Ghana Forests

[John15]

Just returned from a 17 day birdwatching trip to Ghana. Sadly almost all of the equatorial rainforest which covered the southern half of the country has been logged and turned into farmland producing palm oil, bananas, cocoa, vegetables and in the drier north there is also beef production. Remnants of forest remain but mostly only of secondary growth, only a few primary growth trees remain and these too are being logged, some illegally. Ghana still remains a good destination to see West African birds but is becoming increasingly difficult and it's easy to imagine that in 50 years (maybe less) all the forest will have disappeared. Very sad indeed.

John

 

[Phil Pascoe]

http://www.businessinsider.com/map-chin ... 012-8?IR=T

Hardly surprising when you realise the Chinese involvement - I read somewhere that Mozambique will be totally deforested in a few years time.

 

[sunnybob]

Strange to hear woodworkers moaning about trees being chopped down.

 

[El Barto]

Just returned from a 17 day birdwatching trip to Ghana. Sadly almost all of the equatorial rainforest which covered the southern half of the country has been logged and turned into farmland producing palm oil, bananas, cocoa, vegetables and in the drier north there is also beef production. Remnants of forest remain but mostly only of secondary growth, only a few primary growth trees remain and these too are being logged, some illegally. Ghana still remains a good destination to see West African birds but is becoming increasingly difficult and it's easy to imagine that in 50 years (maybe less) all the forest will have disappeared. Very sad indeed.

John

That's awful. What a legacy to pass on to the next generation eh. Got any pics (of birds or otherwise)?

 

[Terry - Somerset]

Loss of rain forest is driven purely by short term needs and profit.

Many countries cannot sacrifice current income when large parts of the population suffer with the wholly inadequate - food, water supplies, sewage and waste traeatment, education, health care, corruption etc.

So forests will be destroyed for short term gain unless an alternative way of "monetising" them is found. We need to get used to using mainly UK and European hardwoods - from countries weathly enough to take the long term view.

Just as an aside I recall standing timber is a very small part of the total value of useable wood which needs to be: felled, transported, seasoned, shipped, stored, sold. All these parts of the process are costly, take time, and incur wastage. This is why a standing 150 year old oak may be worth (say) £100, fully processed and sold is worth £1-2500 depending on the quality and volume.

 

[custard]

The change amongst UK furniture makers over the past few years has been dramatic; tropical timbers have been dropped like a hot potato. Part of the explanation must be the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers and the way they ruled that use of CITES timbers makes furniture ineligible for Guild Mark status. At a stroke many of the most influential makers abandoned not just current CITES timbers like Rosewood and Ebony, but possible future CITES candidates like Wenge.

I wonder if the appeal of exotic hand tools will start to diminish when the most demanding timber the next generation of European furniture makers might use could be bog standard Oak?

 

[cowfoot]

Strange to hear woodworkers moaning about trees being chopped down.

No problem with trees being chopped down, it’s the lack of replanting that’s the problem!
Plenty of companies who should know better (eg Ikea) fail to use timber from sustainable sources.

 

[heimlaga]

Forests aren't always very sustainably managed in Europe either.

As the economists and experts struggle to maximize volume growth and output they neglect the fact that as the output goes up the quality comes down. As the trees grow too far apart they develop thick branches and the timber itself becomes soft and brittle. The trees are cut down long before maturity.
I predict that we may get a bit of a shortage of proper quality timber trees in Finland within 50 years if they keep doing what they are doing at the moment.

Fortunately I own 4,3 hectares of woodland together with my parents. Around 3 hectares of it is around 100 years old slow grown spruce and pine. The rest is younger trees mainly birch and spruce on former fields. Sustanably managed (against all expertise who advocate clearcutting) it will supply me with timber for most my own needs in a lifetime and then timber for the next generation too as younger trees grow mature.
Unfortunately there is no 150-200 years old pine in it. 100 years is a bit too young for proper quality window materials....... but in 50 years from now there will be some.