Dipterocarp prod&fun

Coastal Forest Seminar

Productivity and Function ofDipterocarp forests in SE Asia

Yuhsin Hsueh

Forest cover of SE. Asia 1998-2000

Net Primary ProductionMethod: Satellite data (Landsat TM)+ Metero+ GDD+PAR…. Example: Pahang state in Malaysia, 2004 (Ibrahim, 2006)The five main types of forest;

(i) the upper montane forest, (ii) lower montane forest, (iii) upper dipterocarp forest, (iv) hill dipterocarp forest, (v) low land forest.

Values• An analysis of NPP from Landsat TM image for the states of

Pahang indicated that the average value of NPP for forest area is about 3,500 gCm2yr-1. Most of the area with high value of NPP is areas covered inland and hill forest. (Ibrahim, 2006) (80% is Dipterocarp forest)

• Litter fall ranged from 6.6-7.3 up to 11 Mg Ha-1 yr-1 for primary forests on acidic soils. Litter decay constants were in the range 1.3 – 1.7 up to 2.9 yr-1 , for leaf or coarse leaf. (compare to those of woodland and woody savanna, litterfall rates are 2.12 and 3.7 Mg ha-1 yr-1)

• Peat soils contain 100 times the average C content per ha and, 199 times the average of non-peat soils. (M. van Noordwijk et al., 1997)

Mean Annual Net Primary Productivity of Peninsular Malaysia 2004 (NOAA)

• Part of southern swamps has already been converted to agricultural land such as

oil palm and other development activities,

thus showing lower value of NPP.

Forest Functions

• Dominate Species Dipterocarp forests comprise of at least 3/4 of

the forests in Southeast Asia (WWF)• General flowering events: too many seeds are

dropped in too short a time to be all consumed by the reduced numbers of seed predators, allowing more seeds to escape by germinating and growing out of the predation-vulnerable stages.

Biodiversity

• Researchers discovered 240 different plant species growing within one ha in Borneo. (WWF); species numbers are found more than 120 in mammals, 340 in birds, 75 in reptiles, 60 in amphibians, 40 in fish, and 15,000 in Arthropoda (De, 2009).

Elephas maximus© WWF-Malaysia/Stephen Hogg

Sumatran Rhinoceros © WWF-Malaysia/S.Hogg

Green turtle© WWF-Malaysia/K. Chin

Malayan tiger © WWF-Malaysia/M.Kavanagh

Orang-utan

Sun Bear

Threatened species……..Pongo pygmaeusElephas maximusDicerorhinus sumatrensisPanthera tigris jacksoniGreen turtleHelarctos malayanus

Threats

• Deforestation: an average of 250,000 hectare of forest being lost annually during 1983 to 2003! (4 times the size of a Singapore!)

• Unsustainable logging• Illegal removal of forest products• Encroachment• Medicine

Sarawak (sarawakriver.blogspot)

Sarawak (sarawakriver.blogspot)

Oil Palm Industry

Supported by Indonesia Ministry of Agriculture and Indonesia Ministry of Industry

Both Indonesia and Malaysia are exporting large amount of the product to China: Malaysian exports to that country alone are expected to grow more than 20 percent from 2.9 million metric tons in 2005 to more than 3.5 million metric tons in 2006, representing almost 1 percent of the value of Malaysia's total exports.

Reference1. Ibrahim, 2006 http://eprints.utm.my/2572/1/analysis-2006-Ab.Latif.pdf 2. WWF:

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/borneo_forests/ http://assets.panda.org/downloads/treasureislandatrisk.pdf

3. SEARRP: http://www.searrp.org/research_sabah_biodiversity.cfm4. http://sunbears.wildlifedirect.org/sun-bear-helarctos-malayanus/5. De, T.S. 2009. Habitat Use by Malayan Sun Bears （ Helarctos

malayanus ） in the Lowland Rainforests of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Thesis of National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Institute of Wildlife Conservation.

6. http://sarawakriver.blogspot.com/2009/11/seed-wings.html 7. Rhett Butler http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0425-oil_palm.html 8. http://bioval.jrc.ec.europa.eu/products/veget_map_insulare-sea/

images/TREES_insularSEA_map_fullres2.jpg