The latest News from ECTF 2006

Its been a busy year for ECTF with the success of many ongoing projects and the start of new projects. Below is a brief summary of activities and achievements of ECTF partners in 2006

Pushing forward plant conservation in Chile RBGE

In August 2006 The Universidad Austral de Chile (UACh) and the International Conifer Conservation Programme of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh launched PROflora a new Conservation Centre based at UACh. The Centre aims to assist landowners, to protect threatened plant species through the sustainable management of their forests; monitor populations of threatened plant species and maintain ex situ collections of threatened species at the Arboretum of UACh. more info

Conservation in the Congo RBGE

A new project, Building capacity for forest inventory in the Republic of Congo, started at RBGE in June 2006. The project is headed by Dr. David Harris and will receive £184,500 of funding from the UK Darwin Initiative over three years. Working with the Wildlife Conservation Society, WCS-Congo, the project aims to support forest conservation in northern Congo by providing training in botanical collecting and forest inventory techniques.more info

ECTF Darwin Initiative contract with Defra renewed

ECTF, successfully retained their contract with Defra to monitor and evaluate the progress of the Darwin Initiative and to manage the applications process. Currently in the first year of our new contract, but continuing the work started in 2003, we are continuing to emphasise communicating key lessons for achieving better conservation. more info

Bhutan medicinal plants project update

A major achievement by the Technical Assistance team and especially the team leader in the last 6 months has been the submission of a commercialisation business strategy to the Royal Government of Bhutan who subsequently approved it. The technical assistance has been provided by the team leader (Dr. Gunter Rustler), the horticulturalist (Dr. Irmela Krug), the marketing specialist( Liz Betser) and the Pharmacognocist -Ethnobotanist( Dr. William Milliken).more info

Sourcing seed for tropical forest restoration CEH

SEEDSOURCE is a new project which aims to provide best practice policies for sourcing tree germplasm for use within a range of degraded landscapes in the tropics, to ensure the use of best adapted material, that maximises production without eroding genetic and ecosystem diversity and long term adaptive potential. more info

Restoration of degraded humid forest ecostsyems in Africa CEH

The FOREAIM project, targeting forest ecosystems in Kenya, Uganda and Madagascar, aims to provide tools and management strategies to enable restoration of degraded humid forest ecosystems by advancing our understanding of the mechanisms of forest degradation/restoration and their potential impacts on local populations, policy makers, governments and markets. more info

Marie-Curie Fellowships to study Acacia senegal CEH

ACACIAGUM, is a major new project starting in early 2007. The project will target the gum-producing species Acacia senegal to encourage and refine patterns of use of the species as an agricultural component, aiming to mitigate land degradation and soil fertility depletion in arid and semi-arid Africa and provide supplementary income generation and ecological benefits. more info

Serengeti-North Luangwa Ecosystem Project, 2006-2007 LTS

The Serengeti-North Luangwa Ecosystem Management Project is a 5-year integrated conservation, development and landscape management initiative being jointly implemented by Frankfurt Zoological Society, with co-financing from the European Commission. LTS’ newest team-member Rob Wild is providing process support to the project. more info

Implementing Africa's Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action, 2006 LTS

The UK DFID is supporting the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) Office of Science and Technology to support the design of institutional arrangements and strengthen capacity for implementing 'Africa's Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action'. Anna Karp lead LTS’ support (in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh) to the process (based in Pretoria) by preparing two high-level policy papers. more info

Capacity Building Programme for Stakeholder Participation in National Forest Programmes LTS

Peter O’Hara of LTS is now leading LTS delivery of a capacity building programme to motivate and assist facilitators / mentors who are linked to national forest programmes (NFPs) in 6 different Asian countries to make these processes more participatory. Lessons from these Asian pilot countries are expected to be harnessed for application of materials and capacity building services in other countries. more info

Ghana, Protected Areas Development Programme: Phase II , 2006 - 2009 LTS

The prime objective of the Protected Areas Development Programme (Phase II) is to enhance the conservation of biodiversity heritage designated Globally Significant Biodiversity Area. This second phase is primarily an institutional strengthening intervention, with emphasis on building the capacity of existing local institutions and personnel, and enhancing the effectiveness of existing infrastructure. more info

Malawi, Improved Forest Management for Sustainable Livelihoods Programme, 2006-2009 LTS

This national-level sector programme contributes towards improving decentralised forestry governance through building capacity of district-level service delivery, and promoting multi-stakeholder involvement in the management of forest areas. In collaboration with the Department of Forestry of the Malawi Ministry of Natural Resources & Environmental Affairs, LTS International is providing the international technical expertise, the management of the technical expertise and backstopping of the project.

Sudan, Forestry Policy and Strategy Development, 2006 US Department of Agriculture LTS

LTS was hired by the US Department of Agriculture to assist the new Southern Sudanese Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry develop a forestry policy and strategy. Pat Hardcastle proposed an overall strategy, with more detailed treatment of commercial scale plantations and forest industries, natural forests and woodlands and trees in support of agriculture. more info

Africa, Forest Governance Learning Group, 2005-2009 LTS

As a key founding member of the Forest Governance Learning Group (FGLG) LTS continues to focus its efforts on improving national forest programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa, linking forestry's contribution in poverty reduction strategies, tackling the effects on livelihoods of illegal logging and corruption in forestry, and ensuring sustainability and equity in forest privatisation and decentralisation. more info

Tropical forests drought stress response UoE

In 2005/6 Patrick Meir (UoE) won four new collaborative projects (total value: NERC 3.2m, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation 0.6 m).  Three of these focus on the response by tropical forests to drought stress, considering the problem globally and regionally through two NERC consortia, employing both large-scale modelling and extensive fieldwork.  A further project will consider species distributions, carbon cycling and threats to the conservation of a globally significant 'biodiversity hotspot', the Peruvian Andes.  This work combines both NERC and US funding in a multidisciplinary scientific and conservation-orientated endeavour.