Sustainable Plantation Forestry in South-East Asia

[摘要] South-East Asia has more than seven million hectares of eucalypt and acacia plantations, mostly established during the last two decades and managed on short rotations (five to eight years). They are an important and expanding natural resource primarily for wood production, supporting value-adding local industries. They are managed mostly by corporate growers but, in some countries such as China, Thailand and Vietnam, small plantations owned and managed by individual households or small businesses comprise a significant proportion of the plantation area.Despite the importance of these plantations, there is no systematic analysis of their productivity and the challenges for sustainable wood production. Partly because of this, concerns about sustainability are periodically raised in local and international forums. The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) therefore commissioned Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to undertake this review. It is not an analysis of sustainability in the holistic sense, integrating economic, social and environmental values; it focuses on sustainable wood production, which is a foundation of sustainable forestry.This report first presents a scientific review of the biophysical basis for sustaining wood production over successive rotations in tropical environments, focussing on genetic selection and improvement, challenges posed by disease and pests, and site and stand management practices in SE Asia. This is followed by brief reports on China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, where we visited plantation forests with managers and researchers and discussed management practices and challenges. Several companies provided substantial inventory data from commercial plantations, in confidence, for independent analysis. This provided a unique opportunity to examine productivity trends and variation at various levels. Finally, overall outcomes are synthesised and pathways towards sustainable forestry are suggested.

[发布日期] 2014-04-01 [发布机构] CSIRO

[学科分类] 地球科学(综合)