No. 36 Spring/Summer 2002 NEWS Network Forest Resources Assessment TABLE OF CONTENTS Research ETFRN and EC News 1 List of Articles 3 Forest Organisations - Programmes 5 Research Cooperation Sought 68 Internet Features 71 Funding/Opportunities 73 Tropical Other News 75 Publications 83 Past Issues of ETFRN News 92 International Calendar Enclosed European Editorial Dear readers, Many thanks are due to our guest editor for this issue, Giovanni Preto. He was involved in the FAO Forest Resource Assessment 2000, and this experience has not deterred him from offering to guest edit an ETFRN News issue on ‘Forest Resources Assessment: Issues and Perspectives’. In his overview article (p.5) he presents the objectives for this issue. He also highlights the challenges in forest resources assessment. These are definitely not limited to finding and applying the newest inventory techniques. Many of the unanswered questions relate to the actual use of the assessment information in forest management and policy development. This is a recurring theme in most development-oriented research: how does one bridge the gaps between research, policy and practice; and how can research results be communicated in such a way that they contribute to sustainable development? One example of an attempt to bridge some of these gaps was the ETFRN workshop on participatory monitoring and evaluation of biodiversity (p.2 and p. 75). The workshop explored the potential of participatory assessment, monitoring and evaluation of biodiversity (PAMEB) for reconciling local and national information needs in biodiversity management. One of the conclusions was that ‘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.’ This leads to the thought that in forest resources assessm ent research, probably as much attention should be paid to the process, and to who should be involved, and at what stage, as to the development and use of new techniques. The new techniques discussed in this issue do present exciting opportunities. Visualising land use change through satellite images and aerial photographs can be a powerful tool to generate discussion on the use and management of forest and land resources. Has anyone been involved in using GIS in participatory assessments of forest resources? Hoping you will enjoy reading this issue; please remember that ETFRN CU always welcomes comments, and contributions for future issues. Please note the themes and deadlines for the next two issues on the back cover. Willemine Brinkman ETFRN Coordinator PS Please note that we have included a list of past issues on the last page, following a suggestion by one of the participants in the ETFRN Steering Committee. ETFRN Coordination Unit c/o Tropenbos International PO Box 232, 6700 AE Wageningen Cover illustration: Measuring the biomass of The Netherlands conifers, Cape Verde Tel: +31 317 495516 Fax: +31 317 495521 Email: [email protected] Http://www.etfrn.org/etfrn Photograph by: Ch. Errath 1987 Source: FAO Mediabase Editor: Willemine Brinkman http://www1.fao.org/media_user/_home.html Guest Editor for this issue: Giovanni Preto Editorial assistance: Jacqui McGrath ETFRN News 36/02 Organisations - Institutions - Programmes Organisations - Institutions - Programmes List of Articles List of Articles Page Dominican Republic (Henning) 43 Challenges in Forest Resources Assessments (Preto) 5 Forest Resources Assessment :Issues & Perspectives (Singh, A) 8 Tropical Deforestation + Carbon release in S.E Bangladesh using Remote Sensing + Field Inventory (Rahman et al.) 45 Information Needs Assessment (Lund) 11 Forest Inventory + land cover mapping in Zambia at the provincial forestry Exploring Community Priorities in Tropical Forest Landscapes (Sheil) 15 action programme ii (Vesa & Wamunyima) 47 Experiences in the elaboration, implementation and follow-up of forest Perspectives for sustainable management of mangrove eco-systems management plans in natural tropical forests using computers, computer in Cameroon (Din & Ngollo) 48 software and other technological packages: a Case Study on Borneo (Castaneda & Palmberg-Lerche) 17 Development of a protocol for eco-efficient wood harvesting on sensitive sites (ECOWOOD) (Owende, McDonnell & Ward) 51 Emerging Technologies for forest resources appraisals + landuse planning (Singh, KD) 19 The Challenges of Bamboo Forest Management in India (Lakshmana) 53 Application of remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems for Mangrove research at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels (Dahdouh-Guebas & Koedam) 55 the monitoring and protection of a Special Protected Area in Greece. (Meliadis &Tsiontis) 22 Forest Surveys Using Non-specialist Volunteers (Turner & Cadbury) 59 Weather independent Tropical Forest monitoring in Indonesia Survey + Monitoring of Dracaena cinnabari Balf (Petroncini) 61 (Schut & Vrielink) 24 The Home Gardens of Soqotra (Ceccolini) 63 Optimisation applied to Management of Natural Forests (Fernandes da Silva et al.) 26 Global Forest Information Service (GFIS) (Nöbauer) 65 Tropical Forest Inventory in the Costa De Jalisco Region Mexico: Methodology and Preliminary results (Hernández, Gallegos & Pelz) 27 Inventory techniques in French Guiana to elaborate and apply multi-functional forest management plans (Brunaux. Demenois & Ingrassia) 29 A new National Inventory for Australia’s Forests (Norman & Vanclay) 32 Methodology for Assessment of Growing Stock of Forests in India (Rawat & Saxena) 34 Assessment of Tree resource Outside the forest (Kleinn & Morales) 38 Mapping Human Induced threat to a Sanctuary in Southern India (Aravind et al.) 41 Forest Inventory and Sustainable Forest Management on the hillsides of the 3 4 ETFRN News 36/02 Organisation - Institutions - Programmes Organisation - Institutions - Programmes contribute to an objective evaluation of the becoming more and more disconnected from continuous system of inventorying and Challenges in Forest Resource relevance and applicability of different real-life practices of natural resource monitoring the land-use and land-cover Assessment surveying procedures for good forest m anagement and use, as well as being changes, at national and international level, ecosystem management in other socio- unresponsive to the actual needs and is enormous. Besides adequate financial By Giovanni Preto economic and environmental conditions; and requirements of pursuing an environmentally support networking users, scientists, and their contribution to the evaluation of the sustainable livelihood. institutions in order to achieve a broader The Spring/Summer 2002 ETFRN-NEWS viability of the applied inventorying contribution to the global forest resource focusses on “Forest resources assessment: techniques under different circumstances is In the last twenty years many new assessment program is urgently needed. issues and perspectives” and covers the limited. technologies have been introduced and There is also a need to raise awareness and technical aspects of inventory and monitoring applied in forest resource assessment and inform people as objectively as possible on techniques, particularly in developing In spite of the significant number of articles monitoring. Computers, databases and the state and change of forest resources, countries. While planning this issue of the and technical notes on specific inventory programs have shown an exponential growth us ing all available media and forms of ETFRN-NEWS, our main objective was to techniques and of the widespread circulation and are steadily becoming more powerful education and extension. provide an overview of the current stage of of information on experience gained in land- and cheaper. Data capture devices permit development of forest resources cover surveying and mapping, or in forest the easy recording of data in permanent and Wider co-operation among research assessment techniques. This overview has resource assessments, little is known temporary plots. Other remote sensing institutions and national and international two main purposes. First, it is aimed at regarding the impact of the inventory activities techniques are currently used in animal organisations is also required for tackling the evaluating the effectiveness of forest in promoting sustainable use of forest population studies, to record and monitor following inventory problems: resource inventories in achieving expected ecosystems. It appears that forest resource environmental parameters such as stream results and required statistical outputs; assessment is only marginally linked to flows, temperatures, daily changes in tree • The compatibility and possibility of second, it aims to develop sound appraisals forest ecosystem management, and that diameters, etc. Space borne remote sensing integrating various inventories on a of the manifold functions and values evaluation of forest resources is an end in is now widely and successfully used in many spatial, temporal and institutional level; (ecological, economic, social) of tropical itself and not a prerequisite for proper large area inventories and imagery data • The realisation of international co- forest ecosystems in view of their management of these resources. While processing has made extremely rapid operation towards unifying global sustainable use. Moreover, the intended