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Assessing, Monitoring and Managing Forest Carbon in Papua New Guinea

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Assessing, Monitoring and Managing Forest Carbon in Papua New Guinea ResearchOnline@JCU This file is part of the following reference: Venter, Michelle (2015) Cloud to coast: assessing, monitoring and managing forest carbon in Papua New Guinea. PhD thesis, James Cook University. Access to this file is available from: http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/43807/ The author has certified to JCU that they have made a reasonable effort to gain permission and acknowledge the owner of any third party copyright material included in this document. If you believe that this is not the case, please contact [email protected] and quote http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/43807/ Clouds to Coast; Assessing, Monitoring and Managing Forest Carbon in Papua New Guinea Thesis submitted by MICHELLE VENTER (BSc. Specialization Ecology, Concordia University, Montreal) December 2015 For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the College of Science, Technology and Engineering James Cook University, Cairns To Timmy Sowang, teacher, guide and true friend Acknowledgements My thesis research involved leading seven expeditions to remote forest areas of Papua New Guinea away from villages in areas with no road access, no shelter and no communication. A large number of dedicated people invested in the preparation, execution and processing of this research, and for that I am truly grateful. The work in this thesis was made possible by the funding provided by German development bank (KFW Bankengruppe), the James Cook University Post-Graduate Research Scholarship (JCU-PRS) and three grants from School of Earth and Environmental Sciences JCU Postgraduate Funding; I thank those organizations and their staff. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to the landholders of the YUS area for allowing access to their land. I would like to extend my thanks to all the people of YUS, for without their generosity, knowledge and support, I would not have had such successful field campaigns. Thanks to over 70 field assistants and hundreds of ‘carriers’ who shared their skill, knowledge, food and helped build bush shelters. Here, I place on record my personal recognition to Timmy Sowang, to whom this thesis is dedicated. Thank you Timmy for helping train local landholders, organizing bush logistics, teaching me Tok Pisen, negotiating difficult agreements, leading field teams during participatory biomass inventories and for ensuring my safety in dangerous situations. I would like to extend my gratitude to Timmy’s wife Barbara and daughter Michelle; their hospitality and friendship has made my time spent in PNG truly enjoyable. I would like to give a special thanks to the team at the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program (TKCP) and Community Based Organization (CBO) of the YUS Conservation Area for their dedication to improving rural life and promoting conservation biology. I would like to thank Lisa Dabek, the mother of the YUS conservation area, for her council regarding working in remote PNG. I would also like to thank Conservation International (CI), In particular Bruce Beehler, for taking the time in the field to teach me the ‘bush ropes’. Special thanks to Andrew Krockenberger, the principle investigator at JCU, for taking the time to address my needs and providing leadership. I would like to thanks to the following scientists for help in the field and for creating memorable moments; Clant (Ray) Alok, Kylie Anderson, Michael Bird, Bruce Beehler, Kasbeth Evei, Richard Hopkinson, Bega Inaho, Banak Gamui, David Gillieson, Karau Kuna, Anton Lata, Anurag Ramachadra, Mireia Torello-Raventos and Oscar Venter. Great big thanks to Wouter Dieleman: cheers mate, having fun no matter what the circumstances! For contributions to plant identification, I thank Bega Inaho, Banak Gamui, Rigel Jensen, Stephen McKenna, the Staff at the Australian Tropical Herbarium and staff at Forest Resource Intuition (FRI) in Lae. For useful discussion input in data analysis, I thank Will Edwards, Susanne Laurance, Miriam Murphy, Tony Page, Jonathan Cornelius. Special thanks to John Dwyer for his contributing his in depth knowledge of R. I would like to thank my co-supervisor David Gillieson for valuable advice and continued support in all matters regarding thesis completion and for taking the time to have an enjoyable yarn. I wish to thank my co-supervisor Susan Laurence for keeping her door open and ironing out the details of my research. I would like to express utmost recognition for my primary supervisor, Michael bird; for consistently providing positive encouragement, irreplaceable opportunities, rapid feedback and so many neat ideas. Working under Professor Bird’s valuable mentorship has made my PhD experience a delight. I would like to thank my adored family for their love and support throughout; merci Maman, Papax, Julie, Katrine (bibi), Kathy, Deon, Katsky, Cami, Allison and my son, Forrest. Finally, I must acknowledge my sweetheart husband and collaborator, Oscar Venter, who has literally hung off cliffs in support of my research. Thanks my love, for providing clarity to my work, helping me prioritize, foreseeing pit-falls, and for taking the time to discuss my work over countless morning coffees. Table of Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................ i Co-author Affiliations in Alphabetical Order ....................................................................................... v Statement of the Contribution of Others .............................................................................................. vi Additional Publications by the Candidate Relevant to the Thesis but not Forming Part of the Thesis ........................................................................................................................................................... viii Abstract ................................................................................................................................................ ix Concept Diagram of Thesis ................................................................................................................ xiii List of Tables ..................................................................................................................................... xiv List of Figures ..................................................................................................................................... xv Chapter 1 ............................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2 ............................................................................................................................................... 6 2.1 Overview ..................................................................................................................................... 6 2.2 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 6 2.3 Humid tropical forest .................................................................................................................. 8 2.4 Carbon flux in tropical forests ..................................................................................................... 9 2.5 Options for recarbonizing the humid tropics ............................................................................. 11 2.5.1 Reducing deforestation ....................................................................................................... 13 2.5.2 Reducing forest degradation............................................................................................... 14 2.5.3 Forest rehabilitation ........................................................................................................... 15 2.5.4 Converting degraded non-forest lands to forests ................................................................ 16 2.6 Concluding remarks .................................................................................................................. 20 2.7 Summary of Chapter 2 .............................................................................................................. 21 Chapter 3 ............................................................................................................................................. 22 3.1 Overview ................................................................................................................................... 22 3.2 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 22 3.3 Methods ..................................................................................................................................... 24 3.3.1 Study Area.......................................................................................................................... 24 3.3.2 Study Design ...................................................................................................................... 27 3.2.3 Biomass Estimates ............................................................................................................. 29 3.2.4 Climate and Edaphic Variables .......................................................................................... 29 3.2.5 Data Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 30 3.4 Results ......................................................................................................................................
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