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ACIAR
Project FST2001/045: Development of Forest Health Surveillance Systems
for South Pacific Countries and Australia.
Overview
A
project to develop forest health surveillance (FHS) in South Pacific countries
was stimulated by increasing concerns about the potential pest threat to forests
in the region.
Damage
from pests and disease is a major cause of loss for forest productivity in both
natural forests and plantations. Forest health surveillance systems provide a
mechanism to protect the substantial investment in plantations and other managed
forests through early detection of pest and disease problems. Early detection
allows greater scope for management. Developing an adequate FHS program is
essential to minimise the risk to South Pacific countries of serious economic
disadvantage through loss of forest production and inability to access premium
World Trade Organisation (WTO) markets.
Key
objectives of the project are to increase the capacity for FHS in Fiji, Vanuatu,
Tonga and Samoa and establish a support network of relevant experts.
Funded
by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the
project will run for 2.5 years from July 2002. The project is led by the
Department of Primary Industries (DPI) Agency for Food and Fibre Sciences,
Forestry Research, Queensland in collaboration with the Commonwealth Scientific
and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Forestry Tasmania. A
comprehensive industry and government collaboration in South Pacific countries
is also included.
Forest health issues for South Pacific nations
With the
exception of Fiji there are no FHS systems in place in the Pacific and most
countries have only a limited knowledge of forest pests or diseases and their
impacts.
Quarantine
procedures are more focused on agriculture than forestry in the region.
Established and planned forest plantations and agroforestry plantings are
important throughout the Pacific in terms of economics, sustainability and
community needs. However, World Trade Organisation (WTO) premium markets for
forest products are inaccessible until effective FHS systems are in place.
Incursions
of exotic organisms or population outbreaks of indigenous pests and diseases, if
not addressed, could devastate these plantings.
There are several examples in the Asia Pacific region where pest attack
has led to the abandonment of plantation programs for some tree species (the
cossid moth wood borer Zeuzera coffeae
rendered post-war plantations of Eucalyptus
deglupta useless, the branchlet-mining scolytid Hylurdrectonus
araucariae led to the suspension of the hoop pine plantation program in
Papua New Guinea in the 1970s, Dioryctria
shoot moths have affected the commercial deployment of tropical pines in China,
Vietnam and the Philippines).
Recent new sightings of forestry pests in the region
highlight the problem. Cedar shoot
borer (Hypsipyla robusta) has been
found on Mahogany plantings and defoliating caterpillars on whitewood (Endospermum
medullosum) in Vanuatu, and West Indian drywood termite (Cryptotermes brevis) in
buildings in Tonga. Although the problem has been recognised for many years,
there has been a lack of capacity to address it.
Training of forest management
personnel in forest health surveillance, and raising awareness of the importance
of quarantine in protecting forests, have become imperatives with the escalation
in inter-island and international traffic in timber and timber products.
This project will provide a regional forest health network
of protection specialists from participating Pacific Island countries.
Standardised methods and data bases to gather and exchange information on pests
and diseases of important commercial forest species will be implemented.
New knowledge will be captured in adult learning processes and applied
and refined in practice. Countries targeted are Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu and Samoa.
Progressive extension to other regional communities will be possible through
involvement of the Secretariat of Pacific Communities (SPC) and the Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in the project.
Community, economic and environmental benefits
Communities will benefit from improved
knowledge and skills to manage their own forest resources.
They will be better skilled to protect plantations from internal and
external threats from pests and diseases, maintain their culture and economy and
optimise return from their forest asset.
Economic
benefits will accrue from reducing uncertainty in pest management practices,
reducing potential loss of production, preserving a major capital asset in the
communities’ managed forests and access to premium World
Trade Organisation markets. Tourism and export markets
for timber also stand to be enhanced.
Skilling local personnel in FHS will
enhance the preservation of the managed native and plantation forests.
Improved environmental outcomes should ensue as pressure on native
forests is reduced.
The
project teams and collaborators
Project
leader:
Dr
Ross Wylie
Department
of Primary Industries
Agency
for Food and Fibre Sciences, Forestry Research
PO
Box 361
Indooroopilly
Queensland
4068
Australia
Tel: 07 3896 9781
Fax: 07 3896 9628
Email: wylie@qfslab.dpi.qld.gov.au
The
project team from the Department of Primary Industries (in preparation)
Collaborating
institutions in Australia:
CSIRO
Entomology
Dr
Rob Floyd
GPO
Box 1700
Canberra
ACT 2601
Tel:
+61 2 6246 4089
Fax:
+61 2 6246 4155
Email:
R.Floyd@csiro.au
The
project team from CSIRO Entomology
Forestry
Tasmania
Dr
Humphrey Elliott
GPO
Box 207
Hobart
Tas 7001
Tel:
03 6233 8169
Fax:
03 6233 8292
Email:
helliott@ozemail.com.au
The
project team from Forestry Tasmania (in preparation)
Collaborating
institutions in partner countries:
Secretariat
of the Pacific Communities
Mr
Sairusi Bulai, Forests & Trees Program
SPC, Private Mail
Bag
Suva, Fiji
Tel: (679) 3300
432
Fax: (679) 3305
212
Email: SairusiB@spc.int
Fiji
Ministry
of Agriculture, Sugar and Land Resettlement, Fiji
Osea Tuinivanua
PO Box 2218
Suva, Fiji
Tel: (679) 3301
611
Fax: (679) 3301
595
Email: osea@sopacsun.sopac.org.fj
Tonga
Ministry
of Agriculture and Forestry
Mr Taniela Hoponoa
Research and
Extension Division
PO Box 14
Nuku'alofa,
Kingdom of Tonga
Tel: (676) 29500
Fax: (676) 24271
Email: Forestry@kalianet.to
Vanuatu
Department
of Forests
Mr Livo Mele
Private Mail Bag
064
Port Vila
Efate
Vanuatu
Tel: (678) 23856
Fax: (678) 25051
Email:
forestry@vanuatu.gov.vu
Samoa
Ministry
of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry
Dr Sami Lemalu
PO Box 1874
Apia
Samoa
Tel: (685) 22561
Fax: (685) 22565
Email:
slevalu@samoa.net
Project team
profiles (in preparation) |
