tff

Apa itu RIL ?

Defining RIL

Reduced-Impact Logging (RIL) consists of technologies and practices that are designed to minimize environmental impacts associated with industrial timber harvesting operations. Here the focus is on operations in tropical forests, although the same principles apply to other types of forests as well.

TFF has now released a generic Standard for RIL which can be used to develop country-specific criteria and indicators.

In the S.E. Asia context, a RIL operation should normally include the following points :

1. A Criteria & Indicators interpretation guide is now available for Indonesia.
2. Pre-harvest inventory and mapping of individual crop trees.
3. Preparation of accurate, operational scale contour maps.
4. Pre-harvest planning of roads, skid trails, and landings to provide access to the harvest area and to the individual trees scheduled for harvest while minimizing soil disturbance and protecting streams and waterways with properly engineered crossings.
5. The development of written environmental and operational standards to guide planning and operational activities and the integration of these standards into the company structure.
6. The use of controlled felling and bucking techniques including directional felling
7. The development of written felling and bucking standards to minimize logging waste and to maximize volume and value recovery.
8. Construction of roads and landings so that they adhere to engineering and environmental design guidelines while minimizing soil disturbance and damage to residual vegetation.
9. Marking skid trail locations on the ground so the skidder operators can find them easily.
10. Opening skid trails prior to felling. Minimize soil disturbance during the construction and utilization of skid trails through the application of simple guidelines and adequate supervision
11. Winching logs to planned skid trails and ensuring that skidding machines remain on the planned skid trails at all times.
12. On sloping topography, deactivation of skid trails after the operation has been completed (e.g., by cross-ditching) to minimize erosion.
13. Conducting post-harvest assessments to provide feedback to the timber concession holder and the logging crews, and to evaluate the degree to which RIL guidelines were applied successfully.

For these practices to be applied in a cost-effective and environmentally sound manner, the following prerequisites are essential :

1. The concession holder and logging operator must be able to provide legal documentation showing that they are legally entitled to harvest the timber within the operational area and that the operation is being conducted in adherence to all applicable laws and regulations.
2. A detailed set of operational and environmental standards must exist to which the logging operation will conform, and the managerial, planning, and logging crews must all be thoroughly familiar with these standards.
3. The planning and logging crews must be trained in their respective functions, and they must understand not only what is to be done and how to do it, but also why it is important.
4. Crews must be provided with proper safety equipment and must be trained in its use and maintenance.
5. Knowledgeable, well-trained supervisors must be present in the field to oversee the work, to maintain prescribed standards for the operation, and to ensure that the schedule of activities is followed.
6. Where lodging in a field camp is required, the camp must adhere to sanitary and dietary standards applicable to the jurisdiction in which it is located.
7. Logging equipment must be suited to the operating conditions and must be maintained in good working condition.
8. Planning and operational activities must be thoroughly integrated in order to ensure that the plans are properly implemented. This may require adjustments to the company's structural and procedural arrangements.
9. A management and control system must be in place that will provide timely operating information to the concession holder, the logging manager, and external auditors. Such a system includes detailed job descriptions, staffing information, equipment inventories, standard operating procedures, and similar information.

Arsip - indonesia

Bantuan - indonesia

Certification Support Services

Considered by many to represent the crowning recognition of exemplary achievement, FSC certification has long been held up as the ‘holy grail’ of sustainable forest management.

In belated recognition of the challenges that the FSC standard presents for FMUs, particularly in the tropical world, various advocates of the FSC certification system have proposed elaborate “step-wise” schemes of recognizing progress and achievement towards the goal of certification.

TFF-Indonesia has inadvertently come to realize that its open approach of engagement and its range of complimentary services, has proven highly successful in encouraging forest management companies to strive for ever increasing measure of excellence.  Most of the companies that first engaged in RIL training are now FSC certified.  Companies who have in the past few years participated in RIL and legal verification activities under TFF sponsorship are now applying for forest certification.

TFF-Indonesia has become a major proponent of FSC certification in response to the creation of a significant funding platform specifically designed to stimulate forest certification in  Indonesia.

In January 2010, The Borneo Initiative, a Dutch NGO launched the first round of funding support for Indonesian forest concession with the signing of 5 contracts.  TFF-Indonesia represents 4 of these concession companies.

On June 28, 2010 the second round of funding will become available and once again, TFF represents the majority of the participating concessions in a technical advisory capacity.

TFF is now well into the implementation of a RIL training program under the USAID funded LESTARI project, except this is RIL training with an important difference.

www.belayanrivertimber.com

On June 30, 2011, Control Union Certifications awarded the concession of  PT. Belayan River Timber with full FSC certification.  The company’s innovative use of low impact logging technology was, no doubt, an important factor in reaching this decision.

During the initial years of decentralization, chaos prevailed in the Indonesian forestry sector.  District and Provincial Governments issued harvesting licenses, frequently in contradiction with permits issued by the central Ministry of Forests.   The Government bowed to pressure from the IMF and World Bank to reopen the possibility of log exports.  And illegal loggers took advantage of the resulting chaos to expand their activities throughout Indonesia.

Now that order has been restored, a potential benefit of those chaotic times has emerged in the form of a technical innovation pioneered by the illegal loggers.  The innovation is a simple machine used for pulling logs along the ground through the forest, thus eliminating the need for skid trails from much of  the area being logged.  Local loggers call this the “monocable”.  

It is a scaled up version of extraction equipment commonly used on small private European woodlots but it is manufactured in Samarinda from locally available components.   More importantly, it offers great promise of achieve a number of objectives central to the goals of Reduced Impact Logging.

First of all, it is relatively inexpensive to operate.  Experience to-date suggests that a felling and skidding costs of Rp.90,000/cu.m . is achievable for a skidding distances totaling up to 200 m.

Secondly, since the machine can winch itself into position and then pull logs to the machine from a distance of 100 meters for a maximum of two such set-ups  per operating area, the need for skid trails are eliminated from this area thus dramatically reducing site disturbance, erosion risk, and impact to the residual stand.

Finally, by contracting out a portion of its annual cutting area (RKT) to community based private enterprises, the concession company has an opportunity to stimulate the development of small business and to offer a meaningful way in which local communities can participate in forest concession management thereby creating the basis for a more constructive relationship with its community neighbors.

PT Integra, the new owner of PT Belayan River Timber, is an integrated wood working industry located in Surabaya and specializes in finished and ‘knock down’ furniture, for both indoor and garden applications.  The Intergra ownership has recognized a clearly defined demand for FSC certified Meranti housing components such as scantling, door frames and window frames in the European market.  With the acquisition of the Belayan concession and the installation of an FSC dedicated wood processing facility at its Surabaya complex, Integra expects to capitalize on its new investment of providing high quality, FSC certified housing components to the European  market.

TFF has provided RIL training and technical guidance for certification for Belayan River Timber under The Borneo Initiative certification support program and is pleased to congratulate the management and staff of Belayan for their proactive role in furthering the cause of  reduced impact logging and forest certification.

Berita TFF

Conducting research into the cost and benefits of RIL is inherently complicated. Each study site has its own peculiarities which are extremely difficult to duplicate.

Forest conditions vary from flat to very broken terrain and tree sizes show a similar variability between tropical forest regions of the world. It has become clear that the more broken the terrain and/or the larger the trees, the less difference there will be between conventional logging and RIL logging.

In addition the logging activities themselves are influenced by a wide range of variables such as:

• Skidding distance
• Piece size and weight
• Profile of the skid trail
• Terrain conditions
• Soil conditions
• Weather
• Machine type and condition
• Operator experience
• RIL standards being applied

One of the biggest problems in trying to quantify the costs and benefits of RIL, is the different standards and study methodologies which researchers have applied to this topic. The result of all this variability, is a corresponding lack of uniformity of results in RIL productivity and cost studies.

To-date, one of the most rigorous and definitive studies on RIL costs and benefits, has been the work done through TFF in Brazil. A synopsis of the research results, is available in "Financial Costs and Benefits of Reduced Impact Logging in the Eastern Amazon".

TFF-Indonesia has participated with a number of concession in conducting in-house operational trials intended to give a quick evaluation of the productivity benefits of adopting RIL. Results of such studies will be published in the "RIL & Certification" newsletter from time to time. For the results of a recent study refer to the article "Investigating the Benefits of an RIL System" in the April 2004 issue of the "RIL & Certification Newsletter".

Biaya dan Manfaat - indonesia

BP -  Indonesia

Harvesting Plan Study for Tangguh Expansion Project of British Petrolium in West Papua. Tangguh Expansion Project (TEP) in Bintuni Bay of West Papua is one of the project sites operated by British Petrolium (BP).

The TEP is planned to start on the first quarter of 2014 to support onshore LNG construction activities in the first quater of 2015. To support the TEP, BP needs to convert approximately 350 ha of forested lands for establishing the TEP facilities. Conversion of forested lands into other purposes requires a legal permit from the Indonesian governement (c.q. Ministry of Forestry).

To acquire a legal permit of forest conversion, BP has to comply with the regulation of Ministry of Forestry No. P.14/Menhut-II/2011 regarding 'Izin Pemanfaatan Kayu' (IPK, licence for timber utilization). According to such regulation, BP needs to submit an IPK application complemented by two essential documents: timber cruising report and harvesting plan.

The project will be organized and implemented by a consortium team of Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) who serve as a project leader. In the project implementation, the IPB team will collaborate with a team of Papua University (UNIPA) who is responsible for field data collection, and with a team of Tropical Forest Foundation (TFF) who is responsible for quality assurance of the project and provide technical trainings to the survey teams.

Certification

Certification Support Services

Considered by many to represent the crowning recognition of exemplary achievement, FSC certification has long been held up as the ‘holy grail’ of sustainable forest management.

In belated recognition of the challenges that the FSC standard presents for FMUs, particularly in the tropical world, various advocates of the FSC certification system have proposed elaborate “step-wise” schemes of recognizing progress and achievement towards the goal of certification.

TFF-Indonesia has inadvertently come to realize that its open approach of engagement and its range of complimentary services, has proven highly successful in encouraging forest management companies to strive for ever increasing measure of excellence.  Most of the companies that first engaged in RIL training are now FSC certified.  Companies who have in the past few years participated in RIL and legal verification activities under TFF sponsorship are now applying for forest certification.

TFF-Indonesia has become a major proponent of FSC certification in response to the creation of a significant funding platform specifically designed to stimulate forest certification in  Indonesia.

In January 2010, The Borneo Initiative, a Dutch NGO launched the first round of funding support for Indonesian forest concession with the signing of 5 contracts.  TFF-Indonesia represents 4 of these concession companies.

On June 28, 2010 the second round of funding will become available and once again, TFF represents the majority of the participating concessions in a technical advisory capacity.

Certification Support - Past Successes

Interest in certification has been the driving force for some of TFF's training in RIL. TFF provides workshops to companies interested in certification and also offers an evaluation of forest concession management against existing certification standards.

In early 2004, TFF secured an arrangement through a Dutch partnership, whereby it would provide professional evaluation and advice, technical support in certification, assistance in establishing chain-of-custody systems, and training in RIL implementation, to two major forest companies situated in Central Kalimantan.

This arrangement included :

• trade agreements between Dutch and Indonesian private sector partners
• analysis of action required to achieve certification including the development of an action plan
• consultation and advice on technical matters and overall strategy
• training in RIL
• assistance in establishing chain-of-custody systems up to and including assessment by an independent auditor,
• the possibility for direct investment to promote trade and the achievement of FSC certification.

In September, 2005 the first participating company, PT. Erna Djuliawati was awarded an FSC certificate for sustainable forest management by SmartWood.  FSC certification of the second participating company, PT. Sari Bumi Kusuma was achieved in September 2007.

TFF continues to build on its successful certification support program by assisting these two forest companies to close off remaining conditions through technical guidance and specific training inputs.

CIFOR - Center for International Forestry Research

Collaboration with DLH

VLO Program marks it's first successes...

TFF and DLH-Nordisk, a Danish importer of tropical timbers, are encouraged by the recent progress in verification of legal origin...

Cost & Benefits - english

Financial Costs and Benefits of Reduced Impact Logging in the Eastern Amazon

Analysis by :
Thomas P. Holmes, Geoffrey M. Blate, Johan C. Zweede, Rodrigo Pereira Jr., Paulo Barreto, Frederick Boltz and Roberto Bauch.

Download PDF version of this analysis : Click here

Reduced Impact Logging in Tropical Forests

Logging in the tropics, as conventionally practiced, depletes timber stocks and causes severe ecological damage to residual forests. Reduced impact logging (RIL) systems are currently being developed in Brazil and other countries in response to concerns over the ecological and economic sustainability of harvesting natural tropical forest stands. RIL systems use an array of best harvesting techniques that reduce damage to residual forests, create fewer roads and skid trails, reduce soil disturbance and erosion, protect water quality, mitigate fire risk and potentially help maintain regeneration and protect biological diversity.

Little is known about the financial aspects of RIL, and existing evidence in Latin America is inconclusive. However, existing data suggest that RIL can be more profitable than conventional logging (CL) in some situations. Defining the set of conditions that favor the financial aspects of RIL is important because educating loggers of this fact will motivate them to alter their practices (loggers’ self-interest). This may protect ecological services in logged tropical forests while providing jobs and income for local economies. RIL systems are an integral part of forest certification initiatives and may provide a low-cost option for maintaining carbon sinks and forest conservation benefits. If sustainable forestry is to hold promise as an option, ecological impacts of timber harvesting need to be mitigated using economically competitive technology.

In addition to financial impacts, RIL systems can provide other industrial benefits. RIL procedures reduce the volume of timber wasted in harvesting operations, thereby increasing the volume of timber supplied from a fixed resource base. Pre-harvest inventories of standing timber provide a marketing advantage to landowners and mills which can establish forward contracts with buyers based on delivery of known volumes for specific species. Inventory control also helps eliminate low prices and degradation associated with products that sit in mill yards because buyers cannot be found. Careful tree felling and machine use increases worker safety which should result in lower insurance rates and a more secure workforce.

RIL techniques and guidelines are not fixed prescriptions, but adapt best harvesting techniques to existing biophysical and economic conditions. The FAO model codeof forest harvesting provides the basis for RIL system design and typically includes many or all of the following activities :

• pre-harvest inventory and mapping of trees
• pre-harvest planning of roads and skidtrails
• pre-harvest vine cutting
• directional felling
• cutting stumps low to the ground
• efficient utilization of felled trunks
• constructing roads and skid trails of optimum width
• winching of logs to planned skid trails
• constructing landings of optimal size
• minimizing ground disturbance and slash management.

Model Sites in the Brazilian Amazon

For the past several years, the Tropical Forest Foundation (TFF) and its Brazilian subsidiary Fundação Floresta Tropical (FFT) have developed and implemented operational RIL models at various locations throughout the Brazilian Amazon and trained forestry personnel in RIL methods. Between 1995 and 1997, FFT established several 100 ha harvesting blocks at Fazenda Cauaxi situated southwest of Paragominas in the state of Para. Most of the wood processed in Paragominas is marketed domestically and about 8% of the processed volume is exported. Access to domestic markets permits 40 - 50 tree species to be harvested in this location.

Reduced impact logging operations incur costs that are not incurred by CL operations. Between six to twelve months before harvesting, RIL crews inventory the harvest area and cut vines connected to potential harvest trees. Using the inventory, maps are generated, harvest trees are selected, skid trails are laid out and potentially valuable trees for the subsequent harvest are identified. In contrast, CL harvesting is not planned but proceeds using a “hit or miss” approach where the timber feller works with an assistant, a “tree hunter”, to help identify harvestable trees. Timber fellers in CL operations are typically paid on a piece rate that encourages rapid felling of trees, often of species and sizes or with defects that the mill will not accept. Felling in CL operations has little regard for impacts on the residual stand.

Skidding crews operate independently from felling crews and are not provided with precise information regarding location of felled trees. The search for logs results in an inefficient use of labor and machine time and causes significant damage to the residual stand, forest soils and skidding equipment.

The analysis presented here is a summary of a detailed technical report that provides a comparison of the costs and revenues of a typical, large-scale RIL system relative to a typical, large scale CL system in the Paragominas timbershed. The study focuses on the financial, operational, and technical aspects of RIL vs. CL systems. Although the study does not address biological or ecological questions directly, measurements were made of key parameters affecting future forest productivity. These parameters represent future benefits of using RIL systems.

What Was Learned

At Fazenda Cauaxi, the initial harvest averaged 25 m3 (4 to 6 trees) per hectare from the harvesting blocks. Pre- and post-harvest inventories showed that RIL activities were effective in reducing the amount of wood wasted in the forest and on the log deck relative to the CL operation (Figure 1). Wood wasted in the CL operation represented about 24% of the initial harvest volume, compared to only 8% in the RIL operation. More careful bucking of logs using RIL techniques increased recovered volume by about 1.1 m3 per hectare relative to CL techniques. In the RIL operations, better coordination between felling and skidding crews increased recovered volume by about 0.9 m3 per hectare. More careful tree selection by RIL crews (in terms of size, species and defect) resulted in a decrease of about 1.4 m3 per hectare in the volume of logs that were harvested but never utilized by the mill. Logging causes damage to the residual stand of trees. By cutting vines, directionally felling trees and planning the layout of roads and skid trails in RIL operations, damage to commercially valuable trees in the residual stand can be greatly reduced.

As shown in Figure 2, the RIL system reduced the rate at which trees in the residual stand were fatally damaged. For every 100 trees felled on the CL block, 38 trees (commercial or potentially commercial, greater than 35 cm dbh and with good form) were fatally damaged, compared to only 17 trees in the RIL block. Also, damaged future crop trees in the residual stand were recovering at nearly twice the rate on the RIL block than on the CL block. These results suggest that economic and ecological benefits provided by the residual stand will be greater on the RIL block.

Logging disturbs forest soils through the operation of heavy equipment. The amount of ground area disturbed on the CL block was nearly twice the ground area disturbed by RIL operations. Although part of this was due to the higher harvesting intensity on the CL block, the ground area disturbed per tree harvested was about 60% greater on the CL relative to the RIL block. Heavy equipment disturbed about 10% of the ground area in the CL block and about 5% of the ground area in the RIL block.

A comparison of the cost of typical, large scale RIL and CL operations in the Paragominas timbershed is shown in Figure 3. RIL planning and infrastructure activities increased “up-front” costs incurred before harvest by about 170% over CL operations. Felling and bucking costs were also larger for RIL activities because of the extra effort required for directional felling and increased product recovery. However, efficiency gains due to planning typical RIL operations were large. First, skidding and log deck productivity increased dramatically for the typical RIL operation and led to a 37% reduction in cost relative to the CL operation. Second, better recovery of potential merchantable volume on the typical RIL site reduced direct cost associated with waste by 78% and reduced stumpage cost by 16%. Overall, cost per cubic meter associated with a typical RIL system in this timbershed was estimated to be 12% less than the cost of a typical CL system.

Conclusions

The major conclusion of the analysis was that reduced impact logging can be financially more profitable than conventional logging. This implies that the economic self interest of loggers can help mitigate the loss of ecological services in some tropical forests subject to logging pressure.

Reduced impact logging techniques greatly decreased the damage to trees in the residual stand, the amount of ground area disturbed by machinery and the volume of wood residues left in the forest. Future economic and ecological benefits provided by logged forests will likely be greater where RIL techniques are used.

Finally, a word of caution is due. Tropical forests are heterogeneous and the markets for production inputs and outputs vary. The conclusions of this study do not necessarily apply to other timbersheds in the Amazon basin or elsewhere.

The current demand for formal training in RIL methods by both large landowners and the Brazilian Federal Environmental Institute (IBAMA) suggests that further research and operational testing are needed. These would evaluate how variations in forest type, input and output markets and size of logging operation affect optimal design and performance of RIL systems. The identification of suitable conditions are in the loggers’ self-interest, and can help mitigate the loss of ecological services in forests subject to logging pressure. This will help sustainable tropical forest management become a reality.

		Conventional Logging Harvesting is not planned but uses a “hit or miss” approach. Timber fellers have little regard for the residual stand, and their search for logs is inefficient.
		Reduced Impact Logging Techniques greatly decrease the damage to trees in the residual stand, the amount of ground area disturbed by machinery, and the volume of wood residues left in the forest.

Tropical Forest Foundation

The Tropical Forest Foundation (TFF) is a non-profit, educational organization dedicated to the conservation of tropical forests through sustainable forestry. TFF has become widely recognized for establishing demonstration models and training to show the advantages and teach the principles of sustainable forest management through the application of Reduced Impact Logging practices. The Foundation’s Board of Directors include leaders from industry, government, science, academia and conservation organizations. TFF currently has programs in Brazil, Guyana S.A., Indonesia and the Asia Pacific region.

For a complete copy of the report Financial Costs and Benefits of Reduced-Impact Logging in the Eastern Amazon, please contact :

Tropical Forest Foundation
225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 770
Alexandria VA, 22314 Phone (703) 518-8834 Fax (703) 518-8974
E-Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.tropicalforestfoundation.org

or

Tropical Forest Foundation - Indonesia

Kompleks Cimanggu Permai

Jl. Tumapel Blok O-IV, No. 17

Bogor - 16164

I N D O N E S I A
Phone (62-251) 8317-338
E-Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.tff-indonesia.org

The report can also be downloaded from the CIFOR (www.cifor.org) or the USDA Forest Service International Programs (www.fs.fed.us/global) websites.