B.K. STEENBERG
Address by the Director, Forestry and Forest Industries Division, to the ad hoc FAO Committee on Forestry, Rome, 2531 March 1969.
OVER THE YEARS, FAO has devoted much of its time and energy to the basic tasks of collecting and disseminating technical information, of advising member countries on the problems which fall within our terms of reference and, in general, in providing assistance throughout the world in the numerous and diverse fields that are covered by the term "food and agriculture."
It was necessary, at that stage of our evolution, for groups of experts in similar specialities to concentrate on the problems which affected their particular sectors or sub-sectors of the national economies. This is not to deny that there was interdisciplinary cooperation. Indeed, not only was there cooperation within the structure of FAO itself but the Organization, wherever necessary and desirable, took advantage of the relevant expertise in other international agencies and, in its turn, assisted these agencies in the solution of the difficulties which they encountered. Nevertheless, it is perhaps true to say that the assistance which was given to member countries was interdisciplinary only as a result of ad hoc efforts; our structure did not easily permit us to adopt an integrated approach to those problems of development that fall within FAO'S competence.
We believe that, valuable though this approach has been and will no doubt continue to be, the time is now ripe for the emphasis to be shifted. We are convinced that the qualified and experienced specialists who are employed by FAO should, to a greater degree than before, be utilized especially in the planning stage as members of interdisciplinary teams. These teams would consider the process of development as being one of many interwoven threads, each indispensable to the other, and each of significant importance. Thus, an integrated approach to the problems of development is one of the principles underlying the philosophy of our reorganization proposals.
This is not the only purpose of our' reorganization proposals, however. Given the limited means available to us, it is most important that we get our priorities right, and that we concentrate on those priorities. The Director-General has identified five key problem areas in which he proposes to concentrate the Organization's efforts in the years immediately ahead. The FAO Council has endorsed his proposal. Action groups have been set up for each of these key areas, with members drawn from various specialities. They will consider development problems in the various countries or regions, and they are responsible, under the supervision of a steering committee, for coordinating and developing at headquarters and in the field FAO's future activities in the five areas of concentration: the earning and saving of foreign exchange, the mobilization of human resources, war on waste, high-yielding varieties, and filling the protein gap.
We have a role to play in all these areas. The special attributes of the forestry and forest industries sector in increasing exports and decreasing imports, and in providing employment opportunities, are reasonably well known. I hope that it will be evident from what I have to say concerning the services which we offer to Member Governments that we are also involved in the war on waste through our emphasis on the more efficient management of the forest resources and through the scientific and technological improvements which we help to disseminate. Many of the biological advances which I will later discuss are related to the propagation of high-yielding varieties, and we are of the opinion that our work on conservation, on improving land-use practices, and particularly on wildlife management will contribute in no small measure to increasing protein supplies.
The third element in the philosophy underlying reorganization is the need to raise the efficiency of field operations. In addition to the creation of a Development Department, there have been set up at headquarters, in each of the divisions, operations services which are specially concerned with the preparation, implementation, coordination and follow-up of all field programmes. Although the combined expertise of all our divisional personnel is, as before, being made available to the field projects, it is now channelled through these operations services. It is believed that this new functional arrangement will harmonize the lines of communication between headquarters and field officers, and permit a more interdisciplinary approach to their problems. The Forestry and Forest Industries Division takes some pride in the fact that it was the first division to establish such a service.
In the field, in individual member countries, FAO intends to station country representatives whose continuous presence will enable them to observe the national economies as a whole, and who will form a vital link between the countries themselves and headquarters. Complementing their activities will be the regional offices, staffed by specialists from the various divisions and departments of FAO who will in most cases travel together, plan together, and establish priorities for development in the regions and in the countries for transmission to headquarters. In this way, it is hoped that a piecemeal approach will be avoided, that narrow sectoral interests will not be served at the expense of the nations' general welfare, and that country activities will be given greater attention.
The Director-General and his assistants will concentrate on the integration of policies which will embrace the full range of FAO'S activities. This is an important consideration in our proposed departmental status, for it will permit forestry and forest industries to play a direct role in the planning of the Organization's affairs.
I have been speaking about the philosophy which forms the basis of the general reorganization of FAO because it places in its proper perspective the reorganization of the Forestry and Forest Industries Division. You are aware of the circumstances which have led to the proposal to grant departmental status to the division.¹ I will examine briefly a few of the strengths and weaknesses of this sector, and indicate how FAO intends to assist Member Nations.
(¹ See Unasylva, Volume 22(3), Number 90, 1968.)
In describing the state of forestry and forest industries, we realize that this sector is only one, albeit a very important one, of many sectors of EL nation's economy. Therefore, in the planning and in the implementation of forestry and forest industries activities, it is essential that we do not strike a parochial attitude, that we appreciate the interactions of all the parts of the national, and indeed the international, economy, and that we consciously strive to achieve the integrated approach to a nation's socioeconomic problems. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that, although the forester's immediate concern is with his forests and their products, these are only important to the extent that they are of importance to the nation's well-being.
All over the world foresters have been concerned with increasing the productivity of their forests, with improving existing techniques both in forestry and forest industries, and with enhancing the quality of the wood raw material and finished products, through changes in their biological and technological practices. As a result of this persistent attack on the physical problems of forestry and forest industries, we are today in a position in which it may be true to say that our knowledge of forest biology and technology is not in itself a factor which limits forestry and forest industries development.
Indeed, recent advances in these fields indicate that the stage is set for great achievements. Provided that we are able to overcome certain critical obstacles, and provided that we can ensure that these advances arc applied on a far greater scale than they are at present, in the forests and in the factories forestry and forest industries will make an ever-increasing contribution to the economies of the several nations. Nor are these biological and technological improvements the only factors which give rise to a spirit of optimism. Complementing them. is a movement that is perhaps even more important: the gradual understanding of the true role which forests play and forest industries can play in the social and economic development of countries. It is this which we hope to bring into prominence through new organizational and new emphasis.
In the field of forest biology, important results have been reported in forest fertilization and tree breeding. There is new evidence that the forest, ecosystems possess the ability to retain some applied fertilizers for long periods and thus surprisingly high growth rates have been achieved at all stages of a plantation's development. Furthermore, the influence of micronutrients on the growth of trees has also been recognized and spectacular results have been observed after the correction of various deficiencies. Progress in tree breeding has been no less fruitful. The possibilities of predicting those provenances and genotypes which are capable of exploiting the available environments to the best advantage have been successfully demonstrated. It has also become obvious that, substantial gains can be realized through both intraspecific and interspecific hybridization. Considering the short time which has been devoted to this field of endeavour, the results so far obtained are quite encouraging.
Another advance which may become important is the application of phytotronics to forestry. The phytotron is able to simulate a whole range of climatic conditions for plant growth, and it is therefore possible to provide controlled and reproducible conditions for studies in tree physiology, silviculture, and forest pathology. Research in these fields may therefore be conducted more efficiently, speedily, and accurately, and the forest researcher in any particular country would be able to undertake many other types of research which he would not hitherto have thought possible. A tree phytotron has recently been put into operation in Sweden.
The breaking of the genetic code and the synthesis of biologically active proteins have been among the truly great achievements of science in recent years. Ultimately, there may be a possibility of creating trees tailored to our needs. This may sound far-fetched, but there is little doubt that it can be done; whether it will be achieved is another question.
Recent improvements in the techniques of studying the cause/effect relationships within ecosystems have contributed to a better understanding of the natural processes which operate within multipurpose forests. This ecological knowledge will certainly permit us to reduce damage and to increase productivity in those forest stands that are devoted to timber production, game management and recreation. In addition, improved knowledge of the factors which affect the population dynamics of noxious organisms has increased the prospects of biological control. The dissemination of male insects sterilized by radiation is an example of such new techniques.
Advances in felling, harvesting, transportation, and conversion methods appear to be even more remarkable. In harvesting, the semimechanized systems based essentially on standard agricultural tractors and motor sources appear to have reached maturity. In their place, highly mechanized multipurpose harvesters, of which the most important new component is the articulated tractor, are being developed in North America, the U.S.S.R. and Scandinavia, for example. Many systems are being tested, and it is as yet too early to assess the full operational consequences of the various methods. It would be wise policy, therefore, for the developing countries to utilize the current technology of the temperate forests until the new methods have been tried out on a larger scale. One thing is certain: higher degrees of mechanization require much more detailed plans of operation, if they are to become profitable. Without research in the logistics of forest operations, purely mechanical inventions would be useless.
In wood and wood products transportation there are two main lines of advance: bulk transport and unitization. Partly as a result of the increasing interest which is being shown in chipping in the forests, chips are now being transported in bulk by vans on land, and by barges and boats on rivers and on the sea. Another method of bulk transport is the fluidized movement of pulp by air.
Unitization is a parallel development which decreases handling costs. Pallets or flats which enable loads to be packed and handled at lower costs are increasingly being used in the transportation of many types of forest products. The use of containers, which is currently of great general interest, is important in forest industries only for expensively finished or semifinished products. Unit packaging of sawn timber of unit length decreases handling and stripping costs, and constitutes an important development.
An interesting unit transport system which offers prospects of a considerable reduction in freight costs is the lighter aboard ship system. In many regions docking facilities are not suitable for ocean-going ships. Ships are therefore now being designed to carry lighters. The lighters would be loaded, for instance in a river, towed to sea, and lifted on board by the seagoing vessels' own cranes. The ships will then proceed to their various destinations, where the lighters would be unloaded as necessary. It has been estimated that the loading and unloading of a lighter would take about 15 minutes. The first unit will be in operation in about two years time.
I would now like to focus your interest on the changing patterns in the uses of processed wood products and their influence on the new developments in forest industries. In many of the new markets for paper and paperboard, the properties of short-fibred pulp have made it an extremely important raw material in its own right. In the past, short-fibred pulp from hardwoods was considered to be more or less an inferior substitute for long-fibred pulp, and thus only a certain percentage of the short-fibred pulp could be present in the total mix. However, the position is now so changed that even in North America and Scandinavia, with their large resources of conifers, pulp from hardwoods represents close to one third of the total volume of bleached and semibleached sulphate pulp. This is a sixfold increase in volume over the last 12 years. The changing market for new grades of paper is, of course, of the greatest significance to those developing countries which do not possess the conventional long fibre resources.
In the field of wood-based panels new market patterns have led to the introduction of construction plywood, manufactured from several plies of softwood. The quality of the wood raw material is not of as great importance when plywood is used for construction purposes. This new type of plywood industry is therefore able to utilize wood of a quality and size intermediate between that needed for sawn timber and pulpwood. New veneer cutters with automatic chargers can peel more than 1000 small-diametered logs per shift on a continuous basis. The same technology can be applied to hardwoods. In the last five years, more than 30 units of this type have been built in the southern states of the United States of America, and it is planned to erect three mills of a similar nature in Sweden within the next 20 months or so.
This advance is of great importance to the forester because yields are higher than in sawnwood production, and because the new process is able to utilize medium grades and smaller sizes of wood. In addition, the possibility of manufacturing construction plywood on a fairly small scale, combined with the growing demand for low cost housing all over the world, should guarantee further development of this technique.
After a period when most improvements in wood use have taken place as a result of the application of chemistry in wood conversion processes (pulping for paper, rayon, cellophane or fibreboard), it is gratifying to note that this technological advance is mechanical. Every increase in the types of products which originate in the forests will improve the possibilities of diversification, and will place productive forestry in a more resilient position during periods of recession in individual forest industries.
Forests are the base for joint product industries, and only through the understanding of this would it be possible to obtain the maximum benefits from the forest resource. Integration in forest industries has come to stay.
Much, of course, still remains to be done, even-and perhaps especially-in the fields selected for illustration. But the technological information already available is sufficient to warrant the claim previously made: that we are on the threshold of exciting things.
So far, this brief review of technological progress has been restricted essentially to those achievements which are of interest to forestry, in its strict sense.
However, there are areas in which important work is going on, some of them without any obvious connexion with forestry and forest industries, through which the traditional approaches to our problems may be transformed.
For example, the enzymes which in nature convert cellulose to simple sugars are now being commercially produced on a scale approaching 1000 tons per year. These celluloses are used as food additives in Japan to improve the digestion of cellulose-rich food, but the possibility of employing cellulose-degrading enzymes for wood conversion on an industrial scale is not very remote. In the same way, the basic technology to produce commercial quantities of those enzymes which break down lignin already exists, and these may be used in the production of pulp.
The placing in orbit of earth satellites and the impressive advances that have been made in remote sensing may also be employed with advantage to forestry. These new techniques may soon be used for resource evaluation, for mapping, and for fire and disease detection.
Turning from biological and technological advances to the conceptual evolution taking place in forestry, we have grown to realize that the forestry and forest industries sector must not only be, but also be seen to be, viable. It is therefore important that the efficiency of forestry operations be continuously evaluated and that scientific methods of business management and administration be employed in forestry. We have come to understand that there is need for even greater integration and greater understanding between forestry on the one hand, and forest industries on the other. Production forestry must be looked upon as a whole process, which includes the regeneration of the trees as well as the manufacture of the end product. Only then can the true role of forests be evaluated and understood in the overall policy of land use. We have also become more conscious that in many countries there is a growing pressure on the forests for certain social services: water control and regulation, soil protection, wildlife and recreation. Foresters must therefore consciously endeavour to estimate the demands for these services and to manage their forest estates in such a way that the demands will be met. Most essentially, they must not only understand but make understandable to the public in general the important influences of the forests on other forms of land use and on man's social and economic life.
In this context I would like to mention the recent decision to hold a United Nations conference on the theme " Man and his environment. " This conference, to be held in 1972, should present the opportunity to make the role of forestry in these respects clear to the political leaders of the world.
Of even greater importance, from the point of view of policy formulation and of general economic development, is the growing awareness that foresters must understand and explain what are the socio-economic needs of their countries, and the special characteristics that make the forestry and forest industries sector eminently suitable for the onslaught on economic underdevelopment. It is becoming better known that, because of the wide range of scales that are possible in forestry operations, because of the varying intensities of capital and labour that are demanded, because of the different degrees of skills that are required and, above all, because of the possibility of " growth by stages " in the sector, there are types of forest industries that can be adapted to every stage of economic development. It is becoming better known that forest industries slip easily into the economic structures of developing countries and fit easily beneath any succeeding stage of economic development. This complex, yet at the same time basic, relationship between the forestry and forest industries sector and other sectors of the economy is a characteristic possessed only by the dynamic branches of national economies.
However, I must again emphasize that the potentialities ingrained in the very nature of forestry will not fully materialize unless certain obstacles to forestry development to be found in many national structures are removed. A full discussion of these impediments deserves EL lengthier study, and FAO is now engaged in such an exercise. However, a few words here will not be amiss.
It appears to us that many forestry institutions in the developing countries have not kept pace with the times. Many forest administrations are not given the means of attracting and keeping the personnel needed to plan and advise on, and sometimes to execute, the development of their forestry resources. In many cases, also, there is an inadequate number of persons with those business management and administrative skills that are essential if forestry is to be made more efficient. In most instances the organizational structure and the deployment of personnel are based on criteria that were established at a time when the objectives of tropical forestry were far removed from those which we think are pertinent today. In quite a number of countries the allocations that are made for forestry are parsimonious, and are given in such a way that planning becomes to some extent an annual exercise, the long-term nature of forestry being ignored, and the necessity for foresters to visit their forests regularly being overlooked.
Forest land tenure systems also need to be reviewed if the benefits of modern forest industrialization are to be truly felt in the developing countries. The terms of forest leases, the rationalization of the numerous and sometimes conflicting forest laws, and the problems of dual control are but a few of the difficulties for which solutions will have to be found if forestry is to play the important part it is capable of playing.
Markets are another problem. In many developing countries national markets are simply not large enough at present to justify the establishment of those forest industries with pronounced economies of scale. One obvious answer is for the developing nations to plan the establishment of their forest industries with regional as well as the traditional international markets in view. This is only possible if they establish stringent standards and strive to increase the quality of their products, as well as their operational efficiency.
The last hurdle is the availability of capital. To the pessimist this may seem insurmountable. However, financiers will invest in projects in which the possible profits justify the risks. There is evidence from a number of developing countries that investments in forestry and forest industries can yield good returns. But the developing countries should be in a position to provide the necessary data and information. They should accumulate a fund of knowledge and make this knowledge available. They must know the nature and extent of their resource base, the end uses to which the primary raw material can be put, the availability of secondary raw material, the availability of skills, the economics of production. They must also understand how their economies operate. It is then more than probable that investors) will be prepared to make available the required capital.
The more industrialized countries must accept a great degree of responsibility in this matter. They have done little to change their markets which have been traditionally geared to the import of raw materials, and in many cases they have established tariff walls against manufactured forest products that are very much higher than those that obtain in developing countries.
It is evident that the many services which the forester is called upon to provide in this modern world demand also a modern type of professional. It is possible to spend a considerable amount of time in listing the various disciplines and techniques with which he ought to be familiar. I believe, however, that if I say that he should be a resource manager, and at the same time that he should be development-oriented, I shall have covered the main attributes of the type of professional that is now vitally needed.
By the term " resource " I mean, of course, not only the production forests but also lands which, though they do not at present carry forests of any sort or bear production forests, must be managed to provide many of the nation's products and services: water regulation and control, soil conservation, wildlife and recreation. The -word " manager " is also of importance, for it implies a professional who does not see his job as one of passively accepting the results of the interplay of the various forces of nature and of man but one who, being aware of the nation's socioeconomic requirements, consciously and deliberately employs his training and education to bring about the necessary changes, being fully aware of their consequences. To be " development-oriented " means that he must understand the social and economic forces that influence the operation of his own sector of the economy, and its place in national development, fully appreciating that development is an integrated process.
The new forester must also realize that forestry is becoming more and more international. The fact that the problems of soil and water conservation often ignore international boundaries, the need for countries to select and use the accumulated experience and the advances of others, and the necessity for all to appreciate the changing patterns in international markets and in world trade in forest products are well known. However, the international approach is desirable in another area, for the disparity between the two blocs of the world, the more industrialized and the developing countries, is not only reflected in differences in per caput income, in technology, and in the rates of economic growth but, in the field of forestry, in an oversupply of foresters in some countries of Europe and North America, and a dearth of forestry professionals in the less industrialized countries.
This oversupply has come about through the rationalization of forestry and forest industries, the increased use of mechanical appliances, and the centralization of administrations. It seems to us that this situation may be used to the advantage of the developing countries, as a holding operation. It is obviously going to take time to train the considerable numbers of forestry professionals who are needed in the developing countries and, in the intervening period, it may be wise policy for them to utilize, through bilateral and international aid, the manpower that may be available from developed countries.
This will need careful arrangement and control. The foresters who are sent to the developing countries must be scrupulously selected not only on the basis of their professional knowledge, but also, perhaps especially, on their capacity to work in alien societies, on their possible reactions to different peoples, different cultures, different ways of life. For only by an appreciation of the culture, the spirit, and the aspirations of the people among whom they are working will they be able to give the best of their technical and scientific knowledge.
What is the proposed Forestry Department of FAO going to do about all this? How is it going to take ad. vantage of the progress that has been made ? How does it intend to assist in the removal of the obstacles I have described ? What is its future role ? I wish, here, to draw attention to some of the innovations that are envisaged, and to emphasize that in drawing up our plans we have been guided by, and have tried to give prominence to, earlier recommendations of our various international forestry bodies and of the Sixth World Forestry Congress.
By raising the status of the division to a department, the Assistant Director-General, who will replace the director as head of forestry and forest industries, will be able to channel directly the expertise of his staff into the formulation of the overall policy of FAO.
In addition to the office of the Assistant Director-General, two divisions are proposed: a Forest Resources Division and a Forest Industries and Trade Division. The Forest Resources Division will be primarily concerned with the evaluation of the forest resource, with deciding how and where to grow, protect, and harvest economically the rising volumes of wood that the world is going to require, with the conservation of the forests and allied resources, with wildlife management, and with those institutions which help to shape the practice of forestry and forest industries. The Forest Industries and Trade Division will devote its attention to all types of forest industries, and to the wide range of economic problems which affect forestry and forest industries.
It seemed appropriate, for organizational purposes, to structure the department in such a way that the divisions would reflect the logical flow in the forest production chain. They emphasize different, but interacting aspects of one process. An important function of the Assistant Director-General will therefore be the coordination of their services, for we are very conscious of the need for ensuring that all the activities of the proposed department complement each other.
The focal point of our activities will be our field operations for we realize that, whatever we do or plan, in the final analysis it is their implementation in member countries that will help to achieve the social and economic development which all earnestly desire. By the beginning of 1969, 74 United Nations Development Programme (Special Fund) projects had been approved and were operational or completed in member countries; the aggregate value was nearly U.S.$140 million, the Special Fund contribution being about U.S.$60 million. These forestry projects include about 700 posts. In addition, there are 60 experts on the Technical Assistance Programme who are engaged in forestry and forest industries activities. Accordingly, the structure of the Operations Service has been so designed that these experts in the field would be able to avail themselves of the knowledge which we have accumulated, and continue to accumulate, at headquarters. This Operations Service will continue to be technically supported at headquarters by personnel in the two divisions that are proposed, who will collect and analyse relevant data, and who will be concerned with improving the application of those aspects of technology and science which are relevant to forestry and forest industries, of refining methodologies, and widening concepts.
Specifically, we have improved those of our services responsible for many of the social aspects of forestry described. We shall now be even more concerned with the management of wild lands and wildlife habitats, the impact of forestry on rural development, land-use practices and conservation techniques including forest fire protection, and also the problems of recreation. We shall pay particular attention to institutional obstacles and study the forestry and forest industries manpower requirements of the various countries, their land tenure systems as they pertain to forestry, their forest legislation, and their educational needs. Indeed, we are now considering the possibility of convening a world conference on forestry education which we hope would make a substantial contribution by defining the comprehensive training required by the type of forester which the world of tomorrow will need.
We also attach considerable importance to the marketing of, and trade in, forest products, and through our reorganization shall be in a position to devote more time and skills to the collection and analysis of the information relevant to these complex problems. In this respect, we intend to continue the very useful association with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in the hope that between us we may be able to assist Member Governments in their trade and marketing difficulties. We shall also try to analyse the possible influence of substitute products, plastics and improved metals on forest products markets. In collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) there will also be an. expansion of FAO'S capacity to give guidance to those countries which are experiencing or expecting a rapid growth in their pulp and paper activities.
These then, briefly, are the areas in which there will be innovation and expansion. In order to integrate the investigations of all our personnel, we propose to establish a small planning unit, which would, inter alia convert the findings obtained by our various experts by the Indicative World Plan, and by member countries themselves, into comprehensive development plans for the forestry and forest industries sector, consistent with the aims of national and regional planning.
We in FAO believe that the creation of a Department of Forestry will be of importance to many Member Nations. We are fully conscious that the department will not be staffed by a group of geniuses who know the answers to all the problems of the forestry and forest industries sector. We realize that we are not some sort of vast international academy which daily pushes back the frontiers of knowledge. We feel, however, that we have a unique opportunity to offer help and advice, because we have been fortunately placed in a strategic position from which ideas, born in different parts of the world, as well as in our Organization, may be disseminated. We believe that through the years we have been able to establish all over the world those contacts in the political, technical and scientific fields which are so necessary to international cooperation and progress. We think that we perform a worthwhile task by providing a place in which resources are pooled, and in which there is productive cross-fertilization of ideas. We know that we cannot exist by ourselves, but that we are dependent on the various Member Nations. It is on the basis of this knowledge, and because of the desire to improve the services which we offer you, that there is a need to reorganize our structure into a Department of Forestry.
