Expanded Technical Assistance Program
Cork oak: Permanent working party of Mediterranean Subcommission
Personalities
As was described the special Technical Assistance number of UNASYLVA (Vol. IV, No. 4), the Expanded Program (ETAP) is administered and financed outside the regular program of FAO.
The position of ETAP up to the end of July was that over 40 technical experts had been recruited for various assignments in the field of forestry and forest products, and nearly three fourths of these were already in the field. The total expenditure authorized for these exports, and for the various projects falling under the new program, already cordially exceeded the annual budget of the Forestry Division for its regular program of work so that, in feet technical assistance has rapidly become the action arm of FAO.
Of the funds authorized to date slightly more than a half has been allocated for work in Latin-American countries, 45 percent for Asia and the Far East, and 2 percent for Europe and Africa. Missions or individual experts have been or are being sent to 17 countries, including Austria, Brazil, Burma, Ceylon, Chile, Colombia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Pakistan, Thailand, and Uruguay. The general nature of the assignments and of most of the projects involved were described in the last issue of UNASYLVA, but since then important agreements have been concluded between FAO and the governments of Brazil Chile, Mexico, Ethiopia, and Iran.
In Ethiopia, advice will be furnished on the possibilities of developing the forest economy of the country and with regard to formulating and implementing a definite forest policy. A mission recently sent to Iran included a technical adviser on wood technology and forest products research, an expert oh forest range management, and another on charcoal production. In Mexico, technical assignments cover forest products research, forest products industries, inventories of forest resources, reforestation, and forest entomology. The chief of mission, D. T. Griffiths, has served on the FAO staff for the past year in a special capacity, while the chief of the mission of five to Chile is E. I. Kotok. In Chile, emphasis will be placed on forest protection, soil conservation and rehabilitation through reforestation forest management, and forest products industries. In Brazil, three experts will carry out initial investigations into the Amazon Valley development project, on which FAO lays great stress. Logging and floating possibilities, the development of forest industries, and marketing and distribution problems will be examined.
Finally, although the original missions were carried out in 1950 under FAO's regular program and not under the expanded program, it is appropriate to mention here two reports which have been released since publication of the last article in UNASYLVA. These are the reports of the FAO forestry missions for Nicaragua (published in UNASYLVA Vol. IV No. 2) and for Ireland. The latter report endorses the Government's afforestation project for the planting of a million acres of forest, over a 40-year period, as part of the country's long-term program of economic development.
At its last meeting in 1950, the Mediterranean Subcommission of FAO's European Forestry and Forest Products-Commission decided to set up a permanent working party on cork. An initial meeting of this party, under the chairmanship of Professor J. Vieira Natividade, was held at Lisbon, 14-18 May 1951, and was attended by experts nominated from France and the French Union (Metropolitan France and Morocco), Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Many observers from the two latter countries were also present.
The group made a broad survey of the problems connected with the cultivation of cork oaks and the present outlets for cork products. It called upon countries concerned to encourage the cork industry and to investigate new uses, the possibilities of chemical utilization, and markets for inferior quality cork, so as to offset the competition now appearing from substitute.
A questionnaire was drawn up for national inventories of cork oak forests and for statistics of production and trade in cork. Discussion also centered on research which should be undertaken on regeneration and sustained yield; pests and diseases; protection of cork oak forests; and silvicultural techniques. A standard management record form for individual forests and plantations was approved in outline and will be submitted for final consideration to the next meeting of the working party, which, it was decided, should be held at Madrid in the Spring of 1952.
The successful establishment of this working party aroused keen interest in Portugal, where, in 1950, cork exports amounted to about $30 million. The meeting was opened by the State Under-Secretary for Agriculture, in the presence of the Director-General of Forests and the Vice-president of the National FAO Committee for Portugal. Field trips were made to local cork oak forests and cork industries, to the Botanical Gardens at Sintra, and to the Institute of Agronomic Research.
With the move of the headquarters of the Organization from Washington to Rome, FAO lost the services of two members of the staff who had served with distinction in the Forestry Division since its earliest days.
J. D. B. Harrison was a member of the Technical Committee on Forestry and Primary Forest products which reported in November 1944 to the United Nations Interim Commission on Food and Agriculture, with regard to the inclusion of forestry in the scope of FAO. He acted as adviser to the Canadian delegation at the first session of the FAO Conference held at Quebec in 1945, and soon afterwards joined the secretariat as Chief of the Forest Economics Section. In this capacity he made a remarkable contribution to the work and activities of FAO over the following years, not the least of his endeavors being the carrying out of the world inventory of forest resources in 1948, and the production of the FAO Study, Planning a National Forest Inventory, in 1950. His varied experience and knowledge will be hard to replace. He has returned to Canada as Associate Director, Research. Division, Forestry Branch, Department of Resources and Development, Ottawa.
To J. P. Kagan must in large measure be attributed the credit for the organization and development of the statistical work of the Forest Division. As head of the statistical unit he was responsible for the production of four Yearbooks of Forest products Statistics, and was called upon to provide facts and figures in every field of the Division's activities. Mr. Kagan has now joined the Forest products Branch, Office of International Trade, United States Department of Commerce.
In Rome a new staff member has been welcomed in the person of I. T. Haig, who will be in charge of research and technology. Dr. Haig has directed the Southeastern Experiment Station, North Carolina, U.S.A., since 1944. He was formerly chief of the Division of Forestry Management Research of the U.S. Forest Service at Washington D.C., and in 1943-44 headed a mission to survey the forest resources of Chile and recommend a development program.
