Socio-Economic Evaluation of the Potential for Australian Tree Species in the Philippines

Crop Production/Industries,

Empirical investigation of investment behaviour in Australia's pastoral region

Optimal intertemporal investment behaviour ofAustralian pastoralists is modelled using panel data for the period 1979–1993.Results indicate that quasi-fixity of inputs of labour, capital, sheep numbers and cattle numbers is characteristic of production in the pastoral region. It takes about two years for labour, four years for capital and a little over two years for both sheep numbers and cattle numbers to adjust towards long-run optimal levels. Results also indicate that, after accounting for adjustment costs, own-price product supply and input demand responses are inelastic in both the short and long run.adjustment costs, pastoralism, supply response, Agribusiness,

The relationship between EUV dimming and coronal mass ejections

Aims. There have been many studies of extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) dimming in association with coronal mass ejection (CME) onsets. However, there has never been a thorough statistical study of this association, covering appropriate temperature ranges. Thus, we make use of a large campaign database utilising the Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer (CDS) and the Large Angle and Spectrometric COronagraph (LASCO) both on the SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) to associate dimming events detected at 1 and 2 million K with CME activity. The aim is to confirm whether the dimming-CME association is real or not. This in turn will confirm whether special attention should be paid to the EUV dimming in the pre-eruption and eruption periods to study the CME onset process itself. Methods. The CDS CME onset campaign data for Mg IX and FE XVI observations on the solar limb are used to compare to LASCO event lists over a period from 1998 to 2005. Dimming events are identified and the physical extent explored, whilst comparing the events to overlying CME activity. Results. For the identified dimming regions we have shown strong associations with CME onsets, with up to 55% of the dimming events being associated with CME activity. This is compared to the random case where up to 47% of the dimming regions are expected to be associated with CMEs. We have also shown that up to 84% of CMEs associated with our data can be tracked back to dimming regions. This compares to a random case of up to 58%. Conclusions. These results confirm the CME-EUV dimming association, using a statistical analysis for the first time. We discuss the repercussions for the study of CME onsets, i.e. analysis of the dimming regions and the periods up to such dimming may be key to understanding the pre-CME onset plasma processes. The results stress that one emission line may not be sufficient for associating dimming regions with CMEs

Deriving the discount rate for seedling nurseries and other livelihood projects

A critical parameter in the financial appraisal of forestry investment projects is the discount rate or required rate of return by the investor – usually taken as the weighted average cost of capital – used to convert incremental net cash flows to their present values. For forestry projects by smallholder and indigenous communities, relatively high discount rates are invariably adopted in investment project assessment (IPA). Long payback period and uncertain or community tenure can make formal sources of lending inaccessible. An assessment of availability of finance and of previous investment studies for small-scale forestry-related projects in the Philippines suggests an appropriate discount rate of about 20% per annum in current price terms or about 15% for constant price analysis (net of inflation)

Workshop objectives and program

ACIAR project ASEM/2003/052 – Improving financial returns to smallholder tree farmers in the Philippines had a ‘start date’ of 1 January 2005, and was scheduled to finish in December 2007, but the ‘finish date’ was extended to December 2008. The main agencies carrying out the ‘smallholder tree farm project’ had been The University of Queensland and the Visayas State University, with Professor Jerry Vanclay and RTD Edilberto Nasayao as collaborating scientists from collaborating organizations (Southern Cross University and Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Region 8, respectively)

Tree registration in the Philippines: a governance perspective

This paper introduces the concept of ‘governance’ in relation to smallholder forestry, and examines governance issues concerning tree registration and harvest and transport approval in the Philippines. The difficulties faced in relation to tree registration by the various stakeholder groups – particularly the DENR and smallholders – are examined, and potential regulatory reforms reviewed. It is concluded that there is scope for improvements in tree registration and related regulations, but there are strong impediments to change

Agroforestry farming practices of smallholders in Leyte and implications for agroforestry systems design

This paper examines evidence from the Leyte Island smallholder socio-economic survey, on the agroforestry systems adopted by smallholders in terms of timber trees and other crops. A number of broad categories of agroforestry systems may be identified, in terms of smallholders growing various tree and crop species and raising livestock on the same land parcels. However, there do not appear to be any favoured and widely adopted species mixtures with particularly high performance that could be rolled-out more widely. Also, at a land-use block level, survey data provides little evidence of widely-adopted specific agroforestry systems

Developing the best management practice guide for high quality seedling production in smallholder nurseries

The implementation of a forest nursery accreditation policy is a major step towards improving the success of Philippine forestry. However, among the major requisites for the successful implementation of the policy are the substantial knowledge and skills of nursery operators to produce high quality seedlings and a full appreciation of tree farmers and forestry project implementers of the multiple benefits of using high quality planting stock. For this purpose, a best management practice guide for production of high quality seedlings was developed as part of the implementation of ACIAR Project ASEM/2006/091. Information and technologies from various sources were extracted, screened and collated to come up with a robust manual for smallholder-based high quality seedling production. This paper discusses the process of developing the BMP manual, presents the summary of its content and provides suggestions for further development of the material

Modelling production cost and financial return of forest reproduction materials in relation to nursery size

Forestry seedling production in the Philippines takes place in government, industrial, smallholder and community nurseries. While it might be expected that seedling production costs decrease as nursery size increases, surveys have revealed that nursery operators have little knowledge about their seedling production costs. To overcome this lack of information, financial models have been developed in the ACIAR seedling enhancement project for forestry nurseries of a range of sizes, for nurseries using durable infrastructure, producing seedlings of indigenous tree species, and following best management practices in seedling production. These reveal that the cost per seedling is high for small nurseries, but becomes relatively constant at about $0.35 US per seedling for annual production above about 25,000 seedlings a year. The need is identified for further research on nursery costs (particularly in relation to labour costs, source and type of germplasm), market demand for seedlings from nurseries accredited with adopting best management practice, and benefits of vertical and horizontal integration of forestry nurseries

Effects of Bulk and Surface Conductivity on the Performance of CdZnTe Pixel Detectors

We studied the effects of bulk and surface conductivity on the performance of high-resistivity CdZnTe (CZT) pixel detectors with Pt contacts. We emphasize the difference in mechanisms of the bulk and surface conductivity as indicated by their different temperature behaviors. In addition, the existence of a thin (10-100 A) oxide layer on the surface of CZT, formed during the fabrication process, affects both bulk and surface leakage currents. We demonstrate that the measured I-V dependencies of bulk current can be explained by considering the CZT detector as a metal-semiconductor-metal system with two back-to-back Schottky-barrier contacts. The high surface leakage current is apparently due to the presence of a low-resistivity surface layer that has characteristics which differ considerably from those of the bulk material. This surface layer has a profound effect on the charge collection efficiency in detectors with multi-contact geometry; some fraction of the electric field lines originated on the cathode intersects the surface areas between the pixel contacts where the charge produced by an ionizing particle gets trapped. To overcome this effect we place a grid of thin electrodes between the pixel contacts; when the grid is negatively biased, the strong electric field in the gaps between the pixels forces the electrons landing on the surface to move toward the contacts, preventing the charge loss. We have investigated these effects by using CZT pixel detectors indium bump bonded to a custom-built VLSI readout chip