Stand maturity and rotation period dor inland tropical rainforest
2004
Mohd. Yunus Zakaria
The determination of stand maturity and rotation period are two fundamental issues in the management of production forests. In this study the rotation period is based on the time taken for the basal area content to return to its initial content after forest disturbance or harvest. Beside that, rotation period which is commonly used in forest practices is also taken into account i.e the time taken for tree to grow to the targeted commercial size, e.g. 45 cm dbh. In this study, 6 years oldgrowth data from these three study sites in Peninsular Malaysia were used, one each from the state of Pahang, Selangor and Perak. All the study sites are classified as inland production tropical rainforests. The rotation periods were computed using the initial stand content and projected stand growth. In forestry, stand basal area is commanly used to measure and stand maturity. This study also explore the use of canopy species composition to measure stand maturity. It was concluded that stand maturity based on canopy species composition best ensures biological maturity (or climax stage) of a managed forest, while the rotation period based on the targeted commercial size is the least effective method. The study revealed that it takes 70 years for a forest to mature when managed under Selective Management System (SMS) and not less than 100 years under the Malayan Uniform System (MUS). A felling cycle shorter than the proposed periods will not ensure the forests will be managed to its biological maturity.
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