Tropical forests are global centres of biodiversity and carbon storage. Many tropical countries aspire to protect forest to fulfil biodiversity and climate mitigation policy targets, but the conservation strategies needed to achieve these two functions depend critically on the tropical forest tree diversity-carbon storage relationship. Assessing this relationship is challenging due to the scarcity of inventories where carbon stocks in aboveground biomass and species identifications have been simultaneously and robustly quantified. Here, we compile a unique pan-tropical dataset of 360 plots located in structurally intact old-growth closed-canopy forest, surveyed using standardised methods, allowing a multi-scale evaluation of diversity-carbon relationships in tropical forests. Diversity-carbon relationships among all plots at 1 ha scale across the tropics are absent, and within continents are either weak (Asia) or absent (Amazonia, Africa). A weak positive relationship is detectable within 1 ha plots, indicating that diversity effects in tropical forests may be scale dependent. The absence of clear diversity-carbon relationships at scales relevant to conservation planning means that carbon-centred conservation strategies will inevitably miss many high diversity ecosystems. As tropical forests can have any combination of tree diversity and carbon stocks both require explicit consideration when optimising policies to manage tropical carbon and biodiversity.

Less than half of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions remain in the atmosphere. While carbon balance models imply large carbon uptake in tropical forests, direct on-the-ground observations are still lacking in Southeast Asia. Here, using long-term plot monitoring records of up to half a century, we find that intact forests in Borneo gained 0.43 Mg C ha−1 per year (95% CI 0.14–0.72, mean period 1988–2010) in above-ground live biomass carbon. These results closely match those from African and Amazonian plot networks, suggesting that the world’s remaining intact tropical forests are now en masse out-of-equilibrium. Although both pan-tropical and long-term, the sink in remaining intact forests appears vulnerable to climate and land use changes. Across Borneo the 1997–1998 El Niño drought temporarily halted the carbon sink by increasing tree mortality, while fragmentation persistently offset the sink and turned many edge-affected forests into a carbon source to the atmosphere.

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Ecological and economic data are essential to the identification of tropical nontimber forest products with the potential for sustainable and profitable extraction in a managed system. We studied the demographic effect and economic returns of harvesting aromatic gaharu wood from fungus‐infected trees of Aquilaria malaccensis Lam. at Gunung Palung National Park, Indonesia, to evaluate the management potential of gaharu wood. Aquilaria malaccensis trees openface> 20 cm in diameter occurred at low preharvest densities (0.16–0.32 ha) but were distributed across five of six forest types surveyed. During a recent harvest, 75% of trees were felled, with harvest intensities ranging from 50% to 100% among forest types. Overall, 50% of trees contained gaharu wood, but trees at higher elevations contained gaharu wood more frequently ( 73%) than trees at lower elevation (27%). The mean density of regeneration ( juveniles> 15 cm in height) near adult trees (3–7 m away) was 0.2/m2, 200 times greater than at random in the forest (10/ha), but long‐term data on growth and survivorship are needed to determine whether regeneration is sufficient for population recovery. Gaharu wood extraction from Gunung Palung was very profitable for collectors, generating an estimated gross financial return per day of US $8.80, triple the mean village wage. Yet, the estimated sustainable harvest of gaharu wood at natural tree densities generates a mean net present value of only $10.83/ha, much lower than that of commercial timber harvesting, the dominant forest use in Kalimantan. Returns per unit area could be improved substantially, however, by implementing known silvicultural methods to increase tree densities, increase the proportion of trees that produce gaharu wood, and shorten the time interval between successive harvests. The economic potential of gaharu wood is unusual among nontimber forest products and justifies experimental trials to develop small‐scale cultivation methods.

Reinwardtia 12 (2): 145 -157. The results of the inventory of trees with DBH ≥ 10 cm shows that 184 species in 41 families, represented by 583 individuals with the total basal areas of 40.56 m² occurred in the one-hectare plot sampled. Together with the saplings and shrubs the number of species was 240 belonging to 47 families. The forest is richer in tree species than other lowland forests in North Sumatra, but poorer than those in Borneo and the Malay Peninsula. Dipterocarps constituted 18.42 % of total species with basal area of 18.99 m² or 46.82 % of the total basal area in the plot. The most prominent species was Shorea gibbosa. Hopea nigra, reported to be rare in Bangka and Belitung, occurred here as one of the ten leading species. The species-area curve shows that a considerable number of additional species was encountered more or less steadily up to one hectare and there was no indication of levelling off. A simulated profile diagram shows the forest may be stratified into five layers: (1) emergent layer, (2) upper canopy, (3) middle canopy, (4) lower canopy and (5) ground canopy. Dipterocarps were leading species in the emergent layer, upper canopy and middle canopy. Only 82 species were regenerating as represented by their presence in the sapling stage ranging from 5 to 50 plants/hectare. Macaranga lowii King ex Hook. f. dominated the section which seemed to be previously occupied by gaps.

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Abstract:The recent mass fruiting of forest trees in Borneo is an urgent wakeup call: existing policy instruments, financial mechanisms, and forestry infrastructure are inadequate to take full advantage of these infrequent opportunities for forest restoration and conservation. Tropical forest restoration can provide substantial benefits for biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, and poverty alleviation. Yet the unpredictability of the synchronized flowering and consequent mass fruiting of many forest trees in Borneo presents a distinctive set of challenges for forest restoration. Significant financing and a considerable coordinated effort are required to prepare for future mass fruiting events if we are to capitalize on opportunities for ecological restoration. The continued high rate of forest clearance in this region and the rarity of mass fruiting events suggest that there may be few remaining opportunities to prevent widespread species extinctions. In this article we propose a facilitatory policy framework for forest restoration in Borneo to stimulate action in advance of the next mass fruiting of forest trees.

Research on the biodiversity of flora and fauna in conservation forests in the petroleum/oil refinery industri is rarely done, this activity aims to obtain information on the biodiversity of flora and fauna, especially bird species. This research was conducted in in the Bukit Datuk Dumai forest area, Riau Province. Ploting a plot of 100 m x 100 m (1 ha) is made for flora biodiversity, for bird plots with a radius of 25 m scattered randomly at that location. The structure and composition of tree species with a diameter at breast height ≥ 10 cm, saplings and seedlings were examined from a permanent measuring plot of one ha. There were 32 species of trees with a diameter of ≥ 10 cm and numbering 354 trees, belonging to 22 family, the largest species being Dipterocarpaceae. Species that dominate tree level stands are Garcinia dioca L. IVI = 39.67%, Gironniera subaequalis Planch. IVI = 30.39% and Ochanostachys amentaceae Mast. IVI = 30.26 %. The species in sapling level are Hopea mengarawan Miq., Gironniera subaequalis Planch. and Shorea acuminata Dyer. With IVI respectively 73.71%, 42.51% and 35.24%, seedlings of species Glochidion sp. With IVI 47.10%, Koompassia excelsa Taub. IVI 43.52% and Hopea mengarawan Miq. IVI24.62%. The number of bird species was found 33 with a diversity index of 2.63, an evenness index of 0.75 and a species richness index of 6.52.Keywords: structure, composition, regeneration, swamp forests, fauna, birds.