The geographic distribution of Bornean orang-utans and its overlap with existing land-use categories (protected areas, logging and plantation concessions) is a necessary foundation to prioritize conservation planning. Based on an extensive orang-utan survey dataset and a number of environmental variables, we modelled an orang-utan distribution map. The modelled orang-utan distribution map covers 155,106 km2 (21% of Borneo's landmass) and reveals four distinct distribution areas. The most important environmental predictors are annual rainfall and land cover. The overlap of the orang-utan distribution with land-use categories reveals that only 22% of the distribution lies in protected areas, but that 29% lies in natural forest concessions. A further 19% and 6% occurs in largely undeveloped oil palm and tree plantation concessions, respectively. The remaining 24% of the orang-utan distribution range occurs outside of protected areas and outside of concessions. An estimated 49% of the orang-utan distribution will be lost if all forest outside of protected areas and logging concessions is lost. To avoid this potential decline plantation development in orang-utan habitats must be halted because it infringes on national laws of species protection. Further growth of the plantation sector should be achieved through increasing yields in existing plantations and expansion of new plantations into areas that have already been deforested. To reach this goal a large scale island-wide land-use masterplan is needed that clarifies which possible land uses and managements are allowed in the landscape and provides new standardized strategic conservation policies. Such a process should make much better use of non-market values of ecosystem services of forests such as water provision, flood control, carbon sequestration, and sources of livelihood for rural communities. Presently land use planning is more driven by vested interests and direct and immediate economic gains, rather than by approaches that take into consideration social equity and environmental sustainability.

For many threatened species the rate and drivers of population decline are difficult to assess accurately: species’ surveys are typically restricted to small geographic areas, are conducted over short time periods, and employ a wide range of survey protocols. We addressed methodological challenges for assessing change in the abundance of an endangered species. We applied novel methods for integrating field and interview survey data for the critically endangered Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), allowing a deeper understanding of the species’ persistence through time. Our analysis revealed that Bornean orangutan populations have declined at a rate of 25% over the last 10 years. Survival rates of the species are lowest in areas with intermediate rainfall, where complex interrelations between soil fertility, agricultural productivity, and human settlement patterns influence persistence. These areas also have highest threats from human-wildlife conflict. Survival rates are further positively associated with forest extent, but are lower in areas where surrounding forest has been recently converted to industrial agriculture. Our study highlights the urgency of determining specific management interventions needed in different locations to counter the trend of decline and its associated drivers.

The potential to use plantation-grown Acacia mangium for solid-timber products is limited by heartrot, caused by decay fungi. A rapid method of surveying logs stacked in the plantation following harvest was developed which is an alternative to timeconsuming whole tree destructive assessments. Logs were randomly chosen from the stacks using a transect method, the cutends of the logs were assessed (2199 logs in total) and heartrot severity was scored on a 1-4 scale. Surveys of harvest-age A. mangium were completed in five Indonesian locations to assess heartrot incidence and severity. The incidence of heartrot in the main stem was significantly different between some regions, ranging from 6.7% in East Kalimantan up to 46.7% in West Java. The proportion of each defect type (1-4) did not show a consistent trend across the sites. A combination of differences between plantation management (e.g. pruning), age and climate in these five regions explain the differences in heartrot incidence and severity. #

No abstract

The Neutron Scattering Laboratory at Serpong is equipped with three diffractometers: a powder diffractometer (PD), a four circle diffractometer/texture diffractometer (FCD/TD) and a high resolution powder diffractometer (HRPD). The powder diffractometer (PD) was the first instrument installed (1987) by JICA/Japan and is situated in the reactor experimental hall (XHR) of the multi-purpose reactor (RSG) GA Siwabessy. The two others were installed in 1992 under phase III of the Sumitomo project, together with other neutron scattering instruments. In 1995 the PD instrument was modified to allow for residual stress measurements (RSM) in collaboration with the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI). The detailed activities of this instrument are explained in elsewhere in this issue. High resolution powder diffractometerThe high resolution powder diffractometer (HRPD) is a versatile diffractometer to study both crystallographic and magnetic structures of powder samples. Since X-ray diffraction is rather insensitive to light atoms such as hydrogen and oxygen, neutron diffraction is indispensable for the structure determination of materials containing such light elements. Furthermore, neutrons have an inherent magnetic moment that enables probing many kinds of magnetic structures ranging from colinear-commensurate to incommensurate configurations.The high resolution powder diffractometer (HRPD) is installed at the second neutron guide (NG2) in the neutron guide hall (NGH) about 71 meters away from the reactor core. It consists of a monochromator, collimators, a sample table, and a multicounter system. The monochromator drum has three exits corresponding to three different take-off angles: 2θ M = 41.5°, 89°, and 130°. At present the instrument is set for 2θ M = 89°. Figures 1 and 2 show the instrument and the schematic diagram of HRPD, respectively.At the beginning, a pyrolitic graphite PG(004) focusing monochromator system comprised of five PG(004) single crystals provided a focused neutron beam having a wavelength of 2.352 Å. Although two PG(002) filters had been inserted in front of the sample with the consequence of reducing the beam intensity, higher order peaks were still apparent in the diffraction pattern, which confused the analysis. Later on, to overcome this problem, a hot pressed germanium single crystal replaced the PG monochromator [1] under a bilateral cooperation between JAERI and BATAN. The Ge(331) single crystal was pressed up to 70 kgcm −2 during heating at 850°C for one hour to increase the mosaic spread. Although the Ge(331) Figure 1. The HRPD instrument.Figure 2. Schematic diagram of HRPD.