Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Forests and forestry Papua New Guinea'

[Truncated abstract] Globally, tropical rainforests are noted for their high biodiversity and key roles in carbon storage and influence on climate. Nevertheless, tropical deforestation in many parts of the world continues at an alarming rate. In Papua New Guinea (PNG), tropical rainforest is relatively well maintained, with about 70 % of the land area still covered by primary forest. However, PNG's native forests are coming under increasing pressure, particularly from selective logging for high quality timber. While the forests of PNG, and more broadly the entire New Guinea Island, are recognised as of high conservation and ecological significance, they remain grossly understudied with little knowledge of key ecosystem processes within lowland forests in particular. Such knowledge is urgently required if the impacts of logging and other land-use change are to be assessed and in order to develop sustainable management systems. This thesis investigated the impacts of logging on diversity and nutrient cycling in a lowland tropical rainforest growing on limestone soils in the area of the Mongi-Busiga Forest Management Agreement (FMA, which is a logging concession area), in northeastern PNG. These forests are on relatively young soils and provide a useful contrast to the majority of tropical forests. The research includes a four-year study of the recovery of diversity and structure after logging, and quantified forest structure, tree species diversity, forest biomass and productivity, and nutrient distribution and cycling. This thesis also examines the ecological sustainability of Eucalyptus deglupta plantations in Wasab, PNG as an alternative resource for timber and biomass energy. The thesis concludes with a discussion of long-term forest recovery and sustainable forest management in north-eastern PNG. Two adjacent one-hectare plots were established in lowland tropical rainforest at Mongi-Busiga FMA. One of these plots was subsequently selectively logged, one year after establishment. Before logging, the two one-hectare plots contained a total of 37 families, 70 genera and 110 tree species that were >5 cm in diameter at breast height. Mean basal area was 42.4 m2 ha-1. Two tree species, Madhuca leucodermis (Sapotaceae) and Pometia pinnata (Sapindaceae) accounted for ~60% of the total basal area. Gymnacranthera paniculata (Myristicaceae) was the most common species and accounted for 13% of individuals. ... This study concludes that the Mongi-Busiga forest has many unusual characteristics for a tropical forest, including relatively low diversity of tree species, high accumulation of P in the biomass, and N limitations, compared to other tropical rainforests. However, those extraordinary characteristics may be explained well by the underlying geology of young, marine-derived limestone. Sustainable management of the lowland tropical forests of PNG should consider the consequences of logging on nutrient cycling processes, with the possible significant removal of P from site with repeated logging, as well as the interactions between N and P in these systems. Establishment of Eucalyptus plantations on previously cleared land also has the potential to meet some of the timber and biomass energy requirements of northern PNG in ecologically sustainable manner.

This study was in two parts and involved two years of field research and nursery work in Madang and Lae respectively, in northern Papua New Guinea. The effect of different intensities of sunlight on the growth of twelve tropical lowland forest timber trees as studied using neutral shade in a nursery and artificial canopy gaps in natural forest. The twelve tree species were Albizia falcataria (*), Canarium schlecteri (*), Celtis latifolia (*), Intsia bijuga (+), Maniltoa psilogyne (+), Microcos grandiflora (*), Neonauclea sp (*). Pometia pinnata (* +), Pterocarpus indicus (* +), Terminalia complenata (* +), Terminalia impediens (* +) and Terminalia sepicana (*) . The species marked (*) were monitored in nursery conditions, those with (+) in natural forest. Seeds of the studied tree species were collected from the forest in Madang and were germinated and acclimated under 54&'37 RLI (Relative Light Intensity) in the Lae nursery. After about 2 weeks the plants were transferred to six shade houses at 4, 11, 31, 54, 74 &'38 100&'37 RLI. Height growth, leaf production, biomass growth and seedling mortality were measured. Seedling mortality was highest for some plants in 4&'37 RLI, while most plants attained maximum growth between 30-70&'37 RLI. Growth generally declined in full sun which was partly due to solarization, partly to herbivory, and partly to a pot effect. Clear differences were observed between the species which were ranked on a gradient from the most shade tolerant to the least : C. latifolia, M. grandiflora, P. pinnata, C. schlechteri, T. sepicana, T. impediens, Neonauclea sp., T. complenata and A. falcataria . The research in natural forest at Madang ran concurrently with the nursery research. Seeds of the tree species were collected from the forest in Madang and were germinated and acclimated under 28&'37 RLI in the village nursery in Madang. After about 6 weeks of acclimation, the plants were planted out into the light treatments (1, 29, 63, 84 &'38 100&'37 RLI) created by felling trees to open up the canopy. Pre-existing seedlings together with transplanted seedlings were assessed for height growth, biomass growth, seedling mortality and leaf production. Tree species growing under 1&'37 RLI showed significantly lower growth than at 29&'37 RLI, which was close to the maximum growth, for most species. Species were ranked on a gradient from the most shade tolerant to the least for transplanted seedlings : I. bijuga, P. pinnata, T. complenata, T. impediens and P. indicus ; and pre-existing seedlings : C. latifolia, M. psilogyne and P. pinnata . All tree species studied under natural and nursery conditions attained maximum growth in light levels below full sun.

Recovery of tropical rain forest in Gogol Valley, Papua New Guinea was monitored for 2 years following clear-fel1ing in the wet and dry seasons. Further redevelopment, reconstructed by measurements of regrowth of known ages from 1.5-10.8 years, were compared with forest heavily disturbed by fire 55 years ago and primary forest. The vegetation, survey was assessed principally by Counting and measuring trees. Because of the importance of soil seed bank in influencing vegetation recovery processes, special attention was given to the spatial and temporal changes in the soil seed bank and the seed rain which supplies it. The major findings were: (1) vegetation recovery was rapid and 97% of all colonizing trees regenerated from seeds while 3% were resprouts; (2) regrowth after felling in the dry-season differed from that following wet-season felling in having lower density, slower growth and mostly comprised resprouting tree species; (3) after 10 years, regrowth is composed principally of large pioneer trees (65% of basal area or 64% of stems); (4) the 55 year-old forest also had many (48%) pioneer trees: much of the forest in the area is of this kind and may be classified as advanced secondary forest; (5) forest soil seed bank following felling was rapidly depleted due to germination, but was rapidly replaced as early pioneer herbs matured and set seed. Trees in soil seed bank do not approach that of primary forest until after 10 years of regrowth; (6) the intensity of pioneer trees' seed rain was correlated with the fecundity of nearby parent trees and clearly controlled soil seed bank redevelopment. There was evidence of dispersal of pioneer seeds several hundred metres into an isolated area of closed forest; (7) trees left uncut following felling contribute significantly to seed rain and therefore to soil seed bank.

Corruption and poor governance are well-documented problems in the management of forests around the world, and are widely cited to be contributing to deforestation and forest degradation. However, whilst the link between corruption, poor governance and deforestation is widely assumed, few studies have analysed the mechanisms by which corruption and poor governance may be contributing to deforestation and forest degradation. That is, there has been research that supports the claim that corruption contributes to deforestation, however many of these studies have utilised measures of corruption, such as corruption perceptions indexes, which hide a lot of the variation in types of corruption. Localised case-studies of corruption and poor governance, which have identified many types of corruption, have often not focused on the impact on forest management. These two streams of research demonstrate that corruption and poor governance are multifaceted phenomena and may impact on forests in diverse and context-specific ways. This thesis seeks therefore to integrate these two streams of research by addressing the questions 'Does corruption and poor governance contribute to deforestation and forest degradation in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea? And if so, how?' Indonesia and Papua New Guinea (PNG) were selected as case studies for this research due to the important forest reserves and the high prevalence of corruption and poor governance. Grounded theory methodology, which provides a systematic and rigorous approach to generating theories from the data, was used to analyse the process of forest governance and corruption. Based on the data collected from semi-structured interviews and government and media reports, two grounded theories were developed on forest governance and on corruption in the forests. The core process of forest governance that emerged from the data was one of a process of negotiation over if, and how, regulations were implemented. The grounded theory on corruption also highlights the complex systems and relationships that support, or demand, corrupt exchanges in different contexts. The findings from the two grounded theories were then drawn on to analyse if and how corruption and poor governance contribute to deforestation and forest degradation in Indonesia and PNG. The analysis focuses on four stages of forest management-land-use planning, concession allocation, monitoring and enforcing and the distribution of benefits-to identify what types of corruption and poor governance is occurring, and how this may impact upon the forests. The findings point to some very complex relationships between corruption, poor governance and deforestation and forest degradation in the case study countries, and highlight how other factors, such as regulatory quality, need to be understood in order to determine whether any specific corrupt exchange contributes to deforestation and forest degradation. My thesis is whilst corruption and poor governance do not necessarily lead to more area of forestland being cleared, corruption and poor governance do contribute to the wider problems associated with deforestation, such as unsustainable forest exploitation and environmental injustices. These findings have implications for current efforts to improve forest governance as a means to reduce deforestation and forest degradation in these two countries.

Many areas of New Guinea remain poorly sampled, hindering conservation planning efforts. Endemic species significantly contribute to explaining a peak in non-flying mammal diversity at mid-elevations, even after removal of boundary effects. When corrected for area, effects of diet and body size become relevant. Diversity of non-eutherians declines with elevation similar to rodents. Folivores drop in diversity with elevation more markedly than carnivores. Smaller-bodied mammals drop in diversity more markedly than larger-bodied ones. Field surveys at Mt. Stolle produced 3 new species records for Sandaun Province of Papua New Guinea, and 5 new species records for the Telefomin area. I collected data on radio-collared painted ringtails, including: body measurements, home range sizes, survival rates, waking hours spent eating, walking and resting, hours of activity and activity levels. Male painted ringtails are larger than females; males are more active and heavier males return later. Males walk more than females, and heavier males walk more. The male survival rate is one-sixth that of females. Male home ranges overlap with those of two or more females. Painted ringtails are almost entirely folivorous, consuming at least 75 tree species. Bark is consumed from at least five species, two of which were sought significantly beyond their abundance at the site. Selectivity in foliage consumed is present at both the species and family levels of trees, and proximity of diet trees to dreys plays a role in selection. The top 10 species most frequently consumed by males and females do not differ, but the top 10 families do differ. The painted ringtail diet is more folivorous and the tree species composition is significantly different than that of the larger sympatric coppery ringtail and mountain cuscus. Bark consumed by painted ringtails contained calcium, potassium and magnesium levels significantly higher than that found in control trees (conspecifics and other species). Significantly more adult male painted ringtails (14 of 21) were captured at bark trees than adult females (three of 17) or juvenile males (one of six); juvenile females were equally captured at and away from these trees (six of 12).

The thesis describes the community composition, population structure and dispersal in a lowland rainforest community, extended to changes in butterfly composition along an altitudinal gradient. It tests the feasibility of mark-release-recapture studies in the understories of lowland primary forests, describes dispersal in relation to host plants and compares dispersal and demographic parameters with temperate species. Focusing on primary as well as secondary sites the thesis analyzes species richness and similarity between sites along an altitudinal gradient. It also tests ecological correlates for endemism in New Guinea butterflies, particularly their geographic and altitudinal range, as well as their optimum altitude.

Collaborative research projects are an important component of research for development programs globally, but there is little consensus regarding what constitutes project ‘success’, and little understanding of factors that contribute to or constrain success. This thesis explores the principle research question: What constitutes success, and what factors influence it, in forestry research for development projects? In doing so, it presents a new approach for evaluating the relative success of projects, and applies it to case studies of forestry research for development projects implemented by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) in Vietnam, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea (PNG). While ACIAR evaluates individual projects regularly, it has no methodology to compare levels of success across large numbers of projects. The first part of the thesis reviews ACIAR’s forestry program and evaluation methodologies, and presents a new methodology for evaluating the relative success of research projects using existing project records. It places projects into four categories of success based on scores for achievements and impacts, which aids understanding of differential success between projects. In the second part of the thesis, this methodology is applied to country-based case studies in Vietnam, Indonesia and PNG. Ten completed ACIAR forestry projects were evaluated in each country to identify relative success. There was considerable variation in the relative success of the projects, in terms of both achievements and impacts. Interviews with Australian and partner country project participants were then used to investigate the factors that affected project success. The number of project success factors identified varied, with 22, 30, and 37 factors identified in Vietnam, Indonesia and PNG respectively. In each country the frequency of identification of these factors and their apparent relationships with the relative success evaluation scores of selected projects was investigated. The third part of the thesis synthesised results from the three country case studies, and considered how this knowledge could be used by ACIAR and other international development agencies. Overall, ACIAR’s forestry programs in Vietnam and Indonesia have been more successful than its program in PNG. Project success had little relation to research theme, and successor projects were not necessarily more successful than their precursors. Of the 37 success factors identified, seven were considered to be beyond the control of a project, and a further 15 factors would only apply in some situations. The remaining 15 factors, which relate to aspects of project design and implementation, and for which there appear to be relationships with the evaluated level of project success, are therefore considered to be ‘key success factors’. This research has made two key contributions to understanding how to improve research for development projects. The first is a low-cost method for evaluating relative success between projects. The second is the identification of 15 widely applicable success factors that are subject to decisions made by research program managers and project teams. These insights will help inform research for development funders and managers about factors influencing, and strategies for enhancing, project success.

Considerable investment into tropical forest management for carbon sequestration is now demanding an improved understanding of the state of these forests. This includes management options for forest protection or restoration, as well as addressing the needs of forest dependent communities that forego forest exploitation. These needs are particularly acute in the Papua New Guinea, which houses large tracks of relatively intact tropical forests. This thesis aims to address these need by 1) reviewing global carbon stocks and fluxes in tropical forests and providing an assessment of seven forest carbon management practices, 2) examining the relationship between above ground biomass (AGB) and environmental factors through an extensive field campaign in the Morobe province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) along a 3,100m elevation gradient, 3) assessing the potential for engaging local people to monitor forest carbon stocks by evaluating the robustness of data collected by locally-based monitoring programs and 4) exploring mechanisms to incorporate the needs of forest-dependent people into land-use planning for lowered carbon emissions by testing an approach that integrates socioeconomic datasets into a more traditional biophysical land-use planning model. The seven carbon management or 'recarbonization' practices reviewed in Chapter 2 exhibit a large variation in carbon sequestration potential. These potential to sequester carbon was positively associated with levels of land degradation and resource input. Given the distinct co-benefits, risks and costs associated with each practice, the review outlines the potential for government, community, conservation and industry initiatives to profit from recarbonization strategies. The review summarizes the benefits of incentivizing a variety of recarbonization actions and moving beyond the current focus on forest protection. Research conducted along a forested elevation gradient in Papua New Guinea, presented in Chapter 3 of this thesis; found that climatic and edaphic variables were poor predictors of AGB. Instead, natural disturbance was the most significant predictor of AGB. From sampling AGB on very steep forest slopes, up to 80° slope, this research demonstrates for the first time that slope angle can be used to predict the occurrence of natural disturbance and in turn, forest biomass. This finding can be used to further improve models that estimate AGB at the landscape scale, especially in montane areas. Chapter 3 presents the first field assessment of forest carbon stores in the three main forest types in PNG (Lowland, Montane and Upper-montane) along with secondary grasslands; revealing the highest carbon stocks yet recorded in high altitude forests anywhere in the world. High forest-carbon stocks were best explained by the distribution of a large number of tree species found above 2,200 m asl, which grew to exceptional girth and height. The presence of large trees in high altitude tropical cloud forests is generally uncommon; the large trees in the study coincided with a set of optimal climatic conditions similar to those found in temperate maritime areas which contain the largest trees on Earth. This research challenges the common belief that high altitude tropical forests are stunted and low, with low carbon stocks, and highlights the value of conducting fieldwork in difficult-to-access montane areas. Involving local people in monitoring forest-carbon stocks could potentially increase monitoring capacity in developing countries, which currently falls short of the requirements by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Chapter 4 of this thesis assessed the robustness of locally-based monitoring programs by designing a training program that aimed to teach forest-biomass inventory protocols to people with little or no formal education but with remarkable 'traditional' ecological knowledge about their forests. Three communities were involved in the study, and a total of 4,481 'expert' and 'non-expert' measurement pairs of tree diameter, tree height, numbers of trees and plot surface area were compared from 41 sites. The results demonstrate that biomass estimates by experts and non-experts were not statistically different and thus community-based monitoring could be used overcome barriers to reducing forest-carbon emissions in developing countries. The study takes a hierarchical approach to track the types of error in the field that lead to the largest discrepancy in biomass at the landscape scale, and demonstrates that the most common errors are not the most significant errors. In particular the research highlights the importance of accurate recording of measurements on large trees, especially height, and underscores the disproportionate effect on AGB estimates when single large trees are missed from an inventoried plot. This research demonstrates that targeting those errors that cause the large discrepancies could serve to improve forest biomass inventories and training protocols for experts and non-experts alike. Ensuring the viability of forest carbon projects not only requires a sound knowledge of their carbon stock and an ability to monitor changes in carbon stocks over time, it also requires the implementation of management interventions that are locally relevant and considers the needs of people affected by any interventions. However, integrating societal needs within forest management strategies remains difficult because of the lack of tools for linking socio-economic data to land-use planning models. Chapter 5 explores protection and restoration actions in a landscape where people depend on forests for their livelihood. The study integrates socio-economic data from Poverty Environment Network (PEN) surveys into a more traditional biophysical framework that includes land-cover change analysis along with soil and vegetation carbon stocks associated with different land-use types. Including socioeconomic variables significantly altered the scope for emissions reduction, partly because the land-use types not only varied in carbon stocks but also because of the essential environmental products and services they provided to communities. Moreover, the research highlights the importance of local threats to carbon stores in the study area, with per capita fuelwood extraction exceeding emissions from fossil fuel, cement and anthropogenic fires as the main source of emissions in the region, in the absence of industrial logging. These results suggest that the inclusion of fire management in Upper-montane forest should be a priority for emissions reduction in the study region and potentially in PNG as whole. Moreover, the results demonstrate the additional carbon benefits of establishing coffee plantations that use the native Casuarina, a common shade tree used in PNG. These shade trees store three times more carbon per volume than the most commonly used shade tree species in coffee plantations worldwide. By using some of the societal-environmental synergies identified in this research, PNG could become an important contributor to the global fight to curb anthropogenic carbon emissions, while also improving the livelihoods of the PNG population that depends on, owns, or manage these forests, as they have for millennia.

The thesis describes host specificity and species diversity in communities of frugivorous insect in lowland rain forest of Papua New Guinea. It focuses separately on weevils and Lepidoptera, as main groups of frugivores. Further, it focuses on fruit morphology and the structure of frugivorous communities.

Tree kangaroos (Marsupialia: Macropodidae, Dendrolagus) are some of Australasia's least known mammals. Basic questions concerning the population and conservation status of many species remain unanswered. However, there is sufficient anecdotal evidence of population decline and local extinctions to designate tree kangaroos as New Guinea's most endangered mammal group. Tree kangaroo home ranges were sampled at one site in Papua New Guinea (Wasaunon). Radio telemetry analyses were used to estimate home range sizes, which were estimated to be 81.8 ± 28.8 ha for males and 80.8 ± 20.3 ha for female Huon tree kangaroos (Dendrolagus matschiei). Food plants species for Huon tree kangaroos (D. matschiei), were collected at Wasaunon with the aid of landowners, and later identified by botanists in Papua New Guinea and Australia. The collections support Australian data that tree kangaroos are browsers, with the largest proportion of their diet coming from leaves and shoots from a wide variety of plants from at least 18 families for the Huon tree kangaroos, and at least 40 families from a previous study conducted in the same region (Dendawang) approximately 35km southeast of Wasaunon. Landowners from different areas of the region were in agreement that tree kangaroos prefer eating leaves and stems of plants, with fruits and flowers comprising a relatively minor proportion of the animals' diets. Additional information on tree kangaroo biology and conservation status was obtained through the use of informal landowner interviews. Interviews did not produce quantifiable results, but they did give some insights into tree kangaroo food plant species and human utilisation. The responses indicated that over 70 species of food plants were being utilized by the Huon tree kangaroos, D. matschiei, at Wasaunon, and an additional 91 species from Dendawang.

The thesis describes diversity of birds along a complete altitudinal gradient and in forest fragments in lowlands of Papua New Guinea. It focuses separately on the diversity of different feeding guilds, and discusses their links to habitat and food resources. More specifically, it focuses on forest insectivorous birds, their predation pressure on arthropods, feeding specializations and preferences, and some of the ways how insectivores search for food.