To address and overcome the issues and constraints faced in forest management, the following courses of actions are expected to be adopted:
· enhancement of human resource development programmes especially in the fields of multi-resource inventory and integrated forest resource management;
· improvement of current harvesting systems and reforestation technologies with operational studies, including low impact logging so as to achieve higher efficiency and cost effectiveness, as well as to minimize negative environmental impacts;
· provision of greater fiscal and monetary incentives for the establishment of forest plantations by the private sector so as to make them both financially and economically attractive and viable; and
· enhancement and prioritization of regional and international cooperative projects so as to accord greater emphasis to critical areas such as the management of the non-production components of the PRF.
Similarly, to overcome the inherent constraints and weaknesses faced by the forest and wood-based industries, the following courses of actions are expected to be undertaken:
· Increasing wood recovery rates from the current rates of 50.0 to 60.0% to 75.0 or 80%.
· Increasing the utilisation potential of many lesser-known species.
· Improving efficiency in the supply and distribution system of timber to the downstream wood processing industries. Distribution bottlenecks persist as the suppliers of timber and rubberwood are not located near the downstream wood processing facilities.
· Encouraging procurement of timber from cheaper sources of supply to improve the competitiveness of Malaysian wood-based manufacturers.
· Improving profit margins of the wood-based industries by creating new market and distribution channels and own brand names.
· Restructuring of the wood-based sector.
· Enhancing automation and modernisation of existing firms through amongst other, the relocation of traditional, backyard small-scale wood-based firms to Industrial Parks and support their modernisation and encouraging greater use of automation to reduce labour utilisation and improve productivity.
