<br><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">The last three issues of FAO’s
NWFP(Non-Wood Forest Products)-Digest-L included several items on pollinator
issues or species that may be of interest to you. </font>
<br>
<br><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">FAO’s NWFP-Digest-L is a free
e-mail journal that covers all aspects of non-wood forest products. The
most recent Digests are not posted on the website yet (though they will
be, eventually). Back issues of the Digest may be found on FAO's NWFP home
page: </font><a href=http://www.fao.org/forestry/site/12980/en target=_blank><font size=3 color=blue face="Times New Roman"><u>www.fao.org/forestry/site/12980/en</u></font></a>
<br>
<br><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">-Patricia</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">PS: </font><font size=3 face="Times New Roman">I
am cross-posting this to the MPWG listserve, so pardon the duplicate email
if you subscribe to both lists. </font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Patricia S. De Angelis, Ph.D.<br>
Botanist - Division of Scientific Authority<br>
Chair - Plant Conservation Alliance - Medicinal Plant Working Group<br>
US Fish & Wildlife Service<br>
4401 N. Fairfax Dr., Suite 110<br>
Arlington, VA 22203<br>
703-358-1708 x1753<br>
FAX: 703-358-2276<br>
<br>
Promoting sustainable use and conservation of our native medicinal plants.<br>
<www.nps.gov/plants/medicinal><br>
</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">==============================================================</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">NWFP-Digest-L</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">No. 4/10</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">==============================================================</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial"><b>27.</b></font><font size=1 face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font><font size=2 face="Arial"><b>Extinction
of seed dispersers threat to forests and forest communities</b></font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial"><b>Source: www.mongabay.com, 7 March 2010
</b></font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial"><b> </b></font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">There are few areas of research in tropical
biology more exciting and more important than seed dispersal. Seed dispersal—the
process by which seeds are spread from parent trees to new sprouting ground—underpins
the ecology of forests worldwide. In temperate forests, seeds are often
spread by wind and water, though sometimes by animals such as squirrels
and birds. But in the tropics the emphasis is far heavier on the latter,
as Dr. Pierre-Michel Forget explains to mongabay.com. </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">"[In rainforests] a majority of plants,
trees, lianas, epiphytes, and herbs, are dispersed by fruit-eating animals.
[…] As seed size varies from tiny seeds less than one millimetre to several
centimetres in length or diameter, then, a variety of animals are required
to disperse such a continuum and variety of seed size, the smaller being
transported by ants and dung beetles, the larger swallowed by cassowary,
tapir and elephant, for instance." </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">Forget, a French tropical ecologist, is chairing
the 5th Frugivore and Seed Dispersal International Symposium held in Montpellier,
France from 13-18 June. Forget has studied the relation between seeds and
fruit-eating species both in South America and Central Africa, focusing
mostly on mammals. </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">"Indeed, when you observe the understory
and see that profusion of seedlings, it is not always obvious that there
is some type of order, seedlings being not really randomly dispersed, rather
directed-dispersed at some peculiar microhabitats," he says. </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">Yet, the species so important to successfully
spreading tropical seeds are also some of the most threatened. Their decline—and
in some case absence altogether—spells a fall in forest richness. </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">"If you consider large-bodied, plant-dependent
and seed-dispersing animals, they are all threatened by hunting, deforestation,
fragmentation, mining, dam and road construction," Forget says. "Many
of fragmented forests, even some natural parks and reserves, now lack the
large ungulates, primates and birds that disperse seeds. Extinction is
sometimes very recent due to uncontrolled development of large-scale agriculture,
poaching and logging." </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">Forget points out that when it comes to seed
dispersers it's not global extinction that one must focus on, but local
extinction and even a decline in wildlife abundance.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">"If spider monkeys are protected in
a remote forest of the Peruvian Amazon, it won’t help much those trees
of French Guiana," he says. "Additionally, when large frugivores
are exterminated, because it’s also an important source of protein for
native people inhabiting rainforest, we are also endangering survival of
autochtonous populations. And that has to be considered in conservation
plans. Not only will we lose natural diversity, but humanity will also
lose cultural diversity." </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">Forget argues that to date the role of seed
dispersers has largely been left out of conservation discussions, even
though these species' actions underpin entire ecological communities. According
to Forget, the current focus on the conservation of pollinators—such as
bees—tells only part of the story. </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">"Now that stakeholders recognized the
important ecological role of bees for the pollination of flowers and the
production of fruit, they must now acknowledge that without frugivores,
those crops will remain in tree crown, fall to the ground, and rot without
primary and secondary seed dispersers. It’s a waste of carbon for the
ecosystems. Thus, saving the bees from extinction is only half of the work
done," he says. <br>
For full story, please see: </font><a href="http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0307-hance_forget.html"><font size=2 color=blue face="Arial"><u>http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0307-hance_forget.html</u></font></a>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial"><b>47.</b></font><font size=1 face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font><font size=2 face="Arial"><b>The
Language of bees</b></font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial"><b>Source: Environmental News Network, 24
February 2010</b></font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">Bees communicate their floral findings in
order to recruit other worker bees of the hive to forage in the same area.
There are two main hypotheses to explain how foragers recruit other workers;
the "waggle dance" theory and the "odor plume" theory.
The dance language theory is far more widely accepted, and has far more
empirical support. </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">Honeybees do not only waggle dance to tell
hive mates the whereabouts of good eats, they also bump and beep to warn
others when big trouble awaits at some of those floral diners according
to a recent study.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">In 1947, Karl von Frisch correlated the runs
and turns of the dance to the distance and direction of the food source
from the hive. The orientation of the dance correlates to the relative
position of the sun to the food source, and the length of the waggle portion
of the run is correlated to the distance from the hive. Also, the more
vigorous the display is, the better the food.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">There seem to be two types of dances: the
circle for food less than 100 meters distant and the figure 8 for longer
distances.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">Now there is the discovery of the "stop"
or warning signal as the first negative or "inhibitory" message
ever found in bees.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">Previously the only recognized messages were
all about how good and where the nectar was at various locations relative
to hive.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">"Originally people called it a begging
signal," said bee researcher James Nieh of the University of California
at San Diego, regarding what was for 20 years considered a mysterious behavior.
"It's usually produced by butting the head and giving a short beep"
to another bee that is in the middle of providing information to the hive
about a specific feeding site.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">So Nieh and his assistants devised a series
of experiments to simulate attacks by predatory crab spiders or by bees
from competing colonies.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">"In all causes we found yes, they all
significantly increased 'stop' signals," Nieh confirmed. </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">His results are reported in the February.
23 issue of the journal <i>Current Biology.</i></font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">For full story, please see: </font><a href=http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/41045><font size=2 color=blue face="Arial"><u>www.enn.com/top_stories/article/41045</u></font></a>
<br>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">==============================================================</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">NWFP-Digest-L</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">No. 5/10</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">==============================================================</font>
<br>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial"><b>26.</b></font><font size=1 face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font><font size=2 face="Arial"><b>Trinidad
and Tobago: Forests…much more than timber</b></font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial"><b>Source: The Guardian (Trinidad and Tobago),
20 March 2010 </b></font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">In an effort to remind communities of the
importance of forests and the benefits they receive from them, 21 March
is set aside internationally to celebrate World Forestry Day. This concept
originated at the 23rd General Assembly of the European Confederation of
Agriculture in 1971, and since then, countries around the world have set
up programmes and policies aimed at the sustainable management of forest
resources to provide for their social, economic, ecological and cultural
needs. </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">
In observing World Forestry Day, the Environmental Management Authority
(EMA) encouraged the people of Trinidad and Tobago to take time to appreciate
the value of the country’s forest resources. Historically, forests have
played important social and cultural roles in the lives of many people,
especially those of indigenous communities. </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">
Today, many are realizing that forests offer much more than just timber.
Forests provide recreational opportunities and contribute to our health
and wellbeing, as well as the regulation of local temperatures and protection
of drinking water supplies. Trees form the foundations of many natural
systems, and as such provide a wide range of products (timber, fruit, medicine,
beverages, fodder) and services (carbon sequestration, wind breaks, water
quality and quantity control, coastal protection, shade, beautification,
erosion control, soil fertility). The forests of Trinidad and Tobago are
home to a wide variety of faunal biodiversity which facilitate pollination,
seed dispersal and germination. </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">
This internationally-recognized environmental day is also set aside to
promote education and awareness of the importance of forests and the benefits
of planting trees. Examples of biodiverse forests in this country include
Matura National Park, which was declared an environmentally sensitive area
in 2004, and Main Ridge Forest Reserve in Tobago, which is the oldest protected
watershed in the western hemisphere, declared in 1776.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">
For these reasons, the EMA embraced the opportunity to collaborate in a
project with the Ministry of Planning Housing and the Environment, the
Forestry Division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Marine Resources,
University of the West Indies and the Institute of Marine Affairs, among
others, called the Nariva Restoration and Carbon Sequestration and Livelihoods
Project. </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">
This project will ultimately see the replanting of 1 300 hectares of the
Nariva Swamp, in areas that were formerly deforested by large-scale rice
farmers more than a decade ago. Nariva Swamp, the country’s largest and
most biodiverse wetland, has been declared an environmentally-sensitive
area under the Environmentally-Sensitive Area Rules, 2001. It has the most
varied vegetation of all wetlands in Trinidad and Tobago, with distinct
zones of tropical rainforest, palm forests, mangroves and grass savanna/marsh.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">For full story, please see: </font><a href="http://guardian.co.tt/features/life/2010/03/20/forests-much-more-timber"><font size=2 color=blue face="Arial"><u>http://guardian.co.tt/features/life/2010/03/20/forests-much-more-timber</u></font></a>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">==============================================================</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">NWFP-Digest-L</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">No. 6/10</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">==============================================================</font>
<br>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial"><b>51.</b></font><font size=1 face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font><font size=2 face="Arial"><b>Self-pollinating
almond trees may replace California beehives </b></font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial"><b>Source: www.fresnobee.com (USA), 16 April
2010 </b></font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial"> </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">Every spring, thousands of beehives are trucked
into the San Joaquin Valley (California, USA) for a massive pollination
of almond trees.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">Now all that could change as plant scientists
and farmers begin trials of self-pollinating almond trees that have been
in development for years. If it works, growers could save hundreds of thousands
of dollars in pollination costs.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">Almonds are grown state-wide on more than
600 000 acres, and it is not unusual for larger operations to spend more
than US$1million to rent bees. To help shave that expense, plant breeders
have spent more than a decade trying to develop an almond tree that can
pollinate itself. </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">Those in the hunt to develop and market a
self-pollinating almond tree include Craig Ledbetter, a U.S. Department
of Agriculture geneticist, the University of California and private breeders.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">The concept is not new. Self-pollinating
trees have been used in Spain for years. But Spanish almonds tend to have
a hairy texture and a strong almond taste.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">Ledbetter's challenge was to isolate the
self-pollination traits of the Spanish tree and the mild taste and smoother
texture of the nonpareil to create a new tree. After years of crossbreeding,
Ledbetter believes he has found the right combination.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">The USDA's new tree will be part of a field
trial by the Almond Board of California, the industry's marketing and research
arm. Trees from the University of California and private nurseries also
will be evaluated.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">Beekeepers say they are not overly concerned
about being put out of business.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">"I think you will see a natural gravitation
to these new trees," said Roger Everett, a beekeeper and president
of the California State Beekeepers Association. "But ... some growers
won't change because they know bees improve their yields, and they won't
want to stop." </font>
<br><font size=2 face="Arial">For full story, please see: </font>
<br><a href="http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/04/16/1899807/self-pollinating-almond-trees.html"><font size=2 color=blue face="Arial"><u>www.fresnobee.com/2010/04/16/1899807/self-pollinating-almond-trees.html</u></font></a>
<br>
<br>