Mediterranean forestry problems
FAO/IUFRO committee on bibliography
FAO panel on forestry education
Latin-American forest research and training institute
Technical assistance notes
The fifth session Joint EFC/NEFC Subcommission1 on Mediterranean Forestry Problems took place at Nice (France) from 27 to 29 May 1956 and was attended by 35 delegates representing twelve Member Governments. A study tour from Nice to Nîmes following the session enabled the participants to study at first hand some of the governmental undertakings for the development of the southern parts of France.
The Subcommission, for which R. G. Fontaine of FAO acts as secretary, reviewed and endorsed the reports of its working parties on eucalypts and cork-oak, made specific recommendations on the drawing up of ecological maps, and studied and approved for issue a comprehensive report prepared by the Secretariat on the accessory products of the Mediterranean forest.
1 EFC = European Forestry Commission, NEFC = Near East Forestry Commission.
In pursuance of a recommendation of the expert group on the economic development of Southern Europe of the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), it was decided to request the Executive Secretary of ECE and the Director-General of FAO to undertake a basic study to deal with the possible contribution from forestry to the economic and social advancement of all the countries bordering the Mediterranean. Following this recommendation the Deputy Director of FAO's Forestry Division, E. Glesinger, and R. G. Fontaine met at Geneva with the Executive Secretary and other staff members of the Economic Commission for Europe, to discuss the bases of such a study and the means to carry it out. It was decided that the scope of the study should be as wide as possible, that the general problem of land use should be thoroughly investigated and that concrete proposals should be made to the governments concerned for a dynamic program of work in the field of forestry.
The meetings of the Mediterranean Subcommission were preceded by the second session of the Working Party on Eucalypts which gave particular attention to the improvement of the planting stock through selection and breeding and to the effects of eucalypt plantations on soil structure. The first experiments carried out seem to indicate that there is no risk of soil deterioration for at least several decades.
Interest in the cultivation of eucalypts is still growing in the Mediterranean basin and techniques are being developed to suit local ecological conditions.
The Ninth Sessions of the Joint FAO/IUFRO Committee on Bibliography was held in Oxford on 3-6 July 1966, immediately prior to the Twelfth Congress of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations. The English, French, German and, for the first time Spanish-speaking members of the Committee were present.
The Committee was glad to note that considerable progress had been made in bringing into use the Oxford Decimal System of Classification for forestry literature, prepared on the authority of the committee: 26 countries had been reported as having accepted the system, at differing levels, and five more were considering its adoption. Further progress was anticipated when language editions other than the English were available in print. The German translation was ready, and would be published in early 1957, and the French version would be available some few months later. With the nomination of a Spanish-speaking member to the Commitee, measures were now being taken to commence work on the Spanish translation. A Dutch, a Turkish and an abbreviated form of a Finnish version of the System had been produced, the first two in provisional form pending the Committee's approval of the text.
Some emendations and developments in the English text of the Classification System were submitted for the Committee's approval, and a method of procedure for the submission of further emendations and the publicizing of accepted emendations and developments was discussed and adopted. (Details will be given in a forthcoming issue of Unasylva).
Incorporation of the Oxford Decimal System of Classification into the Universal Decimal Classification had, in principle, been settled and there remained only a few details on which agreement still needed to be sought.
Forty-two national and regional centers for forest bibliography were reported to the Committee and the matter of co-operation between these and the three International Documentation Centers of Oxford, Reinbek and Washington was discussed. Recommendations, together with a short note of explanation on the interest of the Joint Committee in bibliographical matters and advice as to how national centers should compile their own national lists, will be circulated in the form of a reprint of an article to appear in a forthcoming issue of Unasylva.
A body of basic terms in English for the FAO Multilingual Forest Terminology will be ready toward the end of 1956, and sets of cards are expected to be available to National Committees early in 1957. Thirty-four national or regional Terminology Committees were reported to the Committee, and means of maintaining close contact with these and with any known parallel projects were examined.
Procedure was discussed whereby a revised edition of the FAO forestry Abstracts Coverage List could result in a publication that contained a complete list of all significant periodicals and series of forestry interest published within each country, together with indications of the coverage, by the respective International Center(s), of the items of literature mentioned. In addition, each title would be accompanied by the reference abbreviation(s) adopted by one or other of the International Centers, and, where relevant, that established by UNESCO in the World List of Scientific Periodicals.
At the invitation of the Committee's chairman, Prof. E. Saari of Finland, it was decided to hold a tenth Session in Helsinki, sometime in 1967.
In accordance with a request made by the Fourth World Forestry Congress, the Director-General of FAO created a Panel on Forestry Education comprising a selected number of eminent persons from countries in which education in forestry was advanced and characteristic of one or other school of teaching. A first meeting of members of this Panel was held in Oxford on 13 July 1960, for which Professor H. L. Shirley, Dean of the Forestry Faculty at Syracuse University, New York, was designated Chairman. Panel members or their officially nominated alternates from Germany, India, the United Kingdom and the U.S.A. were able to be present and an encouraging number of representatives from many of the leading Forestry Colleges throughout the world also participated in the meeting including Sir Harry Champion who, as Professor of Forestry at Oxford, had been adviser to FAO on forestry education in the early days of the Organization.
The purpose, scope and organization of the Panel were discussed at Oxford, and it was decided that its main attention should be directed to the subject of the university-level training of young men for forest services, industry and research. The Panel will, however, also deal with the educational programs of ranger schools, with types of training programs for forest workers, and with public education about forestry. Special attention will be given to the need for preparing a limited number of men for work in world forestry. The Panel will prepare agenda for discussions on education in forestry for international forestry meetings, and will conduct such special studies on forestry education as FAO or the Panel members may consider necessary.
A number of initial items for which FAO sought guidance from the Panel were tabled, including a revised edition of the FAO Directory of Forestry Schools, and the questionnaire on "Forestry Personnel" recently circulated to member countries of FAO with the object of determining the progress made in staffing forestry cadres since 1947, when the first survey was made.
The assistance of the Panel was also sought in determining the minimum requirements, assessed on a national or regional basis, that were necessary for the admission of a Fellow (for example under the FAO Technical Assistance Program) to a school of forestry. Likewise, advice in formulating a recommended minimum program of studies for rangers' schools by regions was sought.
A statement on the new FAO Fellowship Program under the regular program, designed for senior research workers, was tabled for the information of members. This program should give opportunities to universities and institutions to carry out additional high-level research projects of mutual interest to themselves and to FAO.
The chairman outlined the scope of a general comparative study, to be undertaken by the State University College of Forestry at Syracuse University, of types of organization and administration, and of objectives of forestry schools and their relationships to the agencies they serve. In closing the meeting, he expressed his personal conviction that an important and useful task lay ahead of the Panel in fostering international liaison and collaboration among schools of forestry and between those schools and FAO.
The appointments have recently been announced of the President and Technical Adviser of the Latin-American Forest Research and Training Institute at Mérida, Venezuela.
The new President is Dr. Antonio J. Uscategui, who up till now has been Dean of the Forestry Engineering faculty at the University of Los Andes. E. J. Schreuder, the new Technical Adviser, received his training in Holland and did graduate work in Germany before going to the East Indies where he worked for 15 years, gaining experience in tropical forest management, the organization of tropical forest industries, including pulp and paper studies, the supervision of planting activities and in logging, extraction and milling operations in hardwoods in the tropical areas of the Far East. In addition, he has now had four years' experience in Central America including general advisory activities and the organization of forest management work in Honduras and participation in educational activities in Turrialba and Puerto Rico.
The immediate job of the Technical Adviser will be one of organization and development. His first tasks, for example, will be to work with the Director in obtaining staff; establishing fiscal and operating procedures; getting the research program underway, under his general supervision, including arrangements for co-operation with the University; and stimulating and obtaining co-operation, including financial support, from other countries of the region which have indicated that they will associate national research stations with the Institute and help support it financially. After the initial organization and arrangements are decided on at Mérida, the Technical Adviser will visit other interested countries of the region and arrange for co-operation and support in exchange of documentation in research and in materials for use on co-operative studies at the new Institute, as, for example, wood specimens, botanical materiels, data and information on current research projects, and so on,
Chile. The Yareta at 3,500 to 4,000 meters elevation.
BRAZIL. Earlier this year the FAO Regional Forestry Officer for Latin America (S. von der Recke) visited the States of Sta. Catarina and Paraná, at the request of the Director of Research of the Brazilian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, to advise on the extent to which the export of Paraná pine lumber should be maintained or decreased.
The Regional Forestry Officer also, on request, visited the State of São Paulo to advise to what extent the State Forest Reserves, hitherto unused, should be opened up to exploitation. The State Governor has now instituted a Forestry Fund from which to finance the reforestation of the State Forest Reserves.
CHILE. In a report to the Government on the rehabilitation of the arid zone of north Chile through afforestation and reforestation, A. Y. Goor describes the Yareta and pasture belt of the Andes. On the upper slopes of the Andes, at elevations between 3,600 and 6,000 meters, where there is a summer rainfall of 200 to 300 millimeters and where the snow stays on the ground for some time, there is a belt of pasture land covered with a blanket of vegetation, alive or dead, even during the dry season. This area is the grazing ground for herds of llama and alpaca in the north, as well as for goats and sheep further south. It is in this pasture belt that Yareta grows. The Yareta (Laretia compacta) is a shrub, the branches of which contain resin and are used as firewood. These shrubs, which at one time must have formed an exotic type of forest, are being cut down at a very rapid rate.
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Widespread forests of Junisperus procera (locally called "tehd") once covered the highlands in the center of Ethiopia at an altitude of between 2,500 and 3,000 meters. Now only small isolated areas remain, scattered here and there, whose boundaries shrink little by little, nibbled away ceaselessly by clearing for agriculture, fire and grazing. An FAO officer reports that the conservation of wooded areas implies first and foremost the clear demarcation of reserved forest boundaries.
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HONDURAS. As a major project under the Central American Integration Scheme (an economic collaboration scheme between the countries of the Central American isthmus), concentrated attention is being given in Honduras to pulp and paper development based on raw material from the rather large area of pine forest in the country. One of the principal obstacles to the introduction of rational forest management is the forest fires, and efficient fire protection is a condition for any industrial development based on timber.
