MESCOT Forest Restoration Tree Planting

Forest Habitat Restoration - Tree Planting Kinabatangan, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo The MESCOT Initiative has planted more than 100,000 trees. The

vast majority are fast growing pioneer species, such as Mytrogyna

sp, and Nauclea spp, which also double with leaves, flowers and fruit

that wildlife eat. The idea behind growing a fast growing species is to

establish a new forest canopy and structure as soon as possible to

shade out the weed vines. The important closed canopy structure

supports the other seed-bearing birds and animals, which aids with

the regeneration of a climax forest.

Apart from the fast growing pioneer species, the initiative targets

specific trees that provide fruit for special wildlife such as orang-utan

and hornbills. Wild fruit-bearing rainforest trees planted that are

favourites with the orang-utan include Dracontomelon sp, Artocarpus

sp, Garcinia sp, Diospyros sp, Canarium sp, and Ficus sp. To date

more than 23 species of trees have been trialed and are planted on a

large scale within the forest habitat restoration efforts.

Tree planting is no easy task. All planting material is propagated in

the MESCOT Nursery from seed collected by the MESCOT team in

the surrounding rainforest. Trees are nurtured in the nursery from 4-6

months before being transported in the forest sites for planting. Site

preparation includes de-vining and weeding the planting sites,

sometimes up to three rounds before planting. The young trees are

hand-carried in special baskets up to 4km into the planting sites after

which they are planted. The trees are maintained monthly for the first

12 months after which maintenance is reduced to 3 monthly

intervals.