No one would argue that destructive timber harvesting degrades forest resources and future timber yields.

Nor would anyone disagree that good forest management can help reduce the damage done by timber harvesting and increase yields of desired products while maintaining other forest products and services. So, the question begs asking, why are good forest management practices shunned in favour of bad ones?

After all, projects in several countries have shown the economic and environmental superiority of Reduced Impact Logging (RIL) techniques over conventional practices (see box).

According to CIFOR forest researcher Laura Snook, "Even though the benefits of good forest management has been clearly demonstrated, very few production forests in the tropics are managed using best practices. The challenge is to better understand the factors and motivations that influence forest managers in adopting these techniques."

With funding from USAID/EGAT, and the Brazilian and Peruvian governments, CIFOR worked closely with consultants, the Instituto do Homem e Meio Ambiente da Amazônia (IMAZON)and the Instituto Florestal Tropical in Brazil, to find out why.

Carried out in Brazil, Bolivia and Peru, the research found quite different scenarios in each of the three countries, with clear indications that local conditions influenced whether concessionaires and forest workers used best practices .

In Bolivia, industries harvest from large concessions on national lands. The 23 concessionaires surveyed (30% of the total) in the three major timber-producing regions had different attitudes towards forest management: some used best practices, others did not.

The most significant factor affecting their adoption of improved management was the regulatory environment. Regulation, and the capacity to enforce regulations, were critical to the adoption of best practices. Practices not explicitly mandated by law or that are difficult to enforce were less likely to be adopted.

Analyzing why certain companies adopted a given practice while others did not, researchers were surprised to find the adoption decision was more closely correlated to the perceived effect of the practice on sustainability than to its perceived profitability.

"This could mean that if we increase awareness among managers of the sustainability-enhancing impacts of forest management they are likely to be more motivated to use best practices," said Marco Boscolo, a senior forest economics and policy consultant with CIFOR In Brazil, most timber industries own their forest lands. This would imply they have a vested interest in sustaining the yield from their forests. But this does not appear to be the case, as large quantities of timber continue to be obtained from land clearing.

"Nevertheless, some differences were noted," said Marco Lentini from IMAZON, "Producers in the old frontier, where timber was more scarce, were more likely to perceive the benefits of good practices than producers in new frontier areas where forest is still abundant."

During the Peru studies in 2002, most producers were small contractors with short-term logging permits for less than 1000 ha. "They did not follow the practices we had identified as important," said CIFOR's Violeta Colan, "but most used manual methods, like dragging logs by hand along prepared tracks to the river. These seemed less destructive than mechanized skidding and road construction."

The only way to meet increasing needs for forest goods while ensuring future productivity and sustaining biodiversity and other environmental services is to ensure appropriate practices are applied when timber is harvested from natural forests. According to CIFOR's Cesar Sabogal, additional insights into the motivations of forest managers can be translated into government policies and strategies for international aid to forestry "By influencing policies and strategies we may increase the likelihood of sustainable practices being applied to the millions of hectares of tropical forest harvested each year in the Amazon and other regions," Sabogal said, "Ultimately, this would safeguard the interests of the full range of stakeholders in tropical forests."