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FOREST SCIENCES Biodiversity, dendrology and phylogenetics  Biodiversity, dendrology and phylogenetics Forest genetics and tree improvement  A four year old progeny test of Shorea leprosula which collected from its natural geographical distribution in across Indonesia (Photo Sukotjo).  Figure Unimproved (left) and improved (right) of the only tropical pine, Pinus merkusii collected from its centre of distribution in north Sumatera . In cooperation with a state-owned forest enterprise, the Faculty have initiated tree improvement program since 1970. Following subsequent breeding cycle, this now provide the national seed source for genetically improved P. merkusii. This pinus is renown for oleoresin production especially for export market. Genetic improvement for oleoresin production is now also underway (Photo Tree Improvement lab) The faculty has also been known nationally for excellent undergraduate and graduate training in forest genetics and tree improvement. Many of its alumni are now working in the government institution as well as state or private companies managing forest plantations all over Indonesia. Nutrient cycling in forested ecosystems & sustainable site productivity In the humid tropics, the soil is strongly weathered; its fertility is usually low and more depends on the nutrient contents associated with organic matter. A variety of studies indicate that the potential of carbon sequestration of tropical forest to combat global warming due to the increase of carbon in the atmosphere will be constrained by low soil fertility. Fast growing, short-rotation plantation forest on low fertility soil tends to have a risk of decreasing site productivity due to depletion of nutrient and decline of organic matter via wood harvesting. Experiences in many parts of the world show that management practices which do not conserve nutrient and organic matter have caused adverse effect on site productivity in the long term. The problem of sustaining a long- term soil fertility is an important management issue. The Faculty of Forest GUM has strong interest in studies on site management and productivity of plantation forest. A number of its faculty staff have actively been collaborating with plantation forest companies in such studies for a number of species such as Acacia mangium, Gmelina and teak. A site management and productivity study on Acacia mangium collaborating with a forest plantation company in South Sumatra is part of international network coordinated by CIFOR which tries to address issues on sustainable productivity of tropical plantations. In this study a staff member of the faculty has played a leading role. The study is further extended to investigate the effect nutrient management, particularly phosphorus and genetic resources on improving the productivity of acacia plantation. Decision support system developed based on productivity and ecophysiological characteristics will be a useful tool to manage acacia plantations. This study is funded by ACIAR. (under construction) Illegal logging, unsustainable management of natural forest, conversion of natural forest into other land uses (agriculture, plantation crop and plantation forest) and more frequent fire incidence occurring in the native forest have caused dramatic reduction of the size and productivity of natural forest in Indonesia. Efforts to rehabilitate the remaining natural forest having high biodiversity and improve its stand productivity are critically needed among others by enrichment planting of local species, particularly dipterocap species. Relying on natural regeneration to reforest native forest is of limited success due to various reasons. Artificial regeneration of dipterocarps is often hindered by unavailability of seed because of irregular fruiting. New technology of vegetative propagation of dipterocarps has showed good promise to circumvent this problem.  Different steps (genetic trials, good planting stock preparation, good land preparation and nutrient amendments, pest controls) need to be achieved prior to establishment of an intensive close to nature silviculture, using native tree species (Photo Naiem). Biotechnological assisted reforestation techniques Tropical soil has strongly weathered, consequently the availability of soil nutrient is usually low. Efforts to improve soil fertility have encountered various problems due to high fixation of the added nutrient resulting in very low efficiency of the applied fertilizers. Rooting system of tropical trees is often associated with symbiotic microbia to cope with the low availability of nutrients. Human activities often disturb this symbiotic association, particularly on formerly burnt forest areas and degraded log-over forest. Reforestation on degraded forest areas using local species will be more successful if it is assisted with the inoculation of symbiotic microbes. The Faculty of Forestry GMU has a excellent research facility for isolation, propagation and storage of symbiotic microbe: fungi forming ecto and abuscular mycorrhizas, nitrogen-fixing microbe such as Rhizobium and Frankia) and phosphate-solubilizing microbe. Research has been directed towards finding of best isolates and how to better introduce it at the field conditions. Techniques for estimating associative microbia at various types of land have been developed which are useful for rehabilitation of degraded land. A number of research work on these areas has been carried out in collaboration with other institutions such Kansai Electrical Engineering Company, JICA, BioRefor, and Asian Association on Mychorrhizae. Physiology and molecular biology of environmental stress tolerance The reforestation of logged-over forest often faces many constraints related to soil conditions and unsuitable microclimate for tree growth, such as soil acidity and alkalinity, drought and extreme light intensity at open areas. It is expected that the environmental stress will increase due to the climate change, particularly related to global warming and more severe drought. Research to elucidate the mechanism of stress tolerance and its effects on forest productivity is very strategic to develop. One of the faculty staff has studied on tolerance to salinity using Eucalyptus as a model. Eucalyptus has been used since relatively sufficient genetic information of this species has been available including the availability of clones tolerant to salinity. A number of candidate genes responsible for salinity tolerance have been identified and the mechanism of tolerance has been found which is to be regulated in root. The candidates genes have been isolated and cloned. In addition, RNA analyses have been developed to observe the regulation of the candidate genes in saline-stress condition. It is expected that the model can be further developed and put into practice in other environmental stress conditions such as degraded tropical rainforest areas. Tree-based rehabilitation of coastal areas (under construction)  Tropical peat swamp forest (Photo Jack Rieley, IPS).  TPSF converted to palm oil plantation (Photo Jack Rieley, IPS).  fire on peat swamp forests (Photo Jack Rieley, IPS).  fire on peat swamp forests as revealed by Landsat image 50x50 km (Photo Jack Rieley, IPS). Structure and properties of carbon in forest soils Carbons stored in soils of tropical forests play an important carbon pool in global terrestrial ecosystems and therefore storing carbon in soils has been considered to be a promising strategy for mitigating elevated CO2 level in the atmosphere. However, due to highly weathered (wet and warm) condition under tropical climate, those carbons are very vulnerable to losses as CO2 emission through an enhanced decomposition rate following forest clearing or conversion of natural forest to the plantations or agricultural uses. Therefore to preserve those stored carbons we need better understanding on their form, abundance and turnover (dynamics) in across different types of soils and land-covers. We have identified different areas for future research that could contribute to our ability to preserve carbon in soils : (i) nature and properties of soil carbons, (ii) mechanisms of carbon stabilization in soils, and (iii) effect of organic inputs and land management on level and dynamics of carbons in soils. Preliminary research on those areas has commenced by using state-of-the-art methods ie. particle size-density combined with characterization of the fractionated carbon using solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance and 13C-stable isotopes and examination of the respiratory patterns and its environmental controls. Due to highly weathered condition, the fertility (productivity) of many tropical soils are largely depending on the status of organic matter in soils. Recently, decline in the long-term plantation productivity has been closely related to the depletion of soil organic matter. This also highlights importance on preserving soil carbon during managing forest productivity in tropical ecosystems. Dokumen : komposisi karbon pada tanah ultisol-regosol-andosol as revealed by density fractionation, nmr spectra of natural SOC and charred OC in different soils Carbon balance in forest ecosystems Due to rapid biomass production, planting trees in the tropics have been viewed as potentially fastest and cheapest strategy for greenhouse gas offset activity. To facilitate this aim, several initiatives have been established, among other, AR-(afforestation & reforestation) under CDM (clean development mechanisms). However, to be able to accurately account carbon amount being sequestered in forest stand in across different sites, we need ability : (i) to quantify how much net carbon amount that actually entering into the agreed system and (ii) to predict carbon sequestration in across different site conditions. Those ability could not simply derived from conventional approaches (developing allometric and formulation of empirical growth prediction model which mainly developed from the growth measurement) but requires fundamental information on carbon pool and carbon flux at ecosystem level. Except of the respiratory fluxes, we have quantified most of the carbon fluxes at stand scale for different plantation forests (Acacia mangium, Tectona grandis, Gmelina arborea, secondary dipterocarp forest). This will be the basis to reconstruct carbon balance in tropical forests. Currently, several key environmental and ecophysiological factors have been parameterized to predict biomass growth in Acacia mangium to develop a more generic process-based modeling in order to predict carbon sequestration in across different sites. We are planning to include the respiratory fluxes into those carbon balance study. Integrated disease control management in industrial forest plantation The importance of forest plantations is increasing as the demand for raw materials rises and the supply from the natural forests declines. These plantations, such as pine (Pinus merkusii)and acacia (A. mangium), were chosen for their fast growth, yield of commercial products and ease of management. However, the regularly-spaced trees of the same age and species offer less resistance to diseases, from seedling to tree stages. Key diseases for pine and acacia have been identified, such as damping-off of pine seedling caused by Fusarium, Phytium and Rhizoctonia, and red-root rot of acacia caused by Ganoderma. In our laboratory, we have been developing an alternative control by enhancing natural control mechanisms using Trichoderma spp. These fungi grow tropically toward hyphae of other fungi; coil about them in a lectin-mediated reaction; and degrade cell walls of the target fungi; and some individual strains produce antibiotics. This process (mycoparasitism), limits growth and activity of plant pathogenic fungi. We identified several strains of Trichoderma with high ability to inhibit growth of soil-borne pathogenic fungi in vitro and in planta. We have been developing formulated propagules for large scale production. We are also interested in the resistance factors of Acacia species to Ganoderma by identifying phenolic compounds and proteins produced by acacia during the infection process. Our project contributes to the integrated disease control in industrial forest plantation. Structure and properties of tropical timbers (under construction) Toward a better utilization of small diameter log from plantations Small diameter logs are mostly produced by young plantation. Harvesting of these young plantation are due to huge demand wood, when stocks of mature trees usually from natural forests have been decreasing. Despite, its increasing supply, young to very young trees associates with undesirable wood quality. These young timbers produce woods with lower proportion of heartwood, higher portion of juvenile and sapwood and therefore associate with low durability. Likewise, these woods show a lower value of specific gravity therefore are not suitable for construction uses. In addition to its low dimension stability prevents these young tree logs sometime for high quality sawn wood due to higher proportion of sapwood, high tapering coefficient, lot of knots and other defects. Fast-growing of those plantations also mean that the standing timber may have been experiencing a greater growth stress, which in turn could reduce the wood quality and preventing from being used for sawn-wood. All these undesirable quality parameters are known to associate with different factors such as site quality, genetic species, silviculture, stand management and so on. Therefore, in order to produce higher wood quality from young plantation, those factors need to be considered. From the wood processing perspective, high end product quality should be the target. The achievement of this high end product quality is depending on the method of wood processing such as sorting and selection method of the raw material, correlation between the log dimension and sawn wood and grain direction and defects tolerance, dimension, quality standardization and recently developed certification. Better utilization of these small diameter timber harvested from young plantations helps to reduce pressure on the natural forests and therefore also contribute to carbon and ecosystem preservation of tropical rainforests. Likewise, better recovery of the wood products resulted from improved wood processing will also help to reduce CO2 emission. Recent innovation technology for small diameter log is the total timber utilization, where most of the wood biomass could be used to produce various wood products, therefore minimising proportion of the residues. A specific sawing technology, drying, jointing and preservation and adhesion were developed according to the wood species. Acacia mangium (amngium) and Tectona grandis (teak) have been used as species model to develop those approaches, due to their potentially high supply from the currently established plantations in the near future. The research focused on this topic have been supported by JSPS, ITTO and in corporation with the private timber companies. Document: small diameter log, defects, low quality, whole log utilization, innovation Bamboo and monocotyl wood processing Current supply of wood materials from the natural forests is decreasing but in contrast those supplied from monocot plantations (palm oil) is increasing due to political decision of converting forest area to oil palm plantation. After gradual decline in the fruit productivity, at 25 years old, the palm oil plantation will be cut and then re-planted. This will provide massive supply of monocot biomass for wood substitute using fibre and composite technology. Waste of other monocot wood such as coconut, sago, nibung, borasus and rattan has been studied too. The utilization of this kind of waste materials is very promising especially for producing boards, core to be overlaid and other products. Many factors which determine product quality during the manufacturing of these boards have been studied, such as raw materials treatment, materials reduction, grinding, pulverization, glue spread and resin mixing methods and finally the pressing. Recently, technique for improving the board surface was developed. Overall, this kind technology is aimed at increasing the spectrum of board utilization especially the overlay decorative technology. Bamboo has been considered as promising biomaterials due to its fast growing (3 year rotation). However, small diameter bamboo only produce a thin to a moderate thickness and thus require a technology intervention to process these small diameter bamboo into more acceptable dimension of wood products for commercial reasons. The technology options have been available such as glue laminated timber from bamboo sticks. We have studied various factors that determine the quality of bamboo products such as culm quality, bamboo species, methods of flattening bamboo, stick forming, glue spreading and bamboo moulding technology. The optimum conditions of those factors during the processing have been developed to ensure producing high quality bamboo timbers and bamboo boards. Many types of products of all bamboo products and wood and other bio-materials combined with bamboo has also been studied. Document: bamboo species, bamboo lamination, beam, flooring Bio-composite and laminated timbers Bio-composite and laminated timbers technologies have been rapidly progressing in responding to drastic decline in the mature timber availability. This technology converts wood biomass (from small diameter timbers or from waste of the conventional wood processing) into a useful wood products using wood adhesion technology such as resin adhesives or by autohesion (binderless bio-composite technology). Therefore this technology could increase the ratio of used wood to its waste. Since the reduction volume of wood from the forest, then any ligno-cellulose materials coming from other sources is possible. Sources of ligno-cellulose materials are plantation, agricultural, horticulture by products or waste materials. Urban waste and materials ready to be recycled could be also another source. We found that hot pressing is the most critical phase during the manufacturing of this product. Likewise, due to higher environmental standard, glue spread and type of resin adhesive which could ensure a zero emission level (VOC) of the products need to be considered. Commercialization of this type of these bio-material products has been very fast and this kind of wood product has been increasingly accepted by the markets. Lamination timbers, on the other hand, are yet to be commercialize. Many factors influencing this slow market acceptance of this laminated products. One of them is due to high operational cost during the processing Development of low cost laminated timbers technology are still progressing in our lab. Document : bio-composite, strawboards, kenaf boards, fibreboards, plywood (under construction) Research activities to support better utilization of forest resources especially non-wood forest products include: distillation of fatty oil and extractives, harvesting and processing of resin (and oleoresin), development processing of natural adhesives, tanning agents, alkaloids, lacquer, aphid culture (honey production) and silkworm. Those research were made possible by collaboration with state-owned forest company (Perum Perhutani) which manage forest areas in Java. These collaboration have resulted in more efficient harvesting and processing of various non-wood forest products. The laboratory is supported by polarimeter, destilation units, picnometer, hand-refractometer and gas-chromatograph mass-spectrometer (GC-MS). Research using more sophisticated instruments are possible by collaboration with Faculty of Pharmacy. Improved wood processing techniques for small-scale industries In across Java, timber processing have been conducted by smallholder industries amongst villagers. The wood usually harvested from the planted trees hence could ensure sustainability of the raw materials supply. This picture is indeed in contrast with the overriding image on unsustainable exploitation of tropical forest ecosystems in Indonesia. Kind of wood technological aspects need to be introduced to these craftmen: (i) selection of the wood raw materials, (ii) decide timing (in which water content) the wood should be processed, (iii) middle-level technological approach for wood drying, (iv) improvement in the finishing techniques, (iv) wood preservation techniques. These interventions from modern wood science and technology could help these smallholder wooden craft industries to transform such traditional processes to produce world class standard wood products from tropical timbers. Dokumen : drying and preservation facilities special designed for smallholder wooden craft industries, types of wooden material products Selama dua puluh tahun terakhir ini, di banyak negara berkembang terjadi perubahan kebijakan yang secara fundamental mempengaruhi penyelenggaraan pengelolaan sumberdaya alam yakni desentralisasi pengelolaan sumberdaya alam. Demikian pula yang terjadi di Indonesia, proses desentralisasi telah berlangsung sejak akhir 1998. Desentralisasi mempunyai beberapa dimensi dan konsekuensi, termasuk di dalamnya adalah konsekuensi pengurusan sumberdaya alam termasuk di dalamnya adalah pengurusan sumberdaya hutan (forestry governance). Perubahan ini memberikan dampak terhadap pengelolaan sumberdaya hutan dan masyarakat yang hidup di sekitar hutan. Dampak yang positif yang diharapkan dari desentralisasi di sector kehutanan adalah terwujudnya pengelolaan sumberdaya hutan yang baik (good forest governance), peningkatan partisipasi masyarakat dalam pengambilan keputusan pengelolaan sumberdaya hutan, dan distribusi manfaat sumberdaya hutan yang lebih berkeadilan.
Kajian mengenai Good Governance relative baru dilakukan di bidang kehutanan. Namun demikian beberapa staff di Fakultas Kehutanan UGM telah terlibat dalam kajian tersebut sebagai tenaga ahli yang diminta bantuannya oleh Departemen Kehutanan. Sebuah kajian yang sedang dilaksanakan adalah evaluasi pelaksanaan desentralisasi kehutanan di indonesia. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk:
Hasil studi ini akan digunakan oleh pemerintah (Departemen Kehutanan) untuk menilai kinerja tata-kepemerintahan dalam bidang kehutanan. Fasil penilaian ini kemudaian akan menjadi input dalam penyusunan tindak kebijakan (policy measures) untuk meningkatkan kinerja tata-kepemerintahan di bidang kehutanan di tingkat pemerintah kabupaten/kota. Agregasi dari peningkatan kinerja di kabupaten/kota akan menjadi akumulasi kekuatan sektor kehutanan di tingkat nasional dan sekaligus akan meningkatkan citra kehutanan Indonesia di level internasional. Quantitative forest management Currently, non-economical aspects during forest management has only been given less attention, however, social and ecological aspects in the long-term period need to be considered during development of sustainable foret management strategies. Involvement of these non-economical aspects would provide a wider perspective on risk factors in the long-term periods. To better understand those overall economical and non-economical factors during planing of any forest management, we need to confidently predict what the future results will be, by using decision support system (DSS). We have started to develop such DSS as supported by information obtained from different research activities. The types information we collected are : site index measurement & classification, spatio-temporal aspects for optimum harvesting, modelling tree architecture, modeling forest canopy, modeling distribution of stand diameter, establishment of stand management cluster (unit), and development of forest management scenario. Those research activities are in collaboration with state-owned forest enterprise (Perum Perhutani), PT Musi Hutan Persada, PT Sari Bumi Kusuma, and some are with supported by the ACIAR project. Tropical forest amongst few terrestrial ecosystems that have large carbon storing capacity. Carbon accounting is required if we are to understand carbon being stored in our forests. This is the fundamental step toward any forest management which the decision to be made on the carbon basis. Whilst development on such carbon stock measurement technique at stand or even at ecosystem scale has been advanced for sub-tropical or temperate forest (which are usually compose even-age and monoculture stands), information for tropical forests which are characterized with mixed-species remains poorly understood and remains challenging. In our Faculty, we have expertises required and have experiences in accounting carbon at stand level, those stored as above and also belowground biomass and as stored as soil organic carbon. Simple alometric equations to predict total biomass have been available for a range of tree species, including how site condition modify it. In addition to these ‘ground-measurements’ approaches, we have also equipped with expertise and instruments to investigate spatial-variability and to predict carbon stock as those inferred from remote-sensing images and therefore could capture information at regional level. Despite its promising value, this approach however remains challenging and still require considerable research before available for upscaling processes to understand carbon stock and dynamics at regional scale. Intellegent & eco-marketting of tropical timbers (under construction) Forest for people : social forestry For a long time local people reside in forest areas have been marginalized and even neglected by any system in forest management. Those systems however have been proven to be ineffective and have largely contributed to unfair use and unsustained forest resource. Many cases of illegal logging, in part, have rooted to this unfair uses of forest resources. Since the Forest for People was declared during World Forestry Congress in Jakarta in 1978, and become a new emerging paradigm for managing the forests, the Faculty has actively developed management strategy which put local people among as the most important stakeholder, emphasizing sociological and anthropological approaches and economic modeling toward better local people livelihood. So far concept on “ Community- based Forest Management” initially developed by the Faculty using teak plantation as pilot model, have been widely adopted by various management levels and become a new national paradigm to support sustainable forest management strategies. Eco-marketting of tropical timbers Hingga periode barusan, harga komiditas kayu yang berasal dari hutan tropic sangat rendah dikarenakan potensi dan tingkat eksploitasi yang besar sehingga jumlah pasokan di pasar internasional selalu melimpah. Murahnya harga kayu tropis tersebut makin mendorong pihak perusahaan logging untuk membabat hutan guna mendapatkan penghasilan yang lebih besar. Hal ini mengakibatkan areal hutan yang dieksploitasi makin meluas, termasuk akibat praktek illegal logging skala besar-besaran guna memenuhi kebutuhan pasar gelap di tingkat internasional. Pada gilirannya hutan alam yang tersisa guna keperluan konservasi dan fungsi penyimpan karbon makin menipis. Pada titik inilah diperlukan strategi pemasaran (intelligent marketing) dalam menciptakan dan mengembangkan pasar yang lebih mampu mengapresiasi kayu yang berasal dari hutan tropic. Streategi pemasaran ini juga dibarengi oleh pengembangan instrument dalam sertifikasi produk kayu yang berasal dari kegiatan pengusahaan hutan yang lestari guna mengantisipasi isu-isu ‘hijau’ yang berkembang di pasar internasional. Pada giliranya, kombinasi antara strategi pemasaran dan pengembangan instrument sertifikasi ini diharapkan mampu menyelamatkan ekosistem hutan tropic dan bahkan mampu menangkap peluang insentif yang berkembang di pasar internasional dalam mendukung pelestarian ekosistem hutan tropis. Fakultas telah mengembangkan strategi intelligent marketing dan juga pengembangan instrument sertifikasi lewat lembaga ekolabelling (LEI). Dokumentasi : foto produk kayu siap di ekspor, foto kover document LEI, foto stampel LEI pada produk kayu Accounting of environmental services provided by tropical forests Concepts and procedures to evaluate environmental impacts due to rehabiitation or degradation of forest ecosystems, especially from the economic perspective, have been available. The recent version of this concept has been known as Green Net National Income. Due to its expensive, National Income Accounting (which include appreciation and depreciation of ecosystem conditions) ramains theoretical concept and has not been implemented in most countries. However, there has been a moving paradigm on forest management due to recent increased public awareness and expection on forest ecosystem values which should also cover not only timber- but also include its ecosystem services the forests could provide. Mention just a few: this includes how forests could provide freshwater, maintaining biodiversity, sequester carbons, preventing flood and provide tourisms. Responding to this recent issues, forest economist have developed concept especially designed for forestry sectors named as Natural Resources Accounting (FRA). Our staff have actively participate at regional and at national level to introduce these resources accounting and to incorporate these into various governmental regulations. Periodical of Comprehensive Forest Inventory (IHBM) was recently launched by the Ministry of Forestry and this activity will commence on 2008, will provide an instrument to periodically (ten yearly) evaluate values of all forested areas which also include non-timber values. The successful implementation of this concept will be depending on our knowledge to correlate forest (stand) condition and relevant environmental condition, and require a strong collaboration with forest ecologists and silviculturists. (under construction) Forest hydrology & watershed management (under construction) (under construction) (under construction) Ecology & rehabilitation of mangrove ecosystems (under construction) Back to Menu |
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