Illegal Rosewood Logging Continues

Planting Empowerment employee demonstrating cocobolo heartwood from a tree in Panama

Earlier this year, we wrote about the tragic death of an Indigenous leader who was killed trying to stop illegal cocobolo (rosewood) harvesting in Panama. Rosewood is one of the world’s most sought-after tropical hardwoods, and loggers have been encroaching on indigenous lands to access the dwindling stocks.

Unfortunately, the illegal harvesting of rosewood is not slowing down, but actually increasing throughout the world according to a report issued by the non-profit organization Environmental Investigation Agency.

Their report was covered by stories both in the New York Times and the Huffington Post. While there is little logging happening in Panama at the moment because it is the rainy season, logging will resume around February when the roads start to dry out. Will the Panamanian government effectively deal with illegal cocobolo harvesting in 2013? Doubtful after the Ministry of Environment’s budget was cut by 25% year-over-year.

The illegal harvesting of cocobolo in Panama hasn’t reached the point of the loggers battling authorities with high powered weapons, but they’ve definitely robbed trees and even dug dug up the roots of cocobolo trees. The easily accessed trees have already been poached, but there are still stocks remaining in primary forest.

Planting Empowerment is trying to do our small part by producing rosewood in our sustainable forestry projects. Hopefully our sustainably produced supply will eventually ease some of the pressure on those remaining trees left in the primary forest.

Getting Real, and Tree DNA

A group of curious kids from Arimae during the 2007 planting

People’s desire for more real—more authentic—goods and experiences offers companies an opportunity to make their operations more sustainable, while creating products that are increasingly in demand.

Fast Company posted an article on people wanting more “real” connections to the products they own, foods they eat, and experiences they have. Maybe it’s because the time we spend online makes us feel physically disconnected from other humans, or the growing number of health scares resulting from mass-produced food products, but the desire for “real” is fueling what we see as some positive trends in consumption.

The local food movement and consumers’ desire to understand the companies that create the products they consume are two examples. Companies increasingly need to connect with their customers in more meaningful ways. We want to understand and support culture and values of the company’s whose goods we consume:

“Companies can fulfill this desire for a real experience by offering new ways for people to see, touch, and feel where the products they buy come from. ‘Consumer safaris’ enable people to travel to where a product is made to meet the craftspeople who make it.”

At the same time, technological advances are facilitating this trend. The Fast Company article mentions a company called Icebreaker Merino that manufactures sustainable, high end merino wool apparel. You get a “baacode” for each item you buy, which lets you trace it

“back to the source in New Zealand where you can see how the sheep live, read about their growers, and follow its production through to the finished garment.”

The Economist recently ran an article on using DNA technology to trace the origination of tropical hardwoods. DoubleHelix Tracking Technologies, the Indonesian company featured in the piece, uses DNA testing to pinpoint where the wood came from, enabling tropical timber importers, furniture manufacturers and resellers to ensure that the wood was sustainably harvested. While expensive, the increasing focus on conservation enforcement and associated legal trouble (e.g. Gibson Guitar) may accelerate the number of companies who require origination testing for their wood.

So, what does this mean for us?

As a small, socially responsible tropical timber company, the shareholders who support us tend to take a more invested interest in how we work, and we expect that the customers who will purchase our timber products will as well. While we're still a few years away from producing timber from our projects, we envision a line of products that engages peoples’ sense of connectedness to our operations.

Imagine tracing the mahogany side table in your bedroom back to our sustainable forestry projects in Darien, Panama. You might see that the wood for your side table came from a tree sprouted in the nursery of our community forestry partner Arimae. Then it grew for 20 years down the road from the community, soaking up the tropical sun and seasonal rains, and providing shade and habitat for rich local biodiversity.

After harvesting the tree, it goes to the sawmill in the community where it is cut into boards. Then you might picture the wood in the hands of a skilled indigenous craftsman, planing the boards smooth, inspecting the joints for a tight fit, and finishing the final piece to a golden shine. He signs the end table and drops a note into the drawer thanking you for supporting the local furniture industry, and inviting you down to Panama to see Planting Empowerment’s operations firsthand.

Then it goes to our warehouse in Panama City, into a shipping container, onto the ship, across the Caribbean, to the port, onto the truck, into our showroom, into your car, and into your bedroom.

We hope that would provide the kind of real experience that grows our business while reducing illegal logging and creating opportunities for our community forestry partners.

Call for Renewed Focus on Sustainable Forestry

A Nuevo Paraiso girl enjoys some local sugar cane

We enjoyed reading CIFOR director Peter Holmgren’s call for a new focus on sustainable forestry. One of the first things he states is that “Fair, affordable and accessible private finance that promotes sustainable land use, particularly for rural smallholders, is needed.”

Amen.

Driving capital towards sustainable agroforestry projects is something that Planting Empowerment has been working on since we started developing our Equitable Forestry model back in 2006. Using private sector finance for community and smallholder forestry is all too much of a niche. We need more capital at work for programs that facilitate sustainable land use by forest-dependent communities. Where we work in Panama for example, our community forestry partners can receive subsidized financing for cattle ranching, but no financing for agroforestry projects because they are a longer term proposition.

Holmgren also mentions the need to understand the food security dynamic tied to forestry. While many countries are deforesting in the name of food security, there needs to be a better understanding of how forests provide food and increased focus on how agroforestry systems can strengthen food security. Towards that goal, Planting Empowerment is currently scaling the production of plantains in our agroforestry system. Plantains are a food staple in Panama and their price increased substantially over the last two years. We also think there is the opportunity to plant guandules, or pidgeon peas, which is a local favorite and fixes nitrogen into the soil during its growth.

We're glad to see Holmgren drawing attention to these issues, and hope that he continues to highlight them during his tenure. Increased research and resources need to be directed to promoting food security and sustainable forestry, for the sake of both those living in forests and the world at large.

Good Wood study

Our polyculture agroforestry plantations with plantains intercropped between rows of treesThe Union of Concerned Scientists recently released a study entitled Wood for Good (PDF), which discusses the most sustainable ways to produce timber and other wood products. This is one part of a series of reports on deforestation that previously identified commercial logging as one of the main drivers of deforestation.

One whole chapter in the report discusses where we as a society should be harvesting wood from. We were encouraged to see that one of their main recommendations is for polyculture systems with native tropical hardwoods. They cite a number of studies noting the environmental and production benefits such as more biomass, habitat, reduced need for fertilizer, and increased yields. Unfortunately, they note that polyculture systems are still rare compared to their distant cousin, the monoculture plantation.

The paper did note that monoculture plantations can be sustainable sources of wood products and pulp, but primary forest should never be cleared to make space for the plantation. Logging to make room for monoculture palm oil plantations is a leading driver of deforestation in Southeast Asia and a source of carbon emissions.

Their recommendations to protect water and reduce soil erosion, reduce chemical inputs, protect biodiversity, protect genetic resources, and plant on degraded land are all practices we implement as part of our Equitable Forestry model.

Finally, they note the importance of making forestry work for the communities living in or near the forests. Without offering communities sustainable alternative income generation activities, the clearing of forests will continue alongside the illegal logging.

Mining Debate in Panama

Watch In Panama, 'New Conquistadors' Protest Canadian Copper Mines on PBS.
See more from PBS NewsHour.

Last night there was a report on the PBS NewsHour examining Canadian mining companies operating in Panama and the environmental impact of their mines on local communities.

As part of a larger project called “The New Conquistadors”, the piece profiled a subsistence farmer in the town of Coclecito, where a mining company is expanding a large gold mine. The piece covers the negative environmental effects that the open mines are reportedly having on downstream local communities, but also the benefits that the companies are pitching to those communities: schools, health centers and roads.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the report was the effect on local food production by subsistence farmers. According to the subsistence farmer interviewed, since the mining companies have been employing more and more local farmers, they have been importing more of the rice, beans, corn and coffee, that the farmers would traditionally grow themselves.

I was tempted to jump up on the soapbox—to discuss how our sustainable forestry model helps local farmers manage their land more effectively for short and long term benefits—but I’ll spare you. The mining companies are easy to go after and what we’re doing is different and doesn’t require a direct comparison.

We'll keep an eye on the mining debate in Panama, especially because it may indicate how the government will deal with indigenous land rights and environmental protection in the future.