Re: [Paddlewise] Wooden kayaks

>The deforestation of large parts of the Amazon basic are not due to
>logging, but to other practices, most notably a sort of slash-and-burn
>ranching that was encouraged for many years in many South American
>countries. Tree that we would consider very valuable were simply burned
>to produce temporary grazing ground.
>The wise use of tropical woods is what gives them economic value, and
>makes it preferable to log them than to burn them. And the production of
>marine plywood is a very efficent way to use logs.

        --But not quite the whole story.  Tropical forests are very diverse,
i.e. there are many species and many niches.  But there are no Stands of a
given species as there is in temperate forests;  there often considerable
distance between two, say, cecropia trees.  In order to get to the more
valuable trees, many more are destroyed in reaching them.
        Also, these are lateritic soils.  Once the vegetation is removed,
sun and dessication dries out the soil and it becomes rock hard.



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