Forest watershed functions and tropical land use change

World-wide there is mounting interest in the relationship between land use and water resources. This has come about mainly because most developing (and developed) countries are experiencing a degradation of land and water resourceswhereas the need for these resources is increasing. Land use practices and forest conversions have been implicated in causing a degradation of watershed functions. In the humid tropics deforestation and the resulting shifting cultivation and fallow cycles have been singled out as the major causes of the destruction of watershed functions. Is this really the case? Research elsewhere is beginning to question this simplistic view of looking at the relationships between forest functi ons and their effects on watersheds. The old paradigm on deforestation and watershed functions proposes reforestation as the solution to the problem of deforestation. This has resulted in the use of scarce financial resources on ‘tree-planting’ programs which have seldom if ever actually restored ‘forest watershed functions’ as a recent review by the International Hydrology Program revealed. Before we can find the solution to the degradation of soil and water resources we must first identify the problem its causes effects and the inter-linkages between the different factors. Our understanding of the hydrological cycles forests and their role in the hydrological cycle will be important in enabling rational decision- making at different levels.

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