Related Research Studies Outside The Lambir Hills National Park

Research outside the 52-hectare LTER Plot includes a baseline study for ecological restoration. This project is intended to apply the results of the LTER studies for the restoration of logged over forests and areas deforested by shifting cultivation activities. The site selected for the study, which is 5 hectares in area, is 10 km north of the 52-hectare LTER Plot in the Bakam area. The program entitled "Tropical rain forest ecosystem rehabilitation, restoration and re-creation model" is intended to reforest an abandoned shifting cultivation area based on spatial distribution maps of trees within the 52-hectare plot. At a later stage, seedlings of tree species within the 52-hectare plot will be planted in Bakam. In order to carry out this investigation, nursery studies of species whose population biology had been surveyed within the LTER plot will be carried out.

The results of the studies by Itoh et al (1995) and Hirai et al (1995) are extremely important to plantation forestry. In site-species matching, it is imperative to recognise the associations between site factors and vegetation and the tree species used in restoration exercise carefully chosen to take advantage of the site preference. Alternatively where only particular tree species are available as planting stock, care must be taken to exclude planting on areas where site factors pose a limitation to the growth of the species as gauged from such ecological studies.