High population density (230 to 840 persons per sq km) and fast population expansion (1.2% to 2.9% per annum), coupled with accelerated economic growth, have placed heavy pressures on the forest resources of the Asia-Pacific region leading to their rapid shrinkage. In the decade of the 1980s, forests diminished by about 3.9 million ha yearly. Today only 0.19 ha of forests per capita of population remains in the region, compared to 0.64 ha per capita on a global basis. The remaining 566 million ha of forests seem incapable of satisfying the needs for wood energy as well as for industrial raw materials. Most of the countries will have to progressively rely on tree-bearing non-forest areas (NFAs) to fill the supply gap. NFAs with tree stands are apparently expanding as: (1) more areas are converted from forest to farms with non-forest trees; (2) areas originally devoted purely to annual crops are converted into agroforestry farms which integrate trees into the farming systems; (3) some degraded lands or wastelands are being put back to productive use with tree crops.
Outside of estate plantations of rubber, coconut, palm oil, coffee, cocoa and tea (which are outside the scope of this paper) farmers traditionally integrate trees in their farms as block plantations or as shelterbelts, live fences, boundary markers, nurse crops, and as line planting along roads, railways, canals and rivers. They are sources of food, fodder, green manure, fuelwood, poles for local construction, and small logs (pulpwood or sawlogs) for industrial use.
Fuelwood is the most important wood product in the region at present: about 92%, 73%, and 69% of all wood harvested in South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia subregions, respectively, are in this form. The second most valuable yield is small timber for pulpwood, sawlogs and electric transmission poles. Large logs are not usually grown in NFAs because farmers harvest tree crops that are still young to obtain early financial returns. Since these industrial wood assortments are of pulpwood size, they are collectively referred to as Pulpwood. Among the developing countries in the region, the ratio of fuelwood to pulpwood produced in NFAs is approximately 10 to 1. In the developed countries (Japan, Australia, New Zealand), on the other hand, the reverse is true.
Low wood supply in the face of escalating demand has pushed market prices for fuelwood and industrial wood up by over 100% from 1980s levels, thereby providing a strong motivation for farmers to grow more tree crops in non-forest areas. Many farmers in western India and in southern Philippines, for example, have shifted from food crops to tree crops for cash incomes. Moreover, a number of countries have adopted community-based forestry programmes for restoring tree stands and generating livelihood opportunities for low-income farmers. A desirable offshoot of community-based forestry is the production of more wood to complement the yields from the diminishing natural forests.
Of the total fuelwood and pulpwood outputs, about 46% emanate from forests while the other 54% are derived from NFAs. The proportion of wood outputs from natural forests are expected to further decline as more forest areas are withdrawn from production and set aside for biodiversity conservation, ecological protection and watershed use.
Table S-1 - Actual and Projected Wood Consumption, Asia-Pacific, 1993-2010
|
Country/Region
|
Fuelwood and Charcoal (1,000 M3) |
Industrial Roundwood (1,000 M3) |
||
|
1993 |
2010 |
1993 |
2010 |
|
|
SOUTH ASIA |
||||
|
Bangladesh |
31,774 |
35,012 |
739 |
852 |
|
Bhutan |
1,364 |
1,575 |
127 |
110 |
|
India |
262,782 |
302,387 |
24,930 |
28,258 |
|
Nepal |
19,440 |
22,647 |
620 |
1,322 |
|
Pakistan |
25,021 |
31,076 |
2,823 |
2,351 |
|
Sri Lanka |
8,703 |
10,339 |
670 |
786 |
|
SOUTHEAST ASIA |
||||
|
Brunei |
79 |
39 |
217 |
244 |
|
Cambodia |
5,880 |
7,790 |
759 |
721 |
|
Indonesia |
149,063 |
180,146 |
38,409 |
44,486 |
|
Laos |
4,254 |
4,278 |
614 |
690 |
|
Malaysia |
9,375 |
8,523 |
35,457 |
31,092 |
|
Myanmar |
19,156 |
23,227 |
2,219 |
2,468 |
|
Philippines |
35,980 |
40,635 |
4,112 |
4,796 |
|
Thailand |
35,313 |
39,735 |
3,811 |
7,830 |
|
Vietnam |
28,984 |
37,030 |
4,419 |
5,098 |
|
EAST ASIA |
||||
|
China |
200,060 |
255,839 |
104,601 |
125,009 |
|
Japan |
361 |
270 |
70,418 |
72,485 |
|
Korea (North) |
4,230 |
4,854 |
503 |
614 |
|
Korea (South) |
4,491 |
5,801 |
10,516 |
16,158 |
|
Mongolia |
445 |
427 |
408 |
299 |
|
SOUTH PACIFIC |
||||
|
Australia |
2,898 |
* 1,629 |
11,012 |
14,927 |
|
Fiji |
37 |
41 |
115 |
236 |
|
New Zealand |
50 |
* 28 |
10,985 |
12,624 |
|
Papua New Guinea |
5,533 |
6,008 |
727 |
324 |
|
Samoa |
70 |
80 |
61 |
70 |
|
Solomons |
138 |
144 |
|
134 |
|
Vanuatu |
24 |
26 |
|
45 |
* Projections lower than present consumption of fuelwood and charcoalSource: Forestry Statistics Today for Tomorrow, FAO, Rome, 1995; FAO 1997 Provisional Outlook to 2010.
The general upward trend of fuelwood and small timber consumption is heavily influenced by population growth. That is so because fuelwood is the dominant, if not the only, energy source available to the populations of developing countries. This suggests that as countries approach the limits of the carrying capacity of their forests and NFAs, they need to institute strong population control measures to reduce wood demands to manageable levels.
The jump in consumption of fuelwood and industrial roundwood (including pulpwood) over the 17-year period from 1993 to 2010 is shown in Table S-1. The largest rates of increase are projected for Bhutan and Nepal due to the fact that fuelwood is not just for cooking but for space heating as well. A happy note is shown by the declining trends in fuelwood consumption for South Korea, Malaysia and Thailand. The high per capita income in these newly industrialized countries have enabled their citizens to move up from fuelwood to "clean" energy sources like electricity of gas.
