SBR- Content.pmd - INBO

State of the Basin Report - 2003Unlike most of the chapters in this report, forestry statistics were available at a basin level. Thusmost of the data in the tables that follow are only for areas of Thailand and Viet Nam that liewithin the basin. Because almost all of Cambodia and Lao PDR lie within the basin, nationalleveldata have been used for these countries. In those few tables where only national level datawere available for Thailand and Viet Nam, this has been indicated with the symbol * in a notebelow the table.1. Forestry sector activities1.1 Overview of the forestry sectorForestry across the LMB is characterised by active logging, often carried out across borders, ineffectivelogging bans and application of regulations, and a reforestation process that is too slow to keep upwith forest cutting and biased toward mono-culture. 3 The forestry sector covers commercial logging,private and commercial gathering of fuelwood, and the harvesting of non-timber forest products(NTFP.) The sector contributes 5 percent of the GDP for Lao PDR, 4 percent for Cambodia, 1percent for Viet Nam, and below 1 percent for Thailand. However, these figures understate theimportance of forest resources in the economic and social lives of LMB people because of the largenumbers who draw their livelihoods partiallyor fully from the forests. Forests are also ofenormous indirect value by virtue of the rolethey play in protecting watersheds from erosionand other forms of degradation.Uncontrolled and illegal logging continues in muchof the basinThe tables below give Food and AgricultureOrganization (FAO) estimates of the quantityof various forest resources exploited in the LMBcountries, including concession and nonconcession(illegal and smallholder) activity.Figures for Thailand and Viet Nam are onlyavailable at the national rather than the basinlevel.Table 1. Cambodia forestry sector output 1990-2000 (m 3 )Item 1990 1995 2000Industrial roundwood 567,000 1,040,000 809,000Other industrial roundwood 457,000 630,000 630,000Plywood 2,300 29,000 27,000Roundwood 11,795,231 12,026,632 10,928,409Sawlogs+veneer logs 110,000 410,000 179,000Sawnwood 71,000 140,000 3,000Veneer sheets 0 29,000 45,000Wood-based panels 2,300 58,000 72,000Wood charcoal 25,036 36,275 31,042Wood fuel 11,228,231 10,986,632 10,119,409Source: FAO 2002a186