The forests of the Philippines - dangerously under siege in the past 50 years - are set to expand as a result of a $4 million, 10-year project involving Australian and Filipino forestry scientists.
The partnership has resulted in an integrated package of tree establishment technologies and brought new hope for establishing trees on degraded hilly areas of the Philippines.
It also will have important potential spinoffs for Australian tree nursery production, according to University of Queensland scientist Dr Peter Dart. He says the project has refined technologies vital for fast-tracking growth of plantation forests proposed for tropical Australia.
"The major attack on the forests of the Philippines occurred after 1950 when the Government allocated concessions for logging this huge resource," said Dr Dart, a principal research fellow in UQ's School of Land and Food Sciences.
"As in many other parts of the world, companies went to work with a will, cutting virtually all trees of harvestable size.
"In 1970 forestry and timber products made up 12.5 percent of the Philippines' gross national product. Today, because there is so little forest left, the sector accounts for only 1 percent of the GNP and timber imports comprise more than 50 percent of the country's requirements for industrial timber products."
In 1934, 57 percent of the Philippines was covered by forest. Today, it is below 18 percent.
"The tree shortage alarmed the Philippines Government - there is now ban on log exports and several provinces have banned logging altogether," he said. "Because of the shortfall of timber, coconut trees are being cut up to make up some of the shortfall, even though they provide poor quality sawn timber and could deplete the source of the Philippines' most valuable export commodities, copra and coconut oil."
Dr Dart said much of the land was heavily logged over and further deforested by burning to convert the land to agricultural use. High rainfall on the steep slopes eroded top soil, cropping became no longer viable and the land was abandoned to rampant growth of the only grass that could survive, the dreaded cogon, also known as blady grass (Imperata cylindrica).
Over the past 25 years there had been a concerted Government effort to support reforestation schemes, but after spending US$1.5 billion of international development loan funds through government reforestation projects, the outcome in terms of timber production was a great deal less than the country needed. This has led to the current emphasis by DENR on community-based forest management.
The Philippines Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) approached the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research for a program of research on tree establishment and production.
Since 1993 a research and development network has been established through the project. This also involves the Philippine Council for Agricultural and Forestry Research and Resource Development, the Visayas State College of Agriculture on Leyte, University of the Philippines at Los Banos National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, and five major plantation companies - Bukidnon Forests Incorporated, Provident Tree Farm Incorporated, C.Alcantara and Sons, Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines and Aqua Industries.
Australian collaborators in the project are from The University of Queensland, Queensland Forestry Research Institute (QFRI) with project leader Mr John Simpson, and the Australian Tree Seed Centre.
Some major project outcomes have included development of nursery techniques to produce hardy stock, weed control, selection of appropriate tree species capable of withstanding fire, and improved knowledge of plant nutrition.
Research at the Visayas State College, UQ and QFRI unravelled the mystery of the "yellow mangium" syndrome, a marked yellowing and poor growth of one tree species Acacia mangium common throughout South East Asia, by showing that it was caused by deficiencies in nutrients.
A socio-economic study of the benefits of planting trees on farms led by Dr Steve Harrison of UQ's Business School and Dr John Herbohn of James Cook University showed that income could be generated from the thinnings of the trees three years after planting, and from trees for construction timber and furniture making after eight to ten years when the trees could be as tall as 30 metres. This has encouraged community groups and farmers to take up the technology. One such group at Paraclete in Leyte has planted more than 200 hectares of these new tree species in the past year.
Dr Dart said these outcomes were now ready to be extended to community groups throughout the country.
More than 55 participants from DENR, Universities, industrial plantation companies, non-Government organisations and community groups gathered at the Visayas State College of Agriculture last month to review the recent, spectacular developments in tree establishment and production in six regions of the country. Participants including UQ's Dr Dart and Dr Sharon Brown also reviewed the extension of the technologies into social forestry and community based projects throughout the Philippines.
A workshop on planting and growing trees on-farm in the Philippines supported by the Crawford Fund for International Development, ACIAR and DENR was also held to train the trainers to extend the project outcomes to farmers and community groups.
Dr Dart said the project was now poised to take results into a pilot development program.
"The future looks brighter for both farm and plantation forestry in the Philippines," he said.
Media: Further information, Dr Peter Dart, telephone 07 3365 2867.
Enquiries can also be directed to communications@mailbox.uq.edu.au
