In situ and Ex situ Conservation of Commercial Tropical Trees - ITTO

235Production Forests, Large-Scale PlantingAs mentioned earlier, the total number of production forests is 64 million ha andmost of them are natural production forests located outside Java such as inKalimantan, Sumatera, Sulawesi, Irian Jaya, and Maluku. In 1970, thegovernment issued a concession right for state and private companies to utilizeforest resources in the outer islands. Before 1990 more than 421 timberconcessions were operational and that was the beginning of the exploitation ofIndonesia’s tropical rain forests on a large scale. The extracted wood, mainlyfrom dipterocarps, is for export and accounts for 20.47% of the world’s plywoodmarket. Wood products exports contribute 54-85% of the total export earningsof Indonesia. The silvicultural system being used in natural forest managementis mostly the Indonesian Selective Felling System. The tropical rain forests ofIndonesia also are rich in non-wood forest resources such as rattan, fruits,nuts, tannins, resins, and other natural products.All production forests on Java are plantation forests managed by PerumPerhutani (State Owned Forest Enterprise) except for the Yogyakarta SpecialTerritory. Indonesia has very large-scale plantation forests. Plantation forestsin Java cover a total area of about 2 million ha, consisting of teak (Tectonagrandis), pine (Pinus merkusii), mahagoni (Swietenia macrophylla and S.mahagoni), rosewood (Dalbergia latifolia), Agathis (Agathis loranthifolia),Sengon (Paraserianthes falcataria), kayu putih (Meulaleuca cajuputi), andother, more minor species.The largest teak plantation forest in the world is located on Java and ismanaged by Perum Perhutani. Teak forests in Java have been planted sinceDutch Colonial times (1874) and now represent one of the best examples ofintensive forest management systems in the world. Teak plantations on Javaamount to over one million ha, and the annual cut is about 8,000 – 10,000 ha.There are also some teak forests outside Java such as those on the islands ofMuna, Buton, Kangean, Sepinggan, Sumbawa, Timor, Buru, Saparua, and SouthEast Sulawesi. Representative of the great success of the greening movementon private land, there are now plenty of teak plantations in places such asGunung Kidul, Yogyakarta, Wonogiri, and at many sites in South Sulawesi(Suseno and Na’iem, 1999).The second largest plantation area on Java is represented by pine forestsof Pinus merkusii, or tusam, covering around of 800,000 ha mostly at higherelevations. There is also an impressively large area of planted pine forest inSouth Sulawesi as a result of the greening and reforestation movement conductedin the 1970’s.A fast-growing worldwide demand for wood has resulted in theincreasing rate of depletion of our natural tropical forests, and this crisis in the