Asia-Pacific forestry commission
Latin-American forestry commission
Near east forestry commission
The central theme chosen by the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission for its sixth session was the development of forest industries and the role of fast-growing conifers in meeting wood requirements. It was for this reason that New Zealand, which presents particular interest in this regard, offered to act as host to the session and why invitations to send representatives were extended also to several FAO Member Nations outside the region that were pursuing large plantation programs. Only Sudan could in the event avail itself of this opportunity, but from within the region the attendance was good and especially large delegations came from Japan and the Philippines. The other countries represented were Australia (also Papua and New Guinea), France (New Caledonia), India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand, the United Kingdom (Hong Kong), the United States of America (Trust Territories) and Viet-Nam.
The session, held at Rotorua, North Island, was opened by the Hon. R. G. Gerard, New Zealand Minister of Lands and Forests who stayed on for several days of the meeting. Also noteworthy is that the leader of the political party in opposition was represented in the person of Sir Eruera Tirikatene, a former Minister of Forests. N.A. Osara, Director of the Forestry and Forest Products Division, represented the Director-General of FAO, and it was he who insisted that New Zealand was far too modest about its achievements in forestry. "All of us are most interested to see your forest industries which have much to teach us," he told the Minister on behalf of the delegates.
Some of the commission's time was given over to a general discussion on trends in regional wood resources and requirements. One delegate described the "surprising haste" with which the whole world situation is changing, and maintained that the demand for all forest products is rising explosively. Countries in the Asia-Pacific region, by virtue of their large populations and rapid development, must inevitably represent a main focus of future demand, one aspect of which is dealt with in the article on China which is featured earlier in this issue.
Many countries of the region have substantial forest resources and indeed surplus timber supplies1 but continue to have difficulty in obtaining the capital necessary for the exploitation and processing of the resources to provide export surpluses in a form that will yield maximum returns to the exporting country.
1 See: FAO. Timber trends and prospects in the Asia-Pacific region, Geneva, 1961. These countries include Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Philippines, Malaysia, Papua and New Guinea.
The commission did not altogether come to grips with the problem but did agree on some practical steps that countries should take in the immediate future to:
(a) Provide FAO with an up-to-date evaluation of national wood resources and future requirements so that the existing study of regional trends and prospects could be revised and made more precise. Such information is basic to realistic planning. While the whole world picture would be one of the items to be studied at the Sixth World Forestry Congress in 1966, the regional situation should again be considered by the next session of the commission. The commission accepted with gratitude an invitation from the Government, of Korea to act as host on that occasion.(b) Promote demand for the many timbers from the well-forested countries not presently used, i.e., from the tropical countries with forests containing hundreds of species of which only a few dozen, representing a small proportion of the total growing stock, are now marketable. This is an often repeated cry. Trade interests from the producing countries should be represented at future deliberations of the commission on this subject.
(c) Ensure that at all levels of forestry training adequate coverage is given to the subjects of logging, transportation, and marketing. Substantial reduction of costs should be possible, to be reflected in the price of the end product. A proportion of professional foresters should be encouraged to specialize in these important aspects of forest utilization, and there should also be more training opportunities at the vocational level.
(d) The economist rather than the silviculturist today largely controls the establishment, management and utilization of forests. This means in effect that industrial planning must be a very early, if not the first, step in considering the reservation and management of existing forests or the establishment of plantations.
The commission recognized the many difficulties to be overcome in the Asia-Pacific region before forestry can make its optimum contribution to economic and social values. The outlook, however, is bright, even exciting, and the commission expressed the view that a rational program of forest development will still prove a significant factor in promoting human welfare throughout the whole region.
Turning to practical business the commission asked that another session of the FAO Teak Subcommission be held in the near future, to which Member Nations from both Asia and Africa should be invited. Ex-officio chairman of this subcommission is Shri Hari Singh, Inspector-General of Forests, India, who is also chairman of the regional committee on silvicultural and forest management research, on whose activities he reported to the commission. H. E. Dadswell of Australia, chairman of the regional committee on forest products research, also reported to the commission, looking forward to a much increased activity for the committee in the years to come. The untimely death of Dr. Dadswell later in December was a tragic blow to these high hopes, as well as a setback to FAO's wider program relating to wood technology.
The following were elected officers of the commission: chairman: A. L. Poole (Director-General, New, Zealand Forest Service); vice-chairmen: Chong Supp Shim (Director, Bureau of Forestry, Korea), Inche Abdul Majid b. Haji Mohammed Shahid (Deputy Chief Conservator of Forests, Malaysia), Apolonio F. Rivera (Acting Director of Forestry, Philippines). A. G. Hanson (Australia), D. Kennedy (New Zealand), and Inche Abdul Rahman bin Ali (Malaysia) were appointed rapporteurs. U Aung Din, FAO regional forestry officer, acted as secretary of the session.
Forestry and forest industries were practically in their infancy in Latin America only 20 years ago. Since then there has been substantial development, and the Latin-American Forestry Commission, meeting for its ninth session at Curitiba, Brazil, in November 1964, considered that Member Nations could take proper pride in the advances that had occurred over recent years, as described in the national progress reports submitted to the meeting and supplemented by statements from delegates.
There is still, however, a very long way to go to secure that the forests of the region are utilized to the best advantage. Future development must be carefully planned. Help in this regard is one of the functions of the FAO/ECLA regional advisory group on forest industry development, and aid through Special Fund projects has reached a considerable volume. Discussing the prospects for the future, the commission showed particular interest in the activities of the new FAO/IBRD joint program which ought to facilitate the identification and preparation of projects for plantation establishment and industry development that would be acceptable to the International Bank or its affiliates, the International Development Agency arid the International Finance Corporation.
Many foresters maintain that the goat is mainly responsible for the barren wastes that roll from Morocco to Afghanistan. Others say that there never was a time when true forests covered such areas, and claim that the goat is the, only productive animal which can exist among the scrub-covered hills, and, rather than eliminate the goat, efforts should be made to improve its worth to man. These conflicting views were discussed during a regional seminar on goat-raising policies which FAO organized in September and October 1964. During the seminar foresters, agriculturalists and animal husbandry specialists visited demonstration, areas in Greece, Turkey, and Yugoslavia.
Curitiba, capital of the State of Paraná, was selected by the Government of Brazil as the location for the session because it is the center for the Paraná pine area and for a complex of forest industries, and the site of the new National Forestry School established at the Federal University with the aid of the United Nations Special Fund and FAO. For the latter reason, the meeting was opened by the Brazilian Minister of Education.
Countries having delegations present were Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, France (Guiana and Antilles), Guatemala, Mexico, Netherlands (Surinam), Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom (British Honduras and Guiana), United States of America, Uruguay and Venezuela.
V. A. Farah (President, Federal Forestry Council, Brazil), was elected chairman of the session; and the vice-chairmen elected were F. Bazán (Director, Forest Service, Peru), E. Dabas (Director, National Forest Latin-American countries. The management of private Administration Argentine), and J. M. Gonzalez (special assistant to the Under-Secretary of Forestry, Mexico). A. de Miranda Bastos (Brazil) and E. Ezquierdo (Peru) were appointed rapporteurs while H. Reichardt, FAO regional forestry officer, served as secretary. The Director-General of FAO was represented by P. Accioly Borges, deputy Regional Representative, and R. G. Fontaine, chief of the Forest Policy Branch, represented the Forestry and Forest Products Division.
One of the tasks of the commission was to consider and recommend action on reports from its subsidiary bodies. In reference to the report of the regional committee on forest research (chairman: F. H. Wadsworth, Institute of Tropical Forestry, Puerto Rico), the commission urged that FAO organize a regional training center on forest inventory, already given priority by an earlier session. If funds were unobtainable from the Expanded Program of Technical Assistance (EPTA), then a bilateral technical assistance program should be prepared to help. Mexico again offered to act as host. The commission also urged continued and stronger support from member countries for the Latin-American Forest Research Institute at Mérida, Venezuela (President: R. Viloria Diaz).
The reports of the working parties on forest products (chairman: F. Leniz, Chile), national parks and wildlife (chairman: I. N. Costantino, Argentina), and watershed management (chairman: J. Castellano, Argentina) were approved.
A major topic of discussion by the session was forestry in relation to land reform in Latin America. Background papers to serve the discussion had been prepared by Cesco Petrin, FAO regional adviser on forestry aspects of colonization and settlement, and by FAO's Legislation Research Branch. The outcome was a decision to present the commission's views to the next FAO regional conference for Latin America (Chile, March 1965), and to organize a regional seminar on land-use policy as soon as feasible.
It is interesting in this connection to trace the evolution of the legal basis for forest policy in the region. A first period dates from the early years after the discovery of the Americas. A royal decree of 1496 on "the conservation of forests and plantations for the common good of the people," was based on pre-eminent state ownership of all land, no matter who was entitled to individual use of the land. The State could impose restrictions on, for instance, the felling of certain tree species which were universally applicable.
By the middle of the nineteenth century the idea of the protective role of forest resources began to be given recognition in legislation. But in the meantime the juridical individualism of the French Revolution added to economic liberalism had caused a return to the Roman concept of ownership, that is to say, the absolute right of an owner to the exclusive use and disposal of his possessions. This concept, sanctioned in France by the Code Napoléon, was introduced during the second half of the century into the basic laws of Latin-American countries. The management of private forests was freed from any outside control, and in Brazil, for example, a decree of 1876 exempted from prior license the cutting in private forests of maderas de lei (commercially valuable timbers whose felling had been formerly controlled by law).
During the present century ownership, while still conceived as a right, has come to be regarded as entailing duties, and its limitation for reasons of public utility or social necessity is legitimate. There is thus an increase in the State's attention to private forests, and legislation has been introduced to establish and regulate state intervention and set up the administrative agencies responsible for it. An early example is a Cuban law of 1923 which defined the regulations for private woodlands having a protective role. The most recent law, that of Peru in 1963, makes the forest administration not merely the administrator of the state forests, but also gives it the responsibility of carrying out tasks that are in the public interest on all forest lands, whatever their type of ownership.
Lebanon was appropriately the host country in June 1964 for the fourth session of the FAO Near East Forestry Commission appropriate because the main concern of this commission is to re-establish forests throughout the region and Lebanon is going ahead fast with restoring its former great cedar forests.
One reason for this sudden interest in preserving the famous cedars is their importance as a tourist attraction, for tourism is one of Lebanon's major industries. Another reason is that Lebanon, like many developing countries nowadays, has a plan ... in this case, a green plan, the Plan vert. The 10-year program has two main objectives. One is the rehabilitation and reforestation of Mount Lebanon, which is not an isolated peak but is the name given to the whole range forming the backbone of the country, and the Anti-Lebanon, the parallel range that runs along the Syrian frontier 80 kilometers or so inland. The other objective is to improve the lot of the small peasant farmers who have been left behind in the country's rush toward prosperity. These objectives are being reached with the aid of international technical assistance, particularly from the United Nations Special Fund and FAO.
The NEFC session was attended by representatives of Cyprus, France, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, Syria and Turkey. Observers were present from Iran and the United Kingdom, and from United Nations agencies. The FAO regional forestry officer, K. Oedekoven, served as secretary.
In the unavoidable absence of the Director of Forests and Natural Resources, Lebanon, the commission elected Hassan Kittani (Director-General of Forests, Iraq) as its new chairman. Abdul Hakim Siba'i (Director of Forests, Syria) and Zübeyir Akyilidiz (General Directorate of Forestry, Turkey) were elected vice-chairmen and Andreas Polycarpou (Director, Department of Forests, Cyprus) was appointed rapporteur. At the opening meeting, the Lebanon Minister of Agriculture welcomed the delegates on behalf of the host country, and A. R. Sidky, FAO Regional Representative, spoke in the name of the Director-General of FAO.
The most lively discussions centered around the multiple role of the forest and the relationship between forestry and alternative forms of land use. In this region, integration of productive forestry with the agricultural economy is a basic concept for foresters. Forestry is still in most cases being relegated to the poorest lands, and even here forest administrations have to fight to prevent the transfer of these lands to other uses which could result in their irreversible degradation. The commission insisted that foresters be strongly represented on land-use planning authorities and landuse boards.
In reviewing the national progress reports that had been submitted to it, the commission made special note of the progress being made in the region in the field of forestry education. This should be matched by a parallel effort in the administrative sector.
In CYPRUS, the Forestry College completed its twelfth scholastic year in July 1963. It is intended to provide a third-year course of training to offer up-to-date knowledge on forestry and specialization in certain selected fields, and short training courses have also been arranged for trainees on direct recruitment to the forest service. Work on the extension of the college has already started. A film "The Forest of Cyprus" was prepared in 1962. In IRAN, the Forestry and Range Institute of the College of Agriculture, University of Tehran at Karadj, has been established with the assistance of a United Nations Special Fund project which also assists in maintaining the Forest Ranger School, Gorgan. In IRAQ, a forestry faculty in the College of Agriculture has been established with the cooperation of the Federal Republic of Germany, which provides teaching staff, equipment, tools and laboratory facilities. Since the last session of the NEFC, 12 students graduated from the Near East Forest Rangers' School at Lattakia, SYRIA, and 38 students graduated from the Higher Forestry Institute at Abu-Graib, but after this graduation the institute will be closed and studies will be restricted to college level. In JORDAN, it is planned to recruit up to 1970 9 university graduates and 31 forest rangers to the Forest Department. In KUWAIT, it is proposed to request two fellowships in forestry and range management from FAO: four students will be trained as forest rangers at Lattakia. In LEBANON and SUDAN, Special Fund projects provide funds for granting fellowships. In the UNITED ARAB REPUBLIC, a general forestry course is taught to agricultural students at the University of Alexandria. In TURKEY, plans exist for the establishment of a new forestry faculty in Ege University, Izmir. It is also noteworthy that in addition to the existing Forest Technicians School in Duzce, Turkey, two more schools of this type are being opened at Trabzon and Antalya. Keeping also in mind the PAKISTAN Forestry College, Peshawar, it can be said without exaggeration that the improvement in forestry education all through the Near East will have a strong impact on the further progress of forestry in general.
Delegates had a particularly useful discussion on shelterbelts (elements of the infrastructure) and windbreaks (farm level). The benefits of the latter should be assessed, not independently, but in cumulo as an integral part of the economy of the farm. An attempt will be made to organize another FAO training center and study tour on this theme.
The commission decided to amalgamate its committee on forest research and Its working party on forestry education into one new working party, and to enlarge the terms of reference of its working party on forest range management to take into consideration all relevant aspects of forest and watershed development policies. Programs of work for these two subsidiary bodies were approved.
Offers to act as host for the commission's next session were extended by the delegates of Jordan, Iraq, and Syria. A decision was left to the Director-General of FAO, but it is unlikely a session can be held in 1966, the year of the Sixth World Forestry Congress. For reasons beyond the control of FAO, there have so far always occurred long gaps between the sessions of the Near East Forestry Commission. This is unfortunate, because everyone is increasingly convinced of the usefulness for the promotion of forestry in developing areas of such meetings which give foresters a unique opportunity for exchanging views on various problems of common interest, and to learn from one another.
B. A. ANDERSON, Chief, Personnel Branch, FAO retired from the Organization in January 1965. A tall, genial, soft-spoken forester from Minnesota, Anderson took his forestry degree at the University of Washington, Seattle. He joined FAO in Rome in 1957 after serving 22 years in the United States Forest Service, latterly as Chief of Personnel at headquarters in Washington, D.C. At FAO he was responsible for staff personnel matters for seven years, and was highly respected. We look forward to seeing him at the Sixth World Forestry Congress in 1966.
