scholarly journals A Coordinated, Risk-Based, National Forest Biosecurity Surveillance Program for Australian Forests

2022 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angus J. Carnegie ◽  
Francisco Tovar ◽  
Susie Collins ◽  
Simon A. Lawson ◽  
Helen F. Nahrung

Australia has a comprehensive plant biosecurity system, with the Australian Government responsible for pre-border (e.g., off-shore compliance) and border (e.g., import inspections) activities, while state governments undertake a variety of post-border activities (e.g., post-border surveillance, management of pest incursions, and regulation of pests) designed to reduce alien pest and pathogen arrival and establishment. Once an alien pest or pathogen has established and spread, its management becomes the responsibility of the land manager. There has been a growing understanding among plant industries of the need to be more engaged in post-border biosecurity activities, including resourcing and undertaking early detection surveillance and contingency planning. Here we summarize Australia’s broader plant biosecurity system along with current forest-specific biosecurity surveillance activities. We describe the development of a proposed forest biosecurity partnership between the Australian Government, state governments and the forest sector to establish a post-border, risk-based National Forest Pest Surveillance Program. We outline why there is a recognized need for such a program, how it would improve biosecurity outcomes in relation to forests, its component activities, and key stakeholders and beneficiaries.

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Prisley ◽  
Jeff Bradley ◽  
Mike Clutter ◽  
Suzy Friedman ◽  
Dick Kempka ◽  
...  

The commercial forest sector in the US includes forest landowners and forest products manufacturers, as well as numerous service providers along the supply chain. Landowners (and contractors working for them) manage forestland in part for roundwood production, and manufacturers purchase roundwood as raw material for forest products including building products, paper products, wood pellets, and others. Both types of organizations need forest resource data for applications such as strategic planning, support for certification of sustainable forestry, analysis of timber supply, and assessment of forest carbon, biodiversity, or other ecosystem services. The geographic areas of interest vary widely but typically focus upon ownership blocks or manufacturing facilities and are frequently small enough that estimates from national forest inventory data have insufficient precision. Small area estimation (SAE) has proven potential to combine field data from the national forest inventory with abundant sources of remotely sensed or other resource data to provide needed information with improved precision. Successful implementation of SAE by this sector will require cooperation and collaboration among federal and state government agencies and academic institutions and will require increased funding to improve data collection, data accessibility, and further develop and implement the needed technologies.


2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 613 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Matthews ◽  
Lisa R Jackson Pulver ◽  
Ian T Ring

This study aimed to understand the problems within the Indigenous health policy process in Australia and how weaknesses in the process impact on policy implementation. Using semistructured questions, 23 key stakeholders in the policy-making process were interviewed. Three main themes dominated; a need for increased Indigenous involvement in policy formulation at the senior Australian Government level, increased participation of Indigenous community-controlled health organisations in the policy-making process and, most importantly, ensuring that policies have the necessary resources for their implementation. The emergence of these specific themes demonstrated weaknesses in policy process from the formulation stage onward. Tackling these would, according to our informants, significantly enhance the effectiveness of the policy process and contribute to further improvement of the health of Indigenous Australians.


2007 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. 358-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Johnston ◽  
Tim Williamson

We present a framework for assessing the vulnerability of the Canadian forest sector to climate variability and change. The framework includes factors of exposure, system sensitivity and adaptive capacity, which are applied to the Canadian forest sector. We summarize sources of exposure and sensitivities of the Canadian forest sector and then address the adaptive capacity of forest management and forest-based communities. We suggest that the adaptive capacity of the forest sector is likely to be high, but needs to be rigorously tested. We conclude by advocating a national forest sector vulnerability assessment, and emphasize that this needs to be an inclusive, stakeholder-driven process. Key words: climate change, adaptation, vulnerability, forest sector, forest communities


1991 ◽  
Vol 1991 (1) ◽  
pp. 695-697
Author(s):  
David M. Bovet ◽  
Charles R. Corbett

ABSTRACT The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 establishes a system of oil spill liability, compensation and financial responsibility at levels not contemplated prior to the Exxon Valdez incident. Furthermore, it does so while preserving states’ prerogatives and rejects the international solution embodied in the 1984 Protocols to the 1969 Civil Liability and 1971 Fund Conventions. The act requires new contingency planning by both industry and government and sets new construction, manning, and licensing requirements. It increases penalties, broadens enforcement responsibilities of the federal government, and enhances states’ participation in the national response program. It also establishes a billion dollar federal trust fund to supplement the liability of responsible parties. The act is likely to result in safer tanker operations and to reduce the threat of oil spills in U.S. waters. These environmental improvements will be paid for by U.S. oil consumers. Other implications include the following:Reassessment of involvement in U.S. oil transportation by both independents and oil majorsEnhanced preparedness by responsible partiesA gradual rise in freight ratesCorporate restructuring to shield liabilityFewer small oil companies and independent carriers in U.S. tradesPotential disruptions linked to new certificates of financial responsibilityPotential shortages of Alaskan trade tonnageHeightened presence of state governments in oil spill incidents, oil spill legislation, and enforcement


2018 ◽  
Vol 79 (4) ◽  
pp. 355-364
Author(s):  
Adam Kaliszewski

Abstract The aim of this paper was to review and evaluate drafts of forest policy documents that have been developed for the purpose of updating the Polish “National Forest Policy” of 1997, but never entered into force. A total of 14 documents were covered in this analysis including 13 Regional Operational Programmes of the National Forest Policy and the draft of the National Forest Programme (NFP) developed in 2000–2005, as well as nearly 300 recommendations for the “second” NFP, elaborated in 2012–2016. Very soon after the “National Forest Policy” came into force, it turned out that it needed to be adjusted to changing legal, social and economic conditions. The first attempts to revise and amend the document were made already in 2000. As a result, until 2004, 17 Regional Operational Programmes of the National Forestry Policy were developed and, on that basis, until mid-2005 a draft for a new NFP was worked out. However, the draft was neither adopted nor did it ever enter into force. The second attempt to work out the NFP was made in 2012 and resulted in the development of nearly 300 recommendations to the programme. However, to date, the NFP itself has not been finished. Most of the documents examined here refer to the current priorities of the European forest policy, and thus they would close gaps in the Polish “National Forest Policy”. In this context, the recommendations to the “second” NFP are of great importance, because they were prepared through a wide participation of various stakeholders and they refer to a wide range of problems, propose specific legal regulations, as well as indicate directions for further development of the Polish forest sector. However, the completion of the NFP is a matter of political decision that rests with the Council of Ministers.


2018 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 211-227
Author(s):  
Adam Kaliszewski

Abstract The aim of the paper is to review and evaluate Polish programmes and strategies centred on and related to forest, as well as national and transregional development strategies and priorities formulated at the european level. this work covers the ‘National Forest Policy’ and 28 other strategies, policies and programmes representing various forest-related policy areas, including environmental protection, agriculture and rural development, climate and energy as well as development strategies from 1997 to 2017. The study shows that many of the priorities of the European forest policy have not been reflected in the ‘National Forest Policy’. These include, among others, adapting forests to climate change and enhancing their mitigation potential, enhancing the economic contribution of forestry to rural development, enhancing the role of the SFM in a green economy, securing the participation of all stakeholders in forest-related decision-making processes, improving communication in forestry and developing cross-sectoral cooperation. However, many of these forest-related issues have already been included in numerous strategic documents of other policy areas. As a result, many European forest policy priorities are scattered across Polish policy documents of different forest-related sectors and it raises justified concerns that inconsistencies and contradictions exist between them. Another matter of significant concern is that the issue of forests and forestry is barely mentioned in any of the examined development strategies. This may also indicate that the forest sector is getting more and more marginalized in the socioeconomic and political sector, as forest policy goals are defined and achieved within other policy areas and are practically absent in national and transregional development strategies.


1998 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.J.S. Macpherson

WHEN state governments decentralised many administrative responsibilities to schools in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was assumed that they would develop better capacities to manage, develop and govern themselves. In general, such decentralisation attempted to replace bureaucracies with corporate management, focus school evaluation onto the auditing of performance indicators, cut ex-school support structures in favour of locally contracted expertise, and displace hierarchy with collegial networks. The principle of public accountability in public education was redefined as a local obligation to be discharged through managerial, market and political mechanisms. The research reported here shows that Tasmanian parents actually prefer a far more educative and communitarian approach to accountability, and that this view is broadly shared with other key stakeholders: teachers, principals and state government officials. The empirical findings reported contradict orthodox structures, practices and theory and have substantial implications for policy making.


2001 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 761-812 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Lee Peluso ◽  
Peter Vandergeest

How have national and state governments the world over come to “own” huge expanses of territory under the rubric of “national forest,” “national parks,” or “wastelands”? The two contradictory statements in the above epigraph illustrate that not all colonial administrators agreed that forests should be taken away from local people and “protected” by the state. The assumption of state authority over forests is based on a relatively recent convergence of historical circumstances. These circumstances have enabled certain state authorities to supersede the rights, claims, and practices of people resident in what the world now calls “forests.”


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