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Mahogany Conservation: Status and Policy Initiatives
- Bruce D. Rodan, Adrian C. Newton, Adalberto Verissimo
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- Journal:
- Environmental Conservation / Volume 19 / Issue 4 / Winter 1992
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 24 August 2009, pp. 331-338
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- Article
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Genuine or American mahogany is obtained from trees of the genus Swietenia (S. mahagoni, S. macrophylla, and S. humilis), and is one of the premier timbers of international commerce. The trade in mahogany commenced almost five centuries ago with S. mahagoni from the Caribbean; but following ‘commercial’ extinction of this resource, trade became centred on mahogany populations in South and Central America (S. macrophylla). The trade in mahogany is predominantly from primary forests, and has led to population and genetic resource declines — particularly in the Caribbean and Central America. More recently, there have been an increasing number of ‘commercial’ extinctions in South America. As the resource declines, pressures mount to accelerate the illegal extraction of mahogany from National Parks and lands reserved for indigenous (‘Indian’) peoples. Inability to control this trade threatens mahogany populations and genetic resources throughout its range, at the same time adversely affecting the livelihoods of indigenous peoples in the process.
Mahogany often regenerates poorly following logging operations that are conducted using current management practices, and further research is required to determine the optimum biological and economic conditions for in situ silviculture. Attempts to cultivate mahogany in plantations have met with little success in the Americas, due mainly to effects of the shoot-borer (Hypsipyla grandella), a moth larva that damages terminal shoots, so leading to excessive branching and reduced timber value (Figs 3 and 4). The success of mahogany plantations in the neotropics will require the development of an integrated pest-management system, perhaps involving the incorporation of pestresistant genotypes within agro-forestry or mixed plantation systems.
It is vital that appropriate silvicultural and trade practices are adopted to ensure sustainable mahogany extraction, while at the same time conserving an adequate population and genetic resource-base. To this end, effective trade monitoring and resource-regulation measures must be introduced to assist in controlling illegal trade and to encourage a scientifically managed, sustainable, utilization of mahogany. Two of the three mahogany species, S. humilis and S. mahagoni, have been listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The third and only other recognized species of Swietenia, S. macrophylla, should also be considered for listing in CITES Appendix II, thereby benefiting from the international trade-monitoring and resource regulation requirements consequent upon such listing.
15 - Lessons from the aging Amazon frontier: opportunities for genuine development
- Edited by Ke Chung Kim, Pennsylvania State University, Robert D. Weaver, Pennsylvania State University
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- Book:
- Biodiversity and Landscapes
- Published online:
- 04 August 2010
- Print publication:
- 26 August 1994, pp 287-304
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Summary
Introduction
“Amazonia” conjures up visions of mystery, richness, and grandness, but today these visions are intermingled with thoughts of rampant deforestation, armed land disputes, and forests aflame. There are few places on the planet where the human affront to biodiversity is more direct and damaging than in Amazonia.
Most of the deforestation in Amazonia has been concentrated in an arc extending from the State of Para in the east through the states of Mato Grosso and Rondonia in the south. Large-scale forest clearing began in this region in the 1960s. The development process has been disorderly. A parade of actors, including farmers, ranchers, miners, and loggers, have worked to wrestle riches from the landscape. Ecological and economic evaluations of the development process conducted in the 1970s held out little hope for sustainable development (Goodland & Irwin, 1975; Hecht, 1983). But the Amazon settlement experiment is in constant evolution. Hence, previous pronouncements concerning development prospects need to be continually updated in light of new findings.
One area undergoing particularly intensive deforestation is the municipality of Paragominas, located in eastern Pará along the Belém-Brasília Highway (Fig. 15.1). In this chapter we review the history of natural resource use at Paragominas and evaluate the prospects for sustainable development in this region. The municipality of Paragominas (22,000 km2) is an ideal location for research aimed at understanding landscape change and assessing the sustainability of Amazon development because in many ways it presents a microcosm of Amazonia, containing within its boundaries significant areas devoted to ranching, logging, slash-and-burn agriculture, and mining.