Site Quality Improvement in Forest Management

Abstract of a presentation conducted by

Kushani Perera

Department of Forestry and Environmental Science

University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka

The productivity of a site for tree growth is usually evaluated on a stand basis. Considered in this way, site quality expresses the average productivity of a designated land area for growing forest trees. A common way of expressing relative site quality is to set up from three to five classes, or ordinal ranks, such as site I, II and III. The characteristics of each class must be defined to enable any area to be classified.

Site is a complex of physical and biological factors of an area that determine what forest or other vegetation it may carry. Sites get degraded due to many reasons, especially due to human induced problems such as land clearance, clear cutting and deforestation, agricultural depletion of soil nutrients through poor farming practices, livestock including overgrazing, dumping of non-degradable trash, plastics etc.

Site quality is a measure of relative productive capacity of a site for a particular species.Different site gives different growth response to different species. Site quality can be influenced by climatic factors, topographic factors, soil edaphic factors and competition. Monitoring site quality is important to match the species with the site, to estimate the quantity (harvest prediction) and the quality of the timber, to monitor overall ecosystem productivity, diversity and resilience and to check the habitat type and quality.

Site quality can be evaluated by both direct (actual crop production) and indirect factors (plant indicators, crop statistics, site factors).The quality of the original site can be improved by using several silvicultural practices like fertilization, improving the quality of soil by using cover crops, mulches and mechanical methods such as plouging, harrowing and deep ripping of the soil to improve aeration and at the same time mixing the organic matter content of the soil.

Site preparation and forest plantation establishment in different geographical zones

Abstract of a Presentation conducted by

Gayan Udugama

Department of Forestry and Environmental Science, 

University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka

A written scheme of management aiming at continuity of policy and action and controlling the treatment is known as a Forest Management Plan. Under any plantations establishment survey and demarcation, site preparation, planting, irrigation, weeding, fertilizing, pruning, thinning, and regeneration felling are the main steps to be followed.

Survey and demarcation of boundaries is carried out generally using chain and compass survey or modernly using GPS technology. Before moving towards site preparation and planting operations, the buffer zones are identified and forest management layout will be prepared which includes location and shape of the forest plantation, road network plan, location of waterways, subdivision for fire breaks, access, spacing and mapping.

Site preparation is done to create favorable growing conditions for seeds and seedlings, and to facilitate tree planting operations. This will reduce the competition of unwanted vegetation in order to increase the survival and growth rate of the desired trees, remove slash and logging debris if the site has been harvested, and to improve water retention and provide optimal soil conditions to desired plants. The decisions taken here will depend on several factors such as existing vegetative cover, site terrain, purpose of plantation, species to be planted, soil conditions and economics.

In Sri lanka, abandoned chena lands/ vegetable lands, shrub lands and rubber uprooted lands are the common lands available for establishing forest plantation. Further such lands can be divided into three categories based on the geographic nature. They are namely flat areas, slopes and ridges. Therefore site preparation and planting operation will differ with the terrain. Generally in high slope areas forest plantation establishment is not carried out as the land is vulnerable to erosion and the operations are costly. Final decisions on the site preparation and planting will rely on the economics.

Vegetation clearance is the first step in site preparation where manual, mechanical, burning and chemical methods are used. In slopes and ridges mostly manual methods are preferred but in flat terrain mechanical and manual methods are being used. Burning is not allowed if the plantation need to be certified. Ploughing, subsoiling, pre-planting harrowing, planting pits and terracing is carried out after the vegetation is cleared.

Spacing of plantation will depend on objective of the planter and basically on several factors such as species, thinning operations, whether it’s an intercrop or a monoculture, etc. In slopes and ridges planting is carried out along the contours as a protective measure where in flat terrain any conventional planting layout suitable for land can be used.

Protection measures need to be undertaken for fire risk, pest and disease risk and for the risk of soil erosion and landslides.

Role of Conservation Perspectives in Commercial Forestry

Presented by

Samurdi Dias

Commercial forestry aims obtaining maximum production of timber, fuel wood and other forest products as a business. Even though it aims on maximum benefits, conservation is also a major requirement. Conservation is the “practice of planning and maintaining forest areas for the benefit and sustainability of future generations”. It is important because forests provide versatile ecosystem services such as hold water, prevent erosion, ensure quality of surface and groundwater, High carbon reserve, clean the air, protection from storm damages, as a buffer against desertification, produce food, offer recreational possibilities, improve mental well-being and protects biodiversity. Also conservation is important to preserve natural beauty, increase recreational value, provide additional income sources, increase total economic value, for social benefits, to get forest certificates.

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is one of the major forest certification bodyin the world. FSC certification ensures that products come from well managed forests that provide environmental, social and economic benefits. It provides benefits such as access to new markets and there are 10 FSC principles; Compliance with laws and FSC Principles, Tenure and use rights, Indigenous peoples’ rights, Community relations and worker's rights, Benefits from the forest, Environmental impact, Management, Monitoring and assessment, Maintenance of high conservation value, Plantation. Principle 3, 5, 6, 9 are related to conservation. Principle 9 tlaks about high conservation value forests, which can be defined as the forests possesses one or more of the following attributes. forest areas containing globally, regionally or nationally significant concentrations of biodiversity values (e.g. endemism, endangered species) and / or large landscape-level forests, forest areas that contain rare, threatened or endangered ecosystems, forest areas that provide basic services of nature in critical situations (watershed protection, erosion control), forest areas fundamental to meeting basic needs of local communities and/or critical to local communities' traditional cultural identity.

Conservation can be done by sustainable forest management. Seven thematic areas of sustainable forest management are extent of forest resources, biological diversity, forest health and vitality, productive functions and forest resources, protective functions of forest resources, socio-economic functions and legal, policy and institutional framework. 

Other practices are less-destructive methods of logging such as make a forest inventory and map prior to logging, use of less impact machinery in logging, reduce machine operating time, train loggers in proper logging techniques, exclude clear cutting. Establishing stream buffer zones and watershed protection areas, specially design roads for transport, use fertilizer and pesticides in less harmful manner, protect fire prone areas, combined plantations, protect wildlife and nature based tourism.

Conservation practices use in Sri Lanka; in up country of Sri Lanka there is no complete removal of vegetative cover in site preparation, arrange roads along contours, avoid uprooting plant species which help to prevent soil erosion (Eg: Mana), Pine and Eucalyptus tree felling is prohibited. In intermediate zone no tree felling in some of the plantations due to water quality issues.

Another method is nature based tourism this is currently practiced in government Khaya plantation in Sigiriya. Part of the plantation is giving as camping site for tourists. The land was leased to private owner under 30 year agreement and the owner pays rental for forest department. This has high demand from tourists due to high recreation value.

Practical issues of conservation in commercial forestry are high demand for timber, illicit felling, lacks of knowledge about conservation and its importance and less concern on conservation.

Recommendations to improve conservation are law implementation, offer income tax benefits to owners of plantations, offer insurance scheme for plantations, Carbon trading, introduce value addition methodology for plantations, develop ecotourism activities in plantations located in areas like Nuwara Eliya, Knuckles, Kanneliya as there is high aesthetic value and urge private forest plantations to do conservation activities.

Market Demand and Export of Timber

Presented by

Piyali Dias

World timber market is mainly based on primary timber products such as industrial round wood, sawn timber, wood based panels, paper, paper board and wood pulp. Moreover furniture and builder’s wood work and joinery also play an important role in the world timber market. United States, Canada and the Russian federation are the leading timber producers in the world who makes the largest contributions to the global timber production which is more than 3.4 billion m³ annually. However, more than half of this timber production is gone for wood fuel while the rest of the amount used for timber and paper products where the Europe and the United States act as the world leading timber consumers. According to the recent findings the most demanded timber product was softwood industrial round wood which was produced more than 400 million m³ of timber in the year 2013 in North America. However the highest softwood roundwood flow is going from New Zealand to China where China acts as the main importer of many timber products. Though the tropical timber market is much lower than temperate timer, industrial round woods are the most demanded item among those tropical timber products. The second most demanded item was softwood sawn wood which had a production as well as a consumption of about 96 million m³ in 2013 which was recorded from the European Union. However the wood base panels, paper, paper products and wood pulp have comparatively lower demand in global timber situation where Europe dominate the production of those products in year 2013. Among those products, particle boards have the highest production which is nearly equals to the 35.5% of the total wood based panel production. Moreover the most demanded secondary processed timber product was furniture which had recorded more than $124 million by value in the European Union flowed by the US, Italy and Germany. World furniture production is dominated by Asian countries where China appears as the highest furniture producer in the world. Sawn soft woods are the main exported product which leads the world timber exports in 2013. The Europe was the all-round exporter in each and every type of timber product including round wood, sawn wood, paper, paper board, wood pulp and wood based panels. European exports are increased by 5.6% in 2013 with 46 million m³ by volume of sawn softwood exports to the overseas markets mainly to China and North African countries. However, though the prices of timber products are slightly changing from country to country the highest market prices were recorded for paper and paper boards which is around $ 900 per metric ton while the least prices were recorded for industrial round wood as nearly $ 100 per cubic meter throughout the time period of last fifty years. In temperate region, Hem Lock, Pine, Cypress and Swedish spruce are the main traded timber species while Shorea, Dipterocarpus, Teak and Ceiba leading the tropical timber market. Though Sri Lanka is not playing any important role in the world timber situation by not exporting any timber product instead of re exporting treated, imported Kempus timber by STC while private sector is involving in exports up to some extent. But here they have to overcome some of the legal barriers such as Forest act, Import Export act and Customs act as well as some international standards which set up by world reputed certification systems such as Forest Stewardship Certification, when entering to the global export market.

Species Selection in Commercial Forestry

Presented by

Tharani Dilshara

Selection of species is important in starting a plantation project because the species selected decides the affected silvicultural practice and the management and utilisation of crops.

Selection of a tree crop for planting depends on the purpose, the species potentially available for planting, site qualities, silvicultural and economic factors. Before considering the site characteristics and demands, it is essential to have clear understanding of the objectives of raising the particular plantations and those factors will narrow the choice of a species. Species selection in commercial forestry is mainly determined, however, by the demand and establishment costs.

As a rule, where a native species meets the need there is no reason to choose an alternative because of the conservation purposes more prefer the native species. However, the majority of successful plantation in the tropics consist exotic species.

Species and provenance trials have to be carried out before establishment of plantations using new species. Site qualities play a major role in the interactions between genotype and environment. Site quality factors such as climate, soil, physiographic and biotic factors affect the growth at different manner even for the same species. Another major determinant of species selection is the specific silvicultural requirement of the tree species. Having matched species to the site, a further vital decision is selection of the most suitable provenance.

In Sri Lanka the main plantation species are Teak, Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus grandis) and Mahogany. Most of the fuel wood, miscellaneous hardwood and teak plantations are located in the dry zone, Eucalypts and Pine plantations are mostly in the up country wet zone and Mahogany plantations are situated in intermediate and wet zone.