Australian scientists are assisting the Sarawak State Government in a visionary Planted Forests Project that will provide income from trees and protect biodiversity.

Australian scientists from the CSIRO’s forestry division are involved in assisting a Malaysian government with what the science magazine, Discover, calls one of the ‘the six most important experiments in the world’ – the Planted Forests Project on the island of Borneo.

The Sarawak State Government has allocated nearly half a million hectares of land for the project. One third of the land will be set aside for conservation of Borneo's rich biodiversity, approximately half will be for the establishment of a sustainable and economically viable plantation forestry industry, and the remainder of the land will be available for use by the traditional ethnic communities.

“This Malaysian project is visionary,” says the leader of the CSIRO team, Dr David Boden.

“Around the world we’ve seen that conservation in developing countries will only succeed if there’s something in it for the local communities.

“This project offers a new direction – well managed profitable and sustainable forestry that also delivers for conservation and for the local people.”

Australian Forestry Know-how

In many parts of SE Asia the native rain forest and its wildlife is under threat from clearing – either legally or illegally – for palm oil plantations and other cash crops.

The Australian scientists are involved in the Planted Forests Project, which is managed by a consortium known as Grand Perfect, because of the CSIRO’s expertise in a wide range of forestry areas.

In particular, CSIRO has world leading expertise in developing tropical acacia forestry plantations.

“CSIRO has a long history in developing tropical acacia forestry plantations,” says Mr Warren Ellis, general manager of Grand Perfect

“They’re supplying technical support to a variety of our research programs from tree improvement, to forest health, silviculture and forest management.”

The Sarawak government has selected Acacia mangium from Papua New Guinea and Queensland, Australia, for the plantations. It is a fast-growing species that can be harvested for paper making.

“A hectare of acacia plantation can produce more wood than 10 hectares of forest that had been logged and regrown naturally,” Dr Boden says.

“That step up in production could be the difference that makes the whole project viable.”

With 90,000 hectares of acacia already planted, he says the first trees will soon be ready for harvesting.

Protecting the Wildlife

As well as an untouched area set aside as a safe haven for the richly diverse wildlife on Borneo, the timber plantations are dissected by game corridors of undisturbed forest to help ensure wildlife does not become isolated and in-bred.

The island has a wide and astounding variety of life forms.

Researchers from Grand Perfect have been surveying the biodiversity of the area set aside for the Planted Forest project. So far they counted bearded pigs, deer, small mammals, birds, frogs, fish, and dragonflies in the area, and are in the process of surveying fungi.

Despite previous logging and farming in the zone, more than 400 vertebrate species, including bears, civets, macaques, leopard cats, mongooses, pangolins, and porcupines have been spotted there. Researchers have even discovered 18 snails that have never been seen anywhere else on Earth.

CSIRO researchers in the forestry ivision have developed particular expertise in measuring the biodiversity value in planted forest systems, and have developed tools for targeting and assessment of plantation and revegetation projects.

Discover magazine’s Six Most Important Experiments in the World was published in December 2007.

See also: Crude Fuel from Garden Waste for more research from CSIRO's forestry division.