In this issue

Editorial

Trends and developments

From the lab

The Joint Committee corner

Just published

For your calendar

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Editorial

In the past few years there have been encouraging signs that it is being rediscovered: sustainable forest management is also about people. International forestry policy discussions, forest product certification and research linked to development assistance are all rediscovering people.

While such fora may be unfamiliar territory for those interested in the forestry workforce, this renewed interest in the role of people in forestry is an opportunity not to be missed for drawing attention to the needs of those who live in and from forests: workers, contractors, forest farmers, indigenous peoples.

In this issue we look at a cross-section of the issues and ways to further the cause of the forestry workforce in political circles and through voluntary private initiatives like certification. We hope it stimulates FORWORKNET members to bring their experience and knowledge to bear on the current debates, both nationally and internationally.

In some countries this is already happening. For example Hannu Jokiluoma, FORWORKNET member from Finland, is engaged in a national working group on social aspects of sustainable forest management. He will report about his endeavours in the next update.

We look forward to hearing about your experiences and views.

 

FORWORKNET Update
Liz Arnfield
Mattias Lövgren
Peter Poschen

Focus

People, forests and sustainability

Sustainability

Governments, industry and non-governmental organizations have attempted to spell out requirements in order to guide national forest policies and programmes as well as forest management on the ground. A number of certification systems have sprung up over the past 10 years aimed at providing independent monitoring and evaluation of forest management as 'good practice' or 'sustainably managed' and communicating this through labels on forest products.

Sets of criteria and indicators have been drawn up to be used to gauge forest management nationally and at enterprise or management unit level. They represent a major step forward in clarifying the concept, but in most cases seem to suffer from a bias towards environmental and economic concerns. Social aspects get very partial and sometimes haphazard treatment. This is a major shortcoming.

People and forests

It is widely accepted now that many of the underlying causes of forest destruction and degradation are of a social nature. Poverty is probably the single most important driving force for the destruction of forests. There is thus a functional as well as an ethical link to the social component of sustainable development: the equitable sharing of the proceeds of economic growth. Forests need to be socially beneficial in order to contribute to the objective of sustainable development. Benefits derived from the existence and management of forests and accruing to people living in and around them may actually be a precondition for the conservation of the forest.

Several social groups can be identified that have a close and specific relationship with forests:

• forest dwellers,
• forest users,
• forest owners, and
• forest workers.

Forest owners account in many countries for a large share of the beneficiaries of forest management. In particular the owners of small, private forests often derive a significant share of their income from their forests. All forest workers, whether salaried workers, contractors, self-employed workers or forest farmers, are obvious stakeholders in forest management as contributors, potential beneficiaries and those whose existence hinges on the sustainability of forest management. While few reliable data exist, it is clear that this is a very large group of people. It has been estimated at some 17 million full-time jobs in forests worldwide; if forest-based jobs in industry are included, the figure is believed to be around 45 million.

It is therefore crucial that social and labour aspects be adequately covered in criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management. They should have a clear functional link to forest management, a common reference for the definition and minimum performance levels aspired to that are based on international consensus. It would also be desirable to have an internationally accepted minimum standard.

Criteria and indicators

• forest work (human input into forest management)
• sharing of benefits from forests
• participation and conflict resolution.

The FAO Model Code of Forest Harvesting Practice identifies the 'development of a competent and properly motivated workforce' as one of four essential ingredients in forest harvesting operations if forests are to be managed on a sustainable basis. The statement also applies to forest operations other than harvesting. The second social element of sharing of benefits applies to both labour and to local communities, whether or not they are composed of indigenous and tribal peoples. In the case of labour, the sharing is primarily in the form of wages and salaries. Remuneration and the minimum wage are therefore relevant criteria. Likewise, one of the most desirable ways for local and forest-dependent people to share in the benefits of sustainable forest management is through opportunities for employment. Such opportunities may be a precondition for sustainable management where local populations would otherwise have no economic stake in the continued existence of the forest and few alternatives to destructive practices for their livelihood. Gainful employment in forestry is in turn contingent on opportunities to acquire the necessary skills.

In addition to or independently of benefits from forest management accruing from wage employment, indigenous and tribal peoples and local communities benefit from, and indeed often depend on, traditional or customary uses. The cultural values of many communities are intimately linked with forests. To be socially sustainable, forest management has to protect these rights and values.
 

Forests are subject to numerous, often conflicting, demands from a variety of stakeholders. Participation of stakeholders can be an effective way to defuse conflict and to ensure that the cost and benefits of forest management and utilization are shared in a fair and equitable manner. Effective participation is also seen as a means to maximize the overall use and benefit of forests.
 

In conclusion

Social and labour aspects need to be brought into focus to balance the current bias towards ecological and sometimes economic functions. All avenues should be pursued to this effect: codes of forest practice, forest policy fora such as the regional 'processes', and voluntary initiatives such as certification. For the latter two consistency, harmonization and minimum standards are desirable. The new brochure shows that much of the ground can be covered by using ILO texts to define criteria and indicators, to serve as reference for threshold values and verifiers. Encouragingly, two major international certification schemes, the Pan-European Forest Certification (PEFC) and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) are considering ways to include the suggestions from the brochure.

For further information and copies of the brochure, please contact:

Peter Poschen, ILO Forestry and Wood Industries Specialist (for address see end).

The full text of the brochure is also available from the GTZ and ILO homepages:

Website of the Forest Certification Project: http://www.gtz.de/forest_certification/english/
Website of ILO Sectoral Activities Department, Forestry: www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/sector/sectors/forest.htm

Brazil and the US - impact of SFM certification

The question has often been raised whether certification of forest operations would merely represent a ratification of status, i.e. firms with good practices would acquire a label without having to undergo much change in their operations, or whether certification would trigger improvements in practices. One of the first empirical studies to shed light on this question was conducted by Estevão do Prado Braga in 1999. The study investigated six certified forest operations, five in Brazil and one in the United States, assessing the changes the firms had to make in order to qualify for certification according to the Forest Stewardship Council set of criteria and indicators. The operations visited were in natural tropical forest as well as in plantations, the firms differing widely in scale and also in type of ownership.

The study considered the conditions set by certifiers that prompted changes in forest management. It shows that all firms had to make some changes in order to qualify, but the number and nature of these varied widely. A very high proportion of the changes were tailored to local conditions rather than generic. In total the six firms had been asked to meet 155 conditions. Environmental changes accounted for more than half the total, but were not judged difficult to make. The 45 social and the 25 economic demands were seen as more complex and requiring more far-reaching adjustments in management.

Four of the six forest operations had social conditions imposed on them. A little over half of these concerned forest workers and the other half local community interests. The major impacts encountered were improvements in:

• worker training;
• working conditions, including safety and health and equality of treatment between contractors and directly employed workers;
• pay in accordance with legal requirements;
• community relations, in particular the establishment of channels of communication with neighbouring communities.

Estevão do Prado Braga
Programa de Certificação Socioambiental
Imaflora
pcf@imaflora.org, www.imaflora.org
telefax: +55 19 433 0234 / 422 6253, NEW TEL.: 432 3378 / 420 3222
 

Trends and developments

EDUFOREST - a European forestry training network

As a result, a project to create a network has been initiated under the administration of the forestry centre in La Bastide des Jourdans. The objective of this network is an exchange of ideas between training institutions and schools and it is hoped that teachers, students and experts in the field of technology and pedagogics will contribute.

For further information about this programme, please contact:

Centre Forestier
Pié de Gâche
84240 La Bastide de Jourdans, France
Tel. +33 49 077 80 01, fax +33 49 077 84 09
Email: courrier@centre-forestier.org
www.centre-forestier.org
 

Stress among forestry contractors

The study

Also, rapid and profound changes have taken place in forestry and the working situation of contractors has changed substantially. The survey carried out by SkogForsk dealt with working hours, health problems and work satisfaction. Replies were received from 374 contractors.

Contractors normally carry out the equivalent of a full-time job as machine operators, according to Mr. Göran Erikson, researcher at SkogForsk. On top of that, they do a half-time job on machine maintenance, planning and other administrative tasks.

Total working hours are on average 61 a week, and 5 per cent of contractors claim to work more than 80 hours a week. Compared with a similar study done in 1997, total working time had increased by three hours a week on average. Despite this, 62 per cent are totally satisfied or relatively satisfied with their working time.

Stress and anxiety common

However, shoulder and neck problems are quite common, according to Mr. Erikson. During the past year, 56 per cent of contractors reported such problems. In some cases strain is related to socio-psychological problems.

Satisfied with the tasks - but under pressure

For further information, please contact:

Göran Erikson, SkogForsk, tel. +46 18-18 85 13, 070-346 96 99 (mobile)

CODOC - a Swiss pathfinder for training and education

It provides tools and consultancy, publishes literature and promotes forest professions and careers at schools, in media and among the public. These activities have created a solid platform for modern professions in a changing environment.

For further information about CODOC, please contact:

CODOC
Hardernstrasse 20
CH-3250 Lyss, Switzerland
Tel. +41 32 386 12 45, fax +41 32 386 12 46
e-mail: admin@codoc.ch, internet: www.codoc.ch

Safe forest work in a period of transition - a Slovenian case

The accident rate, mainly collected at state enterprises, shows an increasing trend (figure 1). This is caused by insufficient safety measures at dangerous work, but also by a smaller number of employees carrying out the same amount of work. Accidents also tend to be more serious because of growing mechanization. Workers do not however report minor accidents because they are afraid of losing their jobs, nor do they take sick leave for the same reason, although illnesses at difficult outdoor work are as frequent as before transition.

The number of new forest owners has increased as a result of transition from a traditional planned to a market economy and the subsequent reprivatization process. In many places areas under state forests have decreased while those under private forests have increased. The number of professional, educated and skilled workers in forestry is however dropping as they transfer to less difficult jobs in other branches.

Demand for timber has decreased mainly due to the fact that the state-owned timber industry is experiencing a recession. Furthermore, as the forestry enterprises are not taking on new workers the workforce is ageing.

Many enterprises have to struggle for economic survival at the expense of the health and safety of their workers and the frequency of accidents has risen for private as well as state-owned forestry enterprises. Only the number of accidents per production unit shows an improvement since workers' productivity is much higher than before transition (see table).
 

For society as a whole, the above situation is not perceived as a major problem. For example, the number of fatalities is ten times bigger for traffic accidents than for forestry. Social insurance covers the costs of health care in case of accidents but accident insurance for private forest owners or private enterprises is not compulsory as it is in other countries. The courts do not award fair compensation in case of injury or damage to health and the laws are not fully implemented.

It will take a long time before all these questions are solved and regulated as they have been in other democratic societies. But we cannot wait: every person working in forestry, whether a worker, employee, manager or forest owner, could make a contribution, each being a small stone in the building of safety and health in the Slovenian forestry industry.

If you would like to find out more about this study, please contact:

Marjan Lipoglavsek
University of Ljublana, Biotechnical Faculty
Vecna pot 83
1000-Ljublana, Slovenia
E-mail: lipo.marjan@uni-lj.si

Uruguay: Preparing for a boom in the forest industries

Uruguay is one of the countries experiencing rapid expansion of their forestry sector thanks to the plantation of fast growing species, primarily eucalyptus and pine. The country currently has about 500,000 ha under such plantations and another 50,000 ha are added annually. With very high growth rates and short rotations, harvesting volumes are set to rocket from the 2 million m³/y in most of the 1990s to over 10 million m³/y by 2005. This rapid increase also means that a large number of new and inexperienced contractors and workers will be have to be absorbed. A rising number of serious accidents, 2 of them fatal and a serious one involving a minor this summer, underpinned the need for prevention.

Concerned with the potential safety and health problems that this expansion could bring, government, forest owners and trade unions agreed to introduce national safety regulations for forestry work. The Inspectorate General of Labour requested the ILO to assist with the formulation and introduction of regulations adapted to Uruguayan conditions.

The drafting of the regulations was preceded by fact-finding missions and forestry safety awareness courses for forest owners and contractors in 4 regions of the country as well as courses for trade union representatives and government staff. After more than a year of preparatory work and negotiations a consensus was reached.

The new regulation applies to all forestry work from site preparation and tree planting to harvesting. One important characteristic is the clarification of legal responsibilities with regard to safety and health. The regulation provides for the creation of a national register of forestry contractors. Any forest owner commissioning work through a contractor who is not registered will be liable for any damages to workers as if they were his employees. Regarding basic welfare it includes requirements for shelter and housing, nutrition and transport.

A number of technical rules have been established concerning tools, equipment, machinery, chemical substances as well has tree felling and extraction. One of the most important stipulations makes it mandatory for employers to adequately train all workers using powered equipment. Discussions are under way with a view to setting up a national training system for forestry that would meet the rapidly growing needs of the industry. The national forest service, for its part, is planning to introduce a national code of forest practices that would consolidate environmental as well as forest work concerns into a single document to guide forest managers and contractors about productive, safe and environmentally sound operations.

The regulations entered into force in December 2000 and the Inspectorate General will be in charge of monitoring compliance. In order to prepare the inspectors for their task, a 5-day course was organized on a plantation estate including lectures, demonstrations and field visits. The inspectors put their newly acquired skills to use by preparing check-lists that will be used in future inspections. The course material is available (in Spanish) on CD-ROM as a series of Powerpoint presentations, including numerous illustrations.

For further information contact:

Dr Alvaro Delgado
Inspección General del Trabajo
Montevideo, Uruguay
tel: +598-2-916 3217, fax: +598-2-916 3106

Western European storm disaster

Despite attempts to inform people about the risks of harvesting windblown wood, a number of fatal accidents have unfortunately been reported, mainly among non-professional forest workers.

For the federal state of Baden-Württemberg in Germany, 19 fatalities had been reported at 31 August 2000. Of these, 3 were professional forest workers and 5 were contractors and their assistants. The remaining 11 could be categorized as private forest owners.

In Bavaria, a total of 1,550 accidents have been reported, of which 7 were fatal. All fatalities occurred in private forestry. In Bavarian state forestry, where all forest workers are professionally trained and employed on a permanent basis,155 accidents have been reported with no fatalities.

There are no exact figures for injuries for Germany as a whole, but an estimation suggests well over 2,000 accidents resulting in injuries.

In Switzerland, 13 fatalities have been reported, including one professional forest worker. In this case, the accident was caused by a wire from a cable crane that lost its grip and hit the victim. The majority of the fatalities were caused by stems under tension and 'root-plates'.

Statistics received from France have unfortunately not been very detailed. By 20 September, the number of fatalities in France had reached 40, of which at least 6 could be defined as salaried forest workers.

For further information about the storms and their consequences, a storm damage overview has been established on the UN/ECE Timber Committee homepage ( http://www.unece.org/trade/timber/storm/storm.htm ) with links to the countries concerned.

Code of Practice for forest operations in Guyana

The forests of Guyana were first exploited commercially for timber in the 18^th century. The Forestry Department was established in 1925 and serious research activity on the resources began at the same time. In 1953, a simple but rather effective guideline was introduced to regulate forest tree harvesting: a minimum girth limit of 42 inches at breast height was established for felling the principal commercial timber species. That guideline was effective for more than forty years because of the relatively small number of species actually harvested and the simple harvesting technology employed. The guideline served particularly to preserve the young trees, reduce the number of gaps formed and ensure the rapid closure of the gaps actually formed.

Since 1992, the scale and intensity of investments in the forestry sector, as well as the number of species and volume of timber harvested, have increased significantly. With this background, the Guyana Forestry Commission is implementing more rigorous control over harvesting activities in order to ensure the orderly and sustainable development of the forest resources of Guyana.

A final document of the GFC Code of Practice is to be distributed in Guyana. The first draft, produced in December 1994, was widely discussed and comments were submitted by institutions and individuals. The second draft was produced in June 1996 and has been subjected to rather rigorous scrutiny at the practical level to test its prescriptions. The findings of the tests have been included in the final document.

The Code of Practice comes at a time when a new Forestry Policy Statement has been published and several drafts of the new Forest Law have been circulated to stakeholders for comment. The Forest Products Association of Guyana has been particularly active in the debate and in fact has played a key role in the determination of the substance of the draft.

The FAO Model Code of Forest Harvesting Practice is the basic framework for the document, which clearly distinguishes recommendations from requirements and identifies the rationale behind the standards.

This document is entitled a Code of Practice for Forest Operations. At this stage it concentrates on timber harvesting, regulations covering the utilization of non-timber forest products and management of forest resources. Other services such as watershed protection will be incorporated in subsequent revisions. Some aspects of the Code have already been incorporated in the new forest legislation.

For further information, please contact:

Guyana Forestry Commission
Lot 1, Water Street
Kingston, Georgetown
Guyana
Tel. +592 2 672 714, fax +592 2 689 56

European Network of Forest Entrepreneurs launched

The formalization of the European Network of Forest Entrepreneurs took place at the 1^st European Forest Entrepreneurs' Day held in Celle, Germany on 16 September 2000 in conjunction with the KWF Forestry Fair. Representatives of forest contractor associations and enterprises from 13 European countries accepted the invitation of the KWF, German forestry contracting associations, the International Labour Office (ILO) and the steering committee of the ENFE to attend the meeting chaired by Peter Poschen of the ILO. The formalization is the fruit of three years of preparatory work undertaken since European contractors' association representatives first met in Sweden in 1997.

The European Network will enable information exchange and cooperation between members within the Network, but also between the Network and decision makers in Europe, in order to help create an environment conducive for the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in European forestry. The activities of the Network will be led by a board with representatives from Finland, Sweden, Ireland, United Kingdom and the Czech Republic. The Network will be chaired by Barrie Hudson, Chief Executive of the Forestry Contracting Association in the UK. Edgar Kastenholz from Germany was elected as Secretary General.

Work has already started on documenting the structure and activities of the entrepreneur associations in each of the participating countries. A report summarizing a survey of European contractors' associations was presented by Edgar Kastenholz at the meeting. Other contributions to the meeting covered a range of topics of concern to the members, such as quality management, training of contractors and machine operators, and safety and health. An urgent need for action was identified in these fields and working groups developed suggestions for future action. Discussions centred on the need to agree on the areas that could benefit from cooperative actions by the entrepreneur associations and related training and research organizations.

Common areas of concern included the need for:

• representation of the contractor-entrepreneur sector vis-à-vis the main decision makers in individual countries and the European Commission;
• adoption of common quality management standards as an aid to contractors working within chains of custody traced by certification systems;
• transfer of best practices across a wide range of specific topics, particularly for the improvement of safety and health in forestry work;
• adoption of training programmes to encourage mobility within Europe;
• contractor support when engaged in cross-border operations;
• dialogue between associations, trade unions and employers' organizations.

For further information and copies of the survey of European contractors' associations and the proceedings of the European Entrepreneurs' Day, please contact:
 

European Network of Forest Entrepreneurs (ENFE)
Chairman: Barrie Hudson, Chief Executive Forestry Contracting Association Dalfling, Inverurie Aberdeenshire AB51 5LA, UK. Tel + 44 14 67 65 13 68 Fax + 44 14 67 65 15 95 E-mail barrie@fcauk.com	Secretary General: Edgar Kastenholz Leimbachweg 10a, D-79283 Bollschweil Tel & Fax +49 7633 81635 Edgar.Kastenholz@uni-freiburg.de

From the lab

Estimating numbers of forest-dependent people

The study found that there are, in fact, no reliable regional or international data on numbers of forest-dependent people. After probing the sources of the estimates which are currently in circulation, it concluded that they are all 'guesstimates'. Some information exists at local and national levels in the form of case studies and raw data from national household surveys, but inconsistent methodologies make such information hard to compare at regional and international levels.

The initial hypothesis was that it should at least be possible to find reliable information about forestry employment. However, the study found that employment statistics tend to severely underestimate forest-related job creation. This is because:

• forestry employment even in the 'formal' sector is often part time and seasonal, using floating workers under increasingly informal arrangements;
• formal sector employment is generally agreed to be a very small proportion of total forest-related employment in developing countries. All the experts interviewed agreed that the forest-based informal sector is far more important than the formal sector, but, by definition, it is not included in official statistics;
• non-wood forest products are seldom included in official employment statistics, although some (patchy) production and trade data do exist.

If end-users could agree on working definitions of forest user categories, they could then choose from a number of 'options' for estimating numbers of forest-dependent people. The options considered in the study include: key informant interviews; matching forest cover maps and population data; analysis of raw data from existing household surveys; add-ons to established survey systems; special-purpose surveys; special-purpose participatory studies; and add-ons to existing participatory studies.

The study considers the comparative cost of the proposed methodologies and suggests that one way of limiting costs would be to 'piggy-back' data collection efforts onto existing surveys or participatory research projects. However, this could present serious problems if the sampling frame of the existing surveys or participatory research projects were inappropriate for the purpose of estimating numbers. In the past, another factor contributing to the current lack of information on numbers of forest dependent people has been lack of motivation among policy-makers to collect the data. Existing data collection exercises were established several decades ago when forests, people and poverty were not policy priorities. However, many organizations are now demanding figures which take into account numbers of people, particularly poor people, who depend on forests for their livelihoods. The study concludes that there is a need to adapt existing information collection approaches and tools to meet the requirements of the sustainable livelihoods perspective.

The study argues that we need consistent, globally applicable approaches to collecting data on forest-dependent people. It may be difficult for governments, international agencies and NGOs to agree on which approach is best, as this will depend on their policy objectives and the funding which they can make available. However, even if two or three approaches were to be taken forward simultaneously, this would reduce the huge variability between methods currently in use and introduce the possibility of standardization at regional and international levels.

This article is based on Numbers of Forest Dependent People - A Feasibility Study for DFID's Forestry Research Programme by Calibre Consultants and The Statistical Services Centre, University of Reading, May 2000.

For further information please contact:
 

Sarah Levy at slevy@calibre.u-net.com tel/fax: +44-(0)118-951-0141

or

Ian Wilson at i.m.wilson@reading.ac.uk tel: +44-(0)118-931-8034

The Joint Committee corner

23^rd Session of the Joint FAO/ECE/ILO Committee on Forest Technology, Management and Training

Special topics included codes of practice as a tool for sustainable forest management in Ireland; a presentation of markets for certified forest products; forest technology, management and training in dealing with windblow in France; and forest operations in Europe - a critical appraisal from an NGO perspective.

Mr. D. McAree presented the Irish Code of Best Forest Practice which aims for a planned increase of forest cover from today's 9% to 17% in 30 years time, taking place in a sustainable manner. Harvesting is expected to increase from 2.5 million m³ per year to approximately 10 million m³. The code, the result of a broad process of consultation, promotes sustainable forest management practices and provides incentives. It is socially acceptable, economically viable and ecologically sound and is continuously evaluated, adjusted and refined.

Mr. Ed Pepke of the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) presented the Timber Committee's work on markets for certified forest products (CFPs). CFPs are growing in availability, although demand is still small compared with other non-certified commodity forest products. The Timber Committee has called certification a marketing tool that can communicate to consumers that wood from sustainably managed forests is an environmentally sound choice. Certification has costs for forest management, i.e. the process of certification and for the performance of certified sustainable management, as well as establishing chain of custody and labelling products. More information on certification may be found in the Market Information Service of the Timber Committee website ( http://www.unece.org/ trade/timber).

Windblow in France and the damage caused by the storms 'Lothar' and 'Martin' was presented by Messrs. R. Bonneviale and P. Verneret. The storms caused about 138 million m³ of windblow, equivalent to 7 per cent of the growing stock and to 9-18 times the annual cut in the affected regions. In spite of alerts about safety hazards and of special training offered, more than 40 people had lost their lives in the first five months of windblow logging. Accidents mostly occurred in the first few weeks and overwhelmingly concerned non-professional forest workers but the accident rate had later fallen, thanks in part to intensive information efforts. Mr. Verneret suggested there was a need for disaster preparedness, including institutional arrangements capable of coping with emergencies on such a scale. The discussion of the windblow catastrophes in France, Germany and Switzerland revealed that by the end of May 70 people had lost their lives in clearing and salvaging operations. The victims were mostly self-employed or workers not permanently employed in forestry, often lacking the necessary skill and equipment.

Mr. Elliott from the WWF introduced a critical appraisal of forest operations in Europe on the basis of a 'score card' produced by his organization, which attempts to measure the performance of forest protection and management in Europe by assigning scores to a number of parameters. Aspects appraised include, among others, forest legislation and policy, the extent and condition of protected forest areas and forest management. There were many areas where the scores suggested scope for improvements in European forestry, but few countries had very serious deficits. Additional information on the score cards and other forestry work of WWF is available on their website at ' www.panda.org '.

The Joint Committee re-elected the Steering Committee to hold office until the twenty-fourth session which was agreed to be held in September 2002 in conjunction with the seminar on afforestation in Ireland.

Public relations were reviewed and for this purpose a brochure presenting the JC has been produced. The brochure will serve as an 'appetizer'; for those who want to find out more about the Joint Committee, a newly established website (www.unece.org/trade/timber/joint-committee) provides more detailed information.

Programme 2000-2005

Highlights of the future work programme are:

• Seminar on the role of women in the forestry sector in Europe and North America, 'Women in Forestry', Portugal, 2-6 April 2001
• Seminar on forestry and public relations, 'Forestry meets the public', in Rüttihubelbad, Switzerland, 8-11 October 2001
• Seminar in Ireland on afforestation, September 2002
• Seminar on partnerships in Flanders, Belgium in 2002
• Participation and partnerships in forestry. A team of specialists, under the leadership of Mr. M. Wenner (UK), will clarify the concept of 'participation' and develop the conceptual framework for participatory forest management (involvement of the public), awareness of the forest and use of forest products and services by the public and draw up a report to the Joint Committee and the Ministerial Conference for the Protection of Forests in Europe on participatory management and proposals for follow-up actions.

Just published

Managing health and safety in forestry

To manage health and safety successfully, coordination of activities with others is necessary and information must be passed on up and down the contract chain. To help the flow of information and to ensure that the right tasks are carried out by the right people, this guidance groups health and safety tasks into four management roles: landowner, forestry work manager, contractor, subcontractor. The booklet is entitled Managing health and safety in forestry (CIS 99-1549).

For further information, please contact:

HSE Books
PO Box 1999
Sudbury, Suffolk C010 6FS
UK
Tel. +44 1787 881 165, fax +44 1787 313 995
http://www.open.gov.uk/hse/hsehome.htm
 

Manual on forestry ergonomics in Chile

For further information on this manual, please go to the following internet address:

http://www.udec.cl/ergo-conce/informes/index.htm
or contact:
Prof. Elías Apud
Universidad de Concepción
Casilla 4025
CONCEPCIÓN - 3
Chile

OSH in agriculture, forestry and livestock rearing

The CD-ROM includes:

• the full chapters related to agriculture, forestry and livestock rearing from the ILO Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety;
• articles on the health and safety of workers in agriculture, forestry and livestock rearing from national, and international institutions;
• ILO Codes of Practice and booklets on forestry and agriculture, and on topics such as chemicals and ergonomics that are critical for health and safety in these industries;
• International Chemical Safety Cards on agrochemicals, indexed in alphabetical order, by Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number and by the risks involved in the chemicals;
• 3D animations on tractor safety and video on safety in forestry operations;
• hundreds of photos, drawings, charts, diagrams and tables on occupational health and safety presented both as separate files and as embedded files in the articles concerned.

Mattias Lövgren
Forestry and Wood Industries/SECTOR
International Labour Office
CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland
Fax +41 22 799 79 67, e-mail: lovgren@ilo.org

Approaches to labour inspection in forestry - problems and solutions

The publication is largely based on a study on labour inspection in forestry conducted by Mr. Hannu Jokiluoma, a forest engineer, labour inspector and FORWORKNET member who was seconded to the ILO by the Government of Finland. The methodology of the study combined a review of relevant literature, an inquiry among ten selected countries and the collection of information through field visits in eight further countries. The wealth of information compiled and collected for the study has been supplemented and updated by Mr. Bernt Strehlke, former ILO Forestry and Wood Industries Specialist.

The principal target groups for the guidelines are labour inspection services and employers' and workers' organizations. Also addressed are other agencies concerned with specific aspects of labour inspection such as accident insurance agencies and forestry training and research institutions. Last but not the least, the guidelines are directed to managers of forest enterprises to encourage self-inspection, especially in the many cases where the means for official labour inspection are insufficient.

It is hoped that the guidelines will encourage developing countries to deploy the existing labour inspection services more effectively in the forestry sector or to introduce labour inspection in forestry. The guidelines are focused on conditions prevailing in developing countries. They may also be consulted by industrialized countries where there is a need to improve labour inspection in forestry.

A video entitled 'Labour inspection in forestry and small-scale sawmilling' illustrating the problems faced by labour inspection in forestry as well as recommended practice complements this working paper. The video is available from the ILO publications service (see below) at a price of SFR25 and the working paper, which is free of charge, can be ordered directly from Peter Poschen (see address at the end).

Publications PUB/VENTE
International Labour Office
4, route des Morillons
1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland
Fax. +41 22 799 6938, e-mail: pubvente@ilo.org

Short courses in forestry and related subjects

The directory is divided into 21 different subject areas where, for example, Forestry extension and training, Forestry machine technology and Project preparation, monitoring and evaluation can be found.

For further information about this directory, please contact:

Francesca Romano
Forest Research, Education and Conservation Service
Forestry Department, FAO
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00100 Rome, Italy
Tel. +39 0657055951, e-mail: francesca.romano@fao.org

Code of practice for forest harvesting in Asia-Pacific

This Code of Practice for Forest Harvesting in Asia-Pacific is a product of joint efforts of the APFC members and FAO and it was endorsed by the APFC membership at its 17th session in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in February 1998.

The code is intended to identify and encourage environmentally sound forest harvesting practices throughout the region and it has been developed specifically to provide a basis for sub-regional or national codes in the region. It should also guide forest harvesting practices in the absence of more localized codes.

Among others, the FAO Model Code of Forest Harvesting Practice and the ILO Code of Practice were extensively consulted during the development of this code.

For further information and for copies, please contact:

Patrick B. Durst
Regional Forestry Officer
FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
39 Phra Atit Road
Bangkok 10200, Thailand
Fax: +662 28 00 445, e-mail: Patrick.Durst@fao.org
 

Code of Practice goes Chinese

The translated code is available from Peter Poschen at the address at the end, or from:

Mr. Zhang Songdan
Director
Division of Forest Resources Utilization Management
Department of Forest Resources Management
State Forestry Administration
100714 Beijing, China
E-mail: dofrpo@public3.bta.net.cn

'Forest operations of tomorrow'

Christiane Kind, FAO/ECE Timber Section
1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
E-mail:Christiane.Kind@unece.org

For your calendar

Contact address:

Peter Poschen
Sectoral Activities Department
International Labour Office
CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland
Tel: +41-22-799 6188, fax: +41-22-799 7967
e-mail: poschen@ilo.org