Tropical Tree Plantation and the Economic Value Chain

Abstract

Much of the world’s tropical rainforest is located in the Amazon Basin in South America, while the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia have the second and third largest areas of tropical rainforest. Numerous economic forces have contributed to reduced forest cover in tropical forests. The large-scale clearing of the tropical rainforests in Amazonia was principally to make way for cattle ranches, and in Asia, the tropical forests were cleared for palm oil and rubber plantations. Employment in forest plantations requires skilled and unskilled labor in rural areas and labor from highly trained researchers and managers, making them ideal in addressing employment concerns for Sabah and other developing areas in the 21st century. The most important step in understanding the value chain of industrial timber plantations is to be aware that timber plantations are not the first part of the value chain for finished wood products. Most of the prospects for and constraints of plantations took place first in Peninsular Malaysia.