Chapter 6: Harvesting Operations

All harvesting operations conducted in the FMU shall strictly follow the RIL Guidelines in timber operation.  When planning for harvesting operations, the followings should take into consideration:

Growth Model Projection to Fulfill the Sustainable Forest Management Requirement.  In order to fulfill the MC&I SFM requirement for Criterion 5.6 that the rate of harvest of forest products shall be on a sustainability basis in the next cutting cycle, the FMU holder simulated all the number of trees from the permanent sample plots data collected to next cutting cycle after 25 years to prove that the FMU forest harvest is in a sustainable even though all the allowable harvesting trees has been harvested in the FMU Coupe year recently.

At the year of 25 years, the growth modelling simulation result shows that the average harvestable number of trees with simulating projection is having 37 trees/ha which does not including mother and protected trees with the extracting rate at 70% for all Dipterocarp and Non-Dipterocarps species, the FMU shall has 26 trees/ha (70% of 37 trees/ha) in the next cutting cycle (in 25 years).  It is sustainable when compared to the 15 PSPs with number of harvested trees is 19 trees/ha with 42.91 m3/ha right at year zero recently.  This is to prove that the rate of harvest in the FMU coupe is not greater than the Annual Allowable Cut (AAC) 15 trees/ha against 37 trees/ha with 30% mortality rate in year 25.  This is to imply that the quantity of timber forest products harvested commercially is maintained, taking cognizance of their sustainability in the long term basis.  Moreover, the MAI is not exceeding 1.7217 m3/ha and basal area of 26.018 m2/ha as calculated.

Monitoring of Harvesting Operation by FMU Holder.  To ensure that forest operation is conducted according to the prescribed guidelines given by the FDS.

Measurement, Royalty Marking and Tagging of Logs.  All harvested logs are traceable and verifiable through Chain of Custody (COC).  In addition, the instructions specified in the Manual for Timber Royalty Assessment, 1997 and DF Circular No. 1/2019 on segregation of logs produced from forest management certified areas (natural forests) will be followed.

Closing of Coupe.  Coupe closure shall commence after all trees marked for harvesting has been extracted for 9 months. 

Post-Harvesting Activities.  Post-harvesting activities will be carried out after post-logging inspection, according to the guidelines in Item 2.10 of the Guidelines/ Procedures for Reduced and Low Impact Harvesting Systems.

Post-F Inventory.  Post-F Inventory will be done to determine the residual trees that are left behind after harvesting.  These are mainly potential crop trees.

Enrichment Planting.  Based on information obtained from Post-F Inventory, enrichment planting may be done in areas where timber stocking is low.

After the completion of post-harvesting activities, a final inspection of the harvested blocks shall be conducted before post-logging block inspection by Forest Department for the issuance of coupe clearance certificate.