Insect-pests - Biology East Borneo

8 The State of the Forest and Plantation Trends
2.5. Forest plantations in perspective
The total extent of forest plantations in Indonesia is
about 4 million ha including 2 million ha in Java and
about 2 million ha in the outer islands. Plantations in
the outer islands are poised for huge expansion – from
2.0 million ha to 7.4 million ha in the coming years
(see Table 2.3). Based on current trends, much of this
will consist of Acacia mangium, followed by Gmelina
arborea, Paraserianthes falcataria and Eucalyptus spp.
Indigenous timber species will constitute a small
proportion – about 20%. Although there is concern
among environmental groups about such expansion
of industrial plantations of a few species, the fact
remains that these plantations account for only about
10%of the total extent of Indonesian forests (9.4
million ha out of 96.2 million ha). What is of greater
concern is the degradation of the natural forest in the
rest of the 64 million ha of production forests entrusted
to private and quasi-Government enterprises for logging
and management, and the increasing rate of
conversion of forest land into oil palm estates.
The Government expects plantation-grown wood to
satisfy much of the future wood demand by increasing
the area of plantations and improving plantation
productivity. At present, the mean annual increment of
most plantations of fast growing tree species in
Indonesia is 15-25 m 3 ha -1 , and efforts are under way
to increase the productivity through use of genetically
improved planting stock, including hybrids, and nutrient
management (Natadiwirya 1998; Tiarks et al. 1999).
Projections by the Ministry of Forestry of future wood
production indicates almost a doubling of the present
wood production by 2018-19. This will be
accomplished by an increase of 52 million m 3 of annual
wood production from plantations, while there will be
a decrease of 3.23 million m 3 of annual wood production
from natural forests (Table 2.7). Plantation forestry in
Indonesia has to meet this challenge.
Table 2.7. Projected wood production in 2018-19 from different sources
Year
Natural
forest
For
pulpwood
Plantation forest
For construction
timber
Community
forest
Total
million m 3
1999 - 2000 34.79 15.52 1.70 1.49 53.50
2018 - 2019 31.56 42.58 26.73 2.86 103.73
Difference -3.23 +27.06 +25.03 +1.37 +50.23
Source: Natadiwirya (1998)