R & D inputs in addressing issues related to shortage of timber supply within the country

Malaysia has many forest resources. The contribution of the forest resources to the country is very significant especially timber. The forest harvesting for timber in the Permanent Forest Reserve (production forest) occurred in more than 40 years, and this activity is still continued. However one of the impacts of timber harvesting is low production of logs from the production forest in second cycle forest, and this caused to low processing capacities to mills. Currently, the consumption of logs was about 6.9 million m3, while the production of logs was about 4.6 million m3. The unbalance between production and consumption of logs caused the government of Malaysia importing logs from other countries. However, the imported logs was still could not overcome the defisit of logs supply. More than that, some of the industries have short of log supply especially from particular species. In other situation, the logged over forest areas in the country were exceeds the virgin forest areas. It was expected that most of the logged over forests having 80% of the stocking of all trees over 30 cm in diameter, and production less than 100 m3/ha. The enrichment plantings in Permanent Forest Reserve were done by government. However the areas covered for enrichment planting in Permanent Forest Reserve were decline over the years with 1,803 ha in 1996 to 158 ha in 2005. There are need more areas for enrichment planting in logged over forest in order to increase timber in the forest. Therefore, there is an urgent need to address this delicate balance between a sustainable timber production and consumption of logs. FRIM is currently embarked on the research where the tropical forest needs to be intensively managed for both timber production and conservation of biological diversity. The project launched under the 9th Malaysian Plan with the participation of the Forestry Department of Peninsular Malaysia and the main objective is to de velop a model where only 30% of the logged-over forest is for timber production and the remaining 70% for conservation purposes. Although only 30% of the area is managed for timber production, the productivity of the area is expected to be triple with an average production figure is targeted about 300 m3 ha-1. This can be attained through a sustainable timber management approach where a systematic planning for planting wifl be a core activity. The project is currently being undertaken by FRIM with the collaboration of the Pahang Forestry Department in compartment 89B, Tekai Forest Reserve, ]erantut, Pahang. The logged-over forest within the reserve will be rehabilitated using a modified planting technique where a matrix of fast and slow growing indigenous timber species will be planted within the study area. The expected output of this project is a model of an intensive of forest management (IFM) and the model will include the financial assessment which later can be used as a guide to implement the model on a larger scale.