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From the Chief Executive Officer

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From the Chief Executive Officer FROM THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AUSTRALIAN TROPICAL FOREST INSTITUTE (ATFI) The Premier of Queensland, Peter Beattie, announced in Toronto at Bio2002 that his government was providing an investment of $7.8 from the Smart State Fund (SSRF) towards the establishment of the Australian Tropical Forest Institute. This is a huge boost for tropical forest research in North Queensland and a real coup for the Centre. The institute will be the focus of national and international research and commercial development based on the biodiversity of tropical forests and the key partners are the Rainforest CRC, James Cook University, The Wet Tropics Management Authority and BioProspect Australia Ltd. Significantly, north Queensland represents approximately five percent of the worlds biodiversity and much more of the Earth’s tropical forest biota. Just as significant, is the fact that north Queensland is internationally accessible and a natural central focus for the Asia-Pacific Rim region. Cairns is a modern, well serviced city, in a country with a stable economy and government, with a regional life style second to none in the world. The strength of the tourism industry is also testimony to its international attractiveness. Based on these features and the infrastructure made possible by the SSRFF funding, ATFI will be able to attract internationally renowned scientists and internationally focused biodiscovery industries to the Cairns district to form, with other Australian organisations, an interactive assemblage of organisations whose cooperative activity will produce outcomes, (brokered, sponsored, and supported by ATFI), far in excess of the efforts of the individual entities. ATFI will become the only institute of its kind in the world, literally within walking distance of World Heritage forest, fifteen minutes from a busy international airport, twenty minutes from one of Australia’s largest convention centres and half an hour from the Great Barrier Reef – another unique world centre for biodiversity. The timetable for establishing the Institute is still to be clarified but we could see the buildings completed within two years. THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL CANOPY CONFERENCE Many of the researchers of the Rainforest CRC played prominent roles in organising and speaking at the Third International Canopy Conference, which was held in Cairns, 23-28 June 2002, and I want to take this opportunity to thank them for their efforts. This was a very successful conference for the CRC and was a great showcase for our research. In particular the canopy crane team made a major effort to promote this facility and I have had many complimentary remarks back from visitors. The canopy Conference was jointly sponsored by the Queensland Government and the Smithsonian Institution and was attended by over 250 participants from 30 countries. Following the conference the Steering Committee of the Global Canopy Program attended a retreat at Bloomfield Lodge to plan the development of the GCP. The Premier took the opportunity of his opening the canopy conference to announce a $50,000 grant to the Rainforest CRC to participate in and help develop the GCP. This is the kind of support that will help give the Rainforest CRC a greater international profile and help to develop international links. RAINFOREST CRC INVOLVED IN TWO BIDS FOR SUPPLEMENTARY FUNDING The CRC has been involved in the development and submission of two bids for Supplementary Funding from the Department of Education, Science and Training. Existing CRCs have always been eligible to apply for extra funds but few have attempted to do so because of the difficulties involved. In the current CRC selection round existing CRCs have been encouraged to apply for additional funds and changes in the guidelines have made this easier. The Pest Animal Control CRC have submitted an application for three years funding to look at the control of feral dogs and feral pigs. The Rainforest CRC is involved as a partner in this bid and, if successful, will be undertaking further research on pig ecology, baiting and its impact on non-target species. The second supplementary funding bid is a joint ‘Catchment to Reef’ proposal between the Rainforest CRC and Reef CRC. The goal of this joint three year proposal is to develop new protocols and tools to identify and mitigate water quality problems and to assess the health of aquatic ecosystems in the Wet Tropics and Great Barrier Reef World heritage Areas. This integrated catchment to reef approach aims to minimise the downstream effects of agriculture and improve the health of the Great Barrier Reef lagoon and its feeder catchments. This program will provide the tools needed by landholders, industry and other stakeholders to monitor the effects of land use change and restoration on water quality. Decisions on these bids will be announced probably in November 2002 PROFESSOR HENRY A NIX - NEW CENTRE VISITOR Professor Henry Nix graduated from the University of Queensland in 1960. He began work with CSIRO in 1961, initially as a science writer, then as an experimental officer in 1964. By 1973 he became Senior Research Scientist in Land Use Research and by 1975 was made Principal Research Scientist. He concluded his employment with CSIRO as Senior Principle Research Scientist for Land and Water in 1986 when he became a Professor and Director of the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies and the Australian National University in Canberra. Professor Nix has more than 150 publications to his credit dealing with various aspects of land resource inventory, evaluation, planning and management, crop modelling, bioclimatology, palaeoecology, environmental database development and GIS applications. His research and teaching interests include simulation of agricultural and biological systems, ecoclimatology, environmental domain analysis, predicting potential distribution of plant and animal species and environmental history. He has developed postgraduate courses in Principles of Ecological Survey and Advanced Climatology and has delivered invited lectures and keynote addresses in twentysix countries on six continents. He was made Fellow of the Australian Institute for Agricultural Science in 1979, and received a Gold Medal from the Queensland Agricultural College Council and the Urrbrae Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to Australian agriculture in 1988, a Gold Medal from the Ecological Society of Australia in 1994 and the AURIS Eminent Individual Award in 1995..
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