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

440lithosphere, and depletes biologically active nutrient pools. Heavy machines,such as scrapers, loaders, draglines, shovels, and excavators greatly increaselevels of soil compaction (Porterfield 1981) and reduce soil water permeabilityand water holding capacity (Grandt 1988). Consequently, the leftover soils,which are usually called mine spoils, have highly unfavorable properties forsupporting plant growth.To support plant growth, therefore, successful reclamation of the minespoil is necessary. Not only is this required to increase the productivity of thesoil, but also to reduce negative impacts to the environment. Reclamation mayalso be considered as the first stage of restoration, and the re-establishment ofactive biological nutrient cycles and microorganism populations are importantkeys to reclaiming disturbed lands for productive uses. Mineral nutrients arechemically bound in the organic structures of leaves on the forest floor, fineroots, and soil humus. The quantity of nutrients released depends solely on therate of decomposition of organic matter, which is determined by many factorsinvolving activity of soil flora and fauna and chemical quality of decomposingmaterials. Therefore, establishment of vegetative cover is a critical initial aspectin reclaiming or rehabilitating disturbed land to achieve post-mining land usesgoals.This paper discusses the possibility of timber estate development onlands degraded due to coal mining activities, based on findings from reclamationresearch in North Bengkulu and surveys from South SumatraMethodsThe experiment was designed in two levels; species selection (green house),and field experiments with selected species.Green house experimentsThe green house studies were done at the Faculty of Agriculture, UniversityBengkulu and involved testing 13 woody species and two grasses (Suhartoyo& Munawar 1998).A Completely Randomized Design was used to test the performanceof thirteen timber species and two grasses species, namely Acacia mangium,Delonix regia, Gliricidia sepium, Hurea sp, Phitecellobium jiringa, Cassiasiamea, Calliandra callothyrus, Leucaena leucocephala, Mimosa sp.,Ceiba petrandra, Paraserianthes falcataria, Peronema canescens (timberspecies) and Pennisetum purpureum and Setaria spacellata (grass species).Plant materials were prepared by growing seedlings or rooted cuttings for about