Researchers have found that low-intensity logging of a tropical forest has no negative impacts on key ecosystem services such as the carbon storage and food availability for wildlife. But even at a small scale, selective logging can still effect changes in an area’s plant diversity, the researchers wrote in their recently published study. “We wanted to study a ‘best-case scenario’ type of selective logging that could serve as a model if it does help minimize environmental damage in the selective logging industry,” study lead author Megan K. Sullivan, from Yale University’s School of the Environment, told Mongabay. Sullivan and her team carried out their research at a logging concession in northwestern Gabon, east of Monts de Cristal National Park. The site was run by SEEF, a local subsidiary of French, timber producer and trader F. Jammes. According to Sullivan, the scientists “assessed how very low-intensity selective logging impacted the species and functional composition of seedlings, saplings, and adults.” The field team measures trees in Gabon. Image by Megan Sullivan. Their findings indicate that forest areas logged at very low intensity — at a rate of 0.82-1.6 trees per hectare (0.33-0.65 trees per acre) for the SEEF concession — can act as wildlife corridors to supplement or connect protected areas. The concept of corridors is promoted by the recent U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity’s recognition of “other effective area-based conservation measures.” “If managed well, low-intensity, selectively logged forests can be seen as a middle path between strictly protected areas and intensive…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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