| European
Tropical Forest Research Network |
The Department
of Forest Biometry, University of Freiburg/Germany offers training courses
from Sept 02 to Sept 13 and Sept 16-27, 2002 in the areas forest management,
inventory and monitoring. The objective of the courses is to familiarize forest
managers, project personnel, and scientists with methods of forest inventory
and monitoring systems and procedures for sustainable yield management. More
information and subscription forms can be found under:
http://www.forst.uni-freiburg.de/biometrie/training-courses.
By Anna Lawrence
Participatory biodiversity assessment (PBA) provides a way of reconciling the need for national assessment, monitoring and reporting; with the increasing focus on involvement of all relevant stakeholders and particularly indigenous / local communities. PBA, i.e. biodiversity assessment by and with non-scientists can provide short-cuts to scientific assessments; provide data which is useful to local resource managers in a way which scientific assessment is not; link in to scientific information which is relevant to local needs; enhance inclusivity of decision-making.
The workshop
sought to elucidate: the ways in which values affect the assessment process;
approaches and methods in relation to objectives and information needs; the
costs and benefits; and priorities for institutional / policy change to create
an enabling environment. 300 Participants from 55 countries included the CBD
secretariat, international donors and NGOs, universities, grassroots organisations.
All have different reasons for PBA, and varying information needs. Most national
or regional decision makers expect information in quantitative spatially comparable
forms. Participatory processes may not supply this so readily (or efforts
to quantify may distort local perceptions) but may provide qualitative information
of different and complementary value. It is very important to match objectives
with methods and stakeholders, rather than apply a blanket set of recommendations
to all situations which appear to need a participatory approach.
Assessment
is affected by value judgements, regardless of who is conducting the assessment.
It is often assumed that local people value only useful species; but research
reveals spiritual, cultural and ethical values; and that species or habitats
with non-material values may be at least as important as those with uses.
In documenting methods, the main debate was between those who sought local
knowledge to develop wider-scale quantitative measures of change, and those
who emphasised the importance of strengthening community capacity to make
decisions about resource management, which in turn enhances their motivation
to conserve. It appears that methods linking local and scientific assessments
or values are scarce, and more work still needs to be done on the analysis
and communication of results.
Participatory approaches take more time and different skills compared with scientific surveys, but there are benefits that are worth this cost. The potential for real synergy between different actors depends not only on good communication, but also on realistic understanding of the costs and benefits of involving different actors in such assessments, and above all ensuring that local people can take part in analysis and decision-making. The process of negotiating, observing and analysing indicators may bring about more change than the data gathered itself, and in particular can enhance benefit-sharing, as well as be more sustainable than externally led processes. However to achieve this, changes in education, training of scientists, and institutional networking are needed.
The conference ran from 8-25 January 2002. Please see the conference website.
For further
information please contact:
Dr Anna Lawrence,
Environmental Change Institute,
5 South Parks Rd, Oxford, OX1 3UB, UK.
tel. +44 1865 281214, fax. +44 1865 281202
email:anna.lawrence@eci.ox.ac.uk
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 7-10 October 2002
A four-day, international conference on solutions to rehabilitation challenges in the forests and grasslands of Asia and the Pacific. The objectives of the conference are to:
Conference organisers are the Asia Pacific Association of Forestry Research Institutions (APAFRI); Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO); Forestry Research Support Programme for Asia and the Pacific (FORSPA); Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM); and International Union of Forest Research Organisations (IUFRO). For further details, and to register online, visit the conference homepage at http://apafri.upm.edu.my/reconf/index.html.
Alternatively,
you can contact:
Mr Alias Abdul Jalil
APAFRI Secretariat Tel: +6-03-6272 2516
E-mail: foreconf@apafri.upm.edu.my
This is to announce an EU funded short course / advanced research workshop to be held on September 16 - 27, 2002 in Crete, Greece and entitled "Genomic Approaches to Forest Tree Stress Tolerance". The course should be an exciting, informative and enjoyable one, with confirmed speakers/lecturers including: David Neale, Christophe Plomion, Giuseppe Vendramin, Nikolaos Panopoulos, Weber A. Neves do Amaral, F. A. (Phil) Aravanopoulos, Malcolm Campbell, Andreas Doulis.
The course will cover the following topics, using a combination of lectures, laboratory practicals, and tutorials:
More information on this course can be found at http://www.maich.gr/environment/news/genomics.html
Pre-announcement IAC-WU Seminar 2002
Welcome to this year's IAC-WU Seminar on Adaptive Management for Biodiversity Conservation. The seminar is part of the IAC Training Programme on Leadership and Adaptive Management in Forest Environments (LAMFE), to be held from September to November 2002. In this programme we bring together people from organisations involved in natural resources management to explore new ways towards sound and equitable land use. At the occasion of this seminar, audience from the Netherlands and abroad will join the international participants of the LAMFE training programme.
Biodiversity conservation is one of the important issues of this year's international environmental policy debate. Parties to the Convention of Biodiversity Conservation meet in April in The Hague to discuss the progress made. The topic is also one of the major subjects of our LAMFE training programme. Therefore, we want to focus this year's seminar on adaptive management as an approach which balances biodiversity conservation and livelihood sustainability.
Biodiversity conservation is only one of the many interests of different stakeholders in the use of natural resources. These stakeholders often have competing interests in the use and conservation of various natural resources. The interests depend on both regional ecological and socio-economic conditions, livelihood conditions of local communities and institutional arrangements for managing the natural resources. At present these conditions are often undergoing a rapid change. The complex and dynamic interactions between these conditions make decision-making for biodiversity conservation prone to uncertainty and surprise. Adaptive management addresses this situation by involving stakeholders in a decision-making process based on experiential learning. Active monitoring and feedback from the results of decisions are core aspects of this iterative process. Learning takes place collectively and is therefore also called social or collaborative learning.
At the seminar we will explore the potential of adaptive management to create space for biodiversity conservation in decision-making at the local level. This is particularly important when considering biodiversity conservation in conditions where local people's livelihoods are at stake, and where poverty, land degradation and loss of biodiversity have entered a vicious spiral.
Some of the issues to explore are: What is the potential of social learning for change, aiming both at improved livelihood and biodiversity conservation? How to facilitate a collaborative process involving actors with very different agendas? What are the implications of social learning for the formulation and adaptation of management plans? What management types are most appropriate in different circumstances? What is needed in terms of institutional environment, leadership and organisational change? Which kind of conflicts can we expect at different levels and how to deal with these conflicts? What is the influence of market forces and of external policies? How can networking and knowledge management contribute to upscaling the lessons learnt? In order to explore the opportunities and limitations, we will support our discussions with appropriate case materials.
The International Agricultural Centre (IAC) organises this seminar in collaboration with Wageningen University and other institutions and organisations in the Netherlands. The seminar will be held from 21-23 October 2002 in Wageningen, the Netherlands.
The closing date for application is 15 September 2002. More information can be obtained from:
Ms. E.Rippen
Tel: +31 317 495 495, Fax: +31 317 495 395
Email: e.rippen@iac.agro.nl
By Jan Dick
One square hectare of tropical forest may contain as many as 500 trees of over 10 cm diameter representing over 200 different species. Classifying tropical trees into ‘functional' groups rather than taxonomic groups is currently one of the most rapidly expanding areas of forest management and biodiversity research. Between the 10-13th December 2001, over 40 European scientists and practioners working on tropical forests met at Edinburgh, Scotland to discuss and learn together about the important topic of ‘functional groupings'.
They define functional groups as a grouping of organisms that respond in a similar way to environmental factors. This meeting sponsored by the Human Potential Programme of the EU was the first to specifically bring European scientists together to exchange ideas on this topic. The meeting was judged by all to have been a great success because so many young and senior scientists came together with a real willingness to develop the tool of functional groups. A clearer understanding of tropical forests dynamics is needed now for a wide range of management and policy issues including biodiversity, conservation, global change, socio-economic and poverty alleviation.
The meeting started with internationally recognised keynote speakers presenting reviews of the functional group knowledge to date and these were interspaced with talks on current unpublished papers. During the next two days the participants discussed and agreed a list of important traits necessary to define these groups and many offered to send relevant methodologies for measuring the traits, which the organisers, Edinburgh Centre of Tropical Research (ECTF) agreed to post on the web www.nbu.ac.uk/tropical /CONFHome.htm
The Scientific committee including researchers from CIRAD-FORÊT, France; University of Wageningen, Netherlands; University of Edinburgh, and Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Scotland were delighted with the consensus of the meeting. It is hoped that this group can help get a clearer understanding of tropical forests dynamics and advise on the management of these important global resources.
Dr Jan Dick
Center for Ecology and Hydrology, Edinburgh
Bush Estate PENICUIK, Midlothian EH26 0QB
Scotland, UK
Tel - (44)-0131-445-4343, Fax - (44)-0131-445-3943
Email: jand@ceh.ac.uk
Web - http://www.nbu.ac.uk/tropical
The Bosque-Esquinas, one of the most species-rich forests of Central-America, is located in the south eastern part of Costa Rica. The endangered forest could be saved with the financial help of an Austrian non-profit organization which was initiated by the musician Univ-. Prof. Michael Schnitzler.
In 1993 a field station near the village La Gamba, which is now called the"Tropenstation La Gamba", was established. The station consists of a fully renovated farmhouse and annexes and is situated on the border of primary rainforest. At present accommodations for c. 14 (18) persons are available. The station has an electricity supply and is equipped with a kitchen, bathrooms, computers, cellular phone, microscopes, drying and collecting equipment, photo herbarium, and a small library. It is an excellent base for carrying out scientific work or for simply enjoying and exploring the lush rainforests. Since several years excursions and courses on tropical biology for students and for naturalists are offered by the staff of the station. The "Scientific Report 1993-2001" (in German) presents an overview on activities, publications and projects around the Tropenstation. It can be ordered from the following address:
Information
and reservation:
Mag. Werner Huber & Mag. Anton Weissenhofer Institut für Botanik,
Rennweg 14, 1030 Wien, Austria.
Tel. ++43-1-4277-54083, Fax ++43-1-4277-9541
Email: Tropenstation_LaGamba@web.de
Homepage: http://www.regenwald.at
We are pleased to announce the completion of the ASB website (www.asb.cgiar.org). The site's new features, include information on ASB activities by region and topic, as well as a fully-searchable ASB Publications Database (developed with the help of Dennis Lisbjerg of BIOS, dl@bios.dk).
The ASB Publications Database currently lists 375 publications (in a variety of media) that were produced in part or entirely under the auspices of the ASB Programme. A subset of these publications are available in down loadable form, and in all cases e-mail, contact details are provided for further information. The database is set up to perform both standard, unlimited searches (by year, author, title, etc.) as well as limited searches by region, topic or publication type. Where available, abstracts and/or links to full text via on-line journals are provided in the "all details" section.
Many of you have already provided links from your organization's website to the ASB website (thank you). With this message, we are hoping to establish more mutual links, and would be very grateful if you could spread the word within your respective organizations about the site.
The ASB website provides a new medium for rapid and extensive communication with the rest of the world about ASB activities. From its launch in May 2001 through year-end, the site had approximately 25,000 hits, with an average duration per visit of over 10 minutes. The site had 2,869 'unique' visitors, among which 492 were repeat visitors. We expect these numbers to grow quickly as we establish more mutual links with partners and other organizations. Many thanks for taking the time to browse the new site. We will be delighted to receive your comments and reactions.
Please contact:
Jessa Lewis
Global Coordination Office
Alternatives to Slash-and-Burn (ASB) Programme
+1 (858) 455 0738
J.Lewis@cgiar.org
http://www.asb.cgiar.org
"Dipterocarps in the new millennium: Conservation, Domestication & Utilisation",7th-11th October 2002, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Jointly
organised by:
Asia Pacific Association of Forestry Research Institutes (APAFRI).
The International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO Working
Party S1.07-17),
Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM),University Putra Malaysia (UPM)
Forestry Departments Penisular
Forestry Department Sabah
Forestry Department Sarawak
The organisers acknowledge the initial funding by CIDA through the Tree Link Project to prepare and distribute this first announcement. The organising committee will be a wide range of funding agencies seeking support from to offset costs from the 7th Round Table Conference.
Background
We have now stepped into the 21st century. The last Round Table Conference
on Dipterocarps which was the sixth in the series was held at Bangalore, India
in 1999. At the Bangalore meeting several resolutions were adopted by the
participants. The resolutions covered the fields of conservation, domestication
and utilisation of the dipterocarp family with the aim that more in-depth
studies on these disciplines must be carried out and new knowledge generated
in time for the next round table conference. After three years, the time is
just right for this next Conference, which is now being organised.
The Seventh Round Table Conference will be convened in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. It is anticipated that at this Conference, new research information on the species in the family of Dipterocarpaceae will be actively deliberated upon. The aspirations of this international conference therefore is to gather all researchers, policy makers, wood technologists, educationalists, conservators and foresters who work on this family from around the globe to participate and to exchange information at this Round table. The attendance of participants from all the regions will provide more networking opportunities for further collaborative work and a platform for fostering closer ties and exchange of information among all involved with dipterocarps.
Objectives of the 7th Round Conference
Scope and Topics
Conference
details
The Conference will be of value to Researchers, Academicians, Decision/Policy
makers, Forest Managers/Foresters, NGOs, Planters, Funding Agencies. Exhibition
on products/services will be held during the conference. For further information
please contact the secretariat. A satellite meeting of the Malaysian working
group members will be held on the 11th October 2002. New members and observers
are cordially invited for the meeting. Special interest groups wishing to
organise their own country meeting should inform the Secretariat in advance
to facilitate room etc for such meeting. The language of the conference is
English.The conference will be held at one of the leading hotels in Kuala
Lumpur. The conference fee, which covers a full set of papers/proceedings,
lunches, welcome dinner and conference bag are as follows:
Local participants:
Government RM 600, Other RM700, Student RM200 (without dinner)
Foreign participants: USD 300
(IUFRO or APAFRI members are entitled to a 30% Discount on the registration
fees)
Local participants or students are encouraged to make payment for registration
either by cheque or credit card. Payment should be made in favour of "APAFRI"
For Overseas participants, payment should be made through bank draft or credit
card(VISA/Master Card). Those who have confirmed their participation, please
pay by 15th July 2002.
Enquiries
APAFRI-Secretariat
(Attn: Dr Baskaran Krisnapillay / Mr Alias Abdul Jalil)
c/o Forest Research Institute Malaysia
Kepong 52109 Kuala Lumpur
Tel:603-6272 2516, 603-6277 3207
Fax:603-6277 3249
E-mail : dipconf@apafri.upm.edu.my
Website : http://www.apafri.org/
Registration Form is available at the website. You may register online.
Publications
and Courses
CATIE takes an
interest in assuring the availability of forest seeds of high physical and
genetic quality. It provides services to enhance the results of (re)forestation
programmes. Besides information on aspects such as collection and processing
of seeds, biology, genetic improvement, management of seed sources and documentation
CATIE also provides training courses in these fields. CATIE can be contacted
at:
Banco de
Semillas Forestales,
CATIE, Apdo: 7170 Turrialba, Costa Rica.
Tel.: (506) 556 1933. Fax: (506) 556 7766.
Email: arogrigu@catie.ac.cr or bsf@catie.ac.cr
RIL-Afrique- L est un bulletin électronique portant sur les pratiques d'exploitation forestière à faible impact en Afrique. Il veut être l'expression d'un réseau de communications, d'échanges et de discussions entre les différents acteurs du secteur forestier (professionnels et non) et il s'adresse plus particulièrement à l'Afrique francophone. RIL-Afrique-L est un service offert par la Division des produits forestiers (FOP) de la FAO.
Informations
pratiques concernant la liste Ril-Afrique-L
Pour s'inscrire
à la liste, envoyer un message à l'adresse suivante: mailserv@mailserv.fao.org
en laissant la ligne objet vide et en rentrant la seule phrase: subscribe
RIL-Afrique-L
Pour faire parvenir une contribution à la liste, envoyer un message à l'adresse suivante: RIL-Afrique-L@mailserv.fao.org
Pour toute question ou problème technique, envoyer un message à RIL-Afrique-L@mailserv.fao.org
Si vous
voulez annuler votre inscription, il vous suffit d'envoyer un message à
: mailserv@mailserv.fao.org
en laissant la ligne objet vide et en rentrant la seule phrase: unsubscribe
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Votre information est sûre: nous ne distribuerons pas votre adresse ou d'autre information sur votre inscription à des tiers. Nous espérons et attendons des abonnés tout article intéressant qui contribuera au débat et à la connaissance.
José Arlete Alves Camargo, Joaquim Carlos Goncalez, Gérard Janin
A colour catalogue of 400 species of brazilian tropical wood was produced to quickly identify and classify the wood colours. The colour of the wood, associated with the surface patterns, are the most important characteristics for the end-uses in the wood furniture industry. The quantitative colorimetry technology enables us to obtain numerical evaluation of the wood colours through the CIELAB and CIELCH system, with the values of the characters L*,a*,b*,C, h. This will also allow us to identify which woods belong to the same "cluster of the colours". One of the biggest benefits of the catalogue is that it facilitates the choice of wood species which show the same, or quite similar, colorimetric attributes for substitution of species, and so to avoid extinction of these species in the forest .
José
Arlete Alves Camargo, Laboratório De Produtos Florestais, Ibama , Brasilia
Joaquim Carlos
Goncalez, Gérard Janin, Departamento Florestal, Universidade De Brasilia
Email: gjanin@ub.br