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This paper examines the economic impact on sawn timber market in Peninsular Malaysia under the scenarios of sustainable forest management (SFM) practices. Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach test was employed using time-series data from 1980 to 2015, comprising of five scenarios: (1) 24% reduction in harvested area, (2) 25% increase of the domestic price of sawn timber, (3) 47% increase in input cost, (4) incorporated with scenarios (1), (2) & (3) and (5) 10% increase in contribution of forestry and harvesting activities to total gross domestic products (CGDP). The result revealed that the supply and export of sawn timber had a positive impact on SFM. Even though domestic demand was affected by the increase of prices, the value could be used to compensate for the loss volume of timber. These findings are important to policymakers in order for them to reach a benchmark regarding an appropriate method to sustain forest resources. Based on the scenarios imposed under SFM practices, it was found that it is possible to boost sawn timber industry without compromising efforts to sustain and conserve forest resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The successful campaign to broaden the focus of sustainable forest management (SFM) in the tropics from being solely on timber to a vision that encompasses the full range of forest values somehow obscured or diminished the core principal of sustained timber yield (STY). While clean water, biodiversity, and human welfare are of undisputed importance, diminishing yields compromises forest industries and forests. That said, in light of on-going discussions about sustainable infrastructure and even sustainable mining, the author questions his previous insistence on STY as a core element of SFM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Timber drying is an important manufacturing process for efficient timber utilisation. Time and cost can be substantial in the development of appropriate drying schedule for unfamiliar timber with unknown drying characteristics, for example refractory timbers. These include heavy hardwood species and plantation timbers that are prone to drying defects under inappropriate drying schedule. As such, a quick drying assessment protocol will be helpful to reduce the cost and time of developing suitable drying schedule. This study demonstrated the use of the protocol for drying rate test to evaluate the effectiveness of pretreatment processes on Acacia mangium timber. The conventional steam-heated kiln drying of this timber is known to produce high occurrence of wet pockets. Pretreatments processes tested included air drying, hot water bath and microwave treatments. Results from the drying trials suggested that hot water bath and microwave pretreatments with appropriate settings after air drying could expedite drying process and alleviate the occurrence of wet pockets in A. mangium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sabah State Government has given its priority to Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) practices. The widely known tool, reduced impact logging option has been adopted in order to achieve SFM practices. Hence the main objective of this study was to analyse the impact of SFM practices on the timber market in Sabah, Malaysia. Impact analysis was conducted based on four scenarios arising from SFM practices, i.e. reduction by 24% in harvested area, increase by 49% in external cost of timber harvesting, increase by 47% in the cost of internalisation of the externalities and 20% gain in market access. Based on the first three scenarios, the results showed that the equilibrium quantity and price of timber had decreased and increased respectively after converting conventional logging (CL) practices to SFM practices. The economic impact of SFM provided empirical evidence that loss was incurred in the welfare of timber industry in Sabah. However, there was also an increase in the domestic price of timber, which would then help to compensate for the loss of timber volume. In addition, the scenario of 20% gain in the market access showed that Sabah's timber industry could benefit from this advantage. The State Government and other related agencies should be able to use these results as a reference in designing good mechanisms to strengthen the effectiveness of SFM practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Malaysian log supply is facing deficit since 1995; thereafter major timber products have moved from resource surplus to one of deficit. It seems obvious that without planted forest in the future, the timber industries have almost reached the limit for growth. The log supply model for West Malaysia is based on an equation of domestic log supply from natural and planted forests as a function of weighted price of log, annual logging area and royalty of logs. The results showed that the bounds test of log supply model was cointegrated at 10% significance. The short-run analysis revealed that log supply would increase as the price of logs increased. However, in the long run, it would lead to substantial reduction in the log supply. This is because when the price of logs increases, the log supply tends to decrease. It is believed that this is due to controlled production and the stringent harvesting regulation to achieve sustainable forest management. Furthermore, an increase in domestic price of logs would help to compensate for the lost volumes in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]