I am doing research on a project called the "Community Rainforest Reforestation Program". This project was founded in 1993 by local governments in North Queensland as a result of the Wet Tropics being listed on the World heritage. The Federal Government (of Australia) and the Queensland State Government are funding this project with the 14 local governments providing machinery. The trees are mixed rainforest species and are planted on private properties. The landowners only have to prepare the ground. Planting and maintenance is done by young people on a labour scheme (LEAP). Over 1,000 ha have been planted and over 500 landholders are participants in the program. This program is popular (Is it because it is free?) but in 1995, new participants have to pay a small fee of $250 per ha (if my memory is right). I believe this program is really a community reforestation program. The reasons for this are: that it was created at a local level and the time was just politically right for it (It was established within 6 months from the idea to the trees being planted), the labour force is drawn from young unemployed people (high unemployment exists in this region) and the participants (landholders) can choose which tree species they want. The planting is mix. My job (or case study) is to work out the net social benefits of the scheme (while the cost per tree planted is well above normal pine plantation costs and the financial returns will probably be negative - it will take about 50 years before harvest and very little is known about the species being planted (except that if it works, the timber is worth a fortune for cabinet making - but I will not dwell on this here, but the regional social benefits and all non-wood benefits estimation is the main task of my work (I have just presented a Paper recently on the carbon sequestration of this reforestation against CO2 emissions from cars in the region. Since 1996, the program has had an uncertain future although it should go until the end of this year at least. There are talk of giving landholders the choice of three or four species (there are over 80 species provided at the moment) and eventually it will be back to the good old monoculture (here read Eucalypts) and monoculture plantations are rejected in Queensland (There are only 25,000ha of private plantations but over 1,000,000ha of private native forests and people want to plant more of those. All the surveys give the same indication mixed plantations of native trees. The program described briefly above gave maybe for the first time in Australia a say to what landholders wanted to be planted on their land. They were not imposed a particular species. However, it cannot be denied that this type of real community program is expensive, but again all the "cheap" ones did not work. For more information do not hesitate Regards, JCE
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