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

449Strengthening Tree Farming Activities to ReducePressure on Natural Forests and SupportSustainable Timber ProductionMULAWARMAN 1 AND JAMES ROSHETKO 21PhD candidate in forest tree breeding, Graduate School, University of Gadjah MadaTree domestication research officer, ICRAF South East Asian Regional OfficeJl. Cifor Situ Gede Sindang Barang, P.O. Box 161, Bogor 16001Mulawarman@cgiar.org2Tree domestication and training specialistICRAF/Winrock InternationalJ.Roshetko@cgiar.orgAbstract. Forestry plays an important role in Indonesian economic development. Hundreds offorestry companies are involved in this sector, supported by the Indonesian government. Thereare millions of smallholder farm families that depend on forest resources to meet their needs.Though they have a great potential to develop community- based industrial timber plantationsand reduce pressures on natural forests, there has been only minor support from the governmentfor their tree farming activities.Increased involvement of communities is very important for sustainable forest development.Community tree planting activities will supply raw materials for forest industry, reduce pressureson natural forests and support genetic conservation.Farmers may have great interest in tree planting activities but they often lack experiences in thatarea. They are usually unaware of the importance of matching species with site, germplasmquality, and proper seed and tree management. There are several strategies for strengtheningtheir tree farming activities - increasing farmers’ awareness in using high quality germplasm andstrengthening their access to supply; strengthening the capacities of communities for procurement,distribution, and dissemination of germplasm; strengthening capacities of communities for treeplanting activities; and providing infrastructure to support tree planting activities.IntroductionForestry sectors play important roles in the economic development of Indonesia.Until very recently, commercial timber production was primarily based onharvesting natural forests. The industry demands for timber have increased tothe point that pressure on natural forests is very great to the point that althoughthe efficiency of extraction can be increased, the demands simply cannot betotally supplied by harvesting natural forests. The Ministry of Forestry issuedhundreds of forest concession licences to state forestry or private forestrycompanies for managing natural forests but there were few successes, if any,