A question I have frequently been asked since I assumed my present charge in December 1968 is: Does a change of director mean a change of direction? Hitherto I have declined to answer this question.
The past weeks have been among the most interesting in my life. I have concentrated on familiarizing myself with FAO's programme, its origins and evolution, and with getting to know the people charged with' the execution of that programme. At last I am able to answer the question. My answer is a categorical no. There will be no change of direction.
For, in fact, the programme of FAO in the field of forestry and forest industries has little to do with the predilections or special interests of the director. It develops from the expressed wishes of governments as reflected in the FAO machinery - the Regional Forestry Commissions, the Committee on Forestry of the FAO Conference, and finally the Conference itself - the advice tendered to the Director-General by the several advisory committees he has established and, as a result of collective thinking within FAO, thinking which seeks to take into account the growing knowledge of the needs of countries discerned through field operations. The programme in detail is subject to the endorsement of FAO's supreme authority, the Conference held every: two years.
As our knowledge improves, the power of (and indeed the need for) successive directors to give a personal imprint to the programme diminishes. In this respect my predecessors had more scope, more flexibility, but also greater responsibilities, than I or my successors probably can have.
And here I would like to pay tribute to my eminent predecessors. First of all, to Marcel Leloup, whose recent death has grieved us all. His vision and energy in the formative years of the Forestry Division made FAO a household word for foresters the world over. To Egon Glesinger, who conceived and directed the first major study of regional timber trends which, with its successor studies, has' powerfully influenced national 'forest policies in all regions. To Nils Osara, whose practical skills and administrative gifts were' at the helm during the phase of rapid expansion of field operations.
To all these, I owe a great debt From them I inherit an unrivalled assembly of knowledge about -forestry and forest industry condition throughout the globe, a dynamic programme expressing the needs of Member States, and a dedicated and enthusiastic staff which I am proud to lead.
Changes there will be and must be, since the world itself changes so rapidly. We are all well aware of the need for change. It is already clear that more attention needs to be given to the institutional obstacles that frustrate the development of forestry and forest industries in many of the less industrialized countries. The content of forestry education must evolve to match new tasks and newly available technologies. The growing anxieties about man's relationship with his physical environment impose new responsibilities on the forester. These and other emerging features of the contemporary scene must find reflection in the services FAO renders to its Member States.
This requires a continual attempt to get our priorities right et all times, a progressive adaptation of FAO's programme which it will be my aim in the years ahead to bring about, as opportunity and resources allow. It does not require a new direction.
BÖRJE STEENBERG
Director, FAO Forest and Forest Industries Division
Professor Steenberg has been research director of the Swedish Forest Products Research Laboratory, and president of the Forestry, Forest and Wood Technology Section of the Swedish Academy of the Engineering Sciences. He has been closely connected with FAO activities for a long time.
