Recent Publications (IFFN No. 19 – September 1998)
(IFFN No. 19 – September 1998,p. 95-97)
Transboundary Pollution in South East Asia
A new publication entitled “Transboundary Pollution and the Sustainability of Tropical Forests: Towards Wise Forest Fire Management – The Proceedings of the AIFM International Conference” is now available from the Regional Center for Forest Management, Malaysia. The Regional Center was established in 1998 is the successor of the former ASEAN Institute of Forest Management (AIFM) located until 1997 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The international conference was organized by AIFM and co-sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Malaysian Timber Council (MTC), the GTZ (Indonesian-German) Integrated Fire Management Project (IFFM), and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Fire Ecology Research Group (Germany).
The book contains very informative and well-written technical papers which were presented at the AIFM Conference on Transboundary Pollution and its Impacts on the Sustainability of Tropical Forests (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2-4 December 1996). The papers cover a wide range of subjects of interest to foresters, resource managers, forest fire managers, ecologists and specialists, administrators, environmentalists, researchers and other related professionals involved in various disciplines such as training institutions, research agencies, universities, and forest industries interested in the sustainable management of the forests and overcoming transboundary pollution. The book has 29 chapters covering air pollution and its transboundary effects on tropical forests, terrestrial pollution effects on tropical forests, forest fire and smoke management, and research and development in forest fire management.
Copies of the publication are available from the Regional Centre for Forest Management at the following prices: Softcover US$150.00 and Hardcover US$180.00 per copy. Prices do not include postage. For orders and further enquiries, please contact:
The Director
Regional Center for Forest Management
Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM)
52109 Kepong
Selangor
Malaysia
Fax: ++603-6377233
Tel: ++603-6377633
e-mail: roslan@frim.gov.my
Dendroecological Studies in Forest and Fire History
The book “Dendroecological Studies in Forest and Fire History” provides a compilation of research papers on the fire and forest history in Sweden authored by Mats Niklasson. In his research with focus on aspects of historical forest use in the Saami region with dendroecological methods, the ecological analysis of important variables of the fire regime on a landscape scale as well as at stand scale, and the quantification of the errors in determining the age of suppressed Norway spruce, the author gives valuable insight in the role of fire over the centuries in Swedish forests. He proves that the used methods of tree ring dating contributes essential data to forest and fire history and gives insight of natural as well as human impacts over the centuries on the Swedish forest resources.
G.Buchholz
Niklasson, M. 1998. Dendroecological Studies in Forest and Fire History. Doctoral thesis Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae, Silvestria 52 (ISBN 91-576-5336-4)
Forest Fire and Environmental Management
As already introduced in the last issue of the IFFN the Norwegian report “Forest Fire and Environmental Management” is now published and available.
This multi-authored report, compiled and edited by Erik Bleken, Ivar and Iver Mysterud, covers extensively the history of forest fires in Norway. Norway with its oceanic climate and the enormous topographic variations is considered a country with relatively minor natural fire occurrence. Nevertheless the human impact caused over the centuries a dramatic shift in the fire frequencies. Because of this important role of human activities, the report focuses primarily on the historic use of fire in Norway considering a variety of geographic and ecological conditions.
Extensive documentation about the geographic factors affecting fire occurrence of whole Scandinavia gives a detailed background knowledge about the forest fire situation in the region. The authors included additional information on modern forest fire management and its implications to the situation in Norway.
The volume provides comprehensive source of information for scientists and resource managers interested in forest fire research in the Nordic countries and able to read Norwegian. An English summary is included in the volume.
G.Buchholz
Bleken, E., I.Mysterud, and I.Mysterud (eds.) 1997. Forest Fire and environmental management. Report. Directorate for Fire Explosion Prevention and Department of Biology, University of Oslo, 266 pp. (ISBN 82-7768-019-8) <in Norwegian>
The publication (order number: 970 935 444) can be obtained from:
Direktoratet for brann- og eksplosjonsvern (DBE)
Nedre Langgate 20
Postboks 355 Sentrum
N – 3101 Tfnsberg
Fax: ++47-33-310660
Tel: ++47-33-398800
e-mail: postmottak@dbe.dep.telemax.no
Top
Ecology and Biogeography of Pinus
For fire researchers the genus Pinus is one of the most interesting and challenging. The classical work “The Genus Pinus” by Nicholas T.Mirov, published in 1967, for long time was the only comprehensive sourcebook and meanwhile was outdated and hardly available any longer.
David M.Richardson, a senior research officer of the Institute for Plant Conservation, Department of Botany, University of Cape Town at Rondebosch (South Africa) has taken the tremendous task to edit a new, updated monograph of the genus Pinus.
Several authors deal with all aspects related to the “success-story” of pines on our globe. From the issues of evolution, phylogeny and systematics, to the biogeography and ecology as well as the topic pines and humans all aspects of this genus are addressed. Especially worth noting is the extensive references for each topic, a treasure box for everybody interested in this genus.
The role of fire takes an important part in the book. With the examples of six species, the different survival strategies of pines under low severity, moderate severity and high severity fire regimes are demonstrated in the chapter Fire and Pine Ecosystems authored by James K.Agee. Knowing the fact that the genus Pinus possesses the evader strategy, the endurer strategy and the resister strategy as a response to the disturbance by fire, the important role of pine in a fire-prone environment becomes obvious.
The book which comprises 22 chapters divided into six parts stands in the tradition of Nicholas Mirov’s classic volume The Genus Pinus published 1967. It gives the up-to-date knowledge of scientist all over the world compiled from David M. Richardson and serves as an excellent source of information.
G.Buchholz
Richardson, D.M. (ed.) 1998. Ecology and biogeography of Pinus. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 526 pp. (ISBN 0-521-55176-5)
