Demand on woodfuel forest landscape restoration for asia pacific forests 2016 04 eng

90 5. Implementation of forest restoration and rehabilitation initiatives

5.1 History of initiatives, strategies and techniques

5.1.1 Plantation establishment

Establishment of forest plantations has been seen as the main remedy to restore forest cover in the country. Plantations for commercial purposes, local and industrial use and watershed protection have been encouraged to fulfill domestic requirement, exports and environmental preservation. Compensatory plantations to enrich existing natural forests were initiated as early as the late 1850s. In the early 1970s, mass planting schemes were chosen due to the rapid rate of natural forest degradation and deforestation. The Myanmar Forest Policy, 1995 also encourages forest plantations in order to supply local and industrial use as well as to improve the natural environment. Four main types of plantations are classified by MOECAF – commercial, local supply, industrial and watershed. Under MOECAF, both the Forest Department and the DZGD are responsible for establishing them. The Forest Department has established all four major types of plantations but the DZGD has concentrated on establishment of local supply and watershed environmental conservation and restoration plantations in the Central dry zone. Forest plantation areas by types in 2000, 2005 and 2012 are shown in Table 7. Table 7. Forest plantations in Myanmar by year and type Sources: FAO 2010a; MOECAF 2012. Establishment of all four types of plantations has gradually increased over time. Commercial plantations mostly teak constitute the highest share, up to 48 percent of total plantations established in the country. Local supply plantations mostly village fuelwood plantations stand second at 25 percent, followed by watershed environmental conservation and restoration plantations and industrial plantations such as eucalyptus plantation for pulp and paper. Currently, MOECAF has a target to establish around 10 000 ha of forest plantations annually. In addition, although no target has been set, an estimated 8 000 ha of privately-owned commercial forest plantations have been established by private companies and an average 2 400 ha of community forest are established by communities every year.

5.1.2 Expansion of PFE area

A significant indicator of the state’s commitment to forest restoration and rehabilitation is the increase of PFE area following promulgation of the 1997 Forest Policy. PFE comprises RF, PPF and PAS, which were well protected and conserved under forest law in 1992. The 1995 Forest Policy set the targets of expanding RF to 30 percent of the total land area and setting aside no less than 5 percent of total land area as PAS up to 10 percent in the long term. Figure 3 shows the percentage of PFE area to total land area between 1980 and 2015. Figure 3. PFE area percent to total land area Source: MOECAF 2012. 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 PFE 30.90 24.13 15 15 Classification Commercial Local supply Industrial use Watershed Total Area ha 371 355 197 209 50 394 77 408 696 366 share 53 29 7 11 100 Area ha 480 534 250 920 72 488 192 270 996 212 share 48 25 7 20 100 Area ha 396 263 254 460 64 581 134 566 849 870 share 46 30 8 16 100 2000 2012 2005