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African wildlife convention
International festival of forestry films sixth world forestry congress

African wildlife convention

The lives, living conditions, present fates and possible futures of well over 100 species of African wild animals were recently under discussion at an African conference which may well come to be seen as a landmark in the history of attempts to protect that country's natural fauna.

Its outcome, in the form of a draft convention spelling out ways and means of future wildlife conservation in the Food and Agriculture Organization's 37 African Member States, will be submitted to a full government conference probably to be held in 1968, under the sponsorship of the Organization of African Unity, FAO, Unesco, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Thirty of these states in the meantime have either signified their approval or have proposed amendments now incorporated in the document. Putting it into its final form was the chief, but not the only job of the 60 wildlife experts and delegates who worked late into the night - and at least once into the dawn - during their week at Fort Lamy.

The pleasant tree-shaded town, capital of Chad, was an appropriately symbolic venue for the subject under discussion. Standing near the northern edge of the great savanna belt extending from east to west above the heart of Africa, it is the gateway to both desert and bush, each with its characteristic wildlife. Some of the minor forms - warthogs and baboons - are to be seen almost within strolling distance. Overhead the foliage of tamarisk, acacia and baobab trees is lit by the explosive flash of Abyssinian roller birds, their wings - metallic blue, maroon and black - spreading wide as they alight like huge exotic butterflies. But in the wide River Chari flowing toward Lake Chad only the fish - and the fishermen, wading shoulder-deep with their nets linked in long half circles - are left: hippos and crocodiles have been hunted out. To see them now, together with other big beasts such as lions, elephants, giraffes, black rhinos and buffaloes, and with gazelles and antelopes in plenty, means a journey of several hours.

Though civilization has pushed back the wildlife frontiers, it is not the only factor. The director of Chad's national parks and game reserves told the Conference that if poaching and bush-burning - the villagers' favorite way of clearing the ground to collect wild honey, or of driving out wild animals to be killed- were to continue at their present level, the end of the country's wealth of fauna would be in sight. Other delegates had similar tales to tell.

The problem of the conservation of wildlife in Africa is not new. It was tackled at the London Convention of 1933 when the colonial powers of those days imposed restrictions designed chiefly to control the white hunter. Traditional hunting rights were exempted so that in Botswana (then Bechuanaland), for instance, it applied to 3,000 Europeans but not to the rest of the population, numbering half a million, who were free to pursue and kill more or less as they pleased.

Significantly, it is now the African nations who generally wish to see this age-old practice stopped and replaced by a system of licensed hunting. Some are already pushing ahead with their own legislation. Those signing the convention will undertake to whittle down progressively any traditional hunting and fishing rights which seem to be endangering a species or thwarting the general animal management measures for which the convention also calls.

The question of management is in fact basic to the modern concept of wildlife conservation as it wild, it is hoped, be practiced. Broadly it involves the control and study of hunting, cropping, habitats, grazing, and migration in such a way as to maintain the wild animals' environmental needs while, where practicable, producing economic benefits. Tourism is likely to be the most important of these. The production of game meat, as a result of controlled cropping and hunting, can also be important.

All this requires the careful selection of reserves and their proper supervision. Wild animals must ideally be able to move and migrate as their nature and the seasonal changes in their habitats dictate. To the biologist this means an area which, in order to be self-sufficient ecologically, may well need to cover many thousands of hectares. The convention envisages four types of reserve, including two - national parks and game reserves - which already exist in Africa in some numbers, though few at present have the kind of scientific management plans now called for. In the former, hunting will be limited to what is needed for scientific or management purposes; in the latter, it will be allowed only under license by the reserve authorities. In the other two types of reserve there will be no hunting at all. These are the strict nature reserves in which animals and nature generally will have uninterrupted play, without benefit of visitors excepting scientists, and special reserves sanctuaries - for the protection of specially threatened species and characteristic wild animals and especially of bird communities.

International festival of forestry films sixth world forestry congress

In answer to many requests; a list is published below of the films which were accepted for the International Film Festival contest organized in connection with the Sixth World Forestry Congress held at Madrid, June 1966.

COUNTRY-TITLE 1	DURATION 2	COLOR 3	AWARD 4
16 mm films
Australia
The kauri forest	30	C
Belgium
La forêt belge	30	C
Canada
Aircraft in forest fire control	27	C	(18) Bronze medal
The man on the mountain top	16	C
Présence de la forêt	29	C	(7) Second prize (Silver Ear) for informative films, presented by the IAFC of Berlin 5
Whatsoever a man soweth	28	C
Finland
A new strive analyzer	22	C
From forest to factory An Veitsiluoto	13	C
On the ecology of pine, spruce and birch.	16	C
Treated timber from Finland	14	C	(18) Bronze medal
France
Le bois dans la charpente	16	C	(18) Bronze medal
Des hommes et des arbres	14	C
Germany, Fed. Rep. of
Veneer, sawing, debarking and carving	18	C	(8) Second prize of the Festival (Bronze Tree) for educational films
Hungary
Jungle along the Danube	23	BW
Israel
"And ye shall. plant trees"	20	C
Ivory Coast
Lea bois de la Côte- d'Ivoire	20	C	(17) Extraordinary prize for the best African film, presented by the Dirección General de Plazas y Provincias Africana

¹ The title and text of films had to be submitted in one of the official languages of the Congress. - ² In minute - ³ In color (C) or black and white (BW). - ⁴ Numbers in parentheses indicate the order An which prizes were conferred. - ⁵ International Agricultural Film Competition.

COUNTRY-TITLE 1	DURATION 2	COLOR 3	AWARD 4
16 mm films
Japan
Erosion control in Japan	20	C	(13) Special prize for script, offered by the Madrid City Council, for educational films
Shiitake mushroom in Japan	20	C
Kenya
Treasure in the trees	32	BW
Netherlands
Collecting cones from standing Douglas fir trees safely	16	C
Farmyard and landscape	20	C
Felling of trees	29	C
Norway
Methods of forest planting	8	BW
Poland
Horse and tractor skidding	17	C
Portugal
L'utilisation des eucalyptus au Portugal.	30	C
Rhodesia
Man and his forests	23	C
Romania
Bears meadow	20	C
The green gold	17	C
Spain
Bosques de Galicia	27	C	(18) Bronze medal
Sweden
How to take down a wrongly felled tree	8	C
The rickled method	8	BW
Mechanized logging	10	C
Switzerland
La forêt - pour-quoi ?	13	C	(3) First prize (Golden Ear) for informative films, presented by the IAFC of Berlin 5
			(12) Special prize for script, presented by the Madrid City Council, for informative films
La récolte du bois en forêt de montagne	20	C
Un nouveau métier "Le forestier bûcheron"	16	C
United Kingdom
Timborized timber	20	C
Forest products research	20	C
The adler woodwasp and its insect enemies	26	C
United States
The paper forest	28	C	(1) Grand prize of the Festival (Golden Tree)
Direct seeding of southern pine	20	C
Patterns of the wild	27	C	(18) Bronze medal
Mechanism of moisture movement in wood	30	C
U.S.S.R.
Industrial preparation and processing of brushwood	13	C
Yugoslavia
Plantation des peupliers	15	C	(18) Bronze medal

¹ The title and text of films had to be submitted In one of the official languages of the Congress. - ² In minute - ³ In color (C) or black and white (BW). - ⁴ Numbers in parentheses indicate the order An which prizes were conferred. - ⁵ International Agricultural Film Competition.

COUNTRY-TITLE 1	DURATION 2	COLOR 3	AWARD 4
35 mm films
Australia
Tree business	27	C	(18) Bronze medal
Bulgaria
Soldats de la forêt	16	C	(18) Bronze medal
Le chemin de la forêt	10	C
Cuba
Nace un bosque	20	C	(2) First prize (Silver Tree) for informative films
			(16) Extraordinary prize for the best Hispano-American film, presented by the Institute of Hispanic Culture
Czechoslovakia
Les gibiers de la forêt des plaines humides	45	C
La forêt en fleurs	12	C	(18) Bronze medal
Le mille et unième arbre	10	BW
France - Millénaire	31	C
Germany, Fed Rep. Of
Different methods of artificial and natural regeneration in farmers' forests	22	C
Going to the forest	10	C
Les forêts et l'eau	10	C
India
Call of the Khedda	13	C	(15) Special prize for photography, presented by the Spanish National Wood and Cork Association
The living forest	10	BW
Our feathered friends	16	C
Wild but friendly	13	BW
Italy
Cultivo de los eucaliptos	32	C	(18) Bronze medal
Cultivo y utilización de los chopos	30	C	(9) Second prize (Silver Ear) for educational films, presented by the IAFC of Berlin 5
Protection du peuplier	13	C
Jamaica
Water is life	17	BW
Liberia
Wealth in wood	20	C	(18) Bronze medal

¹ The title and text of films had to be submitted In one of the official languages of the Congress. - ² In minute - ³ In color (C) or black and white (BW). - ⁴ Numbers in parentheses indicate the order An which prizes were conferred. - ⁵ International Agricultural Film Competition.

COUNTRY-TITLE 1	DURATION 2	COLOR 3	AWARD 4
35 mm films
Mexico
Mexico forestal	20	C	(18) Bronze medal
New Zealand
The young giant Kaingaroa	18	C	(10) Special prize for direction, presented by the Spanish Ministry of Information and Tourism, for informative films
Norway
Afforestation in the coastal districts of Norway	22	C
Vandalism	8	C
Skidding by winch	18	BW
Romania
The Carpathian deer	20	C	(14) Special prize for photography, presented by the Spanish National Wood and Cork Association
Torrent control	20	C	(18) Bronze medal
Spain
Cuando cantan los pinos	18	C	(18) Bronze medal
Sweden
Wizardry with wood	25	C	(6) Second prize of the Festival (Bronze Tree) for informative films
Switzerland
Holz - bois - legno	11	C
United Kingdom
Usutu	34	C	(5) First prize (Golden Ear) for educational films, presented by the IAFC of Berlin
			(11) Special prize for direction, presented by the Spanish Ministry of Information and Tourism, for educational films
U.S.S.R.
Innovations in logging and initial floating	20	C	(18) Bronze medal
Larch	20	C	(18) Bronze medal
Reclamation of boggy forest areas	16	C	(4) First prize of the Festival (Silver Tree) for educational films
Yugoslavia
The forests of Triglav	20	C

¹ The title and text of films had to be submitted In one of the official languages of the Congress. - ² In minute - ³ In color (C) or black and white (BW). - ⁴ Numbers in parentheses indicate the order An which prizes were conferred. - ⁵ International Agricultural Film Competition.