Rehabilitation of Tropical Rainforest Ecosystems 24 25 October 2011, Kuala Lumpur

REHABILITATION OF DEGRADED LANDS IN MALAYSIA THROUGH RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT Abd. Latif b. Mohmod1* & LH Ang2
1

Director General & 2 Senior Research Officer Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) 52109 Kepong, Selangor, Malaysia *Corresponding author: latif@frim.gov.my

Summary: Rehabilitation of degraded lands via tree planting promotes environmental benefits and is considered as part of the activity that promotes sustainable management of land resources that has a positive global impact on climate change. Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) since her embryonic stage in 1929 has started to rehabilitate degraded lands such as farm land from alienated natural forests. Degraded lands such as poorly stocked logged-over forests, degraded secondary forest, grasslands and problematic soils were then trial planted with timber tree species as a greening effort of turning the lowproductivity sites into a wood production area. For the last eight decades of research and development activities, FRIM has successfully turn problematic soils, adverse urban site, degraded secondary forests and degraded sites logged-over forests into green sites. Some of the green sites are demonstration plots globally. These green sites are continually visited by various seed dispersal agents and gradually turning them into a biodiversity enriched site. This paper shares the successful cases of rehabilitation projects through research and development activities conducted by FRIM. Keywords: rehabilitation, greening, demonstration plots, tree-planting ________________________________________________________________

INTRODUCTION Malaysia is a developing nation, and degraded lands are part of the landscape, just like anywhere in the whole wide world. Forestland had been cleared for agriculture in Malaysia, and presently, about 6.48 million ha of oil palm, cocoa, coconut, and rubber continuously provide the tree cover but without the habitation of the once rich biodiversity (MTC, 2007). Some of the former forestlands were turned into rice fields. Socio-economic changes in the last two decades, as most of the farmlands are privately owned (size not more than 5 ha) and their children no longer love farming, the people migrated to cities, and some (under National Economic Plan) have successfully became entrepreneurs, have led to the abandonment of previously good land. Degradation of forests resulted in patches of grassland, secondary forest and compacted sites in logged-over forests. In addition, problematic soils including beaches interspersed with swales (BRIS) and ex-tin mines are also part of the landscape in Peninsular Malaysia.
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Tree planting trials had been carried out by Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) or formerly known as Forest Research Institute on these degraded sites since 1929. This paper aims to highlight only two models of man-made forests established by FRIM on these degraded sites through research and development efforts.

IMPORTANCE OF R&D ACTIVITIES ON REHABILITATION OF DEGRADED LANDS Malaysia has the least degraded land compared to Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand (Lamb et al., 1995). The total area of degraded land in Peninsular Malaysia alone covers about 5.06 million ha (Ahmad Zainal, 1992; Chan, 1990). The estimated total area of degraded land in Malaysia is about 11.48 million ha (Table 1). Tree planting trials of FRIM were conducted in all degraded sites listed in Table 1. Two models of man-made forests successfully established in the secondary forest and ex-tin mine, and sustainably managed till today. Table 1: Extent of degraded lands in Malaysia Types of degraded land Secondary forests Abandoned land Ex-tin mines Beach Ridges Interspersed with Swales (BRIS) Poorly stocked logged-over forests that were converted to plantations Shifting cultivated areas Abandoned agricultural land Total Area (ha) 4,600,000 750,000 113,750 250,000 270,000 4,800,000 700,000 11,483,750

Source: Ahmad Zainal (1992), Zakaria & Ang (1993) & FAO/UNEP (1981).

CONSTRAINTS OF REHABILITATION Constraints of rehabilitation and restoration are determined by the processes of degradation which could be from anthropogenic or natural causes. Anthropogenic causes are mainly due to lopsided development without taking environmental benefits or sustainability into consideration. Natural causes such as earthquake, typhoon, tsunami, dry season and forest fire could destroy large extent of forests covering thousands of hectares in a very short time. So, the intensity of degradation is determined by the forms of destruction or disturbance introduced or exerted to the pristine stage of the land. Biophysical properties of the degraded sites must be carefully quantified and examined before any rehabilitative plans can be employed to rehabilitate and restore the degraded 28IUniversiti Putra Malaysia Mitsubishi Corporation

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sites to their past glory. Grassland and secondary forest of good mineral soils and ex-tin mine have the following adverse site properties.

ADVERSE SITE PROPERTIES AND THEIR IMPROVEMENT Forest degradation depends on the intensity of disturbance by anthropological activities such as regulated loggings to mining. Normally, minimum disturbance does not cause drastic changes to existing vegetation and soil properties. The conversion of forest to agriculture also does not involve a great change of soil physical properties; the worst being the removal of top soils or redistributing the top soil layers at even spots due to the movement of heavy machinery. However, high mechanical impedance may occur at the regular pathway of heavy machinery. Degradation of biodiversity in forestland conversion to farmland is inevitable. The man-made rainforest in FRIM was the result of rehabilitation of naturally regenerated secondary forest on abandoned farmland. The worst form of degradation is tin mining where complete alteration of soil profiles and soil composition were made to extract tin ore. Man-made mixed species forest of Tin Tailings Afforestation Centre (TTAC) of FRIM Field Station Bidor is a model of a green ex-tin mine. The adverse changes of site properties such as microclimate, soils and vegetation from the degradation processes determine the natural colonization process and also the success of rehabilitation of the two sites. Microclimate Microclimate is a localized climatic condition measured near the earths surface (Geiger, 1965). These environmental variables, which include temperature, light, wind speed, and relative humidity, provide useful environmental indicators for habitat selection and other activities (Chen et al., 1999). Microclimate determines ecological patterns in both plant and animal communities and also its survival. Its importance is recognized in ecological research (Shirley, 1945). Adverse microclimate reduces decomposition activity of decomposers and adversely affects the influx of nutrients to the soils. Particularly, soil temperature is linearly affecting decomposition below 25 C but decomposition rate almost ceased at soil temperature of 50 C, and the destructive temperature even limits dispersal of insects and herpetofauna (Chen et al., 1992 and 1999). Modified micro-sites formed after a degradation process in a forest can be complicated and exhibits great variations.

Soil i. Physical properties

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A general rule to be observed before embarking on any rehabilitation and restoration efforts is that the soils must be intact. The intensity of degradation of these biophysical properties of a tropical forest depends on the forms of degradation. Soil physical properties such as particle size distribution, mechanical impedance, water retention capacity, and soil temperature affect the establishment of seedlings during natural colonization and also in replanting programs. The degree of soil disturbances on mining is extreme. In ex-tin mine, the original rich forest soils were stripped off over-burden and later the ore-rich mineral soils were further extracted for tin through gravitational separation using water and gradient. Hence, two extreme mixtures of ex-tin mine were coarse particles of sand and fine particles of slime. ii. Soil composition Soil composition of degraded lands normally does not change much except in the case of ex-tin mine. Most of the human activities in impoverished forest lands do not contribute to alteration of soil composition. However, mining activity causes a change in the soil composition. Normally, to extract mineral ores from the concentrate of the processed materials, they are subjected to water separation, and produce two extreme soil formations known as sand and slime tailings. Sand tailings have particle size more than 0.05 mm which includes sand and gravels. The sand and gravel tailings require additional fine soil particles such as silt and clay to improve their soil physical properties for growing tree species. iii. Mechanical impedance Main physical properties of sand tailings that require further improvement for growing plants include mechanical impedance. High mechanical impedance > 1.5 MPa is commonly encountered in ex-tin mine and logged-over forests or any form of degradation involving heavy machinery. Sand tailing, road shoulders, decking sites are common specific high mechanical sites in the degraded lands. The average range of mechanical impedance on decking site varies from 0.26 to 0.49 MPa compared to the undisturbed forested site (0.04 to 0.09 MPa) (Wan Razali and Ang, 1990; Kamaruzaman, 1990). The mechanical impedance of sand is reckoned to be high and caused impedance to root growth (Ang and Lim, 1997). The compaction introduced to the sand tailings was due to the movement of heavy machines during levelling. The penetration resistance of sand at 022.9 cm depth ranges from 0.5 0.2 to 2.2 1.2 MPa but higher value of penetration resistant range from 2.2 1.2 to 3.2 2.3 MPa was determined at 23 to 61 cm depth (Ang and Ho, 2004). High mechanical impedance of sand tailings can be overcomed by deep-hole planting technique, followed by an application of peat or organic waste such as empty fruit bunch of oil 30IUniversiti Putra Malaysia Mitsubishi Corporation

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palm. The average size of the planting hole is 1.5 m length x 1 m width x 1 m depth, and was prepared using an excavator. About 2/3 depth of the hole was filled back with sand particles. iv. Soil water table level Sand tailing is often dry during drought period. Drought period of two weeks will dry up all the available water to 15 cm depth from the surface (Ang et al., 1999). The cause of such evaporation is mainly due to the particle size distribution of sand tailings which comprises > 90% coarse sand. The high porosity of sand has inverse relationship with its water retention capacity. The main approach adopted in the site preparation of the project site where the sand dunes are situated at > 4 m above sea water level (a.s.w.l) was to reduce water loss from the root zone during dry period. The level of sand tailings determines its suitability for rehabilitation and restoration with plant species. If sand dunes are situated more than 4 m above standing water table level (a.s.w.l), a drought of two weeks (rainfall < 4 mm day-1) would dry up the available water of the 0-15 cm depth of sand dune (Ang et al., 1999). The dehydrating of sand dune in dry season is mainly due to its high composition of sand and gravel. The high permeability of sand results in low water retention capacity and it is costly to irrigate the timber planting compared to high value production of agriculture produce (Ang and Ho, 2005). v. Soil chemical properties Sand tailings have lower concentration of macronutrients and some of the important trace elements compared to the mineral soils as shown in Table 7. The pH ranges from 4.0 to 6.5 for both types of tin tailings (Ang and Lim, 1997; Ang and Ho 2005). Soil properties of sand tailing have been the main obstacle for enhancing growth and survival of timber tree species. Sand is low in fertility. Many studies showed that introduction of organic fertilizer either from plant materials or animal wastes would improve its chemical and physical properties. This approach has been used to improve the nutrient status of sand tailings in the project site. Low pH is the main concern for growing timber tree species on slime tailings. Application of ground magnesium limestone (GML) is absolutely necessary, if the ex-mining land is originally a peat swamp forest. The soil pH of the project site varies from 4.0 to 6.5, and with the application of about 200 g GML per planting point, the growth of the seedlings was observed to be healthier at one year after planting. Thick weed cover Shifting cultivation site and grassland normally have the same problem, the ferocity of weeds especially Imperata cylindrica and Melastoma malabathricum. These weeds render the planting for rehabilitation and restoration purpose meaningless as the roots of the weed and their fast-growth rate
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suppresses the growth of the seedlings either from harvesting the photosynthetically active radiation or competing for soil moisture and nutrients in the root zones. Removing weed cover is the main task before planting. Three methods of weeding were practiced in Malaysia: manual, mechanical and chemical methods. Manual weeding normally involves clearance of 0.5 m of radius from the planting point, and it is not effective and very costly especially for large area; mechanical weeding normally involved two rounds of disc ploughing to a depth of 45 cm and is proven to control weeds before planting but after planting this method cannot be used as it will destroy the roots of the seedlings/plants. Hence, after planting, manual and chemical weeding are preferred. Chemical weeding normally used glycol-phosphate based active ingredient to destroy weeds but after three months regrowth of weed is normally observed. The cheapest way of controlling weed cover is light planting of Acacia mangium seedlings, by first preparing a planting line with width of 0.5 to 1.5 m using a grass-cutter or a small tractor, followed by line planting of healthy A. mangium seedlings of 0.5 to 1 m. Then followed by another weeding at threemonth intervals, and fertilized with 30 g of NPK or 120 g of 80% mature chicken manure pellet. The A. mangium if planted by 2 m x 3 m would have crown closure within 2.5 years the latest depending on soil fertility.

A MIXED- SPECIES FOREST STAND AT FOREST RESEARCH INSTITUTE MALAYSIA The mandate of establishing Forest Research Institute in 1925 was to provide planting technologies for turning degraded landscape listed in Table 1 into wood production area via reforestation R&D. The former landscape of the present Forest Research Institute Malaysia comprising ex-tin mine, grassland and secondary forest. Planting activities since the last 8 decades has now turned the mainly grassland and secondary forest sites into a gene bank of tropical rainforest species and some important exotic plantation species. The quality of tree stands and their regenerations in FRIM include plantation species such as Acacia aulacocarpa, A. auriculiformis, A. mangium, Agathis alba, Araucarias, Azadirachta sp, Paraserianthes falcatari, Flindersia brayleyana, Shorea sp, Khaya species, Pentaspadon motleyi, Vatica sp, Pouteria malaccensis, Palaquium gutta, Dryobalanops aromatica , Aquilaria malaccensis, Dryobalanops oblongifolia, Swietenia macrophylla, Neobalanocarpus heimii and Pterocarpus indicus were recorded (Shamsudin et al., 2010). The growth and yield of these timber species were also documented (Appanah and Weinland, 1993). Especially, the collection of rainforest species in her arboretum has turned FRIM campus cover of about 485.16 ac into a national pride that demonstrates the commitment of the institute for conservation efforts. Natural regeneration of mainly primary lower strata species were observed under the planted stands. As the mixed species forest stands were established adjacent to a relatively undisturbed lowland forest it explains the abundance of the natural regeneration. FRIM houses 354 species including species which are threatened. In addition, FRIM is also a popular ecotourism spot for tourism national and internationally. 32IUniversiti Putra Malaysia Mitsubishi Corporation

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The recognition of FRIM as the pride of the nation in plant biodiversity conservation and also one of the major tourist attraction spots in Malaysia, FRIM was declared a Natural Heritage Site in 10/2/2009 (Shamsudin et al., 2010). The rehabilitation technologies developed for rehabilitation of grassland and secondary forest are summarised in this presentation.

A MIXED-SPECIES FOREST STAND ESTABLISHED AT TIN TAILINGS AFFORESTATION CENTRE, SPF BIDOR. Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) has established a Research Substation at Bidor, Perak with the aim to develop the ex-tin mine into a model of rehabilitated mixed species forest stands. The research station is established on tin tailings left by Malaysia Mines Cooperation in 1940s. It is located about 138 km north of Kuala Lumpur and is easily accessible. The extent of the station is about 125 ha and comprising sand tailings, ponds and slime tailings. Ex-tin mine is infamous for its poor site quality for growing plants. High cost of fertilizers and water are required for turning ex-mines into agriculture uses, and thus limit their large-scale uses. In addition, with the discovery of unacceptably high level of heavy metals in the food crops grown on tin tailings recently has rendered it a less preferable site for food production. Rehabilitation of the degraded land with forest tree species is a better option of land use and would improve the soil properties and also act as a wood production area. Presently the research station houses a few main timber species namely Malabira (Fagraea crenulata), Akasia (Acacia aulacocarpa, Acacia auriculiformis, Acacia mangium, Acacia crassicarpa), Acacia hybrid ( Acacia mangium x Acacia auriculifomris), Rosewood (Delbergia longipinnata), Jelutong (Dyera costulata), Merawan siput jantan (Hopea odorata), mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), African mahogany (Khaya ivorensis) and keladan (Dryobalanops oblongifolia) (Ang and Ho, 2005).The landscape of the former barren land of SPL Bidor has now turned into a lush green mixed forest surrounded by ex-mining land, oil palm plantation and housing estate. The natural regeneration including 20 species of lowland primary species and mature secondary forest species were brought by mainly avian dispersal agents (Tang and Ang, 2010). The demonstration plot has since then be recognized as an international educational site for rehabilitation of ex-tin tailings, and it is a popular site for practical trainees from local and international universities. In addition, it is also a favorite study site identified as venue of pre- or post-conference tour of national and international conferences on forestry that are held in Kuala Lumpur or Ipoh. The green site is also frequented by bird-watchers from non-government organizations as it is now a resting site for migratory birds. It also houses several international and national research projects on site quality, afforestation, biodiversity, forest influences, phytoremediation and eco-toxicity. The rehabilitation approach for greening the ex-tin mine is outlined in this presentation.

CONCLUSION
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The man-made mixed species forests established on secondary forests and ex-tin mine at Kepong and Bidor respectively by FRIM witness the success of planting technologies and tending techniques in rehabilitation of degraded sites and sustainably maintained till this day. The developed rehabilitation technologies are available for similar green activities through the publications and also consultative services. Both models of rehabilitated forests are referral centers for the greening projects on the degraded sites. Especially, the green campus of FRIM is now a popular spot for local and foreign tourists and also a recreation forest for the public. Above all, both man-made forests of FRIM remain committed as a repository of biodiversity.

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Jiquan Chen, Frankin J.F, and Spes, T.A. 1992. Vegetation responses to edge environments in old-growth Douglas-fir forests. Ecological Applications 2:387-396. Shirley, H.L.1945. Light as an ecological factor and its measurement. Botanical Review 1:497-532. Geiger, R. 1965. The climate near the ground. Cambridge (MA). Harvard University Press. Kamaruzaman Jusof. 1990. A survey of soil disturbance from tractor logging in a hill forest of Peninsular Malaysia. In P16-21, S. Appanah, FSP Ng & Roslan Ismail (eds.), Proceedings of Malaysian Forestry and Forest Products Research Conference 1990, October 3-4, Kepong. Lamb, D., L.H. Ang and Rochadi Abdullah. 1995. Degradation of rainforest lands in Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia and prospects for their rehabilitation. In 255-264, In K.W. Sorensen, G.L. Enrique, R. umaly& J.J. Kartana (eds.), Tropical Forest Ecosytems Research, Conservation and Repatriation. Biotrop Special Publication No.55. SEAMEO BIOTROP. ISSN 0125-975X. MTC. 2007. Malaysia Sustainable Forest Management. MTC Publication, March 2007. Malaysian Timber Council. 28p. Shamsudin, I., P. Ismail, H. Khali Aziz, N.M. Nik Zanariah, H. Ismail, Y. Ahmad zuhaidi, O. Hamdan and M. Adnan. 2010. FRIM Tapak Warisan Semula Jadi Negara. 191p. Gemilang Press Sdbn Bhd, Sg Buloh. ISBN 978-9675221-422.

Tang, L.K. and Ang L.H. 2010. Regeneration Composition and Distribution at Open and Greened Sites of A 20-hectare Ex-Tin Mine in Peninsular Malaysia. Paper presented in poster session of ISFFP, 5-7 Oct 2010, K.L. 9p. Wan Razali Wan Mohd and Ang, L.H. 1990.The early growth of two indigenous commercially important tree species planted on degraded sites of a logged-over forest. In P22-29, S. Appanah, FSP Ng &Roslan Ismail (eds.), Proceedings of Malaysian Forestry and Forest Products Research Conference 1990, October 3-4, Kepong. Zakaria Ibrahim and Ang, L. H. 1992. Degraded lands as an alternative for forest plantation development in Peninsular Malaysia. In P 37-48, Proceeding of National Seminar on " Economics of Forest Plantation" 2426 Feb 1992. Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia
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