Regional Workshop 25-28 September 2007 (Page 2)

CORE ISSUES ADDRESSED IN THE REGIONAL TEAK WORKSHOP 2007
OBJECTIVES

In pursuance of sustainable development of teak wood sector in the Asia Pacific Region, the Workshop provided an international forum for developing a regional project on processing and marketing of quality products of planted teak from sustainable tropical forest management. It was envisaged that participation of major Asian teak producer countries, viz. India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand together with the importing countries would accomplish the task as project partners.
The major objectives of the Regional Workshop were:

  1. Clear understanding of national policies and programmes of the producer countries as project partners particularly in promoting the trade from further processing and marketing of teak products
  2. Identification of the lead countries in relevant areas of research and training as well as networking to cater to the needs of the international stakeholders
  3. Establishment of working relationships with necessary commitments from among the project partners for developing a regional project on teak.

Organizers and sponsorsThe Workshop was hosted by the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) under the auspices of the following sponsors:
  • International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), Japan
  • nternational Union of Forest Research Organisations - Teak Wood Working Par(IUFRO 5.06.02)
  • Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India

Participants and target beneficiaries
A total of 90 delegates representing 14 countries of Asia, Australia, Europe, Central and South America participated in the 4-day Workshop including one day field excursion. In addition to the scientists/researchers from various Organizations / universities, the target beneficiaries of the Workshop were small timber holders / farmers, processing enterprises, traders, State Forest Departments, Forest Development Corporations and Policy Makers representing the following Governmental NGOs: Farmers /Associations
Bharathiya Kisan Sangha, Karnataka
Mangala Farms, Karnataka
Varanashi Research Foundation, Karnataka
Industrialists and Traders

OLAM International Ltd., Singapore
Timber Importers Association of India,
Regency Wood Products, Mumbai
The Western India Plywood Industries Pvt. Ltd., Kerala
Policy Makers and State Forest Departments/Corporations Ministry of Environment and Forests, Govt. of India
FAO, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP), Bangkok, Thailand
ITTO, Japan
Kerala Forest Department, India
Kerala Forest Development Corporation, India
Financial and Networking Institutions Floresteca Agroflorestal LTDA, Netherlands
IUFRO, Austria
Teak 21, Ireland
INAUGURAL SESSION
The Workshop was inaugurated by Mr. S. Regupathy, the Hon’able Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Govt of India and presided over by Mr. Rajaji Mathew Thomas, Member of Legislative Assembly, Govt. of Kerala. The welcome address was given by Dr. E. P. Yesodharan, Executive Vice President, Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment. Dr. R. Gnanaharan, Director, KFRI welcomed all delegates to the host organisation. Mrs. Lilly Francis, President of local Grama Panchayat and Mr. S. C. Joshi, IFS, Chief Conservator of Forests, Kerala State gave felicitations. Dr. S. Appannah, National Forest Programme Advisor, FAO, Bangkok gave the keynote address. Dr. K. M. Bhat, Workshop Convener proposed vote of thanks.
TECHNICAL SESSIONS
A total of 20 oral papers and 18 posters were presented in nine different sessions including panel discussions. The technical sessions of oral presentation included: Plenary, Country reports, Status papers and other themes as stated in this report elsewhere.
Country Reports from Asia and Plenary Papers
The session was chaired by Mr. Masakazu Kashio, Forest Resources Officer, FAO, Regional Office, Bangkok. Mr. R.T. Somaiya, President, Indian Timber Importers’ Association, India was the Co-chair. Dr. K.C. Chacko and Dr. V. Anitha were the Rapporteurs.
The country reports were presented from four Asian countries: India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. While addressing the policy issues for India in Dr. Bipin Behari’s paper, Dr. Mammen Chundamannil presented a paper on investments and economic returns from teak plantations. He examined the economics of teak plantations in relation to some alternative species. After tracing the history of teak plantations in Kerala, Dr. Mammen stressed on the environmental benefits from planted teak and proposed teak as an economically viable plantation species.
Mr. Sadhardjo Siswamartana presented a report on Indonesian teakwood marketing and industries. His report brought out the following points:
  • Teak is a highly preferred timber species in Indonesia and unauthorised logging is common. The productivity has increased by 75 per cent by way of tree improvement programmes.
  • The plantation activity should take into account the environmental and community based conservations.
  • About 50% of annual teak wood production is exported from Indonesia.

The report on policy and status of teakwood production, processing and marketing from planted forests in Thailand was presented by Mrs. Chumnun Pianhanuruk. Thailand had extensive teak forests, which were later brought under the management of the Royal Forest Department. Logging ban introduced in 1989 has adversely affected the plantation activity after which Thailand became a teak importing country. Wood processing still uses low technology and immature wood and the products fall short of international standards. She recommended for training programmes to improve wood processing skills and productivity.
Dr. Lim Hin Fui et al. presented the report on Policy and status of planted teakwood: Its properties and processing in Malaysia. The country has around 6000 ha of teak plantations. The technology for processing and marketing is yet to be developed. Indications are that teak products have a market potential which have initiated much planting activity while some growers pose the question - where they can sell off the wood from their young teak plantations. He suggested that more information on potential markets and end-uses of teakwood need to be disseminated to the planters and wood-based industries.
Messrs. Jukka Tissari and Mikko Jaaskelainen, Finland, presented the plenary paper on Processing of planted teak in producer countries: Problems and prospects. They stressed the point that plantation teakwood is generally inferior to the reputed wood of naturally grown teak and therefore processing costs would be higher to make the product suitable for refined applications. They recommended for the producer countries to carry out domestic processing of teak as a policy objective. Greater stress may be given to provenance selection and silvicultural management for improvement of wood quality t for intended end-use and to adopt innovative processing methods such as heat-treatment system and camera vision and CAD (computer-aided design) technologies.
Mr. Raymond Keogh, Ireland presented the plenary paper on international pricing mechanism for the wood of planted teak. He pointed to the wide gap existing between demand and supply of hardwoods. There is a need to create more hardwood
plantations and this calls for substantial increases in investments. He made it clear that due to lack of standards and appropriate information there is wide spread uncertainty and confusion about teak investments, particularly in relation to prices. He further emphasised that establishment of an information system enabling investment decisions is a need of the hour.
Dr. John Joseph, India presented a paper on Teak farming: challenges and opportunities. Agroforestry is an important option to meet the demand of wood-based and other allied industries. Lack of quality planting stock and difficulties in following the existing timber trade rules are major constraints of teak wood farming. The following issues were emphasized:

  • Strengthening of institutional arrangements to supply quality and source-identified planting stock
  • Review of Policy, legal and procedural matters for entrepreneurial friendly teak wood farming.
A paper on genetic resources for higher productivity of planted teak forests was presented by John K. Hansen et al. This paper brought out the following points:
  • Genetic improvement of teak needs serious attention in improving productivity and timber qualities. International provenance trials are helpful in identifying source materials for propagation
  • Multi-locational international provenance trials for teak must be promoted to understand genotype-environment interaction thereby enabling selection of appropriate provenances for different sites around the world.
  • Movement of teak seeds for propagation between countries should be made easier.
  • Teak growing countries may be advised to make necessary modifications in their policy and procedures to enable easy movement of teak seeds across teak growing countries.
Session: Teak Wood of Planted Forests

Chair: Dr. S. John Joseph, India Co-Chair: Dr. Ichiro Nagame, Japan Rapporteurs: Dr. Jose Kallarakal and Dr. E.M. Muralidharan The first speaker was Mr. R.T. Somaiya, who spoke on the “Improvement of planted teakwood by Vrikshayurved methods”. He described Vrikshayurved as the ancient science of (plant) life that in his experience could be revived to benefit teak cultivation. He spoke of teak being a ‘social’ species that grows with other tree species in the forests and therefore a mix of different species in the cultivation of teak would be beneficial. His presentation led to comments and questions on what is the right mixture of species would be and whether healing of diseases and pest was also part of the tradition. Others commented on the need for research on the subject and how economics and money govern the cultivation of species.
The next speaker was Dr. Gills Chaix who made a presentation on “Quality control and mass production of teak clones for tropical plantations” and spoke about the
performance of the trials conducted in Sabah ten years ago. Teak exhibited high variability in growth, morphological traits and wood properties. NIRS and molecular markers were used for assessment of the wood properties and for fingerprinting of the clones. Mass cloning of the teak through tissue culture was done.
The next presentation was by Peter Laming, on “Aspects of natural decay resistance and hysterisis of juvenile teak thinnings from Southern Mato Grosso, Brazil”. He presented data on heartwood and sapwood of juvenile teak from thinnings. Fungal resistance, dimensional stability, gluing properties were studied vis-à-vis the suitability for utilization.
Mr. Sylvio de Andrado Coutinho described the activities of the largest teak plantation company in Brazil and spoke about the benefits and challenges of certification with regard to the sustainability of planted teak forests. He gave information about the different certification agencies.


Session: Processing, Marketing and Price Trends
The session was chaired by Mr. Jukka Tissari, Finalnd and co-chaired by Mr. Hiroshi Nakata, Japan. The rapporteurs were Dr. P. K. Muraleedharan and Dr. C. Surendran, KFRI, India. There were seven papers in the session of which one paper was on wood quality of planted teak, two on processing, three on marketing and pricing and one on forest certification of planted forests. The first paper - Wood Quality of planted teak outside forests by Mr. P.K.Thulasidas, India attempted to assess the teak timber quality and value of home garden teak. The study evaluated timber quality of 35-year-old teak grown in homesteads representing wet and dry localities of Kerala in comparison with that grown in forest plantation of Nilambur. The general assumption is that teak grown in forest plantations is much superior to that grown in home gardens and based on which the price received by the latter is less. One noted conclusion of was that teak wood from home garden is not inferior to that of forest plantation in its strength properties and heartwood proportion in similar age groups. This should be popularized among the farmers to get better prices for their teak wood.
Mr. Mayen Mohamed, India in his presentation explained the major wood processing activities of the Western India Plywoods, Ltd., Valapatanan, Kerala. He stressed the need for prudent use of raw materials and production of more and more innovative products of higher value addition, especially in the context of depletion and shortage of timber resources in the country.
Dr. Kishan Kumar, India presented a paper on the drying behaviour of teak under vacuum press drying. The experiment was conducted under three different vacuum level-temperature combinations. He attempted to analyse the combination that gave maximum drying rates in terms of moisture content reduction in two different initial moisture content ranges. It was found that the samples could be dried faster by employing combinations of 90o C and 873 mbars of pressure. The study also indicated that drying rate under vacuum press drying is faster than that of conventional seasoning methods.
The paper: Marketing efficiency of planted teak in Madhya Pradesh: A case study of Jabalpur Circle, by Parag Dubey and Sathish kumar, examined marketing efficiency of planted teak in Madhya Pradesh. The State Forest Department (SFD) and Forest Development Corporation (FDC) are the two agencies which market teak in Madhya Pradesh and therefore, the authors compared the marketing efficiencies of these two agencies. One important conclusion was that the selling price of FDC is lower than that of SFD and the difference amounted Rs. 4300/- per m3. This was mainly due to better quality of teak produced by the Forest Department (due to long rotation). Thus the timber merchant buys timber from the FDC and sell at par with existing timber price which gives a high profit to them.
In the paper: Teak market in Kerala-Production, consumption and trade by Dr. Krishnankutty, India attempted to analyse the structure of timber market in Kerala. According to him, volume of the teakwood market in Kerala is to the tune of 96,000 m3, 62 % of the teak wood production comes from forest plantations while only 2 % of the production of other timbers comes from forests. The net import of teak logs of larger girth was 7,100 m3. The trend in import of timber is increasing whereas export is declining. Kerala, a traditional producer and exporter of teakwood in the past, is now a net importer. There is hardly any international market for Kerala teak wood due to non-availability of logs of larger girth. This may be due to shortening of rotation age of forest teak plantations to 50 years that has reduced the production of high value larger girth logs. A policy for growing logs of larger girth must be adopted by increasing the rotation age of forest teak plantations.
Projection of future availability of teak wood from forest plantations and its prices in Kerala State, was done by Dr. Sivaram, India. He attempted to project the future availability of teak wood from forest plantations based on age structure under different scenarios and assessed how far forest plantations would meet the future teak wood demand. He used statistical models to predict the future availability of teak wood from forest plantations. The analysis of trends in current and real prices indicates that the price increase during 1990’s has been low probably due to availability of substitute materials and increased timber import during the period. However, lately market for teak wood is picking up. The study also indicated that the high quality teak wood would fetches higher prices in the year 2007.
The presentation on Forest certification of planted forest based on the experience of Bhopal-India Process by Dr. Manmohan Yadav, India explained the need for managing the planted forests by following sustainable forest management practices. He also explained various initiatives on developing standards of SFM after Rio-Earth Summit on sustainable development. It was pointed out that the National Criteria and Indicators for SFM developed under Bhopal India Process provide an opportunity to develop a national forest certification scheme for India.

Session: Project Elements from Partner Countries
Chairmen – Dr. Daniel Bhaskaran Krishnapillay, Malaysia and Mr. Raymond Keogh, Ireland. The rapporteurs were Drs. K. K.N. Nair and Mammen Chundamannil, India.
Dr. K. M. Bhat was the first speaker. He introduced the concept of a Regional Project formulation among teak growing countries in Asia for joint submission to ITTO. He
presented a project preparation format for listing the objectives, strategy, activities, the time schedule, the expected outputs etc for the guidance of those who were involved in drafting the different country components.
The second Speaker was Mr. Sadhardjo Siswamartana, Indonesia, who stressed the need for learning and applying the biopesticide Hyblaea puera Nuclear Polyhedrosis Virus (HpNPV) developed by KFRI for insect defoliation of teak trees as a project component and another to develop a “back to nature” management of teak as a mixed natural stand instead of the current monoculture plantations. He also emphasised the need for enlarging the genetic base of the planted teak in Indonesia.
The third Speaker was Mrs. Chumnun Pianhanuruk, Thailand who called for research on pests problems of teak and for upgradation of the wood processing industry with more modern technology.
The fourth speaker was Dr. Kashio, FAO, Bangkok, who spoke for Myanmar as there was no delegate from Myanmar. The four themes he presented were: (i) improvement of the Myanmar Selection System of managing teak, (ii) plantation improvement, (iii) modernisation of the wood processing industry, which presently consists of very old machinery originally made to process huge logs that are becoming quite scarce and (iv) development of information services and connectivity which is extremely primitive in comparison with other teak growing countries.
The fifth speaker was Dr. Tan Tu-Eng from Malaysia. He pointed out that teak is not a traditional tree for farmers or the Forest Department of Malaysia. There are some shops selling teak furniture and handicraft items of teak from Indonesia. Teak farmers in Malaysia are unsure of who would be their buyers and what prices they can expect from the tree when it is harvested. Dr. Tan talked about harmonising the regional capabilities and strengths of the teak growing and marketing countries. The wood processing industry is very advanced in Malaysia which is their strength which can be utilised for processing teak from other countries to produce value added products.
During the discussion that followed, Mr. Kishan Kumar, India made remarks the need for growing teak for the industries. Dr. Nagarajan, India wanted genetics of teak to be focused with programmes on hybridisation and cloning. Dr. Palanisamy stressed the management of seed orchards. Mr. Ricardo, Costa Rica wanted multi-country provenance trials to be carried out and research on the under story species in teak plantations for improving the cash flow from teak plantations. Dr. Manmohan Yadav, India called for information on prices and adoption of universally acceptable grading rules. Mr. Ramon Carrillo, ITTO suggested to arrive at the general consensus on the country to lead the regional project.
Mr. Kashio, FAO made the final comment touching upon the need to formulate a common approach integrating the needs of the participating Asian countries to make a regional programme. While developing the project, the preferences of the funding agencies have also to be kept in mind. He suggested the preparation of two or more projects, for example, bundling the market oriented components in one, which will be definitely supported by ITTO as it is their priority area and another project focussing on the environmental aspects to place before the Global Environment Facility of the World Bank and genetic improvement of teak with DANIDA. 9