Summary
More than a quarter of the world’s tropical forests are exploited for timber. Logging impacts biodiversity in these ecosystems, primarily through the creation of forest roads that facilitate hunting for wildlife over extensive areas. Forest management certification schemes such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) are expected to mitigate impacts on biodiversity, but so far very little is known about the effectiveness of FSC certification because of research design challenges, predominantly limited sample sizes. In this paper, the authors delve into this by using 1.3 million camera-trap photos of 55 mammal species in 14 logging concessions in western equatorial Africa. The authors observed higher mammal encounter rates in FSC-certified than in non-FSC logging concessions, with the effect was most pronounced for species weighing more than 10 kg and for species of high conservation priority such as the critically endangered forest elephant and western lowland gorilla. The study provides strong evidence that FSC-certified forest management or equivalently stringent requirements and controlling mechanisms should become the norm for timber extraction to avoid half-empty forests dominated by rodents and other small species.