Fred, >Please note that I did not say exhausted or depleted! Wood products >are a renewable resource; the quantity available for harvest at any >given time is essentially under human control. If we had done our >homework, the wood products industry would enjoy the same control >and stability that the diamond industry is known for AND we would >not be cutting down rain forests to meet immediate demands. I am a guy from one of the countries where rain forests are beeing cut down. I agree that we could manage better our forest resources, but rain forests are not being cut only to meet immediate market demands of wood products. Many times they are clear cut where there is no forest activity at all, just shift cultivation or to the introduction of cattle raising. Defforestation and reduction of biodiversity is happening all over the world, not only in rain forests. Some of your old growth forests are being cut to meet market demands. >Our company is taking a different approach to the situation, by >causing the production of more wood in a much shorter period of time >on available lands. > >Carolina Pacific International, Inc. is a renewable resources company >based in Cary, N.C., U.S.A.; its primary mission is to promote the >planting of our patented paulownia variety, designed for U.S. plantations. > >Outside of a phenomenal growth record, our variety will withstand >a low temperature of -18F. It will perform exceptionally well across the >southern third of the U.S. from Maryland to the Pacific.> Brazil is one of the world champions in short rotation monocultures. We grow eucalypts here as fast as 50cu.m/ha.year, in a 7 year rotation. The question is: how sustainable this intensive silviculture is? I really believe that this paulowia and eucalypt silviculture is necessary and not as bad to the environment as a corn or rice plantation, but I do not think that we should mix this approach of intensive silviculture with defforestation of rain forests. Erich ************************************************************************ Raquel Schaitza, Tradutora Publica e Interprete Simultanea Curitiba, Parana, Brasil Erich Schaitza, Pesquisador em Tecnologia da Madeira e-mail na EMBRAPA: erich@cnpf.embrapa.br ************************************************************************
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