
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 13, 1990                   TAG: 9003133427
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

LUMBER IMPORTERS JOIN FOREST-PROTECTION PACT

Concerned about depletion of their resource base and fearful of becoming the focus of a "save-the-trees" citizens' movement, American lumber importers said Monday they have agreed to work for protection of the world's tropical forests.

In a "white paper" issued jointly with the Smithsonian Institution, the International Hardwood Products Association pledged to work for "internationally acceptable and verifiable" guidelines for forest management and protection, such as selective harvesting and replanting.

The consensus statement was the outgrowth of a meeting called by the two organizations last fall to talk about the need for "sustained yield" forest management in tropical countries.

Guidelines for forest protection may be enforced by an agency of the United Nations, said Keister Evans, a Washington lobbyist for the hardwood importers' group.

"We think the time is coming when to sell [timber products] on the world market, you'll have to be licensed by the International Tropical Timber Organization [ITTO] and subjected to certain inspections," Evans said. ITTO was founded by the United Nations.

The underlying reason for forest destruction is the fact that tropical forests are not valued to reflect the cost of replacing them when they are destroyed, said Thomas Lovejoy, assistant Smithsonian secretary for external affairs.

American users of mahogany, teak, Asian plywood and other tropical forest products often have no idea of the destructive logging practices that were used to harvest the trees, he said, and "when we are isolated from the problem, it's really easy to be irresponsible."

Evans said his organization's immediate concern was that tropical timber products avoid becoming identified as "fur coats of the nineties."

"That happens to be our biggest worry at the moment," he said. "It hasn't happened yet, but it seems that timber gets a pretty big part of the blame anytime the issue [of forest destruction] is discussed."

Although logging is said to cause far less forest destruction worldwide than resettlement and agriculture, environmentalists have complained that logging roads open up forests that otherwise would be inaccessible to settlers and squatters.

Evans, an executive of U.S. Mahogany Corp., said better logging practices likely would increase the cost of forest products but "That does not concern us too much, as long as we have worldwide standards that everyone has to observe."

by CNB