Abstract
Community forest management for timber production requires short- and long-rotation companion species to fulfill the demands of the timber industry, improve farmer welfare and maintain environmental sustainability. Four species (Falcataria moluccana, Neolamarckia cadamba, Acacia mangium and Gmelina arborea) were tested as short-rotation timber crop companion species for teak (Tectona grandis) on dry-rocky soil in the Gunungkidul community forest. The selection of short-rotation timber species was based on growth performance and survival rate at the teak site. Two years after planting, the viability of G. arborea (87.3%) and A. mangium (78.2%) was significantly (p < 0.05) higher than that of N. cadamba (40.6%) and F. moluccana (18.0%). G. arborea and N. cadamba achieved the best growth in terms of height, diameter, basal area, and volume, with the growth of A. mangium and F. moluccana being significantly inferior. Gmelina arborea has the ability to adapt to teak sites, grow well, and accompany teak. Neolamarckia cadamba demonstrated good growth with potential as a teak companion, and it demonstrated limited drought tolerance on the dry-rocky soils of the study sites. Acacia mangium had a high survival but produced slow growth, indicating that it required an advance evaluation in future years. Falcataria moluccana has different growing site requirements to teak so the performance was relatively poor at the study site. This mixed pattern provides benefits to farmers through commercial thinning of short rotations species, 5–8 years post establishment. Thinning operations will also increase the productivity of residual teak stands. The diversification of timber species in community forests can provide earlier returns, enabling the adoption of silviculture management by smallholders and communities.
Highlights
Community forest development can be a solution to overcoming the supply and demand imbalance of raw materials of the wood industry
Based on the analysis of variance, there were significant (p < 0.05) differences in the survival, growth, and volume of 4 fast-growing tree species at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months of age (Table 2). This indicates that there is variation in suitability of the four tree species as potential companion species to teak at the study site
This study found that G. arborea and A. mangium achieved 87.3% and 78.2%
Summary
Community forest development can be a solution to overcoming the supply and demand imbalance of raw materials of the wood industry. Timber trees produced on-farm (by smallholders) are able to efficiently supply timber products for household needs in local and national markets [1,2,3,4] This is an opportunity for a community forest and smallholder agroforestry systems to empower local economies and enhance the local environment, since planting trees improves land cover and produces timber and other tree products for market sale or home use, enhancing local livelihoods [5,6,7]. Inappropriate tree species selection often occurs when the ecological conditions of the target site are not properly considered [15]. This can lead to negative impacts [8], as illustrated by a peatland restoration effort that achieved less than 25% survival after five years when the site condition was not integrated into the species-selection criteria [16]
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