Forestry’s Growing Importance

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32385, 26 August 1970, Page 5

Forestry’s Growing Importance

(N.Z.P.A .-Reuter— Copyright) ROME. Timber may be the answer to the hunger and poverty of some nations, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (F.A.0.). The F.A.O. likens the great tropical rain forests of Asia and Africa to a “heap of gold,” but unexploited or, if they are, poorly managed. If rationally and carefully exploited, forests could be-

come a major source of profit, and a starting point for booming industries which could increase national incomes, the United Nations experts say. For these reasons, the potential role of forestry as a foreign-exchange earner for developing countries will be high on the agenda when the second World Food Congress meets at The Hague from June 16-30. At the congress, 1200 delegates from all parts of the world will discuss urgent priorities and lines of action to increase agricultural and forestry production. The growing importance of wood as an export com-

modify is shown by 1967 figures for world production, which reached a total value of about $40,000 million, almost twice the figure for 1950. The rise in consumption of wood products rose correspondingly in almost all countries, ' because of the expansion of all kinds of wood industries such as pulpand paper, paper and paperboard, wood-based panels, plywood, and fibreboard. It takes from eight to 30 years for a tree to grow to a size worth cutting down for the commercial market. Already industrialists are tapping the forestry resources of developing countries, setting up many plants

and factories close to the forests. The forestry department of the F.A.O. is now preparing regional plans for forestry education and training in Latin America, Africa, and the Far East. These efforts have already shown good results. A recent report showed that in 1967 the output of plywood, fibreboard, and particle-board increased relatively faster in developing areas than in developed areas. Experts say that forestry—long neglected by most developing countries—is beginning to emerge as a major potential profit-making activity and foreign-exchange earner.