Hypsipyla Shoot Borers of Meliaceae in Sri Lanka - Australian ...

Hypsipyla Shoot Borers of Meliaceae in Papua New Guinea
J. Dobunaba 1 and T. Kosi 1
Abstract
Papua New Guinea is largely covered with forest (78% of land area) of which 3% has been commercially
logged and about one-third is inaccessible to conventional logging techniques. Forestry
accounts for 20% of the Nations export earnings. Two species of Toona (T. ciliata M. Roem. and
T. sureni (Blume) Merr.) are harvested in a sustainable manner from native forests with less than
800 m 3 of each species extracted each year. None of these species are grown in plantations. No
exotic species of Meliaceae are grown in plantations in Papua New Guinea, largely because of the
presence of Hypsipyla robusta (Moore). No research is currently being undertaken on this pest.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA is well forested with more than
78% of the total area dominated by natural forest. Of
the forest area, only about 3% has been influenced by
industrial logging operations. However, because of
the extremely mountainous terrain which is typical of
most of the country, it is probable that no more than
42% could be harvested by conventional techniques.
The total accessible area of forest is about
12.6 million ha, of which 3.75 million ha is not
productive and a further 0.88 million ha is a buffer
area around productive forest areas. Therefore, the
total area of accessible productive forest is about 7.97
million ha with an estimated gross volume of about
170 million m 3 . The best current estimate of annual
sustainable yield is 4.9 million m 3 . Harvesting
operations will leave sufficient advanced growth to
enable an equivalent volume to be harvested at the
end of a 35-year cutting cycle.
Forestry has recently assumed a much greater
level of importance to the national economy.
Throughout the 1980s and the early 1990s, forestry
contributed an average of less than 100 million kina
(PGK) in annual export earnings. This represented
around 6%–8% of the nations total export earnings.
Howeve,r this has increased markedly due to the significant
rise in the price of timber in 1993, with
forestry contributing an anticipated 20% of the
export earnings in 1994 (approximately 512 million
PGK). The value of forest products exceeded all
1 Papua New Guinea Forest Research Institute, PO Box
314, Lae, Papua New Guinea
33
other agriculture and fisheries exports by more than
50% and was second in export revenue only to the
non-renewable resources sector of oil and minerals
(Figure 1). The total volume exported during 1994
was 3.1 million m 3 of sawn timber valued at
5.9 million PGK which was exported mainly to
Australia and New Zealand. Woodchip sales to Japan
amounted to 4 million PGK.
While Papua New Guinea is ninth among tropical
countries in terms of forest area, its timber output is
relatively low due to the large areas of inaccessible
forest. Currently, the main consumers of logs are
Japan (68%), Korea (22%) and Hong Kong (5%).
Relatively small but significant areas of plantations
are found in several localities (Table 1). The most
important is the 13 000 ha of government owned and
managed plantations of Araucaria cunninghamii
Aiton ex D. Don and A. hunsteinii Schumann in the
Wau/Bulolo area. These support a plywood mill and
associated processing industries at Bulolo. In the
Madang area, 11 000 ha of privately owned hardwood
plantations of predominantly Acacia mangium Willd.
contribute to the wood supply for a chip mill. Other
significant areas of industrial plantations are at
several localities in New Britain where 17 600 ha of
plantations (mainly Eucalyptus deglupta Blume) have
been established and are approaching maturity.
Plantation establishment rates are not expected to
exceed the present target of 4000 ha per year for the
foreseeable future. Lack of funds and the risks
associated with land tenure security are significant
problems in expanding the plantation resources.