Abstract
Since 1996 ecosystem rehabilitation by tree planting has been carried out on the degraded land after shifting cultivation at Bakam Forest Reserve (BFR), Sarawak, Malaysia. In order to evaluate the performance of the rehabilitation of a degraded land after shifting cultivation, at first, it needs to define the current status of degraded soils. In this study, the morphological, physico-chemical, mineralogical, and charge characteristics of soils on the degraded land were investigated. Nutrient content of soils in the degraded land was quite low at the same level as was seen in the subsurface soil of the remnant forest due to soil erosion after shifting cultivation. The soils in the degraded land were harder than those in the remnant forest due to. soil compaction. The soils showed strongly weathered characteristics, such as low PZSE (Point of Zero Salt Effect) value, high proportion of variable-charge minerals due to loss of 2: 1 type clays with permanent negative charge, and low oxide contents. Soil properties become worse easily and shortly after soil erosion, and are modified by the water action and topography in situ. Once the vegetational cover is destroyed, it could not regenerate easily in such an intrinsic infertile soil condition even under enough rainfall and high temperature.
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