2  Reference Areas

Reference areas, representative of local common practice for timber harvest, were defined in order to generate the baseline. The most likely land-use scenario, in the absence of the project, would have been a combination of two different forest management practices; parts of the concession would have been subject to continued selective logging, referred to as Natural Forest Management (NFM), and the remaining area would have been managed using a practice known locally as Mosaic Plantings. The reference areas therefore comprise multiple concessions that are representative of these two different management practices.

For the Mosaic Plantings approach, three areas were selected within the greater Yayasan Sabah Forest Management Area; each of which with their own management plan. These include:

For NFM, the reference area consists of the Ulu Segama Forest Reserve. This area encompasses approximately 1270 km2 within the Yayasan Sabah Forest Management Area. Prior to 2012/13, the Ulu Segama Forest Reserve was heavily logged, with harvesting commencing in the mid-1960s and multiple rounds of logging finally coming to a close in the mid 2000s as described in Reynolds et al. (2011). This management regime is a typical demonstration of common practice for NFM in Sabah, where forests are subjected to repeated logging over multiple decades.

All reference areas and the project area are shown in the following interactive map (Figure 2.1).

Figure 2.1: Project reference areas, comprising three areas under mosaic management and one area under Natural forest management.

2.1 Management Plans:

2.1.1 Mosaic planting reference area forest management plans:

2.1.2 Natural Forest Management reference area reports:

For an overview of Natural Forest Management (and additional information on forest management in Sabah), please see the following collection of reports: