International consultation on plywood and other wood-based panel products
North American Forestry Commission
FAO forestry personalities
Joint FAO/IUFRO Committee on Bibliography and Terminology
An International Consultation on Plywood and other Wood-Based Panel Products, convened by FAO met at Rome from 8 to 19 July 1963.
The purpose of this Consultation for which John M. Yavorsky acted as executive secretary, was to bring together representatives of governments, national planning and development agencies, forest industries, forest products laboratories and research institutes, to arrive at a balanced judgment in regard to:
(a) the future prospects for plywood and other wood-based panel industries in accordance with the foreseeable growth in demand;(b) how these industries can produce better and cheaper materials and sell more of them;
(c) the information which should be available to industrialists, bankers and governments desirous of establishing panel industries, thus enabling sound decisions to be made.
The end product of the consultation will be an FAO publication, based on the discussions held, and scheduled to appear in 1964. It will be generally distributed in the three working languages of the Organization. The background papers contributed to the meeting will also be issued in an appropriate form in their original language as received.
One hundred and sixty-six experts from 43 countries participated in the consultation, and the following international organizations were also represented: International Organization for Standardization (ISO), European Federation of Fibreboard Manufacturers (FEROPA), European Federation of Particle Board Manufacturers (FESYP), and the European Federation of Plywood Industries.
The inaugural meeting was opened with an address by EGON GLESINGER, then Director of the Forestry and Forest Products Division of FAO. The Director - General of FAO, Dr. B. R. SEN, was away from Rome when the consultation opened but he addressed a later meeting.
Under each item of the agenda, discussions took place in plenary and working party meetings based on papers submitted by the Secretariat and on background papers submitted to the consultation by experts from many countries. A drafting committee was appointed to review each of the several papers prepared by the Secretariat, and the reports of these drafting committees, subsequently approved at the final plenary meeting of the consultation, took the form of recommendations to the Secretariat for the amendment or amplification of the original Secretariat papers before publication.
The officers of these committees were as follows:
I. PRODUCT DESCRIPTION, NOMENCLATURE, STANDARDS AND SPECIFICATIONS
Chairman: R.A.G. Knight - United Kingdom
Rapporteur: C. Peraza Oramas - Spain
II. RAW MATERIALS
Chairman: H. O. Fleischer - United States of America
Rapporteur: A. Berrada - Morocco
III. MANUFACTURING: PROCESSES AND EQUIPMENT
A. Veneer, plywood and blockboard
Chairman: D. Cullity - Australia
Rapporteurs: E. Doffiné - Federal Republic of Germany
J. W. Gottstein - Australia
Working party
Chairman: J. Collardet - France
B. Board products (fibreboard and particle board)
Chairman: G. Cullen - United Kingdom
Rapporteur: J. Swiderski - Poland
Working party
Chairman: F.F.P. Kollmann - Federal Republic of Germany
C. Remanufacturing and secondary processing
Chairman: W. E. Difford - United States of America
Rapporteur: W. Enzenberger - Federal Republic of Germany
IV. ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF PRODUCTION
Chairman: D. Chaumet - France
Rapporteur: J. M. Bryce - Tanganyika
V. PROPERTIES AND USES
Chairman: F. C. Lynam - United Kingdom
Rapporteur: T. Premrasmi - Thailand
VI. PRODUCTION, TRADE, CONSUMPTION AND DEMAND TRENDS
A. Production and trade
Chairman: U. E. Savola - Finland
Rapporteur: F. Oelschlägel - Austria
B. Consumption and demand
Chairman: D. J. Winton - United States of America
Rapporteur: G. Th. R. de Gruiter - United Kingdom
VII. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT NEEDS
Chairman: D. Narayanamurti - India
Rapporteur: Wayne Lewis - United States of America
During the course of the consultation, an ad hoc working party was set up to consider the role that veneer, plywood and board products, as well as pulp and paper materials, could play in the problem of providing low-cost shipping containers for perishables in the Mediterranean area. The working party addressed a number of specific recommendations to FAO for further action.
At its final plenary meeting, the consultation (save for the abstention of government representatives without formal instructions from their governments) adopted a recommendation, as follows:
The consultation noted that the three major wood panel industries are likely to continue to expand at a rapid rate in the next decades, though the rate of growth is likely to fall somewhat short of the very rapid rates recorded in the recent past. It emphasized the significant contribution which the products of these industries could make toward raising living standards in presently low-income countries. It drew attention to the dangers arising from maladjustments between the growth in demand and the rate at which new capacity is being created, maladjustments which always tend to occur in rapidly expanding and new industries. These dangers comprised not only undesirable fluctuations in existing markets but also possibilities of mis-investment in developing countries which could be ill-afforded, and the consequent inhibition of desirable and viable ventures in the less industrialized countries.
For these reasons, the consultation drew attention to the urgent need for improving, extending and making available at the international level information relating to trends in demand, production, trade and capacity in these industries. Such information, accompanied by analytical studies, would enable governments, industries and forest services in all parts of the world to make more rational decisions, and serve the interests of producers and consumers alike.
The consultation recognized that a number of intergovernmental and nongovernmental agencies were active in this field and performing useful services. However, at the present time, these efforts were partial and dispersed, covering only limited groups of products and restricted geographical areas. There was urgent need for international machinery that could provide the possibility of a regular review of trends in all the wood-panel industries on a world scale.
Photo, Department of Forestry, Canada
The consultation therefore recommended that in the first instance the Director-General of FAO should establish an Advisory Group on Wood-Based Panel Products, consisting of a number of prominent personalities in this field' serving in their personal capacity and representative of different regions of the world. This group could furnish guidance to FAO on the development of its activities in the field of wood-based panels; in particular, it should advise on the means whereby production, consumption and capacity trends in these associated industries could best be studied and kept under continuous review. The group should advise FAO how best to take full advantage of the work carried out by existing agencies, including nongovernmental bodies, and avoid unnecessary duplication of effort. Participants believed that such an advisory group could be so constituted as not to require FAO to cover the cost of attendance of its members at meetings. The possibility of covering the attendance cost of government representatives appointed as members of the advisory group should, however, be explored.
The North American Forestry Commission, meeting in Ottawa from 17 to 22 June 1963, opened up new fields of co-operation between the United States, Canada and Mexico in dealing with forestry problems of common concern.
Protection against forest insects, diseases and fire, wildlife as a forest crop, the recreational use of forest lands, and the improvement of forest trees in the three member countries were among the subjects discussed at the session.
Trends in technical assistance programs of FAO and the world supply and demand of forest products were reviewed by EGON GLESINGER, then Director of FAO's Forestry and Forest Products Division.
The commission met under the chairmanship of L. Z. REUSSEAU, Canada's Deputy Minister of Forestry. Attending the session was a coven-member delegation from the United States headed by EDWARD P. CLIFF, Chief, United States Forest Service; a five-member delegation from Mexico under the direction of ENRIQUE BELTRAN, Undersecretary of Forest Resources and Wildlife, Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry; and a Canadian delegation headed by Dr. Rousseau and made up of eleven members from the departments of Forestry and of Northern Affairs and National Resources.
Nine of the ten Canadian provinces were represented by observers as were a number of departments of the Federal Government, the Canadian Institute of Forestry and industry.
M. L. PREBBLE, Director, Forest Entomology and Pathology Branch, Canada Department of Forestry, and Chairman of the Working Party on Forest Insects and Diseases, outlined the progress achieved after two meetings of this group. He presented comprehensive reviews of North American forest disease and insect problems, as well as a report on quarantine safeguards and procedures to prevent introduction and spread of pests of mutual concern to the member countries. The commission agreed to make available the results of the working party's deliberations to the appropriate section of IUFRO.
Considerable emphasis was placed on the need for further development of biological methods and for the judicious use of chemicals for the control of forest insects.
The Working Party on Forest Fire Control reported through its Chairman, G. M. JEMISON, Associate Deputy Chief, Research, United States Forest Service. The commission approved that the working party's priorities would be the exchange of information and materials, problems of training and fire control techniques, the exchange of reports with a view to standardizing forest fire records and statistics among the three countries, and collaboration in research by inviting colleagues from other countries to participate in appropriate experiments.
The meetings dealing with forest recreation and wildlife brought new emphasis to bear on the multiple-use forestry concept to meet the legitimate needs of the population, industry and wildlife protection. Introductory remarks on these subjects were presented by Dr. Beltran, who was appointed chairman of a preparatory working group to analyze the principal problems of recreation and wildlife, to explore the practicability of establishing a permanent working party in this field and to define a program for such a group.
A new working party was established to promote the improvement of forest tree species in the three countries. It will deal with identification, occurrence and exchange of plant materials, and genetics and improvement of northern and southern species.
Another topic on the commission's agenda was the regional study of wood resources and requirements in the United States and Canada to be incorporated in the world appraisal to be presented by FAO at the Sixth World Forestry Congress. Preliminary findings of the United States study will probably be ready by the end of 1963 while the Canadian appraisal is expected to be available early in 1964.
As regards technical assistance programs, Dr. Glesinger directed the attention of the commission to the need for closer co-operation among the member countries and FAO in order to expand training facilities, to facilitate the recruitment of experts and to combine efforts in the implementation of multilateral and bilateral aid programs. He emphasized the urgency of careful and integrated planning by the recipient and donor countries and the international agencies.
The following topics were added to receive the attention of the commission:
1. mensuration problems and possibilities of seeking greater uniformity of units of measurements including those used in the preparation and application of volume tables, yield tables and growth tables, and in the wood-using industries and trade;2. advice and guidance on forestry practices to private and communal forest owners;
3. review of methods of research co-ordination;
4. co-ordination of bilateral and multilateral technical aid programs, which is to be kept as a continuing subject for discussion.
EDWARD P. CUFF was elected commission chairman for the next two years, succeeding L. Z. ROUSSEAU, ENRIQUE BELTRAN of Mexico was elected first vice-chairman and L. Z. Rousseau second vice-chairman. VERNE L. HARPER, Deputy Chief, Research, United States Forest Service, is the new rapporteur succeeding A. L. BEST of Ottawa, Assistant Director of Economics, Department of Forestry.
The next session of the commission will be held in the United States in 1965. Meantime the various working parties will continue to develop their joint studies and programs.
The thirteenth session of this committee was held from 5 to 8 June 1963 at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany. The present membership consists of: E. SAARI, Helsinki, Independent Chairman; K. ABETZ, Freiburg (German language representative); V. GARCÍA PEREZ, Madrid (Spanish language representative); R. VINEY, Nancy (French language representative); and FAO members R. G. FONTAINE and A. G. FRIEDRICH (committee secretary).
Ten years ago, the eleventh congress of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) and the seventh session of the FAO Conference, approved the English version of the Oxford system of decimal classification for forestry (ODC) and commended the system to IUFRO members and FAO member countries for adoption by forestry documentation centers, libraries and institutes. Today, authorized French, German, Italian and Spanish versions of the ODC are completed and published.1 The committee expressed its appreciation for the work on the last completed version (Italian) by the Accademia Italiana di Scienze Forestali, Firenze.
1The English, French, German, Italian and Spanish versions are available at:
Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux, Farnham Royal, England;
Ecole rationale des eaux et forêts, 14 rue Girardet, Nancy, France;
Ausschuss für Bibliographie und Terminologie des DVFFA, Bertoldstrasse 17, 78 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany,
Accademia Italiana di Scienze Forestali, Firenze, Italy;
Comisión Española de Bibliografía y Terminología Forestal, Apartado de Correos 8.111, Madrid, Spain.
The ODC becomes increasingly useful as more languages are added and, for the time being, it must even substitute for a glossary of forestry terms, although the committee noted that such a glossary is being edited by the Bundesforschungsanstalt für Forst- und Holzwirtschaft, Hamburg; to be published by the Bayerische Landwirtschaftsverlag (BLV), Munich. This glossary will cover German, English, French, Spanish and Russian, with 10,000 to 11,000 terms in each language. It should appear in spring 1964, priced at about DM 60.
A major item discussed was the improvement of forest products classification under ODC and, as a result, the committee set up a working group on forest products classification development under the chairmanship of Professor F.F.P. Kollmann, Munich.
Slow progress was reported on the FAO Multilingual Forest Terminology Project and it was considered necessary to find means of speeding up its satisfactory conclusion. It is hoped to establish proper machinery and finance for this project, that is, a central full-time working unit, at the next session of the committee to be held 12 and 13 November at FAO headquarters.
A fourth and final instalment of the World List of Periodicals and Serials of Interest to Forestry is being prepared by the Commonwealth Forestry Bureau, Oxford, and the Bundesforschungsanstalt fur Forstund Holzwirtschaft, Hamburg. After this instalment has been issued, means will be sought for publishing the several parts in one printed volume.
At the committee's invitation, Professor K. Mantel, Freiburg, leader of the new IUFRO Section 02, Forestry History, explained the aims and intentions of his section. The committee welcomed his plans and recommended that IUFRO again attempt to have published, in each country, national bibliographies covering all published forestry literature up to the time that annual national bibliographies were started. This would establish a basis for the section's work.
