Using coconut wood
Investing in trees
The Mediterranean forests of Chile
Can cedars protect Mediterranean forests?
The lessons of winter
One of the most important trees in the tropics is the coconut palm (Cocos nucifera L.). The palm produces coconuts from the age of five until 50. From then onwards, coconut production steadily declines until the tree is 60 to 70 years old, when it is considered senile and nut production is zero. It is from age 50 that the value of coconut production should be questioned and an alternative use for the trees found.
One alternative is to fell the tree, plant a new one and utilize the felled stem as a raw material for what are generally called forest products. As this raw material to a large extent differs from more traditional wood, its processing technology was developed with FAO's support during 1981-84 in Zamboanga, the Philippines. Pioneer studies and trial production had previously been carried out in the Philippines, as well as in blew Zealand, the Pacific, India and Indonesia. After the Zamboangan experience, regional FAO training courses have been held in the Philippines, Sri Lanka. Jamaica and Samoa and further courses are planned in forthcoming years.
The Zamboangan studies covered most aspects of coconut wood utilization, i.e. anatomy, properties, sawmilling, seasoning, preservation, charcoal production, wood-based panels, house design and construction, pulping properties and utilization for a variety of end-uses. For the construction of houses, almost all types of coconut wood - low, medium or high density - can be used. Structural load-bearing components in a house should be made from dense timber grades while other components can be made from medium-density material. It has been possible to develop a wide range of advanced designs for the former covering uses from small thatched units, through several house types, to schoolroom buildings. Floors and steps are made of hard material either as machined boards or parquet. The internal walls of houses may be made of softer palmwood, which is quite suitable for non-load-hearing surfaces. External cladding, also of the softer material, requires preservative treatment to prevent damage by weather, as do the hardwood window frames and any material which is in contact with the ground. Coconut wood can he used for roofing either as sawn timber or shingles. When rainwater is to be collected for drinking purposes, the roofing material may he treated with a waterproof sealant rather than with one of the toxic water-borne preservatives.
For the production of high-quality decorative furniture, high-density coconut wood is a new and exciting raw material. Its colour and texture enhance its suitability for this purpose. Selected medium-density coconut timber is suitable for non-decorative and utility furniture manufacture. It, is easy to screw, drill, glue and profile. Medium-density can also he used in conjunction with hard-density in decorative timber if the colour difference is allowed for or utilized in the design.
The structure of coconut wood makes the harder material extremely suitable for a wide range of utility items with demanding specifications. The interlocking nature of the grain makes the wood ideal for the manufacture of tool handles with complex shapes such as axes and paint inrushes, where splitting along the grain is a problem. The combination of durability and attractiveness should also enable coconut wood to have a place in the market for wooden howls and carving-boards.
Structurally, the palm trunk is ideally suited to he used as a utility pole since it has great strength and flexibility and is able to withstand high wind loads. The main problem has been to dry poles sufficiently in order to permit pressure impregnation with a waterborne preservative. Debarking is an essential preliminary. The process can be carried out manually or using mechanized equipment.
Coconut wood is similar to other woods with regard to its characteristics as fuel, although the range of densities within the trunk leads to variations in energy potential. However. Coconut-wood residues from logging as well as from sawmilling activities are valuable potential resources in the production of energy.
Early attempts at utilization were somewhat disheartening because results did not compare well with conventional wood from either hardwood or soft woods. Many of the problems, however, were the result of trying to apply technology developed for one material to another quite different material. The development of equipment and technology specific to coconut wood has overcome many of these problems.
There is no doubt that the future will see the coconut trunk being used more as a conventional wood alternative in a number of applications and, in many instances, doing the job equally well or even better than the wood that is normally called "traditional".
Detailed information on the characteristics, processing and uses of coconut wood is available in FAO Forestry Paper No, 57 entitled Coconut wood (FAO, 1985).
HARVESTING A COCONUT PALM producing after the age of 50
P. Ragnhage
FAO Forest Industries Division
Recently the economic ministry in the province of Mendoza (Argentina) took up a suggestion made by a private individual regarding "school forestry saving", something which could become an additional incentive for stimulating growth in forest resources and also be a way of promoting a traditional form of saving that was customary among children in other eras.
School forestry saving is based on the idea that each primary-school pupil although secondary-school pupils can also participate buys stamps to a value equivalent to that of a tree. The interest earned on these savings is determined once the forest is in a condition to he felled - after a lapse of time estimated at about ten years.
The young saver then receives the current value of the wood together with his capital. Depending on the amount saved, he or she is able, for example, to undertake secondary studies without placing a burden on his/her parents or even on the state itself. The country is thus in a better economic position with regard to wood and there are greater possibilities for young people to enter higher education.
Such a system could be put into practice by existing institutions or by a foundation set up for the purpose, composed of bodies such as the National Savings Bank, IFONA, provincial parks and forests departments, the ministries of culture, economy, and public works and services, etc. In addition to increasing the extent of forest area, this programme could be used to conserve species that are disappearing and protect the forest from destructive agents, particularly fire.
The aim is to preserve the environment by increasing the wooded area and to produce wood to meet national requirements for the manufacture of newsprint and other products, many of which could provide a useful source of foreign exchange through export.
This plan could be carried out over enormous expanses of state land now uncultivated: in the plains, alongside rivers and in the foothills of the Andes.
CUTTING COCONUT WOOD IN THE PHILIPPINES FAO is encouraging its utilization
Griselda Gomez, Rome
Stretching in a long narrow strip along the Pacific Ocean. Chile contains a surprising combination of all the Mediterranean bioclimatic formations. Its forests reflect all aspects of this great variety, enriched by the presence of two mountain ranges divided by a depression.
These forests are described, zone by zone, in an article entitled "La forêt méditerranéenne du Chili", by M. Etienne, in the September 1985 issue of Forêt méditerranéenne.
In the north lies the extremely arid zone with its unusual Prosopis tamarugo forest which grows naturally in salt depressions. Layers of silt that pour down from the high plateau every 20 to 30 years in avalanches provide the young plants with the moisture necessary for them to take root. They then have only two or three years remaining in which to reach the relatively salt-free ground water before an impenetrable salt crust forms, preventing any growth forms on the surface.
Next comes the arid zone, favoured by high cliffs and sea mists, characterized a magnificent forest cover along the coast and species resistant to drought in the interior. In the semi-arid zone, the dominant forest feature is the presence of Acacia caven the Chilean espinal. The subhumid zone contains a great variety of forest types, composed mainly of original tree species: these include the Chilean palm, renowned for its nuts and its sweet sap.
The humid zone is distinguished by the management of the existing ecosystem the ecological niche occupied by cypress groves rather than by the substitution of new species. The rainy zone, undoubtedly the least Mediterranean, with only one completely dry summer month, is the kingdom of the majestic rain forests of Nothafagus.
Although these forests contain more than 55 species and their production potential is exceptionally high, their future is seriously compromised by intensive fuelwood collection, indiscriminate slash-and-burn cultivation and mining of the valuable species. It is urgent, the author argues, that they he brought under management if Chile is to remain the most beautiful showcase of Mediterranean forest ecology.
SUPPRESSING A SUMMER FIRE a perennial Mediterranean problem
Since 1978 there has been an outcry against the 30-40000 forest tires that occur in Europe every year and destroy some 450-760000 ha of valuable forest and woodland. However, in the summer of 1985, which was exceptionally hot and dry in the Mediterranean, the damage far exceeded the European average over the last few years. In the French Midi alone it was estimated that by the end of the summer 50000 ha of forest had burned compared with 14000 during the same period in 1984.
The European Forestry Commission, which met in Budapest in November 1985 to assess the situation, noted that the European countries bordering the Mediterranean considered that fire was the greatest danger to the forests of the region and that man, deliberately or carelessly, was the chief culprit.
Bearing in mind the recommendations of the Commission, the French National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRA) in Avignon emphasized that, as a matter of urgency, systematic diversification of forest species should be initiated so as to limit damage caused by fire. Such diversification is exactly what the French Government proposes to support in the Luberon massif. The almost complete neglect of agriculture and grazing in this region has created an immense forest of evergreen oak occasionally mixed with white oak. The evergreen oak is the most inflammable of the hardwood trees at any time of year. Foresters in the region say that when the evergreen oaks hum firemen cannot get anywhere near the tire.
Another factor is that the continuity of the forest belt contributes to the spreading of tires The first step in tire prevention is therefore to establish "discontinuity" or diversification among tree species. To achieve this in the Luberon, specialists chose the Atlas cedar (Dedrus atlantica Man.), a species which even in summer burns with difficulty and grows relatively quickly. It also has very high natural regeneration properties and, if undisturbed, multiplies easily.
However, to plant cedars throughout the sensitive areas would be an enormous undertaking at a prohibitive cost. In the Luberon region the plan is to plant the cedars in the strips between the oaks so that they can act as spark-breaks. A first plantation established in 1984 on the crest line of the Petit Luberon has already produced a magnificent forest and moreover, has provided an enormous quantity of seed from which seedlings are now produced for distribution to everyone wishing to cultivate them.
It is apparent that the cedar cannot be a panacea for all the problems of the Mediterranean forest. There are other factors responsible for the outbreak of fires, including drought and wind especially the mistral in the French Midi, which rapidly fans small fires into big ones. These problems require other kinds of solutions. Because of the division of land into smallholdings, it is difficult to make forestry operations profitable. While it is true that a well-managed forest will always burn less easily than one which is neglected, irrespective of the forest species, a badly managed and unproductive forest does not justify raising funds to protect it.
Meanwhile, there are differences of opinion between those who preach for and against the virtues of the oak and those who prefer the protection offered by the cedar. In fact, specialists admit that the ideal solution would be a forest well diversified both in numbers of species and in plantation structure.
Nevertheless, the cedar is being seen as the protector of the Mediterranean forest. Once it has been burnt, the cedar can regenerate from the stump, thus avoiding the necessity of replanting. Apart from its role as a fire-break it is an effective way of improving poor forest soils. In Provence it is the fastest growing of the resinous trees and has an astounding land colonization capacity.
However, the Luberon foresters reveal a certain concern over the tendency to displace evergreen and white oaks. They fear that the dissemination of the cedar may in the long run cause a biological downgrading of the environment And, as one forester observes, if a close watch is not kept we could one day find ourselves with an immense and monotonous cedar forest from which all other species have vanished''.
Henri Chazine and Fay Banoun
A CEDAR NURSERY LEBANON can this species stop fires?
The skeletal silhouettes of mimosas of the burgeoning spring vegetation still testify to the damage caused by a winter that struck with unforeseen violence.
In an article entitled "On the effects of the cold spell'' regarding forest species studied in arboreta and comparative provenance plantations in the French Mediterranean region, published in Forêt méditerranéenne (September 1985), four authors (P. Allemand. P. Auge. Y. Birot and P Ferrandes) tried to draw a provisional balance sheet of the consequences of the cold weather of January 1985 and the lessons to he learned. Their observations concern troth indigenous and exotic species and deal mainly with foliage and branches.
During the months following the sharp drop in temperature in January 1985, considerable damage was of ten noticed to local species that were thought to he adapted, such as kermes oak, evergreen oaf; and Aleppo pine.
Yet it is the introduced species that have raised the most crucial questions regarding choice of plant material used in plantations, since a mistake can mean trig losses even several decades after these species have been established. Apart from the damage wrought in the Landes region in France, where 10000 ha of maritime pines were destroyed because of a "genetic error" (the introduction of Portuguese seeds more sensitive to the cold than the local seeds), other unusual phenomena occurred in the Mediterranean zone: at Marignane, in the Bouches-du-Rhône region, for example, the combination of a minimum humidity of 37 percent and a wind of more than 100 km/h resulted in a water stress situation from which the vegetation is still feeling the effects.
The authors begin by discussing the arboreta for exotic species installed in the South of France and demonstrate the resistance to cold of certain coniferous and hardwood species. Among the conifers studied are cedars, a few rare species of pines and almost all the cypresses. Among the persistent hardwoods, promising results have been obtained with arbutus species, cotoneasters anti oaks, and among the deciduous species, with alders, figs and ashes. But other species, in particular some eucalypts, acacias and callitris, whose behaviour had appeared to he encouraging, have proved to he excessively sensitive to cold.
The first lessons to he drawn from these data show how plant material must he adapted to its site, care must he taken in introducing exotic species of certain provenances and in choosing genetic pools of the same species, and how important it is to use clones selected in local stands when setting up seed orchards.
Fay Banoun, Rome
