Forest Management Problems in Cambodia : A Case Study of Forest Management of F Company

Kim Phat Nophea, Yuji Uozumi, Ouk Syphan, Tatsuhito Ueki
1999 Journal of Forest Planning  
A fast growing population and the need for food and forest products coupled with the great demand for wood and rapid economic development in the developing world have brought sustainable forest management under continuous uncertainty. Deforestation in the developing world has been relatively high, But recently, it has been rnore widely recognized that over-exploitation of forest products and non-forest products is prejudicing the sustainability of the world's forests. Camboclia has been chosen
more » ... s a case stucly to test this hypothesis regarding sustainable forest managernent. There are two main types of forests in Cambedia, namely dryland and edaphic forests, covering a total area of 10.59 million ha or 58% of the tota] land area. It had been reduced from 12.32 million ha in 1973 as a result of wars and political instability over the last 25 years. Against a background of government instability, great domestic and foreign demands for wood in recent years have resulted in Cambodia's forests being over-exploitecl. To prove this, a selective 25-year felling cycle system used by F Company was analyzed with the aid of various statistical tools. The analysis shows that although the growing stock of F's evergreen forest is as low as 82 m3/ha due to illegal logging, the company has exploited7 m:fha or 9% of the total stock. This was 6 percentage points higher than the sustainable cutting rate of Carnbodia's evergreen forest. This supports the hypothesis of over -exploitation, The result also shows that there is still a Iarge number of residual trees with diameter less than 45 cm, which are available for extracting over the next 25 years if they are properly managed. Streng enforcement mechanisms for forest monitoring and control are needed to stop illegal logging, to prevent over-exploitatien and to manage the resiclual trees for long-term availability of forest resources. Kcyzvord: Cambodia, forest management, selective felling, tree classification J FbxPlann. 5:as-na99su
doi:10.20659/jfp.5.2_65 fatcat:p5fqrs5p3je5rl2xgngr6thlte