THE Constitution of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations specifies that the activities of this international body include forestry and forest products.
The reasons are self evident. The forest supplies man directly, and in the same way as the tilled soil, with indispensable commodities: firewood to heat his dwelling and to cook his food, timber to build his house and make his furniture. Indirectly, it supplies him with the numerous and varied wood products that contribute to his well being and advance his way of life: paper, newspapers, fertilizers, plastics, alcohols, etc Its presence alone exercises a direct influence on agricultural land in many parts of the world by affording protection against erosion, maintaining the balance of water reserves, ensuring stability, acting as a regulating factor of the climate, and sometimes even by supplying agriculture with the very soil on which it may sow its crops.
Two factors demanded particular care in the organization of a Division of Forestry and Forest Products: first, the scope and importance of the work devolving upon such a division set up within the framework of FAO's world-wide interests; second, the characteristics distinguishing forestry from other land uses.
How far has it been possible to complete the structure of the Division?
The name "Division of Forestry and Forest Products" itself outlines the Division's policy. It was considered fundamental not to perpetuate the error of arbitrarily laying down a dividing line between the forest and its products. The forest crop is an industrial crop that once cut is transformed into a great variety of products where technological properties; methods of utilization, and national and international trade specifications require specialized study and research. To consider these products by themselves would be as illogical as to consider grain production with no reference to plantings or to the varying properties of the soil. With the exception of those forests whose conservation is imperative for the protection of the soil, for purposes of research, or for their tourist value, the forest is essentially a wood producing unit and its treatment must be conditioned by the; technological properties of its products for their industrial utilization. For these reasons the Division of Forestry and Forest Products consists of two branches that are quite distinct although they work closely together: the Forestry Branch and the Forest Products Branch.
The branches are linked at the top by the Director of the Division, Mr. MARCEL LELOUP, formerly Director General of Waters and Forests in France, Counsellor of State. He is responsible for the co ordination of his Division's work and must answer for it to FAO Is Director General, Sir John Boyd Orr, one of Britain's great scientists. Mr. Leloup represents the Division at international and regional congresses and in FAO's relations with official national and international organizations.
The Division has become closely knit by the spirit of teamwork the Director has brought to all levels of his Division. Steady teamwork is a determining factor not only in the work of each of the branches but also in their collaboration with the secretariat which includes the Section of Information and Education working immediately under the Director. The importance of this latter unit will be shown later. The fee-ling of working as a team in encouraged by the daily personal contacts of the officers responsible, the various sections of the Division's work and by the staff meetings frequently called by the Director in order to discuss important aspects of the Division's work or to consider and decide on the beat means of implementing FAO's policies.
These policies are established by FAO's Conference which meets annually to outline the program for the whole organization. The Division of Forestry and Forest Products, however, needed a further consulting body to decide on the means of implementing these policies in a manner best suited to the conditions existing in the Division's field of work.
For this purpose a Standing Advisory Committee was set up. The members are well known specialists representing the various branches of forestry and wood utilization techniques; they also act as chairmen of the technical subcommittees. These subcommittees, in turn, are composed of specialists who are likewise asked to serve not as representatives of their countries but rather as eminently qualified experts in a particular field.
Five subcommittees have now been established. They are included in the listing of the Division of Forestry and Forest Products, which appears on the inside front cover of this issue. No limitation is set to their number so that if in future any particular question should arise that might require consultation with highly qualified specialists it will always be possible to create a further subcommittee to deal with it.
THE SECRETARIAT
The Director is to be aided by an Administrative Assistant as his personal assistant; the vacancy has not been filled yet. The secretariat which comprises also the Section of Information and Education, is placed immediately under the Director's orders. The Chief of the Secretariat is Mr. JEAN VINZANT, formerly attached to the French Supply Council in Washington and a member of the Purchasing Commission for Wood and Forestry Equipment. He also was a member of the Technical Committee on Forestry and Primary Forest Products of the United Nations Interim Commission on Food and Agriculture.
Mr. Vinzant will be assisted in matters of forestry education by two technical officers who have not yet been appointed. Having in its charge the exchange of students and specialists among the various member nations, this office will play an important part in enabling countries that have lacked specialists in forestry and forest products to get the assistance they need. Its work will also afford opportunities for the dissemination of scientific and technical knowledge.
As head of the secretariat, Mr. Vinzant is in charge of office management and administration, liaison with other divisions of FAO, the general organization work of the conferences and meetings arranged by the Division or of organizing the participation of the Division at FAO and other international conferences.
Working with Mr. Vinzant is another technical officer, Mr. RADU C. FORTUNESCU, former Assistant Chief of Secretariat of the International Forestry Center and Senior Editor of that organization's publications. He has two technical assistants in charge of the various information and technical filing units for the whole Division. The library, a branch of FAO Is main library, is a part of these units supplying the Division's work with source material in the form of books and periodicals. (Some 175 periodicals from all countries have so far been received.) Mr. Fortunescu is also responsible for the review UNASYLVA which constitutes one of the most important activities of FAO's Division of Forestry and Forest Products.
FORESTRY BRANCH
Of the two technical branches of the Division, the Forestry Branch is directed by a well-known American forester, Mr. S. BEVIER SHOW, former Regional Forester, California Region, United States Forest Service. His branch covers the whole field of forestry science and techniques. It comprises three sections:
Section I dealing with technical aspects is directed by Mr. TONY FRANCOIS, a former Conservator of Waters and Forests of France and a specialist in forest management and silvics. It is concerned with the scientific bases of forestry, with silviculture proper, and with forest management in the widest sense of the word. This wide-range variety of subjects is apportioned among four: subsections with four technical. officers who have not yet been appointed. The section's task will be to gather the information upon which FAO's forest policy will be based by following research on the whole range of forestry problems; by conducting inquiries on questions that have not yet been completely elucidated; and by analyzing methods of management, of stock taking, and of forest management.
Section 2 deals with economic aspects and is headed by Mr. JACK D. B. HARRISON, former Chief of the Economics Division of the Dominion Forest Service of Canada. This section fulfills a similar task in the range of economic questions. Its work is particularly important since it will include cataloging the forestry resources of the various countries. It deals with questions of soil utilization with the importance of forests as a protecting factor for agricultural lands, and with the influence of economic factors, such as the price of standing timber, labor costs, employment, taxation, insurance, etc., on the management and the conservation of forests. The section is likewise divided into four subsections. Only one of the technical officers for these subsections has been appointed - Mr. HANS SCAVENIUS, former Assistant Forester in the Danish Government Forestry Service.
Section 3 deals with forest policy and legislation. It is headed by Dr. D. Y. LIN, former Director of the Kwantung regional office of UNRRA and President of the Chinese Committee for Agriculture, Irrigation, and Reclamation Work on the Yellow River. The section will list and study from a critical point of view the various legislative systems devised to ensure proper protection and untilization of forests and will analyze general forest policies as well as structure and organization of the national forestry administrations. The importance of this section's work lies in the fact that based, naturally, on the work of the other two sections, its findings will determine what -action the Division as a whole should undertake as a coordinating factor of the forest policies of the member nations in order to achieve a steady and adequate supply of wood and wood products for all -nations without harming the forests as a constantly producing source of raw material. The section is likewise subdivided into four subsections. Of the technical officers required for the subsections, one only has been appointed, Dr. MAURICE HUBERMAN, former Forestry Expert with the Headquarters of the United States Occupation forces in Japan.
FOREST PRODUCTS BRANCH
The direction of the Forest Products Branch is entrusted to Mr. EGON GLESINGER, former Secretary General of the Comité International du Bois (CIB) and rapporteur of the Technical Committee on Forestry and Forest Products of the United Nations Interim Commission on Food and Agriculture. The work of this branch parallels in the field of forest products that of the Forestry Branch. It compiles world statistics for forest products, follows research in wood exploitation and utilization from raw material to finished products, and studies economic trends in marketing and the woodworking industries. Thus it is possible for FAO to guide its general policy in the light of these trends, and so exert its influence, if need be, in the general interest of the community of nations.
This branch is subdivided into two sections, the chiefs of which have not yet been appointed. Section I deals with Forest Products Technology and Section 2 with Woodworking Industries and Trade.
The character of Section 1's work is technical and scientific. Its five subsections. deal on one hand with the organization and equipment of plants and on the other hand with various aspects of wood technology, and utilization. The appointments to these subsections are not complete. However, Mr. ALAN GORDON, formerly a Senior Research Officer of the Division of Forest Products, Australian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, has recently been put in charge of the subsection for Mechanical Wood Technology, and the subsection for Chemical Wood Technology has been entrusted to Mr. JORGE R. SUCCAR, former General Manager of the firm "Ingeniería Industrial S.A.," Consulting Engineers in Lima, Peru. Mr. NICOLAS DE FELSOVANYI, former Assistant Secretary General of the Comité International du Bois (CIB) and former Secretary of the Commission Internationale d'Utilisation du Bois, has been put in charge of the subsection dealing with the use of timber, for construction work, assembling methods, and the utilization of firewood; he is further responsible for the organization of the technical subcommittees.
Section 2's main work is in the domain of industrial and commercial statistics. It will study trends and progress in the various fields of wood and forest products utilization in trade balances and marketing. Although the outline of its work is already definitely established, only three of the five subsections have been provided with officers. Mr. STEPHANE BAUER, former Assistant to the Director of the Swiss Forest Economy Association and former Forestry Counselor to the Director-General of State Forests in Poland, is entrusted with the compilation and analysis of statistics for saw timber, sawn goods,, and industrial timber: pitprops, ties and piles. The same work for pulp and paper is carried out by Mr. JOSEPH P. KAGAN, former Chief of the Pulp and Paper Section, Requirements Division, United States Foreign Economic Administration.
Mr. LESLIE VERNELL, former Deputy-Conservator of the Burma Forest Service has been put in charge of the whole work of assembling statistics, documents, and information for the Forest Products Branch. He further edits the general reports, is entrusted with special investigations, and ensures co-operation with the other economic organizations of the United Nations.
The work of the branches and sections as outlined above should not convey the impression that the, Division's emphasis is on desk work. It has already become apparent that direct contacts with qualified representatives of the forest services of each country, investigations on the spot, and documentation gathered locally give quicker results than long hours of sedentary work. Each member of the Division's staff must be able to play the part of an ambassador for the world's forest economy in all countries to which his work may take him. This role obviously devolves in the first place on the Director of the Division who represents the Division at FAO's annual conferences, at meetings of the United Nations, and at the regional or world conferences organized by the Division or in which it participates. But the role also devolves upon the two chiefs of branches as well as upon the chiefs of sections and all members of the staff.
But the sending of one or the other of the Division officers to different countries cannot be sufficient to maintain the close contact necessary to the carrying out of its complex and long-term programs of work.
National FAO Committees are being set up in member countries to maintain liaison between FAO and the national administration, and the Director of the Division of Forestry and Forest Products has advocated that a forestry subcommittee should be created within the framework of each national committee. The Division would then be in a position to correspond directly with the secretary of the subcommittee avoiding, in cases where no policy issue is involved, the lengthy delays attendant upon official communications. The members of these subcommittees as well as their secretaries would always be representatives of their own countries, never of FAO or of its Division.
It is further considered necessary to organize regional forestry offices attached to FAO's other regional offices. Their officers will be placed immediately under the Director of the Division of Forestry and Forest Products and will supply the main office with information concerning their regions and carry out the Division's general policy in those regions.
For the time being, provision has been made for regional forestry offices in Europe, in South America, and in the Far East. The organization of the three offices duplicates the structure of the main office. Each is headed by a Chief of Branch, assisted by two officers, one for the forestry section and the other for the forest products section. The problems dealt with and the work of the officers are the same as in the main office, but on a regional scale, particular attention being paid to their specific problems. Thus, in Latin America, the main task of the regional office will be to take stock of the forestry resources of each country, of their development and systematic management, of the organization of the forest services, and of the development of administrative facilities. The Far East office will concentrate on reforestation and the co-ordination of forestry programs with the modernization of agriculture.
So far work has been commenced only by the European forestry office. It is headed by Mr. RENE G. FONTAINE, former Inspector of Waters and Forests of France, who is further entrusted with winding up the affairs of the Centre International de Sylviculture (CIS) and the Comité International du Bois (CIB) so that FAO can take over the documentation and libraries of these organizations.
Training the officers of the regional offices is a very important problem. It would be unwise to place them in positions outside the general framework of the central organization without affording them an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the methods and over-all policy of the Division. It has therefore been arranged to reserve in the subsections of each section of the main office at least one temporary appointment for an officer who, while carrying out his own work, will be in a position to gain insight into his section's work as part of the whole; this would be a preparatory stage to his employment in one of the regional offices.
This, in outline, is the structure of FAO's Division of Forestry and Forest Products. It will be noted that many appointments are still to be made and that until the majority of vacancies have been filled, the Division will have great difficulty in fulfilling even tasks of particular urgency. Nevertheless, the staff requirements are being gradually completed and without waiting for its organization to be perfect the Division can already point to achievements brought about by the teamwork and enterprise of its staff. Its contribution to the first two annual conferences of FAO has been noteworthy and the reports it has submitted have attracted the attention of specialists everywhere. Aided by two regional conferences, it has worked out questionnaires that will supply the scaffolding, for much of its work. Lastly, the International Timber Conference of Marianske Lazne marked the first stages of practical co-operation among the European nations in adjusting their forest policy to a common purpose and has implemented measures to remedy and perhaps entirely eliminate the timber shortage crippling postwar recovery in European countries, particularly in those ravaged by war.
It is to be hoped that these first steps are but the forerunners of more substantial achievements. The plans of the Division are in the custody of FAO is technicians, who, working as a team, will strive to bring them to fruition.
