Date: July 22(Tue.) 2008 14：00～17：00PM
Venue:W306, Faculty of Agliculture, Kyoto University
http://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ja
Presentation:
Masahide KashioM
(Forest Resources Officer, FAO, Center for Asia-Pacific Area Studies, Bangkok)
Lecture I (14:00-15:30)
FAO is the United Nation Food and Agriculture Organization, which was established in 1945. Its work focuses on a broad range of food issues and agricultural institutions, including livestock farming, fisheries and forestry.
In forestry issues the work of FAO revolves around forest resource management and trends in forestry. FAO tries to improve forest management for different purposes, promoting protection of remaining natural forests by implementing national park systems for wildlife protection.
The definition of what a forest is:
Forests have been defined in many ways. This is a reflection of the diversity of forests and forest ecosystems in the world and of the diversity of human approaches to forests. FAO defines the forest as a land area of more than 0.5 ha, with a tree canopy cover of more than 10%, which is not primarily under agricultural or other specific non-forest land use. In the case of young forests or regions where tree growth is climatically suppressed, the trees should be capable of reaching a height of 5 m in situ, and of meeting the canopy cover requirement. Man-made forests and bamboo forests are part of this definition.
The type of forests found in the Asia Pacific Region: Various factors such as altitude and climate zones create transitional stages of natural species, composition, etc. resulting in different types of forests.
The historical evolution of forest management:
Before the colonial period, local people lived in a subsistence economy. During colonial times, many colonizing countries exploited the economic value of forests through tea and rubber plantations. In the period after the Second World War, countries such as Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and others, desperately needed funds to establish themselves as newly independent countries. For this purpose, logging activities and land conversion were started, to finance the countries` development as well as for food production.
Forest degradation and forest loss:
In the last 40 to 50 years, the forest has decreased rapidly. In this, we are facing an unprecedented event. Recent trends in forest resources are geared towards forest products and industrial forests. In Indonesia, a development-based economy has been started only 13 years after forest degradation first started to appear in natural forests. Many forest area conversions into farmlands, small-scale rubber plantations as well as large-scale plantation agriculture occurred. As a result, changes in land use, degradation in water-holding capacity of soil, and slope failures were seen everywhere. The mineral mining activities further increase the pressures of sustainability of natural forested areas.
Present and future:
There is rapid loss in the area covered by tropical forests. Few virgin forests remain in the Asia region.
Stable food self-sufficiency:
Japan's food self-sufficiency rate is 20 to 30 percent. Self-sufficiency of rice is believed to be 100%. But if we look at this matter more closely, the dependence on oil and fossil fuels for pesticides and agricultural machineries means that Japan's rice farming can collapse with a depletion of fossil fuels.
Sustainable natural resource management:
A shift policy in this issue is essential.
Note: FAO publishes global forest information of many different countries. However, the numerical accuracy presented is different for each country.
Lecture II (15:45-17:00)
Latest field survey of FAO project sites
The first site is formed by the villages of the tsunami-damaged Aceh coastal area. In December 2002, this area was damaged by a big tsunami wave. This project is aimed at providing recovery and development assistance. In this project, the Japanese government invested 400 million dollar in reforestation activities along the coastline.
During the survey, several problems were found in the implementation of the project, such as the fact that many planted seedling could not grow as expected. When the survey team investigated the caused of the planting failures, they found simple problems but very essential for the project result. The planters did not seem to understand how to plant the seedlings properly. The seedlings were planted without removing their poly-bag, so there was no room for the roots to grow. Another problem was found in the seedling material itself. The medium used for the seedling to grow was clay soil that becomes hard in the hot weather. This medium is very unfavorable for the seedling to grow healthily. From this experience FAO realized that it is still necessary to improve the supervision and guidance for the project execution in the field.
Present condition of Indonesian mangrove forests:
Indonesia is one of the countries that have a fast area of mangrove forests. However, recently these mangrove forests (particularly sea water mangrove forest) have seen a rapid decline due to the development of fish farms. In the village of the project site for instance, there used to be a ring of mangrove forest on the coastline. But in the years preceding the tsunami disaster, the villagers cut down those mangrove trees to produce calk coal. In this region, reclamation has been conducted, but the survival rate of the seedlings has only been 20 percent. Problems mentioned previously are the main cause for this failure.
Conclusion:
Every country wants economic prosperity. Environmental issues are global issues. Many interests are involved in this. Many refuse to hear of the challenges/problems until these problems come very close to affecting their daily live. Learning from the past or from lessons learned by other people is still very difficult, most only learn by experiencing the problems themselves. FAO research is conducted to find ways to improve people’s livelihood. From the experiences in Indonesian projects, the major challenge is to implement modernization and development that coexists harmoniously with nature for achieving environmental protection and conservation.
(Retno Kusumaningtyas)