0803-B4
Sustainable Forest Management in Some Asian Countries
Hossein Sardabi (Ph.D.)1
Abstract
The paper was prepared after reviewing and summarizing at least 12 papers belonged to the representatives from 12 Asian countries who attended The Workshop on "Integrated Community Development, Using Green Productivity for Sustainable Forest Management to Counter the Climate Change", held in Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam during 20-25 August 2001 and hosted by APO, US EPA and Vietnam Productivity Center. I was one of the Iranian participants of the workshop.
In that paper, the current status of forest management or sustainable forest management (SFM) activities of the 12 countries (R. China [Taiwan], Fiji, India, I. R. Iran, Japan, R. Korea, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, P. R. Vietnam) was discussed, including issues and challenges; major policy actions, promotion, information, and training; support measures, activities and incentives; private sector and local community approaches; and future trends for SFM. At the end, the possibilities and avenues of linking Green Productivity and sustainable forest management; including Eco-tourism, community development and climate mitigation and adaptation were mentioned. As a conclusion, to guarantee sustainable forest management and development, the main steps were outlined.
Conservation must be considered as a first goal in forest management, particularly in countries where ecosystem is fragile and soil is delicate to erosion.
Poverty is the main factor in forest degradation in the poor and developing countries. International cooperation and assistance are required to stop poverty, increase welfare and rehabilitate the degraded forests in such countries.
Application of the official Vietnamese VAC-R program which practices the integrated fishpond-animal husbandry-vegetable garden-community forestry program that is designed to benefit the local communities, is useful for the poor and many of the developing countries.
1. Introduction:
The forests of many Asian Productivity Organization (APO) member countries have been severely degraded in the last few decades. The need for reforestation and sustainable management of forests is urgent for both ecological and economical reasons. The issue of reforestation and forest management is closely linked with that of the rural energy sources. This is so because the fuel wood still remains a very significant part of the energy requirements of the rural communities.
The APO's Green Productivity (GP) program is linked to forests in a number of ways. The more direct link is with the integrated community development (ICD) program that uses the GP approach and methodology. Green Productivity is a strategy for enhancing productivity and environmental performance for overall socio-economic development. It is the application of appropriate techniques, technologies and management system to produce environmentally compatible goods and services.
GP-ICD with its emphasis on participation of multi-stakeholders could be a good model for such social efforts, which can result in sustainable forest management and reforestation by way of addressing the issues of rural energy sources, and thus, contributing to the solution of global environmental problems; and enhance the quality of life for the rural communities.
The Vietnamese official VAC-R program refers to the component of the community development project that practices the integrated fishpond-animal husbandry-vegetable garden-community forestry program. The main strategies adopted in any VAC-R systems are: 1) Recycling of solar energy, mainly through spatial arrangements of crops and 2) Recycling of wastes/residues, using residues from farming systems as materials to be fed in another one. VAC is based on energy recycle strategy, sustainable development and economical effectiveness at farm level.
The main aim of writing this paper is to outline the best methods of sustainable forest management by studying and reviewing the experiences, technologies and information of 12 APO's member countries.
2. Materials and Methods:
The paper was prepared after reviewing and summarizing at least 12 papers belonged to the representatives from 12 Asian countries who attended The Workshop on "Integrated Community Development, Using Green Productivity for Sustainable Forest Management to Counter the Climate Change", held in Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam during 20-25 August 2001 and hosted by APO, US EPA and Vietnam Productivity Center. I was one of the Iranian participants of the workshop.
3. Current Status of Forestry Management Practices:
3.1. Issues and Challenges:
1. Conversion of forests to agricultural, industrial and urban areas.
2. Over harvesting of fuel-wood and other forest products by local communities.
3. Imperfect cooperation and partnership between local people and forest management authorities.
4. Low investment in forest activity for its long term income and output.
5. Persistence of widespread poverty.
6. Population growth.
7. Energy consumption of most countries is excessively dependent on fuel wood.
8. Population Migration due to various reasons.
9. Insufficient management of most private sectors.
10. Lack of established fora for review and debate of policies and experimental initiatives.
11. Low control on forest operations of private and cooperative sectors.
12. Illegal forest utilization and wood smuggling particularly in protected areas.
13. Failure of Congress to pass a new Code.
14. Forest operations are difficult tasks due to mountainous and geographical characteristics of many forests.
15. Forest logging and utilization without perfect scientific and technical principles.
16. Variation in forest management methods and silvicultual systems and operations.
17. Low financial and technical support by government.
18. High forest logging, particula the high quality species by overseas companies.
19. Operational policies do not provide attractive incentives for participation of community stakeholders.
20. Organizationally, ineffective management due to too much political interventions.
21. Frequently political and economical change and their influence on non-consistency of policy implementation.
22. Wrongly designed forest policy by government.
23. War at local and regional levels.
24. Defoliation by chemical defoliants.
25. Forest fire.
26. Environment pollution, even in forest related villages due to over use of fertilizers, chemicals and waste discharges.
27. Lack of perfect international technical and financial assistanc.
28. Inadequate information on forests and stakeholders' needs and capacities.
3.2. Major Policy and Actions:
Policy:
1. Improvement of diverse functions of forests through appropriate management of private, public and national forests.
2. Basic policy on government investment on afforestation and forest road construction for promotion of proper forest management.
3. Forest management based on long-term benefits of land conservation; not on financial yield by forest harvesting.
4. Extending a Primary industrial project to the forest management projects.
5. Development of joint forest management policy can lead to a widespread acceptance of the basic principles of sustainable development.
6. Development of new ways of working between sectors, institutions, disciplines, working groups and women.
7. Establishment of National Committee on Sustainable Development and Environment to Set a strategy framework for sustainable development in relation to Agenda 21 and Conventions of Climate Change and Conservation of Creature Species.
8. Utilizing the existing wastelands for production forestry and the natural forest mainly for conservation and preservation.
9. A people centered participatory approach is steadily emerging as one of the most viable strategies to manage forests.
Mobilization and Extenuation:
1. Active participation of key players: the local governments, the non- government organizations, the forest communities and other entities.
2. Increasing education and awareness programs on sustainable forest management amongst all stakeholders.
3. Increasing human capacity for forest management.
4. Establishment of an effective mechanism for multi-stakeholder participation in decision-making.
5. Combining the function of conservation and education in forest ecotourism.
6. Development of a native forest management pilot project. The prescriptions can be applied in other indigenous forest areas outside the project area
7. Promotion social forestry and agroforestry programs to develop livelihood strategies for communities.
8. Networking and linking among Local government units, national government agencies, NGOs and other private organizations in support to forest management.
9. Developing a new lottery system called "Green Lottery" to secure the new funds for of forest environmental function. "Purchasing one green lottery is same with planting one tree.
10. Promotion of private sectors participation and investments in economically viable environmental projects.
Research activities and Technical support:
1. Increasing research activities in sustainable forest management.
2. Providing different symposiums, seminars, meetings and workshops on sustainable forest management.
3. Scientific and technical supports by different research and high education centers through short and moderate training courses, consulting activities, joint projects, etc.
4. Setting guidelines for management system based on soil erosion, water supply, protection of bio-diversity, recreational utilization and stable and efficient timber supply.
5. Support facilities and technical inputs for forest management through establishment of Geographic Information System and Integrated Database.
6. Utilizing the recent technological advancement through biotechnology and clonal forestry for augmenting the productive capacity of the forest and conserving threatened species.
7. Expanding forest road network for better accessibility of mechanical equipment and low overall cost for forest management.
8. Separating and bordering different land cover and land use areas in relation to their current Potential.
9. Investing international technical assistance in forestry sector and transferring the new technology to forestry units and wood industry enterprises.
10. Technical development of cultivating greenery tree species, designing greenery environment and planting urban forests.
11. Development of suitable forest technologies for boosting and sustaining productivity of salt affected soils.
Social and Economical Issues:
1 Transferring forest dwellers and their livestocks outside of forests and awarding them new lands for agricultural activities.
2. Increasing the economical- social welfare of local people.
3. Gathering scattered forest villages for appropriate social-economical management.
4. Leasehold forestry management through user groups.
5. Forest dwellers logging under cooperative projects and through government control.
6. Changing the livelihood pattern of the local communities by replacing the current livestock husbandry system with a modern and industrial system.
7. Sharing the local forest workers in the benefits of forest logging operations, under both the governmental and the private sectors.
Legislation:
1. Improving forest legislation in accordance to UN 21 Agenda.
2. Strengthening capacity for strict enforcement of National Code of Logging Practices.
3. Imposing strict enforcement and heavy penalties on illegal traders.
Forest Conservation:
1. Isolating 10 percent of forest area at different ecosystems as conserved forests to increase and reserve plant and animal biodiversity.
2. Undertaking advanced scientific methods, including biological control techniques for improved effectiveness.
3. Importing timber and pulp to guarantee wood industry requirements, reducing forest degradation and secure the country requirements to wood products and paper.
4. Protecting forest resources against, unauthorized activities and over harvesting.
5. Foundation of Bureau of Forest Fire at the Forestry Administration to effectively prevent and control forest fires.
6. Considering the importance and the fragility of biodiversity in every forest management project or program.
7. Making community development (industry, agriculture, urban, etc) in relation to forest resources potentials and sustainability.
Silvicultural Practices:
1. Avoiding monoculture after forest logging in natural ecosystems, particularly by conifer species.
2. Applying appropriate silvicultural systems, suitable for natural, economical and social conditions of forests.
3. Ecologically, forest exploitation and logging should be made to meet the ecological requirements of forests.
4. Applying systematic silvicultural practices ranging from planting to harvesting in planted forests.
5. Implementing intensive silvicultural management methods in natural forests to improve productivity per unit area, with more emphasis put in hardwood forests usually having high economic value.
Green Productivity
1. Improvement of national forestry production, processing and distribution systems to realize the "Age of domestic forestry products".
2. Transferring the environmentally sound technologies to support sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation.
3. Improvements in resource use to enhance potentials for efficiency, equity and sustainability.
4. Adoption of appropriate technology for alternative energy to help reduce dependency on traditional energy sources such as fuelwood. For instance, biogas plants, Improved Cooking stove, solar energy, etc.
Forest Plantation:
1. Farmers guaranteed free seedlings and monetary subsidy toward planting and maintenance of newly established plantations, particularly on wastelands.
2. Forest reforestation and afforestation with native and exotic fast growing species for wood production on degraded forests and rangelands and marginal lands.
3. Use of eco-friendly biofertilizers to augment the productivity of plantations besides improving the fertility status of soils.
4. Expansion of forest cover to ensure ecological balance, improve and ensure healthier and safer environment and provide raw materials for domestic.
5. Selection of suitable tree species in urban areas to reduce air and noise pollution, improve the living quality, beautify the urban environment and provide the recreational areas for the people.
Community Based Forest Management:
1. Strengthening and supporting the cooperative and participatory forest management.
2. Eradication of poverty to remove the pressure on the remaining forest resources through forest practices.
3. Creation of forest homestead, a secure and transferable stewardship rights over forestlands for individuals in the context of CBFM.
4. Application of the official Vietnamese VAC-R program which practices the integrated fishpond-animal husbandry-vegetable garden-community forestry program that is designed to benefit the local communities.
5. Integration of all people-oriented forestry programs under one coherent organizational structure and using a unified tenure instrument.
6. Formulation and implementation of sustainable forest community development plan by the central and local government.
7. Continuing education and training and livelihood assistance are integral elements of any successful community-based forest management.
4. Conclusion:
Policy:
1. Poverty is the main factor in forest degradation in the poor communities and most of the developing countries. International cooperation and assistance are required to stop poverty, increase welfare and rehabilitate the degraded forests in such countries.
2. Conservation must be considered as a first goal in forest management, particularly in countries where ecosystem is fragile and soil is delicate to erosion.
3. Designing, regulating and executing comprehensive forest management projects under control and supervision of a local committee. The committee consists of high level authorized members who are involved in forest management; communal development and environmental, economical, social, fuel and health issues.
4. Increasing the economical-social welfare of forest dwellers and local people by involving and sharing them directly and indirectly in the benefits of forest logging operations, under both the governmental and private sectors. This also could be provided by changing the livelihood pattern of the local communities.
5. Forest resources need to be used and managed in an integrated as well as in an intensive manners. There is also a need to ensure that ecological constraints are addressed regularly and in a sustainable way.
6. There is a need to generate large-scale employment in the forestry sector through involving people in different forest activities. Concomitantly, supplementary incomes can be generated for rural farm families through community, leasehold and private forestry.
Research Activities and Technical support:
1. Testing the new methods and models of forest management on small-scale forests before extending them on large-scale forests.
2. Forest research should focus on to basic issues of forest conservation at local level so that more realistic measures and policy programs can be devised.
3. Providing scientific and technical support by national, regional and international research institutes and organizations through different training, education, research activities and advanced data and information.
Forest Conservation:
1. Protecting forest resources against unauthorized activities, fire, pollution, pests and diseases through environmentally sound methods, special guard and public participation.
2. Plant resources should be surveyed and catalogued so that the conservation of endangered and vulnerable plant species can be carried out.
Forest Plantation:
1. Using improved seeds and genetically superior planting materials in forest plantation projects.
2. Extensive plantation of trees should be undertaken wherever there are vacant public lands such as village wastelands, in and around farms, rural and urban parks, temple and school premises and along roads and rivers.
Mobilization and Extension:
1. Increasing education and awareness programs on sustainable forest management amongst all stakeholders through various media systems and public support.
2. Increasing participation of all stakeholders in sustainable forest management, decision-making and forest conservation.
Green Productivity:
1. Various renewable energy sources should be used, like biomass derived fuel, solar energy, geothermal energy, wind and wave power, Micro-hydro Power, biogas and municipal waste.
2. Designating green product that meets environmental guidelines.
3. Applying the APO-GP experience and information on extending forest products industrial centers. This will help to generate new jobs for local people, increase industrial productivity and reduce or avoid environmental impacts.
4. Designing and executing joint research projects between APO and National Productivity Organization (NPO) authorities.
5. Promotion and extension of GP objectives, scopes, methods, technologies, experiences and activities by APO and NPO authorities and different organizations in each country which involved in managing forest resources and community developments.
6. Providing access of foresters whom involved in forest management and forest socio-economical activities, to the APO-GP training and education programs.
Social and economical issues:
Increasing the economical-social welfare of forest communities through new job generation, cooperative forest operation, leasehold forestry, advanced and industrial systems of agricultural and integrated community development.
Silivicultural Practices:
Applying appropriate silvicultural systems and operations; suitable for ecological, economical and social conditions of natural and planted forests.
Legislation:
In the future, under the regulations of "Kyoto Agreement", production business should follow the carbon release trade rights or pay for the carbon taxes. Thus, their profit should be able to reimburse the cost of forest makers, and hence the plantation will be greatly expanded.
Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation
I. Increasing Forest Plantation:
1. With respect to sinks of carbon dioxide, efforts should be made to work for conservation and development of forests, greenery in urban areas and also to take steps to conserve and expand forests on a global scale among others.
2. At the natural forests, the degraded forests should be reforested, using native species. The border of these forests could be planted by native and exotic fast growing species (avoiding monoculture).
3. At the rural areas and on the marginal lands, forest plantation could be done by both native and exotic fast growing and multipurpose species and considering the natural environment potential and conditions (soil, climate, topography, etc) and utilizing an appropriate rain water catchment system.
4. At the urban and industrial centers, their sewage could be used directly or indirectly to irrigate forest plantations.
5. If we implement appropriate cultural operations to already existing plantations, we not only can have good quality wood; we can also reduce green house effects.
II. Decreasing Air Pollution:
1. Using other sources of energy other than fuelwood and petroleum products (gas, solar energy, bio-energy, etc). Using these sources of energy not only will decrease air pollution but also will decrease forest logging and forest degradation.
2. Changing our culture of consumption, particularly in wood products. Avoiding ourselves and the community to be a lavishly and wastefully consumer.
3. The longer lasting the timber, the longer the cycle of carbon release. If the technique of processing woods can be improved, the life of timber products can also be prolonged. In addition, if the government can encourage the recycle and the reuse of timber products, the chopping of woods wi11 be greatly reduced. It will be a blessing for the terrestrial ecosystems.
5. References:
1. Abuyuan; L.T., 2001. Sustainable forestry management in the Philippines: Issues and prospects. Workshop on sustainable forest management, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 20-24 August 2001. Asian productivity organization.
2. Asian Productivity Organization, 1999. Green Productivity Brochure. APO, Environment Department, Japan.
3. Chaudhary; M.A., 2001. Forestry in Pakistan.×
4. Chellamuthu; S., 2001. Sustainable forest management in India.*
5. Kuo-chuan; L., 2001. Forestry in Taiwan.*
6. Lal; S., 2001. Country report (Fiji).*
7. Mabazza; A.T., 2001. Philippine rural reconstruction movement.*
8. Magsarjav; U., 2001. Forestry in Mongolia.*
9. Park; D., 2001. Forestry in Korea.*
10. Pradhan; S., 2001. State of the forestry resources in Nepal.*
11. Sardabi; H., 2001. Forests and forestry in Islamic Republic of Iran.*
12. Sato; M., 2001. Forests and forestry in Japan.*
13. Vietnam Gardening Association, (without date). VAC and VACVINA: Vietnamese community action program against poverty, hunger, malnutrition and environmental destruction.
14. Withayawongruchi; CH, 2001. Forestry in Thailand.*
1 Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, P. O. Box 13185-116, Tehran, I. R. Iran.
Phone: + 98 21 6026571-3, Fax: + 98 21 6026575, e-mail: [email protected], website: www.rifr-ac.org
× The remaining of the reference after the title, is the same as in the reference number one.