FAO in Latin America and the Caribbean
IUFRO World Congress
The role of gaps in forest growth
Forest prisons
FAO PROJECT IN GUATEMALA a significant Latin American program
Latin America contains extensive - and largely undeveloped - forest resources. FAO's main efforts in forestry here have been connected with the development of the region's vast forest potential and with the integration of agricultural and forestry activities.
FAO has provided technical assistance in logging and skidding methods in numerous member countries in the region. In Mexico, for instance, an exploratory mission was sent to assist in the development of a national pulp and paper industry. In Costa Rica, FAO helped in the clearing of forests for road construction.
These are but a few of the many examples of projects and missions contained in FAO's report on the Eighteenth Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean. Each project currently in operation is numbered and adumbrated under the section heading of its respective agricultural field. In this way, the report can be used as a quick reference to all the forestry and agricultural programmes undertaken by FAO and the member countries in 1982-83 and the first months of 1984.
The report describes, for example, FAO's response to the emergency outbreak of African swine-fever and how new precautions were taken to prevent not only this particular exotic disease but exotic diseases in general. The fight to save swine from death by disease is counterbalanced in the report by the exigency to increase animal reproduction by the establishment of artificial insemination services.
There has been considerable activity in research and technology, and in collaboration among countries to exchange experiences on appropriate technologies for the production of low-cost biogas, solar, wind, and dendro-energy. The report gives an account of the workshops established for the purpose of such exchanges.
A number of projects have been undertaken to assist in the practice of better farming methods; this has largely been facilitated by the utilization of a video system, which provides audio-visual training courses to farmers in the most important fields of agriculture.
In order to prevent a starvation crisis in impoverished areas, the Food and Nutrition Surveillance System was established in Mexico in 1983. This project monitors the rate of food consumption and can detect or predict any likelihood of a food shortage. In such circumstances corrective measures are advised. FAO has supported this project with a document entitled Field programme management: food and nutrition a - training pack.
But these are only a handful of the projects and missions contained in this report, which will benefit anyone interested in a short course on FAO's agricultural activities in Latin America and the Caribbean.
A GAP IN THE FOREST a new study of its function
The International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO) is organizing its eighteenth world congress in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, from 7 to 21 September 1986. All foresters and researchers interested in forestry are being invited; forest scientists from various disciplines and from about 100 different countries are expected to attend. The overall theme of the congress will be "Forestry Science Serving Society''.
Special attention will be given to the following topics: a holistic conception of forestry; more basically oriented forestry research; the responsibilities of forestry energy saving forestry; multipurpose forestry; the protective character of forestry; forestry in developing countries; the reclamation of degraded lands; wood quality and effective wood use; atmospheric pollution and deposition as impacts on forests and forestry's own research methods; and technology transfer.
Activities for IUFRO's approximately 240 research groups are being scheduled, with opportunities to suggest ideas and report research findings during different types of meetings. There will also be poster sessions and 19 post congress excursions. Those wishing for additional information should write to: Eighteenth IUFRO World Congress, Organization Committee, Cankarjev dom, Congress and Cultural Centre, Kidricev Park 1, 61000 Ljubljana, Yugoslavia.
Dense forests undergo constant modifications in both structure and flora which are caused by natural catastrophes such as landslides resulting from earthquakes, timber felled by cyclones or by lightning, or more restricted incidents like the fall of individual trees.
In the gaps resulting from such incidents, natural regrowth takes place. A two part study published in Bois et forêts des tropiques (third and fourth quarters, 1983) examines part of this process. B. Rollet, the author and a conservationist with France's Overseas Forests and Waters Department, takes as an example a Brazilian Amazonian forest near Rio Curua Una. During a forest survey of a 100-ha lot, he observed the existence of numerous gaps caused by individual trees that had fallen naturally. The aim of the survey was to compare the botanical composition of the gaps with the surrounding undergrowth and assess their contribution to the general dynamics of the forest.
Seventy-three gaps, each greater than 100 m2, were surveyed. The most prevalent species were studied and compared with those growing in the surrounding forest in order to assess "the stimulus exerted by light incidence in the gaps in comparison with pre-existing vegetation". The results of the comparison are examined in very detailed tables. A first assessment indicates that there are no great differences in composition between the flora in the gaps and the undergrowth.
Nevertheless, when examining the species found only in the gaps, the author notes that these are nearly always light-requiring species and that "among the large trees there is a notable proportion of commercial species".
The author poses the question, "Do the gaps have a beneficial effect on the forest?", and he is of the opinion that the answer is positive. Modifying the theory advanced by a research worker, who claimed that "windfallen trees are the starting-point for forest growth'', Rollet notes that the windfallen trees "cause the presence of heliophilic plants in the forest vegetation''.
CONVICTED MURDERER WITH FAMILY a second chance in the forest
GROWING UP IN THE FOREST children of forest workers
The extensive tropical forests of India's Maharashtra State, where temperatures have been known to exceed 50°C, are now being used as residences for convicted murderers who have been "released" after ten years of imprisonment. In the forests, they are given the opportunity to earn a living and maintain a family.
As reported by Dennis Craig in his article "New life for murderers in India's open forest prisons" (World Food Programme News, April-June 1984), these "released" convicts are men like Bombay's Ram Singh, an ax-wrestler turned milk vendor who, on one of the rare occasions when he lost his temper, "seized" (as he describes it) his unfortunate antagonist and then "squeezed too hard", realizing only after the man "had stopped moving" that he had committed murder, or Sarjerao Dhoble, who said he drew his kukri knife only when words failed to settle a land dispute.
Provided their crimes were not intentional and were committed in passionate de-fence of their dignity or rights, convicted murderers in Maharashtra like Singh and Dhoble are permitted to choose, after ten years of good conduct in prison, the alternative of an open forest prison. Every year of paid labour (with part of the payment going to a welfare fund), either clearing forest wasteland or working on the new plantations of teak and bamboo, reduces a criminal's sentence by two years.
Nearly 1000 murderers have transferred to the open forest prisons. This unique labour-force is an integrated part of Maharashtra's scheme to clear its jungles and regenerate the land for agricultural plantations. The scheme is also intended to teach impoverished forest peoples to conserve - rather than destroy - India's seriously diminished woodland.
The scheme has been made possible with the assistance of the World Food Programme which, since 1971, has channeled more than 100000 tonnes of food with a value of about US$34 million into Maharashtra's socio-agricultural enterprise, providing food not only for criminals but also for voluntary forest workers. The scheme has been so effective that the neighbouring states of Madhya Pradesh. Bihar and Orissa are planning to follow Maharashtra's example.
