Australia
France
Germany, Western
Italy
Kenya
Outer Mongolia
South Africa
United States of America
Viet-Nam, North
· As a result of the recommendation of an Australian who spent six months in Malaya as a Colombo Plan expert to advise on Malayan industry, a delegation of 30 Malayan forestry and sawmilling representatives made a two-week inspection tour of timber areas of New South Wales during July 196 1.
During eight days on the north coast of New South Wales, the delegation visited a hardboard factory, eight hardwood sawmills, one plywood factory, a pole preservation plant, and two sawmill machinery manufacturers plants. One whole day was spent in a densely stocked forest management area to see Australian methods of tree felling, tractor skidding and hauling of hardwoods and scrubwood. Road making in this area, which is carried out by the Forestry Commission, was also inspected.
On returning to Sydney, visits were made to three of the largest timber yards which also carry out resawing as well as having joinery shops, drying kilns and impregnation plants. A two-day inspection was also made of an area 150 miles west of Sydney, where the Forestry Commission is conducting large-scale planting of exotic conifers, principally Pinus radiata. In this area two softwood sawmills and one chipboard plant were visited.
· Agricultural extension activities were for a long time the responsibility of the public authorities, but a decree issued in 1959 formally transferred this responsibility to independent farming associations, reserving to the State only over-all direction and promotion. Extension programs in regard to forestry fit well into the new system, having for objective the creation of viable management units and encouragement of the investment needed for intensive afforestation.
The forest administration authority has especially encouraged the forming of a national professional association to foster the spread of sound forest management techniques among owners, and has organized technical training for extension workers to be recruited by the various private associations. According to a report to the European Forestry Commission of FAO, these are largely drawn from among former students of the
Ecole technique professionnelle agricole et forestière du Massif central at Meymac, Corréze, and from holders of agriculture diplomas having studied forestry as an optional subject.
· Die Waldwirtwhaft und Holzindustrie der Sowjetunion (Erwin Buchholz, BLV Verlagsgesellschaft, München-Bonn-Wien, 1961, p. x + 223, 66 illust. DM 28) deals with the efforts being made to develop further one third of the forest area of the world, located in the U.S.S.R., and to establish proper techniques for the management of forest production and protection, and a modem and integrated forest industry. It is the second publication of a now series entitled World Forestry and edited by J. Week of Hamburg/Reinbek. (The first volume of the series dealt with world forestry and Germany's forestry and forest products economy.)
During the last 30 years, E. Buchholz has become one of the few experts on forestry development of the U.S.S.R. outside that country. He has had published several papers and books, but this last one gives the most comprehensive picture of all, starting with the historical background; leading to the ecological conditions (with forest formations and main species); the protective functions of the tree cover; statistics of forest areas and growing stock; the organization, administration and management of forestry and forest industry; and the production, transport, trade and consumption of forest products.
Guiding lines of Soviet forest policy are based on large-scale afforestation in the south and the utilization of untapped forests in the north and east. The special task is to make accessible and to utilize the vast coniferous resources of the taiga, where - in the framework of the present seven-year plan and with large financial investment - big woodindustry combines with mechanical and chemical processing units, including pulp and paper industries, are being established.
· The major area for poplar growing is still the Po valley where the climate and soils are suitable and where economic and rural conditions are also favorable. But, since the demand for raw materials by the paper industry is on the increase and the prices offered are good, the growing of poplars is spreading especially on marginal land where farming cannot yet, or is no longer able to, produce adequate returns. This is observed in central and south Italy and in the islands, where the use of special techniques in the planting of highly vigorous clones having a long growth period makes up for the less favorable conditions compared with the Po valley.
Eucalypts also are spreading as a specialized crop especially where poplar does not thrive and where resistance to drought is required. The experimental centers set up by the Ente Nazionale per la Cellulisa e per la Carta near Rome is particularly interested in this development in Sicily, Sardinia, Marernma (Tuscany), Latium and the Pontine marshes.
· Kenya trees and shrubs (Buchanan's Kenya Estates Ltd., P.O. Box 3963, Nairobi, Kenya, in association with Hatchards, 187 Piccadilly, London, 14.4), which is published by authority of the Government of Kenya, is particularly valuable for foresters, botanists, all field workers and nature lovers as well as for sawmillers, timber users and architects. It is a comprehensive record of indigenous trees and shrubs of 6 feet and more, which will enable not only the professional forester but also the layman to identify the woody flora of Kenya. While giving accurate botanical descriptions sufficient for identification and timber utilization, together with keys to the families, genera and species, a glossary, vernacular names and other matters of general interest, it is written and produced in a manner that makes it both attractive and invaluable.
Of the joint authors, I.R. Dale has had a lifetime of service in the Forest Departments of Kenya and Uganda. PJ. Greenway retired from his post as botanist-in-ebarge of the East African Herbarium in 1958 after nearly 30 years of botanical work in East Africa.
European and American orders should be sent to Hatchards, London, and African orders to Buchanan's Kenya Estates, Nairobi.
· Forests are said to cover only about 8 percent of the country's total area but still amount to around 12 million hectares, despite the average altitude of some 1,500 meters above sea level, the low relative humidity, precipitation of about 350 millimeters per annum in the north and only 150 millimeters in the south, and considerable extremes in temperatures daily and over the year.
Most of the forests are composed of conifers and situated in the montane taiga. belt in the north of the country. Siberian larch is the principal species, followed by Siberian pine, Scots pine, birch and aspen. Some poplars, elms, and saxaul thickets are found in the Gobi desert areas, in the southeast of Mongolia. Timber demand is growing, and it is reported that improved management, conservation, protection and afforestation measures are being instituted as a result of technical aid on a considerable scale from the U.S.S.R. and China. A regular annual cut of some 2-2.5 million cubic meters may become quite feasible in the accessible forest region. The railway system is being connected to the railways of both China and the Soviet Union.
· Thirteen percent of the area afforested with exotic species, or 67 percent of the area planted with Eucalyptus species, is occupied by E. saligna, which covers 241,500 acres (98,000 hectares) (the name E. saligna is in South Africa applied to E. grandis (Hill) Maiden and E. saligna Smith, as well as transitional forms between them; there is comparatively little true E. saligna). A publication by A. van Lear: Eucalyptus saligna in South Africa: An investigation into the silviculture and economics has appeared in the series, Annals of the University of Stellenbosch (Vol. 16, Ser. A, No. 1, 1961). It gives a detailed review of the position of the species in regard to ecology, silviculture, growth factors, yield, logging, and economics of plantations.
Nine tenths of these plantations are privately-owned. Rotation (mostly between 6 and 20 years), tending and regeneration methods vary according to production aims. Seven site indexes were established, top height at the age of 25 years being 200 feet (60 meters) for Class 1 and 80 feet (25 meters) for Class VII. The volume production, to 3 inches (7.6 centimeters), is about 5,000 cubic feet per acre (350 cubic meters per hectare) at the age of 12 years, for Class IV in unthinned. stands. For the same site class, maximum land expectation values are obtained at a rotation of 10 years, and in Transvaal and Zululand respectively are 171 and 107 rands per acre ($590 and $370 per hectare) and in Zululand, respectively. The cost price is 5.9 South African cents per cubic foot ($2.91 per cubic meter) for a rotation of 13 years and 7.5 South African cents per cubic foot ($3.70 per cubic meter) for a rotation of 18 years, in saw timber plantations. The entrepreneur's annual gain in unthinned mining timber and pulpwood stands, still for Class IV, is 4 to 7 rands per acre ($14-25 per hectare) at 8 years rotation, and in heavily thinned stands producing saw timber in a normal forest it is between 12 and 13 rands per acre ($41-46 per hectare) on a 13-year rotation.
The age-class distribution of saligna is approximately normal, and the annual production may be estimated at 68 million cubic feet (1,93 million cubic meters), or 42 percent of the total production in South Africa (1958). This percentage will decrease when the age-class distribution of other plantations, especially pine, becomes more normal. A forecast for the year 2000 estimates that South Africa, while exporting considerable quantities of pulp and board products, will still have to import large quantities of building and structural timber.
Tibet e It is reported that Chiftese assistance is concentrated on the conservation of existing forests and large-scale afforestation. with quick-growing species. The forest area of Tibet is not known with any certitude but is estimated at over one million hectares, located mainly in two areas: the Gartok area of western Tibet and in the southeastern corner of the country. The main commercial species are juniper, pine and spruce, with poplar, bamboo, and fir in the more temperate areas. All the forests are now state-owned.
· The Department of Agriculture has been making a number of substantial grants for research to be carried out abroad. These include grants to the Peru Forest Service, for taxonomic studies on forest trees; to research institutes in Spain for research on posts of poplar, forest fire behavior, and trace elements required for the growth of Pinus radiata; and to the University of Chile to investigate the use of artificial light in stimulating growth in pine cutting.
· According to a press report, both the U.S.S.R. and China are helping North Viet-Nam to develop its forestry. Capital and forestry experts have been made available, while students are being trained at Moscow, Leningrad and Peking. Tractors are beginning to replace the traditional buffalo and elephant in timber extraction, and heavy roadmaking equipment is being used to open up the rich tropical rain forests to the power-saw. As a result, exports of hardwoods are now in the region of 50,000 cubic meters per annum, and some of this timber is sent to Eastern Germany and Czechoslovakia. It is said that afforestation is being carried out on the sandy coastal areas using pines, Cunninghamia and eucalypts; and the "rai" system of burning forests for shifting cultivation is being stopped.
