Management plans

In the 1980s, a Consensus Forest Land Use Plan was established for all provinces. This designated functional forest areas based on biophysical and ecological features. As of April 1999, the forest area of 121.1 million hectares was divided into conservation forest (20.6 million hectares), protection forests (33.9 million hectares) and production forest (58.5 million hectares). The remaining 8.1 million hectares is designated non-permanent forest land or conversion forest designated for conversion to other uses such as agriculture, mining and industrial forest plantation. All 32 provinces have developed land-use plans.

Under the concessionary management system, each concessionaire is required to prepare an Annual Management Plan that covers production, marketing, equipment usage, road network development and maintenance, and silvicultural activities on the logged areas, as well as community development. The concessionaire is also required to submit a five-year management plan, as well as an overall plan that covers the duration of the concession tenure, and a comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment Report for the entire concession area. Management plans must show progress in post-logging silvicultural activities to ensure the sustainability of the forest for the next harvesting rotation. Particular attention is paid to the number of commercial species standing in post-harvest inventories. Failure to file adequate plans is punishable by limiting the following year¿s production targets for the violating concessionaire.

last updated: Tuesday, November 24, 2009