Dear Nadia: I have followed the discussion regarding forests in Nicaragua and am glad that you are interested in growing trees. I too am interested in growing trees and believe we should be planting more trees today so that our children can have firewood to burn in the future. Unlike coal and oil, wood is a renewable resource. I understand that in 1990, there were about 14,000 ha of tree plantations in Nicaragua. This amounts to about 0.09% of the landbase (about 1 in 1079 ha). In contrast, about 43% of the land is in pastures (about 1 in 2.3 ha). Assuming that Nicaragua will use about 4.7 million m3 of wood for fuelwood and charcoal in the year 2010, and assuming that Nicaragua has 6 million ha of woodland, where should the fuelwood come from: plantations established on pastures or natural forests? If all fuelwood plantations were established only on pastures, then how much pastures would have to be reduced to supply 5 million m3 of wood? Assuming the average yield from plantations is 10 m3/ha/yr, then only 500,000 ha of fuelwood plantations would need to be established. To reach this level by the year 2010 would mean planting 33,333 ha/year. In comparison, here in Alabama (with about the same population level as Nicaragua) about 85,000 ha were planted in 1994. If pastureland in Nicaragua was reduced by 500,000 ha, then pastureland would be reduced to about 39% of the landbase. The amount of tree plantations would be less than 5% of the landbase. My question is this, aside from the technical problems of establishing 33,000 ha/yr of tree plantations, would there be a strong opposition by forest ecologists in planting trees on pastureland in Nicaragua? If not, would there be a strong opposition by Nicaraguans in establishing fuelwood plantations on pastureland? Would planting trees on pastureland be part of the solution? >Estimado Jose: I also read Mr. Brenner's message with big concern >about his plans of logging a Nicaraguan rain forest. About 4 or 5 >years ago Stone container also tried to deforest a Northern forest in >Nicaragua. Nicaraguans were very upset and that nonsense plan was >stopped. I am a forest ecologist from El Salvador and I am trying to >grow trees instead of cutting them. Our countries can not afford to >lose more forests. Mr. Brenner please try better and non-destructive >alternatives such as sustainable agroforestry systems. Please Mr. >Brenner along with your partners don`t be part of the problem. Be >part of solution. Gracias. Nadia Navarrete. David South School of Forestry Auburn University, AL 36849-5418 dsouth@forestry.auburn.edu 334-844-1022 334-844-1084 (FAX)
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