An overview of forest science and management / Adlin Sabrina Muhammad Roseley

Forest ecosystem is mainly supported by elements such as climate, soil, water and wildlife. Due to natural causes or human intervention the forest system has been affected badly. Climate changes due to greenhouse effects has lead to exposure of trees to pests and diseases, drought, increased or declining of precipitation and abnormality of trees habitat. Insufficient forestry practices have lead to soil erosion, degradation of water quality and sedimentation. Extinction of species is considered as major problems in wildlife management since excess logging may damages the habitat hence reducing animals source of food. A complete management of intensive and extensive management is needed. There need to be more understanding of forest reaction towards climate changes via researches. Forestry practices will have to be more comprehensive in planning appropriate forest road / trails, maintaining buffer zones and conserve water source. Therefore there need to be improvisation in type of felling, hauling operation and degree of mechanization used including silviculture intervention. Strategy of wildlife management is to ensure availability of forest stand for habitat and water source. Game ranching, game farming and tourism might promote profitable wildlife management. Forest fires, pests and diseases might causes catastrophic outbreak in forest regions. The management are more into prevention even before the problem starts. Efficient management of forest fires is to practice prescribe burning; a type of management to manages accumulative fuels available. Other plan is to enhance public awareness on forest fires prevention. Pest and diseases prevention methods are more on educating managers on how to avoid outbreaks. Detailed data on species of pests and diseases and how to manages in is provided by a system called Integrated Pest Management (IPM) that uses modem computer technology. Controlling techniques are application of insecticides, biological strategy and silvicultural methods.