SE Asian timber trade continues to thrive

SE Asian timber trade continues to thrive

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Southeast Asia's timber industry will remain healthy despite the pall of smog cast over much of the region from forest fires raging in Indonesia, officials say.

Government officials in Malaysia and Indonesia said they had adopted policies to ensure logging would not strip the land.

Malaysian Primary Industries Minister Lim Keng Yaik said the government began a US$1.3 billion plan last year to renew its forests over a five-year period.

Under guidelines set by the Japan-based International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), all timber exports must come from sustainable-managed forests by 2000, or face an export ban.

"ITTO requires the country's tropical forest to be sustainedly managed by the year 2000, and if not, our timber products will not have easy access to the international market," Lim said.

He said only fully-grown trees were felled and enrichment planting was carried out where necessary, to promote the growth of secondary forest.

"In other words, by the time another round of selective logging takes place after 30 to 60 years, depending on the condition of the particular forest compartment, trees in the logged-over areas would have gained full maturity," said Lim.

Soedarmo, head of the forest fire sub-directorate of Indonesia's forestry ministry, said timber can still be harvested despite the latest forest fires.

"I think it is possible because the timber industry involves trees which can be cut after 10 years," he said. "I don't think forest fires will impact on the timber industry," he said.

Malaysia has a total land area of 32.9 million hectares, of which 58 percent, or 19.2 million hectares, are forested.

Officials said there were about 240,000 workers in the timber industry and the country earned $5.5 billion, or about seven percent of its export earnings, through the sale of logs, sawn timber, plywood and other timber products last year.

More than two-thirds of Malaysia's tropical rain forests are on Sabah and Sarawak states on Borneo island. Indonesia's Kalimantan province is on the eastern half of the island.

Lim said Malaysia was fortunate to be one of the world's major rubber producing countries as rubber trees which were no longer productive are felled to make furniture.

The government said laws against illegal logging and other forestry offenses were adequate.

Fines reach a maximum of $20,000. Jail terms of between one and 20 years were imposed on illegal loggers.

The situation was different for Thailand.

Thailand imported timber from Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea after a decree imposed in January 1989 banned all logging. The decree came after floods and mud slides killed several people in southern Thailand in 1987 and 1988.

"Thailand still has several forested areas. The department is now in charge of a reforestation program which calls for planting quick-growing trees such as eucalyptus in degraded forest reserves areas," an official said.

Forests in the Philippines have been largely stripped by illegal logging. Those that remain are confined to remote areas of the country, officials said.

From 1989 to 1995, the average rate of deforestation was estimated at 130,000 hectares annually. The country's total forest area dropped to 5.686 million hectares in 1994 as against 6.3 million in 1989.

"We have enough laws to protect our forest reserves, what is needed is strict monitoring and more funds to implement reforestation" an official at the Forest Management Bureau said.