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Editorial: The changing face of forest industry

The changing face of forest industry

Our basic assumptions about forest industry - what it is, what it does, where its future lies - are being profoundly transformed. This transformation will affect its image, its goals, its products, the nature of its investments, even its structure.

No longer will it be accurate to speak only of "wood products": we must talk instead of "forest products" or "forest-based products". In many developing countries today, so-called "non-wood products", if properly accounted for, could have a greater economic importance than traditional wood products. Similarly, we need to think and plan systematically for a range of "forest-based industries", many of which do not involve wood at all, rather than "wood-based industries".

This transformation involves the new concept of "appropriate" forest industries, one that embraces a full range of large, medium and small forest enterprises, depending upon the particular social and economic circumstances in a given country at a given time and place.

Such a transformation will also have a profound effect upon forest management. No longer can forest management afford to be centred so much upon species selection and rotation periods - upon the products that can be obtained from the forest only at rather long intervals, often decades. Considerable emphasis must now fall upon the continuous production of goods and services, including such things as wildlife, tourism, oils, resins, medicines, numerous edible products and many others.

Just as foresters are learning to think beyond the traditional productive and protective functions of the forest, so must forest industries learn to become more aware of their broader socio-economic role - and to make plans and investments accordingly.

The recently concluded Eighth Session of the Committee on Forestry (COFO), held in Rome from 21 to 25 April 1986, responded positively to the changing role of forest industries. In providing guidelines for FAO's future work, COFO recognized the important role of forest industries and trade in local and national socio-economic development., It endorsed the concept of a holistic approach in establishing and operating forest industries. It considered that numerous small enterprises may constitute a major force in forest industries in developing countries It requested FAO to work to strengthen the domestic and export marketing capabilities in developing countries. It recommended that FAO study and disseminate information on lesser-used timber species and non-wood forest products. Finally, it underlined the importance of the private sector at all levels of forest industry.

FAO has already begun to take action. Following the Expert Consultation on Appropriate Industries in Jakarta in October 1985, FAO's Forestry Department set up a Task Force on Appropriate Industries. This Task Force is developing guidelines through which to provide advice to countries on the development of new forest industries as well as the restructuring of existing industries. Meanwhile, the Forestry Department is also working to strengthen and modify its existing activities - the ties, for instance, that it has with GATT and UNCTAD in the trade and marketing of forest products, and with UNIDO in secondary processing. In the area of providing information to member countries, FAO is at present conducting studies on trade barriers, transnational corporations in forestry and dispersed, specialized markets served by small forest-based enterprises in developing countries. It is strengthening its efforts in the crucial areas of training and institutions. Finally, in cooperation with its Investment Centre, FAO is seeking new ways to provide assistance in promoting financing for projects that have been considered viable.

This issue of Unasylva offers a portrait of the changing face of forest industries. A general article on forest-based industries in socio-economic development is provided by FAO's Forestry Department. The need for a new emphasis on marketing of forest-based products is stressed in the article by L. Lintu. The growth and restructuring of wood products trade among developing countries is highlighted in an article by G. Buttoud and H. Mamadou. In their article, J.L. Whitmore and Bruce Burwell provide examples of the links between forest industry and agroforestry.

In the future, Unasylva will undoubtedly be publishing numerous other articles on the subject of forest-based industries. It is an area in which a lot is certain to happen, and which promises to be a major stimulus to overall social and economic development in the Third World.


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