Forest resources of Vanuatu By Watson John LUI

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Forest resources of Vanuatu By Watson John LUI
Jude TABI
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(No Transcript)
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Vanuatu Background

• Total area is 12,270 km² (VANRIS, 1997).
• 83 islands mostly mountainous and volcanic
• Total Population is 217,000 (FAO, 2005a).
• 77 reside in rural areas.
• 80 dependence on forest resource
• Population Density is approx. 17 persons/km².
• Population growth rate is estimated at 2.4
  (Agriculture Census, 2006).
• Land is locally owned (clans and tribes) No
  state land and forests.

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Vegetation and forest cover

• 75 of the land area is covered by natural
  vegetation. 1/3 is tropical lowland and montane
  forest accounting for 916,000ha
• Natural forest suitable for logging is 117,000ha
• Total area of planted forest is 4,000ha
• No formal designated Permanent Forest Estate
  (PFE), however, existing declared Protected areas
  6,915ha while proposed conservation areas
  23,174 ha

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Vegetation type
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Forest degradation

• Forest degradation not common however there is
  evidence of loss of forest occurring
• Estimated degraded production forest in need of
  restoration or rehabilitation 545,000 ha
• Degraded protection forest in need of restoration
  23,174 ha
• Degraded land that might be available for
  reforestation 469,849 ha

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Main forest products

• Most forest products are derived from natural
  forest where most of the management practices are
  directed
• Main forest products - sawn timber and
  finger-jointed laminated board from white wood
  (endospermum medullosum) exported to Japan and
  sandalwood (sandallum austrocaledonicum) is
  exported in the form of oil, pre-grinned chips,
  spent biomass and logs to Japan, India and
  Taiwan.

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Forestry Contribution to the National Economy

• In 2006 contribution was 475,715,569 VT
  (approximately US 4 million) about 7.7 to the
  GDP and employs about 500 people (ITTO, 2006)
• From the above contribution the government
  received 14,271,467VT (approximately 142,000 US)
• landowners received 90,385,958 VT (approximately
  903,000 US)
• and the private companies received 371,058,144 VT
  (approximately 3.7 million US)

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Trend of timber production as of 1983
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Reforestation

• Reforestation is mostly undertaken by Govt
  (LSP/IFP 3600ha), individual farmers/community
  (100ha), private companies (300ha) mainly,
  whitewood, sandalwood, pine, cordia, canarium
  nuts and mahogany and namamau spp,
• Purpose
• Timber utilization
• monetary values (sandalwood nut trees)
• Consumption
• windbreaks
• Watershed
• soil erosion control
• research purposes,
• to control coastal eroded areas
• Also, resistant to cyclones and diseases

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Challenges

• Continuous decline in Wood production due to
  decrease in logging activities resource
  scarcity
• Major contributors to the loss of forest cover
  are mainly
• - increase agriculture Livestock production
• - urban expansion e.g. real estates
• - infrastructural developments e.g. roads
• - lack of maximizing returns and wastes from
  utilization of timber resource
• - limited capacity human and finance
• - lack of understanding the national policies
• - land tenure and disputes
• - Natural catastrophe (cyclone)

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Case study of forest and land restoration

• Aneityum soil erosion control project (1994-1999
  NZAID) Successful community project
• Training and empowerment of community in
  establishing vetiver grass on bare acidic soil
  conditions to reduce sediments washed down during
  heavy rain
• Currently, more than 1,000 ha of acidic soil
  condition has been restored with vegetation
• Outputs (i) improves land vegetation (ii)
  improve marine resources
• The concept is in the pipeline of being
  replicated elsewhere in other islands

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Thankyou