EFFORTS to re-establish the world’s mahogany trees are misfiring. “Green”
forestry practices, such as selective logging, are not helping saplings as much
as clearing large patches of rainforest.
“Forest departments around the world have invested millions of dollars doing
something that doesn’t work,” says Laura Snook of the Indonesia-based Center for
International Forestry Research (CIFOR). Snook and her team in Central America
have found that planting mahogany under the forest canopy—a practice known
as enrichment—is futile.
Mahogany is the most valuable Amazonian hardwood on the international market,
and the rapid loss of the tree over much of…
