Saving the canopy crane in Lambir Hills
Akihiro Nakamura
Dear all Canopy Science Community Forum members,
I received the following message from Stuart Davies, Director of ForestGEO, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, regarding the dire situation of one of the tallest canopy cranes in the tropics. I have visited this massive crane conveniently located near the 52ha ForestGEO Forest Dynamic Plot a few years and it definitely is going be the huge loss for forest canopy ecology if we lose it (we have lost one in Venezuela already!!!).
Aki
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A consortium of Japanese researchers, led by Kyoto University, installed a 70 m tall canopy crane in Lambir Hills National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia in the early 2000’s. It is in the same forest type and not very far away from the ForestGEO 52-ha plot in Lambir, the most diverse forest in the entire Old World tropics. The crane has been used for a wide range of physiological, hydrological and entomological research. However, I have recently been informed by the Japanese PIs of the project, that they don’t have the funding to keep it running and have decided it will be dismantled unless someone is interested to take it over. They have asked me whether I know of any researchers or research groups that might be interested to consider this. The crane does need some repairs and maintenance. A very preliminary estimate suggests the repairs may cost on the order of USD$60-70K. The annual maintenance cost may be around USD$30K. Both these numbers need to verified with contractors.
This is an extraordinary opportunity for canopy science. There is no other crane in forests as diverse as Lambir, and none in lowland forests in SE Asia. The biology of lowland dipterocarp forest canopies (their physiology, reproductive biology, entomology, etc.) is so poorly understood, that it would be a huge tragedy to see the crane dismantled.
In my view, this is just too good an opportunity to see lost. If you or someone you know is interested in being involved in a discussion on how to keep this going, please let me know.
With best wishes,
Stuart
Stuart J. Davies
Frank H. Levinson Chair in Global Forest Science
Director, Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO)
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute