Malaysia: Committed to Sustainable Forest Management
PRF
The “Permanent Reserved Forests” (PRF) are the cornerstone of sustainable forest management in Malaysia. The PRF are managed for multiple use, including protected forests, sustainable timber production forests, plantation forests, and wildlife sanctuaries.
Logging Practices
100% of Blue Star timber comes from designated timber concessions within the PRF. Contracts to harvest timber are obtained through an open public bidding process similar to the one employed by the U.S. Forest Service.
All harvesting activities are supervised by State Forestry Department officials.
Timber is harvested under a rotating selective felling system, which is intended to create a perpetually regenerating natural forest that is a renewable source of forest products. Timber is not clear cut. Nor is the natural forest converted to commercial tree plantations of single species.
Under current guidelines, an average of one to two trees per acre are selected by the foresters for extraction, based on scientific forest management principles. Trees are not selected for their commercial value.
As trees are harvested, increased sunlight reaches the lower level of the forest and triggers rapid new growth that resembles the original mixture of species. Once an area has been logged, it is left alone for 30-35 years, before it can be logged again. This cycle can be repeated perpetually.
Did You Know?
“Malaysia is committed to sustainable forest management… Malaysia has embarked on numerous projects aimed at promoting and implementing sustainable forest management practices.”
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Country Report for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, 2002.
Malaysian Logging Practices
- Major revisions in forest management standards were adopted in 1998 and continue to be refined
- Just as all road building and maintenance is controlled by State Forestry officers, all marking and extraction of trees is under strict control and enforcement
- Logging in Malaysia is based on a selective, rotational felling system. The average extraction is 1-2 trees per acre every 35 years. This tree will be felled. Those in the background will remain until the next cycle.
- Just as all trees in the forest are carefully marked and recorded, logs at the sawmill must be properly tagged and documented
- This process of documenting the source of all lumber continues in the sawmill and in the factory
- All the way from forest to finish