Respect for Nature The Ecological Foundation for Sustainable Forest Management

Introduction
If you consult a comprehensive English dictionary, you will find two groups of meanings for the word respect: (1) to notice with special attention; to regard; to heed; to consider; and (2) to view, treat, or consider with reverence, deference, or courtesy; to feel or show honour or esteem for; to revere; to avoid intruding upon. The first group of definitions emphasizes an analytical interpretation: we respect something by observing it, understanding it, and acting appropriately. The second set of definitions represents a more spiritual and emotional approach: we respect something by adopting a deferential, perhaps even a religious, approach to our relationship with it, and by avoiding any intrusion or disturbance. Some of the earliest attempts to conserve forests being threatened by military, industrial, or simply local firewood demands were to establish them as religious and spiritual reserves. For example, the early Greeks and Romans sometimes used peoples fear ofthe gods or spirits to protect certain forest areas from use. Forests established around churches, temples, or monasteries were similarly protected by this religious or beliefsystem-based approach to conservation. With the rise in secularism and the decline in the power of the church and of spirits, this approach to forest conservation generally foiled. During the exploitation phase that precedes the evolution of forestry, there is generally litde respect for forests, irrespective of how this is defined. Although people in the early stages of social and cultural development sometimes revere and honour the spirits of the trees and forest, they may, at the same time, exploit them. The low human numbers and lack of technology, rather than any religious respect that there may be, usually prevent damage to the forest at this stage. As forestry enters the administrative phase, there is generally little or no respect (in either sense) for

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the forest, and the results are predictably unsatisfactory. In the ecologically based stage, the focus is on paying careful attention to the ecology of the values to be sustained respect according to the former of the above groups of definitions. In contrast, the recent manifestation of the social phase of forestry has rejected the analytical, scientific interpretation of respect in favour of a return to the religious, spiritual, and emotional interpretation. This chapter briefly considers the efficacy of these two approaches to respect for nature as the foundations for forest management and conservation.

the conclusion is reached that because autogenic succession moves ecosystems toward late succession- al or climax, old-growth forest stages, this must be the condition nature wants to be in; that humans should assist nature in reaching this ecological nirvana and should protect and preserve all old-growth forests that achieve this ecological seventh heaven. Where a forest ecosystem has historically undergone infrequent and small-scale, low-severity disturbance, this semireligious approach to respect can be successful in conserving historical ecosystem conditions and values. A preservation approach to nature will not prevent these ecosystems from changing, of course, especially as the climate changes, but it can ensure a continuation of the slow rates of change at small spatial scales that have characterized these ecosystems for centuries or even millennia. In contrast, for the many forest ecosystems whose structure, species composition, biodiversity, and productivity reflect relatively frequent, large- scale, and severe (i.e., stand-replacing) disturbance (see photographs in Chapter 3), a preservation or reverential approach to respect for nature can result in the development of uncommon and even unnatural ecosystem and landscape conditions.

Veneration of Nature: Nature as a Religious Icon

Many early societies revered nature because they believed that it was a manifestation of powerful gods and spirits. These had to be placated prior to consumptive use of forest resources if dire retribution and negative consequences were to be avoided: famine, drought, pestilence, and war. Sacrifices, prayers, obeisances, and other acts of deference and respect were required before killing animals, cutting trees, or otherwise disturbing nature, or to ensure that nature provided good harvests and human fertility. This reverence for nature is generally lost as societies become first technological and then industrial: technology replaces nature as the object of respect. As social and cultural development continues, science and knowledge may pardy replace brute technology, and nature is respected on the basis of a scientific analysis of what it is and how it works. However, in many postindustrial societies, a tidal wave of antitechnology has recendy engulfed science and knowledge. They are increasingly rejected as the basis for respecting nature, and are being replaced by spiritualism and emotionbased value systems - respect for nature based on mysticism and belief systems about nature. These belief systems often include the idea that nature is fragile and should be disturbed as litde as possible: that is, that it should be preserved. "When this idea is applied to forests,

Respect for Nature: Management and Conservation Based on the Ecology of Ecosystem Values
An analytical, scientific approach to respect for nature can lead to much the same conclusions about forest management and conservation as the belief- system approach for those ecosystems in which disturbance is small scale, low severity, and infrequent. Both approaches may lead to the conclusion that late successional stages should be sustained, as long as society in the country involved accepts that such forests are a desired land use, and that their values provide that society with what it wants and needs. The situation in naturally disturbance-driven forests is different. Where the character of forests reflects disturbance by fire, wind, insects, landslide, and epidemic disease, the analytical interpretation

of respect will lead to silvicultural systems that attempt to emulate the ecological effects of natural disturbances. Management will strive to produce a combined ecological effect of management- induced-disturbance-pluscontinuing-natural- disturbance that is similar to the historical effects of natural disturbance, but modified to ensure that a variety of social objectives are achieved. The analytical approach to respect will result in a much more natural landscape and ecosystem condition and function than the religious approach in these types of forest.

symphonies or concertos, the different instruments interact harmoniously and melodiously to produce a sound-scape that is a balm to the human soul: calming, peaceful, and gende. However, other composers have produced musical pieces that are very different from this sound-scape. While there is an overall structure and beauty to their musical creations, there are periods of sometimes violent disharmony between the different instruments. The comparison between the music of Mozart and Stravinsky comes to mind. Some ecosystems have a character reminiscent of the beauty, harmony, and emotional stability of the music of Mozart, but others reflect the unpredictability and periods of discord that characterize the works of Stravinsky. However, as in the musical masterpieces of Stravinsky, the periods of ecological discord (natural disturbance events that sometimes violently alter the apparently harmonious development of the forest ecosystem) in disturbancedriven ecosystems are merely part of the overall character of the ecosystem that, viewed as a whole over appropriate time and spatial scales, constitutes its own ecological harmony. When we go to an orchestral concert, we expect to hear a variety of musical pieces: some harmonious and soothing, others more violent, discordant, and challenging. Similarly, as we look at forests, we should expect to find a wide range of ecosystem conditions and disturbance regimes, from those that may remind us of Mozart to those that elicit memories of Stravinsky. Respect for nature requires the recognition of the differences between the kinds of ecosystems and disturbance regimes, and of the different ecological role of disturbance in natures diversity of forest ecosystem types.

Discordant Harmonies: Nature as Mozart dr Stravinsky?

Daniel Botkin pointed out the importance of selecting the correct paradigm.1 Paradigms that do not accurately reflect the way in which nature works have repeatedly proven to be unsuccessful as the basis for conservation and sustainable management of resources. Paradigms of nature that assume it to be harmonious and stable - an equilibrium concept are at best inaccurate and at worst destined to fail and result in unacceptable ecosystem alteration. Natural disturbance events maintain most local forest ecosystems and landscapes in a state of continuing change. Management and conservation strategies based on the assumption (the paradigm) of equilibrium, constancy, and no change are almost certain to fail. Paradigms of nature as an industrial factory to be managed to produce desired products by design based on economics and efficiency considerations alone will have a similar outcome. Botkin likened nature to a symphony orchestra, in which the many different instruments are integrated into a structured musical system. In some

Respect, Self-Indulgence, and Intergenerational Equity

People differ in their musical tastes: some like rock concerts, others like Strauss, Beethoven, or Mozart. It may require a more sophisticated musical appreciation to like Mahler or Stravinsky.

i Paradigm: an implicit theory or conceptual framework from which other theories or understandings derive their validity (ODonnell, J. 1990. Word Gloss. Inst. Public Admin., Dublin). In science, a paradigm is a set of implicit beliefs assumed to be true. In Greek philosophy, it is a mental image that people create to explain the nature of something.

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We all like to indulge our own particular musical tastes. Teenagers will listen to seemingly endless pop, rock, or rap. Mozart or Vivaldi fans may listen to little else. Such musical self-indulgence brings personal pleasure with little or no negative consequences to other people. It is different with nature. For any one group in society to require that all of nature fit into their personal paradigm or aesthetic preference irrespective of the natural diversity of nature is a self-indulgence that has significant negative implications for the environment, and can deny environmental and social values to others in society who have a different set of values. It can also deny important values to future generations. In the exploitive and administrative stages of forestry, the diversity of nature is largely ignored, and one standard approach is taken to the harvest and management of forests across ecologically variable landscapes and regions. This is a self- indulgence of the societies that do it. It does not respect nature. Similarly, the demand by some individuals or groups in society that forestry adopt one other single management and harvesting paradigm around the world is another selfindulgence that threatens the natural diversity of forests and the diversity of values that they provide. It does not respect nature either. Intergenerational equity is the ethical responsibility of the present generation to pass on to future generations the environmental and biological diversity, the full range of values, and the ecosystem and landscape productivity and other functions that were our inheritance from the past. The present generation has the right to enjoy and use present values. But it has the moral obligation to pass the forest landscape and local ecosystems on to future generations with the full range of conditions and species, rates of ecological process, and disturbance regimes characteristic of the forest in question. To require that all forests be forced into an equilibrium, late serai condition because this fits the

aesthetic sensibilities and paradigm of nature held by certain groups in society is to disrespect nature, and to disrespect the range of values that society expects from forests. It is a repetition of the self- indulgence of the exploitive and administrative stages of forestry, and it should be rejected by society at large, just as we have rejected these earlier, non-sustainable stages of forestry.

Nature as the Paradigm

Respect for nature requires that nature itself should be the paradigm for the sustainable management of forests. But what is nature? Forest ecosystems vary in structure, function, species composition, and diversity from ecological region to ecological region, and from site to site within a region. They all vary over time under the control of disturbance and successional recovery. Disturbance can be frequent or infrequent, large or small scale, severe or benign. Forests change over time scales of centuries or millennia as the climate changes. They change over decades or centuries as they grow, develop, and are disturbed. Respect for this diversity should be the paradigm on which sustainable forest management is based. Forest management should generally produce conditions within the range that a particular ecosystem can exist under natural disturbance regimes. Of course, there will be many cases in which society chooses not to do this. To be absolute in this requirement would entail much of the worlds agricultural land to be abandoned and reforested; we would need to destroy and reforest most of the worlds cities, and return to almost a prehistoric condition. With 5.8 billion people, heading toward 12 to 16 billion, this is not even a possibility. However, within a societys strategy for land use and protected areas, the area dedicated to sustainable forestry should generally be maintained within the broad range of possible ecosystem conditions that nature provides. Even within this framework, optimum conservation strategies may recommend that some areas

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of native forest be replaced with intensively managed plantations of very different ecological character. Take, for example, the question of tropical tree plantations. They are often capable of producing twenty to fifty times more wood products than native tropical forests. Unlike temperate and northern forests, it appears inevitable that there will be some species loss and ecological change under any harvesting and management system in humid tropical forests. Consequently, conservation objectives alone suggest the replacement of native forest by plantations over a portion of the humid tropical landscape in order to increase the area of tropical forest assigned to unlogged reserves without reducing employment and other wood product-based social values. Clearly, these plantations will be outside the natural range of variation of structure and species composition of the natural forest, but they may be fully justified to achieve both conservation and economic/social objectives. However, to be sustainable, such tropical plantations must be managed with respect for the ecological processes (e.g., soils, hydrological and nutrient cycling processes) that operate in tropical forests; they must remain within the natural range of these processes if they are to be sustainable. Apart from this important exception the recognition of the legitimate and important role in forestry and conservation of plantation forests that may be outside the historical range of ecological conditions most of the world s forests should probably be managed within the context of the natural paradigm if they are to satisfy sustainability objectives, the desires of present-day society, and our intergenerational equity obligation. This does not mean a preservation approach and managing all forests for late successional conditions. It does mean that we must base forestry on a respect for nature that requires us to notice with special attention, and to consider the ecology of, the values that we wish to sustain.

Conclusions
We are living in a generation with unparalleled personal freedoms, individual rights, political correctness, and a desire by individuals for selfgratification. Much of this is probably nonsustainable. Included in this climate of social behaviour and expectation is the concept that nature should always be beautiful to us and should conform to our personal paradigm: our concept of the Garden of Eden. This is one of several selfindulgences of this generation that is nonsustainable and has very negative consequences for the environment and for what we will pass on to future generations. It must be replaced by a true respect for nature.

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Disturbance factors m forest ecosystems

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Humans as a 'natural disturbance factor' A Native eucalypt forest in southeastern Australia. Its condition reflects
thousands of years of burning by indigenous peoples.

B The bamboo talun-kebun agro forestry system of mountainous regions

of western Java. A traditional and sustainable use of the tropical forest.

C Douglas-fir savanna forest in British Columbia. The condition of this

forest reflects millennia of low-intensity surface fires, either wildfire or fires set by indigenous people.

D Shifting cultivator, Sumatra. An ancient component of many tropical

forests.

Large-scale natural disturbance (see also photographs in Chapter 3) E Landslide in the high rainfall, mountainous, temperate rain forest of
western Vancouver Island. This is in an unroaded, unmanaged area of primary forest. The climax rain forest is replaced by early-seral red alder in the slide areas. Such slides maintain high levels of forest productivity and feed fish streams with gravel and coarse woody debris when evaluated over many centuries. Over the short term, they reduce forest productivity and may damage fish habitat if they enter a stream.

F Lodgepole pine trees being killed by mountain pine beede in the Rocky
Mountains of southern British Columbia.

G Forty per cent of this landscape on northern Vancouver Island was

blown down in one major windstorm. The dark patches of forest are the highly productive, unmanaged second- growth stands that developed in the windthrown areas.

H This entire landscape in central British Columbia is dominated by evenaged, single species pine stands as a result of natural wildfire.

Small-scale natural disturbance

I Old-growth forest in Carmanah Valley, British Columbia. This type of forest suffers large-scale, stand-replacing disturbance by windstorms at infrequent intervals (many centuries), and small-scale, tree-by-tree disturbance on shorter time scales.

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FOR

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Disturbance factors in forest ecosystems

Forest development in the absence of stand-replacing ecosystem disturbance J An expanding area of muskeg (sphagnum bog) encroaching on the
surrounding boreal forest in northern Canada in the long-term absence of ecosystem disturbance by fire.

M Replacement of giant eucalypt forest by climax temperate rain forest in southwestern Tasmania after several centuries without standreplacing wildfire. Compare this with the pictures in Chapter 3.

N Giant Sitka spruce forest, Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia.

These trees are periodically blown over, resulting in soil disturbance that creates seedbeds and soil conditions that promote regeneration and productive growth of spruce and western redcedar. However, deer browsing has eliminated red- cedar and Sitka spruce regeneration in many of these forests, and has promoted hemlock regeneration. Because hemlock is often heavily infected with mistletoe (see next photograph), it tends to suffer stem break rather than windthrow. The longterm

K A mosaic of different conifer, hardwood, and mixedwood stands

characterize fire-disturbed landscapes in the northern boreal forests of Canada. The straight lines are where seismic lines have been cut through the forest during exploration for oil and natural gas.

L High elevation subalpine forest in central interior British Columbia. Unless die area is subject to disturbance by fire, windthrow, logging, or other stand-replacing disturbance every few centuries, the large Engelmann spruce trees are replaced by ericaceous shrubs when they die, leading to loss of closed forest. The result is an open woodland of subalpine fir, scattered spruce, and ericaceous shrubs.

absence of wind-related soil disturbance leads to a decline in forest productivity, and the eventual replacement of closed productive forests (as in this photograph) by low productivity ericaceous woodland (compare with photographs in Chapter 3).

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Disturbance factors in forest ecosystems

Role of disturbance in regulating parasites and pathogens in forests O Western hemlock heavily infected with dwarf mistletoe, a parasitic plant. The
stems of such trees tend to break during high winds racher than the tree being blown over, thereby reducing soil disturbance. Replacement of Sitka spruce forests by infected hemlock forests in the Queen Charlotte Islands because of deer browsing is expected to result in the long-term degradation of these forests. Large-scale wind disturbance acts to regulate the severity of this parasite.

P Lodgepole pine infected with dwarf mistletoe. Fire has historically controlled
the severity of such infections by eliminating the mistletoe over large areas. Fire protection and small-scale or uneven-age silviculture in infected forests will increase the severity of the infection.

Inappropriate disturbance (see also photographs in Chapters 6 and 14) Q Inappropriate harvesting practices in the temperate rain forest of Clayoquot
Sound. Progressive clearcutting with inappropriately located roads has resulted in landslides on steep, unstable slopes in areas of high rainfall. The sire of the clearcuts, the lack of snags, wildlife trees, and patches of uncut forest, and the density and location of roads constitute an inappropriate level of disturbance in this type of forest.