Latin American forestry commission
Forest sector development planning
Quito, Ecuador, was the location for the eleventh session of the Latin American Forestry Commission, held from 16 to 21 November 1970. More than 70 delegates and observers from 19 Member Nations and 7 international organizations ¹ accepted the generous hospitality of the Government of Ecuador and contributed to a memorable meeting. This was preceded on 11 and 12 November by the third session of the regional Committee on National Parks and Wildlife (Acting Chairman: Pablo Rosero G., Ecuador) and on 13 and 14 November by a meeting of the Forestry Research Committee (Chairman: Frank Wadsworth, United States).
(¹ Member Nations represented were: Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom, United States and Venezuela. International organizations represented were: Inter-American Development Bank, International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Organization of American States, International Union of Forestry Research Organizations, United Nations and United Nations Development Programme. Observers were present from the Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Costa Rica, and the Latin American Forestry Research and Training Institute, Venezuela.)
The main business of the session was to consider the state of forestry in the region and review the progress made since the last session held in Trinidad in December 1967. The discussions centred around the modernization of institutions to promote forestry development, education and training, the development of forest industries, and external aid to the forestry sector.
Satisfaction was expressed at the progress made during the last three years in matters of forest policy, legislation, institutional development and development planning. The Commission felt that the 1968 FAO Seminar on Forestry Development, Agrarian Reform and Colonization held in Brasilia, the first forestry meeting to have taken place in the new capital of Brazil, had given considerable impetus to incorporating the forestry sector in the development planning of rural areas. The Commission noted with satisfaction the upgrading in status of the forest services in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Cuba. Two new forestry faculties at university level had been established (in Bolivia and Honduras) as well as four medium-level forestry schools (in Colombia, Dominican Republic, Honduras and Peru). Training facilities at the medium level were, however, still in general inadequate for the needs of the region.
A significant outcome of the period under review was the publication of the results of pre-investment studies conducted under UNDP/FAO projects in Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. Surveys carried out over areas totalling 3.2 million hectares of comparable forest types revealed volumes of standing timber averaging 31 cubic metres per hectare of wood usable for mechanical industrial processing and another 67 cubic metres per hectare suitable for pulping. The annual yield from 38 million hectares of such forests, if subjected to systematic management, would appear to suffice to meet the region's expected internal demands for wood consumption up to 1985. The latest FAO figures for the forest area in Latin America put the total at around 900 million hectares.
In seven more countries (Guatemala, Guyana, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay and Peru) forestry preinvestment studies are under way and in connexion with these studies, the technological characteristics of some 400 wood species have been determined, which carries promise of substantially increasing the present number of commercially accepted species.
Reports to the Commission indicated that between 1967 and 1970 the output of forest industries of the region developed as follows: sawnwood increased by 7 percent, veneer rose from 325 000 to 450 000 cubic metres, plywood from 385 000 to 550 000 cubic metres, and fibreboard from 170 000 to 300 000 tons. The establishment of 18 new mills doubled particle board production, reported to have exceeded the 300 000-ton mark in 1970. Installed capacity of the paper industry increased by 19 percent and pulp production rose by 11 percent. Argentina decided to produce newsprint locally.
Many speakers expressed the view that modernization of the institutional framework was still the most important step needed toward the rational development of forestry in Latin America. The weaknesses to which attention has frequently been drawn in the past had still not been eliminated. Forest policies do not yet establish goals for the promotion of the forestry sector as a dynamic element in overall economic and social development. The great responsibilities given to forest services are not matched by the financial means accorded to them or their status in the administrative machinery. A forest service has to manage the state forests for the production of wood, for protective purposes and recreation, provide extension and technical assistance services to communal and private forest owners, retain important responsibilities in regard to research, and actively contribute to general land-use planning. It needs therefore to have a legal entity with a greater administrative and financial autonomy than is usually assigned to branches of public administrations. Salaries offered by forest services should allow full-time dedication of their personnel to forestry and be able to attract specialized staff so far still widely lacking. The structure of many forest services is presently unbalanced, with emphasis on desk work rather than field operations. Much was said about what national forest administrations should do to improve their image and performance. And the remarks are reflected in the Commission's report.
The Commission expressed the view that the state should participate in the ownership and management of industrial forest enterprises, especially those involved in the processing of wood from mixed tropical forests, so as to promote full utilization and regulate the market. Forest services must engage in public relations activities to gain understanding and public support for forestry.
Reviewing the facilities for forestry education and training in Latin America, the Commission was led to the conclusion that the opportunities for postgraduate studies furnished at Mérida (Venezuela) and Turrialba (Costa Rica) were insufficient for the region as a whole. It welcomed the proposed introduction of postgraduate courses in certain specializations for Latin American students at Madrid, Spain. The need to raise the standards of forestry training was emphasized several times, as was the importance of national programmes to train forest guards and forest workers. A troublesome feature continued to be the scarcity of forestry textbooks and manuals in Spanish, a situation that was being looked into again by the FAO Advisory Committee on Forestry Education.
The Commission asked that regional consultations on forestry education and training be included in FAO'S forthcoming programmes to serve for the exchange of information, foster regional cooperation, and ensure the application of the conclusions and recommendations expected to come from the FAO World Consultation on Forestry Education and Training to be held in the later part of 1971 in Stockholm.
The Commission endorsed a declaration of principles and guidelines for the formulation of national parks policy in Latin America, as drawn up by its committee on wildlife and national parks. It also approved a suggested coordinated regional project for the conservation of the vicuña and a project to investigate the principal species of migratory birds, studying their routes of migration and the dangers to which they are exposed, and deciding priority measures for their conservation.
The Commission received with interest from its research committee a recently published report on forestry research institutes of the region. The needs of the main institutes in the region were examined and the Commission recommended a regional project for the training of forest research workers which should also provide material for training and practical demonstration. A recommended research programme for the Latin American Forestry Research and Training Institute at Mérida, Venezuela, was drafted, and a number of recommendations made in regard to research procedures and data collection. The Commission advocated a regional network of demonstration watersheds and the establishment of a sufficient number of representative nature reserves.
The Commission elected Pablo Rosero G., Director-General of the Forest Service of Ecuador, as chairman and Carlos Claverie R. (Venezuela), Federico Bascopé (Bolivia) and Keats C. Hall (Jamaica) as vice-chairmen. Fernando Hartwig (Chile) was appointed rapporteur and Fernando Barrientos (FAO) served as secretary. Jack C. Westoby, of the FAO Forestry Department, represented the Director-General of the Organization.
The Forestry Department conducted an experimental seminar in Rome during May 1971 on forestry development planning, and methodologies for the assessment of manpower requirements. It was attended by 18 senior staff members of national forest services from mainly English-speaking countries of Africa (Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia), and Latin America (British Honduras, Guyana, Surinam). The seminar was financed by arrangement with the Swedish International Development Agency. It is hoped subsequently to mount seminars in the other working languages of FAO.
Many years ago a similar seminar was organized by FAO in Yugoslavia. For the 1971 course a number of FAO staff were involved. Guest lecturers and tutors included:
M. Gane, Director, Project Planning Centre, University of Bradford, United Kingdom
G.R. Gregory, Professor of Resource Economics, University of Michigan, United States
D.R. Johnston, Director, Management Services Division, Forestry Commission, United Kingdom
A. Madas, Director, Department of Food, Agriculture and Forestry, State Board of Planning, Hungary
S.D. Richardson, Professor of Forestry and Wood Science, University of Wales, Bangor, United Kingdom
In an introductory lecture, D.R. Johnston (co-author of the recognized textbook Forest Planning published in 1967), defined planning as (a) the identification of possible courses of action, (b) the appraisal of various possible courses of action, and (c) the recording of intentions to follow chosen courses of action.
It is convenient, he said, to recognize three levels of planning- strategic, tactical and operational - although it is not possible to make a sharp distinction between one and the other. Broadly speaking, strategic planning is the responsibility of the higher levels of management and it tends to be long term and concerned with a wide range of factors. Tactical planning is the responsibility of middle management and tends to be medium term and concerned with more purely regional factors. The operational planner is concerned with the conduct of operations and the use of resources at the forest or local level and he generally plans for a period of a year or less.
It is important to ensure that the managers at each level of management have a clear understanding of their planning responsibilities. It is by no means uncommon in forestry for the various levels of planning to be performed by the wrong levels of management. On the one hand senior managers tend to interfere with the tactical and operational planning of their subordinates and on the other hand, in the absence of clear direction from above, subordinate managers may have to assume tactical or even strategic objectives before they can make their operational plans.
One of the reasons for this confusion in planning is the traditional status of the forest working plan. This was for many years regarded as a basic planning document. It was developed in the nineteenth century and reflects the stability and assurance of nineteenth century Europe. The transport of wood was slow and cumbersome, and the management of an individual forest tended to be geared to the social and economic life in its immediate neighbourhood. There was also little government control of commercial activity. Under these circumstances it was appropriate to consider a forest in isolation. But today with more government control of economy, and with better transport and larger scale wood processing, a forest cannot be considered in isolation. Therefore to write a forest working plan in the absence of strategic and tactical plans is like putting the cart before the horse.
The relative importance of strategic, tactical and operational plans depends upon circumstances. In an industrialized country where there is a high degree of central control of the economy, and where technical expertise of the staff is high, strategic and tactical plans become of dominant importance and the forest working plan may be little more than a programme and budget.
A great variety of situations exists in developing countries and the relative significance of strategic, tactical and operational planning varies from one country to another. There can be little doubt that the strategic plan should come first and should provide the framework for tactical planning, and the tactical plan for operational planning. Furthermore strategic plans should only be written by top management, the tactical plan by middle management and the operational plan by the man in the field.
Foresters have for a very long time realized the purely technical difficulties of long-term planning and their attempts to impose formal management patterns upon their forests have continually been frustrated by various factors such as wind and insect damage and regeneration difficulties. But more recently forestry, in common with other industries and other activities, finds itself increasingly involved in the complex interactions of national economies. Physical problems therefore no longer dominate forest management to the same extent as in the past. The forester today is equally or perhaps more concerned with investment and social problems, with market developments and fiscal policies and with a rapidly changing technology. Some of the developing countries are undergoing social and economic changes in decades, changes which took the more developed countries centuries to achieve. It may therefore be assumed that, for a variety of reasons, detailed long-term forest planning is likely to be not only a waste of time but a positive hindrance to logical decision making.
On the other hand forestry by its very nature demands a long-term view. It is therefore something of a problem to reconcile a long-term view with the need to adapt management to changing conditions. Fundamentally the solution to the planning problem in forestry is not difficult. It is simply to ensure that planning is completely flexible at all levels. That is to say that as soon as a situation is judged to have changed the plans should, if necessary, be changed accordingly. At first sight this may appear to be a somewhat irresponsible statement. It could be interpreted to mean that a long-term activity is subject to the whims of every successive planner or manager. It is clearly illogical, however, to persist with any plan after circumstances have altered sufficiently to change either the objectives or the optimum methods of achieving them.
The basis of planning is commonsense and judgement but except in the most simple or familiar situations it is difficult to see through the implications and interactions of the factors involved. Various aids are therefore required to help the planner.
But despite the rapid growth of analytical aids, or tools, in recent years their use cannot absolve the manager from using his judgement. There are two principal reasons for this. One is that it is difficult to collect all the relevant facts. The other is the difficulty of knowing how to handle those factors of the situation which are uncertain. This means that the manager is necessarily left with the task of making judgements about such matters as future economic conditions and their effect on the enterprise.
A plan attempts to mirror a real life situation, but most day-to-day planning is based upon extremely simplified, rationalized and short-term data. Highly sophisticated methods are required if a wider range of factors, a deeper consideration of interactions and a longer term view are to be taken into account.
It is possible to classify planning aids in order of increasing complexity or sophistication, such as:
1. past experience or habit;
2."drillbook" solutions from manuals, standing instructions, etc.;
3. ready reckoners;
4. operational research, that is broader analysis reviewing a number of courses of action and possible interactions within any one;
5. comprehensive study of all feasible courses of action and foreseeable consequences.The order from 1 to 5 can be associated with:
(a) a declining degree of compromise with, and simplification of, the situation;
(b) a use of increasingly complicated, yet more flexible tools;
(c) increasing realism and improvement of the overall result;
(d) a change from ready-made to made-to-measure solutions.
Drillbook guides. Leaving aside techniques which rely purely on habit and experience and which may be regarded as special types of drillbook solutions, it is probably true to say that most planning in forestry today depends upon the use of tabular and graphical aids, reference charts and standard drills.
Volume tables, stand tables and management tables are good examples of drillbook guides which provide answers to problems without the need for any calculations on the part of the user.
Ready reckoners. A ready reckoner may be regarded as a more sophisticated version of a drillbook guide. Much of the information obtainable from a ready reckoner is derived from calculations built into the system, but the user is required to make various assumptions and to undertake relatively simple calculations in order to find the answer to his particular problem. There is no clear cut distinction between drillbook guides and ready reckoners. The difference is one of degree.
Standard timetables which are used for setting piecework rates are a good example of a more highly developed drillbook guide or a simple ready reckoner. These tables give the standard minutes required for a particular job but they also enable the standard time to be adjusted in order to make allowance for local conditions. Ready reckoners are also used for various types of profitability calculations.
Operational research. While drillbook solutions and, to a lesser extent, ready reckoners provide examples of readymade solutions to recurring problems, operational research is used to uncover the interrelations among a whole variety of factors. It may thus be regarded as a fully made-to-measure technique of planning, and the term "operational research" is usually restricted to investigations which take account of a large number of variables and consider a wide range of possible courses of action.
It is clear that each of the above techniques has a place in forest planning and, with a wider recognition of the need for planning from the top downward, operational research techniques must inevitably become more widely used.
