Author's personal copy Short communication Commercial harvesting of Ficus timber – An emerging threat to frugivorous wildlife and sustainable forestry Annika M. Felton a,b,c,⇑ , Adam Felton a,b,c , Damián I. Rumiz d,e , Nelly Villaroel f , Colin A. Chapman g , David B. Lindenmayer a a Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia b Institituto Boliviano de Investigación Forestal (IBIF), P.O. Box 6204, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia c Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 230 53 Alnarp, Sweden d Wildlife Conservation Society, Casilla 6272, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia e Chiquitano Forest Conservation Foundation, Calle René Moreno esp. La Riva, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia f Holtz-Industrieberatung (HIB) Latinoamerica S.R.L., B/Equipetrol Psje Enrique Finot #20, Edificio Iguazú Of. 41, Santa Cruz, Bolivia g Department of Anthropology & McGill School of Environment, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2T7 article info Article history: Received 29 June 2012 Received in revised form 18 October 2012 Accepted 22 October 2012 Keywords: Ficus Figs Frugivores Selective logging Timber extraction abstract There is an extensive ecological literature documenting the importance of fig trees (Ficus spp.) as providers of food and other resources for many tropical animals. What is less apparent is that some Ficus species form free-standing stems that are targeted in logging operations. Despite the potential implications of such harvesting for biological conservation, the existence of this market has largely gone unrecognized by ecologists and conservation biologists. Here we describe the extent of this market in the Neotropics and discuss its implications for wildlife conservation and sustainable forestry. We find that large-scale commercial harvesting of Ficus timber primarily occurs in Bolivia, although some logging concessions in Peru and Brazil also harvest trees from this genus. Annually extracted volumes increased after records began being collected in Bolivia in 1998, peaked in 2005–2007 at approximately 34000 m 3 /year, but are currently relatively low, partly due to the effects of the global financial down-turn of 2008–2009. We suggest that this presents an opportunity to re-assess current Ficus harvesting policies before further market expansion and harvest intensification could occur. We emphasize that because selective logging maintains tree species composition, structure, and disturbance regimes to a much greater extent than forest-converting land-use alternatives, it is important that opportunities to ensure ecologically sustain- able forest management are identified and acted upon. We therefore call on forest ecologists, certification agencies, and conservation biologists to engage with the issue of commercial scale harvesting of Ficus. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Ficus (Moraceae) is one of the most widespread genera of trop- ical trees (Weiblen, 2002), and it plays an important and some- times critical role in the ecology of many tropical frugivores (Bleher et al., 2003; Felton et al., 2008b; Kinnaird and O’Brien, 2005; Shanahan et al., 2001). Their importance is derived in part from their asynchronous provision of large fruit crops over short time-intervals, which often makes their fruits available at times of general fruit scarcity (Janzen, 1979; Milton et al., 1982). In addi- tion, figs contain a wide range of essential nutrients and minerals (O’Brien et al., 1998) and can provide a nutritionally balanced and abundant staple food (Felton et al., 2009). Because of the dis- proportionately strong influence of Ficus on species assemblages at many trophic levels, it has been proposed that a failure to maintain viable fig populations can result in an extinction cascade (Terborgh, 1986). A small proportion of the 120 Neotropical species of Ficus (subgenera Pharmacosycea and Urostigma, Berg, 1999) form free- standing and relatively straight stems suitable for harvesting in selective logging operations (Fredericksen et al., 1999). The soft wood of Ficus can be used locally after extensive drying and fumigation, although many local forestry companies cannot afford the necessary infrastructure (E. Vargas, CFB, pers.comm). Without such treatment, the wood is non-durable in tropical climates, and is often exported to North America and Europe as doors, furniture, sawn wood, and plywood (CFB, 2010). Selective logging is a land-use option that retains tree species composition, structures and disturbance regimes more than 0006-3207/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2012.10.025 ⇑ Corresponding author at: Southern Swedish Forest Research Center, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 230 53 Alnarp, Sweden. Tel.: +46 4 415121; fax: +46 4 462325. E-mail address: Annika.Felton@slu.se (A.M. Felton). Biological Conservation 159 (2013) 96–100 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Biological Conservation journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biocon