Why poor logging practices persist in the tropics

Despite abundant evidence that both the environmental damage and the financ ial costs of logging can be reduced substantially by training workers, pre- planning skid trails, practicing directional felling, and carrying out a va riety of other well-known forestry practices, destructive logging is still common in the tropics. Based on our collective experience with loggers in t ropical forests, we discuss seven possible reasons for this seemingly irrat ional behavior. The principal reason poor logging practices persist is appa rently that the widely heralded cost savings associated with reduced-impact logging relative to unplanned logging by untrained crews may not be realiz ed under some conditions. In particular, where compliance with logging guid elines restricts access to steep slopes or prohibits ground-based timber ya rding on wet ground, reduced-impact logging may be synonymous with reduced- income logging. Given that under such conditions loggers may not adopt redu ced-impact logging methods out of self-interest, fiscal mechanisms for prom oting sustainable forest management may be needed.