Living Land

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Rehabilitation of degraded

tropical forests in Malaysia

Ismail Harun, Raja Barizan, Raja Sulaiman and Samsudin Musa, Forest Research Institute of Malaysia

alaysia has been blessed with relatively large

tracts of natural tropical forests amounting to

18.01 million hectares and covering about 55

per cent of its total land area. The forestry sector is an

important economic sector and has continued to contrib-

ute to the socioeconomic development of the nation.

Consequently, Malaysia has accorded the sustainable

management of its forests a high priority. While focus-

ing on economic growth and development, Malaysia will

continue to give equal attention to promoting the conser-

vation and protection of its natural environment.

An important strategy in the sustainable management of

forests is to ensure that the forest is able to recover and regen-

erate within the cutting cycle. This will ensure that the forest

will not continue to be degraded with each cutting cycle and

end up completely devoid of forest vegetation.

An important step in the sustainable management of the

forests is their gazettement as permanent reserved forests

(PRF), national parks and wildlife reserves. There is a total

of 14.52 million hectares of PRF in Malaysia, of which

11.2 million hectares is categorized as production forest

while the remaining 3.32 million hectares is categorized as

protection forest.

Production forests are managed under a selective manage-

ment system (SMS) where large trees are selected to be felled

based on a cutting regime. The regime addresses the sustain-

ability of the residual stand for a future cut by retaining

sufficient healthy advanced regeneration that will make the

next crop, while minimizing damage and encouraging optimal

utilization of resources.

Inland forests

The application of the SMS has significantly reduced forest

degradation. An important management strategy is to under-

take a post-felling assessment of the forest and carry out

suitable silvicultural treatments to assist in the rehabilitation

of the stand. Some silvicultural treatments include planting

of all skid trails and large gaps. Where the residual stand is

poorly stocked, enrichment planting will be undertaken. An

enrichment planting scheme promotes both the horizontal

and vertical structures of the forest for biological conservation

while sustaining a desired level of marketable high quality

timber species.

Eroded coastal mangroves at the beach of the D’ Muara Marine

Park Resort, Selangor

Growth monitoring of

Avicennia alba

planted using Comp-Pillow planting

techniques, 36 months after planting

Image: FRIM

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