R.A. DE ROSAYROThis summary paper by a member of the FAO Forestry and Forest Industries Division is based on contributions to ICO/IBRD/FAO studies on the coffee economy of selected countries. The fullest use has been made of information available to the Division from the country studies compiled for the FAO Indicative World Plan. Information has also been taken from Mission Reports No. 11/67 (Kenya) and No. 13/67 (Tanzania) of the FAO/IBRD Co-operative Program, and reports prepared for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, especially Report No. WH-170a, Economic development and prospects of Central America. Volume V, Forestry and wood-using industries, 1967.
Coffee is a crop associated with a forest environment. The world's coffee soils are generally friable and loamy, of lateritic or volcanic origin and generally brown, chocolate or red in color in Brazil, terra roxa or red soils are always favored for coffee cultivation. The two chief commercial species, Arabica (Coffea arabica) and Robusta (Coffea canephora)¹ and their varieties grow in somewhat different environmental conditions which, however, generally occur within the vegetation formation of tropical humid forests.
¹ The other two important species are Coffea liberica, indigenous to Liberia, and C. excelsa, indigenous to parts of west Africa and the Sudan but now being replaced mainly by C. canephora.
Arabica coffee is usually associated with the tropical humid forest type at high altitudes. In its natural habitat in Ethiopia, its normal altitude is between 1,800 and 2,400 meters above sea level. In other countries the natural environmental conditions of climate can be simulated by a suitable combination of latitude and attitudinal zonation, provided the essential humid character of the forest type remains unchanged and a suitable range of edaphic conditions obtains.
Robusta coffee is indigenous to African equatorial ram forests from the west coast to Uganda and southern Sudan. It occurs from sea level up to 1,200 meters and is found in a natural state under dense shade. As a rule, therefore, Robusta has been introduced under warmer humid conditions, and Arabica under more temperate cooler conditions. For Robusta, it- is essential to retain natural or introduce artificial shade in conformity with the natural forest environment. For Arabica, the question of shade is more complex. Shade is generally considered necessary, except under a combination of especially favorable climatic and edaphic conditions. In the same latitudinal range and with altitudes generally above 1,500 meters, with cooler temperatures, more evenly spread rainfall and greater humidity, shade appears to be unnecessary. Such areas occur in the Kenya highlands above 1,500 meters. Similar areas are also found in climatically and edaphically similar but more temperate zones, for example in most of the southern states of Brazil
ARABICA
In the Arabica areas, both in Africa and America, the coffee-growing zones usually have definite forestry interests, particularly from the point of view of their present and/or potential site productivity, in developing industrial plantation of fast-growing species, chiefly conifers and eucalypts. In Africa, however, although there is considerable overlapping between the forest and coffee-growing areas (particularly in the ease of forest plantations), the main planned expansion of forest plantations lies outside the coffee-growing areas. From the standpoint of land use, coffee plantations in Africa are generally well maintained and not particularly subject to erosion or other hazards, largely as a result of government policies which have established strict standards for coffee growing and are supported by good technical extension services. The position in Latin Americana varies between individual countries.
Latin America
In Brazil, the main timber and coffee-producing areas overlap, chiefly in the southern and eastern regions of the Paraná pine forests which provide 60 percent of the country's industrial wood supplies. The pine resources in the State of Paraná dwindled by 1963 to an estimated area of 1.5 million hectares, out of a total forest area of 6.5 million hectares. Between 1953 and 1963 the annual clearing of forests for agricultural crops (including coffee) in Paraná was estimated at 270,000 hectares, of which 250,000 were tropical or subtropical broadleaved forest and the remainder Paraná pine (Araucaria angustifolia). The total volume of Araucaria in Paraná (in 216,000 hectares of inventoried sawtimber stands) was estimated in 1963 at 50-60 million cubic meters and the annual cut at 4 million cubic meters. At this rate of cutting, the Paraná pine forest resources might be depleted of saw timber by 1975-80. However, the actual coffee-growing areas are concentrated mainly in the tropical broadleaved forest zone. An important consideration is the incidence of frost in parts of this zone (particularly in the State of Paraná), which causes severe damage to coffee. Frost is also a major contributory cause of fires in seasons of drought which spread throughout commercial forests and plantations. For instance, about 2 million hectares of private forests in Paraná were swept by fire in 1963, including about 20,000 hectares of industrial plantations. Extensive deforestation of commercially valuable forest in some of the coffee-growing states, for example in the State of Minas Gerais for industrial fuelwood supplies, has created shortages in timber supplies. Erosion caused by deforestation with consequent landslides and floods, is also serious in some areas around Rio de Janeiro.
In Colombia, the main potentially productive forest resources and also the potential sites for industrial plantations are outside the coffee-growing areas. The central range of the Andes, the main coffee zone, originally supported dense montage forests, now replaced by coffee plantations. Well-managed coffee maintains and protects the soil conditions adequately, and has proved to be the most profitable agricultural crop. Replacing well-managed coffee with forest crops is usually neither desirable nor practicable, although there is some scope for reforestation to control erosion. Natural forest is now largely above 2,500 meters, the maximum altitude suitable for coffee here reforestation for both protective and productive reasons is necessary, and it has already been carried out on a small scale with some measure of success. The native bamboo (Guadua angustifolia) is associated with the coffee zone, occurring chiefly as relict stands on land cleared for coffee or pasture at altitudes of 900 to 2,000 meters. It is the principal source of construction material and serves a variety of agricultural uses in the coffee areas. It has also been found acceptable up to 20 to 25 percent of the mix in the production of kraft paper by one of the principal pulp and paper plants.
Mexico and Central America
In Mexico and Central America, the coffee zones lie outside the main productive or potentially productive forest areas. The subtropical wet forest type² (which is of restricted distribution) is associated with the major part of the coffee zones in this region at altitudes of 300 to 2,000 meters. There are no important timber species in these forests, though some medium-value timbers occur, which provide wood for local uses. Subtropical natural coniferous forests, chiefly of Pinus spp. Occur generally at altitudes above the coffee zone in Mexico and Guatemala.
² See Holdridge's classification and maps for these countries.
In Mexico, about half of the coniferous forests is concentrated in the states of Durango and Chihuahua, in neither of which coffee is grown. However, some important coniferous forests are also found in the coffee-producing states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Puebla and Hidalgo. Although there is a potential for planting fast-growing species, both inside and outside the coffee-growing zones, there are hardly any commercial plantations. The major exceptions are plantations in the region of Valles, which supply the raw material for the production of (18,000 tons in 1964).
Guatemala's total pine forest area has been recently estimated at 2.S million hectares, of which the pine forests of Sierra de las Minas and Chuaous are estimated to cover 500,000 hectares and to contain some 50 million cubic meters of wood.³ These figures suggest that Guatemala has a very large volume of pine, much larger than that indicated by an estimate of a recent IBRD mission,4 thus placing Guatemala in almost the same rank as Honduras in pine resources. El Salvador has only a limited area of pine forests in the north.
³ SOURCE: Papelera del Istmo, Guatemala City.4 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development meet, Economic development and prospects - of Central America, Volume V, Forestry and wood-using industries.
ROBUSTA
The main Robusta growing countries - Ivory Coast, Angola, Uganda, Tanzania and Congo (Kinshasa) - lie in the equatorial forest belt which is classified as humid to subhumid, mainly semideciduous forest at low and medium altitudes,5 with an average annual rainfall of 1,500 to 2,000 millimeters, occurring on flat or slightly undulating land. This type of forest extends in Angola to the dembos, or coffee forests at 400 to 1,000 meters in altitude on very rugged topography. The equatorial rain forests in west and central Africa are associated with the Robusta coffee-growing areas and play a significant economic role by forming the basis for an organized and well-established trade in timbers of high commercial value which are exported mainly to Europe.
5 See Philips, J., A Agriculture and ecology in Africa, Faber & Faber, London, 1959, and Vegetation map of Africa published on behalf of the Association pour l'étude taxonomique de la flore d'Afrique tropicale with the assistance of Unesco Oxford University Press, 1859.
Ivory Coast is a particularly important producer and exporter of hardwoods. The semideciduous forest type is the most productive, containing the main species of redwoods such as the mahoganies (Khaya and Entandrophragma), Mimusops and Afromosia and general utility species such as Obeche or Wawa (Triplochiton scleroxylon). The semideciduous forest, found under somewhat drier conditions as gallery forests in the savanna, also contains species such as Iroko (Chlorophora excelsa) of commercial value. The coffee zone extends marginally to such gallery forest. In recent years the area of closed forest in Ivory Coast has shrunk from an estimated 13 million to about 7 million hectares of which only 2.8 million are reserved forests. Continued encroachment by shifting cultivation, generally following exploitation and new plantations of agricultural crops (including coffee and cocoa), is reducing the forest area by about 120,000 hectares annually, in particular along the periphery of roads newly opened for the extraction of forest products. The area under coffee increased from 385,000 to 720,000 hectares in the period 1959-66. Simultaneously, commercial timber fellings increased rapidly under the impact of export demand. Felling wood for processing (saw and veneer logs) increased from 320,000 cubic meters in 1955 to 2.55 million cubic meters in 1965, 85 percent of which was exported, mainly as logs. Annual timber exports grew from 1,100 million CFA francs in 1953-55 (4 percent of total exports) to 15,700 million CFA francs in 1963-65 (23.6 percent of total exports) - that is, to the second place after coffee (41.2 percent of total exports in 1963-65). The combination of progressive alienation of forest land (increasingly to coffee) and the increasingly large annual cut of timber is exhausting the country's resources of woods now in demand which, at the present rate of depletion, are likely to be exhausted in about 30 years. There is, therefore, an immediate need for halting the expansion of agriculture into productive forest land.
In other African Robusta countries reviewed in this paper, forests associated with the coffee zone are not foreign exchange earners and they only meet local timber and fuelwood requirements, while providing protective shade cover for Robusta coffee.
LATIN AMERICA
Brazil
In Brazil, the main coffee-growing states, São Paulo, Paraná and, to a smaller extent, Minas Gerais and Santa Catarina, are the most industrialized. Forest industries are either directly wood-based or linked with other major industries, for example with metallurgical industries in Minas Gerais. Of primary wood-using industries, the most important is sawmilling, which is largely based on the Paraná pine forests. Plywood and veneer are also of importance, especially in the State of Paraná In the four States mentioned, annual production in 1961-65 was about 3 million cubic meters of sawtimber of pine and 0.7 million cubic meters of timber of other (hardwood) species. Production has decreased slightly since 1961, indicating that the resources of Paraná pine are being strained to keep up with production. Paraná pine accounts for most of the timber exports it provided annually 1.9 million cubic meters (roundwood equivalent) in 1964-66 (83 percent of the total timber exports) valued at U.S.$51.8 million (74 percent of the total wood exports), compared with the total production of 2.2 million cubic meters (roundwood equivalent) and the value of $70.1 million. Industrial charcoal is especially important in the State of Minas Gerais where the natural forest has been severely overexploited. In 1963-65, annual production was 728,300 tons, valued at 7.73 million cruzeiros. Industrial plantations in Minas Gerais (mostly of eucalypts) supplying this industry now cover about 50,000 hectares.
The largest forest-based industry in Brazil is that of pulp and paper, particularly in São Paulo and Paraná but it is also expanding in the two southernmost States (Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul). This industry depends largely on natural Paraná pine from private forests and plantations, of which São Paulo possesses the largest extent (355,000 to 525,000 hectares of eucalypts and approximately 8,000 hectares of conifers). Many of the principal enterprises own large plantations of eucalypts and some softwoods softwood plantations (Pinus elliottii and P. taeda mainly) for the supply of long-fibered pulp are expanding. These enterprises employ the most modern mechanized techniques in planting, some supported by comprehensive experimental research centers. As a result of this progress, Brazil has in recent years become practically self-supporting in pulpwood and paper (other than newsprint, imports of which are still substantial). Prior to 1965, the country relied strongly on imports of pulp for its production of paper and paperboard but a deficit of 51,965 metric tons of pulp in 1964 was transformed into a surplus of 27,750 metric tons in 1965 in 1966, there was only a small pulp deficit (940 metric tons). Recorded apparent consumption of paper and paperboard rose from 311,000 metric tons annually in 1949-51 to 713,000 metric tons in 1963 (an average growth rate of 6.1 percent).
FIGURE 1. - Relict stand of Araucaria angustifolia in the hinterland of Maringá, Paraná, Brazil.
Colombia
In Colombia, the principal forest resources and forest industries are outside the coffee zone.
Annual exports of round and processed timber are estimated at about 200,000 cubic meters (roundwood equivalent) valued at U.S.$4 million. The current trend is for a rapid increase in processed wood exports, especially of sawn timber, which in 1966/67 exceeded the exports of round timber. With the recent development of pulp and paper plants, exports of paper and paperboard increased to 3,600 tons in 1965 ($1 million). Imports of timber and wood products amount to less than $0.5 million per year. Developments in paper and paperboard have constituted the most dynamic element in the forest products sector consumption increased from 73,000 to 240,000 tons from 1958-66, and local production expanded even more rapidly. The raw material for paper and paperboard production is chiefly from tropical hardwoods in the Southwest Pacific region. Plantations (totaling only some 17,000 hectares) supply mostly local fuelwood and pole requirements and contribute little to industry. In the Department of Caldas, one of the chief coffee-growing areas, some 800 hectares of plantations existed in 1967, mainly as protection for the reforestation of degraded pastures or the improvement of catchment areas. The main contribution of forestry in the coffee zone is made by the indigenous bamboo (Guadua angustifolia). In 1964 bamboo to the value of 1 million pesos was sold at Caldas timber market compared with 13 million pesos for fuelwood and charcoal this hardly reflects the importance of the species in the economy of the region. The future consumption for industrial use has to be reexamined, since it is already accepted up to 20 to 25 percent of the pulpwood mix in one of the biggest plants in Cali. The excellent growth and extensive use emphasize the need for a survey of existing Guadua bamboo forest and of its actual and potential contribution to forestry development, including its protective role in the area.
El Salvador
Among the Central American coffee-producing countries, El Salvador is the least important in forest industries, since it lacks substantial forest resources. The country has only about 226,000 hectares of forest, out of which about 30,000 hectares are conifers with a growing stock of about 1.4 million cubic meters (1963 survey). Sawnwood production in 1964 was estimated at only 6,000 cubic meters and consumption at 60,000 cubic meters. El Salvador imports approximately 90 percent of its requirements, mainly from Honduras. The consumption of pulp and paper products is comparatively high, as reflected by the 1964 figure of 28,700 metric tons.
Guatemala
In Guatemala, the main industrial production and export potential lie outside the chief coffee-growing zone. Guatemala has a net deficit in wood and wood products (U.S.$0.65 million in 1963), largely because its paper and paperboard consumption is increasing (from about 2.3 metric tons per 1,000 capita in 1955-57 to about 2.8 metric tons in 1961-63). Fuelwood is still the main product. Production of industrial wood, mainly from coniferous forest resources, is underdeveloped it amounted to an annual average of only 824,000 cubic meters in 1961-63. Sawmilling average production was 100,0 cubic meters annually in 1964-65, plywood 3,000 cubic meters in 1965, and particle board 2,400 metric tons in 1967. No pulpwood mills exist. About 8,500 metric tons of paper and paperboard products are currently (1968) manufactured annually from a mill based on domestic nonwood fibered pulps, waste paper and imported pulp. There is a vast potential for expanded industrial production in the north, chiefly in the Department of Petén. Recent information on the coniferous wood resources prevalent in the coffee zone indicates that, with the extensive pine forest resources of Guatemala (covering some 2.8 million hectares), serious attention should be given to the future role of Guatemala in pulp and paper production to meet the rapid growth in consumption in Central America.
Mexico
Mexico has rich forest resources. However, although fairly well advanced, forestry does not make a significant contribution to the national economy, and generates only about 0.3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), decreased from an estimated 0.5 percent in 1950. Forest industries contribute some 4 percent of GDP. The value of the pulp and paper output increased from U.S.$88 million in 1958 to $128 million in 1963. Approximately 70,000 persons are directly employed in forestry and forest industrial activities. Under the current system of unidades, exploitation units are given out for specific industrial needs. Government control and jurisdiction is maintained in these units, even on private lands. Some of the major coffee-growing States (Chiapas, Guerrero, Oaxaca and Veracruz) are also important contributors to forest production and industry, chiefly based on natural pine resources.
AFRICA
Angola
In Angola, forestry and forest industries have developed largely outside the Robusta coffee zone. However, the relatively small humid forest in the coffee-growing Cabinda district provides one third of Angola's timber, contributing mostly logs and some processed timber to exports. About one half of Angola's total wood supplies comes from the Miombo Brachystegia woodlands. In the highlands of the central plateau (in the Brachystegia - Julbernadia Isoberlinia savanna woodland zone) which already includes small areas of Arabica coffee, mainly private interests have established highly successful Eucalyptus, some cypress (Cupressus lusitanica) and pine (Pinus patula) plantations totaling 103,000 hectares in 1965. These plantations now supply most of the fuelwood requirements (510,000 cubic meters annually) of the Benguela Railroad Company and, since 1964, pulpwood to a pulp and paper mill at Alto Cadumbela. At present, the long transport distances and the lack of cheap long-fibered raw material (sisal which is now used being too costly) are serious drawbacks. However, an almost twofold expansion of production (140 tons of pulp and 40 tons of paper per day) was planned for 1968, depending on the possibility of increasing the plantation area within an economic range of transport.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia has approximately 4 million hectares of closed forests and about the same area of unproductive forest, woodland and some bamboo forests. However, the forestry contribution to the national economy is small, and it is heavily weighted by fuelwood (22.8 million cubic meters in 1962). Private plantations of Eucalyptus globulus (16,000 hectares), mainly found in the neighborhood of Addis Ababa, supply some poles as well as fuelwood. Ethiopia is a net importer of forest products and has no exports. Imports are mainly of paper and paperboard (70 percent) and wood manufactures (26 percent). The average annual value of imports in 1961-65 was Eth. $5.78 million. Timber industries are poorly developed and comprise some sawmills, one plywood factory and one new particle board factory.
Ivory Coast
In Ivory Coast the strongest development in forest industries allied with expanding exports of high-value woods, has taken place in the Robusta coffee zones. With the exception of the inaccessible southwest region, the coffee zones coincide with the zone of commercially productive humid forest. In 1965 concessions covering a surface area of about 6.7 million hectares were in force and, despite the government decision to stabilize production at the 1962/63 level, the output of industrial wood in 1965 rose to nearly 2.9 million cubic meters. Although a considerable extent of forest area was lost to agriculture, the size of compensatory plantations has been negligible, the total to-date being 13,720 hectares, mainly 6,000 of teak and 5,700 of cashew (Anacardium). The current trend in production concentrates largely on timber in log form for export. The value of log exports increased over 166 percent between 1960 and 1964. There was also an increase in sawnwood production from 157,000 cubic meters in 1963 to 258,000 cubic meters in 1965, and diversification into new veneer and plywood industries producing approximately 10,000 cubic meters each in 1965. The situation is likely to improve in the near future because of:
1. the recent inventory of the forests in the southwest region, which indicates that wood resources are substantially larger than estimated earlier, with the possibility of stabilizing log removal at about 3 million cubic meters per year and proportionately increasing the use of secondary species2. the planned establishment of about 58,000 hectares of industrial plantations. There is no pulp and paper production at present in Ivory Coast. While the average annual consumption in 1961-63 was 4,700 metric tons, the demand for pulp and paper is estimated by FAO at about 37,000 metric tons for 1975 and 75,000 for 1985. It is planned to construct a large export mill, based on mixed tropical hardwoods (capacity 170,000 tons per year) partly to meet the increasing demand for banana containers, but it is doubtful whether this project will materialize before 1975.
Kenya
In Kenya the development of forestry and forest industries has been outside the coffee-growing areas. The requirements for coffee are somewhat different than for forest plantations, because softwoods are generally grown at higher altitudes and under less humid climatic conditions. In 1965 Kenya had a total of 70,800 hectares of exotic softwood plantations (Cupressus lusitanica, Pinus patula and P. radiata) planted mainly by the traditional taungya system by which shifting cultivation is carried out in combination with the raising of plantations of forest tree species. Government planting of exotic softwoods is continuing at the rate of approximately 4,850 hectares per year, with a planned increase to about 6,070 hectares a year by 1968 and an interim total target of 150,000 hectares by 1985. As a result, plantation logs are gradually replacing indigenous logs as the main source of raw material for the sawn timber industry. In 1965, out of a total recorded cut of 187,000 cubic meters, the contribution of plantation softwoods was 99,800 cubic meters. The sawmilling industry, originally designed to utilize large-diameter logs from indigenous forests, is gradually being redesigned for sawing softwoods. Three large private mills, utilizing softwoods, are situated west of the Rift valley in the region of the biggest concentration of plantation timber. Main progress is likely to take place in the pulp and paper field. Imports of paper and paperboard now amount to some 37,000 long tons per annum, valued at £3.5 million. The recent increase from the 1958 level of 17,000 long tons was stimulated by the establishment of local packaging manufacturing industries which consume over 10,000 tons of industrial paper and paperboard annually. A viable industry, with a mill capacity of 50,000 tons integrated with a sawmill with a capacity of 10,000 standards (about 50,000 cubic meters) has been recommended by FAO for the district around Broderick Falls. In this connection, the FAO/IBRD Cooperative Program has also suggested the establishment of some 30,000 hectares of softwood plantation (6,000 hectares of short rotation for pulpwood and 24,000 hectares for sawlogs). The proposed project represents part of the Kenya Government's long-term afforestation program.
Tanzania
In Tanzania, the main Arabica coffee zone lies in the rain-shadow area of the Kilimanjaro mountain range. With regard to Robusta, the situation in Tanzania is similar to that in Kenya except that the indigenous forests still continue to be the principal source of industrial fuelwood. Softwood plantations, with the same species as in Kenya and under similar conditions of site and climate in the highlands, have been established in several places and they now total some 16,000 hectares, the current planting program being 2,400 hectares per year. Wood-based industries are not strongly developed, sawmilling being the principal industry. Sawtimber exports in 1960-65 averaged approximately 21,000 cubic meters annually. No pulp or paperboard mills exist. The Government has under consideration an additional 20-year target of some 80,000 hectares of softwood plantation near the coast in the Ruvu region.
PHOTO: ESCOBAR
The possibilities of diversification from coffee into forestry vary in their purpose and scope, depending on ecological and other conditions. In general, the Arabica coffee zones are equally suitable for forest crops, particularly for plantations of fast-growing species. The need for diversification into forestry is dictated by:
1. the operation of quotas under the International Coffee Agreement which calls for partial replacement of coffee by alternative forms of land use;2. the necessity of replacing coffee grown under marginal conditions by a more profitable form of land use, which may require the stabilization and restoration of suitable soil and the improvement of moisture conditions by the introduction of a forest cover.
The prospects of forestry have to be considered in the light of all land-use alternatives to coffee. Where there are expanding forest-based industries and exports, the case for forestry development is strong. However, with a few exceptions, forest industrial interests are generally outside the coffee zones.
LATIN AMERICA
Brazil
The most notable exception is Brazil, where the main coffee-producing States, particularly São Paraná, are also the areas of greatest industrial development based on either natural forest resources (mainly Paraná, pine) or plantations. In all the coffee-growing zones in Brazil, the possibilities of diversification by afforestation have been recognized and included in the official IBC/GERCA6 Diversification Programs, but so far without substantial results. These programs also provide for appreciable financial support to wood-based industries, some of which are dependent on plantations. In the States of Paraná, Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo, the accelerated expansion of afforestation (primarily with fast-growing species) is possible and desirable in order to replace eradicated or poor coffee. Such action should be based on existing experience and research concerning the choice of species and techniques. Substantial use of Pinus caribaea is indicated for expanded afforestation especially on degraded sandy soils, for example in the State of Paraná, In areas subject to intense heat in the summer and cold in the winter, afforestation is needed as a means of restoring the balance between forestry and animal husbandry, and also in certain localities for special reasons such as erosion control. Plantations are also necessary for the improvement of grazing conditions by providing shade in summer and shelter in winter.
6 IBC = Instituto Brasileiro do Café; CERCA = Grupo Executivo da Racionalizacão da Cultura Caféeira.
As regards institutional needs, the Instituto Brasileiro do Cafe introduced in July 1967 a program to guarantee interest-free financing for agricultural and forestry development in all areas covered by coffee diversification contracts. However, organizational measures to ensure that credit is made available would be even more important. Private forestry, which has been the backbone of forest industrial organization in Brazil, appears to have the initiative, technical knowledge, and facilities for both external and internal financing to play a leading role in future development. However, close coordination in industrial planning is needed between the public and private forestry sectors in order to strengthen existing infrastructural and institutional arrangements.
Colombia
In Colombia, plans for the expansion of industrial plantations in the main coffee-growing areas are essentially sound. In the principal coffee-producing Department of Caldas, the regional development program makes provision for increasing the plantation area from 800 to 2,700 hectares by investing 13.2 million pesos. In the restoration of degraded pastures, Alnus jorullensis (an indigenous species with good qualities for timber and pulpwood, grown with Kikuyu pasture) has been found to offer annual economic returns estimated at 800 to 1,000 pesos per hectares on a rotation of 25 to 30 years. Attention should be given to the possibility of expanding the present area of the indigenous Guadua bamboo by plantations, especially in connection with the rehabilitation of marginal coffee land or pasture. This bamboo wood should continue to meet increasing local needs and serve as raw material for small-scale rural industries such as low-cost housing and for the pulp and paper industry. Prospects for a planned expansion of plantations (chiefly conifers) in the Department of Antiquoia are also good with the establishment of a new forestry corporation, it is planned to set up a large-scale newsprint plant based on long-fibered species.
CENTRAL AMERICA
In the Central American countries, the forestry aspect has so far been generally neglected in existing diversification projects, particularly in Guatemala. However, the main prospects for more diversified export-oriented development in Guatemala center on timber and wood products, especially in the undeveloped northern region (now surveyed by a UNDP/FAO project), comprising hardwood resources outside the coffee zone. There are also unsurveyed pine resources closely connected with the coffee areas. Part of these resources have already been studied in connection with the private projects to set up a pulp and paper plant with the proposed production of 90,000 metric tons annually. In Guatemala, and also in Mexico, which already has a well-developed forest industry (mainly based on pine natural resources), no incentives are provided for the establishment of plantations other than those needed for the restoration of eroded coffee lands. However, with the increasing use of the forest resources, chiefly softwoods, it is possible that private interests will be stimulated in planting pine species in the coffee zone. In El Salvador, with its very limited forest resources (chiefly one area of about 45,000 hectares in the north), a planned afforestation program to augment the present pine resources is urgently needed. An estimated target of 42,000 hectares has been suggested.7
7 Carlos A. Alergia, Estudio forestal de la FAO - El Salvador, 1961.
AFRICA
In Africa, Arabica coffee is grown in Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, but Angola and Tanzania are also Robusta producers. At present, the Arabica production in Angola is small, with some plantations in the central high plateau region (contributing 2.7 percent of the total production in 1965/66). However, the ecological potential for growing coffee in this region is virtually unlimited. A coffee-forestry integrated approach is at present being adopted, and there is a spreading use of a good fast-growing timber species (Grevellia robusta) for shade. As a result, there is ample scope for a well-planned expansion of plantations of other fast-growing species (mainly Eucalyptus species, but with increasing concentration on pines, particularly the well-established Pinus patula), as against the slower growing cypress, to supply long-fibered requirements for the pulp and paper industry. Such a development, together with the planned expansion of the pulp and paper industry, current private investment plans for diversification into particle board and the creation of a sawmilling industry utilizing eucalypts and cypress, could also help to utilize contract labor likely to be released from the Robusta areas.
In Ethiopia, the contribution of forestry to economic growth is likely to remain limited. The value of forestry output is estimated by FAO to rise annually from U.S.$34.2 million in 1962 to about $41.8 million in 1975 and $49.3 million in 1985. The export-oriented potential of Ethiopia's natural forests will remain small, although there are prospects of import substitution of wood-panel products by better organization of supplies to the existing mill in Addis Ababa and the newly erected mill in Jimma. The planned construction of a paper mill in Wonji (initial capacity 7,500 tons, increasing to 15,000 tons of pulp in the second phase) and the establishment of a few paper-converting plants may reduce the present complete dependence on imports.
Both in Kenya and Tanzania, forestry development is largely promoted and financed by the governments outside the coffee areas since the purchase of coffee land would be too expensive. National development plans already include the establishment of forest industries based mainly on softwood plantations in the same zone, often adjoining coffee areas.
In the Robusta zone of west Africa, forestry and coffee interests coincide in Ivory Coast. In this country, it is important to restore a balanced forestry development and to sustain, if not improve, its contribution to exports and the national product. For this purpose, it is necessary to curtail the expansion of agricultural crops, particularly coffee, which is overproduced and extended into marginal lands within productive forest areas. There is also a need for the improvement and rehabilitation of forestry resources. A scheme to establish about 58,000 hectares of industrial plantations is being financed by a newly formed state agency (SODEFOR) from a tax of 2 percent on the nominal value of exported logs. The project includes the planting of about 44,000 hectares of village pole and fuelwood plantations in the savanna zones. However, the planned expansion of industrial plantations is mostly for teak, which has been grown mainly in the moist semideciduous forest as well as (less successfully) in the "derived" savanna zones. The enrichment of natural forests by suitable techniques, including the planting of fast-growing species, has not yet been attempted on a sufficiently large scale. Bamboo (Bambusa vulgaris) has been successfully introduced around Abidjan in small-scale plantations where it gives an annual yield of about 20 tons per hectare. However, there are no known plans for its extension for pulp and paper production.
The other major Robusta-growing country in West Africa is Angola. In Angola's Robusta zone, which combines natural forest with planted coffee cover, the need for diversification to forestry does not arise and the scope for diversification is outside this zone.
Forestry and forest industries can play a significant role in the overall economic development of most of the countries discussed in this paper. However, there are two essential conditions. First, better infrastructure is needed for the exploitation of hitherto little used natural resources. Second, there is need for comprehensive national forest policies and for efficient implementing institutions. For these purposes, initial measures should include the permanent demarcation of a national forest, estate and technical training.
Specialists and technicians will be needed in overall land-use planning, including land reform, to introduce a more rational use of forest land and to replace shifting cultivation by more settled systems of agriculture. Technical training should also be undertaken for resource inventories and research in all aspects of silviculture and wood technology, with special emphasis on low-cost housing, particularly in Latin America. Finally, specialists should be trained in economic planning, marketing, improved utilization practices, and the techniques of sawmilling, plywood, veneer, pulp and paper, and allied industries. Technical training for industrial needs is well taken care of in some countries, especially in Brazil, primarily in pulp and paper manufacture, and to a smaller degree in Angola. However, in all coffee-producing countries reviewed here, particularly in Latin America, national and provincial services are not numerically equipped to deal with intensive forestry plantation programs and with the improved and controlled exploitation of the existing natural forest resources. This is particularly relevant for Brazil where the wood-based industries are largely in the four main coffee-producing States.
All the countries examined in this paper require substantial external financial and technical assistance for forestry development. Preliminary inventory and feasibility studies sponsored by UNDP/FAO with local participation have been carried out or are in progress in most of the countries. This work is especially advanced in Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico. In Angola, the bulk of the industrial development based on plantations is likely to continue in the private sector. In most other African countries, national development plans include forestry policies, and there are adequate government forestry institutions. Technical and financial aid is being provided by foreign governments or traditional private interests (French in Ivory Coast, British in Kenya and Tanzania). Prospects have recently emerged for new bilateral and international assistance to satisfy domestic pulp and paper requirements.
