Science-to-conservation disconnections in borneo and british columbia

Borneo differs fundamentally from Canada, but reflections on the struggles to improve the fates of its tropical rain forests may resonate with people engaged in the same struggles on the other side of the Pacific. I frame these reflections around the question of why my efforts as a researcher in Borneo failed to cause a change from predatory logging of old growth to conservation through improved forest management. Perhaps my most fundamental mistake was unwillingness to recognize the immense profitability of forest liquidation through multiple-premature re-entry logging, especially when followed by conversion to plantations of African oil palm or Australian acacias. Superimposed on the high opportunity costs of conservation were governance failures that diminished the effectiveness of policies set by government as well as those set by certifiers of responsible management. Conservation of the mostly remote, flooded, and steep hinterlands still covered by forest will benefit from acknowledgment of the internationally recognized intrinsic land rights of Borneo’s indigenous peoples combined with full economic cost accounting of the consequences of forest degradation and conversion. Given the global importance of old growth in Borneo, Canada, and elsewhere, global funding for conservation should be made available with safeguards such as UNESCO Biosphere designations. © 2020, Canadian Institute of Forestry. All rights reserved.