The role of tropical abandoned land relative to ecological and economic aspects

Abstract

The floristic structure and composition of abandoned lands in the tropic have been observed to be changing dynamically during the succession process. This is mostly because they are not utilized maximally, therefore, there is a need to assess the economic and ecological impacts of this land abandonment in tropical areas. This study was conducted to determine the ecological aspects of standstructure, floristic composition, and species diversity and analyze the economic aspects of standing trees in tropical abandoned land. The vegetation containing woody trees with a diameter at breast height (DBH) of > 5 cm were surveyed at six subplots sized 20 m × 20 m. The economic parameters were evaluated using data of log price, logging cost, profit margin, and stumpage value of standing trees in the study plot and a total of 126 trees including 26 species of 25 genera of 18 families were recorded. The most common species found were Macaranga tanarius with 50.60%, Bridelia glauca with 49.13%, and Pterospermum javanicum with 29.05% based on Importance Value Index (IVi). Moreover, the diversity, dominance, evenness, and richness indices were 1.23, 0.09, 0.87, and 5.17 respectively while the total log price at the abandoned land was 1,462.02 USD m-3 with an average value of 56.23USD m-3. The total and mean values of logging costs were 1,212.24USD ha-1 and 46.62USD ha-1, respectively while the total profit margin of log selling was USD337.39m-3 at maximum with an average of 12.98 USD m-3. Furthermore, the average stumpage value was 83.05 USD ha-1 while the total was calculated to be 2,159.36 USD ha-1.These findings showed the utilization of abandoned lands with respect to ecology and economic aspects has the ability to increase community welfare and support the implementation of developmental programs in the country.

Short Communication: The ecological and economic values of secondary forest on abandoned land in Samarinda, East Kalimantan Province, Indonesia

“…In general, the diameter distribution of trees in secondary forest has an inverted J-shape (Feldpausch et al 2007;Álvarez-Yépiz et al 2008) while the distribution of height class is slightly positively skewed (Ohtsuka 1999). The similar trends in trees diameter class and height class were also reported on abandoned land after cultivation (Karmini et al 2020).…”

“…Meanwhile, the tree height ranged from 6.0 m to17.4 m with an average height of 10.4 m. The total BA and volume of trees in the study plot were 9.44 and 76.86, respectively. These values are smaller than the total BA (9.75) and the total volume (91.97) in abandoned land after cultivation (Karmini et al 2020).…”

“…The time required for vegetation recovery to original forest characteristics is influenced by several factors such as type of land use, cycle duration, and size of cleared patches (Aththorick et al 2012). The pioneer plant species dominate abandoned land indicated by an intermediate diversity, a low dominance index, and a high evenness index (Karmini et al 2020;Karyati et al 2013;Karyati et al 2018). The rate of succession and thus the restoration of soil on abandoned land can be accelerated through plantation programs.…”

“…Also, forest planting has an important role in providing ecological, economic, religious, and cultural functions of the secondary forest (Setiawan 2010). The average stumpage value in abandoned land was calculated to be 83.05 USD ha -1 and the total value 2,159.36 USD ha -1 (Karmini et al 2020).…”

“…Most of the previous studies reported information on the ecological and economic value of abandoned lands separately. The previous similar study reported the ecological and economic value of abandoned land where the previous land use was shifting cultivation (Karmini et al 2020). However, study that provides comprehensive information on the ecological and economic value of abandoned land after being used as traditional gardens in the tropics is still very limited.…”