Evaluating Agroforestry Species and Industries for Lower Rainfall Regions of Southeastern Australia FLORASEARCH 1A
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Evaluating agroforestry species and industries for lower rainfall regions of southeastern Australia FLORASEARCH 1A Australia Australia 07-079 Cover CF corrections.indd1 1 14/01/2009 2:12:33 PM Evaluating agroforestry species and industries for lower rainfall regions of southeastern Australia FLORASEARCH 1A Australia A report for the RIRDC / L&WA / FWPA / MDBC Joint Venture Agroforestry Program by Mike Bennell, Trevor J. Hobbs and Mark Ellis January 2009 07-079 Cover CF corrections.indd2 2 14/01/2009 2:12:33 PM © 2008 Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation. All rights reserved. ISBN 1 74151 4786 2 ISSN 1140-6845 Please cite this report as: Bennell M, Hobbs TJ and Ellis M (2008). Evaluating agroforestry species and industries for lower rainfall regionss of southeastern Australia: FloraSearch1a. Report to the Joint Venture Agroforestry Program (JVAP) and the Future Farm Industries CRC*. RIRDC, Canberra. Publication No. 07/079 Project No. SAR-38A The information contained in this publication is intended for general use to assist public knowledge and discussion and to help improve the development of sustainable regions. You must not rely on any information contained in this publication without taking specialist advice relevant to your particular circumstances. While reasonable care has been taken in preparing this publication to ensure that information is true and correct, the Commonwealth of Australia gives no assurance as to the accuracy of any information in this publication. The Commonwealth of Australia, the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC), the authors or contributors expressly disclaim, to the maximum extent permitted by law, all responsibility and liability to any person, arising directly or indirectly from any act or omission, or for any consequences of any such act or omission, made in reliance on the contents of this publication, whether or not caused by any negligence on the part of the Commonwealth of Australia, RIRDC, the authors or contributors. The Commonwealth of Australia does not necessarily endorse the views in this publication. This publication is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, all other rights are reserved. However, wide dissemination is encouraged. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the RIRDC Publications Manager on phone 02 6271 4165. Researcher Contact Details Mike Bennell Trevor J. Hobbs SA Dept. of Water, Land & Biodiversity Conservation, SA Dept. of Water, Land & Biodiversity Conservation, Waite Road, Urrbrae SA 5064 Waite Road, Urrbrae SA 5064 Phone: 08 8303 9674 Fax: 08 8303 9555 Phone: 08 8303 9766 Fax: 08 8303 9555 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] In submitting this report, the researcher has agreed to RIRDC publishing this material in its edited form. RIRDC Contact Details Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation Level 2, 15 National Circuit BARTON ACT 2600 PO Box 4776 KINGSTON ACT 2604 Phone: 02 6271 4100 Fax: 02 6271 4199 Email: [email protected]. Web: http://www.rirdc.gov.au * CRC for Plant-based Management of Dryland Salinity officially concluded operations on 30 June 2007. Its successor the Future Farm Industries Cooperative Research Centre continued to manage CRC PBMDS research projects until 30 June 2008. ii Evaluating agroforestry species and industries for lower rainfall regions of southeastern Australia Foreword The FloraSearch project has the goal of providing a focus This project was funded by the Joint Venture Agroforestry to the development of broad scale woody crops for Program (JVAP), which was supported by three southern Australia. Potential products are reviewed and R&D corporations – Rural Industries Research and taxa from southeastern Australia have been selected, Development Corporation (RIRDC), Land & Water sampled and tested for suitability for ongoing development Australia (LWA), and Forest and Wood Products as new crops. The project focuses on selecting species that Research and Development Corporation (FWPRDC)1, can be developed to supply feedstock for the large-scale together with the Murray-Darling Basin Commission markets of wood and energy products. FloraSearch is a (MDBC). The R&D corporations were funded principally successor to WA Search and Acacia Search projects and by the Australian Government. State and Australian draws strongly upon their philosophy and methodology. governments contributed funds to the MDBC. The first phase of the FloraSearch project has produced Significant financial and in-kind contributions were three reports: also made by project partners within the Cooperative a) Evaluating agroforestry species and industries for Research Centre for Plant-based Management of 2 lower rainfall regions of southeastern Australia Dryland Salinity including: SA Department of Water, (FloraSearch 1a) Land and Biodiversity Conservation; CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products; NSW Department of Primary b) Agroforestry species profiles for lower rainfall Industries; Victorian Department of Sustainability and regions of southeastern Australia (FloraSearch 1b) Environment; and the University of Adelaide. c) Review of wood products, tannins and exotic This report is an addition to RIRDC’s diverse range species for agroforestry regions of southern of over 1800 research publications. It forms part of Australia (FloraSearch 1c). our Agroforestry and Farm Forestry R&D program, This report provides the methods and results of the which aims to integrate sustainable and productive initial evaluation process, including species screening, agroforestry within Australian farming systems. The preliminary industry identification and product ranking, JVAP, under this program, is managed by RIRDC. species productivity evaluations and use of the data for Most of our publications are available for viewing, an exploratory regional industry potential analysis. The downloading or purchasing online through our website: results indicate that farm based production of biomass n to support several existing and new product types can downloads at www.rirdc.gov.au/fullreports/index.html be profitable. The report gives the rationale for ongoing n purchases at www.rirdc.gov.au/eshop work, which will further evaluate the target species Peter O’Brien selected from the screening process. Managing Director Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation 1 Now Forest & Wood Products Australia (FWPA) 2 Now Future Farm Industries CRC (FFI CRC) Foreword iii Acknowledgements Abbreviations The authors acknowledge the Joint Venture Agroforestry ABC Acid Buffering Capacity Program and Murray-Darling Basin Commission for AER Annual Equivalent Return funding this project. Significant financial and in-kind ATSC Australian Tree Seed Centre contributions were also made by project partners in BBC Base Buffering Capacity the Cooperative Research Centre for the Plant-based Management of Dryland Salinity including: SA Department BDU Bone Dry Unit of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation; Ensis/ CP Crude Protein CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products; NSW Department CRC PBMDS Cooperative Research Centre for Plant- of Primary Industries; Victorian Department of based Management of Dryland Salinity Sustainability and Environment; University of Adelaide; DCF Discounted Cash Flow and WA Department of Environment and Conservation. DDM Digestible Dry Matter The input and helpful advice of project collaborators DNRE Department of Natural Resources and members of the FloraSearch Steering Committee and Environment is gratefully acknowledged. This includes John Bartle, FWPA Forest & Wood Products Australia Graham Olsen, Ian Nuberg, Peter Milthorpe, George JVAP Joint Venture Agroforestry Program Freischmidt, Des Stackpole and John Doran. Thanks L&WA Land & Water Australia to Joe Landsberg for advice on plant productivity modelling; State and National Herbarium staff – especially LVL Laminated Veneer Lumber Tim Entwisle, Barry Conn, and Gary Chapple – for MDBC Murray-Darling Basin Commission access to Australia’s Virtual Herbarium; and Martin MDF Medium Density Fibreboard O’Leary for plant identifications. We appreciate Don ME Metabolisable Energy McGuire and Mick Underdown (Forestry SA), and Don MRET Mandatory Renewable Energy Target Cooper and Rick Giles (WA DEC) for their advice NHT National Heritage Trust on a range of forestry issues, and Julian Morison for his review of our economic analysis and models. The NPV Net Present Value high quality of field surveys, databases, computing and NSW NPWS New South Wales National Parks photography would not have been possible without and Wildlife Service the technical support of Julie Dean, Ben Shepherd, OSB Orientated Strandboard Brett Bartel, Brett Honeysett, Sue Wakefield, Darcy RIPA Regional Industry Potential Analysis Peters and Kim Tomkinson. RIRDC Rural Industries Research and We thank Rob Preston, Joe Landsberg, Russell Haines Development Corporation and Rosemary Lott for useful review comments on SA DEH South Australian Department earlier versions of this report. of Environment and Heritage SARDI South Australian Research and Development Institute SFMCA Stock Feed Manufacturers’ Council of Australia WBC Wood Buffering Capacity iv Evaluating agroforestry species and industries for lower rainfall regions of southeastern Australia Contents Foreword. iii Acknowledgements. iv Abbreviations. iv Executive summary. xiii 1. Introduction . 1 2. Project background . 3 2.1 FloraSearch. 3 2.2 Related