Chad
Gabon
Honduras
Italy
Mali
Pakistan
Sierra Leone
United kingdom
United states of America
· Fort Lamy has joined a growing list of population centres in Africa which are taking determined steps to solve the problem of the lack of wood supplies for fuel and construction purposes. A government request seeks to combine national resources with assistance from the World Food Programme, the FAO Freedom from Hunger Campaign and bilateral sources to establish 12000 hectares of plantations on the city's outskirts.
Destruction of vegetation up to 30 or 40 kilometres from the city has been rapid and complete, resulting in active erosion and deterioration of the microclimate. Lack of money forces women and children to search for wood at great distances, and camel and donkey caravans must bring in daily supplies for larger consumers such as brick-kilns and bakeries.
The project follows others of a similar nature already in operation with WFP support outside Khartoum and Brazzaville.
· A contract has been awarded to the French institute, Centre technique forestier tropical, to help develop the forests of Gabon's eastern zone. The project is financed by the United Nations Development Programme, for whom FAO is carrying out a 4½ year preinvestment survey of untouched forest as a Special Fund project.
In addition, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development at Washington has approved a $6 million loan to help Gabon build roads to open up the country's interior for logging operations. The aim is to penetrate the export-earning tropical forests inland from the coast where commercially exploitable timber is nearly exhausted. A $12 million loan from the World Bank, granted in 1964, financed a highway project which has already enabled the gradual transfer of the activities of logging companies to the rich second zone.
The second World Bank loan will be for a term of 20 years, including a 4-year grace period, with interest at 6.5 percent. It will be used to complete the construction of two roads with a total length of 74 kilometres, which will open up an area of some 5000 square kilometres capable of producing some 2 million tons of timber over the next 20 years.
The loan covers the foreign-exchange elements of work which, on completion by the end of 1971, will have cost the equivalent of $8 million.
· Under a new policy of promotion of development investment, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) is joining in arrangements to finance the initial stage of an integrated pulp, paper and sawnwood complex in Honduras; IFC is the affiliate of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), that invests in private industry in developing member countries. This project has a central place in Honduran economic aspirations and has had major support from the Government of Honduras, the United Nations Development Programme and FAO during several years of preliminary work.
The aim is to give Honduras (and Central America as a whole) an economic boost by the industrial utilization of its rich natural resource, the 1.2 million hectare Olancho forest reserve. It is hoped that the company will become one of Central America's largest industrial enterprises.
IFC invests in the company under a new policy of giving limited financial support and technical assistance to embryo organizations established to lay the groundwork for full-scale development investments, where it is felt that the completed project would be a sound private business enterprise.
· Eucalyptus plantations form the principal wood supply for a new sulphate pulp mill, with an output capacity of 130 tons per day, which is located on the eastern coast of Sicily.
Two varieties of eucalyptus are available in the area: Eucalyptus rostrata and E. globulus. Both are suitable for the Mediterranean climate because of their ability to grow rapidly in rough, dry terrain with little need for water. For this reason eucalyptus plantations appeared to be the only possible way in which this soil could be adapted for pulpwood. Although the soil is chemically poor and has few organic compounds, rotations are obtained of 10 to 14 years (average 12) for the first cycle and 7 to 9 years for subsequent cycles. There are three subsequent cycles making a total of four cuttings prior to reforestation.
Once cut the eucalypts are hauled to a roadside by skidders, where they are delimbed, debarked and slashed to 1 and 2 metre lengths in one process, through the use of portable delimbing and debarking equipment. The billets are then hauled to a storage area where the central processing plant is located. There the wood is chipped, and after screening the ohms are pneumatically conveyed to storage piles and/or pneumatically loaded into enclosed trucks of up to 18 to 20 tons chip capacity for transport to the pulp mill.
· When Mungo Park sailed down the Niger through Mali in 1806, the river was full of hippopotamus and crocodiles. Although there are still some hippo in the river today, you will be extremely lucky to see a crocodile. This is typical for over much of the country the wild animals and birds have disappeared.
Mali has one national park, the Boucle du Baoulé, 200 kilometres northwest of Bamako, in Sudano-Guinean savanna. The park is surrounded by wildlife reserves and controlled hunting areas making a total of 600000 hectares under forest service jurisdiction where there is some form of protection, and it contains typical savanna animals. But the Forest Service has limited means, and it is impossible to protect the area adequately against poaching and illegal grazing. Besides the Baoulé, there is the elephant reserve south of the Niger, and also the huge giraffe reserve in the east of the country, covering nearly 2 million hectares of Sahel along the banks of the Niger. In the dry season, giraffe and other animals come to the river, and are easily seen by tourists on the road. There used to be oryx too, but poaching has been intense and there may not be any left now.
Perhaps the most remarkable area of Mali is the flood zone of the Niger. Formed by a network of rivers, canals, lakes and marshes, an area up to 500 kilometres long and 250 kilometres wide may be covered by water in the wet season. These wetlands, seemingly out of place in such a dry country, are important for wintering European waterfowl such as garganey, ruff and godwits, which may be seen constantly in great flocks of tens of thousands at a time.
Most of the northern half of Mali is desert, crossed only by caravan trails, and inhabited by nomadic Moor and Tuareg tribesmen. The desert animals, oryx, dame and dorcas gazelle, and addax all seem to be decreasing in numbers, although there is no precise information. Addax, the most hardy of them all since it can live entirely without water, still migrates in herds up to a hundred strong as far south as Araouane, only 250 kilometres from Timbuctoo. Despite the harsh desert conditions, addax are still hunted by the nomads who believe that the juice extracted from its stomach will cure illness.
Such important wildlife resources are obviously worth conserving and developing. Already tourist hunters come from Europe to shoot duck and geese in the Niger marshes. A recent visitor from FAO reports that Mali is a natural country for tourist development with the remains of its ancient civilizations, the towns like Timbuctoo, the nomadic Tuareg and the cliff-living Dogon people. Properly managed national parks would be an essential addition to all this.
· The International Finance Corporation is also investing for the first time in the industrial expansion of East Pakistan and its commitment has drawn heavy support from a broad group of private international investors.
The new project is a $17 million modernization and expansion of the Karnaphuli paper mills located near Chittagong, which will increase the country's paper-making capacity by 17000 tons a year, bringing total paper-making capability financed by IFC in Pakistan to 72000 tons annually the additional paper production could save Pakistan foreign exchange up to $2 million a year.
Karnaphuli makes paper from bamboo and hardwoods growing in East Pakistan. To obtain more of these raw materials, there are plans for intensive development of bamboo forest areas leased from the Government. It is also planned to establish forest plantations on hilly lands near the mill site.
· Grown from seed originating from Kenya, Cupressus lusitanica has been selected as the most suitable species to provide Christmas trees in Sierra Leone. The species has the basic qualities desired conical shape with uniformly distributed branches; dense needle coverage; ability to last without wilting or dropping of the needles when cut or dug up; good coloration and aroma of the plant. The Forest Department has established a nursery area growing 5000 trees of which, over the past two years, some 400 have been sold annually. The present market can be expanded very considerably the trees are sold when they have reached a height of 3 to 5 feet (1 to 1.5 metres), and are then 2 to 3 years old. The revenues from sales from the first two years have almost covered the costs of establishment and maintenance.
The species is tolerant of lateric soil but this type of soil often needs heavy mulching. Burned rice husk is used in combination with compost, helped by application of nitrogen fertilizers.
· The Automobile Association, with the cooperation of planning officers in 35 counties of England, Scotland and Wales, has arranged sites where AA members and their families can plant trees during the European Conservation Year. Anyone who would like to plant a tree on Drive to Plant a Tree Day (Saturday, 1 November 1969, or the following day) can fill in a coupon and post it to the AA with £1 for each tree.
Because trees have to be ordered months in advance, reservations for next November must be made as soon as possible. The money will be forwarded to the county nominated from the list on the coupon. An invitation to the planting site in that county, with a map showing its location, will reach the donor in the autumn.
County council officers will prepare the sites for planting and provide the trees with fertilizer and stakes if necessary. Over the weekend of 1-2 November, they will hand out trees in exchange for invitation cards, and assist with the planting.
Conservation of renewable natural resources is the theme of a special set of definitive stamps issued in 1968.
· It is reported that the United States Forest Service has approved the realization of a dream cherished by the late Walt Disney. It is an elaborate all-the-year round resort to be built 7800 feet (2400 metres) up in the Sierra mountain in Sequoia National Park, California, almost midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
No ears will be allowed within a mile and a half of the village, where "modest and medium-priced" hotels and cottages are expected to accommodate 3310 holidaymakers. There will be skiing in five mountain basins and, in the summer, riding, hiking, camping and fishing.
The Forest Service approval followed four years of negotiations between Walt Disney Productions, the sponsors, and the Administration.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SIXTH WORLD FORESTRY CONGRESS
The Proceedings of the Sixth World Forestry Congress, held at Madrid in 1966, are in the process of being published by the Ministry of Agriculture in Spain. Bound in three volumes with a total of 3500 pages, they provide a comprehensive coverage of the deliberations and conclusions of the Congress.
Each chapter is devoted to a particular plenary session or technical commission and includes:
· Agenda· Report of the chairman, synthesizing the general conclusions reached and recommendations adopted
· Discussions and speeches transcribed in their original language
· General and special papers in their original language with summaries in the other two working languages of the Congress
The Proceedings also give full information on the organization of the Congress and accounts of the study tours organized before and afterward.
Proceedings of the Sixth World Forestry Congress. Available from Sexto Congreso Forestal Mundial, Dirección General de Montes, Ministerio de Agricultura, Paseo de Infanta Isabel, 1, Madrid 16. Basically trilingual (English, French, Spanish). Price U.S. $50 plus postage.
