Secondary forests associated with the rehabilitation of degraded lands in tropical Asia: a synthesis

Rehabilitated secondary forests constitute a potential new and emerging resource requiring changes in policy favouring the rehabilitation of the large areas of degraded land in tropical Asia. Conversion of degraded lands into rehabilitated secondary forests rather than into monoculture plantations of exotics may be better for meeting the diverse product needs of local people, other stakeholders, and changing markets, as well as for environmental amelioration. It is also a relatively inexpensive method, suitable for rehabilitation by local people. Government and other stakeholder interest in and scope for rehabilitating degraded lands to secondary forest systems tend to increase along a proposed land use intensification model. Attempts to rehabilitate degraded lands in the intensive exploitation stage because of international pressures or funding availability are often not viable because the underlying socio economic and institutional causes of degradation may continue to operate. In the forest depleted stage, the biophysical and socio economic situation is more ripe for policy changes and implementation favouring rehabilitated secondary forests. The driving forces behind the rehabilitation efforts tend to shift from large scale timber production to local livelihood, more diverse local market and environmental needs coinciding with the depletion of forest resources. However, the development of rehabilitated secondary forests may still be constrained by degraded site conditions, the persistence of chronic disturbances and lack of incentives. Rising international and national commitment to biodiversity conservation, community based management, forest rehabilitation, timber certification and climate stabilisation could as well focus more on secondary forest regeneration and management in protected areas and as community forests, serving both conservation and production goals

Large-scale fire: creator and destroyer of secondary forests in Western Indonesia

Large scale, catastrophic fires have become a significant and visible part of the tropical forest landscape in the past two decades with increased commercial exploitation of forests, forest conversion and increased population pressure. Secondary forests are an increasingly prominent feature of tropical landscapes and fires play a significant role in both the creation and destruction of these forests. In the past two decades large scale forest fires have become more frequent in the moist tropics. In addition to climatic factors, the nature of tropical forests appears to be changing and becoming, as a consequence, more predisposed to burning. Secondary forests arising from intensive logging, in particular those that are in a degraded condition, are particularly vulnerable to repeated burning and further degradation. There has been limited general success in fire prevention and rehabilitation of secondary forests affected by fire. In addition, forest policy is not yet sufficiently attuned to address the management needs of the ever increasing area of secondary forests affected by or developing following fire. Little is known about the exact extent and economic value or potential of post fire secondary forests in Asia. It is clear, however, based on the experience of the past two decades, that there has been a significant increase in secondary forest affected by fire, particularly in Indonesia. Rough estimates for Indonesia infer that there could be as many as 5 million ha of post fire secondary forests following the 1997 98 fires. Based on this knowledge alone, it would seem that post fire secondary forest is already an important forest type that will provide important goods and services both to the environment, the state and local communities alike, as the area of primary forest diminishes through overexploitation and conversion