Acceleration in MAB-IUFRO research
Social forest management
Spruce stability
Increment estimation group to meet
Forest history
(International Union of Forestry Research Organizations)
The "Man and the Biosphere" (MAB) programme is now moving into its tenth year, with an evaluation of the programme's scientific progress and impact scheduled for the 7th session of the International Coordination Council. The 6th session, held at the Unesco headquarters in Paris, 19-28 November 1979, saw a marked effort made to increase research already under way under MAB auspices. A total of 52 countries were represented.
Extended discussion centred on two previous workshops co-sponsored by MAB and the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO). These workshops, held in Hamburg, Federal Republic of Germany, in 1977 and Djakarta, Indonesia, in 1978, concentrated on tropical rainforest ecosystems, and had recommended the standardization of research methods and the use of systems analysis. The 6th Council session in Paris in November called for an acceleration of efforts in this direction.
Scientists from several countries met informally after the session to look at possibilities for cooperation in ecosystems research under the auspices of Unesco and MAB. Two parts of an action programme for 1980 were begun: (1) E.F. Brünig, Federal Republic of Germany, will coordinate research among European scientists in tropical and subtropical forest ecosystems together with a IUFRO working party; and (2) in the area of temperate forest ecosystems, systems analysis will be done by J.N.R. Jeffers, United Kingdom, while Dutch scientists will coordinate remote sensing and grassland ecosystem research, and French participants will handle vegetation classification and mapping.
The subject of "multiple-use management" received strong emphasis at a symposium of the IUFRO Forest Management Planning and Managerial Economics Group at Tisens near Bolzano, Italy, during the first week of May 1979. The symposium dealt with two major themes: (1) the multiple function of forest and management planning; and (2) the inventory and management systems with special reference to Mediterranean areas.
In addition to the traditional function of wood production, social functions of forest management were stressed. Such functions include water protection, protection for scientific purposes, pollution protection, erosion control and recreation. These benefits, it was felt, can be quantified in economic terms and should therefore be included in a set of management objectives and constraints. Basic to such multiple-use planning is an inventory of forest resources. Lively discussion followed on choosing proper strategies and silvicultural systems.
Recent research results have been underscoring the problem of stability of forest stands in general and spruce stands in particular. This conclusion was emphasized at a joint Unesco (MAB)/IUFRO symposium held in Brno, Czechoslovakia, from 29 October to 3 November 1979. The 49 scientists from 13 countries in attendance concluded that the MAB-IUFRO cooperation has been successful but that there is a further demand now to conduct a general survey of the facts in spruce forestry.
The IUFRO working group, "Estimation of Increment," will have its next meeting during the XVII IUFRO World Congress in Kyoto, Japan, in 1981. The main theme of the meeting, "Growth of single trees," was also the theme of the group's last meeting, held in Vienna, Austria, 10-14 September 1979. Anyone wishing to be on the group's mailing list should contact the Chairman, K. Johann, Forstliche Bundesversuchsanstalt, A-1131, Vienna, Austria.
Much activity is being generated by the IUFRO working group on forest history. First, the group held a symposium at the Ecole rationale du genie rural, des eaux et des forêts, Centre de Nancy, France, on 24-28 September 1979. The proceedings are available. Second, the group plans to report its findings to the IUFRO World Congress in Kyoto, Japan, 1981. Third, the group has set as the topic for its next symposium, in 1983, "The History of Forest Sciences." Finally, the group honoured the late M. Devèze of France, who had been the group's leader.
Two separate working groups have now been established, one, "Use and exploitation of forests," and the other, "History of forest areas and stand evolution." At the symposium in Nancy, 22 papers were presented to the first group; half were concerned with pre-industrial Europe and the other half with post-industrial Europe and the evolution in North America. The central theme of the 23 papers heard by the second group was the evolution of forest policy since the time of Napoleon III.
