"The practice of treating forests and forest industries separately has invariably resulted in bad forest management. Organized mainly with regard to their end products, and having little or no contact with the forests, the various forest industries have tended to neglect their raw material problems and to think of each other as competitors in the exploitation of a natural resource rather than as complementary users of a renewable crop... the joint consideration Of forestry and primary forest products is FAO's approach.''
This passage appears in a 1945 report to the governments considering the establishment of FAO. The approach was subsequently embodied in FAO's Constitution and has been followed ever since.
The dividing line between primary and secondary forest products is not always clear. Not all primary forest products, which include wood pulp, are in FAO's field of activity. Nor can FAO restrict its interests to primary forest products for consumption studies, for instance, it must be informed about secondary forest products. Increasingly it must collaborate with other agencies, such as the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), which also have an interest in the products of primary forest industries.
Such was the view of FAO's Advisory Committee on Pulp and Paper when it held its annual meeting at Rome in May 1968.
This committee, which was set up in 1960 to advise the Director-General on the evolution and implementation of the FAO program in the field of pulp and paper, is formed of leading industrialists, nominees of governments and of national pulp and paper associations. The group reflects the interests of both producer and consumer countries and is representative of the several regions of the world. The list of members is given later in this issue.
At its latest session the committee considered the possibilities of promoting domestic markets for paper and paperboard in developing countries by establishing paper converting plants. Investment requirements, for viable plants of this sort not integrated with pulp production, are relatively low. The saving on foreign exchange can be substantial owing to the large price difference between the converted product and the corresponding amount of paper. Operations could serve to pave the way to future integrated mills.
Some interesting changes are now taking place in the pulp and paper industry. Increasing amounts of ground-wood for newsprint are being made with refiners instead of the conventional grinders, enabling use to be made of smaller and cheaper parts of the tree, hitherto left in the forest. A new construction of the web forming part of a paper machine has been in an experimental stage for several years, and has now reached a point here an increase in speed of 30 to 40 percent can be foreseen in the manufacture of newsprint without any effect on quality.
The advisory committee discussed the situation of the world's pulp and per manufacturing capacities, noted that FAO estimates rated world capacity in 1968 as 109 million metric tons of pulp and 127 million metric tons of paper and paperboard. It seemed that the rate of expansion of plant capacity for paper pulp was coming more into line with that for paper - and paperboard. Thus the world excess capacity in the pulp sector, which on earlier reckonings had seemed likely to weigh on the international pulp market for four or five years to come, might give way to a more balanced situation somewhat earlier.
There had been predictions that markets for paper products would decline because of a growing trend to substitute paper by plastic materials. The development has actually been quite different. The demand for paper products has steadily grown and paper has found its way into new fields of application.
Considering the outlook for the developing countries, the committee felt that the rate of capacity expansion in Latin America and in Asia and the Far East could be regarded as relatively fast to moderate, but the development in Africa was very slow. Newsprint expansion also was very slow in all developing countries. Excess capacity in several grades of market pulp and paper, including newsprint, had led to very low price levels on the international market and in many countries production was not economic without protection of some kind. This, however, should not discourage forward planning and, particularly where forest development had first to be undertaken, early action was essential. Opportunities for production for local consumption were often favorable. Possibilities for cooperation between neighboring countries in industry development should be given encouragement.
Export-oriented pulp and paper mills in the developing countries would appear to run serious risks unless market outlets were assured in advance or the production costs were very low indeed.
FIGURE 1. - Over the countries man has leveled the forests of Lebanon until only small groves of the cedars, on eroded mountain elopes. Now, with the help of FAO and UNDP (Special Fund), the Government hag begun to restore the forests and give new livelihoods to rural people. A fully grown cedar (Cedrus libanis) of the region casts it, shade over the rocky countryside When old, these trees are gnarled and majestic and, in biblical times, were a symbol of power and longevity.
