1. Forestry education is gradually being removed from the university level

Forestry education has been undergoing a steady decline as evidenced by reduced enrolment into forestry education and training programs. Since the 1990’s graduates of forestry, education and training programs have declined by over 30% worldwide. Many forestry technician schools either have closed down or have vastly reduced enrolment. A slight increase in Asia does not compensate for the massive decline worldwide.

Enrolments in forestry technician training in Europe and Africa have declined substantially since 1993. The reasons for the declining trend are various, but
can be summed up as failure to adequately respond to rapidly changing social, economic and political environments (Temu and Ogweno, 2007). The combined image of incompetent governance and illegal actions may be the drivers in discouraging training and education in forestry.
The present character of forestry education is not market oriented and does not appeal to would be students. It falls short in terms of business value chain. In addition, many curricula are outdated and in need of updating to align with current and future needs.

Education in the field of forestry is a kind of demanding:

Anyone undertaking some demanding job expects good revenues .... and here we get already into problems:

1.0 Analysis of the reason: lack of profitability

This situation is mainly due to the lacking productivity of the sector, where prices only for a short period in 2009 rose, but tumbled again with the recession. Forestry shares the problem of low productivity with agriculture, where the enormous rise in the last 2 centuries led to the situation, that selection now occurs on the base of sheer size, of lack of economy of scale. Size allows that, what is almost the only remaining tool to raise productivity in forestry: mechanization. Forestry enterprises that can't be mechanized are in a dire shape ... but probably not as dire as those managed mechanically (s. Tasmania). Wood prizes will rise, due to the development in China, India and the other strongly developing nations. In the meantime we (we: the people engaged in the maintenance of forests, even if those only produce "golden leaves" in autumn or during a drought) have to see how we can keep he structures, functions and values of the forests intact.

The graph left gives us some hope ... as long as we oversee that it ends already 2002. Productivity is further enhanced by highly qualified labor - but much less by raw material or even energy. Both are the base for production, what means that high prices hinder the productivity of higher transformation, that means that prices are kept low, because they have the same effect as taxes.

2.0.1 Price-trends in the wood markets

 

1.1 The present situation of forestry training in Canada

[David A. MacLean, John Spence: Current Issues in Higher Forestry Education in Canada (december 2008)]

Despite the forest sector contributing significantly to the Canadian economy and psyche, enrollment in accredited forestry programs has been declining in Canada since about 2000, similarly to enrollment in forestry programs in the USA, Australia, the UK, and elsewhere.

Despite of the fact, that forests cover substantial parts of many countries and are often seen as dominant part of landscape, their economic importance, their share in GDP-production, is lower and lower, a problem they share with agriculture. On the other hand they share with agriculture as well the same fact, namely that one of a foreseeable increasing demand, and scarcity on the production side. As the present is normally shaped by present concerns and not future problems, the answers are still a bit queer:

Comparing 2000-01 versus 2007-08 the number of RPF accredited students enrolled in Canada's eight forestry schools declined by more than 50%, falling from 1572 to 695, while total number of students in both accredited and non-accredited forestry programs across Canada declined from 2608 to 1539.

Applicants to the faculties of Engineering and Science were asked a series of questions to assess the importance of various career factors and to determine the relative position of the forestry industry and the Faculty itself. Key findings included:

• Science and Engineering applicants want to work in career fields they consider "modern and exciting". They rated this well above factors such as careers that allow them to stay in the province and they rated it far above the ratings given by Forestry applicants.
  • When assessed against five other career fields, which ranged from medicine to education applicants to both Science and Engineering rated forestry at the bottom in terms of being "modern and exciting".
  • Ratings by applicants to the Faculty of Science were especially bad…60% rated Forestry last, By comparison. the second lowest rated field(education)was rated last by only 20%.
  • In contrast to forestry, the field of environmental science was rated third by applicants to both faculties…second only to medicine and information technology.
  • Science and Engineering applicants also placed very high priority on career or job prospects for graduates, rating this far above factors such as class size or co-op work programs. They also rated career prospects much higher than Forestry applicants.
  • Engineering applicants gave the Faculty of Forestry very good ratings in terms of job prospects for graduates. They rated Forestry equal to Education in second place slightly above the Faculties of Science and Business Administration.
  • Unfortunately, applicants to the Faculty of Science (the highest potential group) once again gave Forestry dismal ratings. They rated the Faculty decidedly at the bottom with 40%rating job prospects for graduates from the Faculty the lowest of the five (the second lowest rated faculty was Business Administration which was rated lowest by 20%).

The situation was so dismal, that even a special pr-site was established, to attract more students to the forestry sector: http://www.goforestry.ca/

[C.T.S. Nair: What does the future hold for forestry education? ]

With rapidly accelerating social, economic and technological changes,
educational concepts and institutions that have been in place
since the industrial revolution could become obsolete.

A number of studies in recent years have drawn attention to the declining state of professional forestry education, both in developing and developed countries. Symptoms of this decline include a significant reduction in funding to educational institutions, low student enrolment rates (Van Lierop, 2003), inability to attract the most talented students and most important, the declining demand for forestry graduates. Confronted with rapidly changing circumstances, many institutions are adopting survival strategies, primarily attempting to outcompete other similar institutions.

The rapid growth of cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary work
would indeed argue that new knowledge is no longer obtained
from within the disciplines around which teaching,
learning and research have been organized
in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Drucker, 1989

So the question is: What is specific with forestry science, to keep it as science. What is the unique focus of forestry research, that prevents it from handing over its duty to some interdisciplinary structures?

Historically most of the forestry knowledge system - which includes research, education, training and extension - has been largely geared to the needs of industrial forestry. In most countries forestry departments were established almost entirely to protect forests and to secure industrial wood supplies to meet domestic or external demand. Apart from protected areas, management of natural forests (which in many countries, especially in the tropics, has been predominantly exploitation) or plantations has largely focused on producing industrial wood. Until recently, traditional resource use systems that cater to the needs of local communities largely remained outside the framework of the formal knowledge system. Although some broadening of curricula has taken place during the past two decades through the inclusion of community forestry and allied subjects, the core of forestry education in most countries still remains timber focused.

Traditionally forestry education has largely concentrated on the supply side of the equation, assuming a continued upward trend in the demand for wood and wood products and thus the need to produce more forestry professionals and technicians. Assumptions that justified the production of “more-of-the same” are becoming less tenable and need to be revisited.

To understand the relationship between people and forests, societies can be grouped into four broad categories:

1. traditional forest-dependent communities,
2. agrarian societies,
3. industrial societies and
4. postindustrial societies: Most developed countries are characterized by an expanding postindustrial segment, with knowledge becoming the main source of wealth. (Unluckily only knowledge that helps to produce more money).

As the postindustrial segment expands, provision of environmental services becomes more important. Many countries that were at the forefront of industrial forestry are already finding that it is no longer economically viable, while there is an increasing demand for the use of forests for recreation and other services.

• Changes in markets and costs of inputs are resulting in the relocation of industries, including forest industries, to emerging economies, especially in Asia, Latin America, southern Africa and Eastern Europe. The growth of industrial societies in these regions will alter the demand for products and services. A significant proportion of technology will be provided by transnational corporations.
• Depending on the specific situation, in many countries other segments of society could also expand. Expansion of the agrarian segment would also have impacts on forests, including reduced forest cover. Agrarian society requires a knowledge system different from the system appropriate for an industrial society.

This situation has the following implications for forestry and forestry education:

• Professional job opportunities in the primary sectors, including forestry, are unlikely to expand.
• Most increases in production in the primary sectors, including forestry, will be achieved through productivity-enhancing technologies and are thus unlikely to be accompanied by increased employment, even of professionals.
• As the prices for most primary products remain low and even continue to decline, the profitability of agriculture and other sectors will continue to decline, further reducing the demand for professionals. > The games of stock markets with raw materials in 2009/10 shows, that this might change.
• Expansion of the industrial and service sectors opens up opportunities for more remunerative employment, especially for professionals.
• In many developed countries, especially in Europe, demographic changes are also affecting the size of the available workforce, especially in forestry, which is less attractive than other fields in terms of remuneration and working conditions.

Changes within the forestry sector

Changes in institutional arrangements. Important institutional changes in the forest sector in most countries in recent decades include:

• diminution of the role of the public sector in forest management, especially as regards wood production, and the increasing assumption of production functions by the private sector;
• emergence of large multinational corporations, especially in the pulp and paper sector, and their increasing consolidation through mergers and acquisitions;
• decentralization and devolution of administration to local bodies and the declining importance of hierarchical forestry administrations;
• emphasis on community participation and transfer (including restoration) of ownership and management to local communities and individuals;
• an increasing role of non-governmental organizations in advocacy and support to local communities.

So in short, the main reason for dwindling numbers of students - and employees in the forestry sector is, that: in many countries the income generated by forestry is inadequate to cover the expenditure on salaries ... while, on the other side, there is a threat, that commercial interests dominate forestry even more, what will lead to increasing problems as experienced in the beginning of the 20th century (monocultures, destruction of forest biotopes, ecological instability, large scale felling leading to soil compaction and erosion etcetc.

With the private sector emerging as a major player in wood production, remuneration is increasingly linked to productivity. However, the observed increase in wood production in some countries is not paralleled by a significant increase in professional employment because of productivity-enhancing technologies. In addition, mergers and acquisitions by transnational forest corporations are significantly reducing the demand for senior and middle-level managers.

Although communities and small farmers are becoming important players in wood production, the growth of small-scale wood production is unlikely to increase employment opportunities. Tree-growing undertaken by communities and small farmers is very different from traditional forestry and has different technical needs. It is often integrated with farming and largely based on traditional knowledge, and may thus require minimal support from forestry graduates. Although there may be some demand for professional extension services, management is carried out by the farmers, and small-scale production employs fewer professional foresters than industrial forestry relative to the amounts of wood produced. Moreover, employment in community-managed initiatives may not be attractive in terms of remuneration and other benefits.

In the industrialized countries in western and northern Europe, future increases in productivity are expected to be less dramatic than in the past. Still employment will continue to fall as a result of an even slower growth in production. The member countries of the European Union could expect a drop in employment of almost 160 000 jobs of which the pulp and paper subsector accounts for about 70 000 jobs.

[Blombäck, Poschen and Lövgren, 2003]

Some Swiss experience: That was exactly the same as projected in Switzerland during the neoliberal turn around 2002: Reduce the 8000 employees to half that number. Several approaches to establish a new forestry law failed, because each group of interest formulated it once in this, then in that direction. First the naturalists seemed to have the overhand, owners and wood industry protested: wood is a regrowing resource that should be used, not just left there. Then the technocrats overwhelmed, reduced limits to harvest, conditions of replantation, Sylvicultural prescriptions of treatment, the neoliberal turn: Let's get the wood, we know how to harvest, we know how to sell, we can do it all by ourselves - so leave us alone, that's cheaper for everybody! That failed as well. Then the General Directorate overtook: We are the best, we know everything, we do everything: All the power to the central administration! Who wonders - that approach - cut as cut can - failed as well. The parliament, not as stupid as one might guess, decided under that conditions to leave the law as it was.

Changes in wood production and processing. Growth rates of industrial wood production have been very low, i.e. about 0.5 percent annually between 1980 and 2000 (FAO, 2003), and appear unlikely to change very much in the near future.

Increasingly forest plantations are becoming an important source of industrial wood supply. Plantations require higher initial labor inputs, but as productivity increases and production is simplified, the demand for professional foresters is unlikely to increase significantly.

Technological changes in harvesting and processing have increased productivity and efficiency, reducing opportunities for professional employment. Advances in processing technologies in the pulp and paper industry, for example, have enhanced the scale of operations, reducing employment per unit of production. Automation of processing has reduced the need for supervision, resulting in a declining demand for professional and technical staff; in Europe, forestry employment declined overall by about 170 000 during the past decade. A continued increase in productivity suggests a further decline by 2010.

Increased reliance on technology transfer: Expertise regarding production and processing of wood is increasingly obtained through technology transfer, often linked to foreign private investments. Although there is a need to adapt the technology for local situations, technology transfer is less expensive and requires fewer resources than original research and development. In most cases, once a technology becomes standard, it can be applied by skilled and even semi-skilled workers with minimal supervision. This also suggests a likely decline in the demand for forestry professionals.

Increasing integration of forestry with other land uses

As tree growing becomes increasingly integrated with agriculture and other land uses and a significant share of wood production shifts from forests to farms, the nature of the forestry profession is bound to change drastically. Increasingly the traditional sectoral boundaries will become less recognizable at the field level, as is already evident in some farming systems. The demand for professional advice will mainly shift towards those who are able to provide broad-based technical advice, not just on forestry or tree growing, but on all aspects of land use, and those who can provide highly specialized advice on certain topics such as pests and diseases and markets. The concept of a specialization called forestry may itself become obsolete, just as “agriculture is becoming an obsolete term on account of its integration with the broader concept of renewable natural resource management” (Wallace, 1997).

1.2 The present situation of forestry training in the USA

[http://www.library.ucsb.edu/istl/46-supp/article7.html]

The definition of "forestry" has been debated from the beginning of forestry programs and agencies in the United States in the late 19th century. Forestry has grown into an interdisciplinary subject incorporating many scientific disciplines: soils, wildlife, civil engineering, economics, ecology, agriculture, environmental science, and recreation as well as sylviculture and utilization of timber products.

Six main influences affected the development of forestry education in the United States.

1. The Morrill Act of 1863 which established state and federal Land Grant Colleges to promote the development of applied agricultural education. (Trees were considered a crop, which prompted the inclusion of forestry programs within the agriculture colleges, especially in forested regions).
2. Concern among early conservationists about a growing timber famine due to the destruction of primary forests across the country.
3. The need for trained employees for the forest industry and for government agencies established to counteract this destruction (such as the USDA Forest Service).
4. Regional politics and issues regarding the use of the forests.
5. Changes in individual college and university administrative structures in keeping with local needs.
6. The development of professional standards for the profession, especially by the Society of American Foresters.

Three of the early pioneers of forestry education in the United States, Gifford Pinchot, Carl Schenck, and Bernhard Fernow, disagreed on how and what should be taught to educate a forester. All three were educated in Germany and, therefore, influenced by European forestry.

In 1928, the National Academy of Sciences asked Henry Graves, Dean of the Yale Forestry School, to conduct a survey of forestry education. This study and a later one sponsored by SAF, published as Forest Education in 1932 (Graves and Guise 1932), were the first comprehensive looks at defining forestry and forest education.

This analysis of early programs does not mention conservation although many of the programs covered range management, lumbering, forest engineering and pulp and paper science, especially in related or graduate degree programs (Graves and Guise 1932). Graves' definition of forestry and guidelines for education of a forester continued to influence the discipline long into the 21st century.

Fourteen schools were initially approved having been evaluated on the basis of the quality of teaching and the facilities, including the library, the laboratories, the research forests, and funding, reflecting the guidelines set forth by Graves and Guise.

Additional efforts to standardize curriculum and degree programs and define forestry took place in the early 1940's (Degrees in forestry 1940; McArdle 1942). Chapman continued to be particular dismissive of including other specializations under the definition of forestry (Chapman 1943), although he did get criticized for his narrow view (Gisborne 1943).

In 1963, Samuel Trask Dana and Evert W. Johnson described the curricula of recently re-accredited programs (Dana and Johnson 1963). Primarily due to the accreditation policies of SAF, most forestry curricula had not changed much since 1935. Undergraduate programs focused on forest management and utilization with some expansion of subjects in schools such as the College of Forestry at the State University of New York that offered programs in pulp and paper technology and wood products in addition to the general forestry programs.

Range management, wildlife management, watershed management, outdoor recreation, conservation, and wood technology are all discussed as related to forestry but also separate disciplines, some still developing at that time. In light of the later environmental influences in forestry education, Dana and Johnson's comment regarding conservation, defined as wise use, is instructive.

"Although schools of forestry have generally regarded forestry as dealing primarily with timber management, they have not hesitated to offer professional instruction dealing specifically with other resources either as separate curricula or as majors or options in a forestry program. This situation may be reflected in the name of the school, but more often is not." (Dana and Johnson 1963)

Influenced by growing environmental movements (DeSteiguer and Merrifield 1978) and changes in the SAF accreditation standards (Skok 1995), forestry education was expanding. Enrollments increased, programs diversified and began to change their names. Although DeSteiguer and Merrifield reported that some in the discipline felt that the "peak interest in the environment had passed" (1978), this was the beginning of changes in school programs. The peak enrollments diminished, but the interest in environmental issues remained. By 1992, in the list of SAF accredited schools, terms other than forestry dominated (Smith 1992). Terms such as forest resources, natural resources, environmental studies, environmental science, wildlife and range sciences described programs, all indicating a broader discipline than the forestry of tree utilization and forest management. However, SAF accreditation standards still affected programs; in most of these schools only certain curricula or programs were accredited, not the whole school. For example, at the University of Washington, only the park and wildland options in forest resources management and logging engineering were accredited (Smith 1992). The social science, wildlife, and paper science programs were not accredited, at least not by SAF.

Jane Coulter (1992) presented a list of issues that must be addressed by forestry education:

1) global deforestation and environmental degradation, perhaps global warming;
2) loss of biological diversity;
3) changing demands for forest products;
4) wilderness preservation;
5) production and harvesting practices that maintain the environment and wildlife habitat;
6) keeping forests healthy;
7) conflicting societal demands for preservation, recreation and production

Although the definition of forestry has not changed over the years, the thoughts about what should be included in a forester's education have changed. Programs have become more inclusive of environmental issues related to biological diversity, sustainability, effects of human interactions with the forests as well as knowledge of human social systems. The need for a five year professional program has long been advocated to give students a broad liberal arts and social science background in addition to the technical expertise they need. Options for more interdisciplinary programs have multiplied.

Forest resource librarians in the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) are also concerned that forestry libraries, information services, and collections are hidden. As noted above many academic forest-related collections are included in larger libraries, and the trend is for smaller subject-focused branch libraries to be merged into larger science units for a variety of budgetary and service-related reasons.

1.2.b Elimination of forestry curriculae in the US: The authors point out that only three U.S. universities now offer forest engineering programs.

University of Washington and CFR use a narrow cost-benefit analysis to make curriculum decisions; that, as a result, the forest engineering curriculum was eliminated; and that CFR's remaining undergraduate programs focus exclusively on ecology and conservation at the expense of "classical" forestry and are not accredited by the Society of American Foresters (SAF).

After many years of successfully providing the forestry profession with forest engineers, undergraduate enrollment and employment opportunities in forest engineering began to decline with the virtual elimination of harvesting programs on federal lands in the Pacific Northwest, the loss of international markets and the major restructuring of industrial forest products companies.

An important criterion for academic program development, continuation or elimination is the opportunity that graduates have for gainful employment. This is particularly important in a professional college like CFR. After trying to sustain a program for several years with about fifteen students served by about six full-time faculty, it became apparent that this was not a viable curriculum.

The Situation in Latin America - the same

1.3 The present situation of forestry training in Switzerland

1.3.1 Recent Changes: Forestry removed from the Federal Technical Institute at Zurich

Around 2000 rumors started in Switzerland, that the Federal Technical Institute (created 1855) wants to get rid of the forestry engineers, that were part of the institute since 1869 (Forestry School), 1885 (Central Organization for Forestry Research, from 1908: Department of Forestry. This kind of practical science does nowadays neither create nobel prizes nor economically promising innovations as bio- or nanotechnology. Only rarely (when there is nothing else available) the results are of some interest for the press. ... While the sustainable, long-term-use of natural resources is one of the outstanding problems of our society. The Federal Technical Institute of Zurich missed that chance.

http://www.env.ethz.ch/docs/bachelor/bsc_AkadForstKom.pdf

Advances in biotechnology and informatics and improvements in the use of raw materials including the development of composite materials - disciplines outside the realm of forestry as it is known today - are likely to alter the way trees are grown and used. Thus forestry and forestry education as they are today may be squeezed from two ends: what is now regarded as specialized forestry knowledge will be available in the common domain, easily accessible and better integrated at the field level, while developments in the frontier areas of technology will require specialization far beyond the current realm of forestry education.

In a knowledge society, increasingly more knowledge and skills will be acquired outside the formal system of education. Thus many of the existing institutions will fade out. The monopoly of educational institutions as providers of knowledge is already under threat.

The emphasis in education is likely to shift from teaching a predetermined set of skills to enhancing the capacity to learn from a variety of sources.

Creating an open and critical mind will be the main task of educational systems. For this task, the disciplinary boundaries on which many traditional professions thrive will be an obstacle.

http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/y5382e/y5382e02.htm

The comments of C.T.S. Nair, FAO, do fit the Swiss experience, but oversee some of the potential problems arising out of that constellation: Forestry, where money can be made, will be done by large, even global active harvest companies (s. Tasmania, Canada, USA, South America, Indonesia etc.) Areas that can't be harvested and replanted mechanically go out of management and will be declared "protection zones". The ensuing problems given with the natural dynamics of forest development will be neglected as long as possible, because they are not none by "normal" environmentalists. The long-term development, the needed long-term involvement, that is specific for forestry, that made forestry the mother of all sustainability.

1.4 The present situation of forestry training in Africa / Morocco

1.4.1 Trend in Forestry Education in Africa: 30% decline since 1990

With the rising demand for intensified tree planting on agricultural landscapes and sustainable forest management, it is clear that Africa is heading for a major shortfall in forestry expertise, effectively undermining our ambitions to meet future forestry needs. In fact, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is graduating just about 300 foresters at first degree level and just about 60-80 postgraduates per year. These figures are much lower than for individual countries in the developed world, and certainly too low for the needs of SSA (Temu et al., 2003). The HIV/AIDS pandemic compounds the forestry education crisis in SSA. The decline could seriously affect future capacity for managing forest resources to meet societal demands and the quality of forest management for decades to come.
An analysis of 20 technical forestry colleges in Africa, point to a serious decline in financial support Temu et al. (2003). According to the study, certificate level training had almost disappeared in colleges since 1999, while diploma programs were substantially reduced due to declining public funding. In most technical colleges, the number of female graduates increased from 1994 but suffered a serious fall from 1998, and has since not recovered. This is particularly bad news as the sector strives to close the gender gaps. Evidently, Africa has entered the 21st century with less technical capacity in forestry in general, and a drastically reduced female capacity, in particular.

Sectors such as agriculture, water, energy, wildlife conservation and livestock management will experience sustenance problems from a wakened forestry sector. Our overall capacity to respond adequately to the impending impacts of climate change will also be diminished.

There is an urgent need to intensify domestication, cultivation and conservation of indigenous trees, especially on farms. This will ensure that communities get tree products from their farms to supplement or replace extraction from the natural forests. In addition, there is need to explore other sources of energy such as solar, biogas, hydroelectric, wind power and bio-fuels to curb fuel wood extraction from indigenous forests.

Important UN conferences have been making strong statements in support of forests. For instance the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) Agenda 21, the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE), the Montréal Process, Regional Initiative of Dry Forests in Asia and the ITTO Criteria and Indicators for Sustainable Management of Natural Tropical Forests (PEFC, 2007; Montréal Process Working Group, 1999). In 2000, the UN Economic and Social Council established the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) as the central body on the International Arrangement on Forests (IAF), to promote Sustainable Forestry Management (SFM) of all types of forests worldwide, and to strengthen long term political commitment to the principle.

Result:

Only 2% of the world's forests, (81 million hectares), are certified as being managed in a sustainable manner (SAF 2007). Thus, there is a disparity between the global statements of intentions and practice of forestry.

Forest policies are often restricted to the management of forested lands (estates).

1.4.1.1. Stakeholders involvement

In the past, management of forests in many countries laid emphasis on ‘command and control’ systems with minimal participation of other stakeholders (Adams and Hulme, 2001). Consequently, communities were alienated from the forest resources and participation in decision-making processes.

Increasingly, legislation and policy on forests are making provisions for community participation in forest management, effectively re-distributing forest benefits. Forestry Schools should develop and implement strategies to strengthen forestry content as part of community development and as an integrated part of land use.

1.4.1.2 Inadequacy of Planning Tools

A key factor that has negatively affected the forestry practice and subsequently leading to decline of forestry resources, especially in western and central parts of Africa, is the poor access to forest management information to the public and interested stakeholders.

In this region of Africa, forest inventories have not been carried out for many decades. Information regarding forest concessions, ownership, production levels, legal status, management plans, certification status, development contributions, among others, is scanty, of poor quality, or guarded by individuals or bodies that apply or encourage unethical management practices. > This observation is valuable for large parts of the world.

There are obvious serious implications for neglecting forestry education.

1. One, schools of forestry will continue to produce inadequate graduates, lacking the required expertise to handle the emerging complex societal and environmental challenges.
2. Two, forestry professional ethics could deteriorate further, leading to indiscriminate destruction of natural resources – the backbone of human livelihood.
3. Three, due to the link between agriculture and forestry, the destruction of forests may lead to water flow challenges impacting on food security.
4. Four, our knowledge and capacity to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change will remain weak, further accelerating global warming, flash floods and droughts.
5. Five, further losses of biodiversity will deny the world of important plants and animals with the potential to solve health and other problems. We must act in a concerted manner to stop these negative events by reviewing and investing in forestry education!

 1.4.2 FAO proposal for Morocco, 1999

Module 1: Biology and forestry system Soils, microbiology and nutrition of forest trees; Biology and physiology of plants; general and forest-botany, phyto-sociology, phyto-ecology, eco-physiology; Genetics and improvement of forest trees fight against biological damages / Forest entomology Module 2: Sylviculture (Science and techniques of establishment, regeneration and growth-steering of populations) Dendrometry; Sylviculture of species; Reforestation; technical and financial magagement and administration; forest equipment and exploitation. Module 3: Conservation and restoration of soils and woods Management of woodlands; Agronomy and agroforestry; Conservation of water and soils; Hydrology and management of watersheds. Module 4: Economy, law and social sciences Economy (general, forestry, rural), estimation, geography; Law (general, civil, penal, administrative, forestry, fishing, hunting, legislation of work); Administration (accounting, taxes, marketing, investment); Communication and development; Languages; Rural Sociology

Module 5: Natural environment and biodiversity area management management of hunting grounds; Hydrobiology, continental fishing, aquaculture; Nature Protection, protected areas. Module 6: Engineering sciences and techniques Applied Mathematic (Statistics, Mechanics et descriptive geometry); Informatics (most common language and software); Topography - cartography; geodetics, remote sensing. Module 7: Sciences of forest products wood (xylology, chemistry, physical and physico-chemical proprieties, mechanical proprieties, variability); technological proprieties and utilization (form giving, composites, chemical and energetic valorization, wood industry); exploitation and valorization of other forest products (cork e.g.); the wood-chain: from the tree to the final product (actors, interventions of the state, trade, national and international trade).

> This large set of required knowledge shows easily the risk of a knowledge overload, as well the needs and potentials for interdisciplinary optimization. The creation of ever more specific jobs with ever more demanding knowledge contains a major transfer of high risks to students: maximum specialization - minimum field of applicability. high tech inventories: satellite imagery - low tech destruction. Long term need for establishment - very short term is sufficient for destruction.

1.5 The present situation of forestry training in Australia

In 1999, for example, the Australian National University (ANU), the University of Melbourne (UMelb) and Southern Cross University (SCU) together produced about 80 graduates. At present, the number of students graduating in Australia is about 30 annually and diminishing. Kanowski (2008) noted that over the five-year period to 2005, the number of students in Australia graduating in forestry, aggregated over four universities, had halved.

Many factors have contributed to this decline. They include the closure of the Australian Forestry School in the sixties, the perceived need for forestry to become more 'relevant' to the needs of society at the end of the 20th century, the restructuring of university courses, the gradual shift of employment opportunities for foresters away from the public to the private sector, and the increasing cost of gaining a university qualification.

The decline in the number of people seeking to study for a traditional forestry degree, despite the availability of jobs, is also occurring in Canada, USA, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, and has been described as part of a global crisis facing the professional education of foresters (Innes and Ward 2007; Kanowski 2008). Enrolments in the forestry degree drifted lower and lower, however, until in 1999 fewer than 100 students were enrolled in accredited courses. By 2005 only 12 or so students graduated with forestry degrees from ANU (Kanowski 2008).

It is worth noting that an equally worrying decline has also occurred in enrolments in agricultural courses in Australian universities 'indicating that agriculture is not perceived as a desired career' (Pratley 2008). The supply of agriculture graduates is also well short of the market requirement.

Vanclay, J.K., 1996. The future of forestry education. Institute of Foresters of Australia Newsletter 37(2):2-6.

Who are the key players in forestry education? Four groups may be recognized:

• Providers, including universities, technical training schools, and professional institutes;
• Participants (not recipients or clients; we need active involvement), including graduate and undergraduate students, forest managers and researchers, planners and policy makers;
• Beneficiaries, including potential employers, the public, and global biodiversity;
• Intermediaries, including the media, primary and secondary schools.

Forestry Education Today

To create a productive vision for the future, we must first have a good understanding of the current situation. We are in the midst of a revolution in forestry. There is an increasing emphasis on holistic and non-wood aspects reflected in the American term "ecosystem management" (e.g. see Journal of Forestry 92(8), August 1994). Some pressure groups are seeking to divert all timber production from natural forests to plantations. Forest services have been restructured, amalgamated, and may be turned into timber corporations. The "unified national system of higher education" has changed the funding basis for many universities.

> Vanclay speaks here about precisely THE problem, why forestry is in the sh... Forestry officers have mostly been trained as "officers", what means: receive you orders - make your job - and shut up. Those that did not shut up, have been expelled.

Has the paradigm of the "sturdy stock horse" changed in response to this new environment? Would forest services today choose an astute entrepreneur over a hirsute tree-feller or a flamboyant researcher? Can universities deliver graduates in that mould? Should we? For me, the mould is irrelevant; our primary objective should be to encourage creative thought. We must not try to force students into a preconceived mould, but should encourage them to develop in any way which they find fruitful. To do this, we must provide a solid foundation spanning a wide range of topics relevant to forestry, and stimulate students to think critically and independently.
Eric Bachelard recently argued in the Commonwealth Forestry Review (73:94–96) that universities should train foresters to be jacks of all trades but masters of some, and should prepare them for a"continuing process of self-education and re-education". He observed that"traditionally foresters have been trained to have an appreciation of the basic physical and biological sciences pertaining to forest ecosystems, a knowledge of the sciences, technologies and economies which underpin both wood production and environmental management, and a professional experience of forest policies and economic and management systems. Forest managers ... must have sufficient understanding ... to formulate and supervise the implementation of appropriate management plans; to be able to communicate meaningfully with experts in other disciplines ...; and to be able to determine when that expert advice is required." He noted that foresters need a "greater appreciation of the social and cultural environment in which they work, a willingness to modify their practices to meet changing community demands, and a greater ability to communicate with the public they serve".
In short, as Jack Westoby repeatedly emphasized (e.g. in Introduction to World Forestry, Blackwell, 1989), that forestry is about people. And about managing forests to serve more people in more generous ways. This requires foresters to be effective communicators, to work productively in multidisciplinary teams, and to be able to gauge and guide community wishes and expectations. The most important and durable qualities of the forestry course may be the way that broad training in the basic sciences is coupled with communication skills. These qualities are required in all areas of resource management, so it is no surprise to see foresters leading conservation and land management organizations.

Many foresters seem to have coped rather well with many of the technical advances during the past few decades, but seem to have found social and cultural changes more difficult to deal with.

Emerging Technologies

During the next 40 years we may anticipate many exciting technical developments:

• teleconferencing and computer networks will allow us to work and study from home;
• etherial libraries and hypertext documents will simplify information retrieval;
• real-time high-resolution remote sensing will change the function and frequency of field visits;
• quantum computing will enable large-scale physiologically-based models with unprecedented detail and accuracy;
• information systems (including remote sensing, geographic information systems, digital terrain models, dynamic growth models) will be integrated with virtual reality terminals so that users can make magic carpet or "tardis" journeys through forests near and far;
• expert systems will place the world's best brains within easy reach of every resource manager and assist them to diagnose and solve any problem;
• operations research and decision support systems will optimize sylviculture and management for any objective we can specify;
• robots will do all the heavy, dirty or dangerous work;
• genetic engineering will create trees that grow faster and straighter, that are pest-resistant, tolerant of difficult sites, and have more interesting commercial properties; ... and proof only after lengthy experience, that those wanted and bred-in traits removed some others as frost, heat, drought - resistance (adaptation to the local environmental conditions by a longstanding natural selection), and will so lead nowhere.
• polymer technology will allow us to make wood of any species strong, durable and attractive – perhaps even from algae. Means: We can grow wood in chemical tanks and forget about the forests.

How can we equip people to deal with technological advances such as these, even if only half these predictions eventuate? We simply cannot provide the technical skills in any significant way. These elements of a course may have a very limited service life; half the content may be redundant in less time than it took to complete the degree (the half-life of an M.D degree has been estimated at 7 years). This means that we must provide on-going in-service training for all professionals to update their technical knowledge. Some components of a degree course are more durable, and we must take special care to provide students with a good foundation in these areas. Thus we need to provide broad coverage in the physical and biological sciences, in the philosophy of science, quantitative skills, communication, and management. One of the strengths of the B.Sc.(For) course is the way it integrates a broad range of elements. Australian foresters (notably the members of the Australian Forestry Council's Research Working Group on Mensuration and Management) have acquired an international reputation in systems design and implementation; we seem to have a flair for the "big picture" in decision support systems, in linking area, inventory and planning data, and in efficiently building "total solutions". We should build on these strengths, as they are qualities that will endure.
Perhaps a more important question is to ask how we can make these emerging technologies a practical reality, and how we can influence their direction and implementation. Are these changes desirable, will they improve our quality of life, are they benevolent to the environment? If we are to participate in these developments and influence their progress, we must have excellent and innovative research. This means attracting high calibre students, providing good facilities and a stimulating environment, and supporting them with active supervision. It requires staff with the inspiration to ask searching questions and the enthusiasm to assist with applied problem solving. We cannot and will not attract good students with guaranteed employment or lucrative salaries, but we may attract them by gaining their interest and respect, and by posing challenging problems for research. Our role is to help them to develop, some into highly specialized technocrats, some into visionary systems modelers, and many into innovative generalists who are mentally prepared for this changing environment.

Social and Environmental Challenges

The next 40 years will also bring many difficult challenges:

• the world's population will double, and human appropriation of resources may increase from 40 to 80 percent of net primary production;
• global biodiversity will fall at least 10 percent;
• there will be a critical shortage of clean water, food, space and other resources, and an excess of domestic and industrial waste;
• the climate may be chaotic because of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gasses and other atmospheric pollutants;
• pollution of land, sea, and air, will stress all plant and animal life

One way to promote these skills is to progressively replace lecture+examination based learning with research+assignment exercises as students progress through the course. A further step in this direction would be to require all students to complete some independent or team research (such as the current management plan exercise), to be presented as a poster display in a public venue (e.g. a shopping mall) and a public seminar, as well as in a more traditional scientific paper or management plan format.

The Forestry Profession: Some of my colleagues are concerned that forestry is no longer universally recognized as an honorable profession.

We work within the socio-cultural framework of our society, but we must influence it, not merely conform to it. If we show true leadership, we will earn respect, irrespective of whether we are called "foresters" or "resource assessment officers".
Many students are attracted to forestry, not because of the opportunities for communication and consultation, but because of the solitude of the forests. If we are to revive forestry professionalism, we must stimulate these students (and practicing foresters) to improve their interpersonal skills, and should change this "lumberjack" preconception of forestry so that we also attract students with other gifts.
Professionals should be able to respond to criticism in a mature way. In the role of journal editor, I have been surprised at the number of reviewers, who, despite the journal's policy of anonymous refereeing, make a special request that their identity is not disclosed because they do not wish a critical review to spoil their friendship with the author. Perhaps we can encourage a more mature attitude to criticism by requiring final year students to formally review each other's assignments. There seems to be more criticism of the forestry profession in English-speaking countries than in continental Europe.

This will not be easy, especially as the current enthusiasm for privatization forces forest services to change their focus from the "big picture" of ecosystem management towards entrepreneurial timber production.

Public relations are not enough; we also must re-vitalize this Department. We must have stimulating lectures, challenging tutorials (in the lab and the field), and innovative research.

Staff and students should be exposed to a wide range of ideas, by reading, participating in conferences, and through an active program of exchanges and visiting lectures. Certainly, this costs money, but I am confident that funds will be available if we excel. We also gain through cooperative research with other universities, institutes and industry; the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. All staff should undertake some consultancies to keep in touch with the "real world";

Working in Europe is stimulating because of the high level of international cooperation and constant exposure to different ideas and experiences. The tyranny of distance makes this more difficult in Australia, but that just means we have to work a little harder

We must reject the "sturdy stock horse" paradigm and recognize that our role is to help people to equip themselves to research and solve problems – not simply academic research, but also practical problems of land use planning, community consultation and forest management – not only in the framework of public servants and corporate employees, but also as responsible professionals and good citizens.

1.6 Worldwide overview: FUTURE FORESTRY EDUCATION Responding to expanding societal needs.

There is a gap between what is being learnt in forestry schools and the new societal expectations. New forestry education programs are emerging but without sufficient global guidance on the coherence, content, quality or relevance. Re-designing forestry education to meet current and future needs is an imperative.

This policy brief consolidates recommendations of the first global workshop on forestry education held in September 2007, at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Nairobi Kenya. The workshop called for changes in forestry education, research and practice. From emerging evidence, forestry education in the recent years has largely failed to adequately respond to the dynamics in forestry practice, the demands of the job market and challenges of new global forestry paradigms. The declining investment in the sector leads to diminishing esteem for the forestry profession. Major changes in forestry education, research and practice are urgently needed to improve relevance and popularize forest science, technologies and practices. Many curricula are outdated and in need of review to align with current and future needs.
Regrettably, many schools of forestry have failed to recognize that the forester’s job has transformed from that of only managing forests, to one of applying a wide range of skills to respond to the needs of forestry stakeholders. The future forester must especially contextualize the demand for products and services from trees and forests in different landscapes owned and managed by a wide range of people and institutions and must therefore have new training to address the diverse needs. The need to review principles of forest management arises out of the indisputable functions of trees and forests such as sustaining human and animal life, offering essential life-supporting services and sustenance of agriculture and biological diversity.
Various international agreements and protocols require better understanding of the roles of trees and forests. From Agenda 21 in 1992 to the recent Non-Legally Binding Instrument (NLBI) on all types of forests (adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2008), improved forestry capacity is emphasized. However, the disparity between the global statements of intentions and practice of forestry is glaring. Foresters must recognize the complexity of managing production and conservation to meet the requirements of all such agreements and also articulate inputs into related sectors such as energy, water, agriculture and climate change. Designing forestry education that is responsive to the new socioeconomic and environmental challenge is a complex issue that calls for intensive consultations.
The 85 participants from 29 countries at the global workshop representing Africa, Asia, North and South America and Europe; deliberated on vital issues for guiding, coordinating and linking relevant institutions and stakeholders in the process of transforming forestry education. They agreed that:

• Increased investment in forestry capacity is imperative;
• Improved coordination mechanisms are key at national, regional and global scales to reinforce the quality and content of forestry education and training;
• Enhanced harmonization of forestry with other related sectors is needed in order to achieve synergy of strategies and actions; and
• Regional and Global mechanisms for collaboration in forestry education be established and sustained. The International Partnership for Forestry Education (IPFE) launched in 2006, brings together a wide range of stakeholder institutions interested in the improvement of forestry education. As a non-profit consortium of institutions primarily interested in improving forestry education, it can undertake policy advocacy, information sharing and host debates at appropriate fora regional and international fora. IPFE needs financial and other support to materialize the dream of having high quality and relevant forestry education that fits the current and future paradigms in forestry.

1.7 Summary and Conclusions: New trends in forestry curriculae - based on the question: What's actually the duty of the forestry service?

Historically the main duty of forestry services was to protect the forests, belonging to the ruling class, mostly used as hunting grounds, from use through farmers, their livestock (heavy overuse in the 18th and 19th century, due to use of fuelwood as well, corrected by use of coal and oil) and poachers.

Classical duties of the forestry service: police: stock & harvest control management of the following functions: production protection biodiversity recreation

In the last 150 years the main job of the forestry service (in Europe) was:

1. to produce wood, mainly quality wood, moreover firewood and raw material for industrial purposes (paper and particle boards)
2. to secure the important other functions, as control of avalanches, falling stones, mud slides, erosion.

The last 30 years, especially around towns (remember, since 2008 over 50% of the world population live in towns! s. urbanization), the aspect of recreation in calm, fresh air, in a natural and healthy environment moved in many cases to the top of the list.

Unsolved Problems:

Modern problems of the forestry service: 1) global deforestation and environmental degradation, perhaps global warming; 2) loss of biological diversity; 3) changing demands for forest products; 4) wilderness preservation; 5) production and harvesting practices that maintain the environment and wildlife habitat; 6) keeping forests healthy; 7) conflicting societal demands for preservation, recreation and production

A) The intensification of agriculture and forestry deprived plants and animals of their natural habitat, ruined biodiversity. Diversity is not only a hobby of some ecologists and romanticists, but decisive for the stability of any biotope, even econotope (s. ecosystem: economic system + human system + natural system). #

B) The automatic, forceful calculus of multiplying wealth and money replaced the freedom of setting aims and choosing alternative actions.

At the spearhead of most modern forestry education programs stands nowadays COMMUNICATION. Due to the fact, that the problems behind are PROBLEMS OF POWER, so not easily to be solved by talking hiding the real problems:

1. MORAL CONSIDERATION: that the forestry manager would have to be loyal first to the demands of nature and forest, that are not able to defend themselves without someone speaking for them. nature rules
2. POLITICAL CONSIDERATION: that the forestry managers are dependent on the employing state agencies, often not ruled by clear insight and sustainable ideas, but as shortsighted as the election campaign demands. politics rules
3. ECONOMIC CONSIDERATION: that money rules, that the forestry managers will be well seen if they succeed to produce money, but seen as too expensive, useless or/and disturbing in times where cultivation of forests costs (for a while) more than it produces.

Martin Herzog, Basel, 3rd May 2010

2 Historical background of forestry instutionalization - and recent developments  towards the future

2.1 Historical background of forestry instutionalization

Traditionally the forestry service grew out of the will of the owners of forests (technically managed for wood production) or woodlands (mainly serving as hunting grounds of the rich and for wood collection of the poor) to protect those from transgressions and overuse. So forestry based, and still bases, mainly on a police and harvest control + management function. Research had to show, how those functions could be improved.

In the meantime even in Switzerland the situation we had and have in Yemen and many developing countries with only scarce woodlands has arrived: Forests do not produce sufficient income to run a qualified forestry service, able to manage it in a sustainable manner. The importance of forests did a) change, but is b) rather misinterpreted than unknown.

a) Since 2008 over 50% of the world population lives in towns. Forests do have problems with that amount of people, running around in it, much more if even wood is collected. Animal species that react negatively on disturbances, just disappear. The townspeople see the forest primarily as a place for recreation.

b) Oil production passed its maximum potential (peak oil ). Energy demand is still rising, due to the fact, that countries on the road to a full spread development, especially China, are still on very low levels of energy consumption and production. Not only energy, but all raw materials show rising prices, do to increasing demand. The same happens (happened, will happen again !) with food and wood.

But - where forests do not produce anymore sufficient income to support sylviculture (meaning cultivation, not just use of forests), we run into totally different problems. Police will not encounter acceptance. You might see that here, in Morocco, quite well. Morocco forests are almost completely under government control, but still they are suffering, not only from fires, especially not only from fires that occur naturally.

Under those conditions forestry has more often to use methods close to social marketing, based as each marketing on:

1. situation analysis, mainly social and cultural determinants of problem
   1. structural analysis
   2. functional analysis
   3. analysis of normative settings, values
2. Design, development through communication, deals, contracts - the only way the tragedy of the commons can be overcome. s. chapter local management/co-management.

THE problem with forestry and its supporting research is, that the research structures, developed out of a history of centuries, does not fit to the present problems. Especially as values, ends, goals, objectives, intentions are not, have never been a subject of scientific knowledge, but of free decision, free will, what means they differ, as peoples intentions and interests do differ, that means, common grounds, a kind of consensus, has to be found by diplomacy, through political structures. The classical disciplines of science run us here into deep troubles.

Inter-/pluri-/transdisziplinarity … Forestry is dependent on reliable knowledge (=scientific knowledge) from very different sources. As other applied sciences it can neither define an all-around scientific system, nor can it define the contributing sciences as there are:

• humanities: forest law and politics
• social sciences: user management, assist private owners, defense against overboarding demands …
• engineering sciences: harvest methods, road construction, erosion control, etcetc.
• natural sciences: botany, dendrology, plant sociology, soil physics, -mechanics, -chemistry etcetc

The interaction between science and action, the practical, but knowledge-based utilization of forests is the core problem. All forestry-administrations have to deliver services, services for the government, services to the users of wood and the users of the forests. Not enough that such a knowledge-system is complex and complicated, there is the fact, that action demands reflection on the potential, not only on the intended results. Complex systems risk often to produce just the opposite of the intended result - or something not expected at all. So does the fact, that rationalization of production often succeeds in reducing waste and costs, so producing things cheaper, NOT result in less use, but precisely in the opposite, in more use (of cheaper products). s. rebound effect / wiki.

The second part, the social and spiritual part can't be solved by classical causal sciences, but is a matter of choosing purposes, targets, aims, a matter of values, so oriented not towards unavoidable causal conditioning, but towards free final choice. The lack to differentiate between those two main fields of science leads to the bulk of problems occurring in applied sciences.

Beck's terms risk-society, reflexive modernity show, that the ever increasing activities create not only what they are thought for, but have in the meantime many side-effects. Since 25 years in Germany, 35 years in the USA, the increase in wealth does not enhance happiness, but turned into a constant rat race. (Easterlin Paradox). Under those conditions, forestry sciences have a very high potential to produce something meaningful, if they succeed in organizing the cooperation between the whole bunch of scientific disciplines under synoptic and coordinating new categories.

2.2 Cultural development in general

[Sustainable use and management of natural resources. EEA Report No 9/2005]

The European model of wealth is based on a high level of resource consumption, including energy and materials. Current material consumption in industrialized countries is between 31 and 74 tonnes/ person/year (total material consumption), and environmentally most significant is the consumption of materials for housing, food and mobility. The average material intensity in the EU-25 is slightly less than in the United States, but twice as high as in Japan.

The case of fisheries is a prime example of a policy effort which has not resulted in sustainable resource management in practice. About one third of global fish stocks are already overexploited. Most fish stocks in European waters are over fished or fully exploited, mainly due to overfishing, but also because of coastal and marine pollution, and changes in ecosystems. During the 1990s, constant overfishing threatened fish populations and provoked conflicts affecting EU Member States. Forest is a natural resource with a very long tradition of sustainable use and management.
The area covered by forests in Europe is around 36 %, and on average, has been increasing by half a million hectares a year in recent years.

Growing global trade, and Europe's increasing dependence on imports, may lead to problems of security of supply.

Currently, 47 % of European land is used for agriculture, 36 % for forestry, and 17 % for other purposes, including settlements and infrastructure. Leaving aside the environmental impacts of agriculture, which are beyond the scope of this report, the three most important threats to European soils are sealing, erosion, and contamination. In Europe, around 26 million ha are subject to water erosion, and about 1 million to wind erosion.

The increase in the rate of sealing of soils has far outstripped the growth in population.

Almost every Community policy affects the use and management of natural resources. Among the most important are the common agricultural policy, the common fisheries policy, regional development policy, and transport and energy policies.

Due to the 'rebound effect,' (incremental gains in technical efficiency being offset by more widespread consumption), it is unlikely that resource use can be reduced by technological improvements alone. The sustainability of current lifestyles and consumption patterns may have to be critically reviewed.

Large investments in environmental protection have helped to create around two million jobs in the European eco-industry. The industry, which accounts for about one-third of the global market, is already highly competitive, especially in the areas of efficient use of fossil fuel energy and technologies for renewable energy use.

Emphasis on material and energy efficiency can also help to reduce unemployment, because economic restructuring and cost-saving strategies traditionally target the labor force first, despite the fact that lab our productivity in Europe is already high, having increased by some 270 % between 1960 and 2002, compared with 100 % for materials and barely 20 % for energy.

Human wealth is based on the use and consumption of natural resources, including materials, energy and land. Continued increase in resource use and the related environmental impacts can have a multitude of negative effects leading to ecological crises and security threats. The sustainable use and management of natural resources have therefore come into focus and have been the subject of many policy discussions over more than a decade, beginning with the summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

Over the past 50 years, humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable period in human history, largely to meet rapidly growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fibre and fuel. This has resulted in substantial gains in human well-being and economic development, but these gains have been achieved at growing costs in the form of the degradation of many ecosystems (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005).

The first is the size of the population. The more people who need to cover their material needs, the more resources are consumed. The second is how and to what extent we meet our needs. The third is the pattern of development, broadly defined to include technological level, economic structure, and the patterns of production and consumption.

According to the UN World population prospects (UN, 2003) the global population is expected to increase by almost 50 % in the first half of the 21st century, from 6.3 billion in mid-2003 to 8.9 billion by 2050 on the assumption of medium fertility.

The population of the developing countries is projected to nearly double over the next 50 years, but to stagnate or even decline in the industrialized countries. Population growth is therefore a prominent driver of resource consumption in developing countries, but has ceased to be a main driving force in most European countries. - and of increase rate!

There is also a tendency for the number of households to increase, due to fewer people living in each household, an increasing number of single households, and longer life expectancy.

Ensuring economic growth is a central objective of policy-making. Less than 3% is seen as cause for troubles.

In the global context, however, many developing countries have entered the phase of resource intensive industrialization fairly recently, or will do so in the near future.

For example China, which is already developing the largest steel and coal industries in the world, is rapidly developing heavy industries that follow the traditional industrial development pattern. Industrialization and growth may also create opportunities for technological 'leapfrogging' through technology transfer, perhaps further strengthened by the implementation of emission trading schemes.

The projected 50 % growth of the global population over the next 50 years will put a significant pressure on the environment. Most of the growth will be in the developing countries, which will contain 85 % of the world's population within a couple of decades.

As Table 2.2 shows, the world's population increased by 61 % between 1971 and 2000 and energy use by 82 %.

 

 

 

 

3 Local management / co-management

Co-management is the present top-of-the art, kind of integration of former qualitative participatory methods, developed between 1983 and 1990, as participatory rural appraisal (pra) to participatory learning and action (pla). It shares with those the insight, that the chance to solve problems depends not only on "scientific" knowledge, but mainly on involvement of people, and on that fact, that those problems are shared, recognized as shared, with a high recognition, that they have to be solved together. The road to the solution is lengthy, far from a well planned, well structured, rational shortcut. It's living democracy, with its advantages as well as its stumblestones and pains.

Co-management is: ‘co-management’ — Also called: participatory, collaborative, joint, mixed, multi-party or roundtable management - a situation in which two or more social actors negotiate, define and guarantee amongst themselves a fair sharing of the management functions, entitlements and responsibilities for a given territory, area or set of natural resources. a pluralist approach to managing natural resources (NR's), incorporating a variety of partners in a variety of roles, generally to the end goals of environmental conservation, sustainable use of NRs and the equitable sharing of resource-related benefits and responsibilities a political and cultural process par excellence: seeking social justice and “democracy” in the management of natural resource a process that needs some basic conditions to develop, among which are: full access to information on relevant issues and options, freedom and capacity to organize, freedom to express needs and concerns, a non-discriminatory social environment, the will of partners to negotiate, confidence in the respect of agreements, etc. a complex, often lengthy and sometimes confused process, involving frequent changes, surprises, sometimes contradictory information, and the need to retrace one’s own steps the expression of a mature society, which understands that there is no “unique and objective” solution for managing natural resources but, rather, a multiplicity of different options which are compatible with both indigenous knowledge and scientific evidence and capable of meeting the needs of conservation and development Origin, problem: The historical emergence of colonial powers and nation states, and their violent assumption of authority over most common lands and natural resources led to the demise of traditional NRM systems virtually everywhere. The monetization of economic exchange weakened local systems of reciprocity and solidarity, as did the incorporation of local economies into increasingly global systems of reference. Reason for lack of open dialogue: In such situations, as in all societies structured around large power differentials, such as feudal hamlets in Europe or colonial possessions in Africa and Latin America, the “weapons of the weak” have rarely included frank, open and above-board discussions. From the point of view of development and conservation professionals – to whom this document is primarily addressed – the history of co-management is rooted in decades of fieldbased and theoretical efforts by individuals and groups concerned with: - social justice and equity; - sustainable use of natural resource; - community-based and community-run initiatives. Co-mangement contains four inter-related CM components: CM context CM process CM plan(s) and agreement(s) CM organization(s) The co-management process needs normally three main phases: 1. Preparing for the partnership (organizing) 2. Negotiating co-management plans and agreements 3. Implementing and revising the plans and agreements (learning by doing) Concepts and approaches contributing to understanding and practicing co-management: • adaptive management • pluralism • governance ‘governance’ — the complex of ways by which individuals and institutions, public and private, manage their common concerns German translation: Governance (von frz. "gouverner" verwalten, leiten, erziehen aus lat. "gubernare"; gleichbed. griech. "kybernan": das Steuerruder führen; vgl. Kybernetik) bezeichnet allgemein das Steuerungs- und Regelungssystem im Sinn von Strukturen (Aufbau- und Ablauforganisation) einer politisch-gesellschaftlichen Einheit wie Staat, Verwaltung, Gemeinde, privater oder öffentlicher Organisation. Häufig wird es auch im Sinne von Steuerung oder Regelung einer jeglichen Organisation (etwa einer Gesellschaft oder eines Betriebes) verwendet. Der Begriff governance wird häufig unscharf verwendet. • patrimony - not anonymous ownerhip • management of conflicts - ‘conflict management’: guiding conflicts towards constructive rather than destructive results using facilitators, mediators, arbitrators, instructors: Shift the attention from positions to underlying interests. “Interests” are people’s fundamental needs and concerns. • social communication Social background: Communities are social actors in themselves and provide the most natural and effective unit of identity, integration and defence for many under-privileged groups and individuals (see Farvar, 1999). Yet, communities are not homogenous entities, and their internal subdivisions should be recognized. In other words, while keeping their basic cohesion and identity, a plurality of values, interests and concerns should be recognized within any local community (see Agrawal, 1997). A multiplicity of views and voices in the negotiation process is a fundamental pre-condition for equity and justice. Yet, it does not follow from this that all views and voices are equal, that they all carry the same weight or are all equally entitled to participate in the negotiation of the co-management plans and agreements. Equity (s. conditions) is profoundly different from equality! For co-management initiatives is about providing the conditions for informed decision making in society, i.e. fostering the sharing of information and the discussion of problems, opportunities and alternative options for action. It is a generally a complex phenomenon, including a variety of avenues, from one-to-one dialogue and group meetings (i.e. personal and interpersonal aspects) to the use of mass media such as the radio, TV or Internet. These may include: informing, raising awareness and training CONDITIONS CONCERNING COMMUNICATION: “Communication occurs when people have something in common.” Effective communication processes and tools do not discriminate against the weaker and less powerful in society Any information conveyed should be truthful, fair and reasonably complete. Any awareness-raising initiative (e.g. a traveling theatre piece) should be respectful of local cultural traits and norms. Any training initiative should be offered with an eye to its social implications. Most importantly, social communication initiatives should include plenty of occasions for dialogue and discussion INPUTS Time Effort Loyalty Hard Work Commitment Ability Adaptability Flexibility Tolerance Determination Enthusiasm Personal sacrifice Trust in superiors Support from co-workers and colleagues Skill Basics for launching and maintaining social communication initiatives: Interest, Fairness, Equity - because no one in the world would be interested in co-management if it could not bring solutions to the environment and development problems besetting many people and groups in society. EQUITY = The goal of such meetings is usually to achieve a broad accord on: • a long-term vision (ecological and social) for the NRM unit(s) at stake a short- and medium-term strategy to achieve such a vision, including co-management plans for the natural resources at stake and complementary agreements to address socioeconomic issues related to such resources an evolving social institution (organizations) CONDITIONS for the SUCCESSFULL ESTABLISHMENT OF A CM:: the active commitment and collaboration of several stakeholders are essential to manage the territory, area or resources at stake; the access to such territory, area or resources is essential for securing the livelihood and cultural survival of one or more stakeholders; local actors have historically enjoyed customary/ legal rights over the territory or resources; local interests are strongly affected by NRM decisions; the decisions to be taken are complex and controversial (e.g., different values need to be harmonized or there is disagreement over the distribution of entitlements to land or resources); the current NRM system has failed to produce the desired results and meet the needs of the local actors; stakeholders are ready to collaborate and request to do so; A fairly usual dilemma in stakeholder analysis presents itself when the Start-up Team discovers a variety of different interests, concerns and capacities vis-à-vis natural resources within one and the same potential institutional actor (let us say a community in the vicinity of a forest). there is ample time to negotiate. > simple - but still highly demanding (+ knowledge of biosphere forest-range-farmland-town) target-oriented, not causal scientific. Major problem: Choose the right targets - while the choice depends on differing opinions. pluralistic management institution (not given, s. Ulrich, St. Gallen, with 6 basic categories. A first and simple step towards democratization of economy is field environment + the interaction topics resources, norms and values, concerns and interests.) economic feasibility socio-cultural feasibility existing legal rights to land or resources, whether by customary law or modern legislation (e.g., traditional tenure and access rights, ownership, right of use); mandate by the state (e.g. statutory obligation of a given agency or governmental body); direct dependency on the natural resources in question for subsistence and survival (e.g. for food, medicine, communication); dependency for gaining basic economic resources; historical, cultural and spiritual relationships with the concerned territory, area or natural resources; unique knowledge of and ability to manage the concerned NRM unit(s); on-going relationship with the territory, area or natural resources (e.g. local communities and long-time resource users vis-à-vis recently arrived immigrants, tourists, hunters); loss and damage suffered as a result of NRM decisions and activities; level of interest and effort invested in natural resource management; present or potential impact of the social actor’s activities on the land or the natural resources; opportunity to share in a more equitable way the benefits of natural resources; number of individuals or groups sharing the same interests or concerns; general, social recognition of the value of a given point of view or value (e.g., based on traditional knowledge; based on scientific knowledge; aiming at “sustainable use”; aiming at “conserving natural and cultural heritage”; following the “precautionary principle”, etc.); compatibility with national policies; compatibility with international conventions and agreements. An example of a set of rules for the negotiation process all main institutional actors should be present in the meetings and participate via their formal representatives participation is voluntary, but whoever does not come is taken as not being interested in taking part in decision-making; however, if more than X% of the institutional actors are not present for a meeting, the meeting will be adjourned language should always be respectful (people should refrain from insults and verbal abuse) everyone agrees not to interrupt people who are speaking (the facilitator will remind people of the need to be concise) everyone agrees to talk only on the basis of personal experience and/or concrete, verifiable facts everyone agrees not to put forth the opinions of people who are not attending the meetings (unless they are officially represented) consensus is to be reached on all decisions (voting will be avoided as much as possible, as it always assures an unhappy minority…) “observers” are welcome to attend all negotiation meetings. Main target: Developing a common vision of the desired future Social consensus on the vision of the future desired is extremely important for the negotiation of effective co-management plans and agreements. If conflicts and disagreements surface during the negotiation process, the facilitator will be able to bring everyone back to the vision they all wish to achieve. Methods and tools for situation analysis Brainstorming Problem analysis conceptual frameworks Breaking down large problems/issues into smaller or sectoral components. SWOT-ANALYSIS (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) is a powerful tool a group can use to assess an issue of concern, in particular a project, an organization or a public service, and to identify opportunities for action and change. Methods and tools to agree on a course of action: Listing alternative options and facilitating their direct comparison. Stimulating explicit discussion of the hypotheses and basic assumptions underlying alternative options. Facilitating the achievement of satisfactory compromises through the use of flexible instruments, such as the zoning of the territory or area to be managed and/or the specification of detailed conditions of resource use (such as by type, time, season, users, techniques, tools, etc.). Calling for an expert opinion on controversial issues. Providing effective conflict mediation. Asking the institutional actors to devise incentives Facilitating the setting up of Community Investment Funds for sustainable development, > The core question of all development: From where comes the investment (who will do something)? Who will decide? Developing a simple logical framework for the course of action agreed upon. Elements of a co-management plan the geographical limits of the territory, area, or set of natural resources at stake; the complex of functions and sustainable uses it can offer; a co-coordinated series of objectives, priorities and activities for the management of natural resources; the recognized institutional actors; the functions and responsibilities assigned to each institutional actor; the entitlements and benefits granted to each institutional actor; procedures for negotiating on-going decisions and managing eventual conflicts; procedures for implementing and enforcing decisions; expected results at given times; rules for monitoring, evaluating and eventually revising the co-management plans and agreements (follow-up protocol). Examples of agreements associated with a co-management plan A training initiative for one or more local community groups (elders, youth, women, farmers, pastoralists, forest dwellers, etc.) The building of local infrastructures (e.g. a road, a health center, a school, a communication network, water supplies, power supplies) The setting-up of a Community Investment Fund A by-law to assign some exclusive rights to one or more local stakeholders (e.g. the right to set-up a tourist businesses, the right to collect defined quantities of specific products from a protected area) A public health initiative (e.g. training and supporting community health workers, providing safe water supply systems, public and private baths and toilets, etc.) A project to intensify/ improve local agricultural production Economic and technical support for the creation of local small industries Assistance to the commercialization of local products Economic resources How is the organization sustained? Does it have any economic assets of its own? Are there membership fees? Are there income-generating activities? Legitimizing and publicizing the co-management plans, agreements and organizations A vision of the desired future produced jointly by all the actors concerned. The vision is legitimated by an appropriate socio-cultural ritual that renders it sacrosanct. An analysis of the situation/ issues/ problems at stake and a strategy to achieve the common vision, sub-divided into components with clear objectives. Negotiated co-management plans and agreements among the institutional actors on specific courses of action (objectives and activities) for each component of the strategy. One or more CM organizations, with corresponding functions and rules, expressing the plurality of entitlements recognized in society and in charge of the activities and follow up of the co-management plans and agreements. The co-management plans, agreements and organizations are publicized and made socially legitimate by some public event, but are not ritualized and, in fact, are expected to change with time in response to lessons “learned by doing”. Follow-up protocols to monitor and learn from the co-management plans and agreements (including indicators, methods, organizations responsible, a time schedule, etc.). A shared experience in participatory analysis, planning and decision-making for a variety of institutional actors concerned with natural resource management. Important elements: accountability monitoring evaluation Lessons and tips for all phases and seasons ‘syncretic approach’— the development and use of a more or less consolidated synthesis of knowledge and practices of different historical and cultural origin Lessons and tips for all phases and seasons Remember that social dynamics have their own rhythm and cannot be forced. Developing an effective and equitable co-management regime in most contexts involves profound political and cultural change, which, most of all, needs time. Understand the cultural and traditional roots of the activities to be implemented and rely on them, possibly by developing a syncretic approach (e.g. ad-hoc fusion of traditional and modern NRM practices). Stress the complementarity of the capacities of different institutional actors, and of the roles they can play for the sound management of natural resources and socio-economic development. Lessons and tips for the preparatory phase Ensure clarity of purpose in the preparatory phase and methodological confidence and skills in the Start-up Team: people practice well only what they understand and feel comfortable with. Pay great attention to issues of language, in terms of both idioms used and coherence and cultural significance of messages conveyed. Invest in social communication even before launching the process. Use a variety of local media (traditional and modern) to promote discussion of the NRM situation and Always maintain a clear distinction between the Start-up Team and political parties (political parties usually thrive on conflict rather than on collaboration). Reassure everyone that no “solution” will be imposed on any of the institutional actors and that the process will take place at a comfortable pace. Give all the institutional actors enough time to think and to voice their ideas; problems need to come out and people need to be listened to! Stimulate people to think and express themselves by asking specific questions, to which all should reply. Lessons and tips for learning by doing Find someone to be the “champion” of every major task or area of responsibility Promote voluntary contributions and offer plenty of social gratification in return. Make sure that all those working for the CM initiative are recognized and appreciated. Learn from mistakes, transform them into sources of knowledge, and tell “stories” of what has been learned along the way. Sources: Co-management of natural resources: http://learningforsustainability.net/pubs/cmnr/cmnr.html / co-management of natural ressources co-managing natural ressources: http://www.mekonginfo.org/mrc_en/doclib.nsf/0/554c85f73d6ca1d6472568d40010b407/$file/fulltext.html indigenous co management http://www.regionalnrm.qld.gov.au/research_sips/sips/social_economic/pdf/se03_monograph_chapter_8.pdf in Africa

 

4. Dryland forestry in Morocco (North Africa and NMA)

In North-Africa, where the main landscape is the desert, Morocco has most forests, Algeria most plantations, Egypt the highest standing volumes. Nevertheless, far below what is commonly considered as being "a forest" in Europe. Already here we see a contradiction to the claim that 98% of Morocco's forests are state owned: a) There seem to be no management plans / b) the forest area is loosing 1% in 10 years.

[FAO North African Forest Resources]

The next table shows, how much the productivity of the south-mediterranian forests is below the one even of Croatia, Slovenia and Italy, what means that for Carbon sequestration the chances are not too high either:

• WFPs: Wood forest products
• NWFPs: NON-Wood forest products as cork, aromatic and medical plants (important for Morocco)
• TEV: Total economic value

[http://www.eoearth.org/article/Value_of_Mediterranean_forests]

4.1 Morocco and its forests

Morocco's population is some 31.2 millions, the countries area 710.850 km². Morocco produces a GDP (Atlas method, US$ billions) of 80.8 billion $, 2,520 $ per head and year (4740 in 2010 estimated).

The forests cover some 4.4 mio ha = 10% of surface. Unluckily there are almost no primary forests left, in spite of the fact that the state claims, that 97% of the forests are public. It is under those conditions understandable, that only 0.8% of the forests are under protection - it seems strait away too late.

The disctruction is fought as well by plantations. Morocco has over half a million ha plantations of mainly Eucalypts.

The consumption is by far larger than production: pulp 50%, sawnwood 10%, roundwood 10%, fuelwood 0%. (The 0 has probably to bee seen as a kind of cynical 0: no idea, we don't know, because wrong numbers and following tables, indicating a demand overhang of 30% for service as for firewood.

Exceptional for Morocco is the fact, that the range-potential of the forests has been estimated quite precisely - and quite high - while in Europe it was a major concern of the forestry services during the last 200 years, to separate rangeland from forests. It looks from this estimate, that the forests potential as range might be largely improved - what might on the other side further reduce its potential in wood production.

 

The next table is provided with a clear comment on the largely insufficient amount of personnel for the job to be done. The numbers look impressive from far away, but they mean 1 engineer for 31 890 hectares, 1 technician for 7 340 hectares and 1 horseman for 10 643 hectares. This is not sufficient for the fieldwork, and additionally the funds and means for transports are lacking.

Still, the idea to use horsemen, especially for extension purposes, is quite good under the given conditions. I once made a similar proposal in Somaliland: The camel extension brigade. It was acclaimed by the Somalis (those that like to do extension work, not those that like to get a car from any development project), but found rather funny by developping organizations.

The problem is most visible in the field of firewood production: 3 million m3 are indicated as legal harvest. Illegal harvest is double of that, what equals the amount of timber harvested legally. So we can only speak of a semi-managed forestry in Morocco, because half of it is under traditional pirate rule.

[Von Maurizio Merlo,Lelia Croitoru: Valuing Mediterranean forests: towards total economic value]

The national center for forest research (CNRF):

Already 1926 the director of the forestry administration created the first elements of an experimental station, that got an official legal status and mission in 1934. 1983 it was attached as division to the directorate of forest and conservation, and since 1995 it turned into the national center of forestry research (CNRF). It consists of 4 service sections and 4 subsections:

service sections	subsections
sylviculture genetics and tree improvement wood technology ecology	climatology and erosion regeneration and sylvopastoralism biometry documentation

As well the National School of Forestry Engineers, The Hassan II Institute for Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences, the scientific institute of Rabat and different regional universities are doing research on specific problems in their local environment (Agadir, Oujda, Tétouan: erosion and et shrublands, Kénitra: cork oak, Maamora-forest and eucalypts).

The main fields - and problems of forestry research

• The country is as big as France, with a climate from the mild oceanic to the hot and arid Sahara desert and up to the cold and semihumid mountains (the Toubkal with 4.200 m being the highest one in North Africa).
• The physical knowledge of the environment is still not sufficient. The interacting influences of the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, the Sahara and the Tropics create a very special setting with a lot of endemism. Sylvicultural errors result in heavier disturbances with longer time needed for corrections than under simpler environmental conditions. The vegetation is more easily degraded, but with much more difficulty reestablished (as it is on the northern or the alpine tree frontier).
  • Meteorology
  • Pedology
  • Phytosociology
• Absence of historical documents
  • Forest history
• General degradation of stands, often far advanced
  • DESERTIFICATION
• lacking efficiency due to several reasons: sheer size, distribution, variation, lack of staff and equipment etc
  • arid forests and dryland management
• Biology of the principal forestry species: There are still a few forests left with beautiful old (climax) remnants that might serve research in the reestablishment of healthy stands:
  • Quercus suber
  • Querceus ilex
  • Cedrus Libanitica ssp Atlantica
  • Argania spinosa: This majestic tree reaches impressive dimensions, 19 m in height (what definitely IS impressive in dry climates) and 16 m of circumference.
  • The remaining surface of Juniperus thurifera is only about 20'000 ha, half of it on the High Atlas, half of it on the Middle Atlas.
  • Abies pinsappo / marocana / tazaotana
• Pathology and forest entomology
• Fire protection

more infos:

Forestry Research Worldwide: Forestry research structures, methods, development outlook http://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/ http://www.forestry.gov.uk/fr/INFD-6NDE6Q http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_International_Forestry_Research http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijfr/

• http://www.eauxetforets.gov.ma/fr/text.aspx?id=1033&uid=51

  • Forestry in the Middle East and North Africa
• dryland forestry: rich collection of contributions at FAO
• trees outside forests
• http://www.journauxmaroc.com/la-question-pastorale-en-foret/
• elevage au maroc
• http://rainforests.mongabay.com/deforestation/2000/Morocco.htm
• http://www.morocco.com/national-parks/

structure of forestry service:

• http://saidileforestier.centerblog.net/3137283-Organigramme-du-HCEFLCD
• Institutions nationales en charge du développement rural

______________________________

Two specific examples for Moroccan forestry research:

Tribal forestry with berber population

[Didier GENIN & Romain SIMENEL: Hey, my Berber friend, draw me a rural forest!]

In the Moroccan Berber rural environment, forests play an important role in sustaining people's livelihoods. They provide diversified products, such as timber, firewood, handicraft, fodder foliage and fruit, and have critical production, conservation, safety or cosmogony functions. Local populations have established endogenous management systems in which forests resources are managed at different scales:

1. at the individual tree level by differential cutting or trimming which lead to specific conformations of the tree,
2. at the tree stand level which provides spatial patterns and determines the type, structure and level of resources, and
3. at the landscape level in which complementary patches of forest areas with particular functions are consciously organized within the overall territory.

Forests and rural livelihood have a long historical interconnection. Forests classically provide goods for food, firewood, construction, handicraft, medicinal and ritual purposes. Groups, resources and boundaries have over the time been well-defined; participation of all actors in defining rules has been developed as well as a graduated scale of sanctions for contraveners, mechanisms for conflict resolution, an existing self monitoring system whereby resource users are accountable for their own actions. However, this endogenous forest management system is seldom recognized by the forestry authorities who are officially in charge of forest management.

For the purposes of two interdisciplinary research programs related to traditional natural resources management and relationships between local forest management and public policies, we focused on two contrasting sites located in the Berber area: one in the Central High Atlas (The Aït Bouguemez valley), the other near the south-western Atlantic coast (Imint’lit).

The extreme temperatures range from -15 to +45°C. The annual rainfall varies between 500 and 750 mm, and precipitation is irregularly distributed in time and space, but is more abundant during autumn and spring. The bottom of the valley includes annual and tree (apple, walnut) crops irrigated by traditional channels (seguias) diverting water from the rivers.

The mid- and upper parts of the slopes are occupied by communal wooded areas supplying firewood, leaf fodder and supporting grazing flocks. The lower parts of the wooded area close to the villages are often managed as agdal, while the high forest areas (outside the agdal) are subjected to free forest utilization. The asylvatic areas at high altitude constitute collective rangelands for flocks of sheep and goats. Some parts of these pastoral areas are also managed as agdal (Genin et al., 2010). The local economy is dominated by agro-pastoral activities.

Three species of Juniper are dominating here: (Juniperus phoenicea, J. oxycedrus, J. thurifera), and holm Oak (Quercus ilex)

The precipitation is about 300 mm, the mean monthly temperatures between 12 and 26°C. The local economy is mainly based on agriculture (cereal crops, fruit growing: argan and olive trees, and smallstock rearing). Forests cover about 38% of the total surface of the Commune area, with two main tree species: the argan tree (Argania spinosa) and thuya (Tetraclinis articulata) at the upper parts.

Different individual and collective management modes are locally found in private or public areas: privately-owned wooded crop areas, agdals, ourtis (privately-owned areas dedicated to fruit production), mouchaas (public areas managed by forestry administration, and used as pastoral commons by local populations). This has resulted in a highly diversified wooded landscape.

Forest agdals:

An original endogenous forest management system Agdal is a Berber generic term designating areas where access rights and uses of natural resources are governed by a local institution – usually the village, inter-village or intertribal assembly- which fixes rules concerning periods and modalities of natural resource exploitation.

Customary laws limit the boundaries of the Agdal and fix its closing and opening dates.

In the High Atlas, forest agdals are located at the immediate vicinity of villages, because their main function is to provide firewood for the communal mosque, and fodder for livestock during winter if heavy snowfalls occur and impede movements. While legally all forested areas belong to and are managed by the state authorities (Aubert et al., 2009), the village’s forest territory in the High Atlas is usually divided into two parts: a poorly regulated area where the major extractions of firewood and fodder occur, and one or two agdal areas (between 20 and 200 Ha).

Concerning the collection of tree foliage, which constitutes a proportion of the annual diet of non-transhumant local small stock of up to 20% (Genin et al., 2009), four types of rules can be applied , which vary from village to village:

• Period of cutting. In the villages we studied this includes the periods when snow covers the area. Cutting may be authorized for all days or only during specific days of the week;
• Quantities of harvest. Different cases may occur: no quotas, quotas depending on the size of the family flock or fixed equal quotas for each family;
• Division of agdal in sectors in order to allow rota cuttings. This is the case for example of the village of Ighirine where a large forest agdal is divided into 6 sectors and cutting alternately authorized only in two sectors each year;
• Tree species to be cut. In some villages only holm oak is authorized for foliage cutting while cutting junipers is strictly forbidden.
• Sacred agdals, which are argan forests where the rights of use are exclusively reserved for the descendants of patron saints who are the custodians of these forests. These areas are often given long periods of respite from use in order to regulate anthropic pressure and favor argan regeneration by means of their "sacralisation" (Simenel, 2010).
• Seasonal agdals where the main aim is to limit grazing during the period of fructification of argan and ensure fruit harvesting.

The Rural forests of Southern Morocco show a large man-induced diversity. The importance of forests for rural livelihood, and the highly refined corpus of individual and collective practices involved locally, requires a non-monolithic approach to forest management.

This is the case of Spanish Juniper (J. thurifera) in the High Atlas, which is known to provide high quality timber due to the hardness of its wood and its capacity to reach diameters big enough for framework construction.

Peasants’ and foresters’ forest management systems: towards reconciliation? - An obviously contrasting vision

Traditionally, peasant farmers and foresters throughout the world have a long history of confrontation. This is also true in the Berber region, where conflicts between rural communities and forest administration authorities have sometimes turned violent (Lecestre- Rollier, 1982). The reasons for that have to do with contrasting visions of what constitutes"good forest management" and ways to achieve it.
Classically, foresters have two main objectives for forest management: resource conservation and timber production, associated with an almost exclusive scale of perception: the tree stand.
In contrast, Berber country people perceive forests as a “diversified resources source” and an integrated element for the overall functioning of the human community in an environment where natural and socio economic risks are high.

In contrast, the village assembly constitutes a form of forum of discussion for forest management decisions, where each family is represented, and where a certain flexibility of rules and uses can be collectively decided.

Participation and concertation are also emphasized, as claimed in the National Forest Program adopted in 1999 which promotes “a new approach which combines strategic planning, and long term, decentralized and participative processes [which are] necessary to improve the success rate of projects… and to improve livelihood and incomes of rural populations through a rational, sustainable, and participatory management of natural resources” (MCEF, 1999).
The main problem is still how to put these good intentions into practice, and to accept a better sharing of competency and power in matter of forest management (Genin et al., 2007).

Local people are increasingly considered as institutional partners by forest authorities, through local associations and Communal Authorities which have decision-making powers for agdal opening and closing dates. Secondly, because in some parts of the argan region foresters are considered as customary stakeholders, associated with the image of patron saints who were historically the actual mediators of forest management (Simenel, 2010). In fact, certain forms of compromise and collaboration take place informally on the basis of agdal management. In some cases, argan forest is divided into two parts: the foresters' agdal (agdal Iboughaba) and the Ancestors’ agdal (agdal id babn’s) with differentiated uses rights.

Moreover, the role of these rural forests, their environmental and socio-economic services cannot be understood outside the overall functioning of the local agro-pastoral system and the socioterritorial organization of Berber society. Traditional territorial structures, and their associated underlying logic inherited from history and long term nature-culture interactions (Berque, 1978; Ilahiane, 1999), are too often poorly understood and undervalued by experts and rural development specialists. Notwithstanding, they have continued to exist for centuries and could be very instructive for developing renewed strategies for sustainable development of the Berber rural and forest management system.

Sacred forests in Morocco:

• http://www.conifers.org/pi/ab/pinsapo.htm /
• http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/Y4496E/Y4496E09.htm

National development strategy for aromatic and medical plants

[STRATEGIE NATIONALE DE DEVELOPPEMENT DU SECTEUR DES PLANTES AROMATIQUES ET MEDICINALES AU MAROC
RAPPORT FINAL Juillet 2008]

The importance of this sector is increasing, on one side because the demand is worldwide increasing during the last decades, on the other hand the number of users and the different uses is increasing as well.

Most of those products (50%) come from developing countries, and especially those with a strong own market as China, India and Indonesia. Those dispose in the same time of cheap lab our and large biomass, but often have to deal with a low level of technology, research, science and production system. (guarantee of quality)

In Morocco's forest we find especially bay laurel, oregano (elongatum, compactum), rosemary, thyme (, satureoides), artemisia, myrtus, pennyroyal, Cedrus atlantica, oakmoss, Evernia furfuracea, Tanacetum. (Some of the links go to products - and show directly the importance of Morocco in this field).

The production is going to almost 100% into export.

There are professional organizations that work in different regions of the country. On the High Atlas and the Anti Atlas e.g. on the exploitation of Artemisia, on the eastern high plains for the Rosemary, on the Rif for the exploitation of aromatic and medical resources available there.

Moreover there are foreign companies or affiliate companies specialized in the production of natural molecules, "infusettes" (packed tee in precise dosage), and derivatives of AMPs.

Some moroccon agro-industrial societies try to cover the whole chain from the sales down to the cultivation, from transformation to commercialisation. The number is limited and most of them are stationed in the big towns (Marrakesh, Casablanca)

There are companies specialized in marketing dry plants from cultivation (verbena, rose buds, orange flower, salvia, grape leaves, olive leaves, cactus flowers, iris roots, …) or natural stands (rosemary, myrt, mint, mauve, ...)

And there are companies specialized in extracting essential oils and aromatic substances

A quit important ingredient for arab kitchen, as well as for sweets or drinks, is the carob tree

A swot analysis shows as major strength, opportunities, but as well threads and weaknesses:

STRENGTH a rich and varied flora, with many endemic plants an ecosystem with favourable ecological conditions (aridity may sometimes have its advantages) an old knowledge of production and use of herbs Moroccon herbs beeing famous worldwide several research institutes that study aromatic and medical plants an important network of assisting NGOs interested in AMPs.

THREADS Upcomming new international competitors from Eastern Europe, Turky, Latin America, China, India, Central Africa ... International trade very risky, due to uncertainties with exchange rates Moroccon AMPs are not protected from domestication and valorization by other countries or multinationals Almost all the production (90%) stems from natural stands what might be a thread to sustainable use as well as to expansion and improvement of the sector. the climatic conditions are often not favorable for harvest and might lead to irregular supplies of the markets The increasing use of pesticides damages the quality and the quality of being "natural".

OPPORTUNITIES A worldwide demand and consumption - that is still on the rise (increase rates of 15-25% per year). A constant increase of industry using AMP as raw material: agroalimentary, pharmaceutical, cosmetic etc. Available research results for the improvement of the product and the productivity the touristic development of Morocco, allowing to create synergies the increasing importance for the market to produce sustainably and natural free trade agreements with the EU and USA

WEAKNESSES Production is dominantly natural There is little Mehrwert attached to the products, as they are mostly sold dry. The infrastructure is "handwork" with little incentives for investments and modernization of the production The distribution circle is undurchsichtig, not transparent and information difficult to come by. The local market is little developed - and not known by the involved professionals, in spite of the fact, that it has quite some potential for development. The sector is neglected, without a strong social or territorial dimension. Other than sectors like citrus fruits, leather, textile, it is not assisted by finances, investments, export promotion etc. The sector is little structured with an only embrionic professionals and interprofessional structure. The multitude of interventions and the lack of coordination in the sector leads to overlapping Lack of strict and encouraging regulations Lack of consensual strategies on the development of the sector

A national research program is still lacking:

• inventories and maps of stands
• harvest and production potential
• chemical and pharmaceutical characterization of the products
• optimization of harvest and trade chain
• specify means for preservation of the stocks (a) sustainable use criteria, b) in situ and ex situ conservation of a certain stock
• potential domestication and improvement

The insufficiently available information should as well be completed by:

• a national information programme on AMPs (Aromatic and Medical Plants)
• botanical gardens - pedagogically inspired
• ecotourism in relation with AMP
• cooperation with the involved NGOs

Improvement of the natural production

• Morocco has the large advantage of large populations growing wild. ... is a good example, allowing to produce more than 60 tons of oil per year, making Morocco (with Spain and Tunisia) one of the 3 most important producers.
  

The improvement of the production needs the following efforts:

• mechanization of harvest
• improvement of the conditions of the stock
• reinforcement of transformation capacities

Priority actions in this respect:

• install a system of norms and standards for all the chain, corresponding to the demands of the international market
• encourage a system of certification and labeling through the technical framework and the financial funding
• standardize production as well what concerns quality as productivity
• set up cultivating techniques adapted to each plant species.

AMPs are used by the pharmaceutical industry, phytotherapy, cosmetics, detergents industry, to whom the give an aspect of natural (bio...) products that is more and more wanted.

ACTION PLAN

1: Consolidation and development of specific knowledge on moroccan AMP

• national inventory and map
• technical infos on AMP
• national research program

2: Valorization of AMP Morocco

• Elaborate an agricultural policy on the domestication and intensification of AMP
• Adopt a normation program
• set up assisting structures for the commercialization of AMPs

3. Organize the sector

• Improve reglementations
• Create a representative interprofessional structure of the sector
• set up institutional partnerships favoring the development of the sector

4: Promote the sector

• Promote incentives to encourage the sector
• Conceive and start an animating program
• Start pilot actions to detect and create synergies with other sectors

5: Assure a sustainable development of the sector

• Assure the training and technical framework for the participants
• Promote the local population
• Assure the preservation of the ressources

Martin Herzog, Basel, 6 may 2010

 

5. Structures, Functions, Multifunctionality of Forests - based on Multidisciplinarity of Forest Services and -Research

Manifold wishes and demands are tearing our forests apart. Is forestry research fit to encounter that threat?

1. The traditional core of forestry: ownership guarantee/policing & silvicultural management
2. The main function of forests was to deliver wood, fuelwood (energy) and quality wood, , later on pulp and chips for boards or as chemical raw material.
3. With the increasing destruction of environment, esp. the natural environment, forests were seen as important part of that and accordingly treated (sustainable forestry) or protected.
4. With more and more people living in towns, remote from any real contact with nature, forests turned into important recreation facilities, needing again some special treatment.

 

5.1 Structures of forests - and forestry management

Forests are an important landscape element, the wetter the climate - the more visible their importance; the dryer or colder the climate (altitude, rainfall conditioned limits) - the more critical their importance. Forests do not only consist of trees, but have as well a layer of shrubs, one of herbs, and a thick one of soil + air, local climate.

Their structure is strongly related to age, mostly more the age of stands than the age of single trees. Age is decisive for the life cycles, the dynamics of the forests, that have to be respected by the forest managers, as the dynamic structure is THE element, deciding on the stability of the forest stand. Here the so called flexibility, a strong demand of markets, is limited to a certain degree by the priority of stability, depending on:

• density: for certain purposes high (protection against stonefall), for others lower (biodiversity).
• health: as with people, dwindling with age.

The main job of foresters in this respect is the application of the right sylvicultural practices as: selective thinning to guarantee good growth for trees of good quality, and, in time, regeneration.

Structural deficits will lead to functional deficits. Functional overspecialization (monocultures for increased profitability of wood production, overuse, overaging by underuse, overuse as range) might lead to structural damages - and the loss of other important functions.

Basic knowledge needed:

5.2 Functions of Forests: Production, Protection, Recreation

The functions of the forests are nowadays easily to be detected. It's that, what the forestry services are plaid for to do. As most of them are always struggling for survival, they are very ingenious in determining all potentials of their forest:

5.2.1 Wood Production

The main function of forests was to deliver wood (timber), fuelwood (energy) and quality wood, later on pulp and chips for boards or as chemical raw material. Additional uses are:

• Range: grazing, fodder
• cork, resins, gum ....
• hunting
• aromatic and medical plants
• honey
• mushrooms

From those productive functions forestry could live most the time. With globalization the world prize got decisive, and unluckily, in spite of large certification efforts, the "world market prize" is basically the price for the cheapest methods of mass harvest - without replantation, or even cultural and protective measures. s.Tasmania e.g.

Additionally there is the not so much wanted "use", rather misuse of forests: convertion into agricultural land, the main reason for disappearing forests.

Due to the fact, that petrol use has passed its zenith (peak oil), all other energy supplies will get much more important - and expensive. The present crisis of forestry is only temporary, one might think "organized", as it might lead to the result, that forests are increasingly sold to private owners, that will reap some hefty profits, if not for this, then for the next generation (well, yes, not today or tomorrow).

• Nature
• Recreation
• CO2-saving or sequestration

5.2.2 Protection (only 10% in North Africa)

• erosion by wind and water (slopes as well as coastal zones)
• retention of stones, sand (dunes), dust (air pollution), snow (avalanches)
• watershed protection

Plantations are, as forests, of multiple use. The largest efforts being undertaken in China, due to a gigantic lack of wood. The low rate of protection forests in North Africa is explained by the increasing aridity, making afforestations a) difficult in terms of water supply, b) making forests a competitor for scarce water resources with agriculture. Agroforestry systems have under such conditions to be planned and managed very carefully.

The fact, that even in the US large plantations are being established, should be a clear sign, that the time of timber and wood scarcity is not over, but probably just beginning - on a global scale.

5.2.3 Recreation

• town forestry / urban forestry
• recreation facilities around towns, mainly in forests
• fresh air, balanced climate

5.3 Interdisciplinarity

THE problem with forestry and its supporting research is, that the research structures, developed out of a history of centuries, does not fit to the present problems. Especially as values, ends, goals, objectives, intentions are not, have never been a subject of scientific knowledge, but of free decision, free will, what means they differ, as peoples intentions and interests do differ, that means, common grounds, a kind of consensus, has to be found by diplomacy, through political structures. The classical disciplines of science run us here into deep troubles.

So let's try to specify, in which field we need and can find which kind of knowledge. Under the tab <Paradigm Development> we will complete this analysis with a more theoretical synthesis, here we start with a simple list of duties of forestry officers, to lay open the vast extend of "sciences" included here:

Scientific Elements of Forestry as the Management of a Natural Resource and its Biodiversity

Research-contributions during conference:

Natural Sciences: ecology/environmental sciences: climatology botany dendrology, plant sociology zoology: wildlife soil physics, -mechanics, -chemistry (nutrition of forest trees) hydrology and management of watersheds; hydrobiology: continental fishing, aquaculture) geography wood science: (xylology, chemistry, physical and physicochemical proprieties, mechanical proprieties, variability); technological proprieties and utilization (form giving, composites, chemical and energetic valorization, wood industry); Engineering/Technique/Art: Project management and knowledge transfer, innovation area management management of hunting grounds; Protection of Forests: Nature Protection, protected areas. Protection by Forests: Analysis of natural dangers and -risks, development of mapping techniques for such. Development of strategies to improve the protective service of forests. Improve techniques of protection: More effect - less costs. Develop simple, feasible und reliable warning systems for the population. harvest methods & infrastructure, road construction, crane construction, erosion control, wildwater control, avalanche protection etcetc. Base: Applied Mathematic (Statistics, Mechanics et descriptive geometry. Systems analysis; biometry,modeling.); Informatics (most common language and software); Topography - cartography; Geodesics, remote sensing, gis. sylviculture: techniques (the art) of establishment, regeneration and growth-steering of populations. sylviculture: Optimization of wood production - in the given framework, given by natural, social, legal, technical and spiritual environment. Sylviculture of species; Reforestation; Economics Inventories: Dendrometry technical and financial magagement and administration; forest equipment and exploitation. Administration (accounting, taxes, marketing, investment); business organization/management / strategies: diversification, fusion, cooperation, cluster formation market and marketing knowledge, especially on wood markets: the wood-chain: from the tree to the final product (actors, interventions of the state, trade, national and international trade); Innovations - and PR for wood and wood products. Social Sciences: user management, assist private owners, defense against overboarding demands … Rural Sociology …communication, social marketing, conflict management Recreation Management: The impact of population on ecosystems is ever increasing. Especially for town forests special management concepts with special aims as forest pedagogies and forest esthetics, mediation, tourism management will be needed. Recreation marketing. Humanities: forest law and politics (general, civil, penal, administrative, forestry, fishing, hunting, legislation of work), political economy: Knowledge of local and national economy. Political knowledge: Environmental Policy and Decision Making. Dialogue and cooperation of forestry sector with population, esp. agricultural population and villages. Strengthen information and sensibilization for forests and natural environment. History of forests - and of society, because normally only this shows, what developments have been possible, what failed already, what are roots and values of the society we work with. Community forestry/Social Forestry: Mastering of conflict management and communication. Monitoring.

Natural Science climatic influence on growth of teak forestry in northern europe Forestry on slopes edaphic factors and tree nutrition Science & Action erosion Natural Science: Ecology ecological characteristics of douglas fir test plantations genetic analysis of silver spruce gene ecology phyto ecology biology of white pine in situ, ex situ tree protection Ecology & Humans urban greenspace forestry and human health Ecology & Human Disturbance CO2 influence of climate change on beech in Serbia carbon assimilation carbon Forest Economy forestry and forest products timber prices and influences on them annual plants for paper production funding Forests & People computer participatory forests forest households what the people demand from forestry (interesting, would be nice to get a copy) commercial exploitation of indigenous knowledge (Western Ghats, India) Non-Wood Use of Forests apiculture

Those selections are altogether accidental, heuristic, and by now means representing a well chosen and representative repertoire of what is being done nowadays in forest research, far from complete - but, this accidental collection allows me, without the slightest need of fantasy, to demonstrate what I see as major problem of classical, causal and disciplinary science.

Inter-/pluri-/transdisziplinarity … Forestry is dependent on reliable knowledge (=scientific knowledge) from very different sources. As other applied sciences it can neither define an all-around scientific system, nor can it define the shape of above mentioned contributing sciences. In fact there is no need for that, but there is a need to differentiate better between theory, praxis and poiesis:

5.4 So far a totally neglected problem: Forestry as poietic, creative science

poiesis: Aristotle term <poiesis> stands for a third way of doing besides practical (praxis) and theoretical action (theoria), namely the target oriented (rational) action. The result of poietic action is the (artists) creation, opus, oeuvre. to create techne: Aristotle term <techne> stands for the capacity, to use knowledge for the rational production of things, mainly machines nowadays. to make ______________ phronesis: Aristotle term <phronesis> stands for practical wisdom, the art to differentiate between good and bad aims, the art of ethical judgment, the lost art. to judge

Forestry- and landscape management as well as the former land-cultivation technique belong in fact to the set of poietic sciences. They, as all engineering sciences, are a result of interaction between theoretical knowledge and the practical use of it. That means they are neither natural science nor humanities nor social sciences, but a mixture of art and craft, a technique. While natural scientists mostly are able to claim "trustworthy", "reliable" knowledge, because it has been gained by a careful scientific approach, (forest-)managers on the other side are dealing with a different reality, where things are evaluated, discussed, developed in dialogue and decided in (more or less) democratic ways. But even this is an ideal reality, while in the real reality those things will be decided, that produce money, or that are paid for.

Still the forestry managers, engineers and technicians stay poiets, even if they are rather prosaic and often lack understanding for art and more often than not just follow economic pressures, do what is paid, than developing socially needed projects.

The traditional training of forestry experts includes large parts of non-natural sciences, especially economics, forestry policy, forestry law, working law, administrative law, forest history, rural sociology and many more.

Because mostly they are much more inclined towards nature and the relative sciences, the often lack substantial understanding for social science and humanities. Older staff might never have got an introduction into such fields. The turned into technocrats instead of being formed as creative engineers.

An integral understanding for natural- and social sciences as well as humanities is not taught at any school today. It would be better kept with philosophers. So the natural sciences still underestimate the importance of motivation in their work (and legal regulations), while the social sciences and humanities are still running after a false role model, the tough quantitative-analytical research model, ignoring qualitative research and understanding. To enhance the model of the creative duty of the forestry engineer, there would be a need, to include, besides the standard training, an introduction into the basics of all three sciences, to be able to grasp equal importance and potential of those for solutions. ... s. last chapter for conclusion

• compare Vanclay, Australia

5.5 <Loyalty to the Powers> versus the intrinsic VALUES of Forests

5.5.1 Ownership and "profits" are decisive for the survival of forests, so for those managing it.

A small example as summary of the problem:

University of Washington and CFR use a narrow cost-benefit analysis to make curriculum decisions; that, as a result, the forest engineering curriculum was eliminated; and that CFR's remaining undergraduate programs focus exclusively on ecology and conservation at the expense of "classical" forestry and are not accredited by the Society of American Foresters (SAF).

After many years of successfully providing the forestry profession with forest engineers, undergraduate enrollment and employment opportunities in forest engineering began to decline with the virtual elimination of harvesting programs on federal lands in the Pacific Northwest, the loss of international markets and the major restructuring of industrial forest products companies.

An important criterion for academic program development, continuation or elimination is the opportunity that graduates have for gainful employment. This is particularly important in a professional college like CFR. After trying to sustain a program for several years with about fifteen students served by about six full-time faculty, it became apparent that this was not a viable curriculum.

I spent some 10 years working abroad, mainly in development. The longest experience was 6 years in Yemen, as forestry expert (natural forests management and protection). THE problem got clear already the first day in Sana'a, a friday, so a day off. Talking to people about forests in the surroundings, forests in yemen, the shared judgment was: El ghabat ma fish faidhe (forests do not make sense). Tough for a lover of forests. Normally one should under such conditions take the next plain back and forget about this country - or try to find out, what are the reasons for this negative attitude, can it be changed, how can it be changed. Forestry under such conditions have to build on existing structures and especially local values, because those are decisive for the motivation of action, especially when there is not much economic incentive to manage forests. As this question does not have much to do with classical forestry science, with inventories, with management, that restricts itself on the calculation of how much may be harvested each year and where. The approach was philosophical, as an all-around understanding of the situation was needed. The approach did not get much praise, as forestry is normally done to produce wood - for money, and not to fulfill some religious or moral duties.

Well, the situation changed a bit. In the meantime Switzerland has been overrolled by the same problems. Forestry services do each year cost more than they produce. The typical answer was the neoliberal one: Reduce workforce in forestry to 1/3, leave out what is not productive - and have machines doing the work. This could partly be stopped, because the wood prices started to rise again (s. market of raw products #)

The major problem nowadays is, to have someone to pay for services instead of wood. Recommendations:

• Include shrubland management into forestry -especially in combination with biofuel production. It would be a disaster, if, due to the reason of future high prices for chips e.g., forests would be changed to short term plantations with fast growing species only. That is agriculture.
• Include non-wood products and services, something Morocco has done on a large scale (s. AMP, cork production, forest-range, etc.)
• Include agroforestry in the curriculae and research
• Stop illegal harvest and unsustainable harvest, because it is the large mass of wood gained through pure extraction without care for what is left that is forming the world market price, so forcing forest management everywhere in the world to restrict its activities to pure harvest, nothing than cheap harvest.

General:

• Limit of the fuctionalization (monetarization) of nature
• Manage forest as part of man's lifesphere, not only biosphere, but as well spiritual sphere
• emphasize the non-monetary importance of forests and partnership, stakeholder management, distributed ownership (village ownership), using participatory methods, nowadays bundled under the topic of co-management (s. 3rd tab)
• Let the forests speak: Give forests (not only forestry trainers and researchers and managers) a voice.

Stakeholders involvement

In the past, management of forests in many countries laid emphasis on ‘command and control’ systems with minimal participation of other stakeholders (Adams and Hulme, 2001). Consequently, communities were alienated from the forest resources and participation in decision-making processes. To give the forest a value, especially important for the surrounding communities, because those are the most destructive when overusing it for fuelwood or transferring it to range or arable land. (s. Arba Gugu, Ethiopia).

Towards a less technocratic development

Increasingly, legislation and policy on forests are making provisions for community participation in forest management, effectively re-distributing forest benefits. Forestry Schools should develop and implement strategies to strengthen forestry content as part of community development and as an integrated part of land use.

5.5.2 Forestry service between scientific truth seeking - and loyalty to the employer, the state, the forest, the nature

Attitudes of different stakeholders and interest groups towards the forest:

• Traditional Forestry: treat the forest like a home-garden
• Wood industry: treat the forest as easily exploitable resources
• Administration: considers forests as are of own rule
• Citizen: rest of nature, place for recreation (unluckily disturbing each other and wildlife)
• Naturalists: Wildlands to be protected
• Agriculture: takes a bit longer, but we can do that as well > agroforestry: optimal mix between use for trees and for animals/crops. In the USA this mix was given practically from the beginning, thanks to the Morrill Land Grant Act.

LOYALTY and SOLIDARITY The two terms are related. Loyalty is more free, means a relation, a strong connectedness, even submission to aims and values of a group - even if not shared totally. It stems probably from the feudal age, where loyalty was bought by rights of land use. Solidarity describes an even stronger, a <solid> relation in ethical and political matters, a feeling of belonging together. In business as well as in politics this might end in joint liability.

As all intentions,objectives, values are decided upon by the owners, the forest managers might get into troubles, if their loyalty has no to be bound to the owner who is paying them and decides on their future - or if their loyalty is bound to forest and nature, who do not have anybody else to speak in their behalf. Under public ownership we have here normally "only" the problem of the commons, that use and overuse is much more comfortable and cheap than careful, sustainable use (free rider). With the increasing rule of global players in forest management, productivity gets the first aim, an aim mainly (and still) fought by local tribes of forest dwellers and a few groups that assist them.

• With globalization such decisions are now often taken far away from the forest and the people living in it or around it.
• Capital is international - labor not. The socialists and communists propagated and tried it, the capitalists did it (create "the international", international solidarity).

The loyalty of forestry people to money is assured easily, as they only get a job, when they are able to get profits out of their forest - or if they are able to convince the sustaining community, that their work is "productive", even if the numbers in accountancy are dark red.

So, is it the results of forestry research, is it knowledge that has the power to decide, if, where, when and how forestry is being done? Most probably not. If the owners and managers feel the need to get more productive, they will through personnel out, replace it with machines, plant whatever is needed and possible, and make money ... if they were the ones to decide. This was the situation in Switzerland around 2000-2004, where there was strong neoliberal turn. Luckily we have nowadays democracies, and people like money, but only if its theirs. If there is a risk, that nowadays free and nice forests disappear to make others (other communities) rich (for a while), the citizen is likely to decide that he prefers to keep the little what's left of nature, to be able to get from time to time some fresh air - for free, and a stroll in the forests - for free.

So forestry research lives in a quite nasty environment and has to take care, not to be misused by owners or other forces. Research and forest officers should still be guardians of the forest firsthand, all other and private wishes are secondary.

5.6 Implications for Forestry Research

What is unique in forestry is the time-scale and distance of the planning horizon. Forestry is here clearly different from the motivation horizon of politics, that normally is just one election period. Forestry is clearly different from agriculture, whose production horizon is mostly 1 vegetation period, with cows a few years. Forestry is clearly very different from economy, needing daily the idea of new products, innovation, change. For this reason forestry science would still be THE science to evaluate sustainability.

The length of the planning horizon should make forestry people little bit more farsighted than politicians or economists.

Forestry NOT mainly as "instructed officers" under the guidance of the forest owners, but as creative poiets:

We work within the socio-cultural framework of our society, but we must influence it, not merely conform to it.

Regrettably, many schools of forestry have failed to recognize that the forester’s job has transformed from that of only managing forests, to one of applying a wide range of skills to respond to the needs of forestry stakeholders.

Forestry Engineers/Officers as Organizers

In this and the next chapter (paradisciplinarity) we see, that forestry has no chance to develop its proper "science", but still has some very specific fields where science is needed or at least helpful. The forestry service must be capable, to organize needed knowledge, to get it from other specialists as botanists, physiologists, veterinaries, etc, and to put such knowledge to use in their own field. but not only knowledge, action as well. A major duty of the forestry service is the Enhanced harmonization of forestry with other related sectors is needed in order to achieve synergy of strategies and actions.

The training of the forestry engineer/manager/scientist is much more demanding than rewarding (financially at least). The training is risky, as the chances are worldwide very good, never to get a job in the field of forestry. The flexibility of well trained foresters is too low in today's labor markets, not because they are stubborn and only reluctantly change to other fields, but because content and quality of their knowledge is not known by other employers. A good way out of the risk to get stuck as unemployed forestry specialist would be, to arrange and name the training under the topic organizer (- Specialist in Management of Natural Resources). <Organizer> is are a highly qualified, specialized, needed and plaid function in our society.

Forestry scientists as advisors and extensionists (vulgarisateurs)

With dwindling availability of well trained forestry personnel, one additional duty of forestry research might be, to create information material and to establish training facilities for not formally trained forest workers, to transfer the minimal, but important, required knowledge to the staff still affordable.

As with any technology, forestry, if not producing constantly new methods and knowledge, the existing knowledge will be spread, made understandable, and so applicable for non-academic person ell as well. The shift from a theory-based university level to a rather practical, technical level is so quite rational - but, it leads to the problem, that new problems do not find theoretically skilled co-workers, able to create new forms of scientific (logical, abstract) integration. That insight is not quite new:

The demand for professional advice will mainly shift towards those who are able to provide broad-based technical advice, not just on forestry or tree growing, but on all aspects of land use, and those who can provide highly specialized advice on certain topics such as pests and diseases and markets. The concept of a specialization called forestry may itself become obsolete, just as “agriculture is becoming an obsolete term on account of its integration with the broader concept of renewable natural resource management” (Wallace, 1997).

What is now regarded as specialized forestry knowledge will be available in the common domain, easily accessible and better integrated at the field level, while developments in the frontier areas of technology will require specialization far beyond the current realm of forestry education. (FAO C.T.S. Nair)

In a knowledge society, increasingly more knowledge and skills will be acquired outside the formal system of education. Thus many of the existing institutions will fade out. The monopoly of educational institutions as providers of knowledge is already under threat.

The emphasis in education is likely to shift from teaching a predetermined set of skills to enhancing the capacity to learn from a variety of sources.

Creating an open and critical mind will be the main task of educational systems. For this task, the disciplinary boundaries on which many traditional professions thrive will be an obstacle.

In most cases, once a technology becomes standard, it can be applied by skilled and even semi-skilled workers with minimal supervision. This also suggests a likely decline in the demand for forestry professionals.

Political problem: Out of the disciplinary scheme - out of the mind. Libraries are only a small indication: Forest resource librarians in the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) are also concerned that forestry libraries, information services, and collections are hidden. As noted above many academic forest-related collections are included in larger libraries, and the trend is for smaller subject-focused branch libraries to be merged into larger science units for a variety of budgetary and service-related reasons.

forestry research as risk assessment

The interaction between science and action, the practical, but knowledge-based utilization of forests is the core problem. All forestry-administrations have to deliver services, services for the government, services to the users of wood and the users of the forests. Not enough that such a knowledge-system is complex and complicated, there is the fact, that action demands reflection on the potential, not only on the intended results.

The second part, the social and spiritual part can't be solved by classical causal sciences, but is a matter of choosing purposes, targets, aims, a matter of values, so oriented not towards unavoidable causal conditioning, but towards free final choice. The lack to differentiate between those two main fields of science leads to the bulk of problems occurring in applied sciences.

Beck's terms risk-taking society, reflective modernity show, that the ever increasing activities create not only what they are thought for, but have in the meantime many side-effects. Since 25 years in Germany, 35 years in the USA, the increase in wealth does not enhance happiness, but turned into a constant rat race. (Easterlin Paradox). Under those conditions, forestry sciences have a very high potential to produce something meaningful, if they succeed in organizing the cooperation between the whole bunch of scientific disciplines under synoptic and coordinating new categories.

A forest-specific risk: The trend to produce wood more and more in plantations instead of forests implies the need to compare objectively advantages, disadvantages and risks or this development

There is an increasing emphasis on holistic and non-wood aspects reflected in the American term "ecosystem management" (e.g. see Journal of Forestry 92(8), August 1994). Some pressure groups are seeking to divert all timber production from natural forests to plantations. Forest services have been restructured, amalgamated, and may be turned into timber corporations. The "unified national system of higher education" has changed the funding basis for many universities.

Forestry service and research as communicators

Forest managers ... must have sufficient understanding ... to formulate and supervise the implementation of appropriate management plans; to be able to communicate meaningfully with experts in other disciplines ...; and to be able to determine when that expert advice is required." He noted that foresters need a "greater appreciation of the social and cultural environment in which they work, a willingness to modify their practices to meet changing community demands, and a greater ability to communicate with the public they serve".
In short, as Jack Westoby repeatedly emphasized (e.g. in Introduction to World Forestry, Blackwell, 1989), that forestry is about people. And about managing forests to serve more people in more generous ways. This requires foresters to be effective communicators, to work productively in multidisciplinary teams, and to be able to gauge and guide community wishes and expectations. The most important and durable qualities of the forestry course may be the way that broad training in the basic sciences is coupled with communication skills. These qualities are required in all areas of resource management, so it is no surprise to see foresters leading conservation and land management organizations.

 

Martin Herzog, Basel, 12th may 2010

6 Philosophical aspects of the needed new paradigm in forestry science

6.1 Interdisciplinarity - the classical view

The traditional approach to interdisciplinarity is threefold:

1. Focus problem or project
2. leading science
3. person

Interdisciplinarity should be based on common thinking, a common methodological base and a common language. For descriptive purposes, as overviews over research fields, the problem seems to be minor, as many highly trained experts are quite capable of understanding and translating the specific "languages" of disciplininary branches into their own, sometimes even into a language understandable by a larger public. (A very good example encountered before short is: Bericht der Enquete-Kommission „Zukunft des Bürgerschaftlichen Engagements“ Bürgerschaftliches Engagement: auf dem Weg in eine zukunftsfähige Bürgergesellschaft. pdf 432 S.] Germany presented here an excellent example of paradisciplinary work, where dozens of experts and politicians participated for 2 years.)

6.2 Multidisciplinarity - the classical solution

What we normally get, is not even a synthesis, but a "compilation", that means different contributions put together, without discussion or explanations, in 1 book. That is pure pluridisciplinarity and of limited use. The transdisciplinary approach, where 1 discipline takes the lead and "uses" the other disciplines does not really solve the problem of unifying different disciplinary contributions through coordination, cooperation and communication. So mostly it is THE 1 person (1 brain, because the brain is always total, complete, 1 - except in the case of schizophrenia), that makes a whole out of a multitude.

6.3 Paradisciplinarity - the reasonable solution

Disciplines have been created mainly in the 19th and 20th century, parallel to the specialization of workforce in production. So often we find the solution to the split, the synthesis, quite easily, remembering how that specific problem was tackled before the upcoming of the specialization. In general we see, that the coordination and synthesizing method was and is always philosophy.

• s. INTERDISZIPLINARITAET - TRANSDISZIPLINARITAET - PARADISZIPLINARITAET ... Warum nicht einfach Philosophie?

The 3 basic disciplines of interdisciplinarity are:

A) Heuristics - the art to ask the right question.

B) Phronesis - the art to choose the right aims and means through practical wisdom, judiciousness, considerateness

C) Rhetorics - the art to communicate with clear expression of clear thoughts

The 3 main fields of knowledge and skill, that each interdisciplinary active discipline has to master, are logics, hermeneutics and praxis. The first finds truth in itself, the second by critique and the third through politics or the market.

Additionally, now a bit more practical, comes the clear differentiation between substantially different forms of using knowledge - in opposition to cognition, the creation of knowledge:

A) praxis: action, doing - as opposite of theory, without ethical valuation.

B) techne: Ability, craftsmanship in the practical use of natural sciences and for the production of industrial, manual or artistic products. Valuation of expertise, of quality of result, especially the functioning - but not of result in ethical terms.

C) poiesis: The creation of the good - (1) Natural poiesis through sexual procreation, (2) poiesis in the city through the attainment of heroic fame and finally, and (3) poiesis in the soul through the cultivation of virtue and knowledge. So only the poietic deed will be the ethically acceptable action.

Now to the central term of the consideration: ACTION.

Engineering is action. Forestry was never meant as pure science, but always as help for practitioners, the men (or women) in action. Now there is one main and important difference between cognition and action: Most the time we are really free to think what we like, 100% so if we do not tell anybody. But as soon as we act, we get responsible. Each action creates effects, counteractions, disturbances, a fact most critically seen by the buddhists, recommending: Don't act! You will destroy or at least disturb something. Precisely the opposite view is at present shaping the world, the western economic view, maximizing productivity: Don't stay away from action any moment more than absolutely needed for recreation!

Now here we have a problem with science. Science can do a lot of things. Science can detect cause-effect relations, science can detect hidden meanings of text by stepwise deepening the understanding through the hermeneutic circle. Science can even help us to develop functioning normative systems, effective systems. But science can not tell us, which values, aims and means we have to choose, because we are free, our will is free. We can decide ourselves, if and how we want to live, if and how we want to ruin ourselves or our landscape or our forests or ours (or any other) society, we can do that - but anyone going for that should be kicked in the ass. But that's a moral evaluation, not a scientific one, but one of practical philosophy. And here, to make a long theory short, we have another hint, why probably strongly action-oriented interdisciplinary knowledge as forestry might do better, if sometimes it would use philosophical thinking instead of mass tables.

Dimensionality of the Forester's Profession (praxis, p for poietic parts)

Corresponding dimensions of knowledge (theory)

The Analyst Analysis of the multifunctional system <forest and landscape> and their socioeconomic effects. Under the given condition of multiple functions AND diverse management structures, forestry has more often to use methods close to social marketing, based as each marketing on: situation analysis, mainly social and cultural determinants of problem structural analysis, based as well on history (development) and geography (distribution) functional analysis, based on a psychological and/or sociological analysis of meaningfulness, motives, intentions p analysis of normative settings, values - based as well on e-valuation, the determination of the most important values p targeted result: Forest Policy p Design, development through communication, deals, contracts - the only way the tragedy of the commons can be overcome. s. chapter local management/co-management. p Result: Successful local management and protection of the forests p The Manager p The Planner & Engineer p The Politician & Advisor/Extensionist p s. social forestry p

Cultural Background Aims, Values, Intentions p Natural Background Structure Functions Education & Profession Participatory Multivalue Management p Research Poietic Science single sciences (academic disciplines: overview + short description of main methodological difference) get immediately out of their bounds with any practical problem. THE problems are not mainly cause-effect, but finalities, targets, aims intentions, interests, where an optimization has to be worked out. For forestry science this means an increasing importance of social sciences - and even politics, dialogue, dealing with people. Its a matter of ethics to formulate aims - not of science. Important is under such conditions, to separate strictly between given facts - and potentially acceptable, possible wishes - and destructive wishes.

A last example, explaining THE problem of applied sciences, from the grandfather of the free market economy, Adam Smith:

Inside the strength, subtlety and perfection of the ruling principle Plato placed the virtue of prudence, that in his view grounded in the right, clear, on general and scientific visions based cognition of the purposes, that decently should be strived for, and in the recognition of the means, that are right and decent ones to reach them.

Today, since the advent of positivism and Max Weber's denial of any scientific potential to decide on value judgments, it is neither a matter of science, not even of the church, to constitute and demand moral values, we are a bit cooked, especially as the market economy replaces this hole with material values and prices.

Economy, independent from any e-valuation outside bookkeeping, postulates the growth of economy as only reasonable purpose humans should strive for, as only measure for judiciousness, changing the term so into cleverness and cunningness.

Temperance, that led to the harmony of soul, justice, that led to the harmony of society, have been excommunicated by the popes of economy.

http://www.brainworker.ch/waldphilosophie/sozialethik/AdamSmith_Ethik.html

Questions relating to the meaning of human existence, to the reasonability of human action, dropped out of the realm of sciences and can't get a reasonable answer, due to a too extensive focus on sciences

http://www.brainworker.ch/Wissen/wissenIII.htm

OK, that was my personal state of knowledge 6.5 years ago. In the meantime I can answer you the question as well: What kind of philosophy is needed, to complete paradisciplinarity?

• Theoretical philosophy as logics and logistics, is the foundation of any science, and normally quite well known by the scientists. It is THE field that makes the difference between science and mere opinions.
• Practical philosophy (= ethics) isTHE FIELD, where science runs into problems, especially when it claims: xy has to be done, it's unavoidable to act in this way etc, so everywhere where it calls for action. Setting aims and values is nothing done by scientific research, but by free choice! Here we need a clear differentiation between what is objective knowledge (and can be acquired by scientific methods), and what is driving action (motives, intentions, interests, ...). Many practitioner claim, that this is too complicated, that things need to be kept simple. But a good differentiation makes things more simple for evaluation and decision. And many claims for <simple solutions> base just on the wish, to manipulate opinions.

Ontology (categories) of knowledge: A) The being (reality). What can be. Based on the past, on memory A1) The pure existence. The nature: Cosmos / earth / material sphere > the sphere of causalities, the sphere of conditioned reactions - the sphere of (relatively reliable) scientific knowledge - the sphere where terminologies, meanings originate. A2) The biosphere : living > system interactions, potentials, tensions, Wittgenstein: <The complete set of true sentences is the whole natural science> Identification 1, the natural sciences: What can be calculated? What can we know? After Kohlberger this would be the pre-moral level, because we can only work with the nature, not against it. We can use its laws with intelligence, make things from steel swim or even fly - but we have to submit to the given rules. That means, we can make deals with nature, but we can't blackmail it without massive repair-costs. B) The realm of feelings - between reality and ideality: The Will - the realm of wanting, acting, chances and freedom - while: The ones will is the others limit of freedom. The opposition against arbitrariness is setting limits to individual freedom. Here the base and the problem of differentiating between private and public - and the means to quantify it, by externalization of costs. The sphere of the present, of RATIO, of knowledge and capabilities. B1: Cultural Organizations I (organic development): man as individual, group, people, mass > psychology / ethnology / sociology / purposes/interests/intentionality - dependent on potential/power. Aims: Survival, development of the self, the group, the community, the state etc. Options, motives, intentions - the realm of power Identification 2, the socio-political one: Who is entitled to what - who has which duties? Why do others impose duties on us? Who decides - and which aims we are striving for, by what means? This would be Kohlberg level 2-3: 2) negotiate, use power: tit for tat. 3) try to get the recognition of the others. Identification 3, the individualistic one: What's the motive? What moves the individual? What gets the human being cracking? B2: Cultural Organization II: human organizations: Institutions / State > Politology > Finality (aim-orientation: Depending on potential/power/development level Obligations - the realm of obligations, of responsibility (towards nature e.g, or towards the next generation, so the call for sustainability). Identification 4, the humanistic one: What is valid? What does intelligence and reason tell us - what advise does wisdom give to us? Under what conditions may we criticize? Where do we assume obligations ourselves? This corresponds to Kohlberger level 4-5: 4) retain authority (and precisely for that purpose institutions have been created. Orientation at the individual right, but as well contract and law, where rights and duties are stipulated, hopefully in a democratic way. B1 and B2 describe reality, the realm where we realize things, where we act. Here we are free. We are able to shape it, to make contracts, to stipulate and recognize laws, a truth that is valid, even if not always logical, a way to restrain our freedom - to be more reliable and predictable for others. B3) Cultural Organization III: The worthiness - the realm of the "should", of ethics: The optimal use of knowledge and capabilities for systems maintenance and development. The realm of aims and targets, the realm of meaningfulness, the realm of values, so the realm of aspiration, of spiritual orientation. Attractions: In opposition to causalities, that are pushing us to do something by force, do motives originate in the ends. Because we are free in our decisions, ends can be chosen, accepted or refused - what is not possible with given cause-effect relations. But some sciences, especially economics, change aims, motives, attractions into causalities, what means that they obscure the freedom of choice as well as the responsibility for the effects of that choice. Aristotle's philosophy foresaw here a connecting peg, indispensability for all knowledge with poietic aspects (s. table above: p): Phronesis, the practical wisdom, prudence, practical wisdom: Phronesis is thoughtful realistic potential of actions that are good for the humans. > s. tab MULTIFUNCTIONALITY Identification 5, the systemic one: What can we want (and do) - without disturbing the harmony, the balance - of nature, society and spirit? This sounds like spoken for forestry, set as objective for forestry research, but was formulated with a much more general intention. But still it gives forestry research as well as forestry service its main problem and duty: What can we do to keep forests in balance, to develop them in harmony in between nature and society? B3.1) Spirit, ideality: Cognition: The question(s) - the nothing - dealing with lacking knowledge and uncertainty. This is the realm of the future, of imagination and speculation (philosophical speculation I mean), and religion. This is the realm of thoughts. Identification 6, the artists, philosophical or religious, creative or devoted to destiny. This is Kohlberg's level 6: Metacritics, creation of categories, principles and values. A major problem here is, that this field is merely speculative. We can not deduct it from other kinds of knowledge, there is no mathematical calculus, neither some probabilistic or data mining procedure that will save us from the effort and the risk in defining things, defining what we consider as GOOD. On the other side it is exactly this lack of "scientific" relyability, that guarantees each human being and each culture the right, to live after its own rules and norms. So not everything that we can not now precisely, that can not be determined in some laboratory, is bad, it's just the opposite. Only this, the ignorance, leaves us the freedom to establish different worlds. Now the other problem is, that this freedom can be misused, and most often is. Speculative knowledge must here be regarded in the same way as scientific theories: We probably can never proof its truth neither by deductive nor by inductive ways - but mostly we are able to show very quickly where and why it does not work. Those "super-theories" about human values and about "what is good" have always to be submitted to harsh enquiry and critique. Humanity is not served well, if accepting any bullshit that claims to be for its good, nay, any proposal is only to be considered as good - if it works. People that do only speak about values but don't follow them, should probably just be kicked in their a... from time to time. The realm of knowledge is rich, and goes (alhamdulillah) far beyond our present knowledge, and this in a way, that the same sentence holds true tomorrow, after tomorrow, probably until doomsday (or the change of the sun into a red giant ... in about 5 billion years).

Martin Herzog, Basel, 13th may 2010