Sir

We disagree with Gullison et al. who argued in their Commentary “‘Marketing” species conservation”1 that the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) should be restructured to protect mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla). In our view, CITES has been effective in regulating international trade of some species endangered with biological extinction.

Although logging can have catastrophic impacts on forest ecosystems, few internationally traded tropical hardwood species are threatened with extinction. Of the ten most important tropical hardwoods imported to the United Kingdom, only S. macrophylla is listed by CITES (in its Appendix III). Logging has been accused of causing the local extinction of mahogany2. However, we have recently conducted 100 per cent inventories of mahogany trees in three, conventionally logged areas in two different forests in Brazil (unpublished data). Mahogany survived logging in all three areas (Table 1), but few trees are yet of commercial size. In these forests, mahogany is not threatened with biological extinction, but further exploitation is unlikely to be profitable for many years.

Table 1
Full size table

Although forests are logged tens to hundreds of kilometres from centres of the timber trade3, large areas of mahogany's vast natural range4 remain remote and unexploited by commercial logging. Mahogany is widely planted around the tropics, and there are now promising solutions to its silvicultural problems5,6. Mechanisms other than CITES need to be found to curb destructive logging in tropical rainforests and to ensure the sustainable management of commercial species, such as mahogany, which are not yet endangered.

Gullison et al. argue that the rate at which sustainable forest-management practices are being adopted is too slow to save many species. They recommend that organizations in the developed countries should buy and protect tracts of tropical forest as a safety net if other measures continue to be ineffective in areas of rapid forest decline. Although this strategy may be effective in the short term, we do not believe that it is viable in the long term. Unless alternatives can be found to the unsustainable exploitation and clearance of forest, such protected areas will become increasingly isolated and vulnerable to illegal logging, fire and occupation.

Illegal logging is widespread in the tropics7. Even legally logged forests are often repeatedly and illegally relogged for residual timber, unless they are well protected. Illegal occupation of forest is also common. Many tropical rainforests lie adjacent to burgeoning human populations. In Pará, Brazil, landless people have recently occupied private forest reserves, government-owned research forests and privately owned production forests. Who will pay for long-term protection as the agricultural frontier advances? Some Pará landowners have hired gunmen to protect their property, a strategy that is unlikely to be palatable to many conservation organizations.

Although it may be cheap to lease logged forests, Gullison et al. ignore the high cost of long-term protection. Leasing is not an option in the Old World tropics where forests are state property. The leasing proposal would not slow the rate at which new forests are penetrated by logging roads, ‘mined’ for mahogany and thereby made accessible to land conversion.

Alliances between conservationists and local communities have rarely proved successful in the long term. For example, the Projeto de Estudio para el Manejo de las Areas Silvestres de Kuna Yala in Panama initially received funding of US$1.2 million and had a high international profile. However, within a few years the money had run out as there was no planning for the long-term financial sustainability of the project and no systematic fund-raising8.

We believe that the only viable strategy for conserving large areas of tropical rainforest is to find sustainable livelihoods for rural populations and to control destructive logging through marketplace initiatives. Sustainable management of tropical rainforests, including the control of illegal logging, fire and land occupation, is therefore a necessary precondition for successful conservation. Totally protected areas are doomed if they ignore the surrounding land-use issues.

Sustainable exploitation is increasingly being forced by consumer pressure. Europe will now only import tropical timbers certified as sustainably produced by bodies such as the Forest Stewardship Council, an international non-profit organization.

Rather than buying reserves, conservation bodies may be better advised to spend their money in offsetting the high costs of such certification and in educating consumers to pay premium prices for credibly certified timber.