Sustainable Forestry Management
Forests are both a resource for recreation and profit and finally, the world is beginning to wakeup to the fact that one isn’t mutually exclusive to the other.
What is a sustainable forest?
A sustainable forest is one that is capable of maintaining itself without degeneration of the soil and biodiversity. Humans have done this for hundreds of thousands of years but in recent times, with trees being seen more for their economic value then their spiritual or ecological one… we seem to have collectively forgotten this at our own peril.
What is Sustainable Forestry Management?
The days of clear cutting large swaths of land followed by burning are, luckily for both our planet and our very own survival, slowly going away. Replaced is a more selective approach towards managing our most precious of resources, our forests! Sustainable Forestry Management involves a number of approaches towards getting maximum profit with minimal impact to the forest biomes around the world. This is done by selectively logging and intensive replanting initiatives to leaving ecologically sensitive areas alone while doing ongoing forestry research.
Why do we all benefit from sustainable forestry practices?
First, the very oxygen we breath is dependent on the health of our forests, they are an enormous carbon sink that suck up carbon dioxide while releasing oxygen. They are also a vast genetic bank that is of importance not only to all species on this planet but for pharmaceutical companies as well. If you go far back enough through evolution, you will soon discover that trees and humans share the SAME beginning, we all come from bacteria! Aside from that, sustainable forests mean jobs for local economies that can be spread over generations as old growth gets cut and replanted with new growth.
What else can we do to save our forests?
Recycling is a great way to help our forests, reading your news online instead of purchasing newspapers, not wasting wood when building projects seen on WoodMarvels.com and donating money towards helping advance sustainable activities in forests around the world is a great start. Remember the Amazon rain forest? Well, the way that is being cut down, it may become just a memory.
The Bottom Line
Forests are essential arcs of biodiversity which should be managed or left alone.