Depending on our own personal perspectives we, as a society, place a variety of different values of forests. The first that comes to my mind is to value the forest in terms of its value as timber. Beyond this forests have a value as a biological reserve, recreational resource, as a spiritual touchstone and as part of a larger ecologic system among others.
I’m not alone in thinking of the value of forests in terms of timber production as this is typically the first reaction from most people, even those that aren’t forestry experts. After all, timber is certainly in demand what with the need for lumber to build houses and wood to produce paper products. In many cases better management practices are needed to maintain the forests. In particular the forests already in production need to be managed as a renewable resource that can be harvested by future generations as well as todays.
Timber isn’t the only commodity extracted from forests; other resources include oil and gas production as well as mining of coal and metal ores that can completely destroy the surface landscape. Before forests are raided for these commodities the economic and environmental impacts would need to be assessed as well as the monetary value of the products extracted.
In the past humans used the forest to gather food resources such as pine nuts, chestnuts, fruits and acorns. This was done in a generally non-destructive and sustainable manner although I doubt they thought of it that way. This trend is continued today by some indigenous peoples in the Amazon basin. It is strictly limited as a commercial basis to provide both economic resources for their community and to preserve their forest resource for the future.
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April 8th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
Value-added wood researcher and university professor Dr. Mat Leitch explores this very issue in the upcoming Canadian documentary “Valuing the Forest: Green Innovation in Forestry.” You can see the preview here: http://vimeo.com/9353872