A review of dipterocarps - Center for International Forestry Research

Foreword
The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
was established in 1993 at a time when there was a
resurgence of interest in the sustainable management of
the world’s tropical rain forests. At that time it was
evident that a particular focus for CIFOR’s research
should be in the moist tropical forests of Asia. Trees in
the family Dipterocarpaceae, “the dipterocarps” are a
major component of southeast Asia’s tropical forests.
Their wood is pre-eminent in the international tropical
timber trade and they play a key role in the economies
of several countries.
A considerable research effort had already been
devoted to the management and utilisation of dipterocarp
forests starting with the British in India last century and
continuing throughout the 20th century, especially in
Malaysia. A vast amount of information has been
gathered, but unfortunately it has not been consolidated
and no readily accessible compilation of results has been
available. This has reduced the impact of the research
and has almost certainly resulted in the duplication of
efforts by national and international bodies.
As a new international research centre it was
appropriate that CIFOR should take the initiative and
commission a general review of the current state of
knowledge of dipterocarp taxonomy, ecology and
silviculture, to identify gaps in this knowledge and to
spell out priority areas for new research. This action
accorded with the views of many members of the
informal Round Table on Dipterocarps who had been
meeting on a regular basis to share information on the
family . A draft outline of the book was endorsed by the
Fifth Round Table on Dipterocarps at its meeting in
Chiang Mai, Thailand late in 1994. Since then, under the
direction of Christian Cossalter at CIFOR and Dr S.
Appannah at Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM),
13 authors have prepared and revised the 10 chapters of
the book. With authors located in Asia, Europe and the
United States this has been a major undertaking and the
efforts of all concerned to bring this work to a successful
conclusion are very much appreciated.
I anticipate that this book will be especially
beneficial to those planning research on dipterocarps in
Asia. I hope it will assist university graduate and postgraduate
researchers, and especially scientists in national
and international organisations to re-orient their research
to meet priority needs. The review should also be useful
to forest managers in both public and private sectors who
must make decisions based on whatever information is
available to them and who have neither the time nor the
resources to delve into the highly dispersed literature
on dipterocarps.
CIFOR is very grateful to many people for their
assistance with this book; to all the contributing authors
for their commitment and for their patience with demands
made on them by the editors; to the reviewers who
provided critical appraisals of the chapters and made
valuable inputs; to the editors who brought all the
contributions together and completed endless checking
and cross-checking of the information: to the CIFOR
Communications Group for typesetting and layout; and
finally to the staff of the Forest Research Institute
Malaysia and its Director General Dr. M.A.A. Razak for
their unflagging support and cooperation in producing
this book. I thank all who contributed in so many ways.
Prof. Jeffrey Sayer
Director General of CIFOR