Argentina
British Guiana
Finland
Ruanda-Urundi
Sarawak
Sweden
Togo
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
United Kingdom
United States of America
· In 1957, in connection with a report compiled by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA) on the Economic Development of Argentina, FAO helped to prepare a plan for the development of the forest economy of the country. The FAO report revealed the extent of the need to curtail imports and the drain on foreign currency reserves through more intensive and efficient use of Argentina's own resources. It was formally submitted to the Argentine Government by the Director of the Forestry and Forest Products Division of FAO, and since then measures for implementing the recommendations have been worked out in detail in Argentina.
The Administración Nacional de Bosques (Federal Forest Service) of the Ministry of Agriculture, some provincial services and the Bancos Industrial y de la Nación (Industrial and National Banks) have combined their efforts in order to promote the development of existing forests, to create new forests, and to build up forest industries. The Federal Forest Service, drawing on the Forest Fund and with the assistance of the National Bank, has worked out a credit scheme for encouraging intensive forest tree planting throughout the country. Loans covering 80 percent of the materials needed are granted at an interest rate of 2 percent, repayable in 20 years. At the same time, the Service has arranged for large-scale rehabilitation works to be carried out in the most important forest region of the Republic, the Paraná, delta, which last year suffered greatly from serious floods. For the afforestation program, mechanization of operations is to be promoted by facilitating the importation of dredgers, power shovels, ditchers and other machines which are essential for areas subject to floods, and which can be used for bringing into production an area of 100,000 hectares in the provinces of Buenos Aires and Entre Ríos alone.
Other features of the FAO report which are being pursued relate to the opening of forestry schools, the training of forest and industrial workers, and the granting of fellowships for vocational and professional training abroad. Rationalization of the timber trade between Brazil, Paraguay, Chile and Argentina is being studied, as is the modernization of the boxboard industry. Attention is also being given to the more efficient operation of the tannin industry, the only forest industry that produces an export commodity, and of the whole sleeper (railroad ties) production business. Projects now being examined include the setting up of wood particle board plants and pulp and paper mills using the semi-chemical process.
· British Guiana is the only commercial source of greenheart (Ocotea rodiaei). Some promising work on the regeneration of this useful, although slow-growing, timber has been done. The initial experiments were described in the Empire Forestry Review, No. 35 (2) 1956, under the title "The regeneration of worked out greenheart forest in British Guiana." From observation of the results, the present techniques have been evolved, which are being tried out on two areas: from one, the greenheart was exploited about 30 years ago and, from the other, during 1950-52.
Treatment aims at the gradual reduction of the understory in two or three operations at two yearly intervals, so as to stimulate the growth of existing greenheart regeneration or of seedlings from the abundant supply of seed from trees which were too small for felling in the past. At the same time the undergrowth is removed - except for desirable species - until such time as it no longer interferes with regeneration. It is only in the third treatment, about four years after the start of operations, that any opening of the canopy is undertaken and then only over regeneration of 20 feet (6 meters) or more in height.. For the reduction of the understory, the smaller trees are cut with a machette or ax, while the larger ones are frilled and poisoned with sodium arsenite. The subsequent removal of the canopy will be carried out by poisoning in accordance with the apparent needs of the new crop.
For purposes of record and control the area to be treated is divided into 10-acre (4-hectare) blocks. It takes the normal working gang (comprising 6-8 cutlassmen, 2 tree markers, 3-5 axmen, and 1 poisoner) from two to three days to deal with each block. The gang traverses the block, to and fro, until completed, working on a front of from 10 to 40 meters in width, depending on the nature of the forest.
Comparative measurements of regeneration made in sample plots in 1954 and 1959 show a striking increase in the number of greenheart saplings below 25 feet (8 meters) in height, even in this short interval. There are also signs that diameter growth is satisfactory, it is felt, however, that this might be improved by a judicious thinning of the regeneration at from 6 to 10 feet (2 to 3 meters) in height and that, in attempting this, the risk of some of the more slender saplings falling over could be accepted.
There is no doubt that some of the worked-out greenheart forest is being greatly improved by the treatment now being given and that the present intensive measures are preferable to the extensive ones carried out in the past. After a few more treatments, there should be an almost complete lower canopy of greenheart, covering the areas dealt with.
It is too soon to pronounce on costs and the likelihood of the treatment being an economic proposition. But, as an experimental venture of considerable promise and no small silvicultural interest, it would appear to deserve to be continued and extended.
· At the Cologne furniture exhibition in 1960, 15 Finnish furniture manufacturers, members of the Council on Furniture Export Promotion, will present their furniture products for buyers to assess.
Finnish furniture exports appear to have a promising future, because of the world-wide reputation earned by Finnish design. Exports to Western Germany have been the quickest to develop, but expansion has also taken place in other countries in the Common Market area, and in the United Kingdom and America.
Finnish plywood factories are to establish an association in London to carry on market research in England and find new uses for birch plywood. Its activities will cover all sectors of English life. The association will lay special emphasis on publicity and public relations. The results of this extensive research will show the Finnish plywood industry what new qualities should be developed and into what new fields it should expand. The findings in the United Kingdom, which is Finland's principal export market for this commodity, can be adapted for other countries, so that the result of the work there will be of prime importance for the whole of the exports in this line.
In the peak year 1955, Finland's total exports of plywood amounted to 286,406 cubic meters. Since then the export trade has been unsatisfactory and but for the constant increase in blockboard exports, the situation would be gloomy.
The Finnish Trade Review says that there is no doubt that many new uses can be found for plywood, in particular in the building industry. Plywood could also become the principal material for farmers, one that they can use for all their own building and carpentry. In this case, phenol-resin glue is required, since it gives the plywood all the properties necessary for outdoor use. The Finnish factories are also concentrating on the development of specially processed plywoods. An important group is formed by surface-treated plywoods, varnished, painted or plastic coated. The purpose of such treatment is, of course, either to enhance the appearance of the plywood or to improve its range of uses and its resistance to dry rot and termites. Fireproof plywood is also on the way.
· There is little left of the forest If Ruanda-Urundi, and what remains lies over 1,900 meters and is largely difficult of access, or has an essentially protective role to play. Forest covers some 3 percent of the territory, or 6.5 percent if wooded savanna is included. There is therefore no industrial exploitation or export of forest produce. The bulk of the timber needed is imported from the Belgian Congo.
Forest reserves amounting to some 155,000 hectares have been established on the Congo-Nile divide (Kibira forest), in the zone of the volcanos (National Park Albert), Waku Island, the Bururi and Kigwena forests and the forest area of Kisenyi district. Rights of usage in these reserves are respected, in regard to domestic supply of firewood from dead or fallen trees.
The savanna zone, mainly to the East of the 300 meridian, contains patchy wooded areas of scattered trees, locally exploited for fuelwood.
The Forestry Bureau was established only in 1950/51, prior to which tribal or village communities were expected to undertake afforestation at the rate of I hectare per 400 men per annum based on a yearly requirement of 10 cubic meters per family, to ensure local supplies of fuelwood and building poles in a country largely cleared of all tree growth, initially, by a dense population of cultivators, and aggravated by a nomadic, invading tribe of cattleowners. The results were negligible and in 1952/53 an afforestation tax was levied annually, amounting to 20 to 30 francs per person, which the Forestry Bureau used for the establishment of boisements communaux. Approximately 46,710 hectares of such forest areas, usually in small lots varying from 5 to 100 hectares located on the poorest soils in the vicinity of a settlement, have been planted by end-1958. It must be remembered that much of the country is densely populated (an average of 90, and as high as 400 people, per square kilometer); that every available piece of fertile land, even on extreme slopes, is under permanent agriculture, and that the enormous livestock population is still rarely killed for meat but is considered principally as a producer of milk, requiring considerable areas of the poorer soils for pasturage. The land allocated to communal forests is delimited annually by a council of local chiefs, with the help of technical advice so as to avoid undue fragmentation and unmanageably small or inaccessible areas.
The Forestry Bureau disposes of funds from Government for reboisements économiques for the supply of local industrial needs of timber. The right of use of suitable, available land for this purpose is bought but the land itself remains the property of the tribal collectivity. Some 2,260 hectares have been established up to end-1958.
The communal afforestation scheme continues, and where better pasturage is made available, the "Anderson " group-planting method with wide spacing will in time be adopted to ensure multiple use.
Some excellent progress has been made in resettlement of peasant populations, notably in the Ruzizi Valley and around Astrida, where paysannats include, in the first case, a 40-ares timber-plot next to the residential plot in each 4 hectares strip individually and permanently allocated; and in the second case, separate communal forest and pasturage areas within a complex of paysannats involving an average of 5,000 families, a social center, a coffee-berry depulper, a dipping tank, piped water every 2 kilometers along access roads, etc.
Contrary to the initially adverse effect of selfgovernment in many countries, it would appear that the trend, giving greater representation to the original Bahutu cultivators and reducing the authority and land-monopoly of the invading and conquering hamitic Batusi, will favor afforestation projects and settled mixed farming under individual ownership at the expense of extensive, nomadic cattle breeding.
· An FAO technical assistance officer broadcasting from Kuching described the present prospects for ramin timber (Gonystylus spp.).
" There is quite a demand in Europe for woods that are light to moderately light in weight and whitish to yellowish white in color. There are not a great number of such woods available from the tropics. Wawa or Obeche from West Africa is one of them. Assacu or Hura from South America is another. And there is ramin of course, almost all of which comes from Sarawak. Ramin is a little heavier than the others, not quite as soft and is finer grained. The three timbers are competitive to a certain extent, but ramin can be used for more exacting work and the market is prepared a little more for it.
Ramin is really quite an outstanding timber on a number of counts. It machines very nicely, so that it can be used for fine moldings; it finishes well and takes paint easily, and it behaves well after manufacture, which is to say that it does not warp and shrink as much as many of its competitors. Then again, the long clear specifications in which it is obtainable makes it a very popular timber. By comparison, the temperate pines and hardwoods such as beech and birch that compete with ramin are marketed as a rule in more defective specifications than ramin, with more knots and other blemishes.
The uses to which ramin is put vary to a certain extent from country to country. In the United Kingdom, it serves as a good grade utility wood, most of it going to furniture and interior fittings. But a good deal of it; also goes into moldings, broomsticks and so on. Most of the ramin that reaches Germany is used for making moldings and very little of it goes into furniture. In the case of Italy, almost four fifths of the ramin that is imported finds its way into the manufacture of slate for Venetian blinds. And in Japan and Australia, it is turned into veneer and plywood.
Sales to Europe have been expanding during the past years. More sawnwood is being purchased by the United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, etc., more ramin logs are being taken up by Italy. The Sarawak ramin trade now has plenty of experience of world market conditions, and is aware that a firm and steady market can be ensured by sensible selling through reliable agents abroad.
The technique of extraction of ramin by light rail through swamp that has been developed in Sarawak enables the timber to reach sawmill and port at moderate cost. It was the development of this technique that made it possible to market ramin overseas.
The strong entry of Japan into the Sarawak log market is almost certainly due to events in the Philippines. Japan has been a tremendous purchaser of lauan from the Philippines, and this lauan has been the mainstay of the Japanese export plywood trade, which is for the greater part with the United States. The Philippines is now building up its own plywood industry and needs the logs once exported to Japan. Over a period of five years, the Philippines intends reducing log exports, particularly of veneer quality, by 50 percent. Japan is looking elsewhere in Southeast Asia for logs to replace the falling Philippine supply. Great quantities are being obtained from North Borneo, Viet-Nam, Thailand and Indonesia. Provided Sarawak can supply Japan with the kind and specification of logs that she needs and at prices that are competitive, there seems to be no reason why the present level of log purchases from Sarawak should not continue, and even increase."
· A news item from Sweden states that 137 amateur pilots flying 41 private aircraft from altogether 12 aero clubs took part in the forest fire supervision of north and central Sweden during the fire season of 1959. They flew a total of 4,757 hours and spotted no less than 508 fires on the controlled area of 212,000 square, kilometers (83,000 square miles), nearly half of Sweden.
The scheme of employing private aircraft in fire detection was started in 1955 by the Royal Swedish Aero Club, and supervision, normally handled by ground spotters in high towers, has now been partly taken over by the sports flying clubs, which thereby gain a specific purpose for their flying.
Each club is responsible for its own district and organizes a voluntary flying group of three to six aircraft. The leader of the group decides whether it is necessary to fly or not, or how often, according to the fire risk values broadcast every morning by Radio Sweden. The clubs arranging the flights also receive weather reports from local meteorological observers.
Club members who carry out the flights are unpaid but they get the opportunity of free of charge training flights and the forest owners obtain the service from the clubs at low cost.
Although a regular fire detection system from the air has been carried out in Canada for some 20 years, a Canadian study group last summer visited Sweden in order to study the Swedish organization.
· In Unasylva Volume 13, Number 3, a set of three stamp designs was shown on page 171. The stamp issued by the Autonomous Republic of Togo was said to depict African " teak " (Chlorophora excelsa). In fact, it depicts a plantation of true Teak (Tectona grandis), first introduced into the territory in 1905 from Thailand. An interesting article on the teak plantations in Togo is contained in the review Bois et Forêts des Tropiques, No. 49, 1956.
· A description of the forest classification system for management purposes used in the U.S.S.R. was given in a news note in Unasylva, Vol. 9, No. 1. An article in Lesnoie Khozyaistvo (Forestry Economics) for December 1959, outlines the program to be followed in 1960. The cutting targets are shown in the Table.
U.S.S.R. CUTTING TARGETS FOR 1960
|
Group |
Type |
Management purpose |
Million m³ |
|
I |
Mainly protection forests |
Maintenance cutting |
15 |
|
II |
Mainly western forests and steppes |
Main cutting |
116.7 |
|
Improvement fellings |
22 |
||
|
Other cutting |
15 |
||
|
III |
Eastern forests |
Main cutting |
230 |
|
|
398.7 |
||
In spite of restricted cutting in certain of the republics, the figure of 116.7 million cubic meters for group II represents an 18 percent increase over the target set, and attained, for 1959.
Management plans are to cover some 39.4 million hectares, of which 38.4 million are state forests, 702,000 hectares kolkhoz forests, and 356,000 hectares are forests for which certain ministries or other institutions are directly responsible. For two thirds of this area, management plans are to be drawn up for the first time: over the remainder, revision of earlier working plans is to be undertaken.
Silvicultural operations (reforestation of existing forests by seeding and planting or by natural regeneration, and afforestation of bare land) are to be carried out on 1,557,000 hectares of state forests, half through natural regeneration methods. On land belonging to the kolkhoz, afforestation of bare lands (sandy soils and gulleys) will cover 93.5 million hectares, as compared with 80.2 million in 1958.
The article makes reference to the fact that: " Shelterbelts are an efficient and permanent means of combating erosion and drought, and of increasing crop yields. Lately, how ever, the attention of the organizations responsible for them has slackened somewhat. Whereas in 1950/53 shelterbelts were planted at a yearly average rate of 298,000 hectares, the figure for 1955/57 was down to 28,000 hectares, declining further to 22,500 hectares in 1958. An increase was envisaged for 1959 up to 46,300 hectares and 97,260 hectares in 1960. "
The number of workers engaged in felling and extraction (but not in forest industries) will be 475,000 for 1960, with a total wage figure of over 2,700,000 roubles. The gross revenue from forest output is expected to amount to 2,254 million roubles, of which 1,947.5 million will come from stumpage taxes. Costs, however, are expected to be of the order of 2,500 million roubles, so that there will be a deficit of 200 to 300 million roubles which, it is explained, is due to stumpage rates being too low.
· During the summer of 1959, Professor Sir Harry G. Champion, then Director of the Forestry Institute at Oxford, introduced a valuable innovation by organizing, with the assistance of Mr. J. J. MacGregor, Forest Economist at the Institute, a special course on Land Use for Forestry and Agriculture, for postgraduates. The course attracted attendance from many countries of the Commonwealth - Australia, Canada, Ceylon, India, Malaya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rhodesia, Somaliland and the United Kingdom, and officers from the United States of America and from FAO also took part. Originally, it had been hoped to have more participants who were directly associated with agriculture and particularly administrators responsible for land use, but most of those who joined the course were, in fact, foresters.
The first week was devoted to a seminar at Oxford on the theoretical aspects of land use, during which papers were presented by 18 invited specialists. The subject matters covered were grouped into three categories:
1. Land potentialities and needs
2. Techniques for the maintenance and enhancement of productivity
3. National policies and legislation
Under the first heading the physical factors, geological and soil potentialities, social needs and biological and economic relationships were discussed. Under the second, aspects of soil conservation and reclamation, annual and crop husbandry, forestry techniques, and the use of aerial photography in conducting modem land-use surveys were considered. In the third category, attention was given to organizational and administrative problems and especially to the problems of implementing programs in the developing countries where long established social patterns are now in process of rapid change.
There was a keen and sustained element of professional criticism throughout the seminar and the individual points of view expressed by different speakers expressed many different aspects of the whole land-use problem. Sir Harry Champion, speaking on multiple use, summarized the foresters' approach. Foresters, he observed, may rightfully resent seeing the dwindling remnants of forests vitally needed for protective and productive purposes, still being treated as a general land reserve. Likewise, they may also be justified in showing lack of enthusiasm when carefully managed forest lands are withdrawn from their control for such purposes as National Parks or nature reserves. On the other hand, it has come to be acknowledged that the forester has a duty to posterity for the maintenance of natural vegetation areas with their dependent animal life. He has also to concede that there are other major land-uses such as arable farming and pasture, water collection and conservation, mining for minerals, production of raw materials for industry, and recreational uses, that may have to be combined with forestry, requiring under certain circumstances that land be used for two, perhaps even more, purposes either at the same time or successively, as in the case of shifting cultivation.
From the foresters' point of view the land capability of lands devoted to forestry use is controllable through fellings, choice of species, use of fire, grazing of domestic animals, wild animal stocking, roads and buildings, and public access. By the control of these items, soil and water conservation is affected, vegetation type and structure may be changed, the quality and quantity of timber may be improved or increased, the grazing and forage supplies for domestic livestock and wildlife may be brought into balance, and recreational and amenity values be created or enhanced.
Although the concept of multiple use was here to stay, current thinking was that high-quality livestock and good forest on the same site were incompatible; that wooded pastures were probably best assigned primarily to produce timber; that wildlife protection can be too successful; that the exclusion of cutting often runs counter to the use of a forest for any other purpose; that there is a vital relationship between vegetal cover and water supplies; and that the recreational use of forests is educating the public to the value of forestry.
Following the interesting week on theory at Oxford, the group studied examples of land-use patterns and practices in Wales, England, Switzerland, northern Italy, and southern France.
In the United Kingdom, successful afforestation projects following open-cast coalmining were visited. This use of the land for forestry purposes was compared with sheep farming on similar poor hill land. It was shown that in these instances the use of the land for forestry was in the long run economically and socially more desirable. The forests would eventually provide employment for more people, establishing an economic base for sustained community development and social improvement. Other varied problems of land use that were studied, related to recreational forests located near urban centers, afforestation versus grassland cover on catchment areas (watersheds) for urban water supplies, and afforestation versus improved agricultural uses.
In Switzerland, very intensive land-use patterns were seen. Outstanding examples of good planning for maximum economic returns from the land were the belts of poplars near Lake Neuchatel, field crops protected by shelterbelts growing on drained marsh lands at the head of the lake, and silvo-pastoral developments in the Jura region that were effectively separating forest use from pasture use, to the marked improvement of both.
Land reform projects were visited in Italy. The land reform program has brought into agricultural production extensive areas that were previously used mainly as seasonal grazing grounds. Under the guidance of professionally trained agriculturists and extension workers, the farmers located on these reclaimed lands are harvesting bumper field and horticultural crops. Work supervised by the Department of Forestry and Mountain Economy was seen in the mountainous regions of the country. Outstanding were torrent control structures, mountain terracing, and afforestation projects. Applied research projects designed to assist in the solution of the land-use and economic problems of mountain villages were explained at the Alpine Experiment Station above Turin. Also visited in this alpine area were the extensive new winter sports and summer recreational developments, such as have now become a definite part of the land-use economy in numerous mountainous regions of Europe.
Officials in France outlined the major objectives of their country's land-use program which are:
1. to increase the total acreage of forest cover;
2. to improve pasture and range management;
3. to protect soils against accelerated erosion;
4. to base land-use programs on the results of carefully conducted research studies.
Among the projects visited were the canal works and pumping station of the Bas-Rhône-Languedoc irrigation project, the experimental planting of new chestnut groves in connection with a watershed and rural development scheme at Le Mas Soubeyron, and a permanent forest originally planted on overgrazed mountain pastures. This forest is now providing a village with a regulated water supply and a sustained income from forest products. Of special interest was a cooperative afforestation scheme seen at La Salvetat. The landowners had pooled their lands in order to create a forest area of sufficient size to be economically profitable. Each owner will share in the profits from the forest to the extent of his proportional ownership.
The last day of the tour in Europe, five weeks after the course started, was used for conference room discussions, each member of the course presenting a paper on a previously assigned land-use subject. There was a general summing-up, and the participants dispersed with their mental horizons, it is hoped, substantially widened.
· Although direct seeding is not a panacea for all forest regeneration problems, it is clear that some sites lend themselves well to regeneration by seeding. How to recognize the potential in such areas, how to prepare the seed and the site, how to protect seeds against insects and disease and other destructive agents, as well as how, when and where to use the method and how to evaluate the results, are presented in an informative and helpful publication entitled Direct Seeding in the South. This is the report of a symposium organized by the School of Forestry of Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, in 1959.
· In Essentials of Forestry Practice (Charles H. Stoddard, Roland Press Co., New York, 1969) the author relates the purposes and theoretical working methods of forestry to practical forest management. He makes a very successful effort to translate forest research results, and practice based on research, into terms which can be readily grasped by students in technical and vocational schools, and in farm forestry courses in agricultural colleges. Forest landowners and managers will also find this book of use, particularly the parts relating to forest business-record keeping, small forest management plans and marketing of forest products.
The illustrations both in the form of photographs and diagrams are especially helpful, and the appendix includes a forest terminology, characteristics of important commercial timber species, forest management plans for small properties, and timber sale and operating agreement forms.
· Forest Fire Control and Use (Kenneth P. Davis, with chapters by George M. Byram and W. R. Krumm, American Forestry Series, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1959) brings up to date the continuous struggle to relate forest fire control facts and practices to the ever increasing findings of research. The author hopes that the book will serve as an aid to the forestry school teacher and as a reference guide to the practitioner; it should also help students and administrators to make better use of local manuals and handbooks.
The reader is reminded that the application of fire control techniques involves an understanding of such diverse disciplines as meteorology, engineering, logistics, communication, transportation, law enforcement, training administration, and public education. The author pays tribute to the men of the United States Forest Service " who through pioneering experience and creative research have formed the art and science of forest fire control."
