Arising from the intense debate at UNCED was the adoption of the first global consensus on forests and the emergence of a firm conceptual foundation for sustainable forest management. In particular, the adoption of the Non-legally Binding Authoritative Statement of Forest Principles, Chapter 11 - Combating Deforestation and Chapter 15 - Conservation of Biological Diversity under Agenda 21, as well as the signing of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Framework Convention on Climate Change which have far-reaching implications for forest management.
The new challenges faced globally in ensuring sustainable forest management include firstly, the reduction of deforestation and forest degradation through effective conservation measures and the sustainable use of existing forest resources, as well as alleviating the pressure on forest by addressing the root cause of forest loss. Secondly, the increase of the forest resource base through tree planting, afforestation and reforestation in the broad context of land use and enhance productivity of the existing forest land. Thirdly, the revitalisation of the forest based industries and enterprises to enhance the valorization of forests through optimising of forest goods and services. Finally, the strengthening of national capacities for effective implementation.
In this context, forest management practices in Malaysia will need a paradigm shift from sustained timber yield management to sustainable forest ecosystem management. There is also the need to internalise the full replacement and environmental costs in forest goods and services. The development and application of increasingly complex criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management, as well as expanding the spatial scope of forest management from individual forest stands to the entire forest ecosystems and landscape pose further challenge to forest management.
Forest industries in Malaysia until recently, was driven primarily by resource supply advantage. The availability of raw material supply at competitive prices, relatively low labour costs and favourable international prices created positive conditions for its growth. However, this development also resulted in the building up of excess capacity especially in the sawmilling and plywood/veneer sub-sectors. This problem is further aggravated by the declining supply of raw material, both locally as well as from abroad. Hence, the survival and sustainability of these sectors would greatly rely on their ability to overcome the inherent problem of log supply, adoption of new and state-of-the-art technologies, utilisation of smaller diameter logs and under-utilised or lesser-known species and the restructuring of the industry itself. In Peninsular Malaysia, for example, restructuring of the primary processing industries has to be targeted at about 300 sawmills with total capacity of about 6 million m3 of log intake and about 30 plywood mills with total capacity of about 1 million m3 of log intake. In addition, with the evolution of technologies, reconstituted wood such as fibreboard, oriented strandboard, blockboard and particleboard, rather than solid wood, are expected to become more acceptable and subsequently dominate the market.
