Study on Forest Utilization Patterns in Southeast Asia : Changes in the Course of Socio-economic Development

根据粮农组织的最新统计，我们正在全世界失去1 540万公顷的热带森林。在这些热带森林砍伐中，亚洲和太平洋地区仅占390万公顷，即四分之一。然而，就森林砍伐与森林覆盖面积之比而言，亚太区域比其他区域遭受的损失更大。特别是东南亚大陆占1.8%，东南亚岛屿占1.4%，而世界平均水平为0.8%。与这些情况相比，大多数发达国家的森林覆盖率正在增加，尽管他们曾经失去了大量的森林。同样，我们期待发展中国家也出现同样的情况。但何时以及如何？我们选择菲律宾、泰国和印度尼西亚进行深入研究。这些国家属于不同的社会经济发展阶段。根据联合国的分类，印度尼西亚被列为“低收入经济体”，1990年人均国民生产总值为570美元，1965-1990年期间的年增长率为4.5%。菲律宾和泰国属于“中等收入经济体”，人均收入分别为730美元和1，420美元，年增长率分别为1.3%和4.4%。菲律宾的天然林几乎耗尽，目前正试图通过社会林业方法恢复天然林。经济活动的水平似乎并不影响那里的森林砍伐。以泰国为例，经济增长带来了更高的木材价格，这促进了政府援助下的植树造林。印尼拥有相对丰富的森林资源。随着这种天然林传统的轮垦正在被非传统的和环境干扰型的泥浆和燃烧农业所取代，我们研究了遥感技术，以估计在印度尼西亚和泰国的新种植园面积的森林砍伐和其他干扰森林，以评估上述情况在每个国家。

According to the latest FAO statistics, we are loosing 15.4 million ha of tropical forests world-wide. Among these tropical deforestation, only 3.9 million ha, or one fourth is counted for by Asia and Pacific. Yet in terms of deforestation ratio to forest cover area, Asia and Pacific suffer more than the other regions. Especially, Continental South Eastern Asia poses 1.8%, and Insular South Eastern Asia, 1.4% whereas the world average is 0.8%.Comparing these situations, forest cover is now increasing in most developed countries, though they have had lost enormous amount of forest once. By the same token, we expect the same turn in developing countries. But WHEN and HOW?We choose the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia to study in depth. These countries belong to different stages of socio-economic development. According to United Nation's classification, Indonesia is classified as "low-income economies" with $570 per capita GNP in 1990 with its annual growth rate of 4.5% for the period of 1965-1990. The Philippines and Thailand belong to "middle-income economies" classification with $730 and $1,420 per capita income and 1.3% and 4.4% annual growth rates respectively.The Philippines almost used up its natural forests and now trying to restore it through social forestry approaches. The level of economic activities doesn't seem to affect deforestation there. In case of Thailand, economic growth brought about higher timber prices, which promotes tree farming with assistance of the government. Indonesia has relatively abundant amount of forest left. With this natural forest traditional shifting cultivation is being replaced by non-traditional and environmental disturbing type of slush and burn agriculture.We studied remote sensing techniques to estimate area of clearing forest and other disturbance in forest in Indonesia and area of new plantation in Thailand to evaluate the above said situations in each country.