After the 1998 forest fire in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, biomass recovery of naturally regenerated vegetation was estimated in order to evaluate the initial secondary succession patterns of the burned land. We established research plots in naturally regenerated vegetation that included pioneer tree species, and the dominant pioneer species were Homalanthus populneus, Macaranga gigantea and M. hypoleuca, Mallotus paniculatus, Melastoma malabathricum, Piper aduncum, or Trema cannabina and T. orietalis. Annual tree censuses over 4 years (from 2000 to 2003) showed that on plots where the initially dominant tree species were M. malabathricum and T. cannabina and T. orietalis, they tended to disappear, and were replaced with M. gigantea and M. hypoleuca. In contrast, on plots where the initially dominant species were M. gigantea and M. hypoleuca, M. paniculatus, or P. aduncum, they continued to dominate 5 years after the fire. We classified tree species that were initially dominant but disappeared within 5 years after the fire as extremely short-lived tree species. The aboveground biomass of trees (AGB) averaged 12.3 Mg ha -1 (ranging from 9.2 to 17.0 Mg ha -1 ) in 2000 and 15.9 Mg ha -1 (ranging from 7.4 to 25.0 Mg ha -1 ) in 2003. Between 2000 and 2003, some plots exhibited an increase in AGB and some a decrease in AGB. In the plots dominated by M. gigantea and M. hypoleuca, the AGB increased to over 20 Mg ha -1 , but other plots accumulated significantly less AGB in the 5 years following the fire. These results suggest that the pattern of AGB accumulation in secondary forests is strongly dependent on the dominant pioneer tree species.

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We investigated the impact of ethnicity on the adaptability of forest resource management in Myanmar. Within Myanmar’s ethnically diverse population, extensive economically motivated internal migration has led to the forming new villages comprising people of different ethnicities. Conditions and problems encountered in these newly formed villages may differ from those in ancestral villages where customary rights prevail. We assessed the livelihood systems and cooperative behaviours of different ethnic groups within a study village. Our findings were as follows: 1) households’ ethnicities influenced their levels of dependence on different livelihood sources, namely Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and field crops, and 2) cooperation among the villagers of different ethnicity was weak. To achieve successful and sustainable natural resource management in such region, the characteristics of different ethnic groups should be taken into account in community forest management plan.

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Under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the world has pledged to “leaving no one behind”. Responding to goal No. 7 on the agenda, efforts to provide modern energy to all the world population must be pushed forward. This is important because electrification in the rural area can indirectly support opportunities for social and economic development resulting in an acceleration of the eradication of poverty. The research goal of this study is to contribute insights about the scale of energy demand in unelectrified villages in the Southeast Asian countries and to discuss some factors that might influence the energy demand growth. This is done by making projections based on surveys and interviews, including a time-use survey, in three off-grid villages located in Myanmar, Indonesia, and Laos. Our analysis presented the living condition, highlight the types of energy sources, how, and in what rhythms people use energy on a daily basis in those villages. The demands in each case study villages were then projected based on several constructed scenarios. It was found that the factors of household size, proximity to the city, climate, and topography may influence the present and future growth of energy demands in the villages. The estimated energy demand may be useful for project managers to design a pilot off-grid energy system project in a similar environment and pointed out important factors to consider when formulating off-grid energy policies in the region.

In the year , the total size of the world s plantations of various tree species was over million ha (ca. . % of total forested area), with about million ha (ca. . % of total forested area) in the ASEAN countries of Southeast Asia (FAO, ). Such plantations are expected to decrease human harvesting pressure on primary forests for wood products.Teak (Tectona grandis L.f.) is native to India, Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos, and is the most important silviculture tree species in the tropics, because it is high quality timber suitable for furniture and other wood products. Thailand has intensively established teak plantations and the total area of teak plantation reached ha in (Viriyabuncha & Reawsaad, ).Thailand experienced heavy deforestation in the th century. The annual loss of forest cover was ha in the mid s, or approximately . % of total forest area (Niskanen, ). Accordingly, intensive reforestation efforts have been conducted for the domestic supply of timber (Niskanen, ). Teak has been planted because it is one of the most valuable timber trees.Recently, plantations have taken on another role: carbon sequestration through afforestation/reforestation Clean Development Mechanism (AR-CDM) projects under the Kyoto Mechanism. As a consequence, it has become important to estimate the trunk volume and biomass (carbon stock) for the purpose of carbon sequestration calculations. Some studies have estimated the biomass or carbon stock for timber tree species at various sites (Morikawa et al., ; Kraenzel at al., ; Yamada et al., ), and other studies developed yield models for these plantation tree species (Nunifu & Murchison, ; Corona et al., ; Bermejo et al., ). However, few studies have been done on belowground biomass and carbon stock in the soil, because the investigations are time-consuming and laborious, and involve destruction of the investigated site. Data on the belowground biomass and carbon stock in the soil is important, because the carbon in those compartments of the forest ecosystems was added to the sequestrated carbon in the AR-CDM of the Conference of Parties (COP ) in December, .Considering the importance of carbon sequestration, in this study we evaluated the biomass of teak plantations in northern Thailand, including the belowground biomass and the carbon stock in the soil. ABSTRACTWe estimated the trunk volume, aboveground and belowground biomasses, and carbon stock in the soil of -and -year-old teak (Tectona grandis L.f.) stands in northern Thailand. Allometric equations for estimating the trunk volume and biomass of each organ, based on five sample trees in each stand, gave high accuracy (r = .to . ). The trunk volumes of the two stands were . and . m ha − , respectively. The total aboveground and belowground biomasses of the trees were . and . Mg ha − , respectively. The ratio of below-to above-ground biomass was . % in the -year-old stand and . % in the -year-old stand. The mean annual increment (MAI) of the trunk volume and the total biomass of the trees were . METHODS Field measure...

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Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) to address climate change has historically included little evaluation of how heterogeneous local communities respond to REDD+ interventions and new land-use activities. We assessed differences in the acceptance of new land-use activities as a function of livelihoods of the Hmong and Khmu ethnic groups in northern Lao People’s Democratic Republic, where REDD+ was implemented between 2011 and 2018. Our socioeconomic data, collected by a questionnaire-based survey and focal group discussions, showed that the Hmong more effectively incorporated support from REDD+ than the Khmu because the Hmong owned grazing land. Our findings highlight the importance of understanding the capabilities and characteristics of each ethnic group when implementing new land-use activities (i.e., designing and implementing alternative livelihoods) within a target area to ensure distributional equity in heterogeneous communities. Such a consideration should be included in land-use policy and also be a part of the social safeguards in the land-use sector.