FUTURE SUPPLY OF TROPICAL TIMBER : MALAYSIAN PERSPECTIVE

摘要

The timber industry in Malaysia continues to play an importance role in the socio-economic development of the country. It continues to be a major contributor to the country's export earnings and provides employment opportunities. The major source of the raw material for the timber-based industry has been from the forests. At the end of 2001, the total areas of forests in Malaysia was estimated to be 20.20 million hectares or 61.5% of the total land area. Recognizing the importance of these invaluable forest resources and to ensure their sustainable management and development, a total of 14.45 million hectares or 44.0 % of the total land area had been designated as the Permanent Forest Estate (PFE) to be managed sustainably for the benefit of both the present and future generations. Within the PFE, approximately 10.64 million hectares are Production Forests, namely the natural forest which form the bulk of the future log supply. In addition, logs are also produced from commercial forest plantation and rubber replanting programme. For the period 2001-2010, the annual log production from these three sources has been estimated to be around 22.0 million m~3 to 27.0 million m~3. This comprises of around 17.0 million m~3 - 21.5 million m~3 from the natural forests, around 1.5 million m~3 - 5.8 million m~3 from the commercial plantation forests and around 2.1 million m~3 - 4.3 million m~3 from rubberwood plantation. This paper discusses the possible trend of the future supply of these tropical timber, the pattern of operations of several important wood-based industries as well future issues and challenges associated with supply and demand of tropical logs which serves as an important raw material to the livelihood of wood-based processing industries in the country.