Reconciling Forest Conservation and Logging in Indonesian Borneo

Abstract

Combining protected areas with natural forest timber concessions may sustain larger forest landscapes than is possible via protected areas alone. However, the role of timber concessions in maintaining natural forest remains poorly characterized.An estimated 57% (303,525 km2) of Kalimantan's land area (532,100 km2) was covered by natural forest in 2000. About 14,212 km2 (4.7%) had been cleared by 2010. Forests in oil palm concessions had been reduced by 5,600 km2 (14.1%), while the figures for timber concessions are 1,336 km2 (1.5%), and for protected forests are 1,122 km2 (1.2%). These deforestation rates explain little about the relative performance of the different land use categories under equivalent conversion risks due to the confounding effects of location.An estimated 25% of lands allocated for timber harvesting in 2000 had their status changed to industrial plantation concessions in 2010. Based on a sample of 3,391 forest plots (1×1 km; 100 ha), and matching statistical analyses, 2000–2010 deforestation was on average 17.6 ha lower (95% C.I.: −22.3 ha–−12.9 ha) in timber concession plots than in oil palm concession plots. When location effects were accounted for, deforestation rates in timber concessions and protected areas were not significantly different (Mean difference: 0.35 ha; 95% C.I.: −0.002 ha–0.7 ha).Natural forest timber concessions in Kalimantan had similar ability as protected areas to maintain forest cover during 2000–2010, provided the former were not reclassified to industrial plantation concessions. Our study indicates the desirability of the Government of Indonesia designating its natural forest timber concessions as protected areas under the IUCN Protected Area Category VI to protect them from reclassification.

Reductions in emissions from deforestation from Indonesia’s moratorium on new oil palm, timber, and logging concessions

“…This was also the case in alternative geographically matched fixedeffects models (SI Appendix, Table S2). The finding that logging concessions increased deforestation contrasts with the findings of previous studies (4,35,39). The effect of oil palm, timber, and logging concessions was heterogenous across starting-forest cover quartile (SI Appendix, Table S3) and region (SI Appendix, Table S4).…”

“…First, we expand the literature on quasi-experimental evaluation of the causal impact of conservation measures (30), such as protected areas (31)(32)(33), payment-for-ecosystem-services programs (33,34), logging concessions (35), and clearing bans (36), to include agricultural concessions. Even though agricultural concessions are used to legally sanction deforestation on at least 150 million hectares of forest in at least 12 countries (37), and curtailing the expansion of such concessions represents a potentially promising policy for reducing emissions from deforestation, the effects of agricultural concessions on deforestation have only been estimated obliquely in econometric studies exploring other topics (4,38,39).…”

The context of natural forest management and FSC certification In Indonesia

“…Despite government's data on the substantial decreases over the past few years (see MoF 2012), deforestation in Indonesia apparently did not decline. A recent study by Hansen et al (2013) suggests that Indonesia recorded a high deforestation rate of 2 million ha/year from 2011 to 2012.…”

The opportunity cost of engaging in reduced-impact logging to conserve the orangutan: a case study of the management of Deramakot Forest Reserve, Sabah, Malaysia

“…A way forward that has been proposed by those with overlapping interests in forestry and forest conservation is the retention of remaining forests (Meijaard and Sheil, 2007;Berry et al, 2010) achieved through the widespread implementation of sustainable forest management (though there are different opinions about the technicalities of the timber production aspect; e.g., Sist and Brown, 2004) and ecosystem services payments (Gaveau et al, 2013). This requires a switch from the conventional, shortterm approach to using tropical forests for extracting timber to the more careful and sustainable use of these forests for timber, characterised by lower logging intensities, longer rotations and 14 A restructuring of Sabah's forestry policy ensued in 1997.…”

“…How much a reduction light logging (i.e., logging that removes a relatively smaller volume of timber per unit area) implies in terms of profits compared to more intensive conventional logging-this difference being the private opportunity cost-is a key factor that would influence whether or not there would be widespread adoption of low-impact logging practices and whether species like the orangutan will be kept in timber concessions. This is worth examining in detail especially since the intention is to successfully extend SFM to not only the larger landscape in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, but it is the hope amongst conservationists to see it adopted across Borneo as a whole (Gaveau et al, 2013). 2 Where many of the orangutan populations occur, "a logged forest in Borneo is better than none at all" (Meijaard and Sheil, 2007).…”