Forests provide countless products of vital use and are a source of livelihood to millions. For those reasons, abuse of forest resources has intensified dramatically in the wake of improved methods of exploitation, processing and transport, growth of external markets, and rapidly expanding populations. Since forests also play a key role in the ecosystem, deforestation has led to desertification, soil erosion, flooding, loss of biodiversity, and poorer environments for the poor. If that were not enough, some contend too that deforestation changes the atmospheric oxygen and carbon dioxide balance—which alters the albedo and accelerates the greenhouse effect. So, with growing unease about the consequences of deforestation, attention is shifting from production to conservation. Sadly, an environmental management perspective that ignores the environmental conflicts at hand sways it. The Beneficiaries of Deforestation. Deforestation happens because it is profitable. That is why the perspective of those who gain from it, in conflict with one another, is of interest. The beneficiaries are: (i) Governments, since pioneer settlements divert attention from pressing social problems; (ii) National treasuries, which derive foreign exchange earnings from forest products; (iii) Commercial loggers (legal and illegal); (iv) People employed in the logging and wood-processing industries; (v) Commercial interests that use deforested lands to grow a product for the market, speculate on land near roads and new settlements, and buy and sell charcoal or fuelwood; (vi) Local commercial businesses that benefit from frontier settlements; (vii) Urban consumers of charcoal and fuelwood, who pay a price that does not internalize the costs of deforestation; (viii) Consumers in industrialized countries, who also profit because the prices of tropical forest products do not reflect their true value; (ix) International corporations trading tropical forest products; and (x) Migrant farmers and shifting cultivators, who benefit from the removal of forest cover because it allows them to farm.1/ Clearly, the process of deforestation is not amenable to technical solutions. It does not hinge on the relative merits of different silvicultural practices or the choice of the discount rate. It is fueled by conflicting interests over the use of forest resources. So far, in many developing countries, the answer has been that the forests belong to loggers and their allies—the interests of communities and the many sectors that use or influence forests have never received much notice. Yet, to control the process of deforestation, it is necessary to identify all those who benefit from it. Only then will policy, market, and institutional instruments for sustainable development work.2/ A Framework for Conflict Resolution. Demand for wood will rise by one third over the next ten years. Worsening conflicts among forest users might be avoided if a cross-sectoral approach were adopted. Such an approach would identify all the sectors and groups that benefit from forests; define the benefits and establish objectives for sustaining and balancing them; and state how the objectives will be achieved. The intention would be to resolve conflicts by integrating compatible uses of forest resources or zoning where uses are incompatible. Solutions would permit the establishment of a stable forest continuum accommodating changing circumstances. Backed by (now) informed policy, market, and institutional instruments, the continuum would encompass protected forests in their natural state, managed natural forests, shifting cultivation, agroforestry, and plantations. Toward Sustainable Forest Strategies. Deforestation will be addressed most suitably by a multidisciplinary approach that emphasizes, against a pragmatic realization that societies (and forests) are dynamic, the socioeconomic and political environment in which deforestation takes place. The advantages of social ingenuity over technical ingenuity should not be overlooked. A stable system of markets, legal regimes (including property rights), financial agencies, and institutions is a prerequisite to any economic and social progress. But, developing countries are ill endowed with this social capital. And, their ability to create and maintain it is being eroded by the very environmental problems they are hoping to address. (April 2001) Copyright ©2002 Olivier Serrat 1/ The benefits they derive are short-lived. The clearance process must be repeated elsewhere after a couple of years because of insect plagues, weeds, and soil impoverishment. 2/ Also, these instruments need to consider the motives of the agents of deforestation. The poor eke out a living and perform much of the expansion of agriculture into previously forested areas. But logging, some agriculture, and some charcoal making are carried out for commercial reasons.

deforestation benefits