Redevelopment of a timber industry following extensive land clearing

• Leyte State University, Philippines
• Southern Cross University, Australia

Leyte Province in the Philippines and the Atherton Tablelands in North Queensland have historically been home to major timber industries. In both cases the industry was once based on extensive logging of native forests, but more recently the remaining resources have been protected and a shortage of timber has ensued. Both regions experience relatively high rainfall and have farmland available for reforestation. The technology for tree establishment is established in both, and a wide variety of tree species (particularly hardwoods) will grow rapidly on moderate to high quality land in the two areas. The governments in both regions attach a high priority to reforestation and to private forestry, including agroforestry and community forestry. But, despite all this, the rate of reforestation has been disappointingly slow. It was clear that, rather than simply matching species to sites and other basic biophysical work, a wider analysis of the problem was necessary.

In 1999, socioeconomic research on the degree of adoption of Australian tree species in the Philippines showed that, although there were large areas of cleared land in which forestry was probably the best form of land use, the uptake of forestry using both traditional and Australian species was low. This project was therefore commissioned to study landholder attitudes to farm and community forestry, as well as looking at land suitability and availability, sources of potential finance, the likely yields from various species and systems, and the extent of markets. Using data from these social and economic analyses, the project assessed the most suitable forestry systems for the development of both timber and non-wood forest products. The project aimed to examine the requirements and opportunities for a more rapid development of farm and community forestry in Leyte province in the Philippines and in Australia's Atherton Tablelands.

The project involved a series of interrelated studies, including: a survey of smallholder households in four communities; an investigation of the role and effectiveness of people's organisations in facilitating community forestry; a study on the reasons why micro financing of tree farms had failed; research into nursery production technologies and field trials; a survey of nursery operators; a study on carbon sequestration potential of smallholder forest plots; timber supply and demand studies; and estimation of financial returns from forestry.
After developing an inventory of land resources and the most likely species for use in non-industrial forestry in Leyte, the team investigated the social factors influencing participation in forestry. This led to a more detailed study of the key economic factors involved, including the infrastructure requirements, estimates of potential timber supply and demand, and the constraints on the landholders - both economically and practically. The team then created a list of preferred combinations of sites, species and circumstances as a basis for introducing suitable non-industrial forestry systems that take into account biological, social and economic factors.
The next stage involved economic analyses of seedling nursery options, credit availability and ways of supporting this type of forestry. A short course in socioeconomic analysis was provided for Filipino forestry researchers and administrators. A small subproject examined the potential for re-establishing a rainforest cabinet timber industry on the Atherton Tablelands and produced a plan for the area, taking into account land availability and many factors also studied in the Philippines.

Results of the research indicated that Leyte tree farmers could receive much greater financial returns from their tree farms if they had better market access and knowledge of prices, produced greater volumes of timber per unit of cost, and produced better timber of appropriate species, log size and quality as desired by the market.

There are many institutional impediments restricting the ability of farmers to register trees. Such impediments act as a barrier to gaining access to markets and restrict timber sales to non-competitive local markets. In addition, many smallholders lack information about how and where to market their trees, and have no knowledge of their current market value. Smallholders also do not manage their tree farms to optimise the production of desired products.

Key impediments to forestry development, in particular a number of policy aspects (including problems with land tenure and property rights), were identified. Some landholders were unwilling to commit resources to forestry because they had no land titling and hence regarded their land tenure as insecure. Similarly, banks appear unwilling to lend to smallholders for investment in forestry, being influenced by lack of collateral associated with insecure land tenure. Therefore help through 'how to' guides for landholders impeded by a lack of education, and assistance with the costs of obtaining land title, would mean many more could obtain secure tenure.

In terms of property rights, there appeared to be little understanding by local governments of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) approval procedures for timber harvesting and transport, highlighting the need for improved communication including development of manuals of approval procedures. As well, some DENR policies appear to restrict property rights, and scope exists for designing alternative policies that achieve environmental objectives without placing restrictions on tree planting.

Researchers identified major problems with nursery propagation practices producing poor quality planting stock, which when planted had low survival rates or poor growth. In addition, decisions by nurseries on what to grow relied on species availability rather than what was best suited to local site conditions. New nursery practices were developed, then tested in a community nursery situation. Seedlings raised using different techniques were tested in field trials, which later became demonstration tree farms. The economic analysis of seedling production technologies used in the trials will provide guidance on cost-effective nursery practices.

Recognising the social context of forestry development is critical to the development of successful support measures. Researchers now understand how People's Organisations can become more effective vehicles for implementing community based forest management. They have also identified four landholder 'typologies' or groups, each with distinct characteristics and different attitudes to forestry, and each likely to respond in different ways to initiatives to promote forestry development. Carbon sequestration models have been developed for some species used in smallholder forestry, and researchers have identified the payment methods preferred by smallholders for carbon sequestration by their forests.

The Australian component of the project investigated forest industry development in the wet tropics of north Queensland. Twelve preferred industry development options were identified from interviews with key industry stakeholders and these were assessed by expert panels. Timber markets were identified as a major issue, and participants at a workshop held later concluded that problems with the timber supply chain were the crucial limiting factors to industry development.