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

446Possibility of Timber Estate DevelopmentFrom the findings above, it is apparent that mined soils in Bengkulu could supportforest growth. However, the following must be considered. First, due tocompaction, soil ripping would be necessary to support root growth. Second, toaccelerate rebuilding soil fertility, revegetation with legume plants for a year ormore would be beneficial. Third, like other soils, additions of organic matter,inorganic fertilizers and water would be necessary.The performace of sengon indicated that this species would be thebest choice for a forestry plantation under the test conditions. Turi could alsobe considered.Since the infrastructure of roads and inspection trails is alreadydeveloped, the planning of mined-site rehabilitation could be designed also as atimber estate scheme. Therefore, revegetation of mined land may also providethis option for future land management. One problem that may be encounteredrelates to the size of the mined areas. Some areas have enough space to supporta minimum timber estate unit, but some may be too small for this usage. Thus,future landscape management has to be defined prior to development – e.g.,whether to strive for revegetation only or to also aim at developing a productivetimber estate.Conclusion1. Revegetation using legume tree crops showed better growth on rippedsoils; however, inoculation with endomycorrhiza only affected early growthof Acacia mangium.2. Tree planting both improved certain soil properties (e.g., the contents oforganic Carbon and total Nitrogen were increased) and accelerated thegrowth of other understory species.3. With proper land management and rehabilitation using timber species, someleftover coal mining areas can be reclaimed and developed for forestryproduction.AcknowledgementsThe author thanks first the Directorate General of Higher Education forsupporting this research, and secondly PT. Bukit Sunur, Bengkulu, which providedfacilities necessary for the fieldwork. Thanks also to the reclamation team inBengkulu for fieldwork.