Outreach for conservation and reforestation
A Pentaspadon motleyi sapling growing well after six months in on degraded land in West Kalimantan
Of all the tropical realms, Southeast Asia is currently experiencing the most rapid forest loss. Arboretum scientists are working to slow deforestation and to restore forests in degraded areas. Examples of these activities include reforestation research in Singapore and West Kalimantan, Indonesia.
Forest restoration in Singapore
Since 1999, staff from the CTFS-Arnold Arboretum office at the National Institute of Education have been planting and monitoring native seedlings in the Bukit Timah forest and forest reserves around the Central Catchment Area. Though secondary species have commonly been recommended for use in degraded land restoration, one study (Shono et al. 2007) found that primary forest species can also show high growth rates when planted in open conditions on degraded lands. Another study (Goldsmith et al. 2011) determined that extensive areas of secondary forest have lower standing densities of seedlings, making their natural succession to primary forest more difficult.
The CTFS-AA office in Singapore is headed by Shawn Lum. Stuart Davies visits regularly and has contributed significantly to these applied forest studies.
Citations:
- Shono, K., S.J. Davies, and Y.K. Chua. 2007. Performance of 45 native tree species on degraded lands in Singapore. Journal of Tropical Forest Science 19(1): 25–34.
- Goldsmith, G.R., L.S. Comita, and S.C. Chua. 2011. Evidence for arrested succession within a tropical forest fragment in Singapore. Journal of Tropical Ecology 27:323–326.
Forest restoration in West Kalimantan
Working with an innovative health and conservation organization called Alam Sehat Lestari in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, Arboretum scientist Cam Webb has helped design and implement a forest restoration program for degraded lands in the Gunung Palung National Park. The park was illegally logged in the 1990s and is now covered with the aggresive grass Imperata cylindrica (or alang-alang), which tends to burn during the July-September dry season. In December 2009, 4 hectares were planted with seedlings of native tree species to test various types of site preparations (herbicide, manual weeding, etc.) and planting methods (with/without fertilizer, mulch mats, etc.). A year later, results from test sites informed the planting of an additional 6 hectares. Seedling survival after 6 months stood at 90%, and after 18 months more than 75% of plantings had survived. People from local villages perform the work, and the methods and general outlook of the initiative seem to be spreading to nearby communities. Small projects like this one provide fundamental knowledge in developing large scale restoration efforts in tropical countries.