Palm-oil for diesel fuel
Any money for bees?
Unasylva welcomes letters from readers on any topic related to forestry and the environment. Letters should be reasonably short and legible. English, French or Spanish is preferred, but other languages will also be considered. Please address letters to: Editor, Unasylva, FAO Forestry Department, Via delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy.
I noticed the news item entitled "Palm-oil for energy" in Unasylva, (36 [144]: 58). I think it is useful to bring to your attention the fact that attempts to use palm-oil as diesel fuel were made in the Belgian Congo and Belgium beginning in 192021, and were continued up until 1957-58. I am enclosing a list of bibliographical references, all taken from the Bulletin agricole du Congo Belge.
I. Demaret
Bibliothèque Royale Albert ler Brussels
(Ed. note: Unasylva will make this one-page bibliography available to interested readers upon request)
I was pleased to receive the copy of Unasylva (38 [147]: 5051) which includes a book notice of the "Directory of important world honey sources".
You may be interested to know where we stand at present with the "Survey of World Honey Sources" - of which the Directory was only the second phase. We are now attempting to find funds to transfer data in the Directory, which is at present stored on a word processor, to a microcomputer and database program which we have been given for the purpose. When the transfer has taken place we will be able to make on-line retrievals of the information and expand the database.
Because of the importance of the survey to agroforesters and others in the forestry industry - of the 467 species described in the Directory, 267 are woody perennials - we need sources of funding for transferring our data. We are looking for about £3000 (US$4800). I have only limited contacts in the forestry world and would appreciate any suggestions that might assist us.
Dr Margaret Adey
Director
International Bee Research Association
Hill House. Gerrards Cross, Bucks UK
