Wood features prominently in the furnishings and interior decorations given by Member Governments which help to make the meetings rooms in the FAO buildings at Rome a setting worthy of a Specialized Agency of the United Nations.
The office of the Chairman of the FAO Conference has been furnished by France.
The wall paneling is of teak and the furniture of Andaman padank.
The Canada Room is paneled in maple, and the tables and chairs are birch. A relief map of Canada, mounted on aluminium, covers one wall: the Provinces are depicted by various woods - birch, Douglas fir, maple, cedar, chestnut, white pine and elm. There is also in the room a replica of the plaque at the Chateau Frontenac, Quebec, commemorating the formal creation of FAO in 1945.
The Australian Room where the tables and chairs are in Queensland maple (Eucalyptus Flindersia Brayleyana) has not yet been fully completed. The Director General's Programs and Policy Board meets regularly in this room. On the wall hangs a portrait of Frank L,. McDougall, the Australian who was intimately and influentially active in the creation and development of FAO, and who was the trusted adviser of successive Directors-General until his death in Rome in 1958.
The Queen Juliana Room a gift of the Netherlands, is partly paneled in snake wood (Lexoperygium sargotti) from the Netherlands Antilles. The table surround is of palissander Dalbergia nigra from Surinam. The inset map depicts the reclamation of the Zuyder Zee.
The Nordic Lounge between two of the main FAO Conference Halls, the Red Room and the Green Room, has been furnished in contemporary style through the combined generosity of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Elsewhere at FAO Headquarters are many other striking examples of the use of wood in the best modern designs. The buildings themselves which house the Organization were designed and constructed by the Italian Government and are leased to FAO for a nominal rent of $1 per year.
