. Some of them focus on finding ways for campesinos to support their families with a minimum of damage to the forest. Other efforts concentrate on improving forest management, with an emphasis on reforestation.

The following assessment of the current rainforest situation and controversies in a dozen tropical countries will leave the impression that a few encouraging signs are appearing, but the battle to save tropical forests is far from over.

OIL AND RAINFOREST MIX?

At present, Ecuador depends on the export of petroleum for 70 percent of its income, but this South American nation needs to develop new oil fields if this is to continue. One prime site, unfortunately, is in Yasuni National Park, designed to safeguard what some botanists claim is the most biologically diverse rainforest on earth. Also at risk is the Huaorani Indigenous Reserve, adjacent to the park. Conoco is eager to drill in Yasuni and Huaorani, and the oil company claims that new techniques will minimize environmental damage.

At risk are more than 4,000 species of flowering plants, 600 species of birds, 500 species of fish, and 120 species of mammals.

Drilling in Ecuador's Amazonian rainforest is nothing new. The roads to the drilling sites open the forest to colonists in search of farmland, and Ecuador loses its forest at a rate of 2.3 percent a year, the highest rainforest loss in South America.

Conoco has drawn up elaborate plans to turn its drill sites into what the company insists would be an environmental showcase.' The plans would forbid Conoco workers from hunting or fishing within the Huaorani reserve or trading with the Huaorani tribe.

Perhaps Conoco's most persuasive argument is that the Ecuadorian government will certainly permit oil exploration in the park, and if Conoco gives up itS leases, another company with far less concern for the environment will undoubtedly buy them, This reasoning hasn't sapped the resolve of conservationists, however, and an Ecuadorian group called Amazonia Por La Vida (Amazon for Life) has led an aggressive protest. The group insists that the national park and reserve are far too precious to risk, no matter how carefu] Conoco is. History supports their skepticism. Since 1982, about 17 million gallons of oil have spilled in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

WATER SAVES TREES

Until recently, realtors were beginning to envision suburban condos along the Panama Canal. But then Panama's former natural-resource minister Stanley Heckadon stopped them cold when he succeeded in adding 15,000 acres of forested land on the canal's east bank to bordering Soberania National Park.

How did Heckadon win over Panamanian legislators, who are desperately seeking cash to restart the country's floundering economy? He used an argument that has saved other tropical forests: the need for clean drinking water.

Soberania National Park is just 30 minutes outside Panama City, and its 54,000 acres protect five major watersheds that provide drinking water to more than a third of the population of this Central American country. Demand for clean water has also preserved a national park in nearby Honduras. Nearly half of the water that slakes the thirst of Tegucigalpa, the dry, dusty, overcrowded capital of Honduras, comes from a forested mountain called La Tigra, declared a national park 10 years ago in order to protect the watershed.

In spite of its immeasurable worth, La Tigra is under attack from all sides. More than 10,000 squatters live in the park, burning patches of forests to grow crops or graze cattle. Coffee barons have marched up the steep slopes, clearing land for huge plantations. The financially strapped government, recognizing its inability to control the threats, recently turned over management of the park to a private group, the Honduran Ecological Association. Francisco Martnez, head of the association's wildlands department, says, 'Hondurans don't have much experience with or appreciation for natural areas. But they understand the shortage of drinking water-they live with it every day. If we can teach them about the Connection between La Tigra and their water, they will help us protect their park. "

In the west African nation of Ghana, the forest that once protected the reservoir for the tiny village of Pokuasi was razed for firewood and farmland. Tons of silt washed into the reservoir, which soon became choked with plants.