FAO STAFF
One of the main concerns of the Working Party on Afforestation and Reforestation of FAO's European Forestry Commission has been to formulate convincing reasons for the general application of policies of forest extension and restoration. Assisted by the Rapporteur, J. A. de Vaissière of France, the FAO Secretariat has compiled a treatise on the subject, spurred in part by FAO's Mediterranean Development Project. At various stages Of preparation of the study, parts have been submitted for consideration by the Working Party. The last session, held in Turkey in 1959, decided that the introduction to the study should be published as a " manifesto " in Unasylva. It is here reproduced as translated from the French original.
MAN first worked the primeval forest by picking the fruits and gathering the foliage and wood to satisfy both his needs and also those of his herds and flocks.
With the advent and expansion of settled agriculture the forest has become an extension of farming, providing grazing for livestock, litter and forage, and raw materials for building and fuel, within the framework of the subsistence economy which prevails wherever inadequate transport facilities and road systems prevent large-scale trading. Peasants' woodlots and communal forests continue to be a necessity in farming. Wood, a heavy and cumbersome material, is used on the spot by the farmer himself or by local craftsmen. In Europe, the " all-purpose " chestnut grove is a typical example of such a situation.
In peacetime, the increase in population, most of which stays on the land, often leads to clearing of forest without always due assessment of the consequences. By taking and using land which he clears and cultivates without paying attention to soil and water conservation, man sometimes brings about his own downfall. The decline of many communities and the return to a pastoral economy more often than not have been the result of misuse of the land which, especially in regions where soil and climatic conditions allow only marginal farming, has not been compensated by soil reclamation or conservation work.
With the beginning of the industrial era, the forest became even more important as a source of fuel, and at the same time supplied large quantities of saw timber, building timber and wood for industrial purposes. Ironworks, glass and salt-works were set up not only near the source of their raw materials but also close to forests, the source of power, while the expansion of mining, railways, etc., required increasing quantities of timber for industrial purposes.
Thus, over the countries and at different times in history, depending on the country and on economic and social conditions, there has been a tendency towards the establishment of relationships, on the one hand between forestry, agriculture and stock raising, and on the other between forestry and industry.
Then, in certain regions and particularly in Europe towards the end of the 19th century, the expansion of communications, the technical progress achieved in farming and the invention of wood substitutes brought about a change in these well-established relationships. Thus, as a result of a broadened market economy due to increased transport facilities and roads, farms have become less dependent upon forests for fuel, building materials and stockfeed; certain hilly or mountain regions suitable mainly for farming and grazing or forests and pastures have been abandoned by their inhabitants who have settled on the plains, where the benefits of technological progress are enjoyed and better living conditions can be obtained with less strenuous work; timber, which was losing its traditional markets due to the competition of new sources of power or wood substitutes, has become the staple raw material for industries that require very substantial initial investments, and that, in return, must be assured of regular supplies in order to guarantee full-time employment to a skilled labor force and prompt and punctual repayments on capital.
In view of this train of events, which has occurred mainly in Europe and in North America, but which will certainly be repeated elsewhere, the role of the forest in sound land use and the direction to be given to forest production, will have to be reappraised. As forest policies are always drawn up on a long-term basis, solutions will have to be sought without delay even if they are not required in the immediate future. However, the problem will become even more acute in certain natural regions where the inadaptability of local economic systems might cause very serious social and economic disparities within a nation.
The question as to what is to be done with forests has to be dealt with first on the national level, within the framework of land planning for each country, under which its territory would be used for the following purposes:
1. animal or plant production, including forest production;
2. land development for human settlement (housing projects) and industrial zoning (for factories, roads, etc.);
3. reserves (national parks, suburban forest).
Land planning lays down the principles of urbanization (town and city planning); provision of the basic infrastructures (in particular, the main traffic and transport arteries, power generation and transmission); the establishment of development centers (industrial zones); the development of rural lands (in agriculture, forestry and stock raising); and recreation (green belts, tourism). Such planning aims at ensuring the best use of the factors of production, avoiding as far as possible competition among several branches of activity in one economic or conflicts among different sectors.
Thus, the growth of towns, one of the outstanding features of changing modern economic life, tends to compete with agriculture in two ways: by taking up the land (ever larger areas being used for urban development) and by absorbing man-power (rural exodus). In order to develop the land allotted to them, farmers and foresters are obliged to take the requirements of over-all land planning into account. They cannot ignore the town and country planners' point of view, just as these planners cannot disregard the need for maintaining green belts or even market garden areas near the large inhabited centers.
Land planning can, and in fact must, include planning for certain large natural regions: regional development within one country or several adjacent countries. The management of the catchment area of a large river is an example of such regional development. In a certain number of cases, studies may be confined to regional development projects.
Therefore, while foresters and farmers have to participate in land planning, their role will be even more direct and pressing in ensuring sound land use, that is, in the most appropriate use of the land allocated for farming, forestry and stock raising. Sound land use is that which combines ways of utilizing the land (farming, forestry, stock raising) in order to make the best use of the factors of production (soil, labor and capital), taking into consideration the conditions already existing or to be created, to attain a given or several objectives. These objectives are set in relation to the values attributed to soil and water conservation, to consumption levels and to the standard of living within the framework of an over-all, accepted national policy. Therefore, political decisions lie behind land use.
Farming, forestry and stock raising, each considered as a whole, are all land uses that can lay claim to various roles: physical (soil and water protection and conservation), productive (foodstuffs or raw materials), and social (employment and improvement of standard of living in general). All contribute to the desired ultimate aim.
As regards forestry, its triple role corresponding to the above three criteria has been the subject of many studies. It is the recognition of these three functions that makes it possible to set the objectives to be attained in forestry. On the other hand, the measures to be taken to facilitate the use of other factors of production and attain the objectives defined, must take into account the technological, economic and institutional conditions which indicate possibilities and limits. The technical conditions concern the state of the soil, the level of technology in each country and the vocational training and receptiveness of the people to extension teaching; economic conditions refer to market organization, financial and economic structure, the basic infrastructure and investment prospects; while institutional background is the result of legislation, customary law and usufruct rights.
The special nature of the factors of production with regard to forestry should be mentioned here.
In general, in farming areas the more or less marginal land is left for forests. High-yielding forests have always been, and will only be, established through careful and constant, tending that any error in management practice may jeopardize. Greater efforts on the part of man to better his environment and make the fullest use of technical achievements will enable him to obtain more valuable stands than those resulting from the mere interplay of natural forces; intervention of this kind, however, usually is justified only on the best lands.
As investments in forests do not give any returns for a very long time, and as the capital tied up is very considerable, forestry work in most cases entails raising long-term, low interest public loans. Further, the hauling of forest products to mills also requires a substantial outlay to which public funds must contribute. With regard to processing plants, as increased mechanization and full utilization of technical improvements make it necessary to expand premises, so these plants need more capital. Laying in of stock and seasonal trends especially in the northern countries, also necessitate substantial working capital. The need for such capital is even greater when export trade is carried on and recourse must be had to credit.
Lastly, although there seems to he a trend towards providing full-time employment for skilled forest workers who are paid practically the same wages as those in industry, many workers are still recruited from among farmers who generally have little technical training in forestry.
Both land planning and sound land use, depending on the priority given to one of these three roles without, however, excluding the other two, are realized on the local level by:
1. watershed management which, taking as a work unit a sufficiently uniform natural region formed by the catchment area of a river or one of its tributaries, aims at obtaining the best soil and water conservation and utilization (physical role dominant);2. land use management which, within each administrative district, aims at establishing economically profitable farm or forest management units (productive role dominant);
3. community development, mainly with a view to raising the standard of living and consumption levels of communities (social role dominant), while making them participate in the economic expansion of the nation.
The interrelationship between land planning and sound land use, as well as their application on the national, regional and local levels, have been reviewed above and now the relationship between the various factors that contribute to economic and social development should be examined. Pending the time when the application of " input-output " methods will make such correlation clearer, the following paragraphs outline, in particular for Europe and the Near East, the possible relationships, on the one hand, between forestry, agriculture and stock raising, and on the other, forestry and industry.
Forestry and agriculture
In flat areas or plains suited mainly to crop growing, there are no major obstacles to mixed forestry and farming. Stands of trees, such as poplars, grown in association with farm crops as well as windbreaks, shelterbelts and farm woodlots, all clearly show the benefits that farmers derive from the protective role of trees and the high profits earned from quick-growing species encouraged by cultural care and grown on soils to which fertilizers, soil improvers and even irrigation are applied. In regions where the problem of soil conservation does not arise, and where there are no transport difficulties, the role of trees depends on what they bring in the way of earnings, and forest production must be integrated with wood-using industries set up often close to consumption centers. However, stress should be laid on the special character of the main shelterbelts, which should be kept on a permanent basis, either by means of special laws or by attaching them to state property
On the other hand, in poor regions where farmers, often still practicing a type of shifting cultivation, encroach on forests, whether it be in mountain areas, in and or semiarid zones, the association between forestry and farming raises far more serious difficulties. Only mountain and steppe areas are discussed here.
In mountain areas, where land once used to grow mixed food crops is being abandoned by rural populations as a result of the growth of a market economy, or in regions of extensive uncontrolled grazing where man and his herds continue to live at the expense of dwindling forests, there is a risk that the development of ties between forestry and farming or extensive grazing will produce veritable human deserts as a result of total abandonment of mountain areas, or cause such severe soil depletion that their reclamation would entail investments out of all proportion to available means, at least under present circumstances.
The reorganization of rural life in mountain areas should be carried out parallel to the development of the nearby plains but under a much more extensive management system. As the surplus population of the mountain areas settles on the plains being developed, the mountain areas will change over from a subsistence economy to a market economy by modifying their three basic activities thus: stock raising will be practiced on the land best suited to animal production; forestry on the other land to supply timber for industrial purposes, in particular to the pulp and paper industry, and possibly to serve as supplementary pastures (stands not furnishing industrial wood but foliage and fruits as fodder for stock); tourism to satisfy the needs of city dwellers who increase in number as the market economy develops. These activities will link the plains to the mountains which will provide the former with summer pasture for livestock, raw materials for their industries and recreation for their inhabitants.
Naturally, depending on conditions and particularly when mountain areas are large or difficult of access, land management practices will have to be applied on the lines indicated above but making provision for greater economic selfsufficiency: mixed food cropping on the best land (even possibly in firebreak zones), building up light industries and handicraft occupations grouped near forest villages, etc. Such mountain land management should, however, be planned in such a way as to support or settle only the workers needed for the tending and working of the forest stands, caring for livestock and the upkeep of dams either for power generation or irrigation. If the mountain areas continued to be overpopulated, " subsidizing " by other more favored national communities would be necessary in order to obtain a reasonable standard of living, either by protecting the prices of its products, or carrying out a policy of public works, particularly for infrastructure.
At all events, whatever the degree of selfsufficiency allowed for mountain areas, their management will always have to be such as to protect the plains from erosion, ensure a good water supply and furnish certain products., animal products, such as milk and meat and wood products, the importance of which increases as living conditions improve.
On the foothills, overcrowding and erosion will prevent such reconversion from taking place immediately, especially as regards forests. Here, terracing and contour trenching for crop growing and tree planting are practicable. This solution may be the final one on fairly flat land where machinery can be used and where products can be obtained cheaply enough to compete on the market.
Where the land is more rugged and the latter techniques cannot be used to bring the area into a competitive economic system, the solution proposed has the advantage of checking erosion and providing employment for a large labor force, naturally with the aid of public funds. The way must thus be prepared for the forest which will be established more easily on well-cultivated ground.
With regard to steppe regions, free grazing should develop into stock raising, whether this be organized independently or combined with the stock farming of more favored areas where farming is well-established. In the latter case, the steppe or range land will serve as a livestock breeding area, while irrigated grasslands will provide the rich pasture for livestock fattening.
Pasture improvement, based on rotation, the setting up of sources of water and controlled grazing, should be applied in existing communities and may attain considerable extension in sparsely populated regions. The forests, or rather the trees, can have their place in this management provided that the forest ranger services are efficient. The trees will produce timber for the people, protect the grass cover and also supply loppings its supplementary fodder and shelter for livestock.
Forestry and industry
As they cease to be the sole source of fuel and raw materials for building purposes, forests must undergo profound changes. They must now produce either top-grade timber, the high selling price of which will compensate for the care and time involved, or else timber meeting certain rather broad specifications, but the main characteristics of which must be polyvalency, abundance, uniform quality and easy accessibility.
These latter timbers can be produced either on large tracts of land where there is no competition with farming or stock raising, that are readily accessible, or else on areas close to farms, or even on farms themselves where, with special techniques, quick-growing species can be grown on very small plots.
Such reconversion of the forest requires increasingly intensive sylviculture, that is, ever more frequent intervention by man, and generally entails substantial investment: afforestation of land abandoned by farmers, replacement of wild trees by valuable species, especially softwoods, plantations outside the forest, building and maintenance of access roads and timber extraction facilities, protection of stands against their natural enemies: fire, insect pests and diseases, dangers all the more pressing in that intensive sylviculture often results in the natural forest being replaced by more uniform, even-aged and therefore more vulnerable stands.
Hardwood forests must be progressively adapted to the demands of a market which takes only a few species with well-defined technological specifications. Technical improvements will perhaps make it possible to utilize, especially in the pulp industry, different kinds of wood together, but foresters will endeavor systematically to promote the growing of better species, if necessary by establishing plantations on sites chosen with a view to available transport facilities.
The practice of intensive sylviculture may lead to a veritable tree cultivation by methods similar to those used in farming, making it possible to increase production by the selection not only of species but also of individual trees, and to maintain soil fertility despite the constant drain on it, by modifying contours, tilling the soil and applying fertilizers.
At the other extreme, on the most severely degraded soils, the restocking of a stand to make it economically profitable may require such large investments that it, would be preferable to leave the natural vegetation despite the fact that little or no return can be obtained from it, if this tree or shrub cover is sufficient to check erosion.
Thus, at the two extremities of the chain, there would theoretically be the commercial forest yielding high profits, and the protection forest of purely physical value, conserved without thought of obtaining any financial return, but highly important owing to the indirect benefits it provides by ensuring soil and water conservation.
The place of the forest and woodland in land planning and sound land use, as well as its relationship to various economic sectors have been described above, and we can now examine forest enlargement and restoration plans with reference to the reorganization of forestry.
As already pointed out, the aims of these plans are set in relation to the physical, productive and social roles of the forest, and the general policy followed may stress one role over another, or even assign a clear priority to one of them.
The implementation of such plans, taking into account the present technological, economic and institutional conditions, or those to be created, will necessitate certain technical and administrative measures, as well as laws or regulations, as has become evident in countries that have already carried out large-scale afforestation programs. Publicity, educational programs and the approval of the population will also be needed.
Included in the technical measures to be developed, those concerning the organization of forestry research and the broadcasting of results obtained at all levels are among the most important. The programs of forestry research institutes should be drawn up and granted adequate personnel and material for periods of several years, with a view to the economic and social aims adopted, For economic reasons they should be coordinated at an international level and have bearing also on the utilization of forest products as well as forestry, on the science of forestry as such (timber increase, reforestation techniques etc.), on the application of natural history and biology in forestry (pedology, forestry genetics, etc.) or even economics and social science.
In fact, publicity and educational programs are essential for the implementation of afforestation projects. Not only the public but also the nonforestry administrative services must be fully convinced of the need for and value of the work undertaken and the results to be expected.
Forest extension and restoration plans differ from other development plans by reason of their long-term nature and the time required for the work to yield any return. The mobilization of the means needed for implementing the plans generally takes far more time than is compatible with the normal duration of economic and social development plans, whether at the national or the regional level. Those special characteristics, moreover, justify resorting to independent sources of financing.
However, with these reservations, forest extension and rehabilitation plans should not be considered independently of plans for reorganizing agriculture, particularly in respect of sound land use, and conversely, agricultural improvement should be planned with possible forestry developments in mind.
Forestry expansion by no means implies contraction of agricultural production and can often have precisely the opposite effect. Indeed in many cases no agricultural improvement is possible without previous forestry development.
Since, on the other hand, such forestry plans must be linked up with industrialization schemes, the development of communications, power transmission and distribution, etc., they will form segments of programs which will provide the data for successive, shorter-term, economic and social development plans, within each country and natural region.
In short, a national forest extension and rehabilitation plan constitutes a detailed, segmented pattern, the aim of which is to provide the best solutions for obtaining the most suitable expansion of forestry. However, it is necessary to check on the consistency of forestry plans in relation to other land use projects on the one hand, and to economic and social development schemes on the other, at least as regards the section of the program concerned.
The forestry plan itself may be part of successive, shorter-term programs, or of regional programs covering natural regions. In the latter case, the relative importance assigned to each role of the forest may differ from that accepted on the national level for fixing the objectives. This change in the choice of main decisive criteria may lead either to a diversification of financing sources, or to a modification in the order of priority for implementing projects at the general level, or a change in mode of operation locally: watershed management, land planning or local community development.
In conclusion, whether it be a question of land planing or sound land use, existing or potential composition must be replaced at all levels, national, regional and local, by an orderly co-existence between the various sectors of economy or between the segments of a single sector, the assumption being that political authorities will define and recognize specific objectives, due consideration being given to the claims of soil and water conservation, that responsible administrative bodies will work out and co-ordinate the measures for attaining these objectives, and that a well-prepared public will accept such measures.
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