Asian Forestry Company (Sabah) Sdn Bhd is signatory to a 60 year Tree Plantation and Forest Management Agreement ("TPFMA") over 60,000 hectares and a 30 year Sustainable Forest Management License Agreement ("SFMLA") over 11,191 hectares. Both license areas are located in the Kota Marudu and Pitas districts of the State of Sabah.
Both areas were logged over in the past and, barring the presence of AFCS, would continue to be under threat of encroachment and conversion to agriculture.
Under the provisions of the agreements, Asian Forestry Company (Sabah) is required to undertake, inter-alia, the extraction of residual timber, establishment of a managed forest plantation and the protection of all remaining high conservation value, natural forest areas.
To date AFCS has planted 4,500ha of Eucalyptus pellita, Acacia crassicarpa and Falcataria moluccana and is scheduled to plant up to 13,000 ha by 2032. Harvesting is based on a ten-year rotation cycle and will yield approximately 270,000m3 per annum of plantation timber.
We operate within a rigorous planning, production and auditing processes, supported by GPS based forest mapping and drone aerial photography.
Data is captured into our GIS and work managed through our integrated forest management system, Viso-Apps.
Silvicultural regimes are established and continually developed to improve the quality and quantity of products from plantations. Activities in the establishment regime include:
Maintenance works reduce the competition between the trees and weeds at the same time promote growth and increase chance of tree survival. Maintenance works include:
Asian Forestry Company (Sabah) measures an ever increasing network of Permanent Sample Plots to monitor actual growth of the planted forest stands.
The company is also a member of the Borneo Forestry Cooperative which provides a forum for companies to perform collaborative research in the following areas:
Conducting sustainable harvesting operations based on the detailed annual operational harvest plan. The aim is to:
The handling and control of harvested timber from stump to point of sale is a crucial aspect of profitability. The logistics team has to ensure that the flow of logs is efficient and secure. Their work includes: