Exploitation
Big-leaf mahogany is the premier timber species of the American tropics. Two closely related timber species, West Indian mahogany (Swietenia mahagoni) and Pacific Coast mahogany (Swietenia humilis), have been logged so intensively since the European conquest in the 1500s that commercially viable populations of these two species were extirpated by the early to mid-1900s. Swietenia macrophylla is the only true or New World mahogany with substantial populations surviving in natural forests.
In South America, industrial logging in the Amazon rapidly depleted commercial stocks in previously inaccessible regions as overland transportation networks expanded during recent decades. Conventional logging practices are unsustainable because natural mahogany seedling densities are generally low before harvesting, while silvicultural practices necessary to ensure future production are rarely implemented. Shrinking supply and a steady strong demand for old-growth tropical timber, particularly from the United States, combine to drive mahogany’s value up. High value in turn drives continued exploitation, both legal and illegal.
The following country-level descriptions of big-leaf mahogany’s exploitation in South America are excerpted from Martinez et al. (2008).
Read more about this topic: Swietenia Macrophylla
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