SAF International Forestry Working Group (B-3)

December 2007

Our Working Group Chair Doug Elliott has asked me to edit the working group newsletter. Thanks to Doug’s many contributions I can submit to you this first attempt. I am hoping that we can produce 2-3 newsletters each year and include news of your activities. We welcome announcements, short articles by working group members, summaries of professional meetings, photos, a calendar of events, and a list of contacts. Obviously you are newsworthy and doing interesting things. Please send me information on your activities! Many foresters in our SAF network are looking forward to your comments and hearing of your interesting activities.

Sincerely

Tom Gaman tgaman@forestdata.com

PS. If your email does not support html then this newsletter is available at

http://www.forestdata.com/saf_ifwg_news_1107.html

CALENDAR

RECENT

Investing Globally in Forestland was held September 10-12, 2007 at World Forestry Center. Portland, OR. This was the first of a second series of the “Who Will Own the Forest” series organized by the World Forestry Center. Participants, predominantly from the forest industry and financial sectors, explored the opportunities presented by $12 billion available annually for investment in forestland in developing regions of the world. With 18 international forestry sponsors, papers addressed global biological capacity, ever-changing economic, financial risks, and the politics of long-term forest management and trade in emerging markets. By the end of 2 days participants felt as if they had scoured the globe for forestry investments in a world facing increasing future shortages of fiber. There is no doubt that growing demand from Asian population centers will continue to put unprecedented pressures on forest plantations and natural forests worldwide. A future global forest economy will have to make more from scarce natural resources. There is room for investment in responsible and creative international forestry partnerships among private, non-profit and government sectors on every continent. A few of the 30 projects presented included Mark Willhite’s (Portland, OR) presentation on forestry investment in Columbia, Dennis Nielson’s (Dana Ltd of Rotorua NZ) analyses on ranking international forestry investment opportunities, and Don Roberts (CIBC World Markets) discussions of market-based bio-energy, carbon sequestration, and ecosystem services. The session closed with a presentation on forest plantations in China. Proceedings and more information are available at http://wifi.worldforestrycenter.org/invest

The Biennial Meeting of the Southwest Chapter of SAF with the Chihuahua chapter of the Mexican Association of Professional Foresters October 3 to 7, 2007 was held in the State of Chihuahua. This year the theme was “Ecosystems of the Semi-Desert". During the course of the five-day event, which was spread over several locations, we took part in meetings, lectures, and field presentations. The group met with university faculty at two institutions who work in agriculture and ecosystem management. We visited their plots for domestication of sotol and oregano, which are native semi-desert plants wild-collected up to present, and later toured a small factory for production of an alcoholic beverage from sotol. We also discussed their research and development of more value-added processing of the oregano and other native plants suitable for domestication. The work with sotol and other native plants stems from an attempt to protect their wild populations, and interest in development of crops more suited to agriculture in a semi-desert environment, since traditional crops are dependent on lots of water for irrigation, which is increasingly problematic in that region. The focus of this event was on a landscape that integrates human uses and wildland conservation—these are not seen as separate from each other. The semi-desert did not provide the forests that are our customary domain, but it was equally in need of ecosystem management, and used many of the same tools we use as foresters.

Another day, there were technical presentations by US and Mexican researchers on carbon sequestration in thinned pine forest, woodland survey with VLSA digital images, and arid lands maqnaqgement for wildlife habitat.

The professionals we met there were researchers, land managers, extensionists and other educators, and field practitioners. They came from government at all levels, academia, and private industry, big and small, working in ecosystems from low desert to high elevation forest. There was lots of opportunity to get to know them and their work—this was possible due to the presence of enough bilingual people that most translation needs were met, even outside of official meetings. Entertainment was presented by folk-dancing groups and singers, the food was great and plentiful, lodging was commodious, all in all a really nice event. Two years from now will be their next meeting, in the US, and two years after that will be the next meeting in Mexico. This has been going on for almost 40 years—I recommend you attend it when you can. —by Doug Elliott

At the 2007 SAF National Convention in Portland, there was an array of internationally-focused technical presentations. In particular, the tracks for "Sustainable Forestry" and "Carbon Sequestration and Management" included many international issues and case studies, but most tracks had at least some international material. There was deforestation mapping and forest certification in Brazil, salmon in Russia, land tenure in Canada, urban forests in Africa, survival of tropical forests, markets for ecosystem services in developing countries, forestry in Romania and China, and more.

|International Forestry Working Group (B3) News. The IF Working Group played a key role in bringing Wangari Maathai to the 2006 SAF Convention in Pittsburgh as a keynote speaker. The working group has continued to collaborate with the Chihuahua, Mexico foresters association, and to investigate wider collaboration with the Association of Mexican Foresters. The working group currently has members living and working in at least 30 countries, on all forested continents. Their activities and technical programs provide excellent examples of how foresters can function as leaders.

In August, 2007, SAF’s Forest Science and Technology Board declared the International Forestry Working Group to be one of the two winners of this year’s Working Group Merit Awards, based on the reasons listed below. The award certificate was presented at the FSTB meeting in Portland on 10/23/07, and accepted for the IFWG and Mike Sterner by Doug Elliott. Mike and Doug were Co-Chairs of this working group for 2006 (and several other years).

Landscape Restoration in Korea. Research and Development (R&D) co-sponsored an international conference on Forest Landscape Restoration held May 14-19 in Seoul, Korea. The conference was organized for IUFRO by John Stanturf of the Southern Research Station for the Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration. Over 300 participants representing 27 countries met in Seoul to examine the scientific basis for forest landscape restoration and its linkages to practice and policy. Jim Reaves, US Forest Service described the need for “restoring ecosystems from catastrophic natural disturbances such as fire, floods, hurricanes, or from past land management practices”. Besides providing examples from around the country, Reaves summarized the Forest Service approach to ecosystem restoration as threefold: (1) a forward-looking concept—the reference is the desired future condition; (2) partnerships are essential to involve people and gain public support; and (3) the focus is on restoring ecological processes that create resilient and healthy ecosystems. More information, including downloads of the papers and presentations, is available at the conference website. Personal impressions of the Forest Service participants, along with photos from the field trips, can be found at the blog http://www.pisgah.org/iufro2007/ . For additional information, contact John Stanturf, Southern Research Station, Athens, GA, jstanturf@fs.fed.us

706-559-4316.

IN THE NEWS:

Join SAF's Professional Resource Groups Listserver

SAF has developed seven different online networking groups called Professional Resource Groups designed to facilitate professional and business development. They work just like an e-mail list serve and allow members to pose questions, share best practices and tricks of the trade, and offer advice. Members can join up to three of the following seven groups: Consultants, Forest Certification and Auditing, Urban Forestry, Business Practices and Trends, International Forestry, Forest Technology, and Forest Ecology and Wildland Recreation. For more information about the focus of each group and to determine which one is right for you, visit the

SAF website (http://www.safnet.org/who/networking.cfm).

Forests and Forestry in the Americas: An Encyclopedia is web-based with plans for approximately 300 separate contributed by forest and natural resource scholars and experts. The audience generally will be persons not familiar with forestry, and also students, teachers, journalists, and professionals who want a summary of a subject outside their area of expertise. The Society of American Foresters (SAF) and the International Society of Tropical Foresters (ISTF) are sponsoring this encyclopedia through cooperation with their working groups and members. We currently have about 90 articles posted on this site, and about 60 more in preparation. We are still seeking authors for more subjects that we have identified, or do consider suggestions from those who want to contribute. More info at: http://forestryencyclopedia.jot.com/WikiHome

PAST AND FUTURE ADVENTURES

Redwoods in New Zealand. In early March 2007 US foresters Bill Libby, Tom Gaman and Fred Euphrat met with New Zealand counterparts for a tour of farm forestry redwood plantations on New Zealand’s South Island. The California coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) has been the focus of increasing interest in NZ for several years. As global competition intensifies for markets for radiata pine, and as the value of the US dollar plummets, radiata stumpage prices have fallen and NZ foresters are looking for alternative uses for their lands, which are being converted largely to dairies (at a significant local Kyoto carbon cost). However a few have noticed that the redwood market has sustained itself and prices are actually increasing. Redwood, well adapted to New Zealand’s temperate coastal climate that mirrors its own native range, is looking to be an excellent choice for replanting on former radiata pine plantation sites. Enterprising US timber companies, notably Soper-Wheeler Forest Products in California, have purchased holdings and are planting redwood in areas of 1000 mm rainfall. Challenges abound. There is wide variety of genetic variability in the trees being grown. Fertilization, pruning practices, fierce competition from gorse, broom, bracken, pampas grass, and other fast growing invasive species, and a lingering question about the state of redwood markets in 30 years are all puzzling New Zealand forest landowners. The February 2007 issue of New Zealand Farm Forester details the state of the art. For more information http://www.nzffa.org.nz/tree_grower.cfm?tid=26 .

For those interested in a small group tour of New Zealand forests which includes attending the NZ Farm Forestry Association meeting March 27-31, 2008 see http://www.forestdata.com/ or contact your editor (Tom Gaman) at tgaman@forestdata.com

Exchanges with Russia forestry. The Tahoe-Baikal Institute is a non-profit committed to linkages between the Lake Tahoe area of California and the Siberian Lake Baikal region north of the Mongolia boarder. Baikal, over 31,000 sq. km. and 1627 meters deep, contains 20% of the earth’s fresh water. Each year the Institute sponsors youth and other educational exchanges in partnership with Americorps, The Tahoe Conservancy and other groups. This is a region of great forest resource activity. With sufficient interest from US forester the Tahoe-Baikal Institute has expressed an interest in hosting a forestry exchange. Those interested please see http://www.tahoebaikal.org or contact Tom Gaman for further information..

Brazil Forestry Study Tours. MARCH 30 - APRIL 6 & APRIL 6 -13 2008. The Brazilian forestry sector has achieved operational excellence through cutting-edge forestry practices, global-scale facilities, and technology leadership. Explore this region for investment opportunities and information exchange with a focus on the Brazilian operators who give you a wide exposure to all aspects of the industry. Please contact Mark Willhite, who is again organizing a tour of eucalyptus and pine plantations in Southern Brazil. For more information please contact: 1-503-695-6419 or email mark@worldforestinvestment.com.

JOBS

Looking for a job in international forestry? Subscribe to the DevelopmentEx Newsletter at www.developmentex.com or send an email to recruiting_center@developmentex.com

Contribute to this Newsletter. Please send any short informational contributions on your activities, or on upcoming meetings/activities of interest to international foresters to your occasional newsletter editor. For our next IFWG Newsletter, we need to know what you are doing, and/or other news of interest to WG members, so please send us whatever you are willing to share. We also need to settle on WG goals for 2008, so please send in recommendations of what you would like to see us accomplish in the coming year.

Tom Gaman tgaman@forestdata.com