THE Fifth Conference of the forest authorities of the British Empire met in London on 16 June 1947, and continued its sessions until 19 July 1947. Sir Roy Robinson (now Lord Robinson), Chairman of the Forestry Commission of Great Britain, acted as Chairman of the meetings and D. Roy Cameron, Dominion Forester for Canada, was elected Vice Chairman. The conference was attended by more than 30 delegates from Great Britain, 71 from the overseas Dominions and Colonies, and representatives of special forestry organizations having their headquarters in England. A representative of the United States Forest Service and two members of the Forestry and Forest Products Division of FAO attended by invitation.
The first Empire Forestry Conference was held in England in 1920 and succeeding conferences took place in Canada (1923), Australia and New Zealand (1928), and South Africa (1935). Plans for a conference to be held in India in 1940 were disrupted by the war. This unique series of gatherings, which periodically bring together senior forest officers from the widely differing parts of the British Commonwealth, has been most successful in promoting the development of good forest management. Opportunity has been pro vided for the personal exchange of views as well as for more formal consideration of reports and programs covering the widest variety of conditions and problems. Through the conferences a spirit of co-operation and mutual helpfulness has been developed. In addition, it has been found that individual conferences have performed a most valuable function in stimulating public interest in forestry questions in the countries in which they were held.
Meetings of the Fifth Conference were held in London, Cambridge, and Oxford, and various forests and industrial installations in England and Scotland were visited. Arrangements were made to enable delegates who were especially interested in forest products to see as many manufacturing plants as possible.
An important feature of the Conference was the presentation of a series of reports prepared by the forest authorities of the United Kingdom, the self-governing Dominions, and the Colonies, which describe the part played in the recent war by the forests of the Commonwealth. These reports were prepared in accordance with a commonly accepted outline and reviewed all aspects of the forestry and forest products situation throughout the war years, including the establishment and operation of the various systems of control introduced by the different governments. Special efforts were made to draw attention to the lessons learned during the war and to preserve those lessons for future reference. The reports were supported by comprehensive statistics covering the forest resources and production, consumption, and trade in forest products. In these statistics the annual averages for the five-year period, 1934-1938, were stated as a basis for comparison and detailed figures were given for each year from 1939 to 1945, inclusive. While the Conference was in session the statistics were assembled and summarized by the Central Statistical Office of the United Kingdom, and these summaries were incorporated in special report.
Committees of the Conference were established to consider special problems relating to land use, the survey of forest resources, forest management, silviculture and protection, forest products research, timber supplies and marketing, and forestry education. In connection with the last-mentioned subject, special opportunities were provided for delegates to examine the work being done by the School of Forestry and the Imperial Forestry Institute at Oxford. In addition to the work of committees, the full Conference heard and discussed a large number of technical papers prepared by experts from various parts of the Commonwealth.
The Conference considered at some length the question of co-operation with the Forestry and Forest Products Division of FAO. S. B. Show, chief of the Forestry Branch of the Division, and J. D. B. Harrison, chief of the Forest Economics Section, were invited by the Chairman to explain in detail the programs of the Organization relating to forestry and forest products and the methods through which it was hoped to make those programs effective. The proposed international statistical program was examined with particular attention. Representatives of the Organization were assured that it can expect the fullest co-operation from the Government authorities represented at the Conference, within the limits of the means at their disposal.
Among the resolutions finally adopted, particular interest attaches to the proposal that a preliminary survey of the forest resources of all members of the Commonwealth should be completed by December 1957, this survey to take full advantage of recent developments in aerial survey technique. It was recommended that the Government of the United Kingdom should set up a technical committee on the aerial survey of forests to provide guidance and advice on technique and to disseminate information on improved methods. Another resolution stressed the need for clear-cut planning based on the allocation of each type of land to the purpose for which it is best suited in the long-term interest of the national economy. With regard to timber supplies, the Conference felt that regulated overcutting during the emergency period following the war is necessary and justified, but demanded that governments should pay adequate attention to forest protection and later correction of the overcut by working-plan revisions.
In the course of the proceedings the Chairman paid special tribute to the Indian Forest Service which, after 90 years of service to Indian and Empire forestry, was about to be disbanded because of the establishment of the new Dominions of India and Pakistan. A special resolution was adopted in which the Conference expressed to the present and past members of the India and Burma Forest Services its appreciation of the great services rendered by them to forestry in the territories under their charge and in the British Empire at large.
