1 AUSTRALIAN FORESTERS in PAPUA NEW GUINEA 1922-1975 Editor R B McCarthy 2022. Dr Garth Nikles 2020. Photo credit Garth Nikles.JoeHavel.ANUAFSArchives. Part of PNG klinkii/hoop pine trial Danbulla NQ. Age 21.5 years. Bulolo Klinkii left and Okasa Hoop Photoright. credit Garth Nikles. NAME Dr (Donald) Garth NIKLES Qualifications B For Sc (UQ, 1954), Dip For (Australian Forestry School, Canberra, 1954), Master Qualifying (UQ, 1960) and PhD in Tree Breeding (North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA, 1966). 1966 Occupation Renowned international tree breeder especially for Araucaria spp (Hoop pine) and Pinus spp. Friend of PNG Forest plantation research tree breeding researchers. Cooperative activities re Teak, Hoop Pine, Klinkii pine and tropical Pinus spp with Joe Havel, Alan Cameron, Kevin White, John Davidson, and Neville Howcroft and ongoing PNGDOF staff. 1 Dick McCarthy District Forester TPNG Forests 1963 1975. PNGAF MAGAZINE ISSUE # 9B-5B4N2 of 22nd Aug 2022 FOREST MANAGEMENT. Eminent Friends of PNG Forest Plantation Research - Forester Garth Nikles
the achievements were through inspiration, support, and teamwork, including internal and external collaboration. In Australia and overseas, Garth undertook many consultancies and gave training courses with positiveimpacts. Heauthoredorco authored manyconferenceandscientific papers,twobooks and book chapters and edited numerous conference and journal papers He led or co authored genetic improvement strategies and implementation plans for several forest tree species. One consultancy was in Sabah for FAO in 1981. Assuming that the New Guinea araucarias were likely to beimportant in anyfutureplantations in Sabah,Garth arrangedto visit Buloloenroute to Sabah to inspect the plantations, note the research and investigate seed availability. In Sabah he found A. klinkii outstanding in growth and quality, and easily recommended for take up in any future planting program. Through contact with Neville Howcroft et al., Garth has maintained his interest in PNG forestry. Garth has been a Keynote Speaker at several national and international conferences. He has been a co supervisor of several successful PhD students. He was a member of the Institute of Foresters of Australia (receiving its Jolly Medal in 1983) and on the editorial board of Bois & forêts des tropiques since 2010 (despite not much more than his school boy French, bolstered bylaterassociationswithFrenchcolleagues).Garthhasreceivedmanyotherawardssince1960 including a Ford Foundation Fellowship and a Fulbright Scholarship (1963), Rockefeller Foundation Travel Grant (1964 65), IUFRO Distinguished Service Award (1996), Public
NIKLES, Dr (Donald) Garth Garth was born on February 17, 1933, in Warwick, Queensland (Qld), attending the Swanfels andYanganStatePrimarySchools.HegraduatedfromtheWarwickStateHighSchoolin1949. Having enjoyed Geology as a Senior subject, he sought a Geology Scholarship but gained a ForestryCadetship,notingthatGeologywasarequiredsubjectunderthelatterattheUniversity of Qld (UQ). Garth earned his B For Sc (UQ, 1954), Dip For (Australian Forestry School, Canberra, 1954), Master Qualifying (UQ, 1960) and PhD in Tree Breeding (North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA, 1966). In 1955 he began his 45 year, pre retirement professional career in the Queensland Department of Forestry as leader of a small team completing an inventory of Goodnight Scrub near Bundaberg, one of very few places where hoop pine occurs in large pure stands. His next role was Assistant to Silviculturist, Brisbane. Later Garth was appointed Officer-in-Charge, Tree Breeding (1958) located at Beerwah, Qld and, following conspicuous research and application achievements in the biology and genetic improvement of plantation species, as a Senior Principal Research Scientist (Tree Breeding) in the Department’s Forest Research Branch and relocated via two city buildings to Indooroopilly in the late 1980s. After retirement in 2000 and until the present (2022), Garth was able to expand his activities in Tree Improvement as an Associate then Volunteer in the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF), Horticulture and Forestry Science, until 2011 at Indooroopilly, then at the ESP, Dutton Park. Garth and his teams undertook research and development in forest tree genetic improvement, principally with hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii), a number of tropical pines and hybrids (especially Pinus elliottii, P. caribaea and their F1 and F2 hybrids and P. taeda), several Acacia, Eucalyptus and Corymbia species and hybrids, teak (Tectona grandis) and African mahogany (Khaya senegalensis). The work in Queensland on hoop pine and Pinus species and hybrids led to important gains in productivity and timber quality from the extensive industrial Garthplantationsrealises
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Garth and Anne’s 3 generation “family tree” (3 missing) at Maleny in May 2022.
3 Service Medal, Australia (1999), Commonwealth Forestry Association Asia-Pacific Regional Medal (1999), a shared IUFRO World Congress Host Country Scientific Award (2005) and an Award for services to the African mahogany industry in Australia (2011). (IUFRO International Union of Forest Research Organizations).
Garth will continue to live at Kenmore Hills (home since 1971) with Anne (married 1960) and Steven, taking extra time with grandchildren (6) and the other children and spouses Jane (Brookfield), David (Buderim) and Robbie (Melbourne). Reading, music listening and catching up with friends more often will feature in his second retirement.
Garth Nikles/PNGF Forests Collaboration Activities Trial PNG Hoop and Klinkii Pine Danbulla Don Nicholson (mostly) and Garth established a replicated trial of hoop and klinkii provenances in the Danbulla SF near Atherton in Feb 1980. (PNG seed lots provided by Neville) Photo on front cover shows Bulolo klinkii left, Okasa hoop, right The excellence in straightness and form of the klinkii is manifest. Though the Okasa hoop plot pictured does not show similar growth to the klinki, across the trial they were equal at the 17 y measure. However, the klinkii had almost 3 times the ‘top breakage’ 35.7% vs 13%. Mainly for this reason, klinkii planting was not taken up in NQ. (Local klinki seed was available from earlier plantings). They made hybrids between SQ hoop and Bulolo hoop with promising results.
PNG Teak Garth became very interested in teak in PNG right from the 1960s when Kevin White and then Alan Cameron were working on it. This continued through all the ACIAR projects White, K. J. (1962). Tree breeding with teak (Tectona grandis). Aust. Forestry 26(2):90 93. Cameron, A. L. (1966). Genetic improvement of teak in New Guinea. Australian Forestry, 30(1): 76 87. (2) Cameron, A. L. (1967). Forest tree improvement in New Guinea. 1. Teak. Pp. 1 8. Paper prepared for 9th Commonwealth Forestry Conference, 1968. Department of Forests, Port Moresby.
4 Ongoing Collaboration with PNG Tree Breeders.
Our association, over more than 50 years for me personally and in Papua New Guinea that I regard as my second home, has been a great journey in the learning and practicing of silviculture and tree improvement research. But it has also been so for all my officers too, in the forestry at Bulolo Research Station who I hope will see this through Miss Evelyn Jarua to her father and to Gedisa Jeffery at the Forest Research Institute Lae (and at Bulolo now) I must include my former Forestry department staff at UNRE in East New Britain from which I retired at the end of 2017, and my Keravat Forestry staff of the ITTO Balsa Industry Strengthening Project since 1995 to ca. 2003. What I have learnt from you, as well as through you, over these years, I have also shared in the process of capacity building in the field including the classrooms of Bulolo Forestry college, and in the field at Bulolo in seed orchards in establishment and development. One of the several firsts for PNG trained labourers and staff was how to graft and conduct controlled pollinations with Pinus merkusii. These produced hybrids in pilot trials which again were firsts along with trial peeling these to make trial chop sticks. Other fields of achievement indirectly with your inputs and encouragement, were the establishment of seedling seed orchards of Eucalyptus, Pinus patula and Clonal seed orchards of Araucaria and Pinus in the Morobe and Highland provenances. Other projects worth mentioning were the FAO seed collections, of Araucaria and Acacia which were to include E. deglupta in my time. There were many more projects that evolved from these. The last achievement was the ITTO / PNG Forestry Balsa project wherein I did the first Balsa tree improvement program another first for PNG producing good quality stock and PNG becoming self sufficient in good seed. My skills learnt from my Bulolo years started with your mentoring years back. The benefits from this project are still being reaped to this day.
Neville Howcroft OBE 28/6/2022 Retired Head Of Forestry Dept. PNG UNRE ENB. When I heard you were retiring again, I was sorry that time had come.
Finally, in my last 10 years at the University of Natural Resources and environment working on Balsa and Teak, as substantive HOD, I established the foundation of the Forestry Department there. In their School of Natural Resources, I lectured students on farm forestry based on my Queensland and PNG experience. With their first graduates due this year, I believe I can say, without fear of contradiction, that your mentoring, help and encouragement, over the years and using your term “infusion” of years of knowledge and experience, that the skills and knowledge has been passed on to my past staff and students. And all this led to my award of the OBE
So, to wrap up the end of our fruitful association and conclude I would like, on behalf of my Papuan and New Guinea Forestry friends and students and myself, to thank you for your great personnel input into our personal and Forestry lives The length and breadth of this appreciation is deliberately longer than you would like but the purpose is to let the people you have not met understand it not without good reason we thank you for your selfless input to make our lives better Thank You Neville Howcroft Dr John Davidson. (Photo source Dr Davidson.) Garth Nikles, Sally Aitkin (Canada), John D & Gloria D on one of several post Nikles.conductedbreedingcoveredtoursconferencetoQld.whichtreeresearchbyGarth
Evelyn Jarua DOF PNG 30/6/2022. Warm greetings to you both from the Tropics. Thank you for your tremendous contributions towards our tropical forests conserving and expanding some of the valuable tree species in PNG. Also, to trained and work with our retired forester fathers. I wish you two the best in life and enjoy your retirement to the fullest, may your legacies live on like trees. Trees live forever, and their seeds grow again and again. Happy retirement champs! Kind regards Evelyn Jarua Gedisa Koi Jeffrey DOF PNG 3/7/2022. Just returned from Mt Gumi where I was looking out for Kauri Pine seed trees. I want to thank both of you for the seed orchards that are here in Bulolo. Plantation forestry in PNG would not have got off the drawing board if it were not for these orchards especially in Bulolo, Nori Kori, Surinki and other sites that I have not mentioned. I have now been transferred up to Bulolo purposely to replace some of these orchards and establish newer ones. Am currently working on the Pinus carribea CSO in Geshes. Thanks, Garth, for the literatures regarding Hoop & Klinkii that you have sent though the few emails that we have exchanged. I have been involved with Neville in ACIAR Projects for Teak and Balsa in East New Britain and shared a beer or two with him and had once accompanied him to Bulolo where I was privileged to have him explain some of the trials he established during the early years. If you do not mind, I will email both of you from time to time if I run into issues regarding tree breeding. Hope I will not disturb your peace in doing so . Enjoy your well earned retirement and keep in touch. Warmest regards, Gedisa.
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6 ACRONYMS AAD Australian Antarctic Division ACT Australian Capital Territory ACIAR Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research ACLMP AusAid funded World Bank Land Mobilisation program. ACP African, Caribbean and Pacific States ADB Asian Development Bank AEC Administrators Executive Committee AFAP Australian Foundation for the Peoples of Asia & the Pacific Ltd. ADB African Development Bank AFLEGT African Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade AFPNG Association of Foresters of PNG AFS Australian Forestry School AFTA Asean Free Trade Area AIF Australian Infantry Forces AMF Australian Military Forces ANBG Australian National Botanical Gardens ANGAU Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit ANU Australian National University APEC Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation APMF Australian Paper Manufacturers Forestry Pty Ltd APPM Australia Paper and Pulp Manufacturers ARD Afforestation, Reforestation and avoided Deforestation ASEAN Association of South East Asian Nations ASIO Australian Security Intelligence Organisation ASOPA Australian School of Pacific Administration ATIBT Association Technique Internationale des Bois Tropicaux ATL Accelerated Tariff Liberalization ATO African Timber Organization AusAID Australian Aid Agency BA basal area BCOF British Commonwealth Occupational Force 1945 52 BDV Brussels Definition of Value “Beer Time” Any time. BFC Bulolo Forestry College BGD Bulolo Gold Dredging Company BNGD British New Guinea Development (Company Limited) BUC Bulolo University College C Commonwealth cm centimetre CALM Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management CBD Convention on Biological Diversity CDM Clean Development Mechanism CEFACT United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business CEPT Common Effective Preferential Tariff CERFLOR Certificate of Origin of Forest Raw Material, Brazil CFA Commonwealth Forestry Association CFE Community forestry enterprise
COP Conference of Parties
CGTM Cintra for Global Trade Model
CSIRO Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation
FMA Forest Management Agreement
Criteria and indicators
EEA European Economic Area
EIA Environmental Investigation Agency
CHAH Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria
DBH/ dbh Diameter at breast height
F &TB Forest and Timber Bureau Canberra FIM Forest Information System
EC European Commission ECA Export credit agency
ECOSOC Economic and Social Council of the United Nations
DESA United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
C&L Certification and Labelling
FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation
C
DSB Dispute Settlement Body
DPI Department of Primary Industry
CTE Committee on Trade and Environment
ECE Economic Commission for Europe
C&I Criteria and Indicators
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ENB East New Britain Province. e.g. For example ENGO Environmental Non governmental Organisation
CIF cost, insurance, freight
COC chain of custody
DASF Dept of Agriculture, Stock and Fisheries
DEPT Department
EMAS Eco Management and Audit Scheme of European Union
CITES Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora & I
CIFOR Centre for International Forestry Research
CPF Collaborative Partnership on Forests
CRE Commander Royal Engineers
CSD Commission on Sustainable Development (United Nations)
DIES Department of Information and Extension Services
CRE 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).
EMS Environmental Management System
CNGT Commonwealth New Guinea Timbers Bulolo CO2 carbon dioxide
Etc et cetera (more of the same) EU European Union EVSL Early Voluntary Liberalisation
EFI European Forest Institute
DIY Do-it-yourself
DOF Department of Forests
8 FPRC Forest Products Research Centre Hohola FRA Forest Resource Assessment FRG Forest Red Gum FRI Forest Research Institute Lae Forkol Bulolo Forestry College FSP/PNG Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific FCCC See UNFCCC FD Forest department FDI Foreign direct investment FIELD The Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development FLEGT Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade FLEG Forest Law Enforcement and Governance FLONAS National Forest logging concessions, Brazil FOB free on board FSC Forest Stewardship Council FTAA Free Trade Area of the Americas GAB Girth above buttress Gbhob Girth breast height over bark Gubab Girth under bark above buttress GIS Geographic Information Systems G8 Group of Eight (leading economies) GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade GDP Gross Domestic Product GEF Global Environment Facility GFTN Global Forest and Trade Network GFPM Global Forest Products Model GHG greenhouse gas GIS Geographical information system GMO genetically modified organism GNP Gross National Product GPA Plurilateral Government Procurement Agreement GSP Generalized System of Preferences GTZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit ha hectare IBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and Development IEA International Energy Agency IFA Institute of Foresters of Australia IFY International Year of the Forest IADB Inter American Development Bank IBAMA Amazon Environmental Institute, Brazil ICA International Commodity Agreement ICCI International Conference on C&I for Sustainable Forest Management IDB Inter American Development Bank IEA International Environmental Agreement IEC International Electrical Commission IFC International Finance Corporation IFF Intergovernmental Forum on Forests IHPA International Hardwood Products Association IIED International Institute for Environment and Development
9 IMF International Monetary Fund INGO International Non Governmental Organisations IPC Integrated Programme for Commodities IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPF Intergovernmental Panel on Forests ISO International Organization for Standardisation ITC International Trade Centre ITTA International Tropical Timber Agreement ITTC International Tropical Timber Council ITTO International Tropical Timber Organization IUCN The World Conservation Union IWPA International Wood Products Association JICA Japanese International Cooperation Agency L of N League of Nations LRRS Land Resource Soils Survey (branch of CSIRO) LCA Life Cycle Analysis LEEC London Economic and Environmental Centre LEI Indonesian Ecolabelling Institute LULUCF Land Use, Land Use Change and Forests m3 cubic metre MCCAF McCarthy & Associates (Forestry) Pty. Ltd. MHA Member of House of Assembly PNG MM Military Medal MUS Malayan Uniform System MEA Multilateral Environmental Agreement MFN Most Favoured Nation MIGA Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency MOU Memorandum of Understanding MTTC Malaysian Timber Certification Council n.a. not available NAA National Archives Australia NARI National Agriculture Research Institute NB New Britain NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement NGO Non Governmental Organisation NHLA National Hardwood Lumber Association NRRP Natural Resources and Rights Program NT National Treatment NTB non tariff barrier NTCC National Timber Certification Council NTFP non timber forest product NTM non tariff measures NWFP non wood forest product NDS Northern District Sawmills NFCAP PNG National Forestry and Conservation Action Plan NGM New Guinea Mainland no. number NG New Guinea NGF New Guinea Forces (relates to plant collection of Lae Herbarium) NGIB New Guinea Infantry Battalion
10 NGI New Guinea Islands NGO Non Government Organisation NGVR New Guinea Volunteer Rifles NQ North Queensland NZ New Zealand NSW New South Wales NTSC National Tree Seed Centre PNG Bulolo OECD Organization for Economic Co operation and Development OTO Office of Trade and Investment Ombudsman OIC Officer in Charge OISCA Organisation for Industrial, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement International Japan. OTML Ok Tedi Mining Ltd P or p page PEFC Pan European Forest Certification Scheme PIB Papuan Infantry Battalion PIR Pacific Islands Regiment PNG Papua New Guinea PNGAA Papua New Guinea Australia Association PNGAF Papua New Guinea Australian Foresters Magazine Series PNGFA Papua New Guinea Forest Authority PNGFIA PNG Forest Industries Association PNGRIS Papua New Guinea Resource Information System PNGUT PNG University of Technology POM Port Moresby P&C Principles and Criteria PEFC Pan European Forest Certification Framework PGA Plurilateral Agreement on Government Procurement PPM production and processing method PPP Polluter Pays Principle (other meaning Purchasing Power Parity) QLD Queensland QF Queensland Forestry RAE Royal Australian Engineers/Australian Army RPC Royal Papuan Constabulary RRA Rapid Resource Appraisal RIIA Royal Institute of International Affairs RIL reduced impact logging RFE Russia Far East RTA Regional Trade Agreement RWE roundwood equivalent SAP structural adjustment programme SPS Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures SFM Sustainable Forest Management SGS Société General de Surveillance SMS Selective Management System Malaysia SP South Pacific SPWP Secondary Processed Wood Products sq m square metres TAG Trade Advisory Group of ITTO TSS Tropical Shelterwood System
11 TBT Technical Barriers to Trade TFF Tropical Forest Foundation TFRK traditional forest related knowledge TNC Transnational corporation TRAINS Trade Basic Indicators of UNCTAD TREM trade related environmental measures TRIM Trade Related Investment Measures TRIP Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights UK United Kingdom UN United Nations Unasylva Journal of FAO of UN UNCCD United Nations Programme to Combat Desertification UNCED United Nations Conference on Environment and Development UNCSD United Nations Committee on Sustainable Development UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UNESCO United Nations Economic and Social Council UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNECE United Nations Economic Commission for Europe UNEP United Nations Environment Programme UNFCCC Framework Convention on Climate Change of United Nations UNFF United Nations Forum on Forests US, USTR Office of the US Trade Representative UNE University of New England Armidale NSW UNEP United Nations Environment Program UNI University UNITECH University of Technology Lae PNG UNRE University of Natural Resources and Environment UPNG University of Papua New Guinea UQ University of Queensland US United States USA United States of America USD United States dollar TPNG Territory of Papua and New Guinea TUBL Territory United Brewery Ltd TA Timber Area TA Timber Authority TRP Timber Rights Purchase Vol volume VSF Victorian School of Forestry WA Western Australia WB World Bank WCMC World Conservation Monitoring Centre WCO World Customs Organisation WSSD World Summit for Sustainable Development WTO World Trade Organization WWF World Wide Fund for Nature
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