World list of forestry periodicals
In 1953, FAO issued a first reference list of forestry periodicals and series published throughout the world. Since it was based on the complete list of literature currently reviewed by the Commonwealth Forestry Bureau, Oxford, in the preparation of Forestry Abstracts, it was entitled Forestry Abstracts Coverage List.
FAO handles its documentation interests through a Committee on Bibliography formed jointly with the International Union of Forest Research Organizations and presided over by Professor Eino Saari of Finland. This committee has recommended the compilation of a new up-to-date list to keep pace with the greatly expanding flow of forestry literature, and this work is now in hand, with the cooperation of the international documentation centers at Oxford, Reinbek and Washington.
When established, the new list will be published in an appropriate form. It will cover both regular periodicals and what are termed serials, that is publications issued as part of a systematic program but appearing at irregular intervals. Annual reports of forest administrations and much of the published work on research fall into this category.
Forest fire prevention in Venezuela
A technical assistance officer, Mr. R. L. Williams, recently completed an assignment of 18 months to advise on the forest fire problem in Venezuela. His help was asked for to determine the causes and occurrence of forest fires and the damage they inflict, as a basis for organizing a program of prevention and control.
He found that most fires are man-caused and their occurrence is most serious around areas of heavy population. They result every year in much damage to watersheds, forests, and ranges, and there is a great need for an aggressive campaign on the " ground level " to prevent fires.
The objectives of the FAO mission appear to have been met to a considerable degree in that the fire prevention campaign in Venezuela has been strengthened, a-better fire detection system has been set up and is functioning, and an improved fire control organization has been established. The men trained by the FAO officer are reported to be enthusiastic in carrying forward the work. Measures which he advocated have been put partially into effect, for instance for prevention of fire through education; for presuppression action through training of lookout and fire-brigade personnel and through construction and maintenance of fire-breaks; for detection through construction on selected points of lookout towers with radio communications and through issuance of better forest maps; and for suppression through the continuous training of fire-fighting crews. A fire manual is being prepared.
Appraisal of resource potentialities
Assessing the world's agricultural, forestry and fisheries resources in relation to rapidly growing populations is a matter of mounting concern. Estimates made for the United Nations World Population Conference put the current rate of population increase at about 1.6 percent per annum or around one hundred thousand per day.
FAO is well equipped for giving a reasonably authoritative answer to the question as to how actual or potential resources in croplands, pastures and rangelands, and forests can be developed to meet this increase. On the one hand, FAO has special possibilities for bringing together and appraising the international fund of knowledge which is continually accumulating regarding resource potentialities: on the other hand, it is in a position to assist substantially in developing the methodology and terminology involved in resource surveys, and in the sifting and analysis of data useful for long-term planning.
To test the possibilities, two pilot surveys have been undertaken to evaluate the potentialities and optimum use-patterns of agricultural, forest and fisheries resources. One covers the Ganges-Brahmaputra region in the Ear East, and the other the Euphrates-Tigris basin. Work on the first pilot area, after team visits from FAO Headquarters, is now sufficiently advanced to permit submission of a report to the governments concerned. A report on the second area will be completed later.
Arabic glossary of forestry terms
The Near East Forestry Conference, held at Amman at the end of 1952, requested FAO to prepare, as a matter of urgency, a glossary of technical forestry terms in Arabic. It would fill a long-felt want.
Some Arabic-speaking foresters of the region set to work immediately, and it was thanks to their devoted efforts that an Arabic-French-English glossary of about 1,000 words with definitions in Arabic could be issued by FAO in mimeographed form in 1954.
This original glossary was well received but there had not been time to submit it for approval to all parts of the Arabic-speaking world, so that naturally there was room for considerable improvement, both in new terms adopted and in showing regional variations.
A revision has just been started by two prominent foresters of the region, Mr. S. K. Shawki, the Director of Forestry in the Sudan, and Mr. H. Kittani, Director General of Forests, Iraq. It is hoped to add to the glossary a certain number of terms in common use in the field of wood technology and utilization. The final work will be submitted to recognized philologians for approval.
Latin-American forest research institute
A Latin-American forest research institute has now been functioning for two years at Mérida, Venezuela, in conjunction with the University of Los Andes. It has received generous financial support from the Venezuelan Government, from a number of other governments of the region, several private organizations in Venezuela, and several philanthropic foundations outside the region. FAO helps to finance the international staff.
The staff consists of Dr. A. J. Uzcategui-Burguera as Director, Dr. E. J. Schreuder as Technical Adviser, Dr. K. Hueck as forest botanist, Dr. R. Jorgensen as wood technologist and Dr. V. Sume as Chief of Documentation Service on a full-time basis, and several members of the faculty of the University of Los Andes on a part-time basis. These faculty members cover such fields as silviculture, forest management, botany, wood identification, forest inventory and economics, and pulp and paper. The equipment for laboratory and field work, and for documentation services continues to grow.
A series of publications was started with the issuing of Bulletin No. 1 which sets out the history, organization, personnel, and program of the Institute. Subsequent issues include one on Swietenia macrophylla, one on the genus Cedrela, and one on the forest regions of South America. These are obtainable directly from the institute.
The future of the institute will, it is hoped, be assured through the increasing support of Latin-American governments, and through the participation of research Fellows and students from many countries in the investigation and training programs which the Mérida staff is seeking to develop.
Research Fellowships
Of the ten André Mayer Fellowships awarded this year by FAO, two went to forest research workers, one from Finland, Mr. P. J. Viro, and the other from Thailand, Mr. Sorayut Karatna.
These Fellowships, named after the late Professor André Mayer, as a tribute to an outstanding figure in the scientific world and one of the founders of FAO, who was also a Professor of the Collège de France, and a member of the French Academy of Medicine and of the Academy of Science, are intended for career research workers who have already performed scientific work of high value in one of the technical fields of FAO's competence.
Mr. P. J. Viro is at present professor at the Forest Research Institute of the University of Helsinki. He has published scientific papers on soils and especially on the fertility of forest soils. The FAO Fellowship will defray his expenses for the time necessary for him to complete his work on forest soils, which will be carried out in his own laboratory as well as abroad in Switzerland, Germany and the United States. His studies will bear on methods of measuring and analyzing the fertility of forest soils and the standardization of such methods.
Mr. Sorayut Karatna is at present Chief of the North Thailand Forest Experiment Station at Chiengmai. He has been undertaking investigations on the growth and silvicultural characteristics of plantations of native and exotic tree species as compared with natural forests, research which has a practical bearing on forest management for many parts of Asia and elsewhere. Mr. Karatna is expected to continue his studies in the United States.
Of the five André Mayer Fellowships awarded for the first time in 1967, one was granted to Mr. Sumihiko Asakawa from Japan for comparative studies on the germinative capacity of the seeds of various forest trees.
Since 1961 FAO has awarded over 1,460 Fellowships for study and advanced training under its Technical Assistance Program, 212 of them being in various fields of forestry. These Fellowships are, however, intended for the specialized training of technicians, particularly from the less developed countries where trained staffs are inadequate, whereas the André Mayer Fellowships are designed for award to experts who are already highly specialized. A rigorous system of selection has been introduced for candidates for the André Mayer Fellowships so as to maintain the highest standards of scientific research, and to make the award of one of these Fellowships a signal distinction.
Staff changes
Mr. Herman Tromp, who joined the staff of FAO in 1951, has resigned as Chief of the Forest Economics Branch, Forestry Division, in order to accept the Professorship of Forest Policy and Economics at the Federal Polytechnic Institute, Zurich. He has been replaced by Mr. J. C. Westoby who has been serving with the FAO Forestry Working Group at Geneva since 1952.
Miss Brigit Lindblom who has looked after the administrative arrangements of all field officers of the Forestry Division almost since the technical assistance program began, has been promoted to be Supervisor of the Recruitment Unit in FAO's Personnel Branch.
