FAO SECRETARIAT
The timber committee of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 1967. It was a fitting occasion, therefore, on which to look back on its achievements and the evolution of its activities over the past two decades, to evaluate its present role in the European as well as the world economy and the forestry and forest products sector, and to take a brief glimpse into the future.
In 1926 the International Institute of Agriculture (IIA) organized in Rome the first World Forestry Congress. The Congress requested IIA to create a bureau of forestry statistics. A Silvicultural Section was therefore established which over the next decade published a number of surveys, technical articles and data on forest resources and on foreign trade in forest products in Europe.
In April 1932, when the great depression threatened the forest interests of the Northern Hemisphere with collapse, the League of Nations' Economic Committee convened an international conference of timber experts in Geneva. Shortly afterward, the Comité international du bois (CIB) was created, with headquarters at Vienna. Its chief assignments were to collect and disseminate international timber statistics and facts dealing with timber supplies and demand, to co-ordinate technical research, and to collate and publish information on wood utilization. The Secretary-General of CIB was Mr. Egon Glesinger.
The comité also acted as secretariat to the European Timber Exporters' Convention (ETEC), whose members (Austria, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Sweden, U.S.S.R. and Yugoslavia) signed an agreement in November 1935, fixing yearly quotas for their exports of sawn softwood.
In the same year, on the initiative of France, an International Commission for Wood Utilization was set up to act as a world clearinghouse for information on wood technology.
During the war little international activity took place in the field of forest products. In March 1944, however, a Technical Committee on Forestry and Primary Forest Products was set up in Washington to advise the United Nations Interim Commission on Food and Agriculture (later to become FAO) on drawing up proposals for postwar international co-operation, notably to achieve the restoration of Europe's forests, the resumption of balanced production and the rational utilization of forest products.
In May 1945, the Emergency Economic Committee for Europe (EECE) was created and established a Timber Subcommittee to take over the activities of a working group which had functioned in London under the auspices of the British Ministry of Supply during the war and which had provided a medium for consultation on the needs and procurement of timber by European countries.
The EECE Timber Subcommittee held a series of meetings during 1945, 1946 and early 1947. The extract below, taken from the report of its twelfth meeting in March 1947, indicates how it operated.
"The following resolution was adopted for transmission to Governments by the EECE Timber Subcommittee at its 12th meeting in Copenhagen on March 6th and 7th, 1947.
The Timber Subcommittee
1. Resolves that between now and the next meeting of the Timber Subcommittee, to be called early in April, the importing countries(a) will not contract for more than 90 percent of their total import quotas, and(b) will not contract for more than the quantities shown in the attached table from each producing country;
2. Recommends that exporting countries should make every effort to export the quantities shown in the table, and to give special attention to the needs of Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy, whose requirements are especially urgent by reason of shortfalls in 1946 and unavoidable delays in starting their reconstruction programs.
In view of the need for early implementation of this resolution, members of the Timber Subcommittee are invited to bring this resolution to the immediate attention of the appropriate authorities of their respective Governments.
14th March, 1947."
The United Nations Economic and Social Council established the Economic Commission for Europe at its meeting in March 1947. A month later at the European Timber Conference, convened by FAO at Mariánské Lázné in Czechoslovakia, agreement was reached regarding the allocation of the urgent tasks confronting the two organizations concerned, the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) and FAO. To FAO was given the task of halting the drastic overcutting of forests as soon as possible, while ECE was to concern itself with helping forest industries to re-equip themselves and to raise production, and also to ensure that such supplies as were available, particularly of sawn softwood and pit-props, were directed to the areas where they were most needed.
The task was indeed formidable. The war had damaged millions of houses and brought dwelling construction virtually to a stop, and timber was desperately needed for repairs as well as new building. Priority had also to be given to timber for repairing or constructing new railroad rolling stock and road vehicles as well as for railroad sleepers. Just as urgent was the need for pit-props, without which the production of coal, on which the recovery of industrial activity depended, could not be achieved. Indeed, in the words of a report of the EECE Timber Subcommittee: "With coal, timber is the most important factor upon which reconstruction in European countries depends."
A Timber Subcommittee was formed within the framework of the ECE Industry and Materials Committee which took over the work started by EECE. The new subcommittee held its first session at which about 45 delegates from 22 countries¹ participated, at Geneva from 15 to 18 October 1947. In 1948 its status was raised to that of a full committee reporting directly to the Economic Commission for Europe. To help tackle the emergency, the Timber Committee undertook regular reviews of the balance between demand and available supplies of forest products, encouraging countries to agree to buying limits in order to ensure a fair distribution. It was also concerned in helping forest industries to re-equip themselves and to raise production. To this end, it initiated the arrangements for loans to forest industries through the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).
¹ Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey, United Arab Republic, United Kingdom, United States, Yugoslavia.
During these formative years (from 1947 to about 1950), the committee sought to define its role in the European timber economy. The result was the drawing up of its Terms of Reference, which were formally adopted at the fifth session of ECE in June 1950. Under these terms, the Timber Committee was authorized:
1. to continue the collection and publication of adequate statistics on primary forest products;2. to publish periodic analyses of the timber market situation in Europe;
3. to keep the position of the principal forest products such as sawn softwood and pit-props under close review, and to make such recommendations to governments as it may deem necessary as a result thereof;
4. to pay particular attention to the possibilities of the more rational utilization of wood.
By 1950 the worst of the postwar crisis was over, European production was recovering rapidly, supplies were becoming more freely available and a degree of stability had returned to the European timber market. But the new balance differed radically from that prevailing before the war. Sawnwood prices had risen considerably in relation to those for other materials, and the rate of growth of sawnwood consumption appeared to be appreciably slower than prewar. Five years after the end of the war, production and consumption of forest products were still well below prewar levels, and trade in sawn softwood, for example, was not much more than half the 1937 volume.
Serious concern for the future was felt on the part of foresters and forest products industries about the new position and future prospects. The belief was widely held that there was a long-term downward trend in Europe's wood consumption. That such a belief should have existed was not really surprising since in the period 1913 to 1950, which had admittedly been severely distorted by two wars in the region, Europe's consumption of forest products as a whole had not shown any consistent tendency, either to rise or to fall, while the competition from steel and concrete steadily increased. Even with this pessimistic assessment of the trend of consumption, the feeling in many circles was that Europe's forests would not be able to meet the likely demand. It was consequently of the utmost importance to the ECE countries to try to ascertain what the future trend might be.
FIRST STUDY OF EUROPEAN TIMBER TRENDS AND PROSPECTS
Within the framework of ECE's efforts to ascertain the long-term trends in the principal economic sectors, therefore, a study of European trends and prospects was undertaken as a joint FAO/ECE venture. The principal aims were, first, to estimate the overall future trend (up to 1960) in the demand for forest products, and secondly to indicate how best to meet this demand in the interest of European countries and their forest and timber industries. The study was in many ways a pioneer effort and broke much new ground, both in the methodology of long-term forecasting and in its recommendations to ECE countries regarding their forest and trade policies.
In brief, the study's conclusions were that, assuming an expanding European economy, demand for sawnwood would rise, but relatively more slowly than overall economic expansion, while that for pulp products would increase relatively more quickly; and that, generally speaking, Europe in 1950 was self-sufficient in forest products but, unless some action was taken, it would become a heavy net importing region by 1960 (as it had been before the war), involving further strain on the balance of payments positions of the importing countries. Its recommendations to counteract the expected shortfall in indigenous supplies were summed up in the phrase "a dynamic forest policy," which suggested that Europe should not and need not have to rely unduly on imports from other regions, since measures could be applied to raise home-grown supplies while limiting the price of timber relative to that of substitute materials (that is, avoiding undue substitution of forest products by other materials because of price considerations). The study further stressed the importance of improving methods of more rational utilization of wood, the rationalization of forest work and better utilization of forestry waste and fuel wood, as suitable means to implement the dynamic forest policy it advocated.
Many of the study's forecasts were challenged as being too optimistic (in the event they were mostly on the low side). The study itself aroused considerable interest and its conclusions were hotly debated in European forestry and timber circles. They came, however, to have a considerable impact on the work of the Timber Committee from 1953 onward.
The year 1953 was significant for the Timber Committee. In addition to the publication of the first study, European timber trends and prospects, it was the first year that Romania and the U.S.S.R., important eastern European producing and exporting countries, sent delegations to the Timber Committee. By 1953, the U.S.S.R. had overcome the worst of its own postwar reconstruction problems and its exports of sawn softwood to Europe were beginning to build up again. In 1954, Bulgaria and Hungary sent delegations to the committee for the first time, the Byelorussian S.S.R. and Spain followed in 1956 and the Ukrainian S.S.R. in 1961. At the present time, 24 countries² participate regularly in the Timber Committee sessions. Over the past two decades 29 member countries³ have been represented at committee sessions at one time or another, as well as, under Article 11 of ECE's terms of reference, Canada, the United Arab Republic and the Syrian Arab Republic.
² Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Byelorussian S.S.R., Canada, Czechoslovakia, Federal Republic of Germany, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukrainian S.S.R., U.S.S.R., United Kingdom, United States, Yugoslavia.³ As ¹ above, plus Albania, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg and Turkey.
Experts from Eastern Germany participated in the work of the committee during the period from 1954 to 1958 under the provisions of Article 10 of the commission's terms of reference.
From the mid-1950s onward, the participation in the Timber Committee's sessions of delegations from all parts of the ECE region enabled its annual market reviews and forecasts to be comprehensive, and its reports on the market came to be recognized as the considered opinion of authorities from throughout the region.
The main instrument for this work has always been the annual sessions of the Timber Committee itself, supplemented by the quarterly bulletins prepared by the secretariat, and by market reports on the situation for individual countries. In addition, the committee has undertaken a series of studies on specific utilization sectors for forest products in which it was felt that information on long-term trends in consumption was needed. Sector studies have been published on the use of forest products in construction, for packaging, as railroad ties, and in mines.
As other forest products have gained in importance in the overall market, they have come to be included in the committee's regular reviews. Initially, sawn softwood and pit-props were the chief concern: pulpwood was added to the discussions in 1953, hardwoods (including tropical hardwoods) in 1959, and plywood, fibreboard and particle board in 1964.
BROADENING SPHERES OF INTEREST
With the passing years came the realization that the problems which the Timber Committee was tackling could not be dealt with effectively in isolation. That is to say, questions concerning one particular market sector or commodity were almost always part of a larger problem. The first study, European timber trends and prospects, and its recommendations gave the initial impetus to the Timber Committee to broaden the scope of its activities. But equally important has been the attitude of the members of the Timber Committee, who throughout its existence have remained alive to the need constantly to adapt its activities to the evolving situation and needs of the ECE region's forest and forest products economy.
FOREST OPERATIONS AND LABOR PRODUCTIVITY
In 1951 the FAO European Forestry Commission had established a pilot committee to develop international collaboration in the fields of timber felling and transport, to encourage efforts at the national level to increase productivity, reduce waste, prevent accidents and to raise the living standards of forest workers.
Twentieth anniversary session of the ECE Timber Committee: a general view of the meeting.
At the joint meeting of the Timber Committee and the European Forestry Commission in October 1953, which considered the findings of the first timber trends study, a recommendation was adopted calling on ECE and FAO to accord high priority to studies concerned with increasing the yield from forests and improving the efficiency of forest operations. These bodies were invited to convene, as the need arose, joint working groups on these questions. Subsequently the activities of the pilot committee were taken over and expanded by the Joint FAO/ECE Committee on Forest Working Techniques and Training of Forest Workers,4 which held its first session in 1955.
4 It became a joint FAO/ECE committee in 1965.
The joint committee at first held yearly meetings, but now meets every two years. It is, as its name indicates, concerned with forest working techniques, with special emphasis on testing and introducing improved machinery and working methods, on raising the manual and mechanical skills and hence the productivity of forest workers, and on improving their social and economic status, which has tended to lag behind that of their industrial counterparts. This work is carried out by a number of study groups of experts, to which specific problems are assigned by the joint committee. The holding of international training courses for forest work instructors and foremen and of technical study tours and symposia under the auspices of the joint committee has also been found a very effective form of international cooperation.
FOREST AND FOREST PRODUCTS STATISTICS
An expanding international market for forest products led to the need for more detailed and better statistics. The inadequacy of the statistics available had been exposed at the time of the preparation of the first European timber trends study. Timber statistics at the national level needed to be adapted and developed to form the basis of FAO/ECE data, and the Joint FAO/ECE Working Party on Forest and Forest Products Statistics was established in 1955 to investigate the problems involved. The working party drew up an overall mini mum program of forest and forest products statistics for the guidance of countries wishing to improve their statistics in this field.
It now keeps under regular consideration statistical methodology and co-ordination; matters concerning the comparability and uniformity of forest and forest products statistics, their collection and publication; removals statistics, labor statistics, economic indicators, conversion factors and price statistics. Other matters referred to it for study by its parent bodies, the Timber Committee and the European Forestry Commission, are dealt with on an ad hoc basis; they include: capital formation in forestry, forest fire statistics, end-use statistics and forest inventories. Through its collaboration with the European Conference of Statisticians, the working party ensures that its activities run in harmony with those in the overall statistical field in the ECE region.
ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF WOOD-PROCESSING INDUSTRIES
While the Joint FAO/ECE/ILO Committee on Forest Working Techniques and Training of Forest Workers deals with technical problems in the forest, the Timber Committee itself has in recent years become increasingly concerned with the economic and technical aspects of the wood-processing industries. The precursor of the committee's activities in this field was the International Board Consultation, held in 1957 under FAO and ECE auspices. This meeting demonstrated the usefulness of the symposium form for tackling specific problems in the forest products sector, and the committee has subsequently organized a series of similar meetings: in 1961, a special meeting on the utilization of small-sized wood; in 1962, a colloquium on the economic aspects of the production and utilization of fibreboard and particle board; in 1964, a symposium on the economic aspects of, and productivity in, the saw-milling industry; in 1967, a symposium on integration in the forest industries; and, in February 1968, a symposium on factors influencing the consumption of wood-based panel products.
The benefits of these symposia have been demonstrated in three ways. First, they bring together experts in similar fields from different countries and stimulate the exchange of information and experience through the presentation and discussion of papers. Secondly, the publication of the papers submitted to the symposia makes this information available to all interested parties both within the ECE region and in countries of other regions. Thirdly, the participants at the symposium adopt reports on the meetings which usually include recommendations for consideration by the Timber Committee on follow-up activities, either to be undertaken by the committee itself, or by other competent international bodies or by countries themselves at the national, industry or enterprise level.
The symposia have had a considerable impact on the work program of the committee. To take two examples: recommendations of the 1962 colloquium on the economic aspects of the production and utilization of fibreboard and particle board led to the committee carrying out biennial surveys of the production capacity of, and raw material consumption by, the panel products industries; to the organization at Vienna of a training course on applications and uses of fibreboard in 1964 and to an inquiry by the committee into end-use patterns of fibreboard and particle board. The 1964 symposium on the economic aspects of, and productivity in, the saw-milling industry put forward recommendations which led to the Timber Committee including in its program regular reviews of developments in transport, handling and packaging of sawnwood and to an investigation being carried out into the possibilities of establishing a uniform system of saw-log grading at the all-European level.
The Committee's establishment of a long-term program of study tours in the fields of the wood-processing industries and the timber trade has been a further encouragement for personal contacts between specialists as a means toward the solution of technical problems. Tours have been organized in Finland, Italy, Romania, U.S.S.R., and Yugoslavia.
Since its 23rd session in 1965, the committee has organized a series of special lectures presented by an expert or experts to its annual session on specific topics with broad policy implications to the region's forest and forest industries economy, and this has also proved a useful way of extending the exchange of technical and economic information and promoting discussion on important problems at the international level. Topics dealt with so far have been the transport and handling of forest products from forest to consumer, the utilization of forest products in construction and the standardization of sawnwood dimensions.
In short, the Timber Committee nowadays carries out a well-balanced program of activities covering virtually the whole of the forest and forest industries sector. This program is built around what was in the beginning almost its sole function, namely reviews and studies on the forest industries market situation and prospects. Despite the evolution in its program that has taken place over the years, this still remains the focal point of its activities.
The Timber Committee is a governmental organization, and its sessions and those of its subsidiary bodies are attended by governmental representatives from its member countries. Participation in its overall work program is, however, from a far wider spectrum of forestry and forest products interests, since such activities as its symposia, training courses and study tours are open to all who are interested in the subjects being studied, while at the committee's plenary session many member countries' delegates are supported by observers or advisers from industry and trade.
Thus the Timber Committee provides a unique forum for the discussion at the ECE regional level of questions concerning forest products market, the wood processing industries, the utilization of forest products, and, through its subsidiary bodies, forest working techniques, labor productivity and forest and forest products statistics.
While this unique position has its advantages, and has led to increased international co-operation in the forest products sector, it also places heavy responsibilities on the Timber Committee and its members. It means that they must consider the broad problems and developments, while at the same time keeping sight of the developments taking place in individual sectors. They also have a responsibility to coordinate the work of the Timber Committee as far as possible with the activities of the many governmental and nongovernmental bodies that are working in the same or similar fields at the international, regional or subregional level. Effective working relationships have been developed with such bodies as FAO, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the European Economic Community (ECE), European Confederation of Woodworking Industries, (CEI Bois), European Federation of the Manufacturers of Fibreboard (FEROPA) and European Federation of Particle Board Manufacturers' Associations (FESYP), to mention only a few.
WORLD FOREST AND FOREST PRODUCTS ECONOMY
Not only has the Timber Committee a responsibility to its member countries but, because of the vital place which these countries in aggregate hold in the world forest products economy, the influence of its activities spreads far beyond the ECE region.
The countries participating in the work of the Timber Committee cover most of the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere. In 1966 their combined populations amounted to some 27 percent of the world total; but their standards of living, which are far higher than the average for the rest of the world, give them a much greater impact on the world economy than population figures alone would suggest. In fact, the Timber Committee membership includes all the industrialized countries with the exception of Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
About 93 percent of the world's estimated growing stock of coniferous species lies within the region covered by Timber Committee membership, but only about 13 percent of broadleaved species. In the light of the high figure for conifers, it is no surprise that Timber Committee countries account for the bulk of the world's production, trade and exports of such commodities as sawn softwood, wood pulp, paper, paperboard and fibreboard. And, because of their relatively high levels of consumption, they also account for a major part of the consumption of these products, as well as of other forest products such as plywood and particle board. Even in the case of sawn hardwood, they consume over 60 percent of the world total.
Timber Committee members also import the bulk of the developing countries' exports of sawn hardwood, plywood and veneers, and an appreciable part of their hardwood log exports.
IMPORTANCE TO OTHER REGIONS
Developments in the field of forestry and forest industries within the ECE region are thus likely to have an important influence on the economies of other regions, and the activities of the Timber Committee are in consequence of considerable relevance and interest to those regions in several ways. First, there are the statistics published in the Timber bulletin for Europe showing trade between Timber Committee countries and the main exporters and importers in other regions. Secondly, the annual and quarterly market reviews, and especially the estimates provided by member countries at the committee's annual sessions, provide a valuable indication to producers and, exporters in other regions of ECE countries' likely short-term levels of consumption and imports. This is especially true for the producers and exporters of tropical hardwood logs and sawnwood, for which the ECE region is a major outlet.
In this connection, it may be mentioned that in recent years the committee has come to pay considerable attention to tropical hardwoods. Two special studies have been undertaken and published. The first, issued in 1964, traced the development of the region's trade in tropical hardwoods; the second, issued in 1967, was concerned with the end-use patterns of tropical hardwoods in Europe and likely future levels of demand.
TABLE 1. - APPROXIMATE SHARE OF TIMBER COMMITTEE COUNTRIES 1 IN THE WORLD TOTAL, 1964
|
|
Roundwood removals |
Production |
Exports |
Imports |
Apparent consumption |
Trade between Timber Committee countries |
|
Percent |
||||||
|
Coniferous saw-logs, veneer logs and logs for railroad ties |
88 |
|
94 |
39 |
87 |
33 |
|
Broadleaved saw-logs, veneer logs and logs for railroad ties |
56 |
|
7 |
40 |
59 |
6 |
|
Pulpwood |
89 |
|
97 |
95 |
88 |
92 |
|
Pitprops |
89 |
|
98 |
95 |
88 |
93 |
|
Sawn softwood |
|
85 |
96 |
88 |
84 |
87 |
|
Swan hardwood |
|
60 |
49 |
75 |
62 |
45 |
|
Plywood |
|
81 |
54 |
90 |
85 |
51 |
|
Particle board |
|
94 |
95 |
94 |
94 |
94 |
|
Fibreboard |
|
87 |
91 |
91 |
87 |
90 |
|
Wood pulp |
|
89 |
97 |
87 |
87 |
|
|
Newsprint |
|
86 |
98 |
84 |
79 |
|
|
Other paper and paperboard |
|
83 |
95 |
75 |
81 |
|
¹ Including Canada, which participates in accordance with Article 11 of ECE's terms of' reference.
The Timber Committee has also had an important role to play as a model on which other regions have developed methods of international co-operation. This has been particularly true of the committee's subsidiary bodies. For example, the minimum program of forest and forest products statistics established by the Joint FAO/ECE Working Party on Forest and Forest Products Statistics has served as a basis on which similar programs have been evolved in other regions. Similarly, international activities in the field of forest working techniques have in several cases been successfully modeled on those of the Joint FAO/ECE/ILO Committee on Forest Working Techniques and Training of Forest Workers. The close ties of the Geneva secretariat with FAO, the body primarily responsible for international activities in the field of forestry and forest products, has ensured the free flow of the experience built up by the Timber Committee and its members to the rest of the world.
Fourthly, as mentioned earlier, the results of the committee's work on economic and technical questions are made available to all who are interested. For example, the papers submitted by experts to the symposia on various economic aspects of the wood-processing industries have been published and put on sale as supplements to the Timber bulletin for Europe. Such symposia have also been attended by experts from countries that are not members of the Timber Committee.
OFFICEHOLDERS AND DELEGATES
The importance of personal relationships between representatives of different countries should never be underestimated as a factor in international co-operation. In this the Timber Committee has, from the very start, been exceedingly fortunate. The harmonious atmosphere of the committee's sessions, which have also been called the European Timber Club, has survived a number of occasions when unilateral action might easily have led to bitterness. Indeed, the spirit of fellowship and mutual respect between delegates has contributed enormously to the results achieved. Newcomers have immediately been struck by this atmosphere and have instantly been made to feel at home and have accepted the conventions which have grown up in the committee.
The committee has been equally fortunate in the selection of its officeholders. At first, the chairmen were chosen from among the market experts attending the Committee - Gunnar Lange (Sweden), Bernard Dufay (France), Anton Ceschi (Austria). They were followed by Merveilleux du Vignaux (France), who guided the development of the committee throughout the 1950s. In 1960 the chairmanship passed to Jacques Keller (Switzerland), then to Oldrich Mysík (Czechoslovakia) and in 1965 to the present incumbent, George Hampson (United Kingdom).
Assisting the chairmen have been at first one and since 1954 two vice-chairmen. A most successful arrangement was instituted in 1963 whereby the committee's officeholders held an informal meeting, which has since become an annual event, at the time of the plenary session of the Economic Commission for Europe. These meetings, in which the secretariat also takes part, deal mostly with organizational matters relating to the work of the Timber Committee, and have elaborated proposals on several important aspects of the committee's work, which ECE has subsequently discussed and adopted. The Timber Committee's officeholders have been joined at their informal meetings by the respective chairmen of the two main subsidiary bodies, the Joint FAO/ECE/ILO Committee on Forest Working Techniques and Training of Forest Workers and the Joint FAO/ECE Working Party on Forest and Forest Products Statistics, when matters of relevance to the whole field of the committee's work were under discussion.
By giving their valuable time and experience in this way, the officeholders have undoubtedly made an extremely important contribution to the development of the Timber Committee.
SECRETARIAT IN GENEVA
A brief note may be added here regarding the staffing and the work of the secretariat. Although the Timber Committee is officially a body of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, an agreement concluded between the Director-General of FAO and the Executive Secretary of ECE at the time when the committee was established guarantees that all the actions of the committee shall be in keeping with FAO forest policy. The majority of the officers forming the secretariat of the Timber Committee in Geneva are FAO officers belonging to the FAO Forestry and Forest Industries Division, while at the same time serving as ECE officials.
The secretariat's duties are concerned with the preparation and servicing of the sessions of the Timber Committee and its subsidiary bodies, with the preparation of reports, reviews, studies and publications. In addition to activities directly connected with the committee's program, the secretariat is also called upon to undertake a number of other activities both for ECE and for FAO. In addition, a not inconsiderable part of the secretariat's time is spent in answering queries on forestry and forest products from other organizations, associations, institutions, the press and private individuals as well as in discussions with visiting experts.
While, not surprisingly, the committee has found reason to criticize the secretariat on occasion, it has never challenged its impartiality nor sought to restrain it from exercising initiative. A sound working relationship and understanding has been built up between committee members and the secretariat which has also contributed to the effectiveness of the committee's activities.
Despite the considerable broadening of the Timber Committee's work and its greater involvement in new spheres of interest, the number of regular staff on the committee's secretariat has changed little during the two decades of its existence and at the present time is even below levels it had reached in certain peak periods in the past. Like the committee's own program, however, the work of the secretariat has gradually evolved from the days when it was primarily concerned with market and trade affairs to the much more diverse and complex series of tasks it is nowadays asked to carry out.
Because of its relatively compact size, the secretariat has had constantly to beware of the danger of taking on more tasks than it could effectively deal with at any one time, even in face of appeals from members of the Timber Committee to have new projects brought into the work program. Often, however, this difficulty has been overcome by the temporary appointment from, or secondment by, member countries of experts to work with the secretariat on specific ad hoc projects, as for example during the preparation of the two timber trends studies. This system has had notably successful results in the past and may well be increasingly employed in future.
During the past 20 years, the directorship of the Timber Division has changed hands three times. Roy Cameron was director from the beginning until 1950. His place as director was taken by Egon Glesinger who had played an important role in the creation of the Timber Committee. In 1959 he was appointed as Director of the FAO Forestry and Forest Products Division in Rome (and more recently an Assistant Director General). He was followed by Peter Sartorius, who retired in 1963 after fifteen years in the service of the Timber Committee, the last four of them as Director of the Secretariat. The present Director, Eero Kalkkinen, who took over in 1963, had been a member of the Timber Division between 1948 and 1958.
It is vital for any thriving and successful organism, such as the Timber Committee, to be always looking ahead. In the early 1950s the first Timber Trends Study had a considerable impact on the European forest economy as well as on the Timber Committee's own activities. In the early 1960s a new study was undertaken, under joint Timber Committee and FAO European Forestry Commission auspices, which was- published in 1964 under the title European timber trends and prospects: a new appraisal, 1950-1975. The compilers of the second study were fortunate in being able to learn from the experiences gained in preparing the first, as well as in having at their disposal more tools and better statistics necessary for long-term forecasting. The findings of the first study had aroused scepticism and controversy, but events had subsequently confounded the critics by showing that such an exercise could give good results. This outcome undoubtedly eased the way for the publication of the second study, the conclusions of which found far more general acceptance.
Taking up where the first study left off, the new study traced the development of the European forest economy during the 1950s and made projections of supply and demand of forest products up to 1975. In brief, the findings were that:
1. The assumptions on which the findings of the first study had been based had proved to be sound, and generally speaking the European forest and forest products economy had developed in the way predicted. Estimates of the growth in consumption and supply of wood between 1950 and 1960 in the first study had, however, proved to be too pessimistic. The higher than expected rate of increase in consumption was associated with a faster growth in GNP than was foreseen. Growth in consumption had been faster than that in Europe's supply of roundwood, which had resulted in a growing volume of net imports.2. On the assumption that Europe's GNP would double between 1960 and 1975, demand for industrial forest products would rise by about 45 percent during the 15 year period. As was the case between 1950 and 1960, requirements for sawnwood would grow only modestly, while those for pulp and paper and for wood-based panel products would grow much more rapidly.
3. The changing pattern of Europe's requirements would be reflected in the pattern of roundwood requirements, and the share of large-sized roundwood in total removals would continue to decline.
4. Europe would increase the volume of its annual industrial roundwood removals by 27 percent between 1960 and 1975. Fuelwood removals would decline and fuelwood categories would be increasingly used for industrial purposes.
5. Even with the increased production from Europe's forests, imports from other regions would continue to expand (and/or European exports to them would decline) resulting in substantial growth in Europe's net imports. The increase in supplies from overseas would be chiefly coniferous products (sawn softwood, sawlogs, pulpwood, pulp and paper) from North America and the U.S.S.R. and tropical hardwoods from Africa and Asia.
Broadly speaking, the projections are being borne out by events, at least so far as the first half of the 15-year projection period, was concerned. Overall demand for forest products had been rising very slightly faster than foreseen, chiefly due to a stronger than expected growth in sawnwood consumption associated with the increase in construction activity in western Europe. Removals from European forests had, in toto, been rising as expected, but there were divergences from the expected trends for certain categories. A similar picture was emerging of the trend of Europe's trade balance in forest products; net imports had roughly doubled in the five years since 1960.
The findings of the second study did not create quite as much of a sensation as those of the first, partly, no doubt, because the positive results from the latter made the conclusions of the second study more readily acceptable. There is no doubt, however, that the second study had and continues to have an important influence on the plans of governments, foresters and industrialists both within the region and in countries marketing forest products in Europe, as well as on the work of the Timber Committee itself.
The important role of long-term studies was referred to by the present Chairman of the Timber Committee, when addressing the plenary session of the Economic Commission for Europe in April 1967 during its discussion of the work of the Committee. No country nowadays, he pointed out, can take important policy decisions concerning its trade and economic structure without affecting the situation and developments in neighboring countries or in the region as a whole. Furthermore, a period of 30 years or so is a relatively short one in terms of forest production cycles and it is essential for foresters to have some idea, however broad, of the volume and type of product they will be expected to provide 20, 30 or 40 years hence. These were two good reasons for undertaking long-term analyses of supply and demand such as the timber trends and prospects studies.
Moreover, just as countries will have to co-operate more closely in future for the common cause, so too must international bodies such as the Timber Committee be prepared to collaborate with others whose spheres of interest overlap or run parallel with its own. In particular, there appears to be a need for greater contact and exchange of views between forest owners and producers on the one hand and industrialists and consumers on the other, which could well be reflected in closer ties between the Timber Committee and the FAO European Forestry Commission.
Some of the questions to be faced were referred to by the Committee's chairman when addressing the ECE plenary session in April 1967:
"Looking ahead over the next decade or so, I believe that we can already identify some of the major problems which international co-operation through the Timber Committee will help to resolve. One will be the increasing strain on labor resources in Europe, especially in forestry, - where the drift to the towns will cause the forest labor force to decline further. Both in the forest and in the forest industries, there will be a growing premium on the introduction of labor-saving methods, and here there is much to be gained from the exchange of economic and technical experience. It has to be admitted that, because of the fragmented structure of many forests and forest industries, these sectors have difficulty in keeping pace with others in the application of new techniques, despite the strenuous efforts being made at the national and international level.Another major problem will be increasing competition from other materials, especially those from the petrochemical industry. In certain traditional markets, forest products may lose ground because of technical or economic disadvantages in specific instances. On the other hand, wood as a raw material has a remarkable degree of flexibility with- regard to processing methods and the end products that can be made from it. Furthermore, it has a great advantage in that it is a raw material which is permanently renewable and which, under optimum conditions, can be produced cheaply. Consequently, forest products may well hold their own in the coming years better than their competitors expect, both in their traditional and in new markets. This will not be achieved, however, without major efforts, in which the Timber Committee will be involved, in product development and in ensuring the correct applications and uses of forest products in pace with the changing pattern of requirements.
A third problem will be the changes brought about by further intensification of international competition in the European forest products market. Greater efforts to sell in Europe may be expected by exporters outside the region, including the developing countries in the tropics. This is bound to result in further important changes not only in the pattern of Europe's international trade but also in the structure of its forest industries and marketing. The Timber Committee must keep abreast of the changes and be in a position to help member countries to adapt their forest management, industry and trade smoothly and with the minimum of economic hardship."
T.J.P.
