PNGAF MAGAZINE ISSUE # 9B - 2 of 25th March 2021.

AUSTRALIAN FORESTERS in PAPUA NEW GUINEA 1900-1975

PNGAF MAGAZINE ISSUE # 9B - 2 of 25th March 2021 ECOLOGICAL FACTORS TO CONSIDER IN PNG’S RAINFOREST MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS THE PLACE OF RAINFOREST

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Editor R B McCarthy2 2021

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New Horizons p 5 Jacaranda Press 1973 ISBN0701681845. Dept of Forests PNG data.

District Forester TPNG 1963-1975

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TABLE OF CONTENTS “FORWOOD”

page 3

Ecological Factors to consider in PNG’s Rainforest Management Systems Definition of Rainforest

page 5 page 5

Ecological Factors affecting Rainforest Development The Rainforest Environment Plant Ecology Climax

page 8 page 8 page 8 page 8

The Factors of the Environment

page 8

Climate Factors Rainfall Temperature Light Microclimate

page 8 page 8 page 10 page 10 page 11

Soil Factors Two soil-forming factors Swamp Soils Dryland Soils Laterization Podsolization Rainforest Soils Nutrient Status

page 13 page 13 page 13 page 13 page 13 page 13 page 13

Topographic Factors

page 15

Biotic Factor Flora Fauna Microorganisms Man Fire associated with Man’s activities

page 17 page 17 page 18 page 18 page 19 page 21

Historic Factors

page 22

Bibliography

page 23

Acronyms

page 24

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“FORWOOD” By reviewing ecological principles, one can consider and understand the occurrence and behaviour of rainforest. Rainforest results from the interaction of five factors: climatic, soil, topographic, biotic, and historic.

Locally, any one factor may prove to be limiting, but, in the end, the distribution and nature of rainforest depends on all five. Some of these are amenable to certain change by the forester, but others are immutable, and provide definite limitations on the forester’s activities.

Within the host of climatic conditions, the forester can exert some control. For example, temperature, humidity, and light, can be varied by manipulation of the forest cover and such manipulation forms the basis for silvicultural treatment in several rainforest areas.

Rainforest soils tend to be generally infertile and deficient in plant nutrients. It is probably that infertility which provides the main limit to production on rainforest sites. Rainforest plants are clearly adapted to making the best use of those infertile sites.

Soil is a most important factor in rainforest management and one that cannot be appreciably altered by management. It provides definite limitations on what can be achieved by forest management. Hence, care must be taken when selecting species for tree growing schemes that are suited to the soil type and location. E.g., Acacia mangium will not grow on swampy sites but many Terminalia spp will.

Rainforest composition and development is strongly influenced by topographic effects. It plays an important role in rainforest management. Compartment boundaries are very dependent on topography. Although a regular subdivision could be superimposed at will, whether in hilly or mountainous terrain, management would be totally impracticable, and boundaries must be based on local features of relief. Similarly, logging setups must be based on topographic features.

The biotic factor refers to all the animals and soil microorganisms which shelter within the rainforest and in the rainforest soils. These include various animals including Man and fire, and in the soil, many flora and fauna microorganisms.

The historic factor refers to the history (time) of any rainforest community - especially the environmental pressures to which the rainforest has been subjected to, possibly hundreds of years previously, but which are still reflected in certain features of the forest.

An appreciation of the ecological factors is essential, wherever rainforest areas are to be brought under scientific management of any format. In considering the management of rainforests, foresters need to: • Understand the ecological factors determining the nature and extent of rainforest.

• Ascertain the extent of utilization of the rainforest sites (e.g., cutting limits).

• Address the question of rainforest silvicultural (the art and science of producing and tending forests by manipulating their establishment, species composition, structure, and dynamics to fulfill given management objectives) where particular attention must be paid to the techniques involved in the use of natural regeneration techniques.

• Through a combination of all the above, implement a program of forest management for the specific rainforest site in conjunction with the rainforest owner.

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Economic factors frequently outweigh the ecological factors in significance. However, the basic premise remains, economic conditions in this technological age can change with alarming rapidity, but the ecological behaviour of rainforest communities and of the species making up those communities is relatively immutable and can be disregarded only at great risk to the final success of management operations.

Trees of Papua New Guinea Vol 1 – 3

by Barry J Conn and Kipiro Q Damas www.pngtrees.com A three-volume series of books called the Trees of Papua New Guinea published

by Xlibris Australia in April 2019. The book is written by two scientists based on 16 years of research. The books provide readers with descriptions of trees with images and identification tools to assist in their identification. These volumes unlock the amazing tree diversity found in majestic forests that range from the coastal and lowland plains to the highest mountains. The three volumes will enable those who are responsible for natural resource management to improve their skills on trees in these forests so that they can fully appreciate the richness of the biologically diverse forests.

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ECOLOGICAL FACTORS TO CONSIDER IN PNG’S RAINFOREST MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS Definition of Rainforest Previously described in PNGAF Magazine # 9 -1 page 6, within the tropics, there are a wide range of forests broadly divided into four main types: • • • •

The lowland formations, comprising the tropical rain forests.

The moist deciduous forests.

The dry and very dry forest zones.

The upland formations.

By far the greatest concentration of the tropical rain forest is in the Amazon Basin. This huge area of forest, which covers north western Brazil and stretches into the neighbouring countries of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, accounts for two-thirds of the world's tropical moist forest. Asia has the next largest area, mostly in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea. Africa tropical rainforest is almost entirely in the Congo and Zaire.

The tropical rain forests are so called because they occur in areas with annual rainfall of more than about 2 500 mm. It is a multi-storeyed community containing trees, which are mostly evergreen, luxuriant, and rich in tree species as well as in other plant and animal life. The trees are frequently buttressed and/or stilt rooted, their leaves tend to be mesomorphic, entire, usually mesophylls in size, frequently compound and often equipped with drip tips and pulvini. Heavy vines are often abundant, cauliflory is common, and vascular epiphytes are normally plentiful. The tallest trees usually exceed 30 metres in height. They are a major source of the world's hardwoods.

Rainforest3, as interpreted by foresters, can be defined as a closed community of essentially, but not exclusively evergreen trees, usually with two or more layers of trees and shrubs, and with other dependent botanical forms, such as vines and epiphytes.

Rainforest in the broadest sense, vary considerable in their physiognomy and floristic composition, with the varying environmental factors that shape all plant communities.

Any techniques to bring rainforest under scientific management must rest upon a sound understanding of the ecology of the plant community.

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George Baur The Ecological Basis of Rainforest Management Andre Mayer Fellowship 1961-62 FAO

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Flood plain Rainforest Gogol Timber Area. Photo credit Ian Whyte 1971.

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Middle Ramu Rainforest. Photo credit Dick McCarthy.

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ECOLOGICAL FACTORS AFFECTING RAINFOREST DEVELOPMENT The Rainforest Environment Plant Ecology Plant ecology is often described as the study of the relationships between plants and their environment. It does serve to stress that an important section of ecology deals with the effects of environment upon the occurrence and development of vegetation. In this context, environment can be interpreted as including all those external factors that influence the nature of vegetation in any way.

It should be noted that rainforest vegetation is comprised of living organisms, and consequently it is continually changing, as the individual plants pass through the various stages of their life cycle to ultimate death and to replacement by new plants of the same or different species.

When the continual process of change reaches a state of relative equilibrium, so that the general composition and character of the vegetation remains broadly the same over a given area for a period longer than the life span of the longest living individual, then the vegetation can be regarded as climax.

To attain this state of internal dynamic equilibrium, vegetation must also be in a state of equilibrium with its environment.

By reviewing ecological principles, one can consider and understand the occurrence and behaviour of rainforest.

THE FACTORS OF THE ENVIRONMENT The factors of the environment that lead to the development of climax vegetation are divided into five groups: climate, soil, topographic, biotic, and historic.

If any of these factors alter in space, so will the climax vegetation alter.

CLIMATIC FACTORS Climatic factors which affect vegetation include rainfall, temperature, light, wind, and microclimate.

Rainfall Rainforest can only exist where the annual rainfall exceeds a certain minimum (approx. 1250 mm annually) and there is no prolonged drought. The rainfall pattern, plays an important part as the flowering and fruiting of many species are closely related to the seasonal change e.g., Terminalia spp. Some tree species may be deciduous due to the seasonal changes.

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Water fall Vanimo Rainforest. Photo credit Ian Whyte 1974.

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Temperature The temperature regime of rainforest sites is essentially that which would be expected in such areas by virtue of altitude and latitude. Temperature itself does not exert a particularly significant role in limiting the distribution of rainforest in its widest sense, except where winters are severe, as in most of the northern temperature zone, or where mean temperatures are consistently low, as in tropical high mountains or southern hemisphere latitudes. In both latter cases, the disappearance of rainforest is often less an effect of temperature than of exposure.

On the other hand, temperature plays a most significant role in determining the distribution of various species within the rainforest.

Temperature is the dominant factor affecting the relative distribution of the tropical and temperate rainforest formations, as well as certain of the individual sub-formations such as sub-montane, montane, subtropical, warm, and cool temperate rainforest.

Light Light is one of the most important dependent, micro-climatic factors in its effect on rainforests, but is relatively unimportant as an independent factor in broad regional climatic patterns. It is of course an essential factor in the development of any vegetation, as the source of the photosynthetic energy needed for plant growth.

Poor penetration of light in Vanimo Rainforest. Photo credit Ian Whyte 1974.

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Light opening Vanimo Rainforest. Photo credit Ian Whyte 1974.

Wind Wind behaviour varies considerably in the areas where rainforest occurs and on a limited scale, may even prevent the development of rainforest entirely in sites that appear otherwise suitable.

The main ecological effects resulting from wind action include: • • •

Air movement influences transpiration.

Areas, subject to dry seasonal winds create conditions for uncontrolled wildfire to sweep into the rainforest margins.

The impact of cyclones may cause uprooting of large trees, blow down already dead trees and cause severe crown damage to smaller stems.

Microclimate Because of the multi-storeyed structure of the rainforest, microclimate effects play a significant role in the development and distribution of the rainforest. The microclimate within any area of rainforest varies from the top of the uppermost tree canopy, where conditions are broadly like those in an area of open ground, to ground level, where virtually all the external climatic effects are dampened by the lateral and vertical spread of vegetation on all sides, producing a remarkable equable climate.

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Microclimate for understorey Vanimo Rainforest. Photo credit Ian Whyte 1974.

It is this host of climatic conditions, which are amendable to some control by the forester. For example, temperature, humidity, and light can be varied by manipulation of the forest cover and such manipulation forms the basis for silvicultural treatment in several rainforest areas.

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SOIL Soil is important for plant growth in the rainforest in several ways. It provides the physical support and anchorage needed before any tree growth is possible, and it directly or indirectly supplies the nutrients and moisture required by plants. Both functions of the soil are important for rainforest development.

Two Soil Forming factors Two soil-forming factors are common to all rainforest regions, namely abundant moisture, (usually from rain through most of the year) and luxuriant vegetation.

Swamp Soils Where the moisture does not readily drain away so that the soil is covered in water (inundated) for all or much or the year, the swampy conditions dominate all other factors and produce characteristic swamp soils. These swamp soils are of two basic types, depending on the presence or absence of an appreciable surface layer of peat.

Swamp soils lacking peat are by far the more widespread, often occupying extensive areas along the floodplains of major streams and in other areas subject to prolonged water logging.

Peaty soils are less common in rainforest areas but still important. e.g., Sarawak, Sumatra. In contrast to the swamp non-peat soils, the swamp peat soils develop in sites where the water source is extremely deficient in nutrients and most commonly occur just inland from the mangrove forests of the coast.

Dryland Rainforest Soils Dryland rainforest soils are subject to quite different formation processes, both dependent upon high precipitation and consequent severe and continued leaching of the soil. Under tropical conditions, the temperatures at the soil surface are sufficiently high to prevent the accumulation of organic matter. This is called the process of laterization, by which the quite common red and yellow soils of the humid tropics are produced.

Under cooler conditions, the opposite process, podsolization, occurs. Here, humus tends to accumulate.

The two processes of laterization and podsolization, together account for the formation of most dryland rainforest soils. Both are associated with the rapid leaching of nutrients from the soil such that one finds that many tropical rainforest soils are infertile yet carry very luxuriant vegetation.

Rainforest Soils Nutrient Status The soils on which the rain forests grow tend to be shallow and poor in nutrients. This has been described as “deserts covered by rainforest”. The explanation lies in the closed nutrient cycle, which the vegetation sets up. The high growth rates and intense biological activity of the forest is based upon a quick recycling of organic waste material back into the growing plants.

This issue is well known and there are many global examples of disastrous attempts at land settlement where people have ignored this phenomenon of trying to farm on the infertile

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rainforest soils. In many areas, if the trees are removed and the land is used for agriculture, the nutrient cycle is broken and the inherent lack of fertility of the soil is quickly revealed.

If after clearing a rainforest site, forest vegetation can redevelop on those sites, the closed nutrient cycle can be gradually re-established. The speed of the re-establishment depends on the initial fertility of the soil. Typically, secondary succession back to rainforest occurs and the slow increase in the ecosystem’s nutrient cycle provides the basis for the widespread shifting cultivation and bush fallow agricultural systems of the humid tropics. These systems, however, rely on sufficient time to elapse between successive clearings for the nutrient content of the ecosystem to build up to a level akin to that in the mature rainforest. If the population pressure is such that insufficient time elapses between successive clearings, then soil degradation of an almost permanent nature will occur. This appears to have happened in the Maya empire of pre Columbian Central America and probably accounts for many areas that have been changed from rainforest to savanna in the tropics.

Rainforest soils tend to be generally infertile and deficient in plant nutrients. It is probably that infertility, which provides the main limit to production on rainforest sites. Rainforest plants are clearly adapted to making the best use of these infertile sites.

Soil is a most important factor in rainforest management and one that cannot be appreciably altered by management. It provides definite limitations on what can be achieved by forest management. Hence, care must be taken when selecting species for tree growing schemes that are suited to the soil type and location. E.g., Acacia mangium will not grow on swampy sites but many Terminalia spp will.

Volcanic activity is the only other soil forming and nutrient adding source for rainforest. Bob Wills on top of Matupit Volcano showing ash layers Rabaul 1968. Photo Credit Ian Whyte.

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TOPOGRAPHIC FACTORS Topography, in its effect on the vegetation, acts as a combination of climate and soil, and, although of appreciable local significance, topography is of less general importance in determining rainforest composition and structure than are the two previous groups of factors i.e., climate and soil. The effects of topography can be grouped into two classes – modifying the climate and modifying soil characteristics.

On an extremely broad scale, some of the effects of topography on climate have been highlighted, particularly the decrease in temperature with the increase in altitude and the widespread increase in precipitation with increase in altitude, while the land configuration can also have an important bearing on rainfall patterns.

Diagram from New Horizons p 5 Jacaranda Press 1973 ISBN0701681845. Dept of Forests PNG data.

Solar energy, particularly beyond the tropics, can be greatly modified by aspect. In the southern hemisphere, south facing slopes are more shaded, cooler and carry more of a rainforest type forest than the north facing and hence hotter slopes which have an open savannah (e.g., Eucalypt spp) vegetation more suited to the hotter environment. The reverse in terms of vegetation distribution holds true in the northern hemisphere.

Exposure to wind is largely determined by topography. Examples readily seen are the relationship between topography and cyclone damage; the restriction in height of rainforest stands in sites exposed to the prevailing winds (e.g., south-easterly winds of the Atherton plateau in Queensland) and the better development of rainforest in sheltered west facing slopes. Similarly, due to wind in many areas we see the reduction of rainforest vegetation to scrub and thickets on exposed ridges.

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Topography modifies soil characteristics, with the soil type varying in a recurrent pattern from gulley bottom to ridge top. This greatly affects rainforest vegetation with the more luxuriant development of vegetation in the valley floors.

Rainforest composition and development is strongly influenced by topographic effects. It plays an important role in rainforest management. Compartment boundaries are very dependent on topography. Although a regular subdivision could be superimposed at will, whether in hilly or mountainous terrain, management would be totally impracticable, and boundaries must be based on local features of relief. Similarly, logging setups must be based on topographic features.

Cloudy Bay Abau Timber Area. Photo credit Dick McCarthy.

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THE BIOTIC FACTOR The biotic factor refers to all the animals and soil microorganisms which shelter within the rainforest and in the rainforest soils. These include various animals including Man, and in the soil many flora and fauna microorganisms.

Foresters divide the biotic factor into flora, fauna, microorganisms, and Man. In describing Man’s activities on rainforest development, the influence of fire is discussed in detail, as fire is mainly associated with Man’s activities.

Flora Rainforest vegetation can be regarded as having several distinct and far distant floristic origins, which have produced broad floristic elements. Of these, the pan-tropical element, and to a lesser extent, the Antarctic element, are of major importance. The northern element e.g., Quercus (oak) appears to have its origins in the pan-tropical element, but it reached its greatest development in the more northern temperate climates even though some species occur in the tropics.

Probably one of the best examples of how the various rainforest regions of the world can be enriched by recruits from other vegetation elements is to see the widespread plantings of eucalypts spp from Australia into these vegetation types e.g., the enormous planting of eucalypts into South America, Asia, and Africa on what were rainforest sites.

In broad terms, the occurrence of rainforest depends as much on suitable plant species (flora) capable of producing a rainforest type as on suitable climatic and soil conditions. There are many parts of say south western Australia and South Africa, and South America which would be quite suitable for supporting rainforest. The absence of rainforest is probably due to the existence of extensive barriers as oceans and deserts that stopped the migration of rainforest species.

The recognition of the origins of various rainforest elements can help explain complex silvicultural problems. In New Zealand, the original temperate rainforests were composed of a mixture of podocarps and broad-leaved trees. It has long been recognized that the podocarps are in slow decline in these forests. One explanation may be that the podocarps are from pre-glacial times and the broad-leaved trees are from more recent times. Because of gradual environmental changes, it is a gradual change of the broad-leaved trees replacing the podocarps.

The distribution of individual species is not necessarily related only to their tolerance to the environment. It can be due to competition between species, and in many instances the seed dispersal mechanisms.

In rainforest management, inherent differences in the characteristics of certain species create many problems. These can include: • Differences in timber qualities between species.

• Differences in the ease and prevalence of regeneration.

• Occurrence of unwanted species (e.g., stinging trees and vines which stop desirable species regrowth) and their susceptibility to poisoning etc.

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Fauna Danger from wildlife in the rainforest rarely lies with the larger mammals, but the real danger is from disease carrying insects, spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites etc. (arachnids) which act as hosts for various human diseases. Such diseases to this day hamper Man’s attempts to manage rainforest in the tropics to his own advantage and have severely retarded development of the humid tropics in the past.

However, there are many examples of animal life exerting a real influence on the course of rainforest development. The most fundamental of these influences is the part played by various animals, insects, and micro-organisms in breaking down plant remains and the distribution of the resultant organic matter throughout the soil, thus continuing the recycling of nutrients. It is this rapid turnover of nutrients, that in no small measure, determines the luxuriant appearance of rainforest.

Pollination and seed dispersal in rainforest depend largely on the assistance of animals and birds etc. The reduced air movement within the rainforest results in wind pollination being most unreliable. It seems likely that most rainforest plants, even trees in the upper storeys are insect or bird pollinated. For similar reasons, an extremely high proportion of rainforest seeds are distributed by animals. Because of the widespread animal dispersal, regeneration may often show little correlation with the occurrence of seed trees nearby.

Not all the effects of animals etc. are so constructive to rainforest communities. There are many destructive effects caused by fauna. For example: • • •

The loss of immature fruit by birds and animals.

Attacks by insects.

Grazing on plants.

In virgin forests such destruction, is constantly occurring but the balance is preserved with little or very gradual effect on the composition of the rainforest. However, under the unnatural conditions often imposed by Man’s activities e.g., with areas of extensive regeneration, there may be severe insect attack or browsing on enrichment plantings.

Microorganisms Microorganisms play a major role in the breakdown of plant debris. They can enter damaged trees, causing decay and subsequent degrading log quality. In the soil, various fungi and bacteria are of utmost importance in the nutrient cycles. The symbiotic association between members of the Leguminosae and certain bacteria is probably the major source of nitrogen in many rainforest soils. In the rainforest there is a common abundance of leguminous trees, mycorrhizal associations between fungi and vascular plants are quite common in rainforest. e.g., Pinus spp. and mycorrhizal associations for the uptake of various nutrients.

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Man Man is merely a specialized type of animal, and the impact of truly primitive man on the rainforest was, and in a few instances still is, no greater than that of other animals. He destroyed a few plants for food and to fill his simple needs. He hunted some of the animals, but his influence was little greater than that of the larger apes and probably much less than that of large animals as elephants.

However, as his living standards rose, his influence became much greater. He used more plants for his daily living, and in the process sought greater use of the forests. His use of fire for hunting had important repercussions at the edges of the rainforest areas. However, when Man learnt to introduce agriculture to the rainforest areas, his capacity for destruction and change became almost unlimited.

In some areas, the original inhabitants of rainforest areas never developed agriculture, and hence the effects of Man on the rainforest were minimal. However, in most areas, shifting agriculture was introduced. Forest patches were cleared by axe and fire, planted with food crops for one or more seasons, and then when the fertility of the soil was exhausted, the area could revert to forest. At best, a secondary succession was set up, and the effects of this may persist in the forest composition and structure for several centuries.

Gogol Timber Area detailing shifting agriculture on steep slopes. Note the individual garden plots and induced regrowth. Photo credit Ian Whyte 1971.

At worst, the rainforest was almost permanently destroyed, to be replaced by grassland or savannah.

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With more settled forms of agriculture, and an increasing population, the destruction or alteration of rainforest became generally more severe.

Plantation clearing for teak and kamarere. Kerevat ENB.1968. Photo credit Ian Whyte.

Roading incursion Cloudy Bay Timber Area. Photo credit Dick McCarthy.

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Fire associated with Man’s activities and its impact on rainforest.

Although fire is most often associated with Man’s activities, fire can also be produced by lightning and sometimes volcanic action.

1970 Survey Ossima. Dick McCarthy participating in ceremonial burning of the haus pec-pec (toilet) at the Base Camp (comment by Ian “your effort at putting the fire out did not work”). Photo credit Ian Whyte.

Bulolo Plantation Establishment.

Photo credit Cliff Southwell.

Rainforest in its virgin state is quite immune to fire. However, under exceptional conditions of hot and continuing dry weather, some and possibly all rainforest communities can carry fire.

However disturbed rainforest is more prone to fire damage, a fact utilized by farmers in shifting agriculture.

After fire, a succession leading back to rainforest is usually established. However, if fire is repeated frequently enough, the development of more fire resistant species is favoured e.g., kunai grass. In Australia, repeated burning favours the fire-resistant eucalypts that extend their range or are maintained at the expense of rainforest.

Fire is of major importance as an environmental factor in determining over vast areas, the margin between rainforest and some other form of plant formation, as grassland or savanna. On a world scale, there is probably a greater distance of rainforest margin limited primarily by fire than any other factor.

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THE HISTORIC FACTOR The historic factor refers to the history (time) of any rainforest community - especially the environmental pressures to which the rainforest has been subjected to, possibly hundreds of years previously, but which are still reflected in certain features of the forest.

As previously discussed, rainforest has a very discontinuous distribution which is shown by both great floristic elements that make up the rainforest flora, and hence both the tropical and temperate rainforest formations. The three separate occurrences of tropical rainforest in the Earth’s main equatorial land masses, and, even more striking, the disjunctive occurrence of temperate rainforest in South America, in New Zealand, in eastern Australia, in tropical montane regions and to some extent, in South Africa, are all reflections of far distant migrations of vegetation i.e., history, and of connections between these areas.

At a more local level, the discontinuity of rainforest in eastern Australia, and in Africa, can be related to the more favourable conditions for rainforest development existing in these areas during past historic time. Since then, changing climate and biotic pressures have led to a great contraction of rainforest areas.

Within existing areas of rainforest, the presence of other plant formations is often explained by past historic events.

• For example, many of the grasslands throughout PNG may well be caused by repeated burning by the local community for food and due to escaped fires from clearing sites for gardening rather than just soil type.

• Another example is the grasslands of the Bunya Mountains in south Queensland are believed to be due to the regular gathering by aborigines to feast on the seeds of Araucaria bidwillii.

The appearance of certain individual species within rainforest may reflect happenings long gone.

•

•

For example, the dominance of kwila species in the Gogol forests of Madang hinterland is believed to be due to past civilizations, unable to fell the hard kwila because they did not have steel axes. Consequently, the vegetation following their subsistence agriculture practices demonstrated a predominance of kwila spp.

For example, the dominance of Octomeles on the areas devastated by the volcanic blasts of Mt Lamington suggests that other areas in PNG, where this species forms a single dominant layer, may also have been subject to similar catastrophic events in the past.

Concluding remarks re ecological factors affecting rainforest development. Rainforest results from the interaction of the five groups of factors (climate, soil, topographic, biotic, and historic). Locally, any one factor may prove to be limiting, but, in the end, the distribution and nature of rainforest depends on all five. Some of these are amenable to certain change by the forester, but others are immutable, and provide definite limitations on the forester’s activities. An appreciation of these distinctions is essential wherever rainforest areas are to be brought under scientific management of any type.

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Bibliography George Baur. The Ecological Basis of Rainforest Management. Andre Mayer Fellowship 1961-62. FAO. Barry Conn and Kipiro Damas. Trees of Papua New Guinea Vol 1-3 www.pngtrees.com Dept of Forests PNG. New Horizons. Jacaranda Press 1973 ISBN0701681845.

T C Whitmore 1990. An Introduction to Tropical Rain Forests. ISBN 0194424480

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ACRONYMS ACT AEC AFS AFPNG AIF AMF ANBG ANGAU ANU APMF APPM ASIO ASOPA BCOF “Beer Time” BFC BGD BUC C cm CALM CFA CNGT CRE CRE

CSIRO CHAH DASF DEPT DOF E.g.

Etc FAO F &TB FPRC Forkol GIS ha IBRD IFA ITTO L of N

Australian Capital Territory Administrators Executive Committee Australian Forestry School Association of Foresters of PNG Australian Infantry Forces Australian Military Forces Australian National Botanical Gardens Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit Australian National University Australian Paper Manufacturers Forestry Pty Ltd Australia Paper and Pulp Manufacturers Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Australian School of Pacific Administration British Commonwealth Occupational Force 1945-52 Any time.

Bulolo Forestry College Bulolo Gold Dredging Company Bulolo University College Commonwealth Centimetre Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management Commonwealth Forestry Association Commonwealth New Guinea Timbers Bulolo Commander Royal Engineers CRE is a term inherited by RAE from RE and is the term for the Commanding Officer of a RAE unit which is headed by a Lt Col. Although the officer is called the CRE the name is also used for the name of his unit. E.g., CRE Aust Forestry Group or 1(NG Forests).

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria Dept of Agriculture, Stock and Fisheries Department Department of Forests For example et cetera (more of the same) Food and Agriculture Organisation Forest and Timber Bureau Canberra Forest Products Research Centre Hohola Bulolo Forestry College Geographic Information Systems Hectare International Bank for Reconstruction and Development Institute of Foresters of Australia International Tropical Timber Organization League of Nations 24

m3 MM NAA NARI NB no.

NG NGF NGIB NGVR NZ NSW P or p PIB PIR PNG PNGAA PNGAF PNGFA PNGFIA PNGRIS PNGUT POM Q QF RAE RPC SFM SP UK UN Unasylva UNE UNI UNITECH UNRE UPNG UQ US USA TPNG TUBL TA TA TRP VSF WA WB WW2

cubic metre Military Medal National Archives Australia National Agriculture Research Institute New Britain Number New Guinea New Guinea Forces (relates to plant collection of Lae Herbarium) New Guinea Infantry Battalion New Guinea Volunteer Rifles New Zealand New South Wales page Papuan Infantry Battalion Pacific Islands Regiment Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea Australia Association Papua New Guinea Australian Foresters Magazine Series Papua New Guinea Forest Authority PNG Forest Industries Association Papua New Guinea Resource Information System PNG University of Technology Port Moresby Queensland Queensland Forestry Royal Australian Engineers/Australian Army Royal Papuan Constabulary Sustainable Forest Management South Pacific United Kingdom United Nations Journal of FAO of UN University of New England Armidale NSW University University of Technology Lae PNG University of Natural Resources and Environment University of Papua New Guinea University of Queensland United States United States of America Territory of Papua and New Guinea Territory United Brewery Ltd Timber Area Timber Authority Timber Rights Purchase Victorian School of Forestry Western Australia World Bank WORLD WAR 2

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