Industrial Timber Corporation of Indonesia

Compared to the two-year-old block (top left) that had the severest damage with almost all of the trees losing their tops, blocks of trees more than four years old (top right and bottom left) lost branches, retained much of their crowns and did not always snap off because the trunks were thick enough to resist bending over. On the other hand, in an 18-months-old block (bottom right) the damage was also less because the trees were slender enough to bend over under the load of pumice dust and not break off, returning to an upright position after the dust was soon washed off by rain.

Industrial Timber Corporation of Indonesia

The Industrial Timber Corporation of Indonesia (ITCI) had been involved in commercial wood production in Indonesia since the early 1970s. Initially the company was partly controlled by the US multinational Weyerhaeuser Corporation.147 The company was managing a HPH (Hak Pengus Hutan) timber concession in East Kalimantan, harvesting native forest mainly for plywood production.

During a pre-conference tour before the Eighth World Forestry Congress in Indonesia in 1978, I was able to visit the company’s nursery and plantations of E. deglupta in East Kalimantan, after taking a short motorboat ride upstream from Balikpapan City.

147Weyerhaeuser withdrew in 1984.

PT ITCI’s nursery, East Kalimantan, 1978. Left: Dibbling E. deglupta seedlings into tubes. Right: E. deglupta seedlings being hardened off in the nursery after removal of the high shade.

Five-year-old provenance trial of E. deglupta. Left: Philippines provenance. Right: Keravat provenance. No figures were presented but there seemed to be little difference between the two plots.