Road to sustainable planted forest industry
FOR holders of the Licence for Planted Forests (LPF) or planters, time is of the essence to achieve the Sarawak government’s target of one million ha of planted forests — or is it almost mission impossible?
The intention is to reduce the extraction of timber from natural forests and replace it with timber produced by planted forests of about 15-20 million m3 annually.
The planted forest industry was started in 1997 and 20 years on, it still looks like a case of racing against time to meet the set target – with some unexpected acute hiccups along the way to slow down progress and overall development.
With the total tree-planted areas under LPF amounting to only 408,000ha as at December 2017, industry insiders have revealed that achieving the set target is a daunting task even with the best intention and efforts.
Some uncertainties cannot be ignored and concerted efforts by the government, planters and stakeholders are crucial to reposition and drive the forest plantation sector towards sustainability.
Apart from nearly RM2 billion already invested by the planters, and at least another RM3 billion will be needed to achieve the targeted one million ha, matching species against terrain, soil types and tropical conditions, pests and diseases, other major economic and technical questions to look into include marketing needs and developing the right downstream industry.
Among the complex issues that must be addressed are confusion arising from the definition of plantation areas and the ineligibility of planters to join the forest plantation management certification due to the cut-off date of Dec 31, 2010 for the establishment of planted forests.
Even after two decades, the planted forest industry in Sarawak is still in its infancy compared to other countries.
The planting process is known to be terrifically slow-paced and it could take years for the trees to reach maturity. Moreover, there is no guarantee of success unless the process is carried out with time-horned experience and the required level of expertise.
Owing to prevailing circumstances, planters, thus, feel there is a need to be more realistic and pragmatic in keeping expectations to attainable ceilings.
This is a time-consuming industry that requires a great deal of team effort, all working together to complement and support each other towards the same goal as one entity to ensure the industry and Sarawak achieve the desired outcome.
Land issues According to reports made available to thesundaypost, as of 2017, a total of 42 LPFs have been issued in Sarawak covering 2.57 million ha with a net plantable area of one million ha.
On paper, it seems logical to assume that LPF holders have access to adequate suitable and available land to achieve the one million ha target set by the State government.
However, this is far from reality as planters are facing problems stemming from the ambiguous definition of “plantable areas” which, despite being designated as “plantable”, may include poor or unsuitable soil, excessive broken terrain and land that are off-limits since they may be reserved for conservation or categorised under Native Customary Rights (NCR), not to mention a large portion of the most suitable “plantable” areas are either encroached or claimed as pemakai menoa and pulau galau and even native territorial land.
Skeletal soil, usually shallow, stony and even swampy, contains very little nutrients, and typical pests, diseases or poor soil foundation can also be found in assigned plantable areas to warrant the selection of tree species based on their ability to grow in such areas.
Unfortunately, as in any “green field venture,” the lack of historical data makes it very difficult for the planters to figure out what tree species will have optimal growth potential for their assigned sites.
In fact, a high proportion of “plantable areas” has been found unsuitable – so much so that some are questioning whether there is even enough land for planters to meet the one million ha target.
Even if there is enough land, planters are quick to point out that issues of NCR land and land with purposes of conservation are still major stumbling blocks to progress of tree planting under LPF, given that most licence holders have had their plantation projects halted due to disputes over claims of those lands by the local inhabitants.
Such disputes can lead to court and take years and hefty legal fees to resolve, stalling tree planting operations in the process.
Indeed, even tree planting projects, undertaken by the government, are facing similar problems with almost 25 per cent of plantable areas being disputed by claimants and nearly all these disputed cases come under NCR definition.
Concerns are also being voiced over the intended amendment to the Land Code regarding pulau galau and pemakai menoa to be tabled in the State Legislative Assembly. Whether this will resolve – or aggravate – the issue of the availability of plantable land is left to be seen.
Considering all these issues will set back the overall planting progress and also reduce the availability of planting areas, there is justifiable reason to acknowledge the need to come up with a sustainable longterm solution to land-related problems, especially through the promulgation of a clear landuse policy to avoid unnecessary disputes now and in the future. Planted forest certification On the question of certification, the state is encouraging LPF holders to obtain forest plantation certification to ensure all timber products are manufactured from sources that comply with legal, sustainable, social and economic requirements. Certification will also increase accessibility to international markets, calling for such a requirement.
However, efforts to certification for more plantations in Sarawak are hampered by the cut-off dates set by international certification schemes such as the Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
The Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) develops and operates the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme (MTCS) aimed at providing independent assessments of forest management practices to ensure sustainable management of Malaysia’s natural forests and forest plantations as well as meet the demands for certified timber products.
The MTCS is endorsed by PEFC, hence the cut-off dates stated in the latter, are also imposed on forest plantations in Sarawak. The cut-off dates are 1994 for FSC and 2010 for PEFC. As such, certification of planted forests converted from natural forests after those dates will not be allowed.
As a result, all forest plantations in Sarawak cannot be certified under FSC since all were developed after 1994 while only a few areas – about 270,000ha in total (roughly half is under the state government’s pulp and paper project) – were planted before 2010 and therefore are eligible for certification under PEFC-MTCS.
It would be immensely helpful to the industry if the government could look into the certification issue and negotiate an amicable outcome to allow the overseas marketing of Sarawak timber products, derived from planted forests, to proceed without undue encumbrances. Lessons learned Tree plantation is not a new global phenomenon. In fact, countries like Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and others have many years of tree planting experience. According to data obtained from various sources, Sweden started its tree planting as early as 1903, New Zealand in 1920 and Australia in 1982.
Closer to home, tree planting activities are also undertaken in Indonesia and China with the latter being the latest large scale player.
Recently a group tour was organised to study tree plantation activities in Hainan and Guangdong in Southern
China by the Sarawak Timber Association consisting of seven members of the Forest Plantation Committee, officials from the Forest Plantation and Reforestation Division of Forest Department Sarawak, a lecturer from the Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Science, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus and The Borneo Post was invited as well.
The Chinese government has managed to push its planted forests industry to a new height of 70 million ha – the highest in the world.
The Chinese government has been able to achieve this feat in just 60 years of afforestation work by offering various incentives and compensations to encourage commercial plantation forestry, targeting not only private sector involvement but also the local communities and the ordinary people or any efforts aimed at improving the country’s ecological environment and sustaining its forest products and services.
To accelerate such development, China has taken key steps to minimise constraints, including lowering or removing high fees and taxes as well as introducing less restrictive regulations to reduce financial burdens, spur interests, motivate planters, encourage R&D and sustain on-going and future efforts.
Furthermore, there is also a need to trim cumbersome bureaucratic red tape by streamlining all processes to maximise efficiency and eradicate bottlenecks and delays. Such a move will cut costs, improve productivity and add more value to timber products and the plantation industry as a whole.
But even with such incentives in place at home, ultimately, all stakeholders must put in the effort to create an enabling environment to boost the cultivation of planted forests and give the industry a competitive edge internationally.
People can accomplish amazing things by working as a congruous team. Even Steve Jobs, the co-founder of our most iconic tech company, had said, “Great things in business are never done by one person; they’re done by a team of people.” Downstream industries For the well-being of any timber industry, downstream processing is vital for generating value-adding revenue, providing employment and sustaining other relevant aspects of economic development.
Although Sarawak has a wellestablished downstream industry for its timber from natural forests, it is a different scenario in the tree plantation industry.
Not only different equipment are required, the industry also needs to embark on new processing industries such as bio-mass, pulp and paper production, among others, in order to consume sizeable volumes of residual and lower grade logs harvested.
Back in 1996, the Sarawak government planned to set up a kraft pulp mill at a cost of over USD1.53 billion but it could not take off owing to various constraints of which inadequacy of raw materials was considered the main culprit due to land encroachment.
Subsequently, the Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC) mooted the idea of starting a mechanical pulp mill which requires less raw materials and investment but is dependent on competitive electricity supply.
The project is also understood to be facing delays due to issues on electricity tariffs.
It is puzzling that while foreign companies in West Malaysia are able get lower than market electricity rates, our own local industries are deprived of the same. After all, the local industries are contributing equally – or more – to state revenue to create employment and spur economic development. Wherefore art thou? A lot of efforts and money have been invested and much more will be needed to achieve one million ha of planted forests.
Looking at the local players and what it takes for other countries to succeed in the planted forests industry, it is obvious a much greater concerted effort will be needed to resolve land issues, pursue R&D and capacity building as well as putting in place conducive policies.
Other major factors include transformation of down-streaming activities, development of new market strategies, accruement of revenue from oil and gas and introduction of digital economy, lest we forget, the timber industry is also endeavouring to transmute its resources from natural forests to planted forests.
All these undertakings require each and every stakeholder to play a proactive role in striving for success instead of leaving the job solely to the planters.
After all, this is a vital mission to reduce our dependence on natural forests by embarking on environmentally friendly planted forests cultivation in the greater interest of environmental preservation and protection.