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aaron_brewer@hotmail.com
Member
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Posted: Sun Mar 27th, 2005 05:42 am |
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The Foundation of the Development of the Central Volcanic Cordillera (FUNDECOR) http://www.fundecor.org/ was established in 1989 as a non-governmental organization (NGO) to partner with the Costa Rican Forest Service and research institutions to help landowners and residents in the certral cordillera for the following purposes:
1. To manage the remaining natural forests for the sustainable production and use of timber and other products
2. To establish plantations of native tree species
3. To promote agroforestry to increase the productive capacity of degraded pastures and secondary forests.
Check out their internet site to learn more about them. If you link to them through Google, you can translate it to english, and possibly other languages. FUNDECOR functions by conducting training, supervising, and using contractual agreements to ensure that loggers and landowners adopt sustainable forest management practices. One such mechanism I read about seems to suggest that they use the contract with the loggers who harvest trees to introduce concepts of conservation. Their web site talks of using mapping to indicate the direction to fell trees for the least impact on the surrounding forest, and to determine pathways for dragging logs.
In the 1996 USAID Evaluation Highlights No. 53, they describe their FORESTA program that supports FUNDECOR, as well as other programs. In this publication, which is available on the internet (http://www.usaid.gov/pubs/usaid_eval/pdf_docs/pnabs531.pdf), they report that FUNDECOR has selected eight native species for reforestation of humid tropical areas of the cental valley:
1. Dipteryz panamensis (almendro)
2. Vochysia ferruginea (botarrama)
3. Vochysia guatemalensis (chancho)
4. Virola koschnyi (fruta dorada)
5. Hieronyma alchorneoides (pilon)
6. Stryphnodendron excelsum (vainilla)
7. Calophyllum brasiliense (cedro Maria)
8. Terminalia amazonia (roble coral)
The USAID analysis of FUNDECOR promoting these trees on plantations in CR is that this technology is risky, because these plantings had not been harvested (at press time in 1996) to guage growth rate, survival rate, quality of lumber produced, etc. I'd bet that folks on this forum would have an update on the potentials for production of native species.
Researching FUNDECOR has produced new quetions and connections.
More to come...
Aaron
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Fred Morgan
Sponsor
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Posted: Sun Mar 27th, 2005 11:53 am |
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Thanks Aaron,
So you have discovered the lure - the more you learn in this field, the deeper it draws you - and opens up even more questions.
Even though people have been growing trees for centuries - often the practice has not been reforestation - but tree farming. So, figuring out how to work with nature instead of battling it all the time is an interesting issue.
Looking forward to the next installment.
Fred
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