Tropical forest systems and the human economy
Twelve minimodels of tropical forest systems and their interfaces with the economy were used to visualize the changing patterns of forest use and to make public-policy recommendations about sustainable forest management and economic development. To maximize wealth, systems designs were recommended that mutually reinforce production and use. Microcomputer simulations and EMERGY (energy of one kind required directly and indirectly to produce a product) evaluations of these models were made on four scales: (1) a single forest stand, (2) landscapes with many stands, (3) tropical forests in international trade, and (4) tropical forests in the global carbon budget. Emdollars (EM ) of gross economic product estimated from solar EMERGY evaluations were: 19 for an average small tree, 2250 for a typical climax tree, 90,000 for a virgin forest hectare, and 59 billion for 153 populations of tree species. A minimodel, CLIMAX, showed the essence of complex tropical forest succession and management for maximum gross production, efficiency, diversity, and soil restoration with a minor yield of selected trees. In contrast, the minimodel CADAM showed the essence of a simplified tropical forest managed for net production, biomass, and yield with more intensive use of fuels, goods, and services. The minimodel RESERVE included a reseeding cycle of succession and restoration from reserve plots of a complex tropical forest as a means to maximize economic yield in the long run. Minimodels of nutrient supply and recycling showed self-organizational accumulation of recycling materials controlling the rate of succesion, eventually eliminating nutrient limitations. The minimodel MATCHUSE, for forest harvest with and without competing species, showed the fallacy of models of economic yield based on a single species without competitors and without consideration of the reinforcement required for sustainable production. The minimodel INTSALE showed the relative benefit of domestic use versus export sales of forest products. Simplified models of the global carbon dioxide cycle showed that permanent removal of vegetation cover causes a major increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide but that this would be entirely reversed by a 20 percent restoration of the world forest cover. Managing forests for domestic use, restricting the free-market stripping of world vegetation, and active restoration of tropical forest cover through the preservation of patches of complex forest will maximize the economic benefit to tropical nations, stabilize world carbon dioxide, and restore a pattern of sustainable forestry now and as world fuel resources decline.
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | biblioteca |
| Published: |
New York, NY (EUA) Springer-Verlag
1995
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| Subjects: | ANALISIS ECONOMICO, ECONOMIA, COMERCIO INTERNACIONAL, MODELOS, SIMULACION, PRODUCCION FORESTAL, CRECIMIENTO, CLAROS, NUTRIENTES, PLANTACION FORESTAL, BOSQUE TROPICAL, |
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