The launching of a IUFRO Special Programme for Developing Countries was mentioned in FGRI No. 12 (1983) p. 56. Since then, there has been substantial progress. A report by Oscar Fugalli, Special Coordinator for Developing Countries, covering the period July 1983-August 1986 has been published in IUFRO News No. 53 (1/1986). About the achievements in forestry research planning Fugalli writes as follows:
“A first workshop on the theme “Increasing Productivity of Multipurpose Tree Species (MPTS) in Tropical Asia” was held in Kandy, Sri Lanka, in July 1984, in collaboration with the Forest Department of the host country and with the cooperation of 12 contributing donor agencies. The “Blueprint for Action” as well as the “Proceedings” were submitted to the national authorities of the 12 countries concerned and to the international donor community at large for consideration and possible implementation. Ten species-oriented networks were recommended to be established in three ecological zones: arid/semi-arid, moist/wet, mountainous areas. To enhance the likelihood of implementation, most of the savings made in the organization of the workshop were used to recruit temporarily a Regional Coordinator, who developed a proposal for the “Establishment of MPTS Networks in Support of Rural Development in Tropical Asia”. In addition to certain countries at the national level, follow-up action has already been initiated by USAID (Fuelwood/Forestry Research and Development (F/FRED) Project) and FAO (Tree Improvement/Seed Procurement of Multipurpose Species: A Regional Project Proposal for South and South-East Asia). All the information received so far from the countries concerned with the networks recommended by the Kandy workshop, has now been compiled and stored in a micro computer at the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia, and it is therefore accessible as and when required.
In collaboration with the Forest Department of the host country and with the cooperation of 14 contributing donor agencies, a second research planning workshop was held in Nairobi, Kenya, in January 1986, for the Sahelian and North-Sudanian zones of Sub-Saharan Africa. The theme was: “Increasing Productivity of Multipurpose Lands”. For the first time in forest history at least, a meeting was convened in order to critically scrutinize draft project documents rather than to discuss position papers; IUFRO was encouraged to pursue this approach also in preparing for similar meetings in the future. Projects were recommended for further consideration and eventual execution amounting to several million US dollars of external contributions. The Workshop Proceedings have just been finalized and, as agreed in Nairobi with the representatives of countries and donor agencies, will be distributed formally by IUFRO to both the planning authorities of the 16 countries concerned and to the heads of donor agencies, suggesting they might wish to get together in order to examine how the recommended projects could be implemented.
At the instigation of FAO, there are already some promising signs for possible early follow-up action regarding the selection and improvement of multipurpose species/provenances and related seed problems, on a multi-bilateral basis (France through FAO). A noteworthy point that has emerged out of the Nairobi workshop is that several of the species selected for priority action are interesting for their contribution to human nutrition, which denotes a significant departure from tradition on the part of forest scientists in dry Sub-Saharan Africa.
Preparations are now well under way for holding in mid-1987 a third research planning workshop, this time in tropical Latin America, on “The Role of Multipurpose Species in Social Forestry”. The vast majority of the 16 countries concerned have returned the questionnaires sent to them with a view to identifying the priority species and the problems related thereto that need to be researched. Authors of the draft project documents have been selected and are at work. Economic conditions in the traditional major donor countries are such that this workshop is operating at the moment on a shoestring.”
FAO' Forestry Department is cooperating closely in the above programmes.
