I recall that on 1 March 1951, when I had been for three years the FAO regional representative for Europe, I waited on the quayside at Naples to greet the first shipload of Washington staff coming from America to set up the Organization's headquarters in Rome. This pioneer contingent in the m.v. Saturnia comprised the Forestry Division and the Fisheries Division.
Now, 17 years later, I am again greeting foresters, this time in my capacity as Director-General of FAO. I know that my predecessor, Dr. B.R. Sen, attached high importance to the Organization's activities in forestry and forest industries. I, too, particularly during my period as Executive Director of the World Food Program, have become keenly aware of forestry as a key sector in economic development. The function of WFP aid is to provide a relatively unorthodox but nevertheless effective form of investment capital, and nearly 30 WFP projects have had a large forestry element.
The FAO Conference expected me to give most of my attention initially to problems of what might be called a housekeeping nature. I must submit soon to the FAO Council a detailed plan for the reorganization of the secretariat, aimed at streamlining our operations Available staff resources must be so deployed as to ensure maximum efficiency and bring about the greatest possible impact. I have also to review the progress and methodology of the Indicative World Plan for Agricultural Development.
Beyond these specific tasks, the formulation of an overall development strategy for the agricultural sector will be one of my principal objectives for the near future. In this, the Indicative World Plan will be of fundamental importance. Work on this has already revealed that exports of forest products seem to constitute one of the brighter prospects for developing countries. These exports have been showing a rapid increase and the proportion exported in processed form is also rising. The outlook is good not only for tropical hardwood logs but also for exports of veneers and plywood from tropical timbers to developed countries, and in the longer term exports for pulp and paper hold much promise. The latter products are already being traded among some developing countries, and there is little reason why this trade should not grow. FAO'S efforts to assist in the development of more effective processing and enlarged trade in this group of commodities are being intensified. I submitted a special paper on this subject to the second session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) which is reproduced elsewhere in this issue of Unasylva.
Another possibility being explored by FAO and other agencies concerns trade among developing countries themselves. While this cannot be a substitute for expanding markets in the developed countries, there are various potentials to be exploited. The creation in recent years of free trade arrangements between countries in different parts of the developing world is an indication of the increasing awareness of new trade horizons.
Our collaboration with UNCTAD also extends to its Committee on Manufactures. Under its auspices we have already held a joint meeting in the field of forest products, seeking ways to expand and diversify with manufactures and semimanufactures the exports of developing countries. This co-operation will continue. I look forward also to FAO'S forestry work being strengthened by collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and UNCTAD, to parallel our already successful co-operation in this field with the United Nations regional economic commissions and with other specialized agencies of the United Nations family.
In short, I regard our work on commodity problems as an essential element in FAO'S overall responsibilities. FAO'S whole effort of advice and assistance to its Member States on production, processing and distribution could be wrongly oriented if it were not informed by continuous analyses of the world markets for commodities in raw and processed form, and the factors affecting market outlook.
At the present time there is a growing tendency to regard agriculture in the broadest sense as constituting the mainstay of economic development. Recent experience in a number of countries has demonstrated that plans for the modernization of the economy can too easily be frustrated by weakness in the agricultural sector. As a result our Member States are looking to FAO to play an ever more effective role in the great struggle to achieve economic and social progress. I am confident that we shall be able to rise to the occasion, and in particular that forestry will prove one of the most productive areas for international collaboration.
Fertilization of forest is one means of increasing fiber production.
