Stop disregarding tropical forest management as a conservation option

• The false dichotomy of pristine versus degraded disregards forest management option. • Transitions from timber exploitation to forest management are difficult but deliver many environmental and social benefits. • More environmental and social scientists should address the many forest management tradeoffs and synergies. Most tropical forests with merchantable timber will continue to be logged selectively because not all species or trees produce merchantable wood (unless wood chip markets develop). Based on biodiversity and carbon stock values as well as environmental sensitivity, logging should be prohibited in some of the area designated for this purpose. Unfortunately, until adequate compensation for these values is available, logging will continue. The unmet and too often disregarded challenge is therefore to transform timber exploitation to forest management for a wide range of goods and services. Compliance with government-mandated minimum cutting diameters and cutting cycles would help even though they allow timber volumes to decline with each harvest. Declining yields and profits cause highly capitalized industrial firms to be replaced by loggers with lower costs and lower expected profits. If recommended silvicultural treatments are applied, timber yields can be sustained but with up-front financial costs as well as long-term and intended impacts on forest composition. This transition from forest exploitation to management is impeded by insecurity about continued access to the resource, low log prices, the availability of illegally harvested timber, and disregard of the management option by too many conservation-oriented researchers. Managed tropical forests are environmentally valuable but more environmentally concerned scientists need to help improve management.