Description of plantation resources
Introduction
Indonesia comprises the largest area of rainforests, next to Brazil. FAO (1993) estimated the total forest cover of the country in 1990 as 109 550 000 ha of which 86 percent was tropical rainforest. More than 60 percent of the land area of the country is still covered with forests.
Timber from Indonesia's Dipterocarpus forests has been an important source of non-oil revenue. All natural forests in the country are state-owned.
Development of forest plantations
In spite of its rich forest resource, Indonesia started regular forest plantations in 1873, mostly in Java with Tectona grandis and in 1916 with Pinus merkusii in Sumatra. Later on, some fast-growing species were also introduced in trial plantations.
The estimated area of plantations to 1950 was 500 000 ha, constituting three-fourths of the total plantation area of the tropical countries (Lanly, 1982). Due to pressure for land in Java, the plantation activity was reduced for a while.
In the late 1960s plantation programmes were again stepped up, adding significant area in almost all provinces. Two agencies were made responsible for the reforestation of all state forestlands; Perum Perhutani for plantations in Java and the Directorate of Reforestation and Greening (DITSI) in provinces outside Java. Reforestation within concession areas by concessionaires was initiated in the 1970s. The total area of plantations in 1980 was 2 669 000 ha (FAO, 1981), with the major portion in Java.
Perum Perhutani became responsible for managing the existing timber plantations of Java and expanding them. The DITSI programmes were reforestation and rehabilitation in critical watershed basins including planting of fruit and fodder trees in densely populated watersheds, construction of check dams and terraces, etc.
About 5 814 000 ha were brought under rehabilitation through 1988. Obviously, these areas were not all planted. In the 1990 assessment, Pandey (1995) included the DITSI areas, which inflated the total plantation area of Indonesia. In later reports, these areas were not included (MoF, 1996). In the light of this new information, the revised figure of total plantations in 1990 has been adjusted to 3 750 000 ha.
Due to population pressure, the scope for additional plantations in Java is limited. In 1988, the Ministry of Forestry decided to establish 6 200 000 ha of additional industrial plantation forests in the long run (about 25 years) with an annual planting rate of 2 507 000 ha by state and private companies (MoF, 1996).
Plantations for industrial production, known as Industrial Timber Plantations or Hutan Tanaman Industri (HTI), are being done in the islands outside Java, mainly in Kalimantan and Sumatra. In addition, farmers establish small woodlots with soft-money loans from the Ministry of Forestry. It is estimated that there are 1 027 000 ha of such woodlots of which 1 000 000 ha are in Java (MoF, 1996).
Indonesia has the largest plantation area of non-forest species. In 1997, rubber, coconut and oil palm occupied 3 474 000 ha, 3 668 000 ha and 2 516 000 ha respectively. Most of these plantations are in private holdings. The share of private ownership is rubber (99 percent), coconut (93.5 percent) and oil palm (82 percent).
Among private holdings, about 60 percent of the oil palm plantations are in private estates and the rest in small ownerships whereas most of the rubber and coconut plantations are in small ownerships (Anon., 1999).
Species composition
Tectona grandis occupies major areas of plantation in Java. Other species planted by Perum Perhutani are Pinus merkusii, Agathis spp., Swietenia macrophylla, Dalbergia latifolia, Paraserianthes falcataria and Shorea spp. HTI plants Acacia mangium, Paraserianthes falcataria, Eucalyptus spp. and Gmelina arborea for pulp and Swietenia mahogani and Dipterocarpus spp. for timber.
Farmers with smallholdings prefer short-rotation fast-growing species. The exact species composition of plantations other than those of Perum Perhutani is not known.
Growth and yield
Average annual production of roundwood from the plantations of Perum Perhutani was about 1.8 million m3 during 1994-1997 against the total production of 25 million m3 in the country. Industrial timber plantations being young, production has only recently started and is around 0.5 million m3 annually.The data on production from private wood lots is not consistent. During 1994-1995 it was in the order of 125 000 m3, increasing to 682 006 m3 in 1996 and to 1 266 455 m3 in 1997 (MoFE, 1998). The area of the plantations harvested is not available so the yield per unit area cannot be estimated.
The actual mean annual increment obtained from Tectona grandis plantations of Perum Perhutani at 70 years rotation age is about 3 m3/ha/year (Ballet al, 1999). In the past, Pinus merkusii, Agathis spp. and Paraserianthes falcataria have yielded 11.6, 13.5 and 25.1 m3/ha/year MAI, respectively (Anon., 1986).
Trend
To support industrial plantations by HTI to bring the total planted area to 6 200 000 ha in the future, some seed centres and 8 modern nurseries have been established with a production capacity of over 80 million seedlings per year.
The increasing demand for oil palm nationally and internationally has attracted wealthy investors, especially in Kalimantan and Sumatra, which is detrimental to other land uses including forest plantations (Potter et al., 1998). Smallholders and private estates have increased the area of oil palm plantations by 650 000 ha, that is, by 50 percent, from 1994 to 1997.
Issues
High social pressure, particularly in Java, has resulted in illegal felling, cattle grazing beyond capacity, fire and encroachments into plantations. As a result, actual yield from plantations is quite low. Productivity of Tectona grandis plantations is further reduced due to the teak termite (Siswamartana, 1999). The timber plantations established in the outer islands by HTI have not been inventoried.
References
FAO. 1986. Special study on forest management, afforestation and utilisation of forest resource in developing regions, Asia-Pacific. APM case study, Field document 12:2. Rome.
Anon. 1999. Area and production of Estate Crops in Indonesia. Jakarta. Statistical Year Book.
Ball, J.B., Pandey, D. & Hirai, S. 1999. Global Over View of Teak Plantations. In Regional Seminar on Site, Technology and Productivity of Teak plantations. Chiang Mai, Thailand, 1999.
FAO. 1993. Forest Resources Assessment 1990 - Tropical countries. FAO Forestry Paper No. 112. Rome.
FAO. 1982. Tropical forest resources. FAO Forestry Paper No. 30. By Lanly, J.P. Rome.
FAO. 1981. Forest Resources of Tropical Asia, Tropical Forest Resources Assessment Project. In Technical Report 3, UN 32/6.1301-78-04. Rome.
Potter, Lesley & Lee Justice. 1998. Tree planting in Indonesia: Trends, impacts and directions. Occasional Paper No. 18. Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). Indonesia.
MoF. 1996. Country Paper: Indonesia, Progress Towards Sustainable Management of Tropical Forests (Objective Year 2000). In 21st session of the International Tropical Timber Council. Yokohama, Japan, 13-20 November 1996.
MoF. 1998. Forestry statistics of Indonesia 1996/97. Jakarta. Secretariat General of Ministry of Forestry, Bureau of Planning.
MoF. 1998. 1997/98 Forest utilization statistical yearbook. STATISTIK PENGUSAHAAN HUTAN TAHUN. Jakarta. Directorate General of Forest Utilization, Ministry of Forestry and Estate Crops.
FAO. 1998. Forest plantation areas 1995. November 1997, revised July 1998. Report to the FAO project GCP/INT/628/UK. (unpublished). Rome.
PP. 1998. A Glance at Perum Perhutani (State-Owned Forest Enterprise). Perum Perhutani. Indonesia.
Siswamartana, S. 1999. Teak Plantation Productivity in Indonesia. In Regional Seminar on Site, Technology and Productivity of Teak plantations, Chiang Mai, Thailand 1999.