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Threats by mammal browsers take on a whole new
meaning in Africa. (Image: J. Elek)
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Native wood-boring cossid moth, Coryphodema
tristis, in South African clonal E. nitens; CRC
member Simon Lawson is looking for its pheromone to use for
trapping. (Image: J. Elek)
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Dr Mike Wingfield talking to IUFRO delegates
about insect and fungal attacks in South African E. grandis x
urophylla clone plantations, in KwaZulu-Natal province.
(Image: J. Elek)
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Dr Jane Elek (Forestry
Tasmania) presented a paper and her two ICE
posters at the IUFRO Working Group 7.3.00 - Recent Advances
in Forest Entomology, hosted by FABI, Pretoria, South Africa
on 1 – 6 July, 2008. The paper, "A Review of Methods and a
Proposal for Managing and Reporting Environmental Impacts of
Pesticides in Forestry Management", co-authored by Erin Trainer
(Forestry
Tasmania) raised considerable interest amongst people in other
forest industries that are concerned with meeting certification
regulations concerning use of pesticides (see abstract, below). The meeting,
including field travel, provided an invaluable opportunity to
liaise with forest entomology experts from all continents. They
covered the full spectrum of investigating and managing insect
pests in native and plantation forests. There was a strong focus on
recent invasions from Australia, as well as the older enemy,
Gonipterus eucalypt weevil from Tasmania, that is
spreading steadily around the world. The 3-day field trip,
travelling from Pretoria to Durban, showed me not only the
devastation that invading Australian insect pests cause in South
African cloned eucalypt plantations, but also the serious threats
that some native South Africa pests would pose to our native
forests if they invaded here. One day was spent investigating the
native forest ecology, including good specimens of another serious
destroyer of native forest trees – elephants in Hluehlue
wildlife park.
A review of
methods and a proposal for managing and reporting environmental
impacts of pesticides in forestry management
Jane Elek and Erin Trainer
Forestry Tasmania and CRC for Forestry
Abstract:
International markets are increasingly demanding that wood products
have originated from forests certified as sustainably managed. One
of the obligations for forest certification is to reduce the
impacts of toxic chemicals on the environment, including
pesticides. The current toxicity rating of most pesticides are
based on the concentrated active ingredient. This does not
correctly indicate the risk posed by the chemical after it has been
diluted and applied to the target pest in the field. Nor does it
represent the risk to environmental factors such as soil, water or
non-target organisms. Environmental risk is mostly dealt with by
application restrictions on the label. The Forestry industry needs
a system for ranking pesticide operations that will help planners
to choose the scenario (product and application parameters) that
poses the least environmental risk while also providing a method
for managers to report progress towards reducing environmental
impacts of pesticides.
The extensive body of literature covering pesticide risk indicators
(PRIs) has been reviewed and the systems most relevant to the needs
of the Forestry industry summarised and discussed. No system was
found that fulfills the requirements of the Forestry Industry. Most
systems were too complex to be used by planners before every
operation.
The best option for assessing risk of water contamination was
the Australian model, PIRI, that provides a relative risk of water
contamination for each application scenario. However, additional
models are needed to evaluate other risks to other factors such as
neighbour trespass and non-target plants and animals. PIRIs
operation is summarised, in addition to several simple
decision-rule models with look-up tables that will be combined to
provide relative ratings of environmental risk for each pesticide
operation.
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