Teaching social forestry
New Malaysian forestry strategy
Forestry and biotechnology
The multiple uses of Gliricidia sepium
US tree-planting increases
Forestation in Tibet
Irish-American agreement
Latin American news
VILLAGE RESIDENT IN GHANA how to teach community forestry?
A workshop on the socio-economic aspects of social forestry held in Bangkok between 18 and 22 September 1984 had approximately 60 participants from India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Resource persons came from the workshop's sponsor, the East-West Center in Hawaii, and from FAO.
Apart from helping to identify what are seen as the most serious socio-economic grey areas in knowledge about planning and execution of social forestry projects, the workshop was also expected to suggest elements that should be incorporated in university curricula on social forestry. To this end, there was significant representation from universities in some of the participating countries and especially from Thailand's Kasetsart University, at which the FAO/SIDA (Swedish International Development Authority) Forestry for Local Community Development programme has an ongoing curriculum development project.
Two working groups were formed, one to concentrate on identifying priority research issues and the other on curriculum matters; joint plenary sessions before and after group meetings ensured coordination. The issues that deserve priority research attention in the region seem to fall into three main overlapping categories:
· organizational/institutional/legal aspects (including weaknesses of both the intervening agencies and beneficiaries "receiving" organizations);· people's effective and sustained participation, and its determinants;
· other socio-economic dimensions especially us they affect the distribution of both benefits and costs in social forestry.
Considerable attention was given to the fact that while planners or project executors generally mean well, there seems to be a considerable divergence between their view of what is valuable and deserving of priority and that of the intended rural beneficiaries. The means of more correctly understanding rural people's perceptions was seen to he crucial, but the workshop suggested that current indicators and measuring systems fail to record this accurately, if at all.
The key specific proposed areas of research can be summarized as follows:
1. Development of planning methodologies specific to socioeconomic analysis of social forestry projects.2. Development of improved indicators for people's perceptions and preferences for use in planning.
3. Distribution of benefits from and costs of social forestry (and influence on people's willingness to participate).
4. Improved institutional coordination and legal frameworks for social forestry including role of NGOs)) and for people's participation.
5. Rural people's perception of social forestry's costs and benefits and its influence on participation cultural, historical and political context to be considered also).
On curriculum development, it became clear that the approaches of the various universities remain for the moment in a state of flux, While the commitment is there to include social forestry in programmes, there is as yet no consensus on whether one is better advised to do so at undergraduate, postgraduate or "refresher course" level. Examples of all three approaches exist, but they are still too new to evaluate. A commonly identified problem is leek of lime. Classroom hours are limited, and to cram into them the numerous hits of knowledge a "social forester'' needs risks creating foresters who are socially aware but perhaps not adequately competent in what they must do in the field.
Undergraduate social forestry "specialization'' is another option being explored, but such programmes perhaps also may face charges of skill dilution. The workshop did not come out with a clear recommendation on how social forestry should he taught, but instead worked out check-lists of elements to he taught at the levels of field operators, their supervisors and higher-level cadres. The workshop made it clear that an officer's awareness of what social skills may he called for in a given situation is often just as important as possession of the skill itself.
WOOD PRODUCTS AT THE VILLAGE LEVEL goal of community forestry
A permanent forest estate is to be set up in Peninsular Malaysia to meet ecological requirements through the protection of catchment areas and watercourses, as well as for productive purposes. A three-pronged strategy has been adopted by the National
Forestry Council to meet the needs of sustained log supply and ecological requirements:
· Reduction in the annual logging rate from about 365967 ha in 1978 to about 149000 ha in 1986 and there-after.· Intensification of rehabilitation efforts through silvicultural treatment of logged areas in the permanent forests.
· Implementation of a large-scale compensatory plantation project involving the planting of 188183 ha with fast-growing tree species in the next 15 years.
The Government has decided to reduce the area of timber felled annually by a drastic 25 percent, to prevent a timber crisis in future, Under the new ruling, one of the ways chosen to address some of the crucial problems facing the forestry sector-depleting resources, excessive wastage and slow recovery rate-the total felled annually was to he progressively reduced from 200000 ha to 170000 ha in 1984; 160000 ha in 1985; and 149000 ha in 1986 and each successive year up until the year 2000.
The Forest Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has begun a new programme of basic research in biotechnology at the Forestry Sciences Laboratory in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. The new programme is part of a Forest Service initiative in biotechnology that includes other research groups at the Pacific Southwest Station in Berkeley. California, and the Forest Products laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin. The work includes studies in gene-splicing, microculture and genetic engineering.
The initiative marks the first major entry the Forest Service has made into the genetic engineering of forest trees. "The ultimate goal is to shorten the time it takes to produce better trees," said programme leader Neil Nelson. "Instead of using conventional tree-breeding methods to improve growth, wood quality, and resistance to insects and disease, we might eventually be able to transfer single genes or groups of genes from one kind of tree or plant into the tree species we want to improve. Even though this has actually been done with some micro-organisms and herbaceous plants, we have a long way to go in forestry.''
"The programme has three objectives," Nelson said. "One is to try to find cells whose genes allow them to grow into complete tree seedlings when cultured in a nutrient-rich mixture. This ability may he controlled by only a few genes, not hundreds as we once thought.
"The second is to use these cells to screen for mutations in genes that control resistance to chemicals, particularly herbicides. Seedlings that are resistant to weed-killing chemicals will have a better chance of surviving their first few years in a managed plantation. Such a screening technique would be commercially valuable, as it is for crop plants.
"The third objective is to grow masses of tree cells in culture and subject them to the toxins or poisons from fungi that attack trees. The cells that survive the toxins would be micro-cultured into fungus-resistant tree seedlings. In all these objectives, the growing of new trees front tissue-cultured single cells is called 'somacloning'," be explained.
Journal of Forestry
Gliricidia sepium (madero negro or madero-cacao), a species native to Central America and the Caribbean, is frequently used in this region to form living fences, to afford shade in coffee plantations and to provide posts and fuelwood. It is also an important generator of biomass.
In Costa Rica, where madero negro is used extensively. CATIE (the Tropical Agricultural Research and Training Centre) has recently conducted various studies on its characteristics, its present uses and its yield in fuelwood and biomass. These studies show that the tree is easy to manage and has many advantages - among others, the case with which it propagates vegetatively, anti the rapid growth of its shoots which enables it to he cut every one or two years.
The tree does not reach a height of more than 20 metres. Unless the coppice is harvested periodically, it degenerates and produces hardly any fuelwood. However, if the tree is used for shade in coffee plantations, this characteristic becomes an advantage, because pruning once or twice a year is not necessary, and the costs of coffee production are thus reduced.
In addition to being a species that fixes nitrogen, Gliricidia sepium provides the soil with a large quantity of organic material every sear by shedding its leaves in the summer - something that does not happen if it is pruned regularly. The hedges of Gliricidia sepium provide fuelwood and posts if cut every two years.
Greater and better utilization of this species would make an important contribution to forestry in Latin America and the Caribbean.
COSTA RICA'S MULTI-PURPOSE TREE monitoring Gliricidia sepium's growth and habits
The USDA Forest Service reports that in each of the past three years, more trees have been planted in the United States than in any previous year. In 1984. 1020000 ha were planted, five times the area planted 35 years ago. About 30 percent of this tree-planting was on non-industrial private lands; 56 percent on forest industry lands; 11 percent on national forest lands; and 3 percent on other public lands.
Forestation in Tibet is targeted at 66000 ha by the year 2000 as against the present total of only 13000 ha. The autonomous region's grazing grounds are also expected to reach 2.6 million ha by the end of this century.
Specifically, each household in farming, semi-farming and semi-pastoral areas is required to plant 50 trees and one mou (about 614 m2) of grass while those in pastoral areas are expected to create or improve two or three mou of grazing ground.
An agreement has been signed between the Irish-American Cultural Institute (United States) and the Department of Fisheries and Forestry (Ireland) on a sponsored tree-planting project. Under the terms of the agreement donors will he able to sponsor the planting of trees in Ireland in counties of their choice.
Over past centuries. Ireland was denuded of its forests, and despite an active and successful state-hacked reforestation campaign, only about 5 percent of the land is under trees. The project is considered a practical way for Irish Americans to express goodwill toward Ireland as well as enhance the beauty of the Irish countryside.
Bulletin of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland
1. Wood energy in Latin America
During 1984, a great deal of attention was devoted to wood energy in rural areas in Latin America and the Caribbean There were several meetings devoted to the subject, but special mention must he made of the Round Table on Dendrology held in January 1984 in the FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean. This was chaired by the Assistant Director-General. Mr Mario Jalil, ant attended by many experts from the various Latin American countries.
After underlining the strategic role of forest resources as a source of energy and the present lack of interest shown by many countries of the region in developing and making use of this resource the round table directed its efforts toward solving all aspects of wood energy problems. A strategy was suggested for improving the productivity of the existing resource, creating new resources, organizing their distribution and marketing, and promoting and disseminating effective techniques for the conversion and use of energy. This strategy, it was agreed, should always he implemented within the framework of integrated rural development. Technical cooperation among developing countries (TCDC) was considered to he an instrument of great importance for accelerating the spread of appropriate solutions to energy problems through local resources, and it was proposed that a technical cooperation network among countries be established.
The participants likewise identified the priorities for technical cooperation, such as the preparation of wood energy forecasts, the promotion of participatory systems for rural populations, anti the training of technical personnel at various levels.
Finally, it was agreed to convert the most relevant conclusions into project ideas for inclusion in the proposed Plan of Action for the Development of Rural Energy in Latin America.
Three months later, consultants from 13 Latin American and Caribbean countries met at the same venue for an Expert Consultation on a Plan of Action for Rural Development in Latin America and the Caribbean organized by the FAO Regional Office in collaboration with the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Latin-American Energy Organization (OLADE). The background paper set out the ideas of the three agencies and discussion centred on various aspects of the problem of developing rural energy by means of the forest biomass, the procedure for establishing priority actions, and the form, timetable and organizational implications of these actions.
The subject of the forest biomass as an energy source of prime importance for the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean was discussed again in October, in Buenos Aires, with the cooperation of the Argentine National Industrial Technology Institute, and in November, in Mexico, with the collaboration of Mexico's Undersecretariat for Forestry and Wildlife.
2. Colombian deforestation threatens fuelwood
As a result of widespread deforestation, some 8 million rural Colombians are finding it increasingly difficult to secure sufficient firewood to meet their domestic energy needs. An environmental study by Colombian scientist Jose Torres reveals that 1.2 million families now spend between five and eight hours a week collecting wood for fuel.
Inderena, the Government's environment protection agency, calculated that as many as 7 million m3 of timber are utilized annually in Colombia for firewood which year by year is becoming more scarce in densely populated zones. The result is that peasants have to walk further each month to obtain firewood.
It is estimated that an average family of six persons utilizes over 500 kg of wood for fuel monthly. Approximately three-quarters of all rural families use firewood as cooking fuel. In addition, such centres of rural industry as village sugar mills consume large quantities of wood in districts without electricity. Each year, some 500000 ha of forest arc destroyed in Colombia, primarily by clearing and for crops in uninhabited zones. Against this, no more than 30000 ha are reforested annually.
Plans to replace firewood with other energy sources are still at the take-off stage. Government credit for the purchase of solar energy equipment is now available to small-holders, and in the last two years several thousand units for domestic use have been sold. But the bulk of the equipment now being marketed has insufficient capacity to power stoves. Thus, for the foreseeable future, radiant power will not replace firewood to any significant extent.
Another alternative, biogas, is considered impracticable on a wide scale. Only 6 percent of Colombian rural households own sufficient livestock to produce the quantity of inputs required for biomass systems. Over the long haul, then. The demand for firewood will only decrease with the extension of the electricity network. Today, 1.4 million Colombian families in country zones still have no power services, and though the network is being expanded in a US$30 million programme, it will he decades fort before the country is covered adequately by the national grid.
Consequently, until such time as peasants are provided with a low-cost alternative energy source, they will continue to rely on firewood - and the nation's forests will continue to shrink at an alarming rate.
OPEC Bulletin
February 1985
3. Promoting agroforestry
Agroforestry activities in Latin America were the subject of a round table organized by the FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean in Bogota. Colombia, in July 1984. Colombia's Corporación Nacional de Investigación y Fomento Forestal (CONIF) hosted the event, which was opened on behalf of FAO by Mr Juan Ignacio de la Vega and on behalf of CONIF by its president, Mr Gerardo Lozano. Many experts from serious Latin American countries took part.
The participants recognized the great economic potential of the forestry sector, the importance of having a uniform methodology for evaluating agroforestry systems in all countries, the need to train professionals in this subject, and the necessity of incorporating peasants into agroforestry programmes. Two major suggestions made concerned the selection of zones for agroforestry activities and the setting Up of a technical cooperation network on these activities. Finally, it was decided that CONIF should start technical cooperation and information activities.
