B. STREHLKE
B. STREHLKE is forestry specialist with the International Labour Organisation, Geneva.
FAO/ILO collaboration in organizing courses and seminars in developing countries
In December 1970 the tenth regional FAO/ILO forestry training course for developing countries was held at Bangui, Central African Republic, for French-speaking foresters from tropical Africa. This project was part of a series of seminars and courses which started in 1962, and a brief report is given here on their objectives and scope, the problems encountered and the results obtained, and on future work to be done in this area.
The distribution of the courses and seminars among different regions is shown in the accompanying table. With a participation of 221 fellows from 44 countries the programme has covered many of the developing countries in Africa and Asia which dispose of important forest resources. Latin America, until now, has had a smaller share in the programme, but it is intended to have the next FAO /ILO forestry course take place in that region.
Purposes
The first five courses and seminars, held in Nigeria, Burma, Gabon, Peru and the Philippines, were concerned mainly with logging of tropical hardwoods. The aim was to demonstrate and give practice in efficient working techniques and methods for increasing labour productivity, reducing logging waste and damage to the remaining stand and site, reducing physical stress and accidents, and in the way of rendering forestry an economically viable industry providing jobs to the rural communities under reasonable working and living conditions.
The more recent courses and seminars, which have taken place in Kenya, Tunisia, Japan and the Central African Republic, were more varied in content and included subjects such as planting and establishment work, pruning, thinning of plantation forests, and charcoal making with portable kilns. The emphasis was however still kept on demonstrating efficient logging practices.
At the outset the intention had been to teach instructors who would in turn train foresters and forest workers in their own countries. However, it soon became evident that even a period of two months occupied mainly in practical exercises was too short to train participants, who often had little or no previous experience of logging work, up to the required standard. Moreover, in most countries the institutional structure covering forestry and forest industries did not permit the straightforward organization of training of field personnel. For this reason the later courses had to be content with demonstrating the benefit of training in efficient working techniques so as to pave the way for more substantial follow-up action and support at the national level.
|
Region |
Year |
Host country |
Countries participating |
Fellows |
|
Africa - West English - speaking |
1962 |
Nigeria |
4 |
23 |
|
Africa - West French- speaking |
1963 |
Gabon |
8 |
22 |
|
1970 |
Central African Rep. |
10 |
2 1 |
|
|
Africa - East |
1967 |
Kenya |
8 |
22 |
|
Africa - North |
1968 |
Tunisia (course) |
3 |
|
|
1968 |
Tunisia (seminar) |
3 |
32 |
|
|
Asia |
1962 |
Burma |
6 |
26 |
|
1966 |
Philippines |
9 |
26 |
|
|
1969 |
Japan |
12 |
25 |
|
|
Latin America |
1965 |
Peru |
6 |
24 |
|
TOTAL |
|
|
¹14 |
221 |
¹ Some countries were represented on more than one course.
Preparation
The courses and seminars were jointly prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Labour Organisation. Funds were made available from the United Nations Development Programme and from the regular budget of the two organizations. In addition support from bilateral aid programmes was repeatedly secured, in particular from Switzerland. In several instances the government of the host country or local industries also provided financial help, notably in the case of the courses in Japan and the Philippines.
Clearance of the financial arrangements for most of the projects usually involved protracted procedures which ended in there being an extremely short time available for confirming a host country, making all the local arrangements, preparing the programme, inviting countries to participate, purchasing equipment, recruiting instructors, and selecting and notifying candidates.
A member of either FAO or ILO staff had usually to visit the host country as far as possible in advance in order to adjust the training programme to the local facilities available, secure local support and make the necessary material arrangements for the participants. Care had to be taken to find a locality providing both a reasonable standard of board and lodging and where forest operations were being conducted nearby, so that equipment to be provided from outside could be kept to the minimum. Whenever possible neighbouring countries were visited on the same occasion with a view to taking their needs also into account in adapting the project, interviewing possible trainees, and finding suitable instructors.
It has been most gratifying that national forest services involved in these projects have collaborated so willingly to overcome the various obstacles that inevitably arise, so that in spite of the constraints of time and money no major difficulties have been encountered in carrying through the projects according to plan.
Participants
Certain courses were organized for participants at the technician level (Kenya), some for university graduate level (Philippines and Japan) and some for both levels (Central African Republic).
The technician is obviously more suited to serve in turn as an instructor, whereas the university graduate, especially if he fills a fairly senior position, is better placed to ensure that some follow-up action is taken in his home country. In Tunisia a good attempt was made to secure advantages in both directions by arranging a four-week technician course comprising mainly practical demonstrations and exercises, and during the last week of this course holding concurrently a seminar for graduates combining demonstrations and discussion periods. In this way the graduates were enabled to obtain first-hand knowledge of the course content and to study the best means of using the experience acquired by the technicians.
The general intention was to have equal representation from government forest administrations, forestry training institutions and the logging industries. In effect the first group was usually over-represented and the third underrepresented, which was a disadvantage in that in most countries logging operations are carried out by private agencies and not by forest services.
Lectures and instructions were given in one international language only, English, French or Spanish, as the case might be, and this sometimes had the effect of limiting the participation of trainees at the technician level.
The preferred age group for participants has been between 25 and 35 years. With few exceptions all had undergone forestry training. Fellowships for the courses covered reasonable expenses for board, lodging and travel.
Participants have normally been nationals of countries of the region During the seminar held in the Central African Republic, however, a small number of expatriate foresters were included who were working on development projects in the countries for which the seminar had been designed. This inclusion helped to widen the range of expertise which could be demonstrated, and hopefully stimulated follow-up activities in individual countries.
Staff
The host country has usually provided a director or co-director and other technical and administrative personnel. In the Philippines and Japan, local specialists were responsible for the main part of the lectures and demonstrations. Otherwise, reliance has chiefly been on international staff.
The first courses depended too much on instructors with largely European experience and with limited acquaintance with conditions in developing countries. Later courses increasingly made use of instructors employed in the host country or at least in the region. Several instructors have by now been engaged several times and have thus accumulated much useful experience; one instructor has served on four different courses.
The sponsoring organizations have been regularly represented by technical staff, who help not only with the general running of a project but also actively contribute to the programmes.
Programmes
The first four courses in Burma, Nigeria, Gabon and Peru followed roughly the same pattern based on the main activities in tropical hardwoods logging: cutting and extraction, planning, road building, felling and conversion, skidding and transport. They had a duration of two months and included practical exercises undertaken by small groups of trainees.
The seminars in the Philippines and Japan each lasted approximately one month. As already said, participants were almost exclusively of the graduate level, many of them holding senior positions. The programme consisted of lectures, discussions and demonstrations. A large variety of different operations was shown and papers provided on a number of subjects such as the use of aerial photographs in the planning of logging operations, cable systems applied for skidding of logs, work studies in forestry, comparison of mechanized and labour-intensive forestry work, establishment of plantation forests for industrial exploitation, payment systems for forestry workers, safety and health in forestry operations.
In the Kenya and Tunisia courses the emphasis was on the training of forest workers during a one-month period in basic logging techniques with hand tools. Mechanical equipment was also used and the limits of applying either one or the other were explained. Forests used for the practical exercises included softwood plantations and natural hardwood forests of small and medium size, offering favourable conditions for training.
In both courses the trainees constituted a fairly homogeneous group.
In the most recent seminar the training period had to be restricted to ten working days only, for a mixed group of junior and senior foresters. The varied programme satisfied a wide range of interests. A number of participants came from forestry training centres and all aspects of training-its planning and organization, teaching techniques, use of audiovisual aids, training of trainers, etc. - formed a central part of the programme.
Generally speaking, the length of the course that can be held, the level of instruction, the amount of practical work, the training subjects, etc., depend considerably on the money available, on the conditions in the host country, and on the qualifications of the participants which can only be fully known once they have assembled together. For all these reasons, a project must have a maximum of adaptability and flexibility.
The response of participants at the end of their training period has in general been quite favourable. Many of them indicated that they found the opportunity of studying logging techniques under the conditions prevailing in their own region as definitely more profitable than being sent overseas for similar training, even if it lasted longer.
In most cases participants said that they would have preferred a longer stay but admitted that it might then have been difficult for them to attend. The large majority said that they would wholly or partly be able to give application to the experiences they had gained. Quite a number of participants have in fact been contacted again after their return to their own countries, and obviously have been able to make use of what they had learned and seen.
It is of course difficult to give any precise measure of the impact of the ten courses and seminars held so far within the countries which have participated in this programme. Undoubtedly the host countries have gained an identifiable advantage from them. In some cases the courses have led to definite follow-up action: for example, in west Africa, the setting-up of several FAO logging training projects under the UNDP Special Fund; in Peru, a training project established under Swiss bilateral aid; in Uganda and Tanzania, projects financed from ILO Regular Programme and UNDP technical assistance funds; the course in Tunisia has been followed by national courses in Morocco carried out with ILO assistance, and others are foreseen in Algeria.
Generally speaking, much more could be achieved in this respect, greater efforts being required from the sponsoring international organizations and from the participating countries. The main problem is to find the necessary finance.
One quite definite advantage of the courses and seminars has been to reveal the potentials of regional collaboration at a time when national forest services, forestry schools, and forest research centres are finding new strength. The FAO/ECE/ILO Committee on Forest Working Techniques and Training of Forest Workers, which groups western and eastern European countries, represents a model of the form such cooperation can take. This committee arranges studies, seminars, symposia, courses and so forth, which are of accepted value to the participating countries. A similar committee has been set up by FAO and ILO under the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission, but this body has up to now had little opportunity to function properly because of the difficulties of calling together representatives of the countries of such a vast region and with such differences in forestry conditions and economic circumstances.
The FAO/ILO courses and seminars have made apparent a considerable demand for teaching aids suitable for developing countries, preferably prepared on a regional or interregional basis. For this reason, ILO has issued two illustrated training manuals in English, French and Spanish editions dealing with the selection and maintenance of logging hand tools and with manual and mechanical tools for the felling and crosscutting of tropical trees in natural forests. These publications are useful by-products of the projects.
Should there be further regional or sub-regional courses and seminars of this sort organized together by FAO and ILO? The answer of the participants in previous projects has been a definite "yes."
At the seminar held recently in the Central African Republic the participants asked for a similar seminar to be arranged after an interval of two years, to last about three weeks, to be held preferably in the Ivory Coast.
Future courses should probably be more specialized. Work study and efficiency are subjects that could be dealt with in greater depth, for instance. Furthermore particular follow-up activities should be built into future projects, which should at the same time be less hastily prepared.
It is at any rate to be hoped that this programme will continue and be improved because the collaboration between FAO and ILO in this field has provided one of the more rewarding, even if unspectacular, measures of progress in world forestry over the past years.
