Socio-economic and biophysical aspects of private forest plantations

Introduction

Socio-economic and biophysical aspects of forest plantations established by private companies and individual planters cover basic information on: type of planter, land use, labour utilization, reasons for planting, problems faced in planting, future plans, planting characteristics (type of species planted, use of fertilizer, area planted, planting year, spacing, previous crops), tending and growth performance (land preparation, weeding, climber cutting, survival rate, replanting) and market perception (potential market, buyers and end-usage). The information presented here is derived from interviews with representatives of six companies and 21 individual planters who provided complete data to all the questions asked.

Basic information of the respondents

Type of planter

Most planters are individuals and only a minority are companies (Table 10). The six companies involved in forest plantation development are located in Pahang, Negeri Sembilan, Johore and Perlis. Among the individual planters, Malacca and Johore comprised two-thirds of the total individual planters.

Table 10. Type of forest tree planter by state, 2002

Land use

The pattern of agricultural land use indicates the extent of importance placed on tree planting by companies and individuals. Of the total 4 803 ha of agricultural land owned, 495 ha (10 percent) were planted with forest tree species. This is a new phenomenon considering the fact that in the 1980s not many people were seriously considering planting forest trees on private land. This change in land use is most noticeable among the individual planters. Of the 100 ha of agricultural land owned, about 47 ha (46.5 percent) were planted with forest trees. Private companies allocated only 449 ha (9.5 percent) of the 4 702 ha of the agricultural land they owned to forest tree planting (Table 11).

Two main reasons explain the difference. The younger people prefer to work in urban areas, which translates into labour shortages for agriculture. As most areas are small, it is not economic to employ local or foreign workers. As owners become older, they prefer to grow trees, which require less labour than annual crops, and are expected to provide income in the future. Private companies on the other hand are more cautious with regard to long-term investments in forest plantations.

Table 11. Area of agricultural land under forest trees by state (ha)

There is a considerable difference in the area of land planted with forest trees between companies and individual planters (Table 12). The average land size is 75 ha per company and 2.2 ha for individual planters. This indicates that although fewer companies are involved in forest plantations their overall holdings are larger.

Table 12. Forest tree planted areas

Main reasons for planting forest trees

Income is the main reason for both private companies and individuals to engage in forest tree planting (Table 13). Most private companies based their decisions on financial analysis criteria such as the internal rate of return. Individuals on the other hand, based their decisions more on the expected future income rather than a detailed calculation of costs and revenues. The typical explanation by the individual planters is “we were told that planting forest trees would give very good returns in the future”.

Other reasons for planting forest trees are less important. They include crop diversification, soil rejuvenation, landscaping, recreation, an increased wood supply for timber-based factories, to set up a trial plot and to develop idle land.

Table 13. Main reasons for planting forest trees

Note: Some respondents gave more than one reason.

Labour input

In general, companies employ more workers for forest tree planting activities than individual planters. The actual number of workers engaged in forest plantation activities is small (Table 14). Individual planters rely particularly on daily paid workers, as many are involved in other activities and do not have the time to take care of plantation establishment and management themselves. Many employ workers for labour-intensive activities such as weeding and fertilizing. The average number of workers engaged in forest plantation activities is four per company compared to one per individual planter (Table 15). People working for companies also tend to spend more days per month on activities related to forest plantations. Unfortunately, it was not possible to calculate labour inputs per hectare.

Table 14. Types of worker engaged in forest tree planting

Note: Some respondents gave more than one answer.

Table 15. Total labour force by number of workers engaged in forest tree planting