Who is in Charge of the World’s Forests?

Outside abstract 5

Carlton N. Owen

Carlton N. Owen asks the question, “Who is in charge of the world’s forests?” meaning is it governments, foresters, businesses, or consumers controlling how our global forest resources are being used. The article begins by expressing mixed opinions of those who have held the position of president of the Society of American Forestry, which range from it being the forester’s responsibility to maintain environmental protection to it being completely out of their hands. This example of diverse opinions is meant to show the difficulty in identifying where responsibility falls. Owens continues by giving a summarized account of values towards how forests are used in the United States from the 30’s to present in order to explain the “struggle between economic realities and environmental priorities.”

Furthermore, Owens uses this argument to illustrate the roles being played by the beginning four social organizations and their connections to forests. He goes in to detail about the expectations of consumers and the demands placed on providers as the market has now reached global levels. These two entities are revealed to have links to how foresters meet the same production demands and quality standards represented by government policies. The development of the idea of who is actually in charge of the forests is shown to be all four groups as they influence the ways by which our forests must be managed to maintain economic stability. Owens goal is to express that “profitable timber operations and responsible environmental practices are both possible” with citizen involvement and finding common goals amongst competing values. This article is important to my site as it reviews links between the major categories of political ecology.