Seminars for Thursday 29 January 2009

1-2pm, in Fenner School's Forestry Lecture Theatre

1-1:15pm

Assessing the applicability of landscape function analysis (LFA) for environmental monitoring and auditing in intensively managed planted forests (IMPF)

Richard Laity - Fenner School

ABSTRACT

Intensively managed planted forests (IMPF) make up a small percentage of global forest area and are expanding at an unprecedented rate. They currently provide 40% of industrial wood supply as well as many socio-economic and environmental benefits. Over the last decade many people have been questioning IMPF as a sustainable natural resource. Standards have been developed to address the need for accountability and ultimately achieve sustainability. One of the pillars for this is environmental care. Within this, plantation managers and owners are committed through a variety of standards from the international to site level, to ensure that landscape or ecosystem function is maintained throughout and over multiple rotations of intensively managed trees. Monitoring systems currently in place in IMPF seem to not easily address these concerns. Landscape Function Analysis (LFA) has monitored biophysical processes across many different land uses in a variety of biomes LFA is a robust and rigorous monitoring and auditing process that has broad corporate support, is recognised by environmental protection agencies and has been used in the court of law. This paper aims to assess the applicability of LFA in environmental monitoring and auditing in IMPF. It includes a case study from Southern Laos to demonstrate the relevance of LFA in "best practice".

1:15-1:30pm

The Implications of Rural Timber Allotment Policy in Bhutan

Kinley Budur - Fenner School, Masters Presentation

In Bhutan, timber as a basic construction material is of vital socio-economic and cultural importance to the citizens of Bhutan.  Since the nationalization of forests in 1952, there has been a policy of providing timber at subsidized rates to farmers, primarily to ensure proper housing. The provision of timber for rural house and other farm construction purposes, and for other uses (fuel wood, poles and posts), is now embedded in Bhutanese rural society.  However, demand for rural timber has been growing, and attempts by the Department of Forests to limit the allocation to more sustainable levels have met political opposition, and not been successful.

The study aims to explore the implications of Bhutan’s rural timber allocation policy, and how the increasing pressure which the demand for rural wood has placed on the forests might be addressed. The level of harvest of wood for rural household needs now exceeds the annual allowable cut, and is clearly not sustainable in either the short- or the longer-term. There are a number of drivers for high rural timber demand; the most significant are exploitation of the entitlement system, partly as a result of low fees and pricing, a lack of proper coordination between institutions, and inadequate monitoring and evaluation of rural timber uses.

This essay considers issues relevant to both demand and supply, including the harvesting of both rural and commercial wood products and their use, as all of these impacts on the demands on Bhutan’s forests. It also considers relevant aspects of forest governance. It concludes that the principle steps required to address the current problem are:

• encouragement of farm forests, including both planted and natural forests;
• strengthening and expanding community-based forest management;
• exploration of the role of imported timber in helping to meet demand.
• review of the allotment allocations for construction and maintenance, and refinement of the allotment allocations to reflect the diversity of forest types;
• review of the pricing of trees and timber, for both commercial and rural use;
• Exploration of alternatives to traditional building design and construction materials, to use timber more efficiently.
• improving the functionality of devolved governance arrangements;
• Strengthening the mechanisms to ensure the trade in commercial timber is legal

1:30-1:45pm

To what extent are Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) transferable?

Erina Okeroa, Fenner School, Summer Scholar

Taranaki maunga (Mount Taranaki) is the most significant of sacred sites for all eight iwi (tribes) whose traditional lands lay in the Taranaki region of Aotearoa/New Zealand. However, Taranaki maunga, also known as Mount Egmont National Park is currently in possession of the New Zealand Government, and iwi have little, if any, real and meaningful role in its management. In this seminar I will examine whether or not an Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) model such as that developed in Australia, would be transferable to the Taranaki region of Aotearoa/New Zealand. IPAs are a relatively new conservation initiative in Australia where they have been quite successful, not only for their focus on biodiversity but also through their empowerment of traditional owners to manage their lands. The adoption of an IPA type model could allow Taranaki Maunga to be managed by iwi representative organisations, still be included in Aotearoa/New Zealand's important conservation estate, but with significant added value as a unique Indigenous Protected Area.

1:45-2pm

Spatial ecology in the fire-sensitive Mallee Tree Dragon, Amphibolurus norrisi

Sally South, Fenner School, Summer Scholar

Abstract

The interaction of fire regime with habitat loss and fragmentation can have detrimental effects on behaviour and population numbers in many species.  Minimal information regarding preference for early or late successional stages after fire is available for arboreal lizards.  A recent study of mallee reptiles in South Australia found the semi-arboreal agamid Amphibolurus norrisi to be significantly more abundant in long unburnt areas.  Previously, very little research had been undertaken on this species and its response to post-fire habitat modification and subsequent regeneration.  Over two 15 day periods both pitfall trapping and active searching were undertaken in burnt and unburnt areas within Heggaton Conservation Park, South Australia.  The captured lizards were measured, individually marked and then tagged with a small radio-tracking device before being released at the location they were originally found.  Daily monitoring of tagged individuals was undertaken and details of the location, habitat use, and behaviour collected.  The information is used to examine possible mechanisms behind the successional response of A. norrisi.  It will be used to look at the range of live and dead vegetation utilised to assess the reasons that this lizard is so sensitive to fire.  It is hoped that the results of this study will contribute to both our ecological knowledge of A. norrisi and to studies which aim to produce accurate fire-response models for a wide range of species.

The Fenner School Seminar Series is held in the Forestry Lecture Theatre, Forestry Building 48, Linnaeus Way (comes off Daley Road), ANU (Acton) campus, ACT

The seminar will start at 13:00 and finish at 14:00