Intensive Forestry: A Question of Balance Intensive or "high yield" forestry is seen by many as a way to produce more timber on less land, in order to meet the growing world demand for wood and paper products while also conserving areas of wilderness. According to Greenpeace co-founder, Dr. Patrick Moore, "a square mile of managed forest may have most of the biodiversity of a wild forest, produce 20 times as much timber or pulpwood, and take virtually all of the logging pressure off 19 square miles of wild forest." He calls it "high yield conservation" and compares it to advances made in agriculture. "Because we've tripled the yields on our farms since 1950," he says, "we haven't had to clear more forests to feed ourselves. If crop yields hadn't increased dramatically over the past half century, we'd already have had to convert almost every acre of forest on the planet to agriculture." Pressure to do More with Less As Moore points out, "more than six billion people live on this planet and wake up every morning with the need for fuel, shelter and food" — which explains the high demand for wood and paper. And that's just today. With the global population expected to peak at eight to nine billion by 2050, he believes we'll have to double the amount of timber harvested. Wood production, for example, has risen 50% since 1960 and is forecast to rise by 20 - 50% more within fifteen years. Add to that the growing demand for paper — which, by 2010, is expected to be 80% higher than it was in 1990. This overwhelming increase is due partly to the fact that more people than ever before can read and write. In 1970, about 2 billion people were literate. Today, it's close to 5 billion. The percentage of illiterate adults worldwide has dropped from a third to less than one fifth. Sustainable forest management, once the holy grail of forestry, is now common across North America, which has about the same amount of forested land now as it did 100 years ago. But sustainable development — which describes the balance between environmental, economic and social needs, now and in the future — is a never-ending challenge. Many people believe it can be met, in part, with intensive forest management. In North America, forest companies have another incentive to do more with less. Despite their advantages — such as an extensive land base, highly trained work force and advanced knowledge and technology — companies here compete with countries that have few of the rules or costs associated with sustainable forest management. This puts them at a clear disadvantage. Plantation Forestry: Managing for Higher Yield According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), high yield plantations could theoretically meet the total world demand for fiber from only five percent of the global forest land base. There are currently more than 300 million acres of forest plantations worldwide, which contribute about a third of the world's industrial wood supply. About 15% of these are intensively managed. About half of the world's large scale, high yield plantations can be found in the southern United States. (The rest are in the southern hemisphere.) Most are comprised of softwood species such as pine, all the same age, grown for solid-wood production in rotations of between 25 and 45 years. Through a combination of nursery management, site preparation, weed control, fertilization and other forestry techniques, these forests are among the most intensively managed anywhere. An area planted in the 1950s or 1960s, for example, produced an average of 90 cubic feet of fiber per acre per year. Plantations established in the 1990s are producing more than four times that amount — and additional gains are anticipated as a result of advances in forest biotechnology. Genetic Engineering and Forestry For more than 30 years, countries around the world have been researching ways to increase both the yield and value of forests through genetic engineering. According to Natural Resources Canada, the science involves "cutting and pasting genes from one organism to another". The objective is to ensure that forests have desired traits such as high wood quality, tolerance to drought or flooding, resistance to insects and disease, and faster growth. Although Canada has long been a leader in forest genetics research, it is nonetheless taking a cautious approach, carefully examining the many issues that surround this technology. As a result, forestry applications are in field trials only, with the stipulation that the genetically engineered trees be destroyed before they produce flowers. Data collected during the trials is being used to assess the potential environmental impacts. Moving Forward Although most people would agree that increasing the yield in some forests in order to reduce the pressure on others is a positive step, questions remain about the environmental, economic and social impacts. Initiatives such as "The Forests Dialogue" at Yale University are increasingly bringing together governments, industries, conservation groups and scientists to discuss the issues and determine how best to proceed.