European forestry commission
FAO committee on wood-based panel products
Forestry and agrarian reform in Latin America
The fourteenth session of the European Forestry Commission was held at Geneva, Switzerland, in October 1968. The opportunity was taken to arrange also a two-day joint session of the ECE Timber Committee and of the FAO European Forestry Commission, which was attended by delegates from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Byelorussian S.S.R., Canada, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukrainian S.S.R., U.S.S.R., United Kingdom, United States of America and Yugoslavia. A representative of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) also participated, while the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), the International Organization of Employers (IOE), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the European Confederation of Agriculture (CEA), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), sent observers. Staff officials of the Commission of the European Economic Community (EEC) also attended.
The joint session was addressed by Mr. J. Stanovnik, the Executive Secretary of ECE, and by Mr. P. Lamartine Yates, FAO Regional Representative for Europe. The meetings were presided over by the respective Chairmen of the two bodies, Mr. G.E. Hampson, United Kingdom, Chairman of the ECE Timber Committee, and Mr. F. Tomulescu, Romania, Chairman of the FAO European Forestry Commission. Mr. E. Kalkkinen, Director of the ECE/FAO Timber Division, served as Secretary.
An interim review of the FAO study, European timber trends and prospects: a new appraisal, 1950-1975 (document TIM/Working Paper No. 127, FO: EFC-68/2) was the principal matter of business.
This review had been undertaken by staff of the ECE/FAO Timber Division located in Geneva. It showed that Europe's forest products economy between 1960, the base year for the study's projections, and the present time had broadly speaking developed as originally forecast. The study's detailed projections appeared, however, to need revision. It is now estimated that total consumption of forest products in 1975 may reach 421 million cubic metres (wood raw material equivalent), or slightly higher (by some 6 million cubic metres) than was envisaged in-the study. Sawnwood consumption is also expected to be slightly higher while for other main product groups the estimates remain essentially unchanged, in aggregate, with some adjustments within each group.
Similarly, the trends to date in Europe's total domestic supply of industrial roundwood have conformed to the study's estimates. But estimates of roundwood supply in 1975, which were based on countries' own felling forecasts, now need upward revision - by about 10 percent or some 26 million cubic metres - with northern Europe accounting for more than one half of the increase. It is also now estimated that an additional 4 million cubic metres of residues, over and above those foreseen in the study, will be put to industrial use.
In sum, the shortfall between Europe's need for industrial forest products and domestic supplies is expected to widen somewhat more slowly than foreseen by the study, and may be in the order of 46 million cubic metres by 1975 - a figure that lies closer to the lower than to the higher estimated balance envisaged in the study. The shortfall will, according to the extrapolation of trends in the interim review, get larger and may reach 56 million cubic metres by 1980. However, these figures are tentative.
The meeting recognized the interim review as essentially an updating of the earlier study which was not intended as a major reappraisal. The conclusions about future prospects appeared to be sound and provided valuable information on which to base policy decisions.
The value of periodic revisions of long-term studies, supplemented by detailed sectorial studies, was acknowledged. In terms of the forestry production cycle, 15 years was a relatively short period and the meeting proposed that an attempt should be made to extend the projections as far as the year 2000.
ACTIVITIES OF SUBSIDIARY BODIES
Mr. K.I. Voronitsin (U.S.S.R.), chairman of the FAO/ECE/ILO Committee on Forest Working Techniques and Training of Forest Workers, introduced to the joint session a report on his Committee's activities, and Mr. L. Velay (France) dealt as chairman with recent activities of the FAO/ECE Working Party on Forest and Forest Products Statistics.
A report was received of the storm damage to forests in Europe during the winter and spring of 1966/67. The damage had proved to be even more widespread than originally estimated. The market situation was now becoming stabilized, although roundwood prices, particularly those for coniferous timber, were still well below predisaster levels in the affected countries.
Valuable experience had been gained in methods of dealing with such catastrophes; for example, it had acted as a spur to develop greatly improved logging methods which had proved helpful to the United Kingdom when a similar disaster struck in Scotland at the beginning of 1968. Delegates asked that information on the methods used to deal with the damaged timber, and their effectiveness, should be compiled and published as a supplement to the Timber bulletin for Europe.
Against the background of papers presented by Messrs. Tomulescu, Dumitrescu and Carcea (Romania), Mr. Margaropoulos (Greece), Mr. Velay (France) and Messrs, von Sydow and Hamilton (Sweden), the meeting engaged in a general discussion on the problems which beset forestry and forest industries in Europe. Production costs per unit volume of wood harvested have tended to rise, despite mechanization and rationalization of forest operations. Prices for roundwood generally have shown little upward trend or have even declined, and consequently the net returns to forest owners have shrunk, even to negative values in some localities and for some categories of roundwood.
The critical question now facing the European forestry and forest industries sector is: How much industrial wood can European forestry supply profitably at prices which industry can afford to pay? The frame within which this question has to be answered is distorted in many European countries by two considerations. The cost of wood production is frequently inflated by the obligation to produce nontimber values: watershed control, soil protection, recreation, amenities and support for the rural economy. These are services rendered by the forest to the community. They should in principle be paid for out of the public purse.
The other consideration is that forest industries in some countries are inefficient and for their survival depend on wood prices which are too low to be remunerative to the forest owner.
Most European forest authorities, both state and private, are radically revising their approach to silviculture and management, seeking to apply advances in technology and in managerial science. Thus the trend is to step up inputs on the most favourable sites, where more intensive forestry gives promise of economic return, and to move toward less intensive forestry on inferior sites. It is increasingly recognized that national production goals must today be formulated within the international context, and that this requires careful study of international marginal cost/return relations.
Economic considerations, coupled with rapidly advancing technology, today render imperative coordinated planning of all phases of the forestry and forest industries sector, from the planting and growing of wood to the marketing of the processed products. The road to effective coordinated planning will differ from country to country, but a prerequisite is a continuous dialogue at the national level between forestry and forest industry, leading to a mutual comprehension of each others' problems. In some countries notable successes have already been achieved; in others, this dialogue has scarcely begun.
The meeting called upon FAO and ECE to devise further opportunities for international cooperation in this area.
The second session of the FAO Committee on Wood-based Panel Products was held 6-8 November 1968 at FAO headquarters at Rome, and attended by 54 participants from 21 member countries.1
1 Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Colombia France, Federal Republic of Germany, Ghana, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America, and Yugoslavia.
Dr. H. O. Fleischer, director of the Forest Products Laboratory, United States Forest Service, was reelected chairman, and Dr. G. Mañalac, vice-chairman of the Presidential Committee on Wood Industries Development, Philippines, as the FAO committee's vice-chairman. J. H. Wilson, market development director for the United Kingdom and Europe for Plywood Manufacturers of British Columbia, was appointed rapporteur.
The FAO committee, established in 1964 to advise the Director-General on the evolution of a programme relating to the wood-based panel industries, consists of specialist representatives appointed by Member Governments who in turn are selected by the Director-General. The membership of the committee reflects the interests of both producer and consumer countries and is representative of the various regions of the world.
A prominent feature of the committee's work at its second session was an examination of the trends in consumption, production and trade as analysed in a secretariat survey, Outlook for the future - a tentative appraisal of prospects in consumption, production and trade and the latest available projections from a number of sources, including uncompleted studies for developing countries carried out in connection with the FAO Indicative World Plan for Agricultural Development. As a result the committee concluded that the very high growth rates of the past two decades, typical of the early development of new commodities, were unlikely to be maintained. Nevertheless, growth for the product group as a whole might be expected to continue at an annual rate of about 7 percent up to about 1975. Consumption of particle board would possibly grow approximately 12 percent per year, plywood 6 percent, and fibreboard 5 percent. There were, of course, marked regional differences in the pattern of consumption and production and in the projected rates of growth.
In this context the committee also had at its disposal the findings of the first "FAO world survey of production capacity for plywood, particle board and fibreboard" which is printed elsewhere in this issue of Unasylva. This survey indicated that annual production capacity for the three products had risen from 36.8 million metric tons in 1966 to 42.7 million in 1968 and might rise to 45.5 million in 1969, or at the rate of about 3 million tons each year.
Dr. Osara has written to the editor of Unasylva:
"Many friends and colleagues have remembered me on the occasion of my retirement from FAO. In fact, there are so many of them that I regret I find it quite impossible to thank each one personally. May I therefore take advantage of a corner of Unasylva."Thank you all for your friendship, for the support you have given FAO and its Forestry and Forest Industries Division and for the wonderful spirit of collaboration and confidence which always has been a treasured feature of our activities May this spirit continue during the years to come, to the benefit of world forestry and in particular of forestry in the developing countries."
Other matters considered and dealt with in documents contributed from committee members included the case for continued investment in the particle board industry in (a) developed and (b) developing areas; surface finishing and the improvement of wood-based panels; trends in production costs; promoting the use of wood-based panels; and the development of a multipurpose pilot plant.
There have been considerable changes in the structure of the particle board industry and its operating conditions over the last decade and even during the last few years. Improvements in processing machinery have led to larger and more automated mills with higher labour productivity. In countries with large markets and in order to meet extremely competitive market conditions, new mills are often units with annual outputs of 100000 tons or more. Capital investment in such plants may run as high as U.S. $5 to $6 million. This is in part due to the need for increased flexibility in marketing, which requires the production of a range of improved products such as board cut-to-size, and edge-banded panels and products with improved surfaces - either fully finished by painting or overlaying, or semifinished to facilitate painting or other finishing operations by the customer. Such complex units call for highly skilled personnel at all levels of operation.
The size of particle board markets and the state of the industry in developing countries show considerable variation. For the most part active market development programmes are necessary if a mill is to succeed. This may entail market promotion:
(a) Within an existing large-scale mass production furniture industry; where local furniture industries lack facilities for veneering, the board mill will have to add these to its operation.(b) For construction purposes; this will generally require the cooperation of government authorities in drawing up specifications for the use of particle board in construction and building activities undertaken by state agencies.
Once a developing country has decided to promote a particle board industry, government policy regarding taxation, duties on resins and on imported competing board products, transport rates for board and competing products, building codes and specifications, will strongly influence the prospects for its success.
The committee was informed about the dry process for hardboard manufacture, with a comparison of investment and production costs for the wet and dry processes. Investment costs were on the whole very much the same for a given production capacity, with a tendency for the dry process to be less expensive at higher capacities One advantage of the dry process was the reduction in the amount of effluent. Dry and semidry processes together appear to constitute about one third of the total capacity for hardboard production in the United States, where the majority of such plants are located - or about 20 percent of total world capacity for hardboard production.
Hardwood plywood prices in the United States have fallen in the last 15 years. The cost of synthetic adhesives also has decline but the costs of labour and peeler logs have increased and obliged the industry to undertake greater automation. Trends in the softwood plywood industry have been similar, and improvements in manufacturing methods have enabled the industry to meet larger material and labour costs without increasing prices.
Markets in the developed countries are highly competitive. The committee stressed the need for strict quality control of the product, for the manufacture of a wide range of finished products, and for comprehensive technical information services. The advances that are taking place in the utilization of synthetic materials to improve the surface should enable wood-based panels to withstand competition from other materials.
The committee also expressed the view that there was a need to review national building codes which often impede the use of panels, particularly in urban areas. In this connection it noted that the Timber Committee of the Economic Commission for Europe was to undertake an enquiry into the comparability of national building codes in Europe and the regulations relating to the behaviour of wood products, including wood-based panels, in case of fire. The committee expressed the hope that restrictive clauses would also be excluded from new building codes which developing countries might promulgate.
The report of the meeting is available from FAO on request.
A seminar on forestry development, agrarian reform and colonization was held in Brasilia, federal capital of Brazil, 18-25 November 1968. The seminar was convened by FAO with the financial support of the United Nations Development Programme and with the cooperation of the Brazilian Government. The idea originated from a recommendation put forward by FAO's Latin American Forestry Commission at its ninth session in 1964. The project was further elaborated during the World Land Reform Conference held at Rome in 1966.
The seminar brought together for the first time heads and senior officers of national agencies concerned with forestry, agrarian reform and colonization of most of the Latin- American countries. Some 40 officials from 17 countries were present, in addition to many consultants, experts and observers. Directing the seminar were Mr. Valdiki Moura of Brazil and Mr. Cesco Petrin of FAO. General Sylvio Pinto da Luz, president of the Brazilian Institute ford Forestry Development, was elected Chairman.
The participants agreed 'that, while an increase in agricultural production must ultimately depend on improved productivity and on structural changes, for some considerable tune - to come this increase will have to be achieved by expanding the agricultural area at the expense of forested areas, due to the scarcity of basic inputs and to the rapid growth in population. Various specific measures were recommended for the attainment of planned agricultural expansion and for preventing uncontrolled settlement, avoiding indiscriminate destruction of forests and creating an efficient land ownership structure.
The importance for forestry development of reforms in the structure and ownership pattern of forest holdings was discussed and the role of the forestry sector in agrarian policies examined. The urgent need to train more personnel in agriculture and forestry, particularly at technical and subordinate levels, was stressed. The attention of governments and international financing organizations was drawn to the necessity of defining financing policies that would make it easier for countries to incorporate their forest resources into the economic and social development processes emerging in their homelands. It was also considered important to encourage the grouping of small proprietors, beneficiaries of agrarian reform, and agricultural and forest workers into associations able to collaborate effectively in the various phases of agrarian reform and forestry development. FAO was urged to examine the problems specifically posed by the incorporation of forest resources into agrarian reform programmes from their legal, administrative, technical, economic and social aspects.
Jack C. Westoby, who was present at Brasilia, transmitted the conclusions of the seminar to the tenth FAO Regional Conference for Latin America, held at Kingston, Jamaica, in December 1968. This conference called on Member Governments to pay special attention to the recommendations of the seminar and asked the Director-General of FAO to take them into account in preparing future programmes of work.
