FAO Teak Subcommission
FAO/IBRD Cooperative Program
FAO advisory committee on pulp and paper
At its second session held at Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in 1952, the FAO Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission (APFC), decided to ask the FAO Conference to approve the formation of a subcommission on teak competent to deal with all matters pertaining to teak production and use.
The FAO Conference examined the request at its seventh session and instructed the Director-General to proceed, in consultation with the Chairman of the Asia Pacific Forestry Commission, with the establishment of such a subcommission. The heads of the forest services of the main teak-producing countries (Burma, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Thailand) were then invited to constitute themselves into a permanent committee and assume direction of the activities of the subcommission. These officers accordingly met on 16 December 1954 at Debra Dun, during the Fourth World Forestry Congress, and formulated a series of recommendations to APFC.
At its third session held at Tokyo 9-21 April 1955, APFC decided that the Inspector-General of Forests, India, should be ex-officio independent chairman of the subcommission, that membership should be open to all countries in the region, and that there should be created a technical committee on ecology, seed, silviculture and protection, and another on utilization including marketing, grading and statistics of production and trade. The FAO Regional Forestry Officer at Bangkok would provide the secretariat services.
Sessions of the subcommission
The first session was held at Bangkok, 9-18 February 1956, with 36 representatives from 11 member countries and some observers participating. The establishment was endorsed of a working party on silviculture and management, a working party on utilization, and a study group on grading rules, and general programs of work were drawn up for these bodies, and their officers elected.
The second session took place at Bandung, Indonesia, 410 June 1957, in conjunction with the fourth session of the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission. It was attended by 32 representatives from 9 countries, and some observers. The existing working parties and the study group were maintained, and an informal group on provenance trials was set up.
The third session was held at New Delhi, 8-10 February 1960, in conjunction with the fifth session of the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission, with some 60 representatives from 12 countries and some observers. At this session, the subcommission recommended that interested African countries should be invited to attend its sessions, and that the possibility should be explored of transforming the subcommission into a joint body dependent on both the Asia-Pacific and the African forestry commissions, the latter having then recently been established. This was endorsed by APFC, and when the African Forestry Commission held its first session at Ibadan, Nigeria, 31 October-7 November 1960, it too made a recommendation to the same effect.
Subsequently the Eleventh Session of the FAO Conference (1961) transformed the Teak Subcommission into a joint body of the two forestry commissions. But the joint body did not in fact materialize.
The Thirteenth Session of the FAO Conference (1965) decided to establish, under Article VI of the Constitution, a new Committee on Forest Development in the Tropics. It recommended a review of existing bodies of this nature, with a view to reducing their number and avoiding duplication. As a result, the 47th Session of the FAO Council, in October 1966, decided, among other parallel actions, that the work of the Teak Subcommission should be incorporated into the field of action of the Committee on Forest Development in the Tropics.
Accomplishments of the subcommission
It is evident from the reports and documentation that the subcommission has over the years provided a useful forum for exchanges of information of teak ecology, silviculture, utilization and trade, and that progress has been made on several points, which may be summarized as follows:
1. Bibliography. A bibliography on teak was started by the Forest Research Institute at Debra Dun Member countries were supposed to provide annotated national bibliographies to the secretariat for collation and publication. Progress was slow, and at the end coverage was still far from complete.2. Ecology and soils. The discussions held and the papers presented have constituted a step forward with regard to the understanding of the mutual relationship between the factors involved. There is no firm conclusion as regards a possible soil deterioration consequent upon several pure teak rotations, but some countries definitely prefer mixed stands. More research is needed on this point.
3. Seed, and races and strains of teak. The first session recognized the need for an organized supply of seed, and the second session requested the working party on silviculture and management to draw up a design for provenance trials. This was done, and a co-ordinator for these trials was appointed. The success of this project obviously depended upon sufficient seed of good quality and known provenance being exchanged between the countries participating, and this left much to be desired. Also, it would appear that national teak provenance trials had not in all cases been subject to proper evaluation and dissemination for the benefit of other countries.
4. Silviculture and management, including protection. The subcommission was instrumental in promoting an effective exchange of experience in such matters as the techniques and economics of natural versus artificial regeneration, thinning practices, control of the beehole borer (Xyleuta ceramica), and the complex question of the role of fires in teak silviculture - where the general conclusion seems to be that fires are damaging except under very moist conditions. Cattle grazing and trampling were recorded as damaging in certain areas.
5. Inventories. There has been progress in the application of aerial photography. In management, the need for a more dynamic approach than that of equating current to past yield was recognized.
6. Utilization. Some of the main topics have been girdling versus alternative methods, mechanization and animal traction in logging, freight rates, quality variations and durability of the wood. The subcommission was able to establish satisfactory co-operation with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia and the Forestry Research Institute at Debra Dun, and a testing program was drawn up, including the effects of provenance and site on quality.
7. Grading rules. Much attention was given to the formulation of standard grading rules for logs, squares and conversions. Full and partial agreement was reached on rules for squares and logs, respectively, and these rules were published by FAO. With regard to conversions, a Burmese/Thai team undertook a study tour in early 1961 to study existing practices and drafted a set of rules which were circulated for comments. For veneer logs, separate rules were published by these countries.
8. Information on production and trade including prices. This was collected and tabled at the second and third sessions of the subcommission, and was considered of advantage to both exporting and importing countries.
9. Documentation. Produced under the auspices of the subcommission, this amounts to about 50 substantive papers, plus country reports. The country reports prepared for the first session were issued in printed form, and information from some 30 countries or territories on teak grown under exotic conditions was issued in mimeographed form. As the majority of plantations in these countries were very young at the time, the FAO Committee on Forest Development in the Tropics may wish to consider the desirability of undertaking another inquiry in the future.
10. Field programs: Finally, connected with the activities of the subcommission have been the various field programs such as an All-Indian teak study tour, a Danish/Thai teak improvement program, and technical assistance missions on teak breeding in India, teak inventory in Thailand, and mechanization of logging in Burma.
In the last two years under the joint program of FAO and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), 15 missions have been carried out which have been directly or indirectly concerned with forestry and forest industries development. The FAO/IBRD Cooperative Program has participated in the identification, preparation or appraisal of five projects concerned with the development of roads or railways in situations where timber or other forest products traffic would make a significant contribution to the economic justification of such projects. Of these, one is located in the Republic of the Congo, one in the Central African Republic, two in Gabon and one in Yugoslavia. The program has identified or prepared seven projects concerned with the development of man-made plantation resources to supply a source of raw material for either domestic or export-oriented forest industries. These projects were located in Ecuador, India, Kenya, Morocco, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
The program has also cooperated closely with a number of United Nations Development Program (UNDP) forestry projects for which FAO is acting as executing agency, orienting studies to enhance the prospects for the early identification and preparation of specific bankable projects. The main countries for which this type of activity has been carried out have been Ecuador, Gabon, Madagascar' Nicaragua and Tanzania.
FAO Committee on Forest Development in the Tropics met for the first time at Rome in October 1967.
Its report has now been issued. Here Nils A. Osara, Director of FAO Forestry, and Forest Industries Division, greets Tom Gill (U.S.A.) after his election as Chairman of the committee. Dr. Gill, President of the International Society of Tropical Foresters, has been associated with FAO from the beginning and was for some years a member of its Standing Advisory Committee on Forestry. Shortly after this Rome occasion, Dr. Gill was presented in San Francisco with the Fernow Award, jointly by the American Forestry Association and the German Forestry Association, for distinguished services to international forestry.
Three IBRD loans of direct interest to forest development were made in 1967, one for $50 million for the development of the Belgrade-Bar railroad in Yugoslavia which will open up for development the forest resources of Montenegro and Bosnia Herzegovina. Timber traffic will represent about 10 percent of the total generated traffic along the railroad. A proposed UNDP forest industries project could play an important complementary role in helping to ensure the planning and installation of the access road system which will be required to move timber from the forests to the railway. The Bank also made a loan of $2.4 million during 1967 for the expansion and improvement of two forest industrial enterprises in Yugoslavia, manufacturing paperboard and plywood and veneer respectively. In 1967 an IBRD loan was also made of $14 million for the development of an oil-palm project in the Jengka Triangle in Malaya, where an area of tropical forest is to be systematically exploited by the setting up of an integrated forest industrial complex and part of the forest area replaced by oil palm plantations. Planning this forest industrial complex was taken into account during project preparation.
The program has cooperated with the governments of Tanzania and Uganda in the preparation of reports on two plantation forestry projects which might be of interest to bilateral financing agencies.
The program maintains an informal liaison with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) concerning the identification of possible projects concerned with development of the pulp and paper industry. During 1967, IFC made a loan of $5 million for the development of a pulp and paper mill in Pakistan.
The program is also assisting both the Asian Development Bank and the African Development Bank in locating investment projects of interest to forestry development.
The following are the members of the FAO Advisory Committee on Pulp and Paper for the current period (see editorial comment on page 1 of this issue).
ARGENTINA
Ing. Edmundo Paul
2nd Vice-President
Asociación de Fabricantes de Papel de la República Argentina
Av. R.S. Peña 938
Buenos Aires
AUSTRALIA
R. W. Henry
Managing Director
Australian Newsprint Mills Ltd.
Boyer, Tasmania
W.G. Chandler (Alternate)
General Manager A.P.M. Forests Pty. Ltd.
South Gate
South Melbourne, S.C.4.
BRAZIL
S. Klabin
Director
Irmaõs Klabin de Paraná de Celulose S/A
Caixa Postal 524
São Paulo
CANADA
R.M. Fowler (Chairman)
President
Canadian Pulp and Paper Association
2280 Sun Life Building
Montreal
I.B. Chenoweth (Alternate)
Vice-President
Canadian Pulp and Paper Association
2280 Sun Life Building
Montreal
CHILE
E. Ayala
General Manager
Compañía Manufacturera de Papeles y Cartones, S.A.
Santiago
FINLAND
L.K. Kirves
Managing Director
Central Association of Finnish Woodworking Industries
E. Esplanadikatu 2
Helsinki
S. Hägerström (Alternate)
Managing Director
Finnish Cellulose Union
S. Esplanadikatu 2
Helsinki
FRANCE
J.P. Levy
Directeur des industries diverges et des textiles
Ministère de l'industrie
3 rue Barbet de Jouy
Paris 7e
S. Beracha (Alternate)
Vice-président délégué
Fédération des fabricants de papiers et cartons français
154 boulevard Haussmann
Paris 8e
P. Germain (Alternate)
Président de la Confédération des producteurs de pâtes et papiers
154 boulevard Haussmann
Paris 8e
GERMANY, FED. REP. OF
H. Niethammer
Verband Deutscher Papierfabriken
Heubergweg 9
Raubling/Obb.
F. Dorn (Alternate)
Director General
Zellstoffabrik Waldhof
Sandhoferstrasse 176
68 Mannheim 1
INDIA
V. Podder
Works Director
Rohtas Industries Ltd.
Dalmianagar
ITALY
V. Amici
Capo del Servizio Tecnico
Ente Nazionale Cellulosa e Carta
Viale Regina Margherita 262
Rome
L. Cibrario (Alternate)
Vice Presidente dell'Assocarta
Centro Cartario Italiano per il Mercato Comune Europeo
Piazza Castello 113
Torino
JAPAN
M. Matsunaga
Director-in-Chief
Japan Pulp and Paper Association
Kami Parupu Kaikan
Ginza Higashi, 3-chome
Chuo-Ku
Tokyo
MEXICO
P. Aldrett
President
Asociación Méxicana de Técnicos de la Industria de la Celulosa y del Papel
Apartado Postal 41-637
Mexico 10, D.F.
SWEDEN
L. Sjunnesson
Managing Director
Swedish Pulp and Paper Mills' Association
Villagatan 1
Stockholm
E. Landberg (Alternate)
Vice-President
Swedish Pulp and Paper Mills' Association
Villagatan 1
Stockholm
UNITED KINGDOM
P. Dixon
President
British Paper and Board Makers' Association
Plough Place, Fetter Lane
London E.C.4
G.L. Pethick (Alternate)
Director
British Paper and Board Makers' Association
Plough Place, Fetter Lane
London E.C.4
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
E.A. Locke
President
American Paper Institute
260 Madison Avenue, N
New York, N.Y. 10016
J.L. Ritchie (Alternate)
Pulp and Raw Material Group
American Paper Institute
260 Madison Avenue, N
New York, N.Y. 10016
ORGANIZATION FOR ECONOMIC COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT
R. Du Vivier (Observer)
Director, Industry
Division, OECD
Chateau de la Muette
2 rue André Pascal
Paris 16e, France
