Conference on Forest Measurements

Theme: Forest measurements in complex tropical forests

Date: June 9 – 12, 2009

Venue: The Federal University of Technology Akure, P.M.B. 704, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria.

Forests serve many functions at the local, landscape, national and global levels. They provide local communities with sustainable supplies of clean water, timber, fuelwood and other products and services. They also contribute to the global quest to conserve biodiversity and reduce atmospheric carbon. Of various forest types, the tropical rainforest, which grows under optimal conditions of abundant precipitation and year round warmth, is well known for its complexity. It is the most complex biome on earth in terms of both structure and species diversity. The diversity is such that trees of the same species are rarely found growing close together. This poses a great challenge during field assessment.

The Forest Assessment and Management Group (FAMG) of the Forests and Forest Products Society of Nigeria (FFPSN) is pleased to organised a meeting/conference to examine the challenges faced in assessing the tropical rainforest and discuss methods of obtaining reliable estimates of the growing stock. The conference theme is “Forest measurements in complex tropical forests”, with specific focus on appropriate sampling techniques for complex stands as well as guiding principles and procedure for measuring tree variables in the natural forests. The date scheduled for the conference is June 9 - 12, 2009.

Major issues to be discussed at the conference include:

• Appropriate sampling techniques for complex stands (i.e. how to obtain truly representative samples)
• Challenges faced in forest measurement within complex tropical forests
• Guiding principles and procedure for measuring tree variables in the natural forests, considering the nature of the forest and the trees
• Data analysis issues (Challenges, methods, etc.) for complex tropical forests

Interested participants with relevant papers should send it to the conference organisers on or before Friday, 22 May 2009. All papers will be peer-reviewed and selected papers will be published as a special edition in an international journal.

The conference will be hosted by the Department of Forestry & Wood Technology, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria, with support from IUFRO 4.01.03 Working Group (Instruments and methods for forest mensuration). Interested participants are hereby invited to indicate their willingness to attend the conference by sending email to the conference organisers at forestmeasurement@yahoo.com or Dr. V. A. J. Adekunle, Dept. of Forestry & Wood Technology, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. Email: vajadekunle@yahoo.com 

The conference will feature an excursion to a tropical rainforest research plot (about an hour drive from the conference venue) as well as a one-day training workshop on the use of R open source statistical software. Conference participants interested in the training workshop should come with their laptop computers, as the training is designed to give hands-on experience to participants.