Devastation and Regeneration of Lowland Dipterocarp Forests in Southeast Asia

Abstract

The Dipterocarpaceae is the main timbertree family of Southeast Asia. With a total of about 550 species, it forms the most dominant family of large trees of the primary lowland forest of Thailand, Indo-China, Malaya, Indonesia, and the Philippines (Smitinand 1969; LeComte and Gagnepain 19071951; Pierre 1879-1907; Symington 1943; Ashton 1964, 1968; Wood and Meijer 1965; Foxworthy 1938). Toward the East, in Celebes (van Slooten 1952) and New Guinea (van Royen 1966), these trees play a far lesser role in forest ecosystems. They occupy a similar dominant position in sizes and volumes of emergent trees, as do the oaks in the eastern part of North America. The evolution of these trees goes back in Borneo and Malaya to the early differentiation of the flowering plants, about 150 million years ago (Muller 1970), and until recently, their speciation and distribution could be studied in very extensive areas, almost untouched by man.