Forestry development needs
Managing forest industries
A quality wood
Tropical timbers
All about mangroves
Making scientific policy
Agriculturists look at forestry
Combining cork and fodder in the Mediterranean
African tree-planting guide
A book of timber samples
SPLITTING GURJUN WOOD IN THE ANDAMAN ISLANDS forestry development takes time
A reappraisal of forestry development in developing countries. James J. Douglas. The Hague, Nijhoff/Junk. 1983. ISBN 90-247-2830-4. 178 p. Price: fl 75 (about US$33).
This interesting hook, written from a definite viewpoint rather than as an academic review, deals with some recent fundamental changes in the thinking about the development process in very poor countries, particularly the roles of industrialization and rural development. It attempts to make a link between general economic issues in development and the specific concerns and characteristics of the forestry sector of the developing countries. The author, an Australian economist, draws heavily on his experience as an FAO/UNDP consultant in Bangladesh.
Part 1 deals first with general issues in economic development, including economic growth, population growth, modernization theories, and the allocation of capital in industries and agriculture. Bangladesh serves as an example. Then income distribution is presented as a critical issue, in terms of the need to improve the lot of the rural poor as part of an overall national economic improvement. This distribution is considered in the context of international trade, the arguments of export versus import substitution, and the so-called new international economic order.
It is argued that a deliberate national policy aimed at rapid industrialization may worsen credit problems for small farmers: the financial dualism phenomenon. Even the so-called green revolution is seen as a limited success for income distribution. In low-income countries, the scope for improving welfare through income redistribution is limited unless overall income growth also occurs, but social, economic and religious patterns and conditions of village structure frustrate many attempts. Dependency theory, appropriate technology and the basic needs approach are reviewed in relation to income distribution.
In part 2, forestry development is considered in its dual and sometimes conflicting aspects of large-scale communal activities. The translation of economic arguments into forestry terms is examined. The underlying theme suggests that development will he slow and must he phased from a basis of growth in rural incomes and output rather than from the superimposition of a modern industrial sector. Even appropriately designed capital-intensive and sophisticated technology will not directly benefit the poor, because of the absolute shortage of investment capital. The limited success of industrialization in Bangladesh is analysed. Forestry can assist rural development (e.g., fuelwood production, settlement of shifting cultivators), but it can also impede it (officials protecting "their'' forest against encroachers, absorbing scarce capital). Examples of successes in rural forestry are taken from the Philippines, northern Thailand. Kenya and China. A community forestry project for Bangladesh is discussed.
Part 3, deals with new approaches to development. Some reasons for the disappointing results of development are reviewed first, leading to the author's major point that development theory and practice in the past have been based on unsuitable postulations of political maturity anti government intent. In very poor countries he sees the achievement of an agricultural surplus and reduction of absolute destitution as primary objectives. He recommends that forest industry be aimed at export rattler than at import substitution (leading to supposed economic independence) and that it he strongly linked to agriculture.
The final plea is for upgrading the study of political sociology of the forestry sector in developing countries, because a change is needed perhaps more in the character of forestry administration than in improving productivity or institutions. Such a change, conceptual rather than technical, in the transformation of forestry will remain in many ways an internal matter. Development agencies, it is argued, need to emphasize more problem analyses than project initiation, more the effectiveness of assistance than the capacity to disburse funds.
Appendixes deal with the economy and the forest industries of Bangladesh and with the economic desirability of converting plain land forests (mainly sal) to fast-growing plantations of, for example, eucalyptus.
In the past five years or so, FAO, often supported by national agencies, has initiated a number of programmes on such topics its local community development, social forestry, village forestry, and the prosperity approach, all of which seem to answer needs presented in this hook. The author's opinions on these endeavours would have been instinctive.
There are many typographical mistakes and a reference (to Hagen) ii missing from the bibliography. But these are minor annoyances in a hook that is very readable, with few hut sufficient tabular data, allowing the reader to concentrate on concepts and arguments. The book meets its objective of bringing macroeconomists and foresters together, and it may he suitable for seminar discussions in universities anti elsewhere.
D. Burger
Forestry Chronicle
Operations management in the forest products industry. Richard Baldwin. San Francisco.. Miller Freeman. 1984. 264 p.; 93 illustrations Price: US$ 59.50 (hardback); $45 (paperback).
Understanding the changes in the forest products industry and knowing how to react to them can make the difference between surviving only through the good times and surviving, the downturns as well.
Operations management in the forest products industry provides a base for understanding and managing change in this industry. In a systematic way, the hook covers the technical and managerial knowledge needed for success in the complex world of competition, advanced technology and rapidly changing economic anti environmental conditions. In addition, the hook reveals how attitudes can affect the success or failure of a mill.
Terminalia superba. Monograph by J. Groulez and P.J. Wood Nogent-sur-Marne, France. CTFT, 1984. 85 p. Many photographs, drawings, graphs and tables.
This monograph brings together in a single volume data currently available in English and French on Terminalia superba, the forest species whose wood is known under the trade names of "Limba" and "Frake'' in French-speaking countries and "Afara" in English-speaking ones. The hook is tile outcome of collective work by specialists of the Centre technique forestier tropical (CTFT) and the Commonwealth Forestry Institute.
Terminalia superba is a deciduous, very quick-growing African species that covers a vast natural range stretching from Sierra Leone and Guinea to Angola. In the first part of the book, the authors give a detailed botanical description, complete with drawings and photographs. They examine the climatic and soil requirements and note that the tree can withstand considerable variation from ideal conditions. A very heliophilous species given to growing in clusters. Terminalia superba, in its optimum habitat, may he the only dominant over a very wide area. Thanks to the high germinative power of its seeds, the tree is known its an "invader of cleared land". The authors study the structure of the natural stands and analyse the development of the young plant and of the adult tree, and the latter's aptitude for vegetative propagation. Although fairly free from diseases that might threaten its life and its growth, Afara may he affected by "heart rot'', which affects the quality of its wood. An important section of this first part is devoted to the silvicultural aspects of this species.
The second part of the hook studies the tree from the commercial point of view: the trunk, the sawn timber, the anatomical structure, the physical, mechanical and chemical characteristics, and the utilization of the wood (peeling and slicing internal and external joinery, carpentry, furniture-making).
The hook is attractively presented, easy to read and of interest to both the lay person and the expert. It contains good black-and-white photographs anti is completed by a lengthy bibliography.
Tropical timbers of the world. Marlin Chudnoff. Washington, D.C., USDA Forest Service. 1985. 464 p. Price: US$ 16.
This new publication will provide university, industrial anti other research facilities - as well as processors and importers of tropical woods - with a reference hook that is well organized anti easy to use.
The publication concisely describes tree and timber characteristics arid uses for various species in three geographical areas - tropical America, Africa, and Southeast Asia and Oceania. All 370 species are arranged alphabetically by their scientific name within each geographic area.
Species information includes scientific anti common names, distribution, general characteristics, weight, mechanical properties, drying and shrinkage, working properties, durability, preservation, and a listing of current uses.
In addition to the individual species entries, there is a section containing comparative tables of specific properties and end uses. Following these tables is an index of trade names and important common names, geographic regions, and scientific names.
To obtain a copy of Tropical timbers of the world, send US$16 to the Superintendent of Documents, US Government Printing Office, 710 N. Capitol Street, Washington, DC 20402 (tel. (202) 275-2091). The stock number is 001-001-00607-6.
PART OF MANGROVE ECOSYSTEM a new handbook la available
Handbook for mangrove area management. Lawrence S. Hamilton and Samuel C. Snedaker, eds. Joint publication of the Environment and Policy Institute of the East-West Center. Hawaii, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), UNEP and Unesco. Available upon request from Division of Marine Sciences, Science Sector, Unesco, 7, place de Fontenoy, 75007 Paris, France.
This hook does two things: it summarizes the most up-to-date information on the range of products, benefits and services provided by the world's mangrove resources, and it provides guidelines for sustainable, multiple-use management of mangrove ecosystems. The problems of mangrove conservation and utilization are discussed in five sections:
· Policy and planning.· Management options, including recreation, fisheries, mariculture wood production, salt production and human habitation.
· Restoration and establishment of mangrove vegetation in intertidal land areas.
· Economic considerations of a sustainable, multi-use approach to mangrove resource management.
· Development of national management plans.
Other publications on mangroves include Bibliography on mangrove research 1600-1675 (Unesco, 1981); Mangrove ecosystems: research methods (Unesco, 1984); and Global status of mangrove ecosystems (IUCN, 1981).
World directory of national science and technology policy-making bodies. Science Policy Studies and Documents series, no. 59. Paris, Unesco. 1984. 99 p. Price: FF 21.
The organizations listed in this directory all have a central policymaking function at the national level for the planning, organization or coordination of scientific and technological activities. The information was compiled by questionnaire, and has now been entered into Unesco's computerized international data base known as CDS/ISIS, which is available free of charge upon request. To the extent that information was supplied, each entry includes the name of the body's executive, a description of its aims and objectives, the names and periodicity of its bulletins and other publications, and an evaluation of its place in the policymaking network of the country.
Actes du Séminaire "Agriculture et forêt". Proceedings of a seminar organized by the European Association of Agricultural Economists, the Laboratoire d'économie forestière of the National Institute for Agricultural Research. Paris, and the Ecole nationale du génie rural et des eaux et forêts, Nancy, France, 1983. 398 p.
This publication contains the proceedings of the Fifth European Seminar of the European Association of Agricultural Economists, held in the Ecole française du génie rural des eaux et forêts, from 19 to 21 April 1983 at Nancy.
The seminar brought economists from several European countries together to exchange ideas and experiences. The countries represented were Austria, Belgium, Denmark. Finland, France, Ireland. Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
The four main topics dealt with were rural land use; the contribution of forests to rural economy; farm wood-lots; and the role of forests in the development of marginal areas But certain problems received closer attention: farmers and their activities in other people's forests; the employment of forest workers-cum-agricultural labourers; small forest investments in farming; the search for a better balance ager-saltus-silva; and the conflict between agricultural and forestry activities - to name only a few.
Thirty-five reports develop these topics, with reference to the author's own experience in his/her own country. The contributions in English are all preceded by a summary in French. The volume concludes with some of the main comments made by the participants during the working meetings.
"Aménagement sylvo-pastoral des forêts de chêne-liège." Doctoral thesis by H. Lillelund. Copenhagen, Den Kongelige Veterinaer og Landbohøjskole Skovbruginstituttet. 1981. 225 p. Many tables and figures.
H. Lillelund, in his thesis, starts from the principle that modern animal husbandry competes directly with people for food by using agricultural resources that could have beets used for human nutrition to feed livestock. He then studies the possibility of "animal production based on natural resources that cannot be consumed by people", such as the fodder resources of the forests, an ideal combination of which would be grazing and cork-oak growing.
He centres his research on Mediterranean cork-oak stands, particularly in Morocco, where almost all the forests are state-owned and traditionally used for cork production by the state and for intensive grazing by stock-raising communities. One chapter is devoted to studying the economic value of the cork industry and the uses of cork. Tables are given analysing developments in sales, prices and exports during recent years.
Tree planting in Africa south of the Sahara. Nairobi, Environmental Liaison Centre. 1984. 75 p. Free from ELC, P.O. Box 72461, Nairobi, Kenya.
Extensive deforestation in developing countries has created a critical need for effective tree-planting programmes. Tree planting in Africa south of the Sahara describes the stages involved in such a programme, including assessment, nursery management, and maintenance.
The guide presents planting techniques that have been used successfully in Africa and that could he applied elsewhere.
Selecting trees that will thrive in a specific area requires climatic, ecological and soil analysis. The guide lists the basic characteristics of different climatic and ecological zones, presents maps of Africa illustrating these zones, and discusses the soil attributes that are important for planting trees.
Included is a chart that lists more than 30 species, their site requirements and uses, and the best methods for planting. While local species - especially those resistant to burning practices, overgrazing, pests, and diseases - may not be listed, they are often sound candidates for a tree-planting programme.
The importance of quality care for seedlings is emphasized. Strong plants are more likely to survive, even in harsh environments, and arc therefore more cost-effective. The guide provides advice about the location and management of nurseries and describes practical techniques for sowing, transplanting seedlings, watering, shading, pruning roots, and controlling quality.
Timber monographs. Edmondo Palutan. Trans. W.W. Brown. Milan, Palutan Editrice. 3 vols.
Sample veneers of 120 different timbers are contained in this three-volume set of books, previously available only in Italian and German, which has now been published in English.
Each of the three volumes has 40 samples of those timbers most used in the wood and furniture industries. Samples are mounted in loose-leaf cards which contain text relating to the particular timber on the back. Each card contains a sample of real wood veneer measuring 10 x 14 cm, together with botanical names, commercial and local names, and information on distribution, general characteristics, seasoning, specific gravity and properties and uses.
