Center for International Forestry Research CIFOR Occasional Paper No. 48 Logging for the ark Improving the conservation value of production forests in South East Asia Lena Gustafsson | Robert Nasi | Rona Dennis Nguyen Hoang Nghia | Douglas Sheil | Erik Meijaard Dennis Dykstra | Hari Priyadi | Pham Quang Thu This document has been produced with the financial assistance of IFAD, EU and SIDA. Disclaimer The views expressed in this document can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of IFAD, the European Union and SIDA. Donors CIFOR receives its major funding from governments, international organizations, private foundations and regional organizations. In 2006, CIFOR received financial support from Australia, Asian Development Bank (ADB), African Wildlife Foundation, Belgium, Canada, Carrefour, China, Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD), Convention on Biological Diversity, Cordaid, Conservation International Foundation (CIF), European Commission, Finland, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Ford Foundation, France, German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), German Foundation for International Cooperation, Global Forest Watch, Indonesia, Innovative Resource Management (IRM), International Institute for Environment and Development, International Development Research Centre (IDRC), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), Israel, Italy, the World Conservation Union (IUCN), Japan, Korea, MacArthur Foundation, Netherlands, Norway, Netherlands Development Organization, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Peruvian Secretariat for International Cooperation (RSCI), Philippines, Spain, Sweden, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Switzerland, The Overbrook Foundation, The Tinker Foundation Incorporated, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Tropical Forest Foundation, Tropenbos International, United States, United Kingdom, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF), Wageningen International, World Bank, World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Gustafsson, L. et al. Logging for the ark: Improving the conservation value of production forests in South East Asia/ by Lena Gustafsson, Robert Nasi, Rona Dennis, Nguyen Hoang Nghia, Douglas Sheil, Erik Meijaard, Dennis Dykstra, Hari Priyadi and Pham Quang Thu. Bogor, Indonesia: Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), 2007. ISSN 0854-9818 ISBN: 978-979-1412-19-3 74p. (CIFOR Occasional Paper No. 48) CABI thesaurus: 1. tropical forests 2. secondary forests 3. biodiversity conservation 4. logging 5. forest management 6. code of practice 7. certification 8. guidelines 8. South EastAsia 9. Indonesia 10. Vietnam I. title © 2007 by Center for International Forestry Research All rights reserved Printed by Indonesia Printer, Jakarta Cover photos by Ed Pollard, Benjamin Lee, Rosemary Low, WCS Cambodia, Brian Belcher, Reidar Persson, Manuel Boissière, Hari Priyadi, Douglas Sheil, Christian Cossalter, John Turnbull Published by Center for International Forestry Research Mailing address: P.O. Box 6596 JKPWB, Jakarta 10065, Indonesia Office address: Jl. CIFOR, Situ Gede, Sindang Barang, Bogor Barat 16680, Indonesia Tel.: +62 (251) 622622; Fax: +62 (251) 622100 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.cifor.cgiar.org Logging for the ark Improving the conservation value of production forests in South East Asia Lena Gustafsson1 | Robert Nasi2 | Rona Dennis3 Nguyen Hoang Nghia4 | Douglas Sheil5 | Erik Meijaard6 Dennis Dykstra7 | Hari Priyadi5 | Pham Quang Thu4 1 Swedish University of Agricultural Science (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden 2 Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor, Indonesia, and Centre de Coopération Internationale pour la Recherche Agronomique en Développement (CIRAD), Montpellier, France 3 Affiliated to the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor, Indonesia 4 Forest Science Institute of Vietnam, Hanoi, Vietnam 5 Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor, Indonesia 6 The Nature Conservancy (TNC), East Kalimantan Programme, Samarinda, Indonesia 7 USDA Forest Service, PNW Research Station, Portland, Oregon, USA ii Contents Abstract vi Introduction 1 Purpose and context 1 Background 1 The management recommendations made in Life after Logging 2 From Life after Logging to the present document 2 The final list… 3 Forests in focus 3 Forestry systems and users of the recommendations 3 A brief history of logging in the tropics 4 Why do biodiversity considerations matter when logging tropical forests? 5 Instruments for Sustainable Forest Management 6 Codes of Practice 7 Criteria and Indicators 8 Reduced Impact Logging 10 Certification 11 Forest Stewardship Council 11 Indonesian Ecolabelling Institute 12 Malaysian Timber Certification Council 13 Forest Certification and Biodiversity 13 Actual logging practices in humid rainforests of Indonesia and Vietnam 13 Indonesia 13 Vietnam 15 Recommendations for forest managers, with special emphasis on Indonesia and Vietnam 17 Minimising direct threats and logging damage 18 Before granting logging rights 18 Inventory, survey and planning prior to logging 18 Maintaining connectivity 20 Maintaining habitat complexity and diversity 21 Keeping keystone resources 22 Minimising damage linked to infrastructure 22 Minimising stand damage during logging and related operations 24 Post-logging operations 25 iii Minimising indirect impacts and threats 27 Hunting and extraction 27 Fire 28 Exotic and invasive species 29 Domestic animals 29 Traffic 30 Pollution 30 Logging and conservation for local people 30 Implementation and vigilance 31 Monitoring 31 Awareness and training 32 References 32 Appendix 1: Some conservation biology concepts and theories relevant to South East Asian rainforest 38 Forests, flora and fauna 38 Biodiversity hotspots 38 The importance of production forests to biodiversity 38 Protected areas versus production forests 38 Unprotected forests – the matrix 39 Four different roles for the matrix 39 Critical factors for the preservation of biodiversity 40 Environmental conditions 40 Landscape properties 41 Fragmentation and the importance of habitat size 42 References 43 Appendix 2: National guidelines for sustainable forest management and biodiversity considerations in South East Asia 44 Introduction 44 Brunei Darussalam 48 Cambodia 50 Indonesia 56 Lao People’s Democratic Republic 58 Malaysia 60 Myanmar 63 The Philippines 65 Singapore 67 Thailand 68 Timor-Leste 69 Vietnam 71 References 73 iv Abstract In order to maintain the high levels of biodiversity and the ecological functions of tropical forest landscapes in South East Asia, production forests need to be managed in a more sustainable way. Numerous initiatives already exist in the form of codes of practice, criteria and indicators, and certification schemes in the countries of South East Asia, but to date such guidelines and standards have been vague and have lacked quantitative targets. Reduced- impact logging (RIL) is a concept related to techniques and practices that aim to achieve environmentally sound timber harvesting; the concept has gained broad acceptance in the tropics. As yet, however, RIL guidelines have focused mainly on environmental aspects such as soil and water, and have taken the flora and fauna into account to a minor degree only. In this report, detailed recommendations are made to help forest managers take account of biodiversity conservation in dipterocarp logged-over and primary natural forests where mechanised logging is practised. The recommendations are based on those made in the CIFOR publication Life after Logging, further developed through three workshops held under a joint project between the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, CIFOR and the Forest Science Institute of Vietnam. The recommendations are linked to the different phases of the forestry cycle: i.e. planning (inventories of sensitive species and habitats, delimitation of set-aside areas and riparian buffers), infrastructure (logging camps, roads, bridges, skid-trails, landings), logging (retention of critical structures, micro-habitats, key resources, felling techniques, harvesting intensity, site-adaption), post-logging (understorey slashing, rehabilitation of log-landings and stream crossings, re-forestation), and monitoring (biodiversity inventories). Issues related to hunting, fire, invasive species, domestic animals, traffic, and logging and conservation for local people are also covered. Logging for the ark: Improving the conservation value of production forests in South East Asia 1 Introduction Purpose and context of biodiversity and fulfil important ecological The recommendations made in this report functions both locally and globally. At present, aim to improve the conditions for biodiversity however, large-scale implementation of conservation in the selectively logged sustainable forest management (SFM) is not production forests of South East Asia, a region general practice. Deforestation rates are still which is one of the most important hot spots for high in many South East Asian countries. Illegal global flora and fauna and which is at the same logging and habitat destruction continue to time suffering from a very strong demand for be a cause for concern,