17 Many factors contribute to deforestation, including the direct causes of forest loss as well as underlying economic, socio-
political, demographic and cultural factors Table 6. Direct drivers of deforestation include clearance for agricultural production, wood extraction, forest fires, infrastructure development, increasing urbanization and human settlements.
Indirect drivers include consumer demand for timber and agricultural products, weak local governance and corruption, weak land tenure, population growth, migration and poverty Zurek et al., 2013.
Table 6: Drivers of deforestation in ASEAN countries
Forest cover in most ASEAN countries is in decline. Indonesia has the largest annual reduction in forest area, with 832,127 ha 0.89 percent lost each year between 2006 and 2009 MOF, 2012. Myanmar has the highest rate of deforestation,
with forest cover falling by 0.91 percent 310,000 ha per year. The deforestation rate increased from 0.87 percent in 2006 to 0.91 percent in 2010 MOECAF, 2013. Lao PDR currently has the lowest deforestation rate, at 34,650 ha per year, with
the exception of Singapore, where the small area of remaining forest is protected. Other countries report an increase in forest cover. In Viet Nam, forest cover increased by 1.7 million ha between 2002 and 2011 due to large-scale reforestation
programmes and currently stands at 41 percent of the total land area VNFOREST, 2013. In the Philippines, inventory data indicates that forest cover increased from 5.4 million ha in 1988 to 7.2 million ha in 2003.
16
2.3 Forest area managed by local people in the ASEAN region
In 2013, 8.8 million ha of forest land were managed by local people through official community forestry agreements or land titles.
17
This accounted for 3.5 percent of the region’s total forest land. Since 2010, more than 2.2 million ha of forest land have been officially placed under the management of local people Table 7.
16
The forest inventories of 1988 and 2003 used different methodologies to estimate forest cover FAO, 2005, which may account for some of the reported increase.
17
Data is based on formal community forestry agreements issued to communities or households. It does not include agreements that are currently being processed, unrecognized claims to forest lands, community forestry activities taking place on land managed by the State or commercial license holders or
forest lands that local people are entitled to access and use that are not covered by official community forest agreements or titles.
Economic drivers: Demand for agricultural products
Demand for timber products Poverty
Land speculation
Socio-political drivers: Weak local governance systems
Corruption Competing policies
Weak land tenure Weak incentives for sustainable forest management
and forest protection Weak land use planning
Demographic drivers: Population growth
Migration
Science and technology drivers: Logging practices
Cultural and religious drivers: Low value given to forests
Agriculture – commercial and subsistence Wood extraction – logging, fuelwood
Infrastructure development – road building Mining
Hydropower development Forest fires
Urbanization, settlements Military camps
Direct drivers Indirect drivers
Source: Zurek et al., 2013.
18
Cambodia Indonesia
Lao PDR na Malaysia na
Myanmar Philippines
Thailand Viet Nam
The vast majority 90 percent of this land is in the Philippines and Viet Nam, where around 25 percent of forest land is managed by local people Figure 6. In Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand, the area managed by local people is
between 0.1 and 2 percent of total forest land. Official data on land area managed under approved community forestry agreements in Lao PDR and Malaysia were not available at the time of writing but is likely to be quite small areas. According
to the Lao PDR Forest Sector Strategy to 2020, 8.2 million ha of forest land was allocated to villages and households through the Land and Forest Allocation Programme MAF, 2005. However, village forests only exist as a land use category;
few community forest lands are covered by formal land use titles RECOFTC, 2013. In Malaysia, social forestry takes the form of agro-forestry and village development projects target state forestland.
Figure 6: Land area managed by local people under official community forestry agreements, 2013
18
Community held management rights over public forests in 2005 FAO, 2010.
19
Land under HKm community-based forest and hutan desa village forest.
20
The Forest Sector Strategy to 2020 reports that 8.2 million ha of forest land was allocated to villages and households through the Land and Forest Allocation Programme MAF, 2005. However, village forests only exist as a land use category; few community forest lands have received formal land use titles to date
RECOFTC, 2013.
21
Data on social forestry in Malaysia is limited. A 2006 report estimates that 40,654 ha 1.5 percent of forest management units of land had been set aside for social forestry projects in Sabah, of which 7,000 ha was managed by the Sabah Forest Department and 33,654 ha by sustainable forest management
license holders Toh and Grace, 2006. There were no recent data on active social forestry projects in Sabah state or for Malaysia as a whole.
22
Community-held management rights over public forests in 2005 FAO, 2010.
Table 7: Comparison of forest area covered by community forestry agreements in 2010 and 2013
Cambodia Indonesia
Lao PDR Malaysia
Myanmar Philippines
Thailand Viet Nam
Total
113,544 3,300
18
Not available Not available
41,000 2,985,000
22
196,667 3,300,000
6,639,511 183,725
143,065
19
Not available
20
Not available
21
42,148 4,128,212
500,000 3,809,320
8,806,470 2010 area ha
with community forestry agreements
2013 area ha with community forestry
agreements
Country
Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines and Viet Nam have set national targets on the area of forest land to be transferred to local communities for community forestry. Collectively, these targets would place 15.9 million ha, or 6 percent
of total forest land, under the management of local people by 2030 Table 8. In 2006, Viet Nam set a target of transferring 4 million ha of land to local people. By 2013, 95 percent of this target area had been allocated. In other countries, the
Philippines 4,128,212 ha
Thailand 500,000 ha
Viet Nam 3,809,320 ha
19 transfer of forest land to local people is proceeding more slowly. In 1997, the Philippines set a target of allocating 9 million
ha of land to local communities by 2008. By 2013, only 45 percent of this target area had been allocated DENR, 2013. Community forestry programmes in Cambodia, Indonesia and Myanmar will need to be scaled up if national targets are to
be met.
Table 8: Forest area managed by local people with official community forestry agreements, 2013
2.4 Social forestry models
