Availability and Extraction of Forest Products in Managed and Primary Forest around a Dayak Village in West Kalimantan, Indonesia

Abstract

We examined the density and abundance of marketable products in managed forest (rubber gardens, fruit gardens, and dry rice fallows) and in primary forest surrounding the Dayak village of Kembera, near Gunung Palung National Park, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. We calculated the proportion of trees that were marketable and useful for local consumption by counting and identifying trees in each managed forest type, and we documented extraction of products through interviews. Villagers harvested four marketable tree products: tengkawang seeds (Shorea stenoptera), durian fruits (various Durio spp.), rubber (Hevea brasiliensis), and timber, especially Bornean ironwood (Eusideroxylon zwageri). We inventoried trees at least 20 cm diameter at breast height (dbh) of marketed species from 0.4‐ha plots in primary forest (n = 8) and from 0.1‐ha plots in each managed forest type (n = 10–11). With the exception of timber, the density of trees producing a marketable product was significantly higher in the forest type managed for that product than the density of the marketed species, or of similar wild species, in primary forest. Total abundance (product of density and available area) of durian and tengkawang was greater in primary forest; however, villagers gathered these products only from managed forest. We infer from this choice a greater efficiency of harvesting from trees in dense stands near the village. Historically, this choice resulted in deliberate development of fruit gardens in preference or in addition to gathering from the more distant, primary forest. Because of low product density in primary forest, extractive forest reserves or buffer zones designed to encourage the production of fruits such as tengkawang or durian may not provide a sufficient incentive for the protection of primary forest around Kembera and other Dayak villages near Gunung Palung National Park.