Trans-Pacific Wood Chip Exports: the Rise of Chile

This study analyses the background to the rise of Chile as a major wood chip exporter, and assesses the environmental impact and relative economic importance of the Chilean wood chip industry. Chile is acting as a ‘surrogate’ for lost Australian hardwood chip exports to Japan. Compared to other countries, the wood chip industry in Chile has had a disproportionate impact on its remnant native forests and is essentially predicated on unsustainable forest management practices. Despite this, the relative economic importance of Chile's export wood chip industry is low when compared to value-added forest product export industries such as chemical pulp.     

Adaptive Management for Water Quality Improvement in the Great Barrier Reef Catchments: Learning on the Edge

This paper proposes using an adaptive management approach to achieve water quality improvement in large catchments with multiple diffuse pollutant issues. Adaptive management involves attention to process, and commitment to continually improving knowledge and practice. It also requires an appreciation of differences in understanding of various stakeholders and an ongoing commitment to learning. Based on research with the Burdekin Dry Tropics regional Natural Resource Management group, the paper shows how the acquisition of knowledge about Water Quality Management can be an aim in itself, rather than an activity peripheral to the planning process. To this end, the paper describes the methods used to elicit stakeholders’ understandings, explores the variation in understandings between key stakeholders, and describes a process used to incorporate the various views in an adaptive management framework for managing water quality. The research findings reveal the importance of process and participation for adaptive management and suggest that success can be judged in terms of learning outcomes.     

A SAMPLING STYLUS FOR USE WITH THE ELECTRON PROBE

A simple device is described which enables inconspicuous samples of entire objects to be taken for electron microprobe analysis without introducing background contamination. Transport of artefacts and their exposure to vacuum are thereby obviated.