Near East Forestry Commission
Development of forest industries in Latin America
European Forestry Commission
Near East Forestry Commission - Development of forest industries in Latin America - European Forestry Commission
The Government of Iran was generous host to the sixth session of the Near East Forestry Commission, which was held from 25 to 30 April 1970 in Teheran and was attended by 24 delegates - from France, Iran, Jordan, Libyan Arab Republic, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
The Commission elected M.H. Djazirei, Under-Secretary of Natural Resources of Iran, as chairman; A.K.O. Faden (Saudi Arabia), M. Houiran (Jordan) and M.B. El Messaudi (Libya) were elected vice-chairmen. The FAO Regional Forestry Officer, Khalid Hamad, acted as secretary.
In reviewing the state of forestry in the Near East, the delegates were concerned mainly with forest plantation activities, development of forest industries and control of forest grazing.
Although reports from governments showed that the rate of afforestation for industrial purposes had grown in recent years, the Commission agreed that protective afforestation in large parts of the region was still of high priority and should be accorded a greatly increased share of investment. In this context, countries would welcome further aid from the World Food Programme. The considerable spread of operations for sand-dune fixation, in which Iran and Libya have made considerable technical progress, warranted the organization of a training centre which would be useful to all the member countries.
The Commission noted that the development of forest industries in the region was still unsatisfactory and was not due to lack of suitable forest resources. Net imports of forest products now came close to an annual value of U.S. $200 million, and demand was expected to grow substantially. Demand for sawnwood seemed likely to double during the next two decades, that for wood-based panel products to increase fivefold and for paper as much as sevenfold. Thus there is a strong case for the development of forest industries within the region. A number of national Special Fund projects operated by FAO are oriented in this direction.
There must be further increase in annual reforestation rates, fuller use of residues and of fuelwood for industrial purposes, vertical integration, the use of quick-growing species in plantations and of mechanized planting techniques, and the application of known research results. The present gap in information on the economics of creating and tending industrial plantations, with and without irrigation, must be filled. The establishment of a seed-supply centre for selected species - in particular conifers - of interest to countries of the region, was recommended by the Commission.
Regulation and control of forest grazing remain a pressing problem in the development of the forestry sector. The Commission noted the progress achieved in a number of countries but had to recognize that elsewhere the regulations governing grazing rights still need to be modernized. Measures to mitigate or eliminate harmful forest grazing practices include the buying out by the State of rights held by pastoral communities; the transfer of populations to other suitable areas; the offering of alternative means of livelihood; technical, financial and material assistance to rationalize stock raising through rangeland development; the provision of controlled watering points; the development of fodder species; the limitation of number and type of animals permitted to graze, and permanent or temporary closing of certain areas. The difficulties encountered by most forest services in exercising grazing control arose from their not being equipped to enforce existing grazing regulations.
Other matters considered by the Commission were the potential value of wildlife and national parks in the Near East, the coordination of forestry research in the region, and the activities of the FAO Subcommission on Mediterranean Forestry Problems, which continues for the time being to be a subsidiary body of the Commission, although it will probably later become a separate entity.
The Commission noted with satisfaction that technical aid to Near East forestry channelled through FAO had increased greatly of late and that there were signs of multilateral and bilateral aid programmes being better coordinated. A number of recommendations were put forward about the future programme of work of the FAO Forestry Department; and the Commission asked the forest administrations of Iran, Jordan, Pakistan and the Sudan to collaborate with FAO in producing a modern edition of the study Forest policy, law and administration, to be finished for presentation as the FAO contribution to the Seventh World Forestry Congress.
A Regional Consultation on the Development of the Forest and Pulp and Paper Industries in Latin America, held in Mexico from 19 to 26 May, can claim to be the first meeting to be organized jointly by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). It was cosponsored by the Mexican Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industries (ATCP) on the occasion of its tenth annual meeting. The Inter-American Development Bank participated and contributed toward the costs.
There were 85 official participants representing 27 countries, two international agencies and five intergovernmental organizations, together with 180 observers from various Mexican forest industries. Plácido Garcia Reynoso, Mexico's Under-Secretary for Industry and Commerce, was elected chairman of the Consultation; honorary president was Octavio Campos Salas, Minister of Industry and Commerce of Mexico. Jorge Catepillán (Chile) and Joseph Tyndall (Caribbean Free Trade Association) were elected vice-chairmen and Salvador Carrasco (Mexico) was appointed rapporteur.
The Secretariat was headed by Carlos Quintana, Executive Secretary of ECLA, and B.K. Steenberg, Assistant Director-General of FAO, with R. Aguilar Bolaños, Industrial Development Officer of UNIDO, and Jaime Reyes, President of ATCP, assisted by P.J. Vakomies, Director, Forest Industries and Trade Division of FAO and S. Raisanen, Chief, ECLA/FAO/UNIDO forest industries advisory group for Latin America.
The objective of the meeting was to bring together governmental representatives, industrialists, research specialists, forestry experts and economic planners, who would focus their attention on:
(a) the problems still hampering a fuller utilization of Latin America's forest resources;
(b) the undoubted opportunities for the development of forest industries in the region and for substantial increases in the production of pulp and paper, sawnwood and wood-based panels.
These same topics formed the theme of the first FAO forestry conference held in Brazil in 1948, followed by a UN/FAD Conference on the pulp and paper industry held in 1954 in Argentina. Since then FAO with ECLA has maintained at Santiago, Chile, a regional advisory group on forest industries development and many technical meetings and sessions of FAO's Latin American Forestry Commission have been held.
Background documents for the Mexico meeting provided by the Secretariat were based on surveys undertaken by consultants and on submissions from ATCP, industrial representatives and governmental foresters. The principal subjects of the discussions were the following:
1. Raw materials
One reason that the apparently abundant forest resources of Latin America remain unused is their composition. Almost all the forest species are broadleaved, the coniferous forests comprising no more than 20 million hectares out of a total of 900 million hectares. The area of man-made forests in the region is now estimated at 2.2 million hectares, of which some 1.3 million hectares are broadleaved (mainly eucalyptus) and 865 000 hectares are conifers (mostly pines).
There is no doubt that the region's hardwood requirements could be met as far ahead as 1985 if measures are taken to open up the existing large reserves. There could even be considerable surpluses of specific products for markets outside the region.
In sharp contrast, the natural coniferous forests now being utilized are fast becoming depleted. Despite efforts to bring into production the most promising reserves of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, estimates indicate that, for the region to become self-sufficient by 1985, something like 22 million cubic metres of timber for the mechanical woodworking industries would need to originate from plantations. The coniferous plantations in existence today could contribute only about 7 million cubic metres. For pulping, requirements of softwood would amount to around 24 million cubic metres, while the supply from all existing resources was likely to be only 15 million cubic metres. The regional softwood raw material deficit would therefore be about 15 million cubic metres for mechanical wood industries and some 9 million cubic metres for pulpwood. The Consultation agreed that on the raw material side countries should set about materially expanding their softwood plantations and at the same time seek ways of utilizing the abundant hardwood resources. Governments should adopt forest policy measures that would ensure guaranteed supplies of raw materials for the future, and build up forest services properly to manage these resources.
2. Sawmilling
The regions slow-rising capacity to produce sawmill products should be better exploited, through reorganizing and modernizing existing mills, improving systems of supplying raw materials, and training more skilled personnel. There should be improved cooperation between governments and private industry, a wider application of grading rules, and more research into the properties and preservative treatment of various species of timber. There was need to collect, analyse and disseminate much more information on properties and markets.
3. Wood-based panels
According to Secretariat forecasts, regional consumption of these products is expected to double by 1975 and by 1985 to have risen to around five times the level of consumption in 1967. Domestic housing and furniture needs are growing rapidly. Still in 1969 there was an export surplus of about U.S. $1 million, which is not considered large in view of the region's timber resources.
The Consultation recommended that, under the auspices of governments and industry and with the cooperation of international agencies and national trade associations, the possibility be explored of establishing a coordinating centre for Latin American wood-based panel industries to provide technical, marketing and sales promotion information to member countries.
4. Pulp and paper
A background document indicated that paper demand was expected to increase at a rate of 6.9 percent per year, reaching some 7 million tons by 1975. Against this stood an estimated production figure Of 51/4 million tons, covering 75 percent of the demand. The regional deficit (about 1 700 000 tons) corresponded to about 300 million U.S. dollars. More than 60 percent of this deficit was likely to be newsprint, the remainder being other papers, principally packaging. The unfavourable newsprint situation was largely the result of no new newsprint mills having been built or contemplated in Latin America since 1965.
During the Consultation, technical information on the use of young eucalyptus wood in newsprint was reported. The results may lead to a breakthrough in the use of plantation-grown eucalypts as an alternative to the traditional softwood mechanical pulp fraction in the newsprint furnish.
The growing use of heavy paper sacks and corrugated boxes to replace wooden crates in the shipment of bananas has led to an increase in production. But some 20 percent of paper requirements for packaging were still imported, and there was need to step up the use of local raw materials, especially bagasse. Demand for packaging papers was likely to double over the next 10 years, reaching some four million tons in 1975 and around eight million by 1985.
5. Export possibilities
Recommendations on increasing export possibilities centred on the need for clearly defined standards for quality and measurement, in line with the requirements of international markets, and on the need for evaluation of shipping problems in Latin American ports. The international advisory group at Santiago should set up a statistical centre to collect and publish data, and should undertake market surveys of export possibilities.
6. Integration
The need for integrated industries - complexes of industrial plants performing related operations with material from the same forests - was reiterated throughout the Consultation.
A copy of the report of the Consultation may be obtained from:
FAO/ECLA/UNIDO Forest Industries Advisory Group for Latin America
Casilla 10095, Santiago, Chile
For its fifteenth session, held at FAO headquarters in Rome from 8 to 11 September 1970, the European Forestry Commission (EFC) had a full programme, including a one-day joint meeting with the European Commission on Agriculture (ECA). The session was preceded by two days of discussion by an ad hoc working party on the influence of recreation needs on the planning of forest management.
The representation at the session¹ was a gratifying indication of the importance which member countries attach to the Commission and its activities - especially at a time when some consider that FAO'S regional forestry commissions have now served their purpose and that the* usefulness, in their present form, is over.
¹ There were delegates from 22 countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Federal Republic of Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom and Yugoslavia; representatives of the United Nations and the International Labour Organisation (ILO); and observers from the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO), the European Economic Community (EEC), and the European Confederation of Agriculture (ECA).
The Commission reelected F. Tomulescu (Romania) as chairman and F. Ortuño (Spain) and F. Ebeling (Sweden) as vice-chairmen. M de Coulon (Switzerland) was elected vice-chairman in the place of M. Velay (France) who was unable to continue to serve. Eero Kalkkinen, Director of the ECE/FAO Timber Division, acted as secretary.
The members reviewed the work of the Commission's subsidiary bodies since the last EFC session, held in Geneva in 1968, and cooperation with the ECE Timber Committee. It was decided to restyle one working party to deal in the future with the management of montane watersheds, and to organize with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in early 1972 a symposium on coordination between forestry and the wood-using industries. An outline of the programme for such a symposium was agreed upon.
For future sessions the Commission proposed that arrangements be made for forestry experts of international reputation to lecture on subjects of particular interest to policy makers, the topics to be subsequently opened for general discussion. The preoccupation of all member countries with problems of environment and the increasingly important social functions of forests should suggest possible themes. A limited number of current technical problems should be dealt with in depth.
At its previous session the Commission recommended organizing the post-graduate or " refresher " education of senior foresters. It was pleased to note that one such management or executive course was held in the Federal Republic of Germany in the spring of 1970, with Austria and Switzerland also participating.
In regard to forest recreation, the Commission expressed the view that the forest administration, forest owner, or forest manager was often in doubt as to how far to go in meeting recreational demands, or in inviting such demands. This pointed to the necessity of a quantification and evaluation of demands and services, and also of the assessment of the physical capacity of the forest to absorb the recreational pressures, which were sometimes very heavy and could totally change the forest environment.
Methods for the assessment of recreational demands were under study in several countries; they were most highly developed in North America, but were also notable in some European countries especially the Netherlands and Romania. The many different forms of recreational activity, as well as their seasonal variations, made it necessary to introduce definitions and classifications, both for the activities and for the areas most suitable for their performance.
Two factors were singled out during the discussion. The first is that an increasing number of people now possess a secondary residence, a country home. This movement was most popular in Scandinavia and France; in Sweden, for example, close to half a million families own a second home. These residences are often situated in forest areas and clearly affect regional land-use planning. The other factor is motoring. Family activities such as picnics and pleasure driving are undertaken by some two thirds of the population in Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, raising the problem of which roads in forest areas should be opened to motor traffic. It was agreed that minor forest roads could not be opened without reducing the value of the forest environment to other groups of recreationists (as well as hindering extraction operations). It was mentioned that many inhabitants of a major city visited forests located more than 200 kilometres away on ordinary weekends; distance is not a problem nowadays.
The forest environment offers many different attractions, and there is a great need for more research into these matters. A kind of market research, with supporting statistics, appears essential, and it was proposed that the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations undertake the necessary projects in cooperation with other agencies.
In this connexion a report may be cited on a forestry address delivered to the British Association for the Advancement of Science in September: a newspaper said " it cannot be often that a paper on forestry has left an audience gasping and some of them outraged. " The tenor of this address was that, firstly, in the not-too distant future, economic production forestry in the United Kingdom would be limited to perhaps five large-scale (about 100000 hectares) industrial units; secondly, that most woodlands in the United Kingdom should be managed as environmental forests, with foresters assuming the role of resort rather than resource managers; and finally, that forestry in landscape development could help to reconcile the needs of a growing population in a changing industrial and social structure with the preservation of amenity and environmental quality. In the second context forests would have to provide for mass recreation by the predominantly urban population and facilities would go well beyond carparks, trails and campsites to hotels, restaurants, museums, inland marinas, ski resorts, race courses, zoos and amusement parks.
In its own discussions the Commission agreed that foresters should encourage forest-based recreation, but oppose the kinds of recreation which could take place anywhere. The manager of a forest must see to it that his enterprise is not only biologically and physically, but also financially sound. There were times when for a number of reasons financial considerations were not given priority in forestry. In recent decades, product prices have tended to be rather static while costs were increasing, and profits were dwindling or had disappeared. The forest enterprise of today must take its income from all available sources; services and provision for recreation can no longer be taken for granted, free of charge.
Forest owners and the forestry profession have often tended to be influenced by past traditions and have isolated themselves from other sectors of society; but forestry must realize that full integration with society is required in order to be able to justify its financial claims.
