European forestry commission
Study tour in France and the United Kingdom
Silviculture on farm forests
The FAO European Forestry Commission held its eleventh session in Rome from 22 to 26 May 1961.1 A field trip was organized from 27 to 29 May by the Italian Forest Service to inspect watershed management, torrent control and afforestation works in the Calabrian Apennines, and also silvicultural and logging operations in the Pinus laricio forests.
1 The session was attended by 50 delegates from 21 member countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, W. Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Yugoslavia. Observers were also present from the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the International Labour Organisation, the European Economic Community, the International Union of Forest Research Organizations, and the European Confederation of Agriculture.
The session was presided over by the Commission's chairman, J. Jungo, Inspector-General of Forests of Switzerland. Two rapporteurs were appointed, J. Q. Williamson (United Kingdom) and J. de Vaissiere (France).
Review of national progress reports
The progress reports presented by the member countries constituted an excellent summary of the state of forestry in Europe in 1960. The main features and trends are summarized in the Commission's report.
One significant trend is the development of industries capable of utilizing small-sized logs and waste. Most countries reported the recent or imminent opening of fibreboard or particle board mills. Meanwhile, pulp and paper mills, also increasing in number, are using wood of smaller dimensions and larger quantities of hardwoods. Between 1958 and 1960, the output of fibre board in Western Germany increased by 30 percent, and particle board by 74 percent. In Switzerland, the output of particle board increased by 50 percent, half of the raw material being waste from sawmills. A new pulp mill has been experimenting with the use of wood of all species with diameters as small as 6 centimeters. Hardwoods, pines and sawmill waste provided 36 percent of the raw material used by the pulp and paper industry. In Denmark, the packing industry has been equipped to utilize beech logs with diameters down to 10 centimeters, and the chemical pulp industry utilizing beech is expanding. In Finland, the pulp industry is using barked spruce with a diameter as small as 5 to 8 centimeters, and in Sweden the limit is even lower, 4 to 7 centimeters. In France, consumption of hardwoods by the paper industry was 142,000 cubic meters in 1939 and more than 1 million cubic meters in 1960. In Northern Ireland, a chipboard mill has been into put operation and the establishment of a woodwool factory is contemplated. In Poland, in 1959 and 1960, sawmill waste accounted for 40 percent and 54 percent respectively of the raw material supply for the pulp mills while, in 1959, the board industry absorbed 40,000 cubic meters of small-sized timber. In Sweden again, where pulp and paper production is expected to rise from 5.2 million tons in 1958 to 6.7 million tons in 1963, and where two new sulphate pulp mills came into operation in 1960, the consumption of hardwoods for pulp has doubled in five years.
The fall in demand for fuelwood might be checked by a more widespread use of methods for preparing wood in chip form for utilization in central-heating boilers - methods devised in the Scandinavian countries and which Switzerland has been trying to perfect.
The increase in consumption of hardwoods for pulp - particularly as the use of hardwoods in mixture is still at the trial stage - is not likely to deter countries from conversion of coppice stands to high forest and especially from interplanting with softwoods. The predominant impression gained from all reports is that the requirements of industries now exercise a determining influence on forest management.
The Commission noted with satisfaction that progress in forest extension (344,000 hectares), new plantations outside the forest (47,000 hectares), and forest rehabilitation (242,000 hectares) reported by member countries for 1959 was the largest ever recorded. The increase in new plantations outside forest reserves is particularly striking: barring serious changes in the European economic situation, it can reasonably be expected that progress over the next few years would be in the order of 300-350,000 hectares annually for forest expansion, 50-60,000 hectares of new plantations outside the forest, and 250-300,000 hectares for forest rehabilitation.
One obstacle to this general development, and perhaps the most disturbing, may be scarcity of labor, as the areas where the vast proportion of natural forests are situated are precisely those which tend to become depopulated. The Commission discussed and suggested a number of possible remedies.
The question remains open as to whether the magnitude of the effort being made by forest producers is commensurate with the increase in wood needs anticipated in Europe. Also, will the investment needed to intensify this effort enable the raw material to be produced at prices that will compete successfully with substitute raw materials which are also being developed with great rapidity?
These are points which, in the opinion of the Commission, can only be answered by a thorough reassessment, covering the whole continent, of the trends in wood production, consumption and trade. FAO has, in point of fact, already embarked on such a reappraisal in collaboration with the Economic Commission for Europe, and simultaneously is carrying out a special study of the pulp and paper sector, financed by funds subscribed by pulp and paper associations of a number of countries inside and outside Europe.
Impact of economic integration schemes on Europe's forestry
Other topics covered by the Commission's discussions were progress in research on forest tree improvement, the use of fertilizers to stimulate forest production, pests and diseases, and game control and management. Forestry funds was another major topic which is dealt with separately in this issue.
The Commission was informed by the observer from the European Economic Community (EEC) on the nature of its common forest policy as applicable to forests, but not to forest products: the latter are subject to the rules established for those products in Appendix 1 to the Treaty of Rome. The Commission also heard a statement from Mr. du Vignaux, Directeur général des eaux et foréts, France, speaking on behalf of the delegations of the member countries of the European Economic Community, to the effect that a common forest policy, which ought to be conceived within the framework of a common agricultural policy, was still being formulated. In order to arrive at a common forest policy, the members of EEC had decided to examine first a certain number of specific questions which, through the establishment of rules within EEC, might lead to modifications in the laws and regulations of its Member Nations. This was outside the competence of FAO but the European Forestry Commission would be kept informed of developments. A spokesman for the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) made the same point.
Owing to the deficit in wood within the present structure of EEC and the expected expansion of requirements, a common forest policy would be based on dynamic principles aiming at increased production and the lowering of costs. It did not seem likely that a reduction of imports would result for EEC as a whole, due to the liberality of the common external customs tariff and widening of its membership.
Country planning and problems of small farms
In the context of co-operation between FAO's European Commission on Agriculture and the European Forestry Commission, the Commission heard statements by several delegations on the problems of country planning and small farms. It seems that rural exodus and urbanization were, despite the effect on manpower, opening up new possibilities for forestry. In the hinterlands now being abandoned the forest must come to occupy an important place again, to provide wood, employment and income to the remaining small farmer, to serve soil and water conservation, and to furnish recreation areas. In the vicinity of towns, the rising standard of living and the aspirations of the new generation were stimulating the creation of green belts for recreation and leisure. All these new land-use trends afford increased opportunities of co-operation between foresters and agriculturists.
The results were examined of an FAO survey entitled The administration of public and common grazing lands in Europe, 1961. In a number of European countries, the forest administration has either sole or joint responsibility for the administration of public and common lands. In addition, no less than 60 million hectares of European forests, out of a total of about 150 million, are publicly owned - either state or communal forests -and a substantial part of them are periodically grazed. Under these circumstances, foresters are bound to take a keen interest in the topic, but the Commission felt that great difficulties were involved in reaching general conclusions valid for the whole European region. There is, in fact, hardly any other type of land-use more closely circumscribed by local factors. Nevertheless, it agreed to participate in any further regional studies or developments in this field.
Procedural matters
The Commission reviewed the activities of its subsidiary bodies1 and laid down directives for further work. It proposed that the existing Working Party on Afforestation and Reforestation and the Working Party on Afforestation Techniques of the Mediterranean Forestry Subcommission be amalgamated into a body to be entitled Working Party on Techniques of 'Forest Extension and Restoration, which should be a joint subsidiary body of the European, Near East, and African Forestry Commissions.
1Mediterranean Forestry Subcommission
FAO/ECE Committee on Forest Working Techniques and Training of Forest Workers
Working Party on Torrent Control and Protection from Avalanches
FAO/ECE Working Party on Forestry and Forest Products Statistics
Silvicultural study tours
It further decided to set up a Working Party on Chestnut if the full FAO Conference came to the conclusion that the existing FAO International Chestnut Commission should be abolished.
The session closed after the Commission had examined trends in FAO's program of work and its technical assistance activities as affecting the European region. Before the delegates dispersed, they unanimously elected. Mr. Wilhelm N. Plym Forshel, of the Swedish National Board of Private Forestry, as chairman until the end of the Commission's twelfth session (1962). Messrs. Otto Eckmuller (Austria), Nicholas Metaxas (Greece) and Adrianus Stoffels (Netherlands) were unanimously elected vice-chairmen for the same term of office.
After the special meeting, on the utilization of small-sized wood (see Commodity Report), there followed from 20 to 24 March a study tour in France and the United Kingdom concerned primarily with aspects of the harvesting and the industrial utilization of small-sized wood.
In France, participants visited a pulp and paper mill at Alizay, near Rouen, operated by the Société industrielle de cellulose Alizay (SICA). This mill produces bleached sulphite pulp from 100 percent hardwoods, mostly beech but also hornbeam. Most of the pulp is for the artificial textile industry (fibranne and cellophane), while the remainder is used for specialized paper-making. Participants also visited the Beghin pulp and paper mill at Corbehem (Pas-de-Calais), where newsprint (about 30 percent of the total production in France) and cardboard from imported and homegrown softwoods are produced. The company is also investigating the possibilities of using hardwoods as a raw material for newsprint.
Numerous types of machinery for harvesting and transporting wood, including coppice and other small-sized wood, were demonstrated in prototype or commercially-operating form. The Centre technique du bois showed prototype machines for harvesting coppice, for clearing scrub and for ground preparation, and other machinery for the cutting, skidding and the primary conversion of undersized wood. An exhibition of forest machinery was also organized.
In the United Kingdom, participants visited the Kemsley mill of the Bowater Company at Sittingborne, where newsprint is produced from a mixture of mechanical pulp imported in bales and crushed-wood sludge made from imported timber. The mill also produces corrugated cardboard, part of the raw material of which is from homegrown hardwoods treated by the neutral sodium sulphite process; fibreboard is also produced there by the "defibrator" process. Participants also visited the Sudbrook pulp mill, where "Gatecel" wood pulp is produced from home-grown hardwoods by the neutral sulphite process.
The third silviculture study tour organized for members of the European Forestry Commission was held in Austria from 5 to 15 June. It was devoted to the subject of silvicultural measures applicable to farm forests. Some 20 foresters from 10 countries saw in the field the work being done by the Chamber of Agriculture and Forestry on farm forests in Styria, and they compared methods seen with those used in their own countries.
The well-established concept of the farm, its fields and woodlands as one entity, provides the congenial basis in Styria for close team work between the forestry adviser, the farm adviser, and the home economics adviser in working with the farmer, his wife, and children. With some state financial assistance for access road programs and training school programs an intensive improvement has been made possible in crop production, cattle raising and pasture development and, along with these, sound silvicultural. practices in farm woodlands. The methods used made a deep impression on the visiting foresters.
This third study tour is to be followed by the fourth in the series in the Netherlands in 1962, on the subject of plantation thinning methods.
