Work in Tropical Forests (Tropical Forestry) 3662644428, 9783662644423

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Tropical Forestry

Siegfried Lewark

Work in Tropical Forests

Tropical Forestry Series editor Michael Köhl Hamburg, Germany

Tropical forests are disappearing with dramatic speed. The causes of destruction of tropical forests are extremely complex and differ not only country by country, but also due to economic, political and social factors. The series Tropical Forestry publishes volumes on relevant disciplines which are essential for successful and sustainable forestry activities. It is addressed to forestry professionals, natural resource managers and all those who are interested in the restoration, conservation and management of tropical forestry resources in academia and in the corporate world. More information about this series at http://link.springer.com/series/5439

Siegfried Lewark

Work in Tropical Forests

Siegfried Lewark Faculty of Environment & Natural Resources Albert–Ludwigs–Universität Freiburg Freiburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

ISSN 1614-9785     ISSN 2627-1516 (electronic) Tropical Forestry ISBN 978-3-662-64442-3    ISBN 978-3-662-64444-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-64444-7 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE part of Springer Nature. The registered company address is: Heidelberger Platz 3, 14197 Berlin, Germany

Preface

People work to secure their livelihood. So do the people who live in and around tropical forests. They rely on the resources that tropical forests have in store for them. It is well known that their work is very hard and dangerous, notably for women. This book is about this work, about the related issues. Its aim is to make a contribution to improving the working conditions of those people whose lives depend on the work in and around tropical forests. That is what a work scientist is committed to. Writing a synopsis of work in tropical forests is a bold undertaking. The topic is a vast one, even if limited to knowledge from research experience in work science. And indeed the way leading to the book has been an exciting one. Why? A caveat may be illustrated by a statement by Mexican participants1 in an International Symposium on Management of Tropical Rainforests in 1989: “I talk to you as somebody, who is living in the tropical rain-forest. The problem of rainforest destruction—as we see it—is not a scientific one but an economical and social problem. We think, there is one element that up to now has not been adequately considered; an important factor—the population living in the forest, which includes millions of people, no matter of what race or religion, people, who struggle for survival. What do these people feel, did anybody ever investigate? What do these people think, did anybody ever ask? Did the local responsibilities or international organizations ever ask: how do these people actually live? People, who spent 24 hours a day in the tropical rainforest know their environment well. They can be active sentinels and fosterers of the forest […]—if the forest serves in some way as a base for living. On the other hand, they can contribute to its destruction, if they are not interested in the forest—if the forest is regarded as constraint for the safety of their existence” (Terron and Tadeo 1989).

1  Terron R, Tadeo J (1989) Statement by Mexican Participants. In: Bruenig EF, Poker J Management of tropical rainforests: Utopia or chance of survival? Proc int symp, Schriftenreihe der Deutschen Stiftung für Internationale Entwicklung. 1573:112. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden, Germany.

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This quotation underlines the constraints, from which no researcher from the North can escape. What is attempted in this book is trying to understand and describe what is known, i.e., published, by work science and other scientific disciplines on work in tropical forests. Work in Tropical Forests is the title of the book—forest work is what forest workers do. This starting point leads us to the definition of forest work—forest work is certainly done by forest workers. But whereas a forest worker ideally would have a gainful occupation, a status as an employed worker, or as a contractor, or is self-­ employed, there are others working in tropical forests whom we would commonly not call forest workers. Obviously, work in tropical forests encompasses more than forest work, by forest workers in forestry operations. That is the reason for the title of the book, and for the innovative broad approach that includes all forms of work in tropical forests we observe and may think of. Many issues of work in tropical forests are dealt with by research that provides knowledge in quite some detail. This book gives access to recent literature about actual research and its background, going well beyond the realm of forest work science. Many quotations are included, in order to make important actors and important texts verbatim known to the readers. This is based on a broad literature search and an evaluation of many hundreds of publications. Quite often it seemed reasonable also to rely on older publications, either because they illustrate traditional approaches or because no meaningful recent ones were found. I use the term work science when referring to publications from the discipline that is called ergonomics or human factors by others. I understand work science as developing into an integrative, interdisciplinary discipline that acknowledges work-­ related research by other disciplines. The commitment that is mentioned in the beginning as the fundament of the book is reflected in the object that is all work done in tropical forests, but also by imagining readers who might be interested in this topic. In particular, I think of the colleagues in work science and students, in tropical countries. For them, among all others, I wrote quite broadly about approaches of work science in Part I, about traditions on the one hand in Taylorism and on the other hand in social sciences dealing with human work, and about the fundamental efforts within ILO and FAO.  This background is intended to help understanding the focus and limitations of related research as can be found in publications. A number of examples of work study are described in Part II that demonstrate the state of the art and the state of knowledge about work in tropical forests. Further research of forest work scientists must inevitably build on this. The sample studies are structured under three scenarios that include, in addition to classical forest work like planting, pruning, and harvesting in natural and in plantation forests, also operations like pit-sawing and head-carrying by women, as well as non-industrial work of self-employed forest users. Inevitably not every operation could be covered to the same extent, to my regret. The brief introduction into some specific issues in Part III is intended to show the embedding of the findings in the published research that are sometimes neglected in

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the interpretation and conclusions on possible improvement of the harsh working conditions. While reading many older publications, including those from the 1990s and even earlier, is still worthwhile, it must also be pointed out that the working situations are changing very dynamically. In particular, I name the impacts of destruction and degradation of tropical forests, of climate change and many social changes like urbanization and globalization, and of technical development, including the ever-­ growing role of IT. My perspective is that of a scientist who studies and designs work. I want to share this view and to make the text relevant for many different readers, who may be students or forest managers or fellow work scientists. But I also want to stimulate the thinking of anybody just interested in issues of forest work in tropical forests, as the situation in tropical forests is of relevance for all mankind. I am convinced that also with this perspective I may find and utter valuable positions for the improvement of forest work in the tropical countries, which may be stimulating and encouraging for forest scientists worldwide, but also and especially for those working in tropical countries and those affiliated there. May the text help the reader to see the work in tropical forests with the eyes of a work scientist, for the benefit of those who do this work, for organizations, in which this work is done, and for other stakeholders around it: the families of the workers, the communities, the societies in the countries with tropical forests, and in principle the societies of the world. This may sound lofty, but I am convinced that the tropical forests are a heritage of the world and at the same time the basis for livelihood of forest dwellers and forest workers and the resource for the well-being and ultimately for the survival of humankind. I am very much obliged to those who supported me when writing and finalizing this book, starting with patient encouragement from Springer Nature. The long learning process that made the book possible is due to the cooperation with PhD researchers at the University of Freiburg over the last thirty years, and with colleagues from work science and other disciplines, with whom I was happy to cooperate or with whom I just had an exchange of ideas at conferences or by mail. All this is gratefully acknowledged. For more detailed support and comments, advice, and suggestions, every so often, I thank, in particular, Peter Poschen and Marion Karmann. Dianne Wästerlund and Edgard Kastenholz were involved in planning the book and involved in the decision of concept and title—I hope that they see the outcome with amazement as I do. Finally, I want to express my deepest sympathy for all doing their immense work in tropical forests and my concern for their future lives and work that they control themselves only to a limited extent. They need and deserve more support from all of us who may contribute, including the forest work scientists all over the world. Freiburg, Germany

Siegfried Lewark

Contents

Part I The Perspective of Work Science 1 People and Work in Tropical Forests: An Introduction������������������������    3 1.1 Some Thoughts at the Beginning������������������������������������������������������    3 1.2 Tropical Forests��������������������������������������������������������������������������������    8 1.3 Populations and Livelihoods������������������������������������������������������������    8 1.4 Defining the Perspective ������������������������������������������������������������������   11 1.5 Aiming at Decent Work��������������������������������������������������������������������   12 References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   16 2 Work and Sustainable Forest Management������������������������������������������   19 2.1 Subsistence Forest Utilization, Exploitation, and Sustainability������������������������������������������������������������������������������   20 2.1.1 Phases of Forest Utilization��������������������������������������������������   20 2.1.1.1 Forest Utilization in Pre-Colonial Times ��������������   20 2.1.1.2 Forest Utilization in Colonial and Post-Colonial Times����������������������������������������������   22 2.1.1.3 Forest Utilization 2020������������������������������������������   25 2.1.2 Sustainable Forest Utilization ����������������������������������������������   29 2.1.2.1 Silvicultural Concepts��������������������������������������������   32 2.1.2.2 Certification������������������������������������������������������������   33 2.1.2.3 Concessions������������������������������������������������������������   39 2.1.2.4 Perspectives of Sustainability of Forest Utilization ��������������������������������������������������   43 2.1.3  Agroforestry, Trees Outside Forestry����������������������������������   44 2.1.4 Plantation Forestry����������������������������������������������������������������   49 2.1.5 Forest Products����������������������������������������������������������������������   54 2.1.5.1 Non-Timber Forest Products����������������������������������   54 2.1.5.2 Woodfuels��������������������������������������������������������������   56 2.1.5.3 Timber��������������������������������������������������������������������   57 2.2 Work for Forest Utilization ��������������������������������������������������������������   58 2.2.1 Work Tasks����������������������������������������������������������������������������   58 ix

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2.2.2 Working People��������������������������������������������������������������������   61 2.2.3 Employment��������������������������������������������������������������������������   65 References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   72 3 Development of Work Science����������������������������������������������������������������   77 3.1 Work, Study Object of Work Science ����������������������������������������������   78 3.2 Science of Work��������������������������������������������������������������������������������   83 3.2.1 Development and Terminology��������������������������������������������   83 3.2.2 Working Conditions��������������������������������������������������������������   88 3.3 Forest Work Science ������������������������������������������������������������������������   91 3.3.1 Development of the Discipline ��������������������������������������������   91 3.3.2 Research Activities����������������������������������������������������������������   96 3.3.3 Ergonomic Research in Agroforestry and Agricultural Sciences��������������������������������������������������������������������������������   99 References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  103 Part II Sample Work Studies 4 Methodology of Work Study ������������������������������������������������������������������  111 4.1 Work Study Concepts�����������������������������������������������������������������������  112 4.2 Forest Work Study����������������������������������������������������������������������������  118 4.3 Evaluation of Work Studies��������������������������������������������������������������  123 4.3.1 The Scenarios������������������������������������������������������������������������  124 4.3.2 Characteristics of Work Studies��������������������������������������������  126 4.3.2.1 What to Look at?����������������������������������������������������  127 4.3.2.2 Studying Occupational Safety and Health ������������  132 4.3.2.3 Research Design and Methods������������������������������  133 4.3.2.4 Complete Work Study Information������������������������  136 4.4 Concluding Remarks������������������������������������������������������������������������  138 References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  138 5 Work in Plantation Forests ��������������������������������������������������������������������  141 5.1 Introduction��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  142 5.2 Operations ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  145 5.2.1 Planting ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������  145 5.2.2 Pruning����������������������������������������������������������������������������������  146 5.2.3 Harvesting ����������������������������������������������������������������������������  147 5.3 Work Studies ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  149 5.3.1 Planting ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������  149 5.3.1.1 Planting Shorea in Indonesia ��������������������������������  149 5.3.1.2 Planting Radiata Pine in New Zealand������������������  150 5.3.1.3 Planting Radiata Pine in Chile������������������������������  154 5.3.1.4 Planting Pine in the Southeastern USA ����������������  155 5.3.1.5 Concluding Remarks: Work Studies on Planting ������������������������������������������������������������  158

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5.3.2 Pruning����������������������������������������������������������������������������������  158 5.3.2.1 Pruning Eucalypts in Brazil ����������������������������������  159 5.3.2.2 Pruning Pinus radiata in Chile������������������������������  159 5.3.2.3 Pruning Pseudotsuga menziesii in New Zealand������������������������������������������������������  163 5.3.2.4 Concluding Remarks: Work Studies on Pruning��������������������������������������������������������������  163 5.3.3 Harvesting ����������������������������������������������������������������������������  163 5.3.3.1 Harvesting Pinus patula in Uganda ����������������������  164 5.3.3.2 Harvesting Pinus patula in Zimbabwe������������������  168 5.3.3.3 Harvesting Pinus patula in South Africa ��������������  169 5.3.3.4 Dehydration During Harvesting in South Africa ������������������������������������������������������  173 5.3.3.5 Harvesting Eucalypts in Thailand��������������������������  174 5.3.3.6 Harvesting Pinus patula in Tanzania ��������������������  174 5.3.3.7 Harvesting Pine in Chile����������������������������������������  177 5.3.3.8 Concluding Remarks����������������������������������������������  178 References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  180 6 Work for Industrial Forest Utilization in Natural Forests ������������������  183 6.1 Introduction��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  184 6.2 Operations ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  186 6.2.1 Harvesting ����������������������������������������������������������������������������  188 6.2.1.1 Pre-harvest Tasks ��������������������������������������������������  188 6.2.1.2 Tree Felling and Conversion����������������������������������  189 6.2.1.3 Reduced Impact Logging��������������������������������������  192 6.2.2 On-Site Log Conversion into Sawn Wood����������������������������  193 6.2.3 Transport ������������������������������������������������������������������������������  196 6.3 Work-Related Studies ����������������������������������������������������������������������  200 6.3.1 Harvesting ����������������������������������������������������������������������������  201 6.3.1.1 Harvesting Operations and Working Conditions ����������������������������������������������  201 6.3.1.2 Impacts of Certification������������������������������������������  203 6.3.1.3 Impacts of Reduced Impact Logging��������������������  207 6.3.2 On-Site Log Conversion into Sawn Wood����������������������������  210 6.3.2.1 Pit-Sawing��������������������������������������������������������������  211 6.3.2.2 Chainsaw Milling��������������������������������������������������  214 6.3.3 Transport ������������������������������������������������������������������������������  217 6.3.3.1 Cable Pulling and Active Out-Spooling����������������  217 6.3.3.2 Steel Cables and Synthetic Ropes��������������������������  222 6.3.4 Concluding Remarks������������������������������������������������������������  223 References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  225

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7 Work for Non-industrial Forest Utilization in Natural Forests ����������  229 7.1 The Scope of Non-industrial Forest Utilization��������������������������������  229 7.1.1 Working and Living Situation of the Users��������������������������  230 7.1.2 Between Forestry, Agroforestry, and Agriculture ����������������  233 7.2 Operations ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  235 7.3 Work-Related Studies ����������������������������������������������������������������������  238 7.3.1 Time Allocation to Tasks and Related Workloads����������������  238 7.3.2 Studies Related to Work Methods and Tools������������������������  242 7.3.3 Harvesting Practices��������������������������������������������������������������  243 7.3.3.1 Non-timber Forest Products����������������������������������  243 7.3.3.2 Woodfuels��������������������������������������������������������������  245 7.3.4 Transport ������������������������������������������������������������������������������  247 7.3.5 Conclusions��������������������������������������������������������������������������  249 References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  251 Part III Insights from Work Science into Work in Tropical Forests 8 Some Issues of Work in Tropical Forests, in a Nutshell������������������������  255 8.1 Introduction��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  255 8.2 Ever-Present Change������������������������������������������������������������������������  256 8.3 Diversity and Working Group-Specific Issues����������������������������������  260 8.4 Legal and Social Environment����������������������������������������������������������  261 8.4.1 Workers’ Rights��������������������������������������������������������������������  261 8.4.2 Labour Law��������������������������������������������������������������������������  262 8.4.3 Labour Unions and Participation������������������������������������������  264 8.4.4 Collective Labour Agreements����������������������������������������������  265 8.5 Work Organization and Technology ������������������������������������������������  268 8.5.1 Work Organization����������������������������������������������������������������  268 8.5.2 Technology����������������������������������������������������������������������������  269 8.5.3 Forest Crime��������������������������������������������������������������������������  270 References��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  272 9 Some Thoughts at the End����������������������������������������������������������������������  275 9.1 The Abundance of Work in Tropical Forests������������������������������������  275 9.2 The Responsibility of the Foresters��������������������������������������������������  276 9.3 The Need of Education ��������������������������������������������������������������������  277 9.4 The Commitment of Work Scientists������������������������������������������������  278 Index������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  281

Part I

The Perspective of Work Science

Chapter 1

People and Work in Tropical Forests: An Introduction

Abstract  Work in tropical forests is in this book looked at from the perspective of forest work science. People living and working in the tropical forests of the world are employed with forest work in a narrow sense, with felling and processing trees, but more by non-industrial forest utilization, most of them in an informal economy. All of their work is to be included as much as information is found, according to the concept of the book. The hard work under unfavourable working conditions as well as extreme hazards for health and accidents are pressing issues, to be analysed and improved. More than one billion people are living in or near tropical forests, some of the multitude of people are defined as or seen by themselves as indigenous or tribal peoples. They inhabit and use forests of all types, from humid to dry forests and savannahs. That means that the resources the forests offered are extremely diverse. Also the political and social conditions for them are diverse. The tropical forests are situated in developing countries, which have a history of pre-colonization, colonial and post-colonial development. All this work environment has a great impact on the well-being and the working situation of the people as well as on the state of the forests. The relationship of the populations with the products, in particular NTFPs and services from the forests, is described. Forests are often of spiritual significance. Traditional services include shelter, water supply, protection against erosion, while new ones like recreation or tourism are not yet frequent. Work in the forests has specific characteristics, which requires a specific view and appropriate methods of study. Perspective and methods are based on a number of paradigms, including decent work and sustainable forest management. Human-­ technology-­organization and social sustainability are specific concepts to be applied.

1.1  Some Thoughts at the Beginning Work in tropical forests—at first glance, the question what to look at seems an easy one: There are forest workers who cut trees in the tropical forests, in hot and humid weather, as the quotation in Box 1.1 represents. But is this all what it is about, and © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2022 S. Lewark, Work in Tropical Forests, Tropical Forestry, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-64444-7_1

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1  People and Work in Tropical Forests: An Introduction

is such a concept to the point? It may be the view of a forester from the temperate forests—or even of a layman, living in the North. As soon as we start thinking more about the introductory question we find conflicting ideas—the first answer may be too simplistic. There are more aspects to it; moreover, the situation may be different in different tropical forests, and certainly not static, but changing all the time. When we approach the topic systematically we come to many questions, starting from: Which workers? Which work? Which working conditions? Also: Which forests? The answers, leading to more and more detailed questions, will certainly depend on the perspective of the onlooker. Strehlke (2003) collected in his book How We Work and Live 55 stories of forest workers, many of them from South America, Africa, or Asia-Pacific. A worker from Brazil tells about felling trees with a chainsaw, the changing work situation over twenty years, about the hazards of his work and how little he was prepared and only years later trained for his tasks (Box 1.1).

Box 1.1 Raimundo Peniche Travas from Brazil talks about his work (Strehlke 2003)

Things are different since I work in a certified forest I started work in the forest about 20 years ago. […] Originally, my job was to transport logs manually. One day, our chainsaw operator had to leave the worksite, saying he would soon be back. However, since he did not appear and I was idle, I decided to try the chainsaw. It was an old model, simple, without a chain-brake and vibration control. I had seen him work with it, so I picked it up and felled my first tree. It worked well, so I continued and that was how I started. In those days we did not use any protective equipment. We would simply work in shorts and a T-shirt. Fortunately, I never had an accident myself but I witnessed an ugly one. […] I […] was given the first training course of my life [after more than 10 years]. Even though I had been cutting trees all those years, I appreciated the instructors and what they taught us. We used to fell trees in a haphazard way. I did not know much about trees, the species, the ways the forest grows, about nature, about safety helmets and protective trousers. […] Now I am part of a team. We are two chainsaw operators and one helper working together. We can take turns using the saw and locating the trees to harvest. […] I am quite happy working in forestry.

Forest workers work in tropical forests, in natural forests as well as in plantation forests, they are felling and processing trees, transporting logs, often also planting and tending. Non-industrial forest users also work in natural forests, their forest utilization is different, e.g. they are gathering fuelwood. They both also retrieve a variety of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) and render tasks in many types of ecosystem services. Poschen (2003) counts among forest workers, in addition to forest workers in a narrow sense, forest dwellers, forest users, and forest owners.

1.1 Some Thoughts at the Beginning

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Harvesting of NTFPs and gathering of fuelwood are in many regions predominantly women’s jobs, as the talk of Jemanesh Eshete from Ethiopia illustrates (Box 1.2).

Box 1.2 Jemanesh Eshete from Ethiopia talks about her work (Strehlke 2003)

Carrying fuelwood—it’s really a donkey’s job I’m doing Fortunately, many people in Addis cook with fuelwood, especially since the price of electricity has gone up. This is our chance to earn money. How else should we survive? There is no other work available for a poor and uneducated woman. I leave home at about 9 a.m. and walk for two hours to the eucalyptus forests which were planted by the government on the hills near Addis. We are allowed to rake up leaves and small twigs from the forest floor. It takes about three hours to collect enough for a bundle of some 30 kilos, wrapped up in eucalyptus bark and tied with rope. We help each other to load the bundles on our shoulders and then comes the heaviest part of our work: the journey home which takes double the time because of our burdens. […] It’s really a donkey’s job we are doing! I am back home only at around six in the evening. At 5 a.m. the following morning I carry my bundle to the fuelwood dealer and sell it. […] With the money we buy food on a day-to-day basis.

What do all these tasks have in common, what are the differences, what should be considered in this book, what should be in the centre, what should be mentioned in addition? The answers will have to do with the relation of rural people in tropical countries with the forests they live in or near, and, on the other hand, with the characteristics of work in tropical forests. Work related to forests, of people living in and around forests for their livelihood, is sketched in Fig. 1.1. As it is largely based on making use of forest products and services clearly any threat to their resources, e.g. by overuse or destruction of the forests, is threatening their livelihood. harvest and use

People

Forest products

is basis of

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s

ist

ns

co

of

e ak

pe

sta

rfo

ins

rm

m

come from

depends on

serve needs

results from

Fig. 1.1  People living in and around forests and the relationships with their work for earning their livelihood

secures Livelihood

depends on

Work

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1  People and Work in Tropical Forests: An Introduction Trade unions and certification as a means to improve working and living conditions

Forestry a life-long job Highly mechanized and manual work operations side by side

Attractive jobs for migrants Women often exposed to heavy work but suffering wage discrimination Prospects for advancement to responsible positions Living in camps or commuting over long distances

What makes forest work so special?

Contract work replacing direct employment Differences in remuneration are large Considerable risk of accidents and occupational diseases persist

Fig. 1.2  Characteristics of employment in forestry as listed by Strehlke (2003)

The talks of forest workers collected by Strehlke (2003) help to draw the outline of this book. In his introduction Strehlke asks about the characteristics of work in the forestry sector, which are assembled in a mindmap (Fig. 1.2). The working and living conditions listed in the mindmap of course are different in the forests in different parts of the world and under permanent change, but the challenges and hardships of work are existing in tropical forests in a particularly strong degree (Box 1.3). Often forest work is not a life-long job any more, which was the case for long time at least in temperate forests. The working conditions are also characterized by high health risks. Fundamental changes are those from manual to motor-manual and to mechanized work, especially in plantation forestry. These changes are connected to new hazards, of working with chainsaws and as machine operators. In tropical forests “only a privileged minority of forestry employees enjoys stable work, regular pay and adequate social security provided by the forest owner or a forestry company” (Strehlke 2003). Most people are working in the informal economy. Worker representation in trade unions or at enterprise level is nearly non-­ existing. Migrant work plays an important role. Remote work places lead to living in camps and in isolation from the families. Women are particularly suffering wage discrimination while being exposed to heavy work and severe working conditions, when working in tree nurseries or in the forests.

1.1 Some Thoughts at the Beginning

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Box 1.3 Pressing Issues of Work in Tropical Forests (Staudt 1993) In general, forestry can be characterized by unfavourable working conditions, such as physically hard work, bad working postures, as dangerous due to a relatively high risk of accidents, and unhealthy due to the high risk of occupational diseases. For the tropics, especially when one deals with developing countries, this is even more accentuated. Moreover, many tropical forestry activities are characterized by low productivity, caused by inadequate working methods, working techniques and tools. This is typical for countries with bad socio-economical and climatological conditions, which is an extra handicap in the struggle for better working conditions in the tropics.

Obviously the situation of forest work is far from sustainable in ecological, economical, and social terms, and very often cannot be considered decent work. This is implying challenges for forest work scientists and is, at the same time, touching the self-understanding of everybody else involved in forestry. “For many years there has been concern about the social and working conditions of forestry workers in tropical countries, because their tasks are considered to be heavy work” (Apud et al. 2016). With the exemplification by the two accounts of work and life in Brazil and Ethiopia already quite a few pressing issues to be tackled by work science make an appearance. They will be picked up in systematic course. Before that the perspective of the forest work scientist is to be defined, in the following section, in order to develop the leading ideas and the structure of the book. The people living in and around forests are adapted to a very different degree, and in different ways, which again has an impact on the state of the forests. Their relationship with the forests and their ways of gaining their livelihood have been studied many times and are described in the scientific literature from different scientific disciplines that will be referred to in different chapters. There is relevant published information, dealing with work in tropical forests, related to the activities of a number of prominent research organizations, e.g. of the Center of International Forestry Research (CIFOR). In order to handle this great variation of conditions the elaborations of the book rely on published research in exemplary studies and extract general or typical issues of work. One has to distinguish and separately analyse different uses of forest resources in natural and planted forests, of different groups of forest users. The political and social framework shall be considered, as much as possible—i.e. as much as the publications reveal it.

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1  People and Work in Tropical Forests: An Introduction

1.2  Tropical Forests The tropics are defined as the regions of the world between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer. Tropical forests developed in South America, Africa, and Asia as well as in Oceania. Natural conditions are different, so are the respective characteristic forests. Also the relationship between forests and people and its history are very regional-specific. Almost all tropical forests are situated in developing countries, where economical, political, and social conditions are different from those in industrialized countries. Work in different tropical forests, therefore, also has its specific features and issues, even though many principles of work apply equally worldwide. Wherever in the world there was enough water supply and temperatures suitable for plant growth forests have developed (Holdrigde 1947), forming the dominant terrestrial ecosystems of a great variety. In the tropics only high elevations and the driest regions are excluded: There are humid, semi-dry, and dry forests, with different tree stand types and species compositions. A great deal of the natural tropical forests has been degraded or completely destroyed and converted into other land uses over time—the major changes took place over the last hundred years (Martin 2015). Some natural tropical forests have been replaced by plantation forests. This book will not be limited to the tropical forests as defined, as the working conditions in large parts of the subtropical forests are similar, and we should not disregard the related body of research done there (e.g. Apud and Valdés 1995). Even to some degree transfer from research on work in temperate forests may be reasonable and this research will also be referred to. For all these forests the work will be regarded that is done by people to make their living, and their working conditions. So work in tropical and to some extent in subtropical intact and degraded natural forests as well as in plantation forests is what this book is about. The working conditions may be similar in plantations not primarily made for timber and woodfuel production, but for many other products. These include annual crops, but also a number of woody plants, bushes, and trees, among them rubber and several palm species, of which oil palms are of special importance because of the huge and still growing area on converted forest land. Work in these plantations will be not further regarded.

1.3  Populations and Livelihoods More than one billion people are living in or near tropical forests (Chao 2012), living in rural areas. Most of those people belong to the poorest in the world. The numbers are debated, which partly depends on definitions, partly on low availability of reliable data, respectively, of the weak bases of estimations. These people are living in tropical forests of all types as outlined above, from humid to dry forests and savannahs. That means that the appearance of the forests as well as the resources they offer as a basis of living is extremely diverse. The

1.3 Populations and Livelihoods

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people living in or near these forests use a wide range of forest products and services. At the same time, they use agricultural crops—even those predominantly involved in agricultural activities also rely on forest products, or on products from trees outside forests, on agricultural land. It may, therefore, be fair to assume that the majority of them are active in a kind of agroforestry. Even the urban dwellers of today depend on resources from the forests and from agroforestry. The natural forests in all their stages of utilization, conservation, or destruction as well as the plantation forests also serve for wage employment. The developing or newly industrializing countries of the South, where the tropical forests are located, have a history of pre-colonization, colonization, and post-­ colonial development as independent nations. The histories and the actual borders and surface areas of these countries are everywhere based on colonialism and imperialism, in one or the other way. The political systems and political stability and authority have a great impact on the well-being and working situations of the people in and around the forests and, at the same time, on the state of the forests. Timber export is another factor of work environment, often connected to illegal logging and corruption (Kleinschmit et al. 2016). The stage of industrialization is different, which includes that of the wood processing industry. Diversity of Populations  The local populations often are very heterogeneous with respect to ethnicity, cultures, and history. This heterogeneity also affects their relationship with the forests, the way they manage and use the forest products for their livelihood. They are adapted to their use of forest resources to a very different degree, and in different ways, which in turn has an impact on the state of the forests. Whereas we may generally assume sustainable forest utilization in subsistence economies in older times, fundamental changes were brought about by colonialization, and overuse and degradation of forests also are found. Large parts of these populations are indigenous to the regions, countries, and forests in the etymological sense of the term, many of them are indigenous people according to their self-understanding and to definitions of the UN (Box 1.4). There is no generally accepted one, rather there are several working definitions (Kandzior 2016). Box 1.4 Working Definitions “by Special Rapporteur José Martínez Cobo, Authorized in 1972 and Reporting to the U.N. Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities in 1983” (Sanders 1999) Indigenous communities, peoples, and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing in those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop, and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal systems.

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1  People and Work in Tropical Forests: An Introduction

ILO (2013) is listing sets of subjective and objective criteria for indigenous people and tribal peoples. For indigenous peoples this lists: “Self-identification as belonging to indigenous people; descent from populations, who inhabited the country or geographical region at the time of conquest, colonisation or establishment of present state boundaries; they retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions, irrespective of their legal status”. Montagnini and Jordan (2005) differentiate indigenous peoples, traditional rural peoples, and recently arrived rural peoples. This indicates the role and importance of migration in its different forms. In- and out-migration because of labour opportunities play a significant role in many countries (Giri and Darnhofer 2010). Affluent Societies  The idea of subsistence work includes the perception that people are working only as much as needed for direct sustenance, as inherent part of the definition (Box 1.5), which may be quite short, but also long working hours, at times. The perception of the affluent society has been disputed intensively by anthropologists. Box 1.5 Working Times in Affluent Societies (Morris 1997) Hunter-gatherers have been called ‘affluent societies’ (Sahlins 1972) because they seem able to produce all of their subsistence needs with as little as three hours on average per day. These statistics are based on a group of hunters that live in the Kalahari desert in Southern Africa, (see Lee 1982). In rich tropical environments such as Malaysia this average is reduced considerably (Kuchikura 1987).

Forest Utilization  Many different traditional products are collected, and industrial raw material is retrieved, from the forests and from trees outside forests. The utilization of timber and NTFPs differed over time and in different parts of the tropics. In any case it needs work input and serves as resource for livelihood, providing employment, as mentioned above and shown with the quotations in Boxes 1.1 and 1.2, to be outlined in more detail in several chapters. The related working conditions for harvesting and providing services are quite different, also depending on the employment relations. Therefore, the working situation will be presented under three different scenarios, in Chaps. 5–7. Forest services will not be regarded further in this book, even though a growing amount of working hours is to be assumed to go into them.

1.4 Defining the Perspective

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1.4  Defining the Perspective Fitting the Job to the Man is what Work Science is about. This is the title of an early fundamental textbook of Work Science by Grandjean (1969), grand old man of Work Science—a much cited phrase.1 At the same time, it is a simple, but comprehensive definition every student of Work Science will meet in the very first hour of learning. He or she will immediately internalize this fitting as natural goal of work study and Work Science. Automatically this phrase is leading to the basic objects and issues of Work Science: the working human, the job and the task, and the fitting of the job by work design, based on experience and knowledge, and to work study. The perspective of this book is in the first place that of a work scientist, with readers in mind with an interest in work in tropical forests, practitioners as well as academics. What is work in tropical forests about? The starting point may be an examination of the work tasks as already stated above. In terms of task analysis (Hollnagel 2012) we describe the who (the working human), the what (the “physical tasks, i.e. manifest work”), and the why and what for (the purpose), all to be elaborated in the following chapters. We also have to consider the relationship of science and practice, or of scientists and practitioners, as Forest Work Science is a discipline oriented at application in practical working life. Forest work is done for making a living, by utilization of forest products, in an organization in the case of industrial forestry or in a community or household, the latter sometimes still done in subsistence economy. In order to achieve their goal working men and women have to fulfil tasks, which constitutes their work. Forest work and household work together make up their total workload. Many people make use of tropical forests, and in order to use the resources of the tropical forests they carry out many different activities: they work in the forests. Work is done in work systems, consisting of humans, tools respective machines, organization, and environment, around a task in the centre of the working systems— and the working humans in the centre of consideration of work science. This work may be looked upon from many different perspectives, first from the forest users’ or workers’ perspectives, then from the perspective of those, who manage this work, but also from a number of scientific disciplines. As disciplines other than Work Science are touched and the knowledge about work in tropical forests is of an overwhelming richness, the number of issues and the levels of their elaborateness cannot, in all parts of the book, be exhaustive.

 There are several modifications of this phrase like: Fitting the Task to the Human (Kroemer and Grandjean 2001); Fitting the Job to the Forest Worker (ILO 1992). 1

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1  People and Work in Tropical Forests: An Introduction

The perspective of the work scientist is particular, as he or she is committed to the working humans and may, therefore, be considered partial—a partiality, which may be in contrast to the perspectives of researchers dealing primarily with ecological or economic issues. This aim is shared by many stakeholders, including international agencies and NGOs, e.g. in certification of forest management, as will be outlined next.

1.5  Aiming at Decent Work The activities of Forest Work Science may be seen as guided and structured by a number of paradigms and concepts. Among these Decent Work (DW) may be helpful for demonstrating the quality of work in the forests aimed at. The ILO developed and propagates the comprehensive concept of Decent Work, which may serve as a standard for judgement of a particular working situation (Box 1.6).

Box 1.6 Programmatic Introduction to Decent Work by the ILO (ILO 2021a) Decent work sums up the aspirations of people in their working lives. It involves opportunities for work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for families, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men. The ILO’s Decent Work Agenda Productive employment and decent work are key elements to achieving a fair globalization and poverty reduction. The ILO has developed an agenda for the community of work looking at job creation, rights at work, social protection and social dialogue, with gender equality as a crosscutting objective.

When the UN adopted its resolution on Sustainable Development Goals, called 2030 Agenda, the ILO pointed out the role of DW among the goals, as Goal 8, where emphasis is on employment (Box 1.7). Box 1.7 Decent Work and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (ILO 2021b) The 2030 Agenda embraces three dimensions of sustainability—economic, social and environmental. It has 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that put people and planet at its centre, giving the international community a framework for tackling the many challenges confronting humanity, including those in the world of work. The importance of decent work in achieving sustainable development is highlighted by Goal 8 which aims to ‘promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all’.

1.5 Aiming at Decent Work

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Pursuing DW involves many actors, a certainly long-lasting progress can be achieved in the first place directly by the social partners in the labour market and the governments, according to the tripartite character of ILO work. But many other actors may contribute and work for the benefits through DW as well, besides ILO, like other international and national agencies, and also NGOs that have acknowledged and proved their commitment. Operationalizing the Concept of Decent Work  Monitoring achievements of DW, including comparisons between employment sectors or countries, is of great relevance as groundwork for political activities. The observations related to the 2030 Agenda are reflected in published statistics, initiated by international agencies, in particular ILO, also by the UN and their specialized agencies and programmes, like UNDP.  They are assessed in cooperation with national agencies. The process requires operationalizing by targets and measurable indicators. This was broadly discussed by specialized statisticians under the umbrella of ILO, reported, e.g., by Hussmanns (2004). Detailed reasoning and proposals are elaborated by Anker et al. (2003), who point out that many aspects “are expressed in markedly different ways as between employees and self-employed workers”. There are few such statistics published for the forestry sector, like the employment data in Sect. 2.2.3. In big statistical compilations forestry is mostly subsumed under agriculture anyway. But moreover, in the case of DW, statistics are collected often only for work outside agriculture. This may be due to the structure of employment in rural work. Thus, for the time being the achievements of DW in forest work can only be analysed by other means, primarily by case studies that would also reach to task specific levels of analysis. In the International Labour Conference of 2002, this extent of informal employment was explicitly addressed: “Extensive value chains often link forest workers who collect non-timber forest products in many developing countries to international markets. […] It is estimated that there are now 150 such non-timber forest products of major significance in international trade, involving millions of workers and producers” (ILO 2002). Work in forestry is in the checklist of the Toolkit for Mainstreaming Employment and Decent Work specifically mentioned as high-risk occupation (ILO 2007). Decent Work in the Informal Economy  The ILO has the programmatic ambition to make DW a universal concept, valid for all types of work and including the informal economy (Box 1.8), which in turn includes not only informal employment, but own-account workers and contributing family workers.

Box 1.8 Resolution Concerning Decent Work and the Informal Economy from the International Labour Conference of 2002 (ILO 2021c) The promotion of decent work for all workers, women and men, irrespective of where they work, requires a broad strategy: realizing fundamental principles and rights at work; creating greater and better employment and income opportunities;

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1  People and Work in Tropical Forests: An Introduction

extending social protection; and promoting social dialogue. These dimensions of decent work reinforce each other and comprise an integrated poverty reduction strategy. The challenge of reducing decent work deficits is greatest where work is performed outside the scope or application of the legal and institutional frameworks. In the world today, a majority of people work in the informal economy—because most of them are unable to find other jobs or start businesses in the formal economy.

DW in the informal economy in the tropical countries is of immense importance, with particular relevance for forest work, agroforestry, and rural work in general. But making progress here is particularly demanding, as DW elements cannot be implemented through social dialogue, e.g., by agreements between representations of employers or employees. Implementation looks more straightforward, which may be ambitious enough. Decent Work in Forestry  The majority of those employed in the forestry sector are not in formal employment, making up a large number of people. This is stated in all documents of the ILO describing the conditions for decent work in forestry (Box 1.9).

Box 1.9 Decent Work and Informal Employment in Forestry (Kataiamäki 2019) In the forestry sector, high levels of self-employment and temporary and casual work, as well as the prevalence of informal economy workers, create challenges to ensuring labour and social protection for workers, especially those vulnerable to discrimination. The promotion of a transition from the informal to the formal economy is crucial to improve the situation of the majority of workers. This demonstrates in turn the relevance and importance of measures to promote effective access to social security, including to health care, maternity, unemployment, employment injury and disability benefits, as well as old-age pensions, including by adapting social insurance schemes to the needs of various categories of workers. […] In addition, supportive labour market policies, such as an appropriate minimum wage, skills upgrading policies and appropriate OSH standards and their enforcement, may be used to improve the working conditions of forest workers and may thereby contribute to increased job security and stable incomes.

Moreover, most of the work based on forest and tree products in non-industrial small-scale forest utilization (Sect 2.1.1), outside actual forestry in agroforestry in own-account activities. This work is rarely included in research and publications of Forest Work Science or elsewhere in Forest Sciences. But it shall receive equal attention in this book, in order to allow a comprehensive understanding of work in tropical forests.

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1.5 Aiming at Decent Work

Related Paradigms and Concepts  DW includes paradigms and concepts of different character that are also included in other paradigms and concepts. The concept of DW incorporates some of them, like gender equity that is rooted in Human Rights. Concepts just to be mentioned at this place, as helpful for arguing and understanding, are: • Humane work • Social sustainability • Sustainable livelihood. Not all paradigms and concepts named are traditionally referred to in Forest Work Science. Some are more closely related to work in tropical forests than others and only a few are regularly included directly in studies of Work Science, with methods developed within the discipline. Several of them, connected to working and living conditions of people working in tropical forests, will be applied in this book. Most relevant in this context and more commonly concepts cited by Forest Work Science are: • Safety and health • Stress and strain • Job satisfaction. The bases for pursuing DW by applying these paradigms and concepts could result from work study, also from evaluations of certification of forest management. Concrete steps of implementation of DW are to be made within Sustainable Forest Management and Participatory Forest Management. They will be taken up in different places of the book. Some relationships are sketched in Fig. 1.3. The huge challenges to be met by the measures for decent work in rural life are obvious. Putting them into effect requires a significant shift in thinking and political will, considerable efforts and will probably take a very long time. Does this mean that all those rural working people in informal economies do not have decent work and never lead a decent life? This question cannot be answered here, but raising this question may demonstrate the limits of the concept of DW in this context. Sustainable Forest Management

Management

Work

Participatory Forest Management

Decent work Safety and health, well-being Performance, productivity

Paradigms and Concepts Sustainable Livelihood Social sustainability Gender equity

Social justice

Work study

Stress and strain Human-Technology-Organization

Fig. 1.3  Visualization of selected paradigms and concepts around work in tropical forests

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1  People and Work in Tropical Forests: An Introduction

References Anker R, Chernyshev I, Egger P, Mehran F, Ritter JA (2003) Measuring decent work with statistical indicators. Int Labour Rev 142:147–178. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1564-913X.2003.tb00257 Apud E, Valdés S (1995) Ergonomics in forestry: the Chilean case. ILO, Geneva Apud E, Meyer F, Espinoza J, Onate E, Freire J, Maureira F (2016) Ergonomics and labour in forestry. In: Pancel L, Köhl M (eds) Tropical forestry handbook. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 3211–3310 Chao S (2012) Forest peoples: numbers across the world. Forest Peoples Programme, Moreton-­ in-­Marsh. www.forestpeoples.org/sites/fpp/files/publication/2012/05/forest-­peoples-­numbers-­ across-­world-­final.pdf. Accessed 25 July 2021 Giri K, Darnhofer I (2010) Outmigrating men: a window of opportunity for women’s participation in community forestry? Scan J For Res 25:55–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/0282758 1.2010.506769 Grandjean E (1969) Fitting the task to the man: a textbook of occupational ergonomics, 4th edn. Taylor & Francis, London Holdridge LR (1947) Determination of world plant formations from simple climatic data. Science, New Series 105:367–368 Hollnagel E (2012) Task analysis: why, what, and how. In: Salvendy G (ed) Handbook of human factors and ergonomics, 4th edn. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, pp 385–396 Hussmanns R (2004) Measuring the informal economy: From employment in the informal sector to informal employment. ILO, Bureau of Statistics. Working Paper 53. https://purochioe. rrojasdatabank.info/informalsecilo2004.pdf. Accessed 12 April 2021. ILO (1992) Fitting the job to the forest worker – an illustrated training manual on ergonomics. ILO, Geneva ILO (2002) Decent work and the informal economy: International Labour Conference 90th Session 2002, Report VI. www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc90/pdf/rep-vi.pdf. Accessed 12 April 2021 ILO (2007) Toolkit for mainstreaming employment and decent work, 2nd edn. www.ilo.org/ pardev/partnerships/partnerships-and-relations/ceb-toolkit/WCMS_172609/lang--en/index. htm. Accessed 12 April 2021 ILO (2013) Understanding the Indigenous and Tribal People Convention, 1989 (No. 169): Handbook for ILO Tripartite Constituents. ILO, Geneva ILO (2021a) Decent work in forestry. www.ilo.org/global/topics/decent-­work/lang%2D%2Den/ index.htm. Accessed 1 July 2021 ILO (2021b) Decent work and the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development (The 2030 development agenda). http://ilo.org/global/topics/sdg-­2030/lang%2D%2Den/index.htm. Accessed 1 July 2021 ILO (2021c) Resolution concerning decent work and the informal economy: International Labour Conference 90th Session 2002. www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc90/pdf/ pr-­25res.pdf. Accessed 1 July 2021 Kandzior A (2016) Indigenous people and forests. In: Pancel L, Köhl M (eds) Tropical forestry handbook. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 3311–3343 Kataiamäki W (2019) Promoting decent work and safety and health in forestry. ILO, Geneva Kleinschmit D, Mansourian S, Wildburger C, Purret A (eds) (2016) Illegal logging and related timber trade: dimensions, drivers, impacts and responses: a global scientific rapid response assessment report. IUFRO world series, vol 35, Vienna Kroemer KHE, Grandjean E (2001) Fitting the task to the human: a textbook of occupational ergonomics, 5th edn. Taylor & Francis, London Martin C (2015) On the edge: the state and fate of the world’s tropical rainforests: a report to the Club of Rome. Greystone Books, Vancouver Berkeley Montagnini F, Jordan CF (2005) Tropical forest ecology: the basis for conservation and management. Tropical forestry. Springer, Berlin

References

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Morris K (1997) Forest utilization. Civilisations 44:194–219. https://doi.org/10.4000/ civilisations.1630 Poschen P (2003) Economic and social justice in sustainable forest management: an ILO perspective on forest certification. In: Meidinger E, Elliott C, Oesten G (eds) Social and political dimensions of forest certification. Kessel, Remagen-Oberwinter, pp 83–101 Sanders DE (1999) Indigenous peoples: issues of definition. J Int Cult Property 8:4–13. https://doi. org/10.1017/S0940739199770591 Staudt FJ (1993) Ergonomics/labour. In: Pancel L (ed) Tropical forestry handbook, vol 2. Springer, Berlin, pp 1485–1547 Strehlke B (2003) How we work and live: forest workers talk about themselves: a global account of working and living conditions in the forestry sector. Sectoral activities programme working papers, vol 207. ILO, Geneva

Chapter 2

Work and Sustainable Forest Management

Abstract  The chapter stretches from forest utilization over time to the work applied for it and to the benefits for the forest users, particularly employment. In pre-­ colonial, colonial, and post-colonial times there was non-industrial forest utilization, including hunting and gathering, shifting cultivation, and the use of non-timber forest products, woodfuels, and construction materials. Subsistence economy was followed by forest exploitation, for industrial timber, at first primarily precious woods, but often even more for non-timber forest products. Shifting cultivation has increased. Forest land is converted to other land uses, in particular to agroforestry, agriculture, and plantations of oil palm and other crop trees. The conversion of land use is the main driver for forest destruction today. Attempts of sustainable forest management for harvesting timber from natural forests have not been successful, in spite of promising attempts, including silvicultural treatments, certification, and reduced impact harvesting. Therefore, there is a growing share of degraded secondary forests. Timber retrieval from natural forests is mostly done under concessions, so that concession holders are the responsible employers of forest workers. More and more wood is produced in plantation forests that should not be established by conversion of natural forests. Employment and income are the main potential benefits from work in the tropical forests. Most of the employment is in informal work relations, but much more work is done in self-employment, in small-scale forest utilization and use of trees outside forests, applying a range of agroforestry practices. Production of woodfuel, including charcoal, plays a major role. A great part of the world’s population is living in or around forests, many people are depending on forest resources for their living. All forest utilization is based on work. Different tasks are performed during all forms of utilization, under mostly harsh working conditions. Time allocation studies reveal the input of working time for the different tasks, of the forest users in self-employment. Job profiles are tools for description of the individual working situations, of forest workers.

© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2022 S. Lewark, Work in Tropical Forests, Tropical Forestry, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-64444-7_2

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2.1  S  ubsistence Forest Utilization, Exploitation, and Sustainability Work of women and men, their work tasks and methods are inseparably connected in a triangle, which on the part of work science is often conceptualized under Human-Technology-Organization (HTO). While the focus of activities of work scientists is on the human aspects these cannot be analysed without regard to the operational and organizational sides of work. This chapter starts with forest utilization in the tropical forests and attempts at Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) and the related operations and work tasks, before focusing on the workers themselves, their working conditions and the work environment. The work done during the utilization of tropical and subtropical forests encompasses much more than usually studied by work science, while it is a basic idea of this book to include all work, as much as possible. To achieve this not only employed forest work is to be considered, as related to timber harvesting in natural forests and plantation forests, but also work during operations in informal employment and forest exploitation, subsistence utilization, and agroforestry over time. The working conditions though must be expected to differ greatly.

2.1.1  Phases of Forest Utilization 2.1.1.1  Forest Utilization in Pre-Colonial Times In the forests of the tropics people have lived for very long time, with the forests and from the forest resources, and were adapted to their forest utilization. It was assumed earlier that in pre-colonial times there were mostly small populations that only slowly modified stand structures and species compositions. But recent findings indicate quite numerous populations in some regions, e.g. in parts of the Amazon (Souza et  al. 2018). There is evidence that with their utilization even small populations changed the forests to a certain degree, e.g. by stand enrichment using coveted tree species. There were few forests not inhabited at all, only those forests will be unaffected by humans and actually entitled to be called pristine forests. The people living from the forests were hunting and gathering, or living by cultivating agricultural plants under loose forest cover or in gaps of the forests, practising shifting cultivation, or cultivating homegardens, in a traditional way of agroforestry. They primarily used Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) as well as wood, as fuelwood and construction material. This was done in a subsistence economy, with more or less immediate consumption and some provisions stored. On the levels of the family or the community there was labour division, e.g. between women and men and between age groups.

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When famines and other hardships occurred, e.g. due to climatic irregularities, more or less frequently in different areas, forests served as safety nets, from which products came that were not used regularly. That forest dwellers lived in harmony with the forests a stress-free life, with leisure time and work in an equilibrium, is a popular and perhaps romanticizing view. This perception is connected with the notion of affluent societies (Sect. 1.3). An example of rainforest utilization is described in detail by Coomes (1995), who studied and described the development in the Peruvian Amazon and discussed the issue of sustainability (Box 2.1).

Box 2.1 Traditional Rain Forest Utilization in the Western Amazon (Coomes 1995) An issue of particular relevance to rain forest conservation is the long-term sustainability of extraction-based systems. In the popular mind, native or folk peoples often are seen as living in quiet harmony with the rain forest, harvesting nature’s generous and steady bounty for food, fiber, medicine, and, more recently, cash income.

The products taken from the forests were and still are manifold, as exemplified for the type of agroforestry as practised by the Orang Asli people of Peninsular Malaysia (Box 2.2).

Box 2.2 Types of Forest Utilization and Products in Peninsula Malaysia (Morris 1997) The Orang Asli who live and exploit isolated areas in Peninsular Malaysia range from settled agriculturists, slash and burn horticulturists, hunters and gatherers to coastal foragers (Ma’Betisek) and sea fisherman (Orang Laut). All but a few small coastal groups exploit the forest in various degrees for subsistence and domestic use (house construction, materials for tools, etc.) and for commercial products (rattan, gaharu wood,1 dammars2 and resins).

Pretzsch (2014) describes the development of forest utilization and forestry in six consecutive stages, from pre-colonial times to times of globalization under the respective prevailing paradigms. Use of NTFPs was dominant in pre-colonial times, with great differences depending on population density and cultural development (Box 2.3).

 Gaharu: wood from Aquilaria malaccensis or agallocha, e.g. for incense.  Dammars: resin from Dipterocarpaceae trees.

1 2

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Box 2.3 Forest Utilization in Pre-colonial Times (Pretzsch 2014) In pre-colonial times forest farmers availed of a large variety of forest goods and services. The short term provision of food and shelter was essential for the individual survival of the rural population. Household consumption products consisted of a broad portfolio of food items like vegetables, fruits, tubers and all types of animals, which covered the calorific and protein requirements of forest people. […] Cosmic and religious values have also played an important role. Often there were limits in terms of the market access and especially in tropical countries the storage of food was frequently difficult. The situation with regard to livelihoods differed profoundly between densely populated areas of intensive cultural development, such as civilizations in India and China, and societies located in rain forests with a low number of inhabitants and at the rural periphery.

Market access was often limited. Generally, little distance trade may be assumed, though there are notable exceptions known, e.g. trading between Southeast Asian regions and the Chinese market over hundreds of years, as described in detail and documented with examples by Morris (1997). Traditional forest utilization as described here is characterized by subsistence activities, retrieving the resources for livelihood in or near the forests. It has also been studied in time allocation studies and is together with more general aspects of the related work taken up later. There were local or regional differences, on the levels of families or communities, with adapted ways of harvesting and self-made tools, and little or no market access. This way of forest utilization, with an assumed equilibrium of use and regrowth of resources, was followed by an exploitation of the forests and forest destruction, later also by plantation forestry. 2.1.1.2  Forest Utilization in Colonial and Post-Colonial Times In subsistence forest utilization the relationships between men and forests probably only changed slowly, following forest development induced by human utilization, migration and by long-term climatic changes. This way of traditional forest utilization changed fundamentally in the different tropical regions with arrival of European explorers, settlers, and colonizers. In addition to local consumption it was more and more serving the interests of the colonizers (Box 2.4).

Box 2.4 Forest Utilization in Colonial Times (Pretzsch 2014) Although each colonizer practiced its own specific ways of colonization, the final outcomes were similar. The early colonization of the Americas was much oriented towards the exploitation of timber for ship building, construction and a number of other uses. […] With the establishment of the authoritarian colonial administration, traditional rights to forest use were negated and the traditional links between rural people and nature destroyed (Fürstenberg 1966).

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With the beginning of colonization immediately exploitation3 of the natural forests started, by taking timber for industrial use abroad, also for uses like shipbuilding by the colonizers on location. Precious woods became very popular in Europe, though with a small market of wealthy buyers, from the eighteenth century on, already many centuries earlier in China. Stands of rosewood were depleted in forests of China many centuries ago, and then in South-East Asia, from where it was brought to China for cabinet-making. First few tree species were popular, because of the technical as well as ornamental nature of their wood. All species have their specific history of exploitation. Ebony artefacts, apparently from traded wood, were already found in tombs from ancient Egypt. Mahogany was used for shipbuilding as soon as Spain took over tropical forests of the New World. For long time mostly very big logs were taken from the tropical forests of all colonized countries, to various extents. Stands containing limba, palisander, and okoumé, among other species, were exploited in tropical forests of Africa. Teak was taken early in British colonies in South Asia, dipterocarps from South-East Asia. Dipterocarp stands, widely dominating in South-East Asia, with higher numbers of treasured trees per area unit as compared to the other species named before, are an example for more intense destruction of forests, wherever they were exploited. This exploitation is worldwide going on in many places, where resources are still left. The exploited tree species and the log dimensions have changed. When availability of the precious species decreased, at least in easily accessible forests, the exploitation more and more also included the so-called lesser-known and sought-­ after species. Many trees of those species, at first considered useless and neglected, had been destroyed during the exploitation of the precious woods. Now this use of a wider range of commercially used species, also in smaller dimensions and for mass production of industrial wood products, was leading to even more forest destruction. The exploitation included NTFPs for local trading, with a huge variety of products. Retrieval of NTFPs initially was dominating over timber exploitation, in some regions for export to the European colonizing countries. Harvesting and use of timber was often rather subordinated and only slowly became more important. The rate of this development was very different between the regions of the tropics. The extent of trading of NTFPs grew and changed, first between local communities and within short range, then connected to the markets of the industrialized states and more and more globally—a development all the time still going on. At the same time, the needs and demands in the communities that were newly emerging, also connected to population growth and migration, grew fast over the last few centuries and were different from the traditional ones, partly because more non-adapted people migrated to the forested lands.

3  The term exploitation is used here, different from the value-free usage of the term as in Box 2.2, in the sense of wasteful use, also often called timber mining.

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Post-Colonial Times  A new phase began with the decolonization when the emerging nations used their forest resources for their economic development (Box 2.5). Traditional utilization continued in times of decolonization, timber exploitation has been increased. The latter has not only economic and political reasons in the emerging nations. Also technical development and demand from the industrialized countries are contributing.

Box 2.5 Forest Utilization in Times of Decolonization (Pretzsch 2014) In the decolonization stage, tropical forestry strictly followed the general economic development models. The newly independent forest authorities were acquainted with western forest administration and forestry development models. […] At the same time there was great pressure to generate income for the newly established National Forest Services and for national development in general. […] The liquidation of natural forest resources was seen as one of only a small number of options available to contribute to the formation of national capital and to induce development. It was assumed, that the massive exploitation of forest resources, a subsequent investment of the raised capital in timber industries, and a later re-investment in forest plantations, would lead to growth of the forestry sector and the wood industry (Zivnuska 1966). […] As a consequence, natural forest exploitation for timber production increased rapidly in most tropical countries. As the state forest administrations possessed neither the proper logging machines, nor the know-how and the necessary financial capital, the forests were handed over to concessionaires for logging.

As the quotation in Box 2.5 underlines the liquidation of forest resources continued to concern timber exploitation, mostly by concessionaires creaming off, taking the most valuable accessible trees selectively. A further and ultimate step is the conversion of forest land, carrying primary or logged-over forests, to other land uses. Impact of Technical Development  While timber was taken from the tropical forests throughout the time since beginning of colonization, there have been only small areas of forest involved initially, till the 1950s. One reason for that was the technical limitation during transport of the heavy logs. Exploitation was started first in easily accessible forests, close to coast or major waterways, as coast-scraping (Bruenig 2017). Trees of high value taken in the way of creaming, logged selectively, like mahogany from South America, teak from Burma, or okoumé from West Africa. Exploitation very much grew in importance only in the second half of the twentieth century (Martin 2015). The technical development during the 1950s resulted in drastically growing exploitation and inclusion of larger forest areas. “Mechanized logging technologies developed in industrialized countries were introduced into the tropics quickly, and both the scale of operations and their intensity changed substantially” (Dykstra 2002). This mechanization obviously refers to machines used for opening up the forests and log transport, and with respect to felling and processing to heavy and powerful chainsaws. Because “many industrial logging operations were leaving forests in a seriously degraded condition” (Dykstra 2002), concern grew (Box 2.6).

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Box 2.6 Concern About the Impact of Logging Operations in Tropical Forests (Dykstra 2002) By 1992, when the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development convened in Rio de Janeiro, it had become clear that at least in some instances the mechanization of logging operations in the tropics posed a serious threat to long-­ term sustainability of the resource, particularly if impacts on non-timber values were added to the equation (Dykstra and Heinrich 1992).

A reduction of the destructive impact was intended by implementation of low or reduced input logging practices. The history of the development, under changing names for the same concept has been traced by Dykstra (2002). The initiative started as Environmentally Sound Harvesting to Sustain Tropical Forests (Heinrich 1995). Then the terms Reduced Impact Harvesting (RIH) and Reduced Impact Logging (RIL) came up, as used in the Harvesting Bulletin issued by FAO (2003). Sometimes the term RIH is still used later (Pokorny et al. 2005), but meanwhile the term RIL has made its way (Heinrich and Arzberger 2004). But the attitudes behind the terms RIL and RIH may indicate more than just synonyms, as at least for many, logging rather indicates a connection to exploitation.4 While the term RIL is now more much used than the preferable term RIH, the term RIL, therefore, actually would better not be used in connection to SFM. The role of reduced impact practices for the working conditions of the workers involved in harvesting is taken up below. 2.1.1.3  Forest Utilization 2020 The state of the tropical forests at the beginning of the twenty-first century is characterized by ongoing traditional subsistence forest utilization, exploitation leading to forest degradation, very limited sustainable use, and extensive deforestation by conversion to other land uses, which threatens the existence of forests virtually everywhere. Traditional subsistence forest utilization with little or no market connection is today only found in the very few forests with uncontacted peoples. Martin (2015) mentions an example from the Amazon. In most cases adaptations of different degrees of transition to market economies are found. Forest utilization in a traditional, non-industrial way, for subsistence and markets, is of large extent, particularly in agroforestry systems. The economic surplus is used for satisfaction of basic needs, including tools like knives, pangas, or axes, through bartering.  The terms tree harvesting and logging are in this book not used as synonyms: Harvesting indicates pre-harvesting treatment and operations to be repeated in subsequent cycles. Logging in contrast may be associated with timber mining, while literally meaning producing of logs. So the term logging may rather be used for exploitation in natural forests, but not relating to timber retrieval when attempting SFM. 4

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The demand for industrial wood is growing worldwide. Many foresters, and governments and forest policy, hope that the pressure on natural forests in the tropics, resulting from this growing demand, may be reduced by establishing short-rotation, high-yield plantation forests (Bruenig 2017). There is a belief, that with less pressure the natural forests may be domesticized and managed in an organized and sustainable manner (e.g. already Lamprecht 1989), while the reality does not look promising at all. The development of the forms of utilization of timber and NTFPs, in exploitation and sustainable management in the natural forests and in the plantation forests is sketched in Fig. 2.1. While there are attempts at a sustainable utilization of NTFPs and timber, in order to secure the continued provision of forests products and services, the exploitation of NTFPs and timber for industrial use contributes to forest destruction. Exploitation is destructive per definition, as reflected in attitudes as formulated in many places, like “more often than not [that] is to cut out and get out and to recover heavy capital investments”, read so in Strehlke (1979). Therefore, timber utilization in the public is often seen as forest mining and blamed for all forest destruction. For closer inspection one must distinguish forest degradation and deforestation and consider the related developments and drivers over time. Knowledge is needed about the current situation, the mechanisms of the forest destruction, and the possible means of mitigation if not termination of the process. The state of managing tropical forests with regard to Sustainable Forest Management is described by Blaser (2015), based on data provided by the ITTO member states (Box 2.7). It has to be kept in mind that the self-assessments of the states may be biased by their interests. After all many countries are boasting of their sustainable forestry (e.g. Malaysia in its country profile, ITTO 2006).

Non-industrial forest utilization and agroforestry

Exploitation: Wood and NWFPs

Plantation forestry

Period of time :

1500---------------------------------------------------1900------------------2000

Fig. 2.1  Forms of utilization of tropical forests over time

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Box 2.7 Forest Management in Tropical Primary Forests (Blaser 2015) The thirty-three member countries of the International Tropical Timber Organization5 contain about 90% of all natural tropical rainforests. They report an area of 761 million hectares of forests classified as ‘permanent forest estates’. Permanent forest estates are land, whether public or private, that is secured by laws and kept under permanent forest cover. [ITTO 2005] About 403 million hectares of permanent forest estates are classified as production forests, and 358 million hectares as protection and conservation forests [Blaser et al. 2011]. Out of these forests about 500 million hectares are primary forests, which means that they have been unaffected by logging and other disturbances and that their natural structures, functions, and dynamics have not undergone any changes that exceed the elastic capacity of the ecosystem [Blaser and Sabogal 2002]. Around 165 million hectares are subject to long-term timber concessions [Blaser et al. 2011]. At least half these concessions are operating in primary forests in the first logging rotation (the first cut). About 40% of concessions are operating in the second cut, and 10% of concessions have already undergone several logging cycles over the past decades […]. While about 130 million hectares of these concessions were managed according to approved management plans in 2014 [Blaser et al. 2011], only about 26 million hectares are certified, meaning they are ‘well managed’ according to defined certification standards.

Secondary Forests  Timber is in the first place always retrieved from primary forests, as defined in Box 2.7. Big trees like those in the primary forests taken would only grow again to their mature size over centuries, under appropriate conditions, e.g., with seed trees for regeneration. The primary forests are logged over and left as secondary forests, which are still natural forests in a sense, though displaying major differences in structure and species composition. Martin (2015) points out that under a definition by FAO “forests subject to low-intensity selective logging or small-scale extractive activities, for example for nontimber forest products, are not considered to be secondary forests”. Logged-over stands recover to a certain degree, as through selective logging they are not necessarily destroyed, depending on the number of trees taken and of trees left destroyed or damaged. Secondary forests are those “regenerating largely through natural processes after significant human and/or natural disturbance of the original forest vegetation” (Martin 2015). Sustained yield can thus by definition not be achieved in primary forest, but only in secondary forests, at best. “Thus the first logging activities […] are decisive for the destiny of these forests. Will they remain as close-to-primary forests or will they become ecologically and economically degraded?” (Blaser 2015) Keeping well-­ managed forests (Box 2.7) requires appropriate competence on all levels of logging. Degradation  Exploitation, wasteful logging, at first leads to forest degradation, not necessarily to forest destruction. If it is followed by conversion to other land  “The ITTO (International Tropical Timber Organization) is an international organization under the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development that promotes forest development and the trade of tropical timber from sustainably managed forests in the tropics” (Blaser 2015). 5

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uses, the result is a loss of forest land together with a loss of all forest products and services. Degradation is defined by FAO: “Changes of forest cover through logging, fire, windfall, or other causes that negatively affect the structure or function of forests and lower its capacity to supply benefits, such as wood, biodiversity, and other ecosystem services” (Martin 2015). Degradation very often also means forest fragmentation: “The conversion of formerly continuous forest into patches of forest separated by nonforested land. This is usually a result of logging, subsistence farming, road building, or similar activities” (Martin 2015). The drivers of degradation are summarized by Martin (2015): In Asia 2000–2010 more than 80% of the degraded tropical forests have been degraded by logging, in America above 70%, and more than 30% in Africa, where half of the degradation are accounted for by fuelwood extraction and charcoal production. This is causing close to 20% of degradation in Asia and 5% in America. Uncontrolled fires apparently play a certain and recently growing role, close to 20% in America in the cited survey. Deforestation and its Drivers  The dramatic degree of destruction of the tropical forests, already done as well as ongoing, is well known and deplored in the public and has often been described by scientists. Recent surveys of the extent of destruction, the direct drivers and their underlying causes distinguish between deforestation and degradation that differ greatly and are also very different between the tropical forests of the different continents, as summarized in a recent report to the Club of Rome (Martin 2015). More detailed analyses show, that taking industrial timber by exploitation on pantropical scale is only one of several causes of deforestation today, mostly a minor one at that, though indeed the main responsible activity in some regions, of course with big differences between different regions.

Box 2.8 Drivers of Deforestation (Martin 2015) The picture [of deforestation] is diverse, with a number of factors driving several direct causes of deforestation. However, now and in the past, agricultural expansion is by far the most important land use change associated with deforestation. Agricultural expansion in tropical rainforest areas falls into two main categories: small-scale shifting cultivation and subsistence farming on the one hand, and large-­ scale commercial plantations and pastures on the other. Of the more than 100 million hectares (net increase) of agricultural land in the tropics from 1980 to 2000, more than 55% came from intact rainforests and about 28% from degraded rainforests.

Logging operations may destruct forests directly and have led to complete deforestation in some regions, e.g. in Ivory Coast. There are direct damages and follow­up processes. Logging in forests under concession use play their role in forest destruction, which will be taken up below. But as Martin (2015) points out: on the

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whole the main driver of forest destruction that is related to exploitation is small-­ scale forest utilization, including woodfuel and charcoal production. Where the forests have been totally destroyed this happens rather as a follow-up of the forest exploitation through opening up of the forests followed by slash-and-burn practices than directly, and through land-use conversion on a large and ever-increasing scale (Box 2.8). This obviously always means direct depletion of the forest stands, which is by far destroying more forests than even inappropriate and wasteful exploitation would do. The processes of conversion are already ongoing for very long time and are manifold, with changing dynamics. The aims comprise plantations of oil palm, rubber and crop trees, agricultural business and small-scale agriculture, and also mining and dam building, depending very much on market situations and political decisions. Conversion of natural forests to plantation forests and to agroforestry in different forms are special cases that are taken up in the specific sections below. Hosonuma et al. (2012) found more than 80% of deforestation on all continents for agriculture, commercial and local, including subsistence agriculture, next in importance were mining and other uses. The operations of conversion, by fires deliberately set, or by clear-cuts, with trees used or not, and burning of residues, clearly are based on much work input, though only once and for all. There is no information about this work, which is often part of legal or illegal operations, connected to corruption. The related work cannot be considered here, even if it is also an issue of sustainability, in particular of social sustainability. The conversion activities are followed by work in the new uses.

2.1.2  Sustainable Forest Utilization Sustainability of forest utilization is usually understood as provision of forest products and services secured in the long run, and wood harvesting done by operations free of damage for the remaining stands and the soils and from erosion. While the paradigm of sustainability6 initially has been developed centuries ago it has been extended and propagated newly at the Rio Conference in 1992. Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) is a specific paradigm of forestry and forest sciences and deserves special attention (Box 2.9).

 Travelling should become more sustainable: Such and similar sentences in media today show a change of understanding of the term and phenomenon of sustainability. It has in the vernacular language widely lost the meaning of continuous maintenance and functioning of resources and is used in the sense of environmentally friendly, while more sustainable just means less damaging, not without damage to the environment. 6

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Box 2.9 Frequently Cited Definitions of Sustainable Forest Management Given by Ministerial Conferences on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE) and International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) 1998 (According to Higman et al. 2005) The stewardship and use of forests and forest lands in a way, and at a rate, that maintains their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity, vitality and their potential to fulfil, now and in the future, relevant ecological, economic and social functions, at local, national, and global levels, and that does not cause damage to other ecosystems [MCPFE]. Sustainable forest management is the process of managing forests to achieve one or more clearly specified objectives of management with regard to the production of a continuous flow of desired forest products and services, without undue reduction of its inherent values and future productivity and without undue undesirable effects on the physical and social environment [ITTO].

In the definitions quoted the utilization of the forest is expressly included, be it by forest dwellers, be it by industrial forestry. Total protection, also often proposed and implemented, would exclude that. SFM is a crucial paradigm for judging the state of work in tropical forests. It is connected to forest utilization and forest conservation and underlying principles of governance, same as Participatory Forest Management (PFM), which focuses on the participation of stakeholders, mostly on community level. Forest scientists and practical foresters have been well involved in the development of the concept of SFM. Since the propagation of sustainability at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 SFM is on everyone’s lips, well beyond the forestry sector, even though there is not one uncontested definition. Sustainable utilization has been developed from aiming at sustainable yield to Sustainable Forest Management in multifunctional forestry. Schanz (2004) gives an account of the variety of interpretations of SFM (Box 2.10) and adds: “SFM is controversial for good reason: any one definition represents specific values […] at other’s expense”.

Box 2.10 Interpretations of Sustainable Forest Management (Schanz 2004) Sustainable forest management (SFM) has become one of the core ideal concepts in the use and conservation of forest resources worldwide. Despite its uncontested appeal, a bewildering variety of interpretations of its meanings does exist, which makes discussions and implementation difficult. Underlying the concept is the ethical principle about how the relation between forests and people should be designed. Dependent on the interpretations, the aspect of continuation in the concept of SFM can include a wide range of different dimensions, including, for example, the […] sustenance of human institutions that are forest-dependent. Conflict among these is inherent and reflects other contested values in society. Consequently there cannot be

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an objective, universally agreed definition of SFM. The various understandings of SFM are outcomes of social or political processes, and are thus context-dependent as well as subject to continuous change. The international forest policy dialogue as well as market-driven certification approaches have provided major stimuli for such processes on national, regional, and local levels. […] The discussion of what SFM means precisely has kept the forestry profession busy, probably since the term ‘sustainable’ was first mentioned explicitly with regard to forest management in 1713 by von Carlowitz in Central Europe.

The Sustainable Forestry Handbook by Higman et al. (2005) points out that from “a multitude of initiatives to define the major components” of SFM most have in common a set of elements, around which the handbook is based. The elements on the well-being of people named are “consultation and participation processes; social impact assessment; recognition of rights and culture; relations with employees; contribution to development”. Three dimensions are distinguished at the Rio Conference: ecological, economic, and social continuity, which logically includes the well-being of the people living in and around the tropical forests, their living and working conditions, which belongs to social sustainability. This comprises Decent Work (DW) that has been included into the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN (Sect. 1.5). Silvicultural treatment and harvesting operations are crucial elements of operationalization of SFM, for which standards of good practice have been developed, among others by ILO and FAO. They are meanwhile parts of concepts of certification and Reduced Impact Logging. Realization is done by forest enterprises, in tropical forests in particular by concessions. These concepts and their impact on working conditions are outlined below. Total protection in contrast has also often been proposed and is in place in conservation areas, even in big scale, e.g. in national parks. Oberndörfer (1989) postulated a payment of compensation for total protection, Whitmore (1990) gives examples of initiatives called debt swaps or debt for nature. But compliance with regulations of protection is not everywhere secured. A big issue is, that there are many conflicts between attempts of enforced total protection, excluding any use, and the utilization rights of traditional forest users. Sustainability is generally assumed for the traditional subsistence utilization of tropical forests, under certain conditions that avoid overuse (Kaimowitz 2015). But in growing scale poverty, population growth and related migration of more and more people not knowing ways of sustainable utilization of tropical forests perform slash-and-burn practices that fast lead to unstable forest stands, to degradation and sooner or later to forest destruction. Timber retrieval from tropical forests started in colonial times, in some regions it already had been extended to large areas quite early. It was much increased from the 1950s on, when technical development made it possible and the development of the wood industry in the industrialized countries led to ever more demand of tropical roundwood. This was going along with forest destruction as outlined above, while,

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at the same time, deforestation was and is happening on a dramatic scale by conversion of forest land to other land uses. Questions to look at, are to which degree utilization of tropical forests by harvesting of timber and NTFPs necessarily is destructive and detrimental for the adjacent communities, and whether it is free of adverse working and living conditions for the workers and their families—or which forms of utilization may contribute to social sustainability. 2.1.2.1  Silvicultural Concepts Attempting to avoid degradation and deforestation when utilizing the forests many approaches have been developed, based on the belief, that the “forests can be a sustained source of timber, renewed by regrowth after felling, so long as […] man works within the limits of their natural dynamics” (Whitmore 1990). Many extremely worried forest scientists around the world with well-grounded expertise have even been firmly convinced that only utilization including retrieval of timber harvesting and domestication of the forests will secure the existence of tropical forests in the long run. These forest scientists, who believed in SFM as only means to conserve the tropical forests, developed methods of operation to prove this. The idea was that only usable resources are valued and considered worth conservation, so that valorization by management and utilization would be the only solution. This position has been emphasized, among others, by many silviculturalists, e.g. by Lamprecht (1989), recently by Bruenig (2017), who extensively describes the situation around the world. At the same time, an extensive establishment of plantation forests for timber production was seen as a way for taking pressure of the natural forests. Whitmore (1990) summarizes silvicultural treatment as “the manipulation of the forest to favour certain species and thereby to enhance its value to man”. Concepts have been developed and tested, at least on small scale, belonging to polycyclic or monocyclic systems: “Polycyclic systems are based on the repeated removal of selected trees in a continuing series of felling cycles. […] By contrast, monocyclic systems remove all saleable trees at a single operation, and the length of the cycle more or less equals the rotation age of the trees”. Thinning operations are not done or only in specific cases of managing secondary forests (Lamprecht 1989). Silvicultural measures in primary forests start with selective harvesting, today applying the RIL methods. They also include post-harvest tending operations and planting in the resulting gaps, for enrichment with trees of the desired species. These latter operations are not further included here as there are no recent work related publications, especially not on the skills requirements, work demands, and workload on the workers’ level. The success of purposeful silvicultural treatment is very limited so far (Pretzsch 2014): “Most of the silvicultural models proved to be too complex, labor intensive and of little financial benefit”. Blaser et  al. (2011) reports, based on a detailed

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analysis by ITTO, that 7% of the estimated size of the permanent forest estates (PFE) of 761 million hectares of natural tropical forests would be under SFM. This is opposed to official statements that often claim that SFM is widely applied, e.g. in Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. This situation is clearly not an issue of silviculture. 2.1.2.2  Certification In view of the dramatic degree of destruction of the tropical forests a major question is, whether sustainable timber utilization in tropical forests is feasible at all, leading to Martin’s (2015) question, whether primary forests outside existing reserves have a chance of surviving the next decades. Of course all the sketched processes of forest destruction are well known. Many stakeholders, in growing extent, tried and try to modify or stop them, first of all local communities and foresters and forest scientists. Under the prevailing political and socio-economic conditions, they had limited success, it is outside their power to overcome exploitation and secure practicing sustainable operations of harvesting timber and NTFPs. Besides governments and international agencies actors also include NGOs, certification organizations, associations like ITTO, and the Club of Rome. While silvicultural treatment requires work input, decent working and living conditions do not necessarily belong to its objectives. But in certification systems decent working conditions became integral parts of the standards of forest management, as an expression of social sustainability. Therefore, measures of certification are of cardinal importance for the working conditions of all types of forest workers. Fundamentals of Certification Systems  Certification of forest management was developed after the Rio Conference of 1992 and the following formulation of the Forest Principles as an instrument to achieve Sustainable Forest Management, first of tropical natural forests, covering environmental, social, and economic issues. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) was founded in 1993 as one of the first certification organizations, setting the bar. Its approach and structure were more or less followed by numerous other initiatives, in particular by the Pan European Forest Certification (PEFC)7 that was launched in 1999. Bass (2004) defines forest certification systems in general, describes the related processes (Box 2.11), and discusses early achievements under ten of their implicit assumptions, e.g. “poor forest management and deforestation would decline, as the actors involved would respond to the incentive effects of market-based certification” (Assumption 9).8

 PEFC has later been renamed to Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification.  In the original text the quotation is treated as a heading, but here the case-sensitive rules of a running text are applied. 7 8

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Box 2.11 General Description of Forest Certification Processes (Bass 2004) Certification is the procedure by which a third party provides written assurance that a product, process or service conforms to specified standards, on the basis of an audit conducted to agreed procedures. […] Certification of social and environmental performance is already changing the rules of the game for many industries. It has occupied a key role in the ‘organic’ and ‘fair trade’ niches of food production for some time; it is emerging in fisheries and tourism; and it is being explored for mining. Certification has had a particularly rapid evolution in the forest sector, where it is becoming routine practice. […] Forest management certification is the process by which the performance of on-­ the-­ground forestry operations is assessed against a predetermined set of standards. This is voluntary, at the request of the forest owner or manager. If the forestry operations are found to be in conformance with these standards, a certificate is issued, offering the owner/manager the potential to bring products from the certified forest to the market as certified products.

Bass (2004) also points out the rationale behind forest certification, as “response to the interests and incentives facing many different interest groups”. The origins of the voluntary, market-driven processes of certification are attributed to initiatives by environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and timber retailers. In the following years governments, forest owners, and managers came into the process, as exemplified by Bass (2004) by the development of PEFC (Box 2.12).

Box 2.12 Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) (Bass 2004) The initiative was given strong impetus by Austrian, Finnish, French, German, Norwegian and Swedish forest owners, who wished to ensure that small woodland owners are not disadvantaged by certification, and that local conditions are catered for. […] The evolution of PEFC was rapid: it started in August 1998, and was launched in June 1999. Now there are many countries involved, extending into other continents. The rapid development of both country coverage and certified area has entrenched the position of some environmental NGOs; they believe that the ease of achieving PEFC certification, in countries which they perceive to have imperfect forest management, demonstrates that the scheme is not helping to improve forest management and thereby achieves little beyond attempts at market protection.

Over time many other certification systems have been developed, numerous at national level in several countries, that are compared by Romero et  al. (2013): “Overall, most of the comparative studies […] concluded that the FSC is the strictest and most complete”. Also the study by Kartika et  al. (2020) is explaining the growing role of less strict, less transparent, and less costly, certification systems in Indonesia, to the

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expense of FSC certification (Box 2.13). The FSC scheme is perceived to be designed by environmentalists, whereas the competing certification schemes are initiated and supported by the government and by concession holders. The respective certified areas given by Kartika et al. (2020) do not distinguish between natural forests and plantation forests, so that the contribution to limit the destruction of natural forests is concealed. The different demand in the compared certification schemes, related to conversion of natural forests to plantation forests is noted by the authors, one of the stricter demands of FSC, as compared with those of PEFC.

Box 2.13 Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) in Indonesia (Kartika et al. 2020) This study found that PEFC seems to substitute FSC as both schemes are very similar but FSC requirements are more detailed and stricter than PEFC’s and thus attract fewer concession holders. Both PEFC and FSC complement government regulations as both voluntary schemes require higher standards than the government regulations. This indicates that voluntary forest certification schemes can play a role to fill the global forest governance gap in the absence of a binding hard law. […] PEFC is seen to be closer to the interests of forest production industries by analysts […]. We can easily understand why some studies conclude that getting FSC certification will be time consuming and costly […]. Requirements and standards imposed by the PEFC are not as tight as those imposed by the FSC. For instance, FSC certification cannot be granted to HTI [Hutan Tanaman Industri, Industrial forest plantation] which was converted from natural forest after November 1994, whereas PEFC certification only excludes plantation forest which was converted from natural forest after 2010.

Wibowo (2019) studied in Indonesia complementary versus competitive approaches of certification systems and the response of four third-party certification schemes with a questionnaire surveying a wide range of respondents. The preferences by small-scale forest holders “show that although FSC scheme obtained the highest score and is considered the best scheme according to the FCAG [Forest Certification Assessment Guide, WWF & WB 2006], small-scale forest holders prefer SVLK [Sistem Verifikasi Legalitas Kayu, Indonesian Timber-Legality Assurance System] scheme, which had the lowest FCAG score because of its mandatory nature and available subsidies. Statements by the proponents of the four schemes, which delegitimize other schemes, reveal they are in competition especially in winning market acceptance and local adaptability”. It must be noted that in the two cited studies on the current developments of certification of forest management in Indonesia the social dimension is not a studied issue. Work Related Criteria and Indicators  Ensuring SFM through certification of forest management is operationalized by use of standards on different levels, from principles on the highest level down to criteria and indicators, to be proved by veri-

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fiers. The standards related to the social dimension are most relevant in the context of work in tropical forests, as they include decent working conditions, and also living conditions of the workers and their families as well as observation of rights of the local populations, which often are indigenous people. Social and labour content in performance-based forest certification standards and its relation to national laws have been described by Poschen (2003), quoted in Box 2.14. Box 2.14 Social and Labour Content in Performance-Based Forest Certification Standards (Poschen 2003) Performance-based standards, such as the Principles and Criteria of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or the Pan-European Forest Certification (PEFC) Framework, do have explicit social and labour content. The actual coverage and level of requirements may still vary considerably depending on how the framework or common principles are translated into national standards. Many ‘hybrid’ standards, which combine elements of the management system approach with specific performance requirements, such as ‘Lembaga Ekolabel Indonesia’ and the Canadian CSA, also include some social and labour aspects. […] Environmental management systems and declarations of origin are two approaches to certification which are not performance based and thus by design do not have any social and labour content. Both may, however, have implicit social and labour content in countries, where legislation provides good coverage and is also sufficiently enforced. […] To some extent certification creates standards that are more favourable to workers and local communities than national legislation. Almost as important of this complementary function to legislation is its role in enforcement. Effective labour inspection in forestry is extremely rare even in industrialized countries (ILO 2000).

The social dimension is usually incorporated in the certification standards by referring to the eight ILO core conventions and other ILO recommendations as classified by Poschen (2003). “From a legal point of view the texts fall into four categories: • • • •

Fundamental international labour Conventions; Other international labour Conventions; International labour Recommendations; and The ILO Code of Practice on Safety and Health in Forestry Work”.

Authoritative guidance with respect to safety and health is provided by the Code of Practice (ILO 1998). The core conventions may be grouped under universally recognized labour standards: • “The right to organize and to bargain collectively, • The elimination of child labour,

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• The elimination of forced labour, • Non-discrimination”. By compliance with these formulated standards and their related principles and derived criteria and indicators of certification decent work is to be ensured. At the beginning usually the certification principles based on the ILO conventions are referred to, i.e. the eight ILO core conventions as in the standards of FSC (2017) and PEFC (2020), and further the ILO Code of Practice, which should be considered when developing regional or national certification criteria. Expectations of Trade Unions  Poschen (2003) points at the role of forest workers in certification processes: “All forest workers, whether salaried workers, contractors, self-employed workers or forest farmers, are obvious stakeholders in forest management as contributors, potential beneficiaries and those whose existence hinges on the sustainability of forest management”. These stakeholders may be involved directly in certification on worker level or through their representatives in the development and adoption of certification systems and their standards on global and national level. An international initiative of the labour unions representing forest workers has formulated expectations for the improvement of their working conditions by certification and tested standards from this point of view, as reported by Bowling (2003), Director Global Wood and Forestry Programme in the International Federation of Building and Wood Workers (IFBWW).9 The text also refers to the ILO core conventions, but goes further, based on the independent tests. Criteria and indicators on national level have been developed in Ghana before the role of FSC certification in Africa became significant, and tested with the participation of IFBWW in Ghana (Iorgulescu et  al. 2001), later also in Zimbabwe and Brazil. Based on the resulting experience of issues recommendations were given. Expectations of Work Scientists  The perspective of work scientists is also primarily on the workers’ rights and working conditions, which looks like a lower-­ ranking aspect in certification. “From the beginning, the formulation of criteria and indicators has suffered from a bias towards environmental concerns and economic interests. Social aspects have been covered to a varying and often unsatisfactory extent, a situation that is gradually improving. A second drawback for an adequate incorporation of the social dimension has been the lack of commonality between the various sets of criteria and indicators” (Poschen 2003). So the look of the forest work scientist at the social impact in general is also quite sobering. But Poschen (2003) also has some encouraging conclusions on performance of certification (Box 2.15).

 Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) after a merger in 2005.

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Box 2.15 Social Impacts of Performance-Based Forest Certification (Poschen 2003) Certification has clearly helped to advance social justice in forestry. In forest policy • It has contributed to putting people back on the map from which they had been swept by environmental and economic interests and to get recognition for the roles and interests. • It played a major part in formulating a vision for the place of people in sustainable forest management and for the treatment they should receive for such management to be part of sustainable development. On the ground: • Certification will improve the welfare of people who depend on forests, provided it is done on the basis of adequate social and labour criteria and indicators applied by competent assessors.

State of Certification  During the years before the Rio Conference 1992, concern about the destruction of tropical forests had triggered boycotts of products from tropical wood in the developed countries. So from the beginning certification was focused on tropical forests, but this soon changed. The forest area certified according to FSC, one of the first certification systems, grew fast worldwide, particularly since 2000, and reached 182 million hectares in early 2014 (Martin 2015). More than 200 million hectares have been FSC certified by 2020 (FSC 2021). The published figures on certified forest area are not directly comparable because of the different reference values (periods of time, definitions, types of certification), but at least one gets an idea of the order of magnitude. It is practically impossible to get at comparable data for the many certification systems that are functional on national and international level. Often the figures do not distinguish between natural and plantation forest certified management. While Blaser et al. (2015) reported 26 million hectares certified in 2014 (Box 2.7) Ehrenberg-Azcárate and Peña-Claros (2020) found in detailed analyses, that 11.8 million hectares of managed natural tropical forests were FSC certified by end of 2015. In any case it is still only the minor part of managed natural tropical forests (Box 2.16). FSC certification is still the leading certification system in the tropics, in particular for natural forests, but apparently struggling.

Box 2.16 The FSC Losing Ground in the Tropics (Martin 2015) When the FSC was established, soon after the Earth Summit in Rio, it focused on sustainable forest management in the tropics. It is disappointing that today only 11% of the globally certified forest areas are in the tropics and subtropics. Tropical forest companies that produce FSC certified timber face great difficulties: the cost of certification, competition from illegal logging, and even attacks from radical groups. A number of them have recently sold their operations, and FSC certification has therefore lost ground to weaker certification schemes and unsustainable and illegal logging.

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The time trends prove a strong growth that led to a peak, followed by a stagnation and a considerable decline in some regions, in a comparison between the time periods 1993–2003 and 2004–2016. The decline is explained by Ehrenberg-Azcárate and Peña-Claros (2020) and Martin (2015). The trends of the last few years show the effect of less accepted higher strictness and cost of FSC certification in competition with other certification systems and because of the severe competition of legally harvested and certified timber with uncertified timber and also with illegally exploited timber. This has even led to termination of a number of FSC certificates. The reputation of FSC as an environmentally oriented certification system as compared to others with different stakeholders also plays a role in the competition between systems. Research   The extent, processes, constraints, and outcomes of forest management certification, in particular in tropical forests, have been studied by scientists from different fields, in growing number. Romero et al. (2013) and Romero et al. (2017) demonstrate how to analyse impact. The studies are often based on evaluations of compliance of concrete certifications with certification standards and of evaluations of Corrective Action Requests (CARs). As the FSC certification is the strictest and most transparent system, with certification results and CARs made public, and thus accessible for evaluation, most evaluations are done for impact and development of FSC certification. Appraisal of Certification  In response to the assumption that poor forest management and deforestation would decline under certified forest management, Bass (2004) draws sobering conclusions: “However, certification so far is only really inducing competition between excellent producers (just above the certified threshold), and good producers (just below the threshold). There are few incentives to cause the really bad producers to change behavior and be certified. Consequently, the worst forestry problems remain little affected by certification”. This early conclusion is confirmed by the findings of Ehrenberg-Azcárate and Peña-Claros (2020). It may be assumed that this restrained valuation is particularly valid with respect to working conditions. 2.1.2.3  Concessions Timber harvesting in tropical forests is done at a large degree under concessions that are utilization contracts with the forest owners. The term concession is often used in a simplistic way for the concession holding business or for the forest area under concession. The contract is valid for a particular Forest Management Unit (FMU), while a business may hold several contracts, also in different countries.10

 “Forest management units are forests managed for timber purposes by legally recognized industrial entities as concessionaires” (Cerutti et al. 2014).

10

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Holding a concession implies in particular the right to harvest timber and also the obligations of the concession holder. The situation of the FMUs under concessions is diverse in many respects, in particular regionally, but also with respect to the situation of workers involved in the related operations, and of course changing over time. The main reason for contracting out of timber harvesting and often also of forest management, in a service contract, is the lack of capacity in most tropical countries (Box 2.17). Box 2.17 Forestry Operations Carried Out Under Concessions (Gray 2002) As owners and administrators of public forest lands, governments can manage public forest lands; harvest timber in their own logging operations; and sell logs to sawmills, pulp mill, and other wood processing plants. […] In most countries, however, governments do not have the capacity, capital, or experience to operate logging operations, to produce other forest products (rattan, resins), or to run other forest services (recreation and ecotourism operations). Instead, most governments choose to contract them out. They may contract out logging operations through sales of standing timber or logging concessions of various types. Contracting out is often more efficient (Leffler and Rucker 1991). […] These countries also may consider contracting out forest management and protection duties to private sector firms, organizations, or communities by means of forest concessions. These concessions would grant harvesting rights to timber but also require the concessionaire to manage and protect the forest.

Concession holding businesses are smaller or bigger, often huge. Van Hensbergen (2018) introduces a recent FAO report on forest concessions: “Concessions have existed for hundreds of years as a means of allocating rights to natural resources. In forestry, concessions are the dominant systems for granting rights to public forests in the boreal and tropical regions”. The report is based on assessments in three regions that found 4% of public forests in Latin America under concessions, 22% in West and Central Africa, and 27% in Southeast Asia. Pantropical figures in ITTO member countries reported 165 million hectares of forests to be subject to long-term timber concessions (Box 2.7). Forest management and operations of timber harvesting as part of it are a prerogative of the forest owner, activities are performed by his agents. If the management is contracted out, it is transferred to a concessionaire. The transferred operations include in addition to felling and conversion of trees, together with the decision about the operation method, also opening up of the forest, e.g. by road construction, and afterwards log transport, and also pre- and post-harvest operations that are connected to the realization of silvicultural concepts. The concessionaires occupy a key position for all management issues with the related ecological and social impacts, including the working conditions. The harvesting operations starts with the first cut that decides about the quality of the future forest stand as mentioned earlier. All this gives the concessionaires the first responsibility for compliance with the standards of SFM.

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The stipulations in the utilization contracts are crucial. Logging made a sunshine industry by the concession holders is to be avoided by contracts and control. Earlier contracts related primarily to amount and quality of wood to be taken, tree species and minimum diameters, and cutting rotation length. Gray (2002) points out advantages and disadvantages of short- and long-term contracts. Making management plans is a basic demand, certification and application of RIL practices are further obligations. The forest policies of the states in the tropics are deciding for adhering to SFM principles and safety regulations of codes of practice, including applications of the practices according to RIL. National laws often demand such stipulations. Social activities also seem to be required and implemented on a growing scale (Karsenty and Ferron 2017), e.g. employment of local workers and a range of socially relevant measures for the communities. Concession businesses may employ workers directly or use sub-contracting companies. For their working conditions employment relations and work organization play a major role. Compliance with legal and contractual requirements is a critical issue. For effective control in many cases also capacity may be lacking, or the political will. After all control of the numbers of trees taken, and the observance of the borders of the concession, to name only two critical issues, are a huge challenge, when it comes to concession areas of several 100.000 hectares. Control measures can of course be contracted out, which is indeed done. Criticism  The main concern, risen in numerous publications, is about the contribution of the concession systems and the actual activities of the concession businesses to reduced impact management and avoiding any destruction of tropical forests. Gray (2002) gives a critical assessment of the experiences (Box 2.18).

Box 2.18 Experiences with Forest Utilization Concessions (Gray 2002) Handing over forest management responsibilities to private sector forest concessions companies has not worked well in the past and has not been very successful in achieving sustainable management of tropical forests […]. Nevertheless, these experiences with forest concessions and the problems encountered with them provide important lessons and the basis for strengthening concessions policies, procedures, and requirements.

The privatization of tropical forests is named as the first out of a list of nine key issues by Gray (2002), because “tropical natural forests have too many nonmarket, environmental, and nontimber public benefits” that would be ignored by the concessionaires as there is no revenue for them. “Privatization is appropriate only for fast-­ growing forest plantations that produce few non-timber, environmental, and biodiversity benefits”. Another issue raised is the functioning of inspection and audit of forest management, through often ill equipped forestry departments and ministries, by staff that is untrained and underpaid.

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Illegal logging going on around and even in approved forest concessions is an issue that Ridder (2015) focuses on, among others (Box 2.19).

Box 2.19 Illegal Logging and Forest Degradation in Concession Forests (Ridder 2015) 1. Illegal logging in and around approved forest concessions Illegal logging in approved concessions takes place because of poor forest governance [Pereira Goncalves et al. 2012]. This problem can be solved with private legality audits by international auditing firms and by forest certification using Forest Stewardship Council or equivalent standards. 2. Forest degradation in approved forest concessions Many commercial tree species harvested during the first logging rotation do not fully recover within a twenty-five- to thirty-year logging cycle [Fayolle et al. 2012]. The consequence is a much poorer harvest volume in the second rotation, unless the market switches to lesser-known species. 3. ‘Informal sector’ logging by small and medium enterprises Small and medium enterprises operate in a legal void because forest policy only covers operations by large enterprises. In many countries the total timber volume exploited by smaller enterprises is many times the volume harvested by the ‘formal’ large concession holders.

Van Hensbergen (2018) raises the question whether the harsh criticism may be justified. Conceding that “many concessions have failed”, the failures of the concession concept criticized are seen as “symptomatic of wider societal problems”, and “failures of forest governance”. Silvicultural treatment that could counteract “the economic extinction of commercially important species” would rarely be practised, as not profitable for long-term investors. Responsibility of Concessionaires for their Workers  The concession businesses are subjects to national law, including the labour law, which regulates employment and working conditions. At the same time, there is a defined legal responsibility of the forest owner, very often the government, as the contract partner. This responsibility includes occupational safety and health (Box 2.20).

Box 2.20 Responsibilities and Duties of Employers as Described in the ILO Code of Practice on Safety and Health in Forestry Work (ILO 1998) 38. Employers are primarily responsible for occupational safety and health in the enterprise. They must take every effort to reduce hazards at, or in the vicinity of, forestry worksites to as low a level as possible. 39. Employers should ensure compliance with all relevant laws, regulations and codes of practice regarding safety and health. They should develop and implement adequate requirements of their own, where laws and regulations have not been enacted.

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40. Employers should initiate and maintain a safety culture in the enterprise, including a system of moral and material rewards and incentives for all personnel involved. […] 45. Employers and commissioning parties contracting out services should promote stability and low rates of turnover among their workers and contractors. 46. When using contractors, the commissioning party should ensure that: (a) the same safety and training requirements apply to the contractors and their workers as to the workers in the enterprise; (b) where required, only such contractors are used that have been duly registered or hold licences; (c) contracts specify safety and health requirements as well as sanctions and penalties in case of non-compliance. Contracts should include the right for supervisors mandated by the commissioning party to stop work whenever a risk of serious injury is apparent and to suspend operations until the necessary remedies have been put in place; (d) contractors who repeatedly violate their contractual obligations are excluded from future bidding.

Certification may contribute to providing measures for safety and health in harvesting operations of concession businesses (Cashore et al. 2006). Implementation is of growing importance, mostly because of external pressure on the concessionaires and demands of governments and communities that are aware of the potential benefits. Research  Publications on concessions in tropical forests mostly refer to forest areas and regulations, and also to national and international policy, perhaps in the sense of lessons learned. Recommendations for design of utilization contracts are given by FAO, among others (van Hensbergen 2018; Borelli et al. 2019). It must be noted that improvements are partly hindered or prevented by the economical competition of concessions businesses with informal and illegal logging, around and even in concession areas. Compliance with regulations and stipulations has been studied, also the impacts of certification and RIL on the social situation, in relation to activities of concession businesses. In particular, impacts on working conditions are included to a certain degree in the sample studies of working conditions in harvesting operations under concessions presented below. 2.1.2.4  Perspectives of Sustainability of Forest Utilization The previous sections include some observed developments of forest destruction and of the situation in timber harvesting under concessions and certification, most of them not surprising, developments going on as long as forest land is not converted to other land uses. The dynamic of forest destruction is clearly detectable,

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also the potentially positive impacts of certification and modern policies regarding concessions. Interest in ecological and economic impact seems to be dominating, but there are some publications on social impacts as well, on working and living conditions. The findings give examples for some positive impacts of certification, also on working conditions. Thus, certification of forest management in the tropics may contribute to social sustainability of timber utilization, as far as this is possible at all. Sustainable management procedures have been developed, tested, and introduced only to a limited degree. The more recent attempts for realizing SFM in the tropical forests propagate more careful harvesting operations, as compared to the destructive operations connected to and mostly stemming from exploitation. All treatment of tropical forests, destructive or sustainable, practised legally or illegally, is based on work input on different levels, as stated before. But the examples from work studies presented in part II only cover a small part of this, mostly including formal employed labour. “Sustainable forest management depends on the sustainable management of human resources as well as natural resources” (Higman et al. 2005). This is certainly true for forest workers in narrow sense. Regarding traditional non-industrial forest utilization, small-scale forestry, or the work of hunters and gatherers we would rather talk about the self-management of own-account work, as seemingly more adequate. While the studies on social impacts include fundamental information about the working and living conditions of workers, who are harvesting timber in tropical forests under concessions, they often do not give basic information about the work systems, about the characteristics of the workforce, the work tasks, the workload and working conditions, as required for full understanding of work studies. The management of production and harvesting of NTFPs may as well be certified (Guariguata et al. 2011; Shanley 2008), but the situation is quite different, and there is little published information.

2.1.3  Agroforestry, Trees Outside Forestry Agroforestry is of outmost importance as the majority of rural population in tropical countries is involved in one way or other. It is a land-use system understood in different ways and appears in a great variety of forms. “Agroforestry is a new name for a set of old practices” (Montagnini and Jordan 2005). Based on old knowledge and expertise of agroforestry there is a modern understanding and development, as explained by the international institute World Agroforestry in Nairobi (ICRAF), the worldwide leading science and development organization on agroforestry. Traditional and newer practices of agroforestry are promoted by ICRAF and by national forestry services and agricultural services as well as by international agencies and NGOs.

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Shifting cultivation co-existed with or followed hunting-gathering as a sustainable forest utilization, practised since time immemorial. It may be considered a traditional form of agroforestry, which developed further into the tradition based practices found today. Expansion of agroforestry as a rule takes place on former forest land, purposefully converted or following forest degradation. Intrusion of a growing population or migrating people may be seen, typically, as an inconspicuous slow process or promoted by authorities. The term agroforestry is obviously used in different ways: the term suggests an understanding as a forest utilization system, while from the agricultural side it is mostly understood as an agricultural system, for the purposeful systematic production of commodities from trees as well as from agricultural activities. The different understanding reflects in the development of the scientific discipline of Agroforestry within the disciplines of Forest and Agricultural Sciences, taken up in Sect. 3.3.3. Definitions  Among the many definitions there are several by Nair, who with his fundamental publications may be seen as one of the protagonists of agroforestry. One of them is quoted in Box 2.21.

Box 2.21 Agroforestry Definition by Nair (1994) Agroforestry is the purposeful growing of trees and crops in interacting combinations for a variety of objectives. Although such farming practices have been used throughout the world for a long time, agroforestry attained prominence as a land-use practice only during the late 1970s. Acting as an interface between agriculture and forestry, agroforestry today is considered to be a promising approach to land use especially in the developing countries of the tropics and subtropics.

Nair emphasizes in his publications focuses on the social and ecological aspects and the sustainable productivity of plants, perhaps also of animals, with low technical input, and on marginal land. Another definition, by World Agroforestry (ICRAF), focuses on the different tree-crops and products to be harvested (Box 2.22).

Box 2.22 What Is Agroforestry? (World Agroforestry 2021)

Agroforestry is defined as ‘agriculture with trees’. But it is so much more. Agroforestry is the interaction of agriculture and trees, including the agricultural use of trees. This includes trees on farms and in agricultural landscapes, farming in forests and along forest margins and tree-crop production, including cocoa, coffee, rubber and oil palm. Interactions between trees and other components of agriculture may be important at a range of scales: in fields (where trees and crops are grown together), on farms (where trees may provide fodder for livestock, fuel, food, shelter or income from products including timber) and landscapes (where agricultural and forest land uses combine in determining the provision of ecosystem services).

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Practices  Muschler (2016) describes twenty agroforestry practices. Six are named here, selected because they provide traditional forest products like wood and woodfuel: • • • • • •

Improved Fallows Taungya Homegardens Fuelwood Production Forest Farming Apiculture with Trees on Farmland

“The term ‘improved’ fallow refers to a system in which the fallow vegetation includes crop or tree species that have been selected and planted, or favored, by man. […] the ultimate result is the transformation of a shifting cultivation system to one of permanent cultivation” (Muschler 2016). The tree products include poles and firewood, but also medical and edible products. Taungya  A well-known type of agroforestry is Taungya (Box 2.23), where low crops are planted among the trees during the first three years after planting. Box 2.23 Characteristics of Taungya (Muschler 2016) Taungya systems, derived from the Burmese words taung (hill) and ya (cultivation), refer to the practice of intercropping young forest stands with agricultural crops as long as the trees permit adequate crop growth (Jordan et al. 1992). Once the trees have grown enough to establish crown closure and larger root systems, usually after 3-5 years depending on the tree species, planting arrangement, and growth conditions, the conditions for the agricultural crops become marginal. The integration of the crops allows deriving early income at a time when the trees are still too young to yield products, and the crop management, particularly weeding and fertilization, will also benefit the trees. This system, originally developed in British colonial India in the 1850s, is now widely used in many parts of the tropics to establish forest plantations. Some of the most widely used timber species include Eucalyptus spp., Gmelina arborea, Pinus spp., Shorea robusta, Tectona grandis, Terminalia, and others (Schlönvoigt 1998; Nair 1993). In some regions, this system is used to promote the establishment of forest plantations by providing the benefits of temporary land use to the farmers who care for the annual crops. One successful example is the ‘forest village’ scheme in Thailand, which combines the land-use benefits during the early phases of crop planting with a permanent allocation of agricultural plots to former shifting cultivators (Boonkird et al. 1984).

Montagnini and Jordan (2005) describes a number of frequently used agroforestry systems and functions (Box 2.24) and also deals with the establishment of agroforestry systems. It is stressed, that this should not be done instead of natural forests, but then it must be seen as contradictionary that in the same paragraph forest clearing is mentioned.

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Box 2.24 Practices of Agroforestry (Montagnini and Jordan 2005) Agroforestry systems are used in a variety of different ecological and economic conditions. […] However, their greatest potential to increase productivity and sustainability of production systems is in degraded areas, in regions with soils of low fertility, or in semi-arid regions. Also, agroforestry systems have a potential to increase sustainability of agriculture and income to small farmers who lack adequate infrastructure or technical resources. […] While agroforestry systems can be profitable if established immediately after forest clearing, they often require a number of years to become profitable when established on degraded lands. […] Agroforestry systems cannot provide the same niches as the original forests and should never be promoted as a conservation tool at the expense of natural forest.

In any case specific knowledge is needed for practising the operations, like selection of tree species along with the agricultural plants, plant raising, planting, tending, and harvesting. All this also means work input and an impact on the roles of men and women, aspects covered, e.g., by Kiptot and Franzel (2012). Trees Outside Forests  FRA 2015 (FAO 2016) stresses the role of trees outside forests (Box 2.25), which are often not clearly distinguishable from forest trees in remote sensing images. In any case single trees are not represented in the areas named in the quotation that thereby may be seen as an underestimation of the importance. The trees are sources of tree products and services, and of income. This is based on work input, which is certainly not forest work in a proper sense, but rather to be considered work in agroforestry. Box 2.25 Trees Planted Outside Forests (FAO 2016) While not technically considered as forest according to the standard forest definition used by FAO and many other international organizations, trees outside forests are a valuable source of many products and services found in forests. In some countries they provide critical supplies of wood, fruits and other non-wood forest products. For FRA 2015 the area of trees outside forests was reported to be 280 million ha in 2015, which is an increase from the 246 million ha reported for 1990; however, only 84 countries representing 51% of global forest area reported on this variable.

Long and Nair (1999) points out the obvious connection between agroforestry practices and cultivating Trees Outside Forests (TOF), whereby different views are showing, that of forestry and that of agroforestry (Box 2.26).

Box 2.26 Connection Between Agroforestry Practices and Trees Outside Forests (Long and Nair 1999) Contrary to popular perception, trees and forestry are not synonymous; trees alone do not make up forests, and trees are not only found in forests. […]

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During the past decades, we have witnessed a dramatic increase in interest in such ‘trees outside forests’ and, as a consequence, the emergence of a myriad of terms and ideas to represent the concept. […] Agroforestry, community forestry, farm forestry, and urban forestry are the most important among the terms that have become prominent among those representing small-scale tree planting efforts.

Kapp and Manning (2014) looks at land management systems at the interface between forestry and agriculture and also points out the role of trees outside forests over time. The authors describe the worldwide importance in earlier times under the domain of agroforestry, which was common in now industrialized countries as well. They also allude to the role of trees outside forests (Box 2.27). They are of growing importance for serving the needs for tree products as well as traditional forest products, mostly on local level. Therefore, planting trees on farmland is widely propagated (FAO 2016). Box 2.27 Relevance of Tree Growing and Agroforestry (Kapp and Manning 2014) Trees cultivated on agricultural land are playing an ever more significant role in rural development while at the same time also providing a range of ecosystem services such as soil protection, biodiversity conservation and greater carbon sequestration. All over the world, at the interface between forestry and agriculture, a wide variety of agroforestry systems are being implemented as a means to provide much needed wood of different dimensions and qualities, other non-timber forest products as well as animal and agricultural crop produce. In most industrialised countries wood production and agriculture are neatly separated between departments in public administrations and in land-use systems on the ground. There are some overarching reasons for this. Modern agriculture generally produces much higher benefits per hectare and year, but it needs fertile sites, predominantly on flat land easily accessible to machines. Over time this has led to the situation that forests are principally confined to mountains, less fertile, dry or wet areas. Yet a glance at many landscapes reveals that trees are not confined to forests and that in fact the agricultural-pastoral landscapes contain quite a lot of trees, scattered in little groves, lines, hedges or plantations, and that in many, often degraded forests, livestock grazes and browses and shifting agriculture is still practised. Due to the fact that in many temperate countries agroforestry systems were more abundant in the past, some people tend to conclude that agroforestry is an outdated remnant of the past. This is certainly not the case. Spread all over the world, agroforestry systems are constantly adapted to the prevailing demands and the framework conditions of changing societies.

The quotation mentions the perception of agroforestry in industrialized countries that changed in history (Kapp and Manning 2014).

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Research  While the index of publications on the ICRAF homepage lists more than 11.000 references, there seem to be large white areas on the map of agroforestry research. The focus of most descriptions of agroforestry is on the components and the functioning of the systems and the ecological and economic implications. With regard to the related operations only possible technical improvements and different input of work hours for specific work tasks and modifications are found, at best. The working conditions of the working people are seldom considered. Ergonomic aspects, workload, safety and health, and socio-economic issues are even more seldom found, as the research related to forest and in particular to agricultural work is more engaged in mechanized systems. Early descriptions of ergonomic issues of agroforestry were given by Mueller-Darss (1982, 1983) and (Staudt 1988)—an internet search finds no later publications. The issues of competence and knowledge needed at the level of operations of agroforestry systems are widely missing.

2.1.4  Plantation Forestry Plantation forests in the tropics and subtropics are mostly high-yield short-rotation plantations with a limited number of exotic softwood or hardwood species for industrial mass use (Pancel 2016a). Others are established for production of precious timber with native hardwood species, and also for other purposes. Most plantation forests use one species, but there are also mixed species plantations (Pancel 2016b) that may have ecological advantages (Bauhus et al. 2017). In plantation forestry some form of sustainable management may be possible, with regard to economic, environmental, and social continuity, under certain conditions. This is demonstrated with sample studies by Montagnini and Jordan (2005). Direct conversion of the natural forests to plantation forestry in the first instance is abandoning SFM and should not be done. “A key principle of good forest stewardship is that forest plantations for timber production are only located on already cut-­ over, abandoned, or waste land and in this way can actually help deflect pressure away from natural forest. However, the subject is not quite as simple since many forests have enjoyed enrichment by planting or have arisen through tree-planting operations, such as many ‘natural’ forests in France, Germany, and elsewhere” (Ghazoul and Evans 2004). Definitions  Regeneration by planting, also by sowing, is the basic criterion of definition of plantation forests. “It is common to differentiate further between ‘industrial’ plantations, which are established totally or partly to produce wood for industry, mainly sawlogs, veneer logs, pulpwood and mining timbers; and ‘non-­ industrial’ plantations established for one or more of the following objectives: fuelwood, wood for charcoal, wood for domestic consumption, non-wood products, and soil protection. It is not always possible to differentiate rigidly between these types of plantations” (Evans and Turnbull 2004).

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According to Pancel (2016a) main goals for plantation forestry are generating income for the national economy from large-scale plantations, plantations assuring continuous water discharge and detaining soil erosion, and village-based plantations to cover household needs. “Generally, forest plantations are relatively simple production systems, usually even-aged monocultures, mostly managed to optimize the yield of wood from a site, protect or reclaim an environment and provide benefits and/or amenities that are important to the community” (Onyekwelu et al. 2011). Mostly trees of fast-­growing, non-native species are planted. The dominating genera are pine and eucalypt, but also “the valuable luxury hardwoods such as teak (Tectona grandis), mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), and rosewood (Dalbergia spp.), have been established to meet anticipated shortages of log supplies from natural forests in the future. However, there is uncertainty about the actual extent of these plantations” (Montagnini and Jordan 2005). There are differences of ownership and practice of establishment. Very often plantations are set up on large estates by governments or wood industry or enterprises of agricultural industry. Plantation forests may also be grown on a smaller scale, by communities or private land owners. Different types and methods of establishment of plantation forests are described in Sect. 5.1, followed by the related operations of planting as well as pruning and harvesting operations. Availability of Land  Establishment of plantation forests is often seen as a means to take pressure from natural tropical forests, which ideally would be done in the place of deforested and degraded forests (Pancel 2016a). Obviously there is a shortage of available land and competition with other land uses, in particular agriculture and agroforestry. According to forecasts the growing timber demand cannot and will not be coped fully from plantations forests. Pancel (2016a) concludes: “Pressure on natural forests will steadily increase”. Forests may be planted after destruction or degradation of natural forests or when agricultural is abandoned in areas of converted natural forest. Less frequently natural forests are directly converted into planted forests, which should be avoided, as much as possible (Bruenig 2017). Certification  There are good reasons for special attention to plantation forests in forest management certification, performed according to FSC and PEFC standards (Bass 2004). FSC had already decided in 1995 to “allow for plantation certification, with the exception of any plantation established as a result of forest conversion after November 1994”, and revised its Principles and Criteria regarding certification after a well-documented broad process of debate (FSC 2012). This concludes: “Certified plantations also have to respect a range of social indicators, including the long-term social and economic well-being of forest workers and local communities, respect for indigenous and worker rights, and safe working conditions. Plantations are often large rural employers, making certification an important means for ensuring that benefits from forestry operations pass on to workers. […] Meeting certification standards often means that workers are better paid”.

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Controversies  Plantation forests are defined by the establishment through planting. Sometimes the term planted forests is used as a synonym. The scientific and political stakeholders struggle already for long time, but do not agree on any definition, as public opinion as well as politically motivated programmes of rural development partly depend on the different definitions and functions attributed to plantation forests. According to the definition by FAO plantation forests in the tropics are considered forests, which is contested by some NGOs (Cossalter and Pye-Smith 2003). There is the controversy about the concept underlying the definition by FAO, as products, especially NTFPs, and services from these plantation forests and from natural forests are only partly the same. Also the ecological and the traditional social functions of the natural forests are not provided in the same way. The use of genetically modified trees is controversial as well. The differences of definitions of plantation forests in the North and the South refer to the closeness to nature of plantation forests and natural forests. In the North, also because of the slower growth and longer rotation periods, these plantation forests often resemble the local natural forests and the public is more used to them.11 In the FSC principles and criteria planted forests in the northern temperate zones are considered as natural forests (FSC 2015). The reservations above arise about the plantation forests in the South, whereas in the North, where planting forest trees has been started much earlier, also often after forest degradation, the controversies are different. They more recently emphasize strongly the reduction of biodiversity in planted forests of the actually dominating types. The aspect of sustainable employment is also part of the controversy about the benefits of forest plantations (Cossalter and Pye-Smith 2003). Of course there is no work to be done in a single plantation stand during all the life-cycle, as it is mainly planting and harvesting. Here the concept of normal or ideal forest can be helpful for understanding, which was developed 200 years ago by the German researcher Hundeshagen (Gadow 2001): If you establish in a plantation forest stands with a twenty-year rotation on 100  ha every year a plot of 5  ha, you will have, after 20 years, every year the full scope of tasks on the total 20 plots, each year all operations from planting to harvesting in one stand, at least during the respective work season. Plantation Area  Today large areas are covered with plantation forests, according to FAO (2016) worldwide 291 million ha out of 4.000 million ha of forest land. The specified areas differ greatly according to the definitions taken as a basis.12 Therefore, it is very difficult to compare the published data. Furthermore, their quality is different, as often data are not available or the sources are weak, and then data are supple These plantation forests in the North are also called semi-natural forests (Barua et al. 2014).  FAO nowadays includes, e.g., rubber trees, which were not included earlier (Montagnini and Jordan 2005; Onyekwelu et al. 2011).

11 12

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mented by estimations. The Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) of 2015 (Box 2.28), published by FAO, gives detailed figures and includes trends of change since 1990 (FAO 2016). Box 2.28 Area and Distribution of Plantation Forests in the World (FAO 2016) Planted forest area has increased by over 105 million ha since 1990 and accounts for 7% of the world’s forest area. The average annual rate of increase between 1990 and 2000 was 3.6 million ha. […] The largest area of planted forests is found in the temperate domain, accounting for 150 million ha, followed by the tropical and boreal domains with almost 60 million ha each. Over the last 25 years the area of planted forest has increased in all climatic domains.

Nearly 60 million ha of plantation forests have been established in the tropics, mostly for timber production, starting at different times, some already in the 1800s. In addition, there are 20 million ha in subtropical regions, in particular in Argentine, Australia, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa, and the USA. Pancel (2016a) states: “Available land is a decisive factor in all future forest projections and plantation development”. Following this quotation, reference is made to the estimates of potentially available land and of the areas of yearly replanting in plantation forests. It is obviously difficult to relate the areas to tropics and subtropics in data given by nation, like in the FRA 2015 (FAO 2016), as plantation forests in some countries are located both in tropical and subtropical regions, while parts of the huge plantations areas in Chína are also located in the temperate zone. Plantation forest areas according to FRA 2015 in Africa, Asia, and South and Central America, which mostly belong to tropical regions, were recorded as follows: Africa Asia South America Central America

16 million ha 129 million ha 15 million ha 0.3 million ha

There are many countries13 with important areas of mostly tropical and subtropical plantation forests according to FRA 2015:

 The countries have primarily been selected because of their relevance for work studies in Part II, listed in alphabetical order.

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2.1 Subsistence Forest Utilization, Exploitation, and Sustainability Brazil Chile China India Indonesia Malaysia New Zealand South Africa Tanzania Turkey USA

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7.7 million ha 3.0 million ha 79.0 million ha 12.0 million ha 5.0 million ha 2.0 million ha 2.0 million ha 1.7 million ha 0.3 million ha 3.4 million ha 26.4 million ha

Living and Working Conditions  Plantations may provide employment and income or resources for living of the local population, including woodfuel. In spite of the small share of plantation forests global of 7% of the global forest land the share of formal employment in forest work is high, in absolute figures. Working conditions may be decent in any type of plantation forests, if work is organized accordingly. Ofoegbu (2014) gives detailed insight into the living situation around industrial plantation forests, based on a study in the north of South Africa (Sect. 5.1). A comparison between the situation of living and working conditions around plantation forests with the situation before the establishment of the plantation forests would include questions like: Was it undisturbed traditional utilization of natural forests, or have there been disturbances before, which made up the starting situation for plantation establishment. And what could have been an alternative? The comparison would include living and working conditions in agriculture and around plantations of non-forest trees, e.g. with rubber or palm trees, especially oil palms. Generally, many forest products and services, serving for livelihoods provided earlier in natural forests, are not provided by the plantation forests anymore. Forest Work Studies  In some of the tropical and subtropical countries with important areas of plantation forests, work studies have been undertaken and published, where relevant research institutes have been established, e.g. in Brazil, Chile, South-­ East Asia, in Africa notably in Eastern African countries and South Africa. More research has been done in cooperation with researchers from industrialized countries, or by them only. Concluding Remarks on Plantation Forests  “Profitable plantations risk undermining the perceived value of natural forest and may accelerate conversion of these to plantations. If the primary cause behind deforestation is the conversion of land for agricultural development it is unlikely that plantations will reduce deforestation. However, tree plantations do offer an opportunity to reduce the pressure on natural forests if the latter are exploited primarily for wood products” (Ghazoul and Evans 2004).

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Sometimes there are patchworks of plantation forests and natural forests. Plantation forests in the tropics have much in common with those in the subtropics, but less with those in the temperate zones. Older plantations may resemble natural forests. Plantation forests in the tropics and subtropics mostly belong to timber producing industrialized forestry. Most of them are even-aged monocultures of fast-­ growing trees, with short-rotation periods, and in terms of timber volume more productive than natural forests.

2.1.5  Forest Products Work in the tropical forests aims at providing forest products and services. Work tasks and methods, also the working conditions, are closely related to the utilization of specific forest products and the ways they are harvested. The working conditions during the utilization of NTFPs and timber are very different. The extent of knowledge though, at least of that published, is quite different for the different products, in particular for wood and non-wood products. Little is known about character of work and working hours related to forest services that are not further included in this book. Traditionally timber utilization was considered primary utilization, while NTFPs and woodfuel were often named minor products. This tradition mirrors the view from industrialized countries and is not justified regarding utilization of tropical forests in terms of work input, volume, and value. The extent of use of timber and woodfuel worldwide is roughly of the same size, so woodfuel obviously is far from a minor forest product. The respective volumes used differ between the tropical countries. The different wood products serve a huge variety of end uses, but in any case the wood use starts with harvesting operations in the forests that are in the centre of consideration here. The operations and the related tasks and work demands again are of great variety, on small scale and industrial level, depending on the stand and tree properties and the technical level of operations. 2.1.5.1  Non-Timber Forest Products Traditional subsistence utilization of the tropical forests widely consisted of retrieval of non-wood products, besides woodfuels and construction wood of small size. They were and still are of very different relevance according to user groups and utilized products. Forest products were commonly termed wood and non-wood products as mentioned above. The latter are called Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) or Non-­ Wood Forest Products (NWFPs). The bearings of the terms need explanation as NTFPs and NWFPs are defined and used in different ways in scientific literature and in documents from international agencies like FAO and ILO. This is traced in

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detail by Shackleton et al. (2011a) in their book Non-timber Forest Products in the Global Context. The authors are explaining the rationale for the use of the two terms. They also give examples, where the different meanings make fundamental differences between findings of research projects. The question whether to subsume woodfuels under NTFPs or NWFPs, or not, is relevant, e.g., for task specific statistics. For this reason, each publication should give a clear information about the underlying understanding (Shackleton et  al. 2011b). They justify their own use of the term NTFP, in particular the exclusion of woodfuels from NTFPs, though many chapters of the book by Shackleton et  al. (2011a) refer to woodfuels. As a rule, in this book also the term NTFP is used, except for some quotations. Non-Industrial Utilization  NTFPs in pre-colonial times assumedly have been utilized on a sustainable scale, in most cases. They are today still of major importance in non-industrial forest utilization. Ticktin and Shackleton (2011) state that the number of different uses, and plant species used, from pre-colonial times to date is in the tens of thousands, belonging to quite different categories. They served and serve as a safety net and today very much for cash generation. The authors describe the differences in seasonal availability of different NTFPs, which means, that some products nicely fit the schedule of agricultural work, others less so. Pretzsch (2014) names as important non-wood products “the ‘five or six f’ referring to firewood, fruits, fodder, fiber, food and fertilizer”, and add the cosmic and religious values. Wiersum repeatedly dealt with NTFP production systems. Practices range from uncontrolled gathering in natural forests to controlled extraction from enriched forests, to production in mixed arboriculture and agriculture as well as purposeful regeneration in plantations (Wiersum et al. 2013). Industrial Utilization and Production  The interests of the colonizers in NTFPs were different. They often took single selected products only that all have their own history of exploitation. To this day exploitation of NTFPs is a cause of deforestation. There were quite a number of booms of exploitation of specific products, of different length. E.g. brazilwood or paubrasilia, name giving to the state of Brazil, has been depleted already soon after beginning of the colonization. A famous, or infamous, example is the Amazon rubber boom, characterized by benefiting rubber barons and suffering indigenous people. The murder of the unionist and activist Chico Mendes in 1988 may be recalled in this context. A significant event, ending the Brazilian rubber monopoly, with pantropical consequences, was the smuggling of seeds of Hevea brasiliensis out of Brazil and the subsequent cultivation of rubber in other tropical regions. Another example is described by Whitmore (1990): “around the turn of the twentieth century the Malayan rain forest was treated to increase the abundance of Palaquium gutta (Sapotaceae) because there was a strong market for its latex, gutta-­ percha, which was used as the insulator in submarine telegraph cables”.

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Wiersum et al. (2013) describe stages of the NTFP exploitation in tropical forests and the forest conversion to crop plantations. Pretzsch (2014): “The diversity of forest uses of pre-colonial times was replaced by an orientation towards the production of a small number of commercial crops for export, including coffee, cacao, oil palm and rubber. […] Forests were also seen as a land reserve for mainly plantation production. The forest use rights of the local population were drastically reduced. Following the Roman tradition, private property land titles were introduced. Minsch (1992) referred to this as dominium”. The role of the different crop plantations replacing natural forests is different in the tropical countries. Overall the largest areas have been covered by oil palm plantations. Sayer (2015) entitles his contribution to the report for the Club of Rome (Martin 2015), The Oil Palm: Threat to Conservation, Opportunity for Poor People. The conflicts of monocultural crop plantations, replacing natural forests, with plants that traditionally delivered NTFPs in the forests are in an exemplary way illustrated in his valuation of oil palm plantations (Box 2.29). Box 2.29 About the Opportunities of Oil Palm Plantations (Sayer 2015) So, is the oil palm an inherently bad crop? Absolutely not. The oil palm is one of the most profitable crops that can be grown on the poor soils of the humid tropics. It produces more value per hectare than any other industrial crop. It also has a better carbon balance than other crops that might be grown in the same areas, and it survives with less pesticide and fertilizer use than other crops. The oil palm also yields fruit throughout the year and requires a lot of unskilled labor. So if rainforests have to be replaced by anything, then the oil palm may be the least bad option. The oil palm has the added advantage that it is very well adapted to smallholder farmers.

Work  The tasks and the working conditions in the utilization of NTFPs, on non-­ industrial as well as industrial level, are different from those in timber harvesting, with a large share of manual work. Examples of studies on NTFP harvesting are included in Chap. 7.

2.1.5.2  Woodfuels Woodfuels have been and still are the major source of energy in the developing countries, supposedly for 2.4 billion people, because they are available and affordable. Before industrialization they were used everywhere in the world where available. There is still a noteworthy use of woodfuels in the industrialized countries, but ways of use and provision have changed (Zerbe 2004). The fundamental need of energy for cooking and heating is acknowledged by the Social Development Goal 7 of the United Nations (FAO 2018). Basic sources of knowledge about the amounts and central role of woodfuels include several issues of the reports on The State of the World’s Forests, in particular FAO (2014 and 2018).

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Firewood make about two-thirds of woodfuels, the other third is charcoal (Zerbe 2004), regionally of very different importance. Other sources of energy, of negligible extent, are, e.g., dung and crop residues, though they may be important locally. Firewood and charcoal stems from trees in or outside the forests, from natural as well as plantation forests, some also from residues of wood industry. Briquettes and pellets from chips or dust also have a local importance (Njenga 2012). The third reason often claimed for the importance of woodfuels, besides being available and affordable, is being a reliable resource in particular for poor rural and urban people in developing countries, but the reliability certainly is debatable today. It is claimed that plantation forests can produce cheap fuelwood and construction timber, which would take pressure off natural tropical forests. But the creation of plantation forests is insufficient for the foreseeable future (Ridder 2015). Because of the mere quantity woodfuels have a crucial role within utilization of tropical forests. Sustainable use and deforestation through overuse as well as illegal exploitation are big issues, in particular around urban conglomerations (Ghazoul and Evans 2004) Charcoal has a very inefficient energetic yield of the raw material. The contribution of charcoal production to forest destruction is assumed to be smaller than that of firewood utilization (Martin 2015), because of the type of wood used and the concentrated use, in terms of place and time. The huge amount of woodfuel produced means very much work for different people involved—how much is quite difficult to tell. Firewood is provided by household-level work for use in own and in other households, in particular for urban households. This results in trading and transport, as already illustrated in Box 1.1. It is different for charcoal that partly is produced on industrial scale. The operations for harvesting, respectively, for production, transport, and trade of woodfuels, to be presented in sample studies (Chap. 7), rely on a big share of manual work. 2.1.5.3  Timber Youngs (2004) gives an overview of the wood uses and trade from historical times to the present day. Industrial use of wood is in this section subsumized under timber in a simplistic way. Clearly products from industrially used wood comprise a wide range of different degrees of processing, from products of solid wood like roundwood to sawn wood and wood based materials or engineered wood products, and wood pulp, with more or less dissolved wood structure. Dealing with timber utilization in tropical forests in the preceding parts of this chapter often is focused on retrieval of large logs of precious wood for export to industrialized countries, from natural forests, which is today mostly done under concession systems. Many publications from the perspective of activities of forestry refer to this specific utilization, referring to harvesting technology, RIL, silvicultural stand treatment, sustainable management systems, or illegal logging. Probably the main reason for the attention the topic of export of precious woods enjoys lies in the connection with destruction of natural tropical forests, as far as attributable to timber harvesting and exploitation.

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The exploitation of the natural forests for precious woods is well known that began in times of colonization. Mostly very big logs were taken from the tropical forests of all colonized countries, to various extents. First few species were popular, because of their technical as well as ornamental nature. They all have their specific history of exploitation. E.g. teak was taken early in British colonies in South Asia, and regulation of utilization started already in the nineteenth century. The exploitation of precious woods is worldwide going on in many places, where resources are still left, but meanwhile the number of species used is greater, including earlier lesser-known species. These earlier lesser used species are now also taken for production of industrial mass products. But it must be stressed, that the major part of timber utilization in tropical forests is done for local markets, providing of mass products, from natural forests as well as from plantation forests. This is mirrored in the contents of the sample studies of part II related to timber harvesting.

2.2  Work for Forest Utilization The first questions in task analysis are, for good reasons, about the who and the what, characterizing the assignment of work tasks to the workers, as many aspects from motivation to performance and job satisfaction as well as working conditions are depending on it. Besides forest products, income from employment is the main asset tropical forests provide non-industrial forest users with, as well as those performing industrial forest work in natural forests and plantation forestry.

2.2.1  Work Tasks All utilization and management of tropical forests are based on human work. People are employed with this work in many ways. Forest work scientists, among others, are worried that this work is decent work, as “without decent jobs and livelihoods, forest management is not sustainable” (Blombäck and Poschen 2003). Also ILO (2019) stresses the need of decent work, not just of any employment (Box 2.30), as already introduced in Sect. 1.5.

Box 2.30 The Need for Decent Work in Forestry (ILO 2019) Global policy agendas acknowledge the important role that forests play in poverty alleviation, job creation, food security, action on climate change and biodiversity conservation, among others. Despite its potential to promote growth and employment in rural areas, forestry is among the most hazardous sectors for workers, often characterized by decent work deficits including high incidence of informality, occupational safety and health risks, and the lack of social protection.

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All phases of development of forest utilization were based on work of somebody, of forest dwellers, people in subsistence utilization, living in or near forests, and later also of forest workers, foresters, and forest managers. Similar to the variety of forests there was and is diverse work, with diverse working situations. Some they have in common, others are greatly differing. In the subsistence economy the single work tasks of forest users, making up the subsistence forest work, belong in a natural way to the related activities such as hunting and gathering or shifting cultivation. Obviously working conditions depend very much on forms of work organization, and employment and work relations. Following, the outline of utilization and management of tropical forests, therefore, it will be asked, who is doing which work tasks (the what) in tropical forests, to which purposes, according to the task analysis as proposed by Hollnagel (2012). Further questions include how the work is organized and how the working conditions are. Making a living is in any case the purpose of the work in tropical forests, be it in a household or community in the case of subsistence economy, or be it in an organization as in the case of industrial forestry. Which tasks are carried out in the first place depends on the type of forest product and on the method of production. This is leading to the single work operation, like tree felling or collecting honey. The operation methods again depend on work traditions and on the technological state as well as on the availability of tools and machines, and of course on the economic situation, which is to a high degree related to the cost of labour. Separate task analyses would be required for analysis, distinguishing between the forest products, which are industrial timber NTFPs and woodfuels. For a systematic work analysis three scenarios are defined (Sect. 4.3.1), allowing for the differences between work for industrial wood utilization from natural forests and in plantation forests, and work for non-industrial utilization of natural forests, including agroforestry. In these scenarios one finds very different issues and conditions of work, but also some they have in common. Wood production in plantation forests (scenario 1) is obviously based on planting, tending, and harvesting. The main tasks for industrial wood retrieval from natural stands (scenario 2) are planning, opening up of the forest, felling and processing, and transport and tending of the remaining stand. Utilization of NTFPs may be very extensive and include gathering, processing, storing and transport, and may be supported by multiplying the number of resource trees or other plants by enrichment planting. Harvesting NTFPs is performed by employed and self-employed people, most of it in non-industrial utilization in natural forests (scenario 3). All this means human work, on different levels of forest management, but certainly on that of execution, the workers’ level. Task analysis, in a simplified view, reveals: The forester plans, organizes and supervises and, e.g., performs inventories for selective cutting of trees of precious species, while the worker executes the operations. On small-scale level planning and executing may even be done by the same person. Throughout this book the focus is on the level of execution of forest operations, not much regarding the levels of planning and control.

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The tasks of the workers and the connected working conditions in the different types of forest utilization will be further analysed and illustrated using selected examples of work studies in Part II. The tasks are also dealt with in connection with time allocation studies and on an individual level in job profiles. Not all work in tropical forests described above is done according to the principles of SFM, even in formal employment and contracting work. Also subsistence forest utilization may be not sustainable, if resources are overused, e.g. when rotation periods in shifting cultivation become too short. Illegal logging and utilization of NTFPs certainly are not sustainable either. Work is done under tough working conditions in formal as well as in informal and illegal work, but the latter is not considered any further. The tasks will be performed well, if foresters and workers are motivated, well educated, skilled and well equipped, and work under good working conditions. This is the basic credo of forest work scientists. Resuming Observations  In the management of tropical forests we find, as compared to temperate forests, many differences: In many regions NTFPs play a dominant role. We observe, e.g., community forestry and specific forms of participatory management and social dialogue. We observe forest workers in narrow sense as well as forest dwellers, gatherers and hunters, traditional forest users as said above, and we observe specific working conditions in agroforestry. Because of this large variety chances of transfer of ergonomic knowledge gained in forestry in industrialized countries are limited. In traditional forest utilization, for subsistence and some limited marketing, practically everybody of the forest dwellers, females and males of all age groups, is involved in the work in the forests and would work as much as needed, according to the season. There is labour division and specialization according to gender and age groups, depending on traditions and abilities. The non-industrial forest users are as a rule own-account workers or contributing family workers. But today more and more members of the local populations also have a wage employment. With transition of the local societies to market economies and people harvesting for a narrow or distant market carriers and middlemen from outside turned up, who, typically, would be working in the informal sector and self-employed, but could have subcontractors or employees. In the management of tropical forests, we find many differences to that of today’s temperate forests. Quite often NTFPs play a dominant role. We observe, e.g., community forestry and specific forms of participatory management and social dialogue. We observe forest workers in narrow sense as well as forest dwellers, gatherers and hunters, traditional forest users as explicated above, and we observe specific working conditions in agroforestry. For the understanding of the issues of work in tropical forests one must, therefore, regard the following issues, and the questions of who has the knowledge and who studies it:

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• The worker: what is his or her gender, age, anthropometric characteristics, ethnicity, education, and training? • The employment: contract form, formal or informal? • The job and tasks: what are work objects and methods? • The working environment: what are the natural and social conditions? • The work organization: what structure, who decides about it? • The work design: who is doing the work design? All aspects listed have an impact on the working conditions of those working in tropical forests, therefore have to be examined in work study and used for interpretation of results. Some working conditions are found in work in forestry for industrial use the same as for subsistence work, like those based on the natural environment or like day-length. Those stemming from use of pesticides or fertilizers and the organizational and social working conditions in turn are quite different in formal and informal employment, as they depend on directions of the employers or are negotiated structural features of work. The social working conditions also to a high degree go back to the traditions in a society, corporate culture, or community or on other levels of society. Therefore, the full range of working conditions in tropical forests must be looked at as will be done in Parts II and III. SFM for industrial wood utilization in natural forests on the workers’ level is done by contractors or forest workers formally or informally employed by companies taking concessions (Sect. 2.1.5.3). They do mostly opening up of the forests, tree felling and conversion, and transport work, often staying in camps in remote areas. Local labour, also from indigenous and tribal peoples, is hired for a season or a concession area or other temporary job. They would remain forest users for their own use to some degree, at the same time. Or the companies bring in workers from outside, which is a specific form of migration, labour migration. There may be other jobs connected, like catering in the logging camps. Similarly, all work in plantation forestry, from planting to tending, pruning, harvesting and transport, is done by directly employed labour or by contracting companies, using local or foreign labour, with big differences between different countries. Use of NTFPs may also belong to SFM in natural forests. It may be very extensive and include gathering, processing, storing, and transport, but also enrichment by multiplying the number of resource trees or other plants.

2.2.2  Working People Who Works?  Foresters and authors of forestry textbooks sometimes tend to forget, that all operations in forest management are resulting from human work on different levels: worker, forester, manager. All too often we read that a machine is

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doing this or that job: “After the site is cleared, ploughed, and harrowed, the tractor-­ drawn planting machine does the following operations: (i) ploughs a furrow… ”(Evans and Turnbull 2004).14 A work scientist of course has a different view: the operations are done by a worker or machine operator using a machine. This example demonstrates the power of an author to define terminology and diction, which in this case shows the affinity to technology rather than to human work. Foresters are involved in the forest utilization in many ways, from exploring and inventories to managing the logging operations. In utilization of natural tropical forests, they thereby may often enough contribute to exploitation, consciously or unconsciously, and have a responsibility. Their interventions, when forest management was done systematically, with the aim of SFM, followed paradigms and methods of European forestry, experiences and views, as exemplified in detail by Bruenig (2017) for Sarawak or Usher (2009) for Thailand. This includes in the last decades the attempts of implementation of RIL for reducing forest destruction. The term employment is used here in a broad sense, referring to people being occupied by work tasks. In a narrow sense of the term it would consider people belonging to the workforce, people employed by an employer, or being unemployed. Large parts of the populations of the tropical countries perform traditional own-­account work in the forests and their surroundings, working for their livelihood, utilizing the forest resources. As this type of work is not done in the form of employment by formal professional forest workers, time allocation research sheds light on their employment, goals, and tasks. Job profiles as usually used for informative of the work of forest workers do not apply to them. In the course of time, over the last five centuries, after beginning of colonization, the former local populations have changed through decimation and displacement. Population groups have migrated and mixed and new ones have emerged—phenomena that also occurred before but gained new scales and speed. Also their ways of living and using the forests have changed. Today in some regions indigenous and tribal peoples are still living and using the forest resources in subsistence utilization, more or less adapted to the changes. Not many are still hunting and gathering or practising shifting cultivation, but many are engaged in agroforestry, agro-pastoral as well as horticultural activities. Working Hours  The time working people spend with their work is of basic relevance for their well-being. Working hours have a different bearing for employed and self-employed because of sovereignty of their decision about it. Working time came up as a measure for work performance only a few centuries ago (Schlick et al. 2018). Number of hours of work was a big issue in the first decades of industrialization and a subject of controversies between employers and workers’ representations. Today this is still an issue, that is regulated in Collective Labour Agreements (Chap. 8).

14

 In the section Mechanization in Establishment in Evans and Turnbull (2004).

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Working time is a factor of stress and strain of work, as work is leading to fatigue, which calls for recovery, in pauses of work and in leisure time and sleeping time. While working hours are regulated in formal employment, they are as a matter of principle not in self-account work, which does not automatically mean though that the work pressure in the latter case is less/lower. Work studies have been done connected to fatigue and pause regimes, and connected to shift work, the latter only recently becoming an issue in forest work for machine operators. For people working in subsistence employment and generally in own-account work, e.g. in the utilization of natural forests there are no work studies on time related issues like stress and strain and the recovery times needed like those for employed forest work, but there is information about working hours from time allocation studies. Time Allocation in Own-Account Work  The evaluation of the overall workload of informal workers first needs an information about the amount of time devoted to the different activities. In the context of work in tropical forests time allocation is of special importance, as, on the one hand, things look easy: work time of formally employed is a big block of time on work days, and otherwise there are some household work hours and then of course times of sleep and recovery. Traditional forest users on the other side, besides the small number of mere subsistence workers, are doing subsistence work and in addition work in a market or money economy. They are informally employed or self-employed, some of their work to be considered clandestine or illegal. Illegal logging plays a big role in many tropical countries (Kleinschmit et  al. 2016), while those performing it may be employed staff of logging companies. Assessing their working conditions is practically impossible. This situation poses big systematic and methodical challenges for the work scientist trying to evaluate working conditions. In principle the overall stress and strain and thereby the overall workload is connected with the safety and health status, which is independent of the source of the workload, workplace, or household. But traditionally work scientists regard and study work at workplace only—of course the workplace is not constant, but forest workers are moving between forest stands, according to the job. This as a matter of principle excludes informal work, be it household work, be it work outside of household. This is where the perception of forest work in this book is extended beyond that of traditional Forest Work Science. Time Allocation Studies  Time allocation for people in developing countries has been studied mostly by ethnologists and anthropologists, as an extensive bibliography shows (Anon 2021). Johnson (1975) already stresses the need of comparable, systematically assessed quantitative and qualitative information. Johnson (1975) points out the great seasonal differences of activities, which needs special attention of the data assessment. In our context especially the data on forest related work are of interest, as collected by Colfer (2008) in an exemplary way in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

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Typically, studied times included are common working hours, during daylight or even in the dark, before sunrise and after sunset, as many examples show. The categories used will naturally depend on the people studied and their occupations, which makes standardization and thereby meaningful comparisons difficult. Johnson (1975) in his classical study in a Machiguenga community in the Upper Amazon of Southeastern Peru, based on “a large number of random spot-checks of activities” included infants, toddlers, youth and unmarried, and married adults for ‘productive activities’ between 6.00  a.m. and 7.00  p.m. Twelve categories were summarized, for married men and women, among them: • • • • •

All food getting activities Manufacture Food preparation Child rearing Eating, hygiene, and visiting

Colfer (2008) modified Johnson’s categories somewhat, according to her research questions and refined the age classes as well as the categories of activity, which allowed her to separately evaluate the forest related activities of men and women (Sect. 7.3.1). Job Profiles  Work studies are used for analysis of working conditions for specific jobs or tasks, or results, but do not picture the scope and amount of work done by a worker over time, which would ask for a quantitative job description or profile of activities. Sometimes such profiles, which may be called job profiles, have been assessed by forest work scientists (Hoffmann 1998). They describe on an empirical basis the tasks of the workers over a period of time. Job profiles created in such way, containing both, tasks and time spent to do them, are leading to a better understanding of workloads or states of safety and health, assessed by work study. Job profiles are very useful for comparisons between individual workers or groups of workers: Research findings on working conditions and workloads are only meaningful with equal or comparable work profiles. Fair remuneration can be negotiated only based on this information. 80 hours per month of chainsaw working time, for example, in job profiles make a considerable difference from forest work without any chainsaw work at all. Looking closer at the tasks in forest operations found included in job profiles we find forest workers: • Performing forest work in a narrow sense (felling and converting of trees, planting, tending, debranching), but also harvesting NTFPs, and rendering services like forest pedagogics and jobs in ecotourism. • Working in natural forests, but also in plantations. • Dealing with forest trees, but also with trees outside the forests, in agroforestry. • With an employment contract, employed by a forest owner or a concessionaire, but also performing informal work.

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All these we may consider as forest workers, while we would persons working as traditional users of forest resources on subsistence level not call forest workers, as indicated already sometimes above. The concept of job profiles has been used in work studies mostly of operations performed in normal work, as it is meaningful with fixed working times. The concept is less embracing than that of time allocation. Job profiles only refer to the working time of any working individual or group. They give some information about the tasks and the distribution of work over day and season, about the task performing workers, and finally about their working conditions. Job profiles are also used by education institutions in descriptions of potential employment of graduates, accompanied by indications of competences needed, or in job announcements. “A job description lists the essential features of a job, describing the tasks and functions included and the qualifications required for performance. […] job descriptions should be written in gender-sensitive language” (ILO 2007).

2.2.3  Employment A great part of the world’s population is living in or around forests, many people are depending on forest resources for their living. The most detailed and most recent information on socio-economic benefits from forests globally is given by FAO (2014) in State of World’s Forest 2014. It shows that employment and income are the main benefits tropical forests provide traditional forest users with. Other main benefits are forest products, including food, woodfuels, forest products for housing and for human health, which are of different importance for specific groups of beneficiaries. Benefiting from income are employees,15 forest owners, and other shareholders, while the numbers of beneficiaries do not reveal their income level. FAO (2014) points out that employment statistics may be “more useful as indicators of the distribution of socio-economic benefits than as indicators of the size of those benefits”, for which value added data would be needed, or data on income generation. Numbers of informally employed, 41 million, exceed by far the 13.2 million formal jobs in the world’s forestry sector (FAO 2014). Forest owners also benefit from income, though 86% of the forests of the world are public owned. At least 30 million people globally are forest owners, with big differences between regions, 18.5 million of them outside Europe and North America.

 Employment as used here in a narrow sense of the term comprises people belonging to the workforce, people employed by an employer, or un-employed. In a broad sense employment may refer to all people being occupied by work tasks.

15

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These numbers do not include employment in agroforestry based on tree products, though it was stated above that they make up a considerable share of tree products. Especially woodfuels stem from trees outside forests, i.e. trees mostly grown on small-scale farms. Such numbers are not available on a global scale, but one should not forget the related huge amount of work. Data Sources  Most figures in this section are based on FAO (2014), which in turn uses many data sources like “national censuses, national accounts statistics and other large-scale surveys implemented by international agencies such as the World Bank, UNICEF, WHO, FAO and USAID. In addition, literature reviews and internet searches were used to provide information on specific benefits such as Payments for Environmental Services (PES), benefit sharing and income and employment in informal activities”. All related documents stress, that a great deal of the figures is based on more or less rough estimates, some derived indirectly from other indicators, like consumption or productivity figures. Data Quality  The three main criteria of data quality, reliability, precision, and validity, are explained in Annex 1 of FAO (2014). The basis of official data is quite scarce, statistics often are uncomplete, e.g. excluding informal activities. The available data are unreliable, definitions are divergent, so data are not comparable between different years, not suitable for comparison between regions or for deriving of trends of development. “The employment data provided by developed countries is reasonably accurate, but for less developed countries the exclusion of employment in informal activities is again problematic. Another concern is whether ­part-­time employment figures are converted to full-time equivalents (FTE) in the figures provided by some countries” (FAO 2014). Forestry Sector  Definitions, what is included, under which heading, what is not included under the term forestry sector,16 begin with the clarification by ILO (2019), Box 2.31. Box 2.31 Forestry Sector: Forestry and Related Fields Included in the Figures of FAO and ILO (ILO 2015) The forestry sector is comprised of the primary extraction of forestry products and the secondary manufacturing industries. Forestry production includes the harvesting of wood and non-timber forest products, such as wild berries, bananas, seeds and nuts, oil palm, among others. Secondary manufacturing industries include pulp and paper as well as sawn wood and wood-panel production industries. Each of these traditional sub-sectors differs in its social and labour characteristics and varies considerably from country to country. While some forest industries are dominated by large, vertically integrated forestry firms, others are based on small, private forest owners. The government is often a large owner of forests. Very different levels of technology are found in the industry, from full mechanization to exclusively manual work.

 Instead of the term forestry sector often the illogical term forest sector, sometimes also the term forest based sector.

16

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Recently figures are often given for the so-called clusters, representing the broader forestry sector. The concept of forestry clusters has been used in an analysis of their role as innovation systems in Europe by Weiss et al. (2017). The concept of forestry clusters has been criticized, e.g. by ILO (2001), because it adds to definitional uncertainty (Box 2.32). Box 2.32 Criticism on the Concept of Forestry Clusters by ILO (2001) Recently, inflated and rather misleading claims about the contribution of the forest industries to the national economy in the form of value added, exports, employment and others have been published invoking the notion of a ‘forestry cluster’. One of the proponents of this concept, Hazley (2000), has based forest industry estimates for the European Union on all the above employment categories plus a second, wider circle of suppliers and services such as those manufacturing woodworking machines, glue for panels or fillers and coating material for paper. This goes as far as including publishing and print because that industry uses paper. This is counter-intuitive, to say the least, and creates new areas of definitional uncertainty and the need for extrapolation and estimates.

ILO (2001) uses the term “core forest industries employment”. The “core categories” include, in addition to wood industries, “forestry (including logging)”, but not “groups that are directly employed in forestry, such as government forest services”, or in transport or trade of forest products, if not employed by firms in the forest industry. “The difference can be substantial”, which is evidenced by examples. Forms of Employment  For the purpose of this book, all data on employment in the forestry sector are relevant as employment in the different sub-sectors is ­mutually dependent. But of highest interest are the data on forestry proper and other ways of retrieval of forest products, out of the data broken down according to sub-sectors. We distinguish between self-employed labour and employed labour, whereby employment may be provided directly by forest owners or holders of rights of use or by contractors doing the work for them. The term employment may mean dependent work under an employment contract, but also just occupation or working activity, why we may talk about subsistence employment (Poschen 2021), where there is no employer. The ambiguity of the term employment makes the use of all data on employment tedious. “The labour force, or economically active population, is defined as the sum of those who are either working (employed), self-employed workers and contributing (unpaid) family workers” (ILO 2000). The term worker is often used in a broad sense, anybody doing work for a living. But the term worker may also be understood more narrow, meaning a blue-collar worker, a “manual labourer or other employee working in a manufacturing or other industry” (Collins English Dictionary 2021), as opposed to a white-collar worker or civil servant. Synonyms of the term worker are employee, hand, labourer, […], working man or working woman” (Collins English Dictionary 2021), a worker being an employee who is not a

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manager. There is a great variance of status, terms, and legal assignments in different countries, which is not inconsequential, as the different groups of employees enjoy different levels of social security. Rights and obligations according to the CLAs are different. The term forest worker is commonly used in this narrower sense, i.e. the manual labourer employed in forestry, which would exclude foresters and managers as well as those working for a living in the informal economy or in traditional forest utilization. There is a variety of forms of employment, some overlapping, which is of special relevance in SFM for retrieval of timber as well as of NTFPs in natural forests and in plantation forestry in the tropics, as outlined in above. There is a high incidence of informal work, not only in traditional forest utilization. Such differentiation of employment forms is crucial for proper understanding of all employment figures. Forms of employment have to do with organization on different levels, which again is much influencing the working conditions on operational level. Contractor work (Box 2.33) is of special concern because of its growing role in forest work and because of specific work related issues connected. Box 2.33 Labour Contracts (Egger 1997) The classic distinction between a contract of service (employment contract) and a contract for services (commercial contract). In a classic employment contract, the worker puts his or her skills and time at the disposal of an employer against remuneration. A commercial contract rests on the provision of specified goods and services. When a commercial contract is struck which in essence is based only on the supply of labour, it tends to fall within the definition of contract labour.

Basically dependent work is done under employment contracts by directly employed or under commercial contracts by contractors and subcontractors. Direct employment has for long time been considered normal work, at least in industrialized countries (Sect. 3.1), where it developed since times of industrialization. We observe a strong trend in forestry worldwide from direct employment towards contractor work. Self-Employment Many people work independently of any employer like owners of small forest lots and all those in subsistence employment, called self-employed as defined by OECD (2020) (Box 2.34). There are also two meanings of the term self-employed: It may mean somebody working independently of an employer informally or refer to registered independent work of somebody paying taxes. Likewise, a forest contractor may be considered as own-account worker or as self-employed, having a service contract, not an employment contract (Egger 1997), or as a secondary employer working for a principal employer. A contractor may thus belong to the formal or to the informal sector (Fig. 2.2). Also a subsistence worker and even a contributing

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Informal economy Subsistence economy

Hunter-gatherers, no market access

Market economy

Small scale users, unregistered For own use

Formal

Hunter-gatherers, bartering

Registered producers

For market

Fig. 2.2  Subsistence and self-employed activities in tropical forests

family worker may be considered self-employed, according to the definition by OECD (2020). Box 2.34 Self-Employment Rate as Defined by OECD (2020) Self-employment is defined as the employment of employers, workers who work for themselves, members of producers’ co-operatives, and unpaid family workers. The latter are unpaid in the sense that they lack a formal contract to receive a fixed amount of income at regular intervals, but they share in the income generated by the enterprise. Unpaid family workers are particularly important in farming and retail trade. All persons who work in corporate enterprises, including company directors, are considered to be employees. Self-employment may be seen either as a survival strategy for those who cannot find any other means of earning an income or as evidence of entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to be one’s own boss. Employed people are as those aged 15 or over who report that they have worked in gainful employment for at least one hour in the previous week or who had a job but were absent from work during the reference week. This indicator is measured as the percentage of employment (total, men or women).

The scheme in Fig. 2.2 demonstrates the overlap of definitions for subsistence and self-employed activities, which may be informal or formal. This is of special interest for contractor work (Box 2.35).

Box 2.35 Employment in the Forestry Sector (ILO 2011) Facts and Figures • Forestry employs 13.717 million formal workers, about 1% of total world employment, although its workforce is probably much larger due to widespread informality, especially in developing countries.

 13.2 million according to FAO (2014), 12.7 million in the forest sector, thereof 9.2 million in informal employment according to ILO (2019).

17

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• Over 60% of total forestry employment is concentrated in 10 countries. China, with 3.5 million formal jobs in the sector, accounts for 26%. • Commercial forestry represents about 0.4% of world GDP, but the value of non-commercial goods and services provided by forests may well exceed the commercial output. • Forestry is expanding in Latin America and Asia while it has been continually declining in Europe and North America. • Informal workers have been estimated to represent between 66 and 72% of formal employment in forestry depending on the definitions involved and data available. • Wood is by far the most important forest product, with 3.5 billion m3 harvested annually. • Women are strongly under-represented in management and decision-making and tend to be trapped in low-status, low-paid work.

Formal Employment  Out of the 13.2 million formally employed in the forestry sector (Box 2.36), as already cited above, 5.4 million are employed in enterprises producing solid wood products, 4.3 million in pulp and paper production, and 3.5 million in the forestry sector, distributed unevenly over the different regions of the world. The breakdown into continents given in FAO (2014) shows 2.5 million formally employed in forestry for Africa, Asia, and Oceania, and Latin America and Caribbean together, and a share of 0.1% of the total workforce in any of the continents, 0.4% for the forestry sector altogether. The trends of employment numbers are quite different in different regions of the world.

Box 2.36 Global Employment Trends in the Forestry Sector (Blombäck 2003) On the whole, prospects for increased formal employment in the industry are not bright. Labour productivity has consistently outpaced even the faster increases in output of the past decades. As a consequence, employment in forestry and the forest industries has been falling in most industrialized countries, a trend that is expected to continue. The picture is brighter in developing countries, especially those that are not confronted with forest resource shortages. However, only informal employment is growing in the majority of developing countries and unfortunately this often provides very low and unstable incomes.

Informal Employment As opposed to formal employment, informal employment is not taxed and monitored by government agencies and does not involve employment security, work and social security, and is not included in the Gross National Product (GNP). There is a high incidence of informal work with great impact on forest management (Box 2.37). For ILO this high incidence of informal work is an important deficit of decent work, together with low productivity, low income and the “hazardous nature of forestry work” (ILO 2015).

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Box 2.37 Types of Informal Employment of Traditional Forest Users (ILO 2015) The forestry sector is characterized by a high degree of informality (75.65%), particularly in developing countries. This is in large part due to the expansion of illegal logging activities. Illegal logging includes some proportion of unregistered traditional use of forests, which if properly controlled, can have a positive impact in controlling forest destruction. There are six categories of informal workers, all of which should be targeted by policy to address informality in the forestry sector: • Own-account workers (self-employed with no employees) in their own informal economy enterprises; • Employers (self-employed with employees) in their own informal economy enterprises; • Contributing family workers, regardless of type of enterprise; • Members of informal producers’ cooperatives (not established as legal entities); • Employees holding informal jobs as defined according to the employment relationship (in law or in practice, jobs not subject to national labour legislation, income tax, social protection or entitlement to certain employment benefits); • Own-account workers engaged in production of goods exclusively for own final use by their household.

Illegal logging is one major part of informal work, but one cannot equate the two phenomena, illegal logging and informal work (Box 2.37). This is stressed in the IUFRO Report on Illegal Logging and Related Timber Trade (Kleinschmit et  al. 2016). The topics of illegal logging and of informal employment and their impact on working conditions will be revisited in Chap. 8. Information about Employment from Work Study  There is some information about the prevalence and forms of employment included in work studies, but surprisingly little, given that this is a crucial input variable for interpretation of results. In work studies, which are often conducted on a more minute level, employment form is just the framework and at most mentioned as such. Moreover, the perspective of work scientists traditionally is oriented at formal employment and thereby of limited information value. Informal occupation in its many forms only lately came into view of work scientists. On the other hand, many publications from other disciplines contain answers, in a more or less detailed manner, as in most cases research and publication is not done for the question of employment. Some of the research is even done for this purpose, like time allocation studies.

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References Anon (2021) Behavior Observation and Time Allocation Bibliography. https://qualquant.net/training/behavior05/Bib-behavior-time.pdf. Accessed 12 April 2021 Barua SK, Lehtonen P, Pahkasalo T (2014) Plantation vision: potentials, challenges and policy options for global industrial forest plantation development. Int For Rev 16:117–127 Bass S (2004) Certification. In: Burley J, Evans J, Youngquist J (eds) Encyclopedia of forest sciences, 1st edn. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 1350–1357 Bauhus J, Forrester DI, Pretzsch H (2017) Mixed-species forests: the development of a forest management paradigm. In: Pretzsch H, Forrester DI, Bauhus J (eds) Mixed-species forests: ecology and management. Springer, Berlin Blaser J (2015) Specialist’s view on: the root causes of deforestation and forest degradation. In: Martin C (ed) On the edge: the state and fate of the world’s tropical rainforests: a report to the Club of Rome. Greystone Books, Vancouver Berkeley, pp 112–122 Blaser J, Sarre A, Poore D, Johnson S (2011) Status of tropical forest management 2011. ITTO technical series 38. Int Tropical Timber Organization, Yokohama, Japan Blombäck P, Poschen P (2003) Decent work in forestry? Enhancing forestry work and forest-based livelihoods. XII World Forestry Congress, Quebec. www.fao.org/3/xii/ms8-e.htm. Accessed 12 April 2021 Borelli S, Simelton E, Aggarwal S, Olivier A, Conigliaro M, Hillbrand A, Garant D, Desmyttere H (2019) Agroforestry and tenure. Forestry Working Paper 8. FAO, Rome Bowling J (2003) Community level participation of workers in forest certification. Does it work? In: Meidinger E, Elliott C, Oesten G (eds) Social and political dimensions of forest certification. Kessel, Remagen-Oberwinter, pp 153–164 Bruenig EF (2017) Conservation and management of tropical rainforests: an integrated approach to sustainability, 2nd edn. CABI, Wallingford, Boston, MA Cashore B, Gale F, Meidinger E, Newsom D (2006) Forest certification in developing and transitioning countries: part of a sustainable future? Environ Sci Policy Sustain Dev 48:6–25. https:// doi.org/10.3200/ENVT.48.9.6-­25 Cerutti P, Lescuyer G, Tsanga R, Kassa S, Mapangou P, Mendoula E, Missamba-Lola A, Nasi R, Eckebil P, Yembe R (2014) Social impacts of the forest stewardship council certification: an assessment in the Congo basin. CIFOR occasional paper 103. Bogor, Indonesia Colfer CJP (2008) The longhouse of the tarsier: changing landscapes, gender, and well being in Borneo. Borneo research council monograph series, vol 10. Borneo Research Council, Phillips, ME Collins English Dictionary (2021) www.collinsdictionary.com. Accessed 8 July 2021 Coomes OT (1995) A century of rain forest use in Western Amazonia: lessons from extraction-­ based conservation of tropical forest resources. For Conserv History 39:108–120 Cossalter C, Pye-Smith C (2003) Fast-wood forestry: myths and realities. Forest perspectives, vol 1. CIFOR, Bogor de Souza JG, Schaan DP, Robinson M, Barbosa AD, Aragão LEOC, Marimon BH, Marimon BS, da Silva IB, Khan SS, Nakahara FR, Iriarte J (2018) Pre-Columbian earth-builders settled along the entire southern rim of the Amazon. Nat Commun 9:1125. https://doi.org/10.1038/ s41467-­018-­03510-­7 Dykstra DP (2002) Reduced impact logging: concepts and issues. In: Enters T (ed) Applying reduced impact logging to advance sustainable forest management: international conference proceedings. FAO, Bangkok, pp 23–39 Egger P (1997) Contract labour and employment: some proposals for further consideration. In: ILO (ed) Contract labour: looking at issues: nine country cases. ILO, Geneva, pp 3–15 Ehrenberg-Azcárate F, Peña-Claros M (2020) Twenty years of forest management certification in the tropics: major trends through time and among continents. Forest Policy Economics 111:102050. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2019.102050

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ILO (2019) Decent work in forestry. ILO, Geneva. www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/%2D%2D­ed_dialogue/%2D%2D-­sector/documents/publication/wcms_437197.pdf. Accessed 7 January 2020 Iorgulescu I, Bowling J, Schlaepfer R (2001) Field testing criteria and indicators for forest and wood workers in Ghana. In: Franc A, Laroussinie O, Karjalainen T (eds) Criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management at the forest management unit level. European Forest Institute, Joensuu, pp 45–58 ITTO The International Tropical Timber Organization (2006) Malaysia. In: ITTO (ed) Status of tropical forest management 2005. ITTO technical series 24. ITTO, Yokohama, Japan, 157–164. www.itto.int/partner/id=12410000. Accessed 20 April 2018 Johnson A (1975) Time allocation in a Machiguenga community. Ethnology 14:301–310 Kaimowitz D (2015) Specialist’s view on: rainforest biodiversity: treasures without price tags. In: Martin C (ed) On the edge: the state and fate of the world’s tropical rainforests: a report to the Club of Rome. Greystone Books, Vancouver Berkeley, pp 167–175 Kapp G, Manning DB (2014) Land management systems at the interface between forestry and agriculture. In: Pretzsch J, Darr D, Uibrig H, Auch E (eds) Forests and rural development. Springer, Berlin, pp 85–110 Karsenty A, Ferron C (2017) Recent evolutions of forest concessions status and dynamics in Central Africa. Int Forest Rev 19:10–26. https://doi.org/10.1505/146554817822295957 Kartika P, Hariyadi, Cerdikwan (2020) The programme for the endorsement of forest certification (PEFC) and its contribution to sustainable forest management in Indonesia. In: Negi A, Pérez-­ Pineda JA, Blankenbach J (eds) Sustainability standards and global governance: experiences of emerging economies, 1st edn. Springer, Singapore, pp 145–161 Kiptot E, Franzel S (2012) Gender and agroforestry in Africa: a review of women’s participation. Agrofor Syst 84:35–58. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-­011-­9419-­y Kleinschmit D, Mansourian S, Wildburger C (2016) Conclusions. In: Kleinschmit D, Mansourian S, Wildburger C, Purret A (eds) Illegal logging and related timber trade: dimensions, drivers, impacts and responses: a global scientific rapid response assessment report. IUFRO, Vienna, pp 133–136 Lamprecht H (1989) Silviculture in the tropics: tropical forest ecosystems and their tree species; possibilities and methods for their long-term utilization. TZ-Verlagsgesellschaft (Edn. GTZ), Roßdorf Long AJ, Nair PR (1999) Trees outside forests: agro-, community, and urban forestry. New For 17:145–174. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006523425548 Martin C (2015) On the edge: the state and fate of the world’s tropical rainforests: a report to the Club of Rome. Greystone Books, Vancouver Berkeley Montagnini F, Jordan CF (2005) Tropical forest ecology: the basis for conservation and management. Tropical forestry. Springer, Berlin Morris K (1997) Forest utilization. Civilisations 44:194–219. https://doi.org/10.4000/ civilisations.1630 Mueller-Darss H (1982) The significance of ergonomics to agroforestry: part I.  Agrofor Syst 1:41–52 Mueller-Darss H (1983) The significance of ergonomics to agroforestry: part II.  Agrofor Syst 1:205–223 Muschler RG (2016) Agroforestry: essential for sustainable and climate-smart land use? In: Pancel L, Köhl M (eds) Tropical forestry handbook. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 2013–2116 Nair PKR (1994) Agroforestry. In: Arntzen CJ, Ritter EM (eds) Encyclopedia of agricultural science, I. Academic Press, San Diego, pp 13–25 Njenga M (2012) Women’s Empowerment in Kenya: Trading fuel briquettes. www.aglobalvillage.org/journal/issue10/gender-­economics/women-­s-­empowerment-­in-­kenya-­mary-­njenga/ Accessed 14 June 2021 Oberndörfer D (1989) Schutz der tropischen Regenwälder (Feuchtwälder) durch ökonomische Kompensation. Freiburger Universitätsblätter 28:91–117

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OECD (2020) Self-employment rate. data.oecd.org/emp/self-employment-rate.htm. Accessed 8 February 2020 Ofoegbu C (2014) The contribution of tree plantations to household welfare: case study of Piet Retief and Iswepe communities. Int For Rev 16:172–179 Onyekwelu JC, Stimm B, Evans J (2011) Review plantation forestry. In: Günter S, Weber M, Stimm B, Mosandl R (eds) Silviculture in the tropics. Springer, Berlin, pp 399–454 Pancel L (2016a) Basic outline of tree plantations in the tropics. In: Pancel L, Köhl M (eds) Tropical forestry handbook. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 1441–1529 Pancel L (2016b) Mixed tree plantations in the tropics. In: Pancel L, Köhl M (eds) Tropical forestry handbook. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 1549–1560 PEFC (2020) The PEFC standards – the core of what we do. www.pefc.org/news/the-pefc-standards-the-core-of-what-we-do. Accessed 12 April 2021 Pokorny B, Sabogal C, Silva J, Bernardo P, Souza J, Zweede J (2005) Compliance with reduced-­ impact harvesting guidelines by timber enterprises in terra firma forests of the Brazilian Amazon. Int For Rev 7:9–20 Poschen P (2003) Economic and social justice in sustainable forest management: an ILO perspective on forest certification. In: Meidinger E, Elliott C, Oesten G (eds) Social and political dimensions of forest certification. Kessel, Remagen-Oberwinter, pp 83–101 Poschen P (2021) General profile. In: ILO (ed) Encyclopaedia of occupational health and safety, 3rd edn. ILO. Chapter 68, pp 68.2–68.6 Pretzsch J (2014) Paradigms of tropical forestry in rural development. In: Pretzsch J, Darr D, Uibrig H, Auch E (eds) Forests and rural development. Springer, Berlin, pp 7–49 Ridder R (2015) Forest conversion to agro-industrial plantations: an upcoming problem in Central Africa. In: Martin C (ed) On the edge: the state and fate of the world’s tropical rainforests: a report to the Club of Rome. Greystone Books, Vancouver Berkeley, pp 54–57 Romero C, Putz FE, Guariguata MR, Sills EO, Cerutti PO, Lescuyer G (2013) An overview of current knowledge about the impacts of forest management certification: a proposed framework for its evaluation. Occ pap 91. CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia Romero C, Sills EO, Guariguata MR, Cerutti PO, Lescuyer G, Putz FE (2017) Evaluation of the impacts of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification of natural forest management in the tropics: a rigorous approach to assessment of a complex conservation intervention. Int For Rev 19:36–49. https://doi.org/10.1505/146554817822295902 Sayer J (2015) The oil palm: threat to conservation, opportunity for poor people. In: Martin C (ed) On the edge: the state and fate of the world’s tropical rainforests: a report to the Club of Rome. Greystone Books, Vancouver Berkeley Schanz H (2004) Sustainable forest management. In: Burley J, Evans J, Youngquist J (eds) Encyclopedia of forest sciences, 1st edn. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 1345–1350 Schlick C, Luczak H, Bruder R (2018) Arbeitswissenschaft, 4th edn. Springer, Heidelberg Shackleton S, Shackleton C, Shanley P (eds) (2011a) Non-timber forest products in the global context. Tropical forestry. Springer, New York Shackleton C, Delang CO, Shackleton S, Shanley P (2011b) Chapter 1 Non-timber forest products: concept and definitions. In: Shackleton S, Shackleton C, Shanley P (eds) Non-timber forest products in the global context. Springer, New York, pp 3–21 Shanley P (2008) Beyond timber: certification and management of non-timber forest products. Center for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia Staudt F (1988) Ergonomics and its possible applications in agroforestry. Viewpoints on agroforestry, 2nd edn, Wageningen, pp 201–213 Strehlke B (1979) Tropical work and working conditions in forestry. In: van Loon J, Staudt FJ, Zander J (eds) Ergonomics in tropical agriculture and forestry. Proceedings of the Fifth Joint Ergonomie Symposium Ergonomic Commissions of IAAMRH, CIGR, IUFRO.  Centre Agr Publishing Documentation, Wageningen, pp 39–44 Ticktin T, Shackleton C (2011) Harvesting non-timber Forest products sustainably: opportunities and challenges. In: Shackleton S, Shackleton C, Shanley P (eds) Non-timber forest products in the global context. Springer, New York, pp 149–169

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Usher AD (2009) Thai forestry: a critical history. Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai, Thailand van Hensbergen HJ (2018) Rethinking forest concessions  – improving the allocation of state-­ owned forests for better economic, social and environmental outcomes. Forestry working paper. FAO, Rome von Gadow K (2001) Sustainable Forest management theory and applications. Balt For 7:1–9 Weiss G, Pelli P, Orazio C, Tykka S, Zivojinovic I, Ludvig A (2017) Forestry industry clusters as innovation systems: analysing innovation support frameworks in five European regions. Austrian J For Sc/Centralblatt für das gesamte Forstwesen 134:119–148 Whitmore TC (1990) An introduction to tropical rain forest. Oxford University Press; Clarendon Press, Oxford Wibowo A, Pratiwi S, Giessen L (2019) Comparing management schemes for forest certification and timber-legality verification: complementary or competitive in Indonesia? J Sustainable For 38:68–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/10549811.2018.1498359 Wiersum KF, Ingram VJ, Ros-Tonen M (2013) Governing access to resources and markets in non-­ timber forest product chains. For Trees Livelihoods 23:6–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/1472802 8.2013.868676 World Agroforestry (ICRAF) (2021) What is Agroforestry? www.worldagroforestry.org/about/ agroforestry. Accessed 1 July 2021 Youngs RL (2004) Wood use and trade: history and overview of wood use. In: Burley J, Evans J, Youngquist J (eds) Encyclopedia of forest sciences, 1st edn. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 1852–1857 Zerbe JI (2004) Non-wood products: energy from wood. In: Burley J, Evans J, Youngquist J (eds) Encyclopedia of forest sciences, 1st edn. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 601–607

Chapter 3

Development of Work Science

Abstract  The chapter starts with the perception of human work as burden, pride, and means for livelihood that was different over time. The development and approach of work science are sketched, as the scientific discipline dealing with work. Finally, forest work science is introduced that deals with work in the forests. Work science has for more than hundred years studied work, all the time almost exclusively gainful occupation and work in formal employment. But thereby the greater share of work in tropical forests that is subsistence or self-employed work, and also informal occupation, would be excluded. In particular, no attention has been paid to most of women’s work, outside and in households. The orientation of work science is traced back to its roots. It shows in the terminology, stemming from different traditions. Even the discipline is named differently regionally. Besides work science, names include in particular ergonomics and human factors. Among the traditions, Taylorism plays a significant role, with a fundamental impact on the development of work science, and also on work organization in practice, first in the industrialized countries. Very soon human well-being as a goal in addition to work performance emerged. Work scientists are convinced, that good working conditions contribute to safe, healthy, satisfactory, and productive work. They are committed to work for life-long decent work in their field of study. For that concepts and study methods have been developed, including technologyand work-oriented positions and socio-technical systems, e.g. the concept of Human-Technology-Organization. Forest work science as a distinct scientific discipline is sharing the history of general work science, and on the other side branched off from the discipline of forest utilization. There are other disciplines in forest sciences also dealing with work and operations in forestry, like forest operations and forest engineering. Surveys of publications reveal a strong practice orientation and often research activities that deal predominantly with technological, less with ergonomic questions. A possible development to an integrative discipline of forest work science, cooperating in particular with social sciences, is indicated. This could also better regard the so far neglected work in agroforestry that is of immense importance in tropical regions.

© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2022 S. Lewark, Work in Tropical Forests, Tropical Forestry, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-64444-7_3

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3.1  Work, Study Object of Work Science Several aspects of work in tropical forests have been touched already in the preceding chapters. Perspectives and paradigms have been outlined in Chap. 1. In Chap. 2, the relationship of the local populations with forest utilization, and the work tasks and characteristics of forest work, have been introduced, and also different forms of employment and their relevance. In this chapter, first a step back to general aspects of work is done, leading then to the development of general Work Science and Forest Work Science. Work serves directly or indirectly the sustenance of the workers and their families, and the functioning of the society. Work changes the material and ideal environment of the worker, but also the worker himself (Box 3.1). Over time there was a development from subsistence economies to the economies of the industrialized and post-industrial societies of today. This development of societies was connected with the development of technology and, along with many changes of labour division and of competence and working methods, work became more and more specialized. With the development from subsistence work to industry work there came also a shift from small-scale, household-based economies to handicraft business and then to bigger enterprises. This was accompanied by an ever-growing share of dependent labour instead of the own-account work in subsistence economy. In developing countries in general and in forest work in tropical countries in particular there is still very much subsistence work done. Even if there is a clear distinction between employed labour and subsistence employment, also the latter is all the time changing and adapting to changing work environments, e.g. by market access, migration, or availability of new tools. In tropical countries, there is much more informal than formal employment and a big part of the work performed by contractors, as described above. Perception of Work  A colloquial use of the term work shall be recalled here as it may help to understand the special perspective of Work Science. When did you start working? This obviously does not refer to homework for school or assistance for your parents. Did your mother work? Of course, she did work, doing housework, but this is not what the question is referring to. Obviously, work may have a different meaning for different people, e.g. for men and women. Questions like these obviously refer to an understanding of work as a wage earning or gainful occupation. Employed labour is, at least in the industrialized countries, dominating the thinking of today about work, not only of work scientists, but also of the general public especially in the industrialized countries, and is of course of major importance for the working and living situation of many people. Starting to work for a young woman or man means, after general education and some form of vocational education, going into working life, in most cases into formal employment, with a work contract and an income. This was considered a normal work situation, the worker leaving home for nine to five work at her or his workplace, with a long-term work contract, or even for lifetime.

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If ever the situation was rightly perceived in this way—in the industrialized countries—certainly today it is true for fewer and fewer people. Many are doing shift work. In forestry many work far from home and live in camps, with a shortterm contract, or as a contract worker. We also observe more and more imbalance of the spheres of working life and private life, which had clear-cut boundaries earlier, in formal work, though not in subsistence work or in other self-employed work. Outsourcing also changes the employment situation and thereby the working conditions. These boundaries between working life and private life were and are not as evident in informal work, in subsistence work, or traditional handicraft business as in work in modern business. There is on the other hand no doubt that work in a subsistence economy or in a household is human work. Scientific research on work outside of gainful occupation is seldom undertaken by work scientists so far. The textbooks Ergonomics of the Home by Grandjean (1973) and Ergonomic Living by Inkeles and Schencke (1994) are rare exceptions. “Work science does not only mean occupation or wage-work related work science and therefore has, also from economic standpoint, to include unpaid household work1” (Luczak 1998). There is unpaid household work in industrialized countries and unpaid household work in subsistence economies: in the latter, it is the essence of livelihood of the household members. Definitions of Work  Basically work is a purposeful human activity with economic relevance (Box 3.1). It is object of study and knowledge of many scientific disciplines. Perspective and definitions of work science are of primary relevance here, which itself is not a consistent discipline. But it is considered an aspect of science, drawing from different parent disciplines.

Box 3.1 Definition of Work from the Side of Work Science (Schlick et al. 2018)2 Work is understood [...] as an activity in which the human interacts with other people and technical aids, creating goods and services under economic objectives [...]. Work thus serves directly or indirectly to preserve one’s own existence or the existence of society, insofar as it is accepted and rewarded by society. The activity is planned, purposefully and willingly controlled and takes place under certain social conditions. After all, work not only changes the (material and ideal) environment of the working man, but also the worker himself (e.g. fatigue, training) (Hacker 1986). Work is therefore a special form of activity alongside others such as play, sport or learning.

 Translated from German.  Translated from German.

1 2

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Significance of Work  A more general question is: What does work mean for the working humans? Schlick et  al. (2018) point out that there are two terms distinguishing different bearings in many languages, related to a subject and to an object-­ oriented perspective, in English work and labour. They represent activity and exertion. Work also stands for the process of production of goods or services and the product itself. In history, work has been perceived in different ways, with different ideological backgrounds, either more as a burden or as pride. Luczak et al. (2012) emphasizes this two-sided association of work with burden and pride (Box 3.2). Definitions of work from the side of work science are quoted are below.

Box 3.2 Burden and Pride of Work (Luczak et al. 2012) The term work has always been associated with aspects of burden as well as with those of pride. In history, priority was once given to the first aspect, at other times to the latter (Schmale, 1983). In ancient times work was avoided by people who could afford it; in contrast, Christianity looked upon work as a task intended by God and elevated successful working within the scope of the Protestant work ethic to the stand of salvation, a perception that has often been made responsible for the development of the great advances made during the Industrial Revolution (Weber, 1904/1905).

Work does mean different things to different people as indicated above. There are different demands for the working people, physical, cognitive, and emotional, connected to different types of work. People who have to cope with these demands are different, e.g. in terms of their anthropometrical dimensions, abilities, and limitations as well as their values (Müller 1997). This also touches on the ideas of the working man, beginning with the homo economicus or economic man, which is the man reacting only to economical stimuli as assumed in Taylorism. The ideas of man are connected with the concepts of Work Science as they were developed over time, in particular with the concepts of Work Psychology (Ulich 2011). Later ideas of men were social man, self-actualizing man, and today complex man. Luczak et al. (2012) name as four most important functions of work: • • • • •

Activity and competence Structure Cooperation and contact Social appreciation Identity

The aspects of work considered most important in a survey by Luczak et  al. (2012) were: content of work, working conditions, organizational environment, social, and financial conditions. The authors point out that wage work assures income, but, at the same time, fulfils a series of psychosocial functions. Motivation

3.1  Work, Study Object of Work Science

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for work also has gained great attention in research. Luczak et al. (2012) summarizes theories of work motivation, including those of Herzberg and Maslow. More aspects—some elaborated in more detail later in this book—are summarized in Fig. 3.1. They are related to the characteristics, abilities, limitations, needs, motivation, and experiences of working women and men as they perform their tasks, their purposeful activities, and touch all aspects of life. All these issues also would come up in statements of the working women and men themselves about their work. In order to add their perspectives to those of work scientists they should be involved and asked, as the quotations in the introductory chapter already show (Strehlke 1996, 2003). Questions like those quoted at the beginning of this chapter (Did your mother work?) obviously refer to an understanding of work as a gainful occupation. Work Science traditionally performed research on employed labour and normal working conditions. But as the organizational psychologist Rosenstiel (2000) states, work is not only done in organizations. Also, forest work science traditionally covers, out of the spectrum of general work science, only a limited part, with very specific research questions. Many others are not dealt with. In the context of this book, the broader definition of work as any purposeful activity is better suited than just the look at gainful occupations. Of course, many aspects of work are typical for one or the other, gainful occupations or subsistence work, whereas other aspects may be observed in both. Principles of action that are found applicable in both situations will in the first place include the level of traditional micro-ergonomics like the physiological and psychological approaches. Noise at home or in the street is not less harming than in working life. Different types of work are sometimes labelled as handwork and brainwork, or performing, projecting, and dispositive work. There is physical or energetic work, work demands

individuals are

personal development working conditions hazards

social beings

members of organizations

experience and suffer

work strain

bodies

work-life balance with colleagues

members of social groups

have

conflicts

mental reactions emotions

with superiors

assignments

motivation

Working Women and Men

carry out

income

work tasks

need

subsistence work family and care work honorary work

unpaid work

job security health and well-being

employed work self-employed work

jobs

acceptance do get

education social security

Fig. 3.1  Relationship of work to working women and men (The term work-life balance as included in this figure has been criticized as not logical, as work is part of life. It is used here in spite of the justified criticism, as it is a customary term, also in scientific literature.)

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3  Development of Work Science

informational work and emotional work, manual work and mechanized work. Working conditions and demands on the working human vary considerably, and of course, human work is changing over the time of the year in outside work like that in the forest, as well as over the working life of individuals. Work in History  Most humans in the course of history of mankind had to work to secure their livelihood, in early times mostly done as subsistence work. In some societies, upper-class members did not work in that sense. The individual working humans have different job profiles, while research is more often done with respect to specific tasks and work methods, not so much to the variability of the work situations of single workers. Unfree labour of different forms, from slave labour to forced labour, was also existing in many societies, before colonialism and during colonial times, and is found to this day. Osterhammel and Frisch (2010) describe the role of unfree labour in agriculture during colonialism (Box 3.3). ILO’s Forced Labour Conventions No. C029 and No. 105 deal with this (Poschen 2000).

Box 3.3 Unfree Labour in Agriculture During Colonialism (Osterhammel and Frisch 2010) The vast majority of people in colonized societies earned their livelihood from growing crops. Socially and culturally, they belonged to a rural milieu. Subsistence agriculture was not necessarily the only type of farming, however. In the cultural centers of Asia, production for local and distant markets was highly developed long before the advent of colonialism. Agriculture in some areas of Africa, which was more sparsely settled, had also begun to react to market stimuli. Colonial conquest had a twofold impact: it forcibly seized rural means of production, and it pursued agrarian commercialization. In many areas overseas, the conquerors initially sought ways to have the indigenous population work for them. Rarely was there a complete enslavement of the natives over a prolonged period, but in nearly all cases there were forms of unfree labor. […] Even more prevalent than forced labor was loss of access to the soil, which almost invariably caused irreversible pauperization.

Issues of work connected with forest utilization by forest dwellers are not a subject of work science so far. A book about that from the perspective of work science waits still to be written. Still, characteristics of rural work, in the forests and in agroforestry, are included many times in other sections of this book. This work in the tropical forests directly for sustenance is rather studied in other contexts and included in textbooks of other disciplines, e.g. of silviculture (Montagnini and Jordan 2005; Günter et al. 2011). In particular, it is the research object of anthropology or ethnography, of rural sociology, and in land use and governance research. To find reasons for this limitation of work science one has to look for its roots and tradition.

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3.2  Science of Work Describing the scholarly basis of work science is of special charm for a German forest work scientist: Work science saw a different development in different parts of the world and a distinct development in Germany over more than the last hundred years (Landau 2000), and forest work science was intertwined with those developments all the time. “The roots of ergonomics in Germany can be seen in the Max-­ Planck Institute of Occupational Physiology, founded in Berlin in 1912 and transferred later to Dortmund where now is the office of GfA [Gesellschaft für Arbeitswissenschaft]” (Seeber 2001). The focus of research on different sub-disciplines of work science obviously differs very much. The development of work science will not be traced here in detail, but a short outline seems to be necessary for understanding the concept of this book and for properly ranking the research, also on work in tropical forests, of forest work science. Forest work science in Germany developed independent features and for some time influenced work science in general: The German work scientist Hilf in 1926 established the Institute for Forest Work Science (IFFA) (TUM 2017), one of the first work research institutes in Germany, and he wrote two early leading work science textbooks (Hilf 1957, 1976). He actually started from his experience and studies in forest work, as a practical forester. Agricultural work science is another discipline related to a specific sector of primary production.

3.2.1  Development and Terminology Work basically is a purposeful human activity with economic relevance as outlined above. Work is an object of study and knowledge of many scientific disciplines (Luczak et al. 2012)—for work science it is the constituting object. Perspective and definitions of work science are of primary relevance here, which itself is not a consistent discipline, but drawing from a variety of parent disciplines. In this book the term work science is used that directly names the discipline as the one which studies human work, which the term ergonomics also does.3 Ergonomics is not used as a synonym for Work Science, except in quotations, to avoid confusion.

3  Ergonomics literally has the same meaning as the term Work Science, but this meaning may be less obvious, to many readers, than the English term Work Science. The term ergonomics holds word elements from old Greek for work or activity (ἔργον—>ergonnomos 1.020 g ml–1) on arrival at work. There was a significant increase (P £ 0.001) in the prevalence of dehydration post-shift as 64% (P £ 0.001) in autumn and 63% (P 5 0.043) in winter were dehydrated. In each area, 622% had dehydrated by ±2% loss of body weight. Pre-shift, 23% in autumn and 13% in winter were overhydrated (USG