Forest biomass recovery after conventional and reduced-impact logging in Amazonian Brazil

Author(s)

West, Thales A. P. ^{[1, 2]} ; Vidal, Edson ^{[1, 3]} ; Putz, Francis E. ^{[2, 4]}

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, ESALQ, Dept Ciencias Florestais, BR-13418 Piracicaba, SP - Brazil

^[2] Univ Florida, Dept Biol, Gainesville, FL 32641 - USA

^[3] Inst Homem & Meio Ambiente Amazonia IMAZON, BR-66060160 Belem, Para - Brazil

^[4] Ctr Int Forestry Res CIFOR, Bogor - Indonesia

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT; v. 314, p. 59-63, FEB 15 2014.
• Web of Science Citations: 35

Abstract

Growing concerns about unnecessarily destructive selective logging of tropical forests and its impacts on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions motivated this study on post-logging biomass dynamics over a 16-year period in a control plot and in plots subjected to conventional logging (CL) or reduced-impact logging (RIL) in Paragominas, Para State, Brazil. All trees >25 cm were monitored in 25.4 ha plots of each treatment, each with a subplot of 5.25 ha for trees >10 cm dbh. The commercial timber volumes in felled trees were 38.9 and 37.4 m(3) ha(-1) in the RIL and CL plots, respectively, but the extracted volumes were 38.6 and 29.7 m(3) ha(-1), respectively. Immediately after logging, plots subjected to RIL and CL lost 17% and 26% of their above-ground biomass, respectively. Over the 16 years after logging, the average annual increments in above-ground biomass (recruitment plus residual tree growth minus mortality) were 2.8 Mg ha(-1) year(-1) in the RIL plot but only 0.5 Mg ha(-1) year in the CL plot. By 16 years post-logging, the RIL plot recovered 100% of its original above-ground biomass while the CL plot recovered only 77%; over the same period, biomass in the control plot maintained 96% of its initial stock. These findings reinforce the claim that conversion from CL to RIL would represent an efficient forest-based strategy to mitigate climate change under the REDD+ and would be an important step towards sustainable forest management. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 09/13277-5 - METHODOLOGY FOR CARBON OFFSET PROJECTS INVOLVING THE CONVERSION FROM CONVENTIONAL LOGGING TO FOREST MANAGEMENT WITH REDUCED IMPACT LOGGING.
• Grantee: Thales Augusto Pupo West
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master