A review of dipterocarps - Center for International Forestry Research

Introduction
efficient use of resources? Several issues require further
reflection:
1. While dipterocarps may seem to hold better prospects,
one should not be trapped into the notion that
they are the solution to our present problems. The
difficulties encountered with planting of exotics are
not limited to biological constraints (e.g. Evans 1982,
Appanah and Weinland 1993). Management and economic
issues played just as big a role in these difficulties.
The same difficulties could be encountered
with planting of dipterocarps. Therefore, past experiences
should be analysed and/or new work started
in areas like species trials, provenance testing, seed
orchards, selection of plus trees, vegetative propagation,
etc.
2. There is a general lack of coordination between and
among external agencies and international donors for
most of the initiatives. While duplication of activity
is common, experiences are rarely shared, leading
to adoption of practices that have been proven to have
no potential. Furthermore, if such duplication of research
had been avoided, perhaps funds and resources
could have been applied more optimally.
3. The lack of a common and easily accessible body of
information on dipterocarps has had unfortunate impact
on the development of moist forest management
techniques. Many a trial, effectively proven unworkable,
is repeatedly tried out elsewhere in blissful ignorance,
sometimes even in the same locale by a fresh
generation of researchers and managers, while documentation
of the previous experiences remained
locked away in dusty filing cabinets. Lessons learned
in the past have been misunderstood, forgotten or
simply not recognised. One notorious example is the
case of underplanting with dipterocarps. Despite
ample proof that dipterocarps will need a reasonable
amount of direct light for fast growth, even today
hundreds (or even thousands) of hectares of exotic
plantations have been underplanted with dipterocarps
in several countries. Such trials are doomed to fail.
4. Even the practice of silviculture has not been free of
this repetition of mistakes. Here there appears to be
a tendency to start at the bottom when it comes to
research. Seldom research is initiated that follows
through findings of previous researchers. A thorough
understanding of past research seems to elude the
next generation of scientists. Examples of such cases
are disconcertingly numerous. For example, in the
1930s the classic Departmental Improvement
Fellings in Malaya were found incapable of releasing
the bigger poles and residuals, unless the fellings
were repeated several times at a high cost (Barnard
1954). Instead, such fellings released the young regeneration.
In the 1970s, the same approach under a
different name, called Liberation Felling was adopted
in Sarawak (see FAO 1981). The results were the
same. However, the recognition that both these systems
are the same in principle has not yet been appreciated
by most forest scientists.
5. Research on dipterocarps is still being carried out
within the confines of narrow disciplines, and problem-oriented,
multi-disciplinary approaches are indeed
rare. Notable cases exist even within the same
research institutions with their silviculturists and
forest managers carrying out reforestation programs
without the benefits of inputs from tree breeders and
geneticists, while the latter appear more interested
in theoretical, evolutionary issues.
In conclusion, we can state that our efforts to manage
dipterocarp forests is pitted with difficulties: missed
opportunities, workable schemes arriving too late, and
mistakes repeated time and again. There is no guarantee
that this situation will not perpetuate unless we rethink
our approach to the whole research and development
question. Otherwise more mistakes will be made, more
trials and management systems will fail, and the
conclusions will point in the most negative direction –
that it is not possible to manage tropical rain forest. This,
we have to avoid. Time is also against us, considering
the rate at which these forests are being logged.
1. In the first instance, there is a need for thorough reviews
of former research as well as application trials,
both at country and regional levels. Agencies such
as Center for International Forestry Research
(CIFOR), FAO and Asian Development Bank are well
placed to initiate these reviews. These, while pointing
out the successful methods, should at the same
time identify the unsolved problems and gaps in research
for which urgent work is needed.
2. Armed with these reviews, national and international
agencies can approach donor agencies for funding.
Agencies like the International Working Group on
Dipterocarps could assist national and international
institutions in identifying relevant projects. If several
of these big projects are placed in one basket
and handed to donor agencies, they could then select
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