The next 10 photos were taken on the Amazon River, and a tributary of the Amazon, just east of Manaus, Brazil.

Backwaters of Amazon River, just east of Manaus, Brazil.

Entering a tributary of the Amazon River, just east of Manaus, Brazil.

Rivers provide the primary travel corridors in Amazon country.

Evidence of shifting cultivators is not hard to find.

The following photos were taken from a small plane in the area just south of Belem, Brazil.

The forest spreads like a blanket from horizon to horizon.

Gaps in the forest cover resulting from agricultural conversion are scattered across the landscape.

Large areas like this, sometimes identified as due to commercial logging activity, are instead the result of clearing to create pastureland for cattle ranching.

Logging clearly impacts the forest, but rarely leaves the land cleared of tree cover. This is because few species have value in domestic and export markets.

A large tree was removed from this location in the eastern Amazon Basin leaving a hole in the forest canopy.

Other smaller trees are also often damaged during the harvesting process.

After felling, logs are moved to log landings for loading onto trucks. This is called skidding.

Skidding sometimes results in exposure of mineral soil.

More modern skidding practices result in far less impact on the forest floor.

At the landing logs are loaded on trucks for movement from the forest.

Impacts to the forest result from building of access roads, skid trails, and log landings, and from felling of trees.

Immediately following the completion of traditional logging, impacts are clearly visible. Even then, the area looks nothing like the cattle ranch shown earlier. The open areas are soon occupied by shrubs, grasses, and tree seedlings.

A stand in the Brazilian Amazon that has been harvested using low impact logging techniques. Note the log landing.

The same site from higher altitude. Can you find the logging road?

One concern about logging in forests, and in tropical forests in particular, is that the forest will be undesirably simplified. If harvesting is done selectively, this is less a concern than otherwise.

In fact, although conventional wisdom says that almost any of activity of mankind in tropical forests tends to destroy them, there is growing evidence that it is possible to sustainably manage tropical forests, even when management includes periodic timber harvesting.

Summary Tropical forests are under a great deal of pressure from: –population growth. –expansion of permanent and shifting agriculture. –expansion of urban areas, highways, and other development. –timber harvesting. –fuelwood gathering.

Summary (Cont.) Expansion of permanent and shifting agriculture is by far the leading cause of tropical forest loss worldwide. Commercial logging is a relatively minor factor in tropical forest loss overall. –clearcutting is rare in logging of tropical forests due to the large number of noncommercial species. –logging can damage trees not removed in harvesting, and the road network created can increase the likelihood of settlement by shifting cultivators.

Summary (Cont.) It appears to be possible to sustainably manage tropical forests if other problems related to periodic harvest (i.e. occupation by squatters or shifting cultivators) can be solved.