Editorial
Dear friends,
Good morning, my dear Eucalyptus friends. Here we
are again, with the 16th issue of our Eucalyptus
Newsletter. In this
edition, as it is being usual, we are again bringing a lot of information
and knowledge about these wonderful trees and their utilization. Remember
that most of this information is brought to you for your better understanding
about the Eucalyptus. The purpose is to offer knowledge in a way
that you may learn more, and to enjoy doing such. For this, we are
forcing
you, in some extent, to navigate the web to grab as much on good
information as possible. We also offer good articles, and recommendations
of books
and interesting events. I hope you may, like me, also admire these
trees and the products they offer to Society.
In this edition of the Eucalyptus
Newsletter we are introducing to you one more chapter in
Portuguese of our Eucalyptus Online Book. As
I'm doing in the most recent chapters, the focus is eco-efficacy, eco-effectiveness,
eco-efficiency and cleaner production, now oriented
to the plantation forests segment of our business. This is a kind of subject relatively
uncommon when forestry is the concern. For this reason, I hope you
may like the views I'm bringing to you. In case you like them, I expect
your prompt utilization at your operations, since they are valuable
to the environment and to the business success. For the time being,
be patient, the English version is in the process of being built.
The
section "The World of the Eucalyptus" is back again.
I love to write it, although you may imagine how difficult it is. In
this specific section, we are introducing to you all the competence,
the knowledge and the quality developed by the South-Africans to the
Eucalyptus. For this very reason, the Eucalyptus are the foundations
to the successes in the farming, agriculture, industry and related
business in "South Africa". Due to the fact that this Eucalyptus
Newsletter issue is almost completely devoted to honor South Africa
and the Eucalyptus growing there, all our references on courses, events,
magazines, journals, euca-links and technical literature will be related
to them. No doubts about, there are many things to learn with our friends
from South Africa, have a look to confirm what they have to offer to
us and to the knowledge about the Eucalyptus.
As promised in the past
edition, we are coming again to the controversial issue "Myths
and Realities about the Eucalyptus". This
time, we are bringing the arguments of the favorable
to the Eucalyptus interested
parties. They are, in their majority, based on studies and researches
developed at universities; or in the viewpoints of sound experts. As
far as I have written several mini-articles trying to clarify some
of these controversies and creeds, I have taken advantage of your permission
to suggest them for your reading. To continue informing about these
environmental issues related to plantation forests, I'm bringing another
mini-article this time. The title is "The Eucalyptus Planted Forests
and the Sustainability". I have seen many people talking or writing
about sustainability in recent times. It is being fashion to self-declare
sustainable: since there are no requests for proofs and verifications,
everyone is stating this now-a-days. For this reason, my care to introduce
this issue to you in a very honest and impartial way. The purpose is
to continue to bring information about the environmental effects of
the Eucalyptus forests in the ecosystems where they live and develop
to generate valuable products to Mankind.
In
the Ester Foelkel's section "Curiosities
and Oddities about the Eucalyptus" she is telling us about the
utilization of the Eucalyptus for the production of
insect repellents,
something very
common and useful in the United States of America.
There
is something new to inform to you and to share my happiness for the
achievement
we had together. RISI, a leading company on information & knowledge
about the pulp and paper business, through its PPI - Pulp and Paper
International magazine, has selected and nominated the 50
most influential people in the global P&P industry. Fortunately and being a big
surprise, my name was included in such list. If you may wonder to know
all nominated people, visit the section "RISI Top 50 Power List".
In
case you are not registered yet to receive free-of-charge the Eucalyptus
Newsletter and the chapters of the Eucalyptus
Online Book, I suggest
you to do it through the following link: Click
here for registration.
We
have several non-financial supporting partners to the Eucalyptus
Online Book & Newsletter: TAPPI, IPEF, SIF, CeluloseOnline, CETCEP/SENAI,
RIADICYP, TECNICELPA, ATCP Chile, Appita, CENPAPEL, TAPPSA, SBS, ANAVE,
AGEFLOR, EMBRAPA FLORESTAS and GIT - Eucalyptologics. They are helping
to disseminate our efforts in favor of the Eucalyptus in countries
such as: Brazil, USA, Chile, Portugal, Spain, Colombia, Argentina,
Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. However, thanks to the world
wide web, in reality they are helping to promote our project to the
entire world. Thanks very much to our partners for believing in what
we are doing.
Know more about all of our today’s
partners at the URL address:
http://www.eucalyptus.com.br/partners.html
Thanks again for the support
to our work. We have just now reached the 7,000 registered people receiving
these online publications about
the Eucalyptus. Even so, I beg your help to inform about and to promote
our project to your friends, in case you feel these publications may
be helpful to them. Please, accept my personal thanks, and also the
gratitude from Celsius Degree, ABTCP,
Botnia, Aracruz, International Paper do Brasil, Conestoga-Rovers & Associates,
Suzano, VCP and
from the supporting partners.
Our best wishes to all of you, and please
enjoy your reading. We all hope you may like what we have prepared
to you this time.
Celso Foelkel
http://www.celso-foelkel.com.br
http://www.eucalyptus.com.br
http://www.abtcp.org.br
In
this edition
RISI
Top 50 Power List
Eucalyptus
Online Book Chapter 11 (in Portuguese)
The
World of the Eucalyptus - South Africa
Online
Technical References
References
on Events and Courses
Euca-Links
Online
Technical Journals & Magazines
Eucalyptus:
Doubts, Creeds, Myths, Facts e Realities - Part 02: The
opinion of the "favorable interested parties"
Curiosities
and Oddities about the Eucalyptus - The Eucalyptus used
for the Production of Insect Repellents (by Ester Foelkel)
Technical
Mini-Article by Celso Foelkel
The Eucalyptus Planted
Forests and the Sustainability
RISI
Top 50 Power List
In the
July 2008 issue of the PPI magazine - Pulp and Paper International
- RISI, one of the leading companies in terms of information and
knowledge about the world pulp and paper sector, has published its
RISI Power List, what they defined, as the list of the top 50 most
influential people in the global P&P industry. The criteria and
procedures were developed by them, and I'm still trying to live together
with the idea that I have been one of the selected persons to be
part of this list. It is being to me a great honor having my name
nominated by RISI, among so many distinguishing worldwide people.
I'm quite sure that a great part of my name selection is due to these
two projects I develop to you: the Eucalyptus Online Book & Newsletter
and the PinusLetter. For this very reason, I want to share this achievement
with you my friends, thousands of readers and supporters to these
publications on technological information I'm used to build every
month. My special thanks to RISI, to you readers, to ABTCP, to my
two daughters Ester and Alessandra, who are always cooperating and
helping to improve the quality of these projects, to my wife and
partner Lorena and to all those who are providing support to our
dedicated work in favor the Eucalyptus, the Pinus, and the forest-based
segment.
Since
I don't know for how long RISI is to keep the article and the forum
available in the web, I suggest to those interested
to know the
other names in the list, to visit the recommended webpages as soon
as possible:
http://www.risiinfo.com/pages/abo/corp/ (About
RISI and Papeloop)
http://www.risiinfo.com/magazines/pulp-paper/magazine/international/july/
2008/PPIMagJuly-The-RISI-top-50-power-list.html (The article presenting the
full list of nominated people by RISI)
http://www.risiinfo.com/magazines/July/2008/PPI/pulp-paper/magazine/international/july/
2008/PPIMagJuly-The-RISI-top-50-power-list-Those-that-went-before.html (Past
nominated people in previous Power List)
http://www.risiinfo.com/magazines/July/2008/PPI/pulp-paper/magazine/international/july/2008/
PPIMagJuly-The-RISI-top-50-power-list-41-50.html#foelkel (Where to find my
name and biography in the Top 50 Power List)
http://www.risiinfo.com/forums/message.jspa?messageID=264#264 (
RISI Forum with the objective to receive feed-backs about the 2008 RISI Power
List - a Forum coordinated by Mrs. Rhiannon James-Van Beuningen, Senior Vice
President, Media Products, RISI)
Eucalyptus
Online Book Chapter 11 (in Portuguese)
For
downloading the chapter (in Adobe pdf - 24.1 MB) just click the name
of the chapter.
In case you do not have the Adobe Reader installed in your computer,
please visit http://www.celso-foelkel.com.br/artigos_eng.html and
find the instructions how to get it.
Since it is a heavy file, please, be patient to allow the full downloading.
"A
Producao de Florestas Plantadas de Eucalipto sob a Otica da Ecoeficacia,
Ecoeficiencia e da Producao mais Limpa"
The
World of the Eucalyptus
South
Africa
Everybody
has already heard much about South Africa - its history, culture, political
leaderships, extremely beautiful natural parks and their wild animals,
privileged geographical location, gold and diamond mining and extremely
good wines - a country which is now also famous for the football/soccer.
However, South Africa also distinguishes itself by the excellence in
planted forests and is worldwide acknowledged for the advanced technological
levels developed for the forests and industrialized products obtained
from Pinus, Eucalyptus, and Acacia mearnsii. For the country’s
total territorial area of about 119 million hectares, there is an area
of approximately 1.5 million hectares of forest plantations, which
corresponds to 1.2% of the country’s total area. Due to the low
pluviometric index in many of its provinces, it can be practically
said that the forest plantation area has reached its maximum and should
not grow further. The reason is that the planted forests require at
least 800 mm of rain per year. These areas, not so abundant in the
country, are also viewed by agriculture for the production of food,
in order to meet the requirements of the 49 million inhabitants the
country has, as well as for other important economic export-oriented
agricultural crops, such as sugar cane, corn, and wheat. There is in
the country so great a concern about the water resources, that there
is a Ministry of Waters and Forests, with its Department of Water Affairs,
Forestry and Environmental Conservation (http://www.dwaf.gov.za). This
public organization establishes orientations, guidelines and promotes
studies about the forest plantations, focussing much on their hydrology.
The
country has a very interesting and privileged geography, as it occupies
the
southernmost point of the African continent. For this
reason it has
a vast coastal region bathed by the Atlantic, as well as by the Indian
Ocean. In general, the lands are not rich in fertility, the soils are
sandy and the areas have low rain precipitation in the more central
region, where the mineral extractions and the biodiversity conservation
parks
are dominant. The richest and more populated areas are located on the
coasts of the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape. The topography
of these regions is flat, favoring agriculture and plantation forests.
The poorest and most degraded soils are destined for Pinus and Eucalyptus plantations. The highlands of the region of the ancient Transvaal,
with altitudes between 900 and 1,600 meters (at present the provinces
of Mpumalanga,
Limpopo and Gautang) are also very appreciated for forest tree plantations.
The
forest-based business represents about 1.5% of the GDP (Gross Domestic
Product), approximately 9% of the agribusiness and 4% of the exports.
55% of the woods produced by the planted forestry areas are destined
for pulp and paper production, 38% for sawmills, 3.5% for underground
mine props and supports, and the rest for firewood and other minor
uses. The pulp production amounts to 2.4 million tons/year and that
of paper
and board to 2.6 million tons (45% of packaging papers; 33% of printing
and writing papers; 6.5% of tissue papers). Among the specialties
produced by the pulp industry are the approximately 600 thousand tons
per year
of dissolving market pulp manufactured by SAPPI, the most important
manufacturer of this kind of pulp from Eucalyptus wood (Sappi – Saiccor
pulp). The main - highly internationalized - pulp and paper manufacturing
companies
are two: Mondi and SAPPI. They have strong presence in important markets,
such as the European and the Asian ones. The export of pulp, paper
and solid wood products is very important for the country’s economy.
Besides pulp and paper, other forest products distinguish themselves,
such as: sawn wood, veneers, wood panels, particle boards, export-oriented
chips, plywood, resins, tannin, etc.
Eucalyptus was
introduced into South Africa as an exotic tree in the second half of
the nineteenth century.
The first experiments took place
in arboreta, where Pinus and Acacia species were
also tested. The commercial
Eucalyptus plantations were intensified from 1930 onwards,
to meet the demand for wood destined for underground mining. Very much
developed
for this purpose was the species Eucalyptus grandis, known by the local
population as "saligna gum", because it was originally introduced
as E.saligna, due to the similarity in the morphology of the trees
of these two species. At present, E.saligna is much less popular than
E.grandis
due to its lower growth rate, similarly to the situation occurring
in Brazil. E.grandis and its hybrids continue to be the most important
genetic
materials for the South-African silviculture and are oriented to the
regions where the altitude is lower than 1,400 meters. Above that,
species more tolerant of cold or frost (E.nitens, E.viminalis,
E.macarthurii, E.dunnii) are planted.
In 1950,
there was a forest base of 170,000 hectares of planted Eucalyptus forests, amounting at present to approximately 580 thousand hectares.
From 1970 to 1990, the role of South-African research and development
for the genetic forest and classic Eucalyptus breeding was fundamental,
even influencing this type of research in Brazil with its technological
achievements. At present, the emphasis of researching on forest improvements
has been the forest biotechnology, by means of centers of investigations
like FABI, CSIR, etc. (See Euca-Links).
Practically
the whole forest plantation base is distributed over the coastal region
in the provinces
of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern
Cape,
as well as in the mountains of Mpumalanga and Limpopo. The majority
of the
planted forests is certified (approximately 1.1 million hectares),
the FSC being the dominant certification scheme.
The main planted genera in terms of area
extension are: Pinus (52% or roughly 760 thousand hectares ), Eucalyptus (39% or about 580 thousand
hectares) and Acacia mearnsii (8%). There are still remnants of native
forests in those regions. According to the statistics (relatively uncertain),
about 9% of the country is still covered by forests; what is difficult
is to clearly define how and what are those forests. This is a common
problem in statistics; even those from FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization – present
this difficulty.
The
main species in commercial Pinus plantations are: Pinus
taeda, P.patula, P.elliottii, P.caribaea, P.greggii. The main Eucalyptus species are:
Eucalyptus grandis, E.dunnii, E.saligna, E.macarthurii, E.nitens,
E.fastigata, E.viminalis, E.smithii, E.microcorys. Furthermore, there are hybrids
produced among these species and E.urophylla, E.tereticornis, and E.camaldulensis. For pole production, the preferred species are: E.paniculata,
E.cloeziana, Corymbia maculata. In very arid regions, the preferred species are E.camaldulensis
and E.cladocalyx, but this only occurs in small areas, to supply local
demands. As the Eucalyptus introduction into the country did not occur
for so large a number of species as in Brazil, the natural hybridization
did not occur in so serious a way. The black wattle (Acacia mearnsii),
oriented to tannin extraction from its bark, occupies about 130,000 hectares
and completes the list of the main forest species planted in South Africa.
The
average annual growth rate of the Eucalyptus plantations ranges from
25 to 45 m³/ha.year, but in the cold and semiarid regions the
growth rates are lower, ranging from 15 to 25 m³/ha.year. Very
common is the sprout coppicing for new and successive forest rotations,
between
2 and 8, the number of which is higher among the rural farmers. There
is a very good stump sprouting and almost total absence of more severe
pests, as ants, which favors this type of management.
E.grandis,
E.saligna, E.tereticornis, and E.dunnii species are very much used
by the pulp
and paper industry. Practically all mills consume
a
wood mix, in spite of the advanced forest technology largely present
in the country. The first Eucalyptus pulping tests were performed
in a lab in 1943 and the industrial production has already begun at
the
SAPPI mill of Enstra at that same time period. Since then, the Eucalyptus pulp production (paper and dissolving grades) has had a substantial
growth for both export as market pulp and printing and sanitary paper
manufacturing.
Considering
the unavailability of areas to expand the planted commercial forest
area, the emphasis in research has been placed on increasing the
forest productivity. The purpose is to produce more wood from the same
forest base. For this reason, silviculture and forest tree breeding
are rather advanced in terms of technologies and search for new alternatives.
Several universities and research centers (see Euca-Links) are dedicated
to try to find new silvicultural and genetic routes, in order to guarantee
the sustainability of the forest-based business in the country. The
main
technological forest research lines in South Africa are as follows:
• genetic forest improvement and breeding;
• forest biotechnology and genetic mapping;
• irrigated silviculture and forest hydrology;
• soil and natural resource conservation;
• Eucalyptus stump sprouting and coppicing;
• plantation reestablishment of less productive forest stands;
• hybridization and cloning;
• precision silviculture, mechanization and operations automation;
• Eucalyptus species more tolerant to cold, frost, fire, and hydric deficit;
• mechanical strength, basic density, lumber stability, and quality of
the Eucalyptus wood logs;
• woods of higher aggregated value: saw-timber, furniture, mining wood,
housing construction wood, etc.
Some
of the South-African researchers and technical people who helped or
are cooperating to build the Eucalyptus silviculture and wood-based
industry histories in the country have been or were: A.P.G. Schonau,
F.S. Malan, M.P.A. Coetzee, G. Malan, K. von Gadow, P.W. Varkotsch,
G. van Wyk, J.G. Myburgh, J. Fox, M.J. Wingfield, B.D. Wingfield, Z.
Myburg, C. Clarke, R. Baxendale, M.J.P. Shaw, P. Clegg, W.K. Darrow,
R.C. Bigalke, N.O. Wessels, C. Young, D. Ramsay, E.J. Smith, G. Gerischer,
L. Christov, M.J.P. Shaw, M. Plessis, J. Wright, T. Coutinho, M. Rouget,
P. Crous and N. Denison. Certainly many other names would deserve to
be nominated by what they are doing for the technological forest and
industrial development in the country. Unfortunately, my knowledge
and my network are not so great in South Africa, although I am a TAPPSA’s
member and a very active partner.
Considering all this, it can be definitively
stated that South Africa is one of the world’s leading countries
in terms of production, management, and technologies for the Eucalyptus forest plantations, as
well as for the most different uses of the woods produced by them.
Our acknowledgement and special admiration for its companies, research
centers, universities, public and private entities and for all South-African
technicians and researchers, for believing in the Eucalyptus as a basis
for a strong, healthy, and sustainable economy.
Become further acquainted with the country South Africa and its forests
and trees by navigating in the following suggested links:
Know more about South Africa:
http://www.southafrica.info/about/people/population.htm (South
Africa statistics)
http://www.statssa.gov.za (Statistics
for South Africa)
http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/index.asp?lang=en&iso3=ZAF&subj=3 (FAO
Country Profile - Economic overview)
http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/index.asp?lang=en&iso3=ZAF&subj=4 (FAO
Country Profile - Agribusiness overview)
http://www.mbendi.co.za/land/af/sa/p0005.htm#5 (MBendi
website - South Africa profile)
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/
COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT/SOUTHAFRICAEXTN/
0,,menuPK:368082~pagePK:141159~piPK:141110~theSitePK:368057,00.html (World
Bank website for South Africa)
Know more about South-African forestry:
South Africa forestry and natural resources:
http://www.fao.org/countryprofiles/index.asp?lang=en&iso3=ZAF&subj=2 (FAO
South Africa country profile - Forestry)
http://www.sanparks.org/parks/table_mountain/library/2006/tokai_cecilia/annexC.pdf (A
summary of the forestry history in South Africa)
http://www.unep.org/bpsp/Forestry/Forestry%20Case%20Studies/South%20Africa.pdf (UNEP
forestry case study about South Africa)
http://www.environment.gov.za/HotIssues/2006/staeoftheenvironment2006/Executive%20summary.pdf (South
Africa environmental executive report)
http://www.oecd.org/infobycountry/0,3380,en_2649_37465_1_1_1_1_37465,00.html (A
report about the environment in South Africa)
http://www.ngo.grida.no/soesa (Reports
and information about the environment in South Africa)
Commercial
forest plantations in South Africa:
http://dwafapp4.dwaf.gov.za/webapp/?page=forests&subPage=commercial_plantations (Commercial
plantations - Department of Water Affairs and Forestry)
http://www.forestry.unp.ac.za/Bior130_2.pdf (Plantation
forestry in South Africa - A lecture)
http://www.tappsa.co.za/html/the_wattle_tree.html (About
black wattle or Acacia mearnsii in South Africa)
http://www.sabie.co.za/about/forestry/#species (South
Africa forest data)
http://www.dwaf.gov.za/WaterConservation/WordDownloads/ForestStrat.doc (Water
conservation in South Africa - Forest hydrology and the Federal Government
viewpoint)
http://www.info.gov.za/aboutsa/water.htm (Water
and forests in South Africa)
http://www.kzntransport.gov.za/public_trans/freight_databank/kzn/industries/forestry/index_xml.html (Plantation
forests in KwaZulu-Natal)
South
Africa as viewed by FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization:
http://www.fao.org/forestry/18316/en/zaf/page.jsp (FAO
Country Profiles - South Africa)
http://www.fao.org/forestry/18308/en/zaf (Forestry
map of South Africa)
Why
to invest in plantation forests in South Africa?
http://dwafapp4.dwaf.gov.za/dwaf/download.asp?f=Anele%5CTrends%26
OpportunitiesInSAForestry(Aug2004).pdf&docId=60 (Forestry trends and
opportunities in South Africa)
Monumental
trees of South Africa:
http://git-forestry-blog.blogspot.com/2008/07/tallest-tree-in-africa-is-you-guessed.html
(The tallest trees in South Africa by Mr. Gustavo Iglesias Trabado)
http://www.joburg-archive.co.za/2005/pdfs/nominated_trees.pdf (Nominated trees
in South Africa due to age and dimensions)
Please,
also visit the sections Online Technical References, Euca-Links,
References on Events and Courses and Online Technical Journals & Magazines.
In all of them you are to find valuable information about the Eucalyptus in
South Africa. I hope you like, taking the chance to learn a lot with all the
fantastic achievements of the South-Africans with the Eucalyptus forestry and
industrial utilization.
Online
Technical References
In this section, we are offering some very good euca-links with
relevant publications available in the virtual world wide web library.
You have only to click the URLs addresses to open the documents and/or
to save them. Since they are references, we are not responsible for the
opinion of the corresponding authors. However, believe me, they are valuable
references that should be watched carefully, since they are very much
connected with the Eucalyptus. In this section, we are trying to balance
recent and historical publications, those that are helping to build the
foundations and the history of the Eucalyptus forestry, environment,
industrial utilization, and many other areas related to these magic trees.
As already mentioned, this time all selected technical references are
related to the Eucalyptus in South Africa.
Kraft
pulping of eucalypts in South Africa. H.H. Myburgh. Appita
Journal 21(2): 49 - 53 (1967). (English)
http://www.celso-foelkel.com.br/artigos/outros/Kraft%20pulping%20
of%20eucalyptus%20in%20South%20Africa.pdf
Growing
the forest in South Africa. D. Meadows. TAPPI Journal.
July. 8 pp. (1999). (English)
http://www.donmeadows.com/PDF/SAf-trees99JUL60.pdf
State
of the forest and tree genetic resources in South Africa.
N. Ngcobo. FAO WP FGR/28E. (2002). (English)
http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/AC486E/ac486e00.HTM
The
economic, social and environmental role of commercial plantations
in South Africa. W. Smit; M. Pitcher. UNFF Meeting on
the Role of Planted Forests in Sustainable Forest Management. (2003).
(English)
http://www.maf.govt.nz/mafnet/unff-planted-forestry-meeting/
conference-papers/commercial-plantations-in-south-africa.htm
Development
of wood-based industry in sub-saharan Africa. K. Asumadu.
52 pp. (2004). (English)
http://www.afornet.org/images/pdfs/Wood-based%20industries%20in%20SSA.pdf
South-African
forest industry market analysis. D. Chamberlain; H. Essop;
C. Hougaard; S. Malherbe; R. Walker. G:ENESIS. 133 pp. (2005). (English)
http://www.forestry.co.za/fsa/ViewFile?file_id=92
South
Africa: pulp and paper sector summit resource book. CSRSC/NALEDI.
82 pp.(2005). (English)
http://www.naledi.org.za/docs/pulppaperSJS.pdf
South-African forestry and forest-based industry
facts and statistics. 2 pp. (2005). (English)
http://www2.dwaf.gov.za/webapp/Documents/Forests/forestryfacts200405.pdf
Study
of supply and demand of industrial roundwood in South Africa. D.G.
Crickmay; J. Le Brasseur; J.A. Stubbings; A.E. Daugherty. 87 pp.
(2005). (English)
http://dwafapp4.dwaf.gov.za/webapp/common/editor_extended/_resource_download.php?id=4177&validate=
7d2_65a&file=NDE3N19fX1N0dWR5ICBvZiBzdXBwbHkgYW5kIGRlbWFuZC
BJbmR1c3RyaWFsIFJvdW5kd29vZCBpbiBTLkEuLnBkZg
The
South-African forest sector in an international perspective - "An
outsider view". S. Nilsson. IIASA Days. PowerPoint
presentation: 49 slides. (2007). (English)
http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/FOR/presentations/2007/sn-safrica-apr07.pdf
References
on Events and Courses
This section has as aim to introduce to you several
very good links with recently already happened events. The advantage
provided to the
readers is that the event organizers made the presentations or proceedings
available for free downloading. This is a very good way to practice
social and scientific responsibility. Our most sincere thanks to all
these organizers for this friendly procedure, sharing the event material
with the interested parties.
As
already mentioned, this time all selected and suggested events
and courses have recently happened in South Africa.
They are offering to
us valuable knowledge generated and disseminated in that country.
IUFRO
Congress - "Improvement and culture of Eucalyptus" -
(English)
An event that has taken place in Durban, in the year 2007.
It was organized by IUFRO - International Union of Forestry Research
Organizations.
The core theme of the event was "Eucalypts and diversity: balancing
productivity and sustainability". Some of the speeches are available
for downloading. Please, have a look:
http://www.iufrodurban.org.za (Event
program)
http://www.iufrodurban.org.za/presentations.htm (Speech
presentations for downloading)
IUFRO
Symposia about Precision Forestry in Plantations. (English)
A group of events organized by IUFRO and co-sponsored by the Stellenbosch
University. The most recent of these events happened in 2006, but we
also have the presentations of the 2003 and 2004 events. They have
as goal to discuss the application of precision forestry, advantages
and utilization in the forest plantations. I'm pleased to suggest you
to read the 2004 presentation of a great friend on mine, Prof. Gerrit
van Wyk, a professor at the Stellenbosch University. To all those who
have interest in precision forestry, these events are a special gift
to satisfy your wishes to learn more about.
http://academic.sun.ac.za/forestry/precision/iufro2006.html (2006
event)
http://academic.sun.ac.za/forestry/precision/presentations2004.htm (2004
event presentations)
http://academic.sun.ac.za/forestry/precision/abstractpaper2004.html (2004
book of abstracts)
http://academic.sun.ac.za/forestry/precision/pdf/paper_vanWyk.pdf (Article
by Prof. van Wyk in the 2004 event)
http://academic.sun.ac.za/forestry/precision/pdf/vanWyk.pdf (2004
Prof. van Wyk PowerPoint presentation)
http://academic.sun.ac.za/forestry/precision/proceedings2003.html (2003
event proceedings)
Symposium "Impact of Certification on Plantation
Forestry". (English)
This event has happened in 2007, also organized by the Stellenbosch
University. Since a great percentage of the commercial forests are
already certified in South Africa, it is good and wise to hear what
they are showing in this event. There are also presentations of the
neighbor countries, proving that the examples on forest certification
are crossing the borders of the country.
http://academic.sun.ac.za/forestry/Symposium2007/Symp2007presen.html
TAPPSA
APPW - African Pulp and Paper Week. (English)
A group of great events on pulp and paper technology organized
and sponsored by TAPPSA - The Technical Association of the Pulp and
Paper
Industry of Southern Africa. TAPPSA is our partner to disseminate the
Eucalyptus Online Book & Newsletter through its excellent website.
The papers presented in the events are made available to the interested
public, a great offer from TAPPSA to the world technical community.
Many other advanced and recent technical articles are also placed in
the website, definitively an example to many knowledge based organizations
http://tappsa.co.za/archive/APPW2002/Title/title.html (2002
APPW event, in Durban)
http://tappsa.co.za/archive2/APPW_2004/Title2004/title2004.html (2004
APPW event, in Durban)
Workshop "Site
Management and Productivity in Tropical Plantation Forests".
(English)
The proceedings of this remarkable 1998 event are available at the
CIFOR website - Center for International Forestry Research.
http://www.cifor.cgiar.org/publications/pdf_files/Books/StMgnt.pdf
Euca-Links
Here,
we are bringing to you a series of links with several very good websites
that have strong connection with the Eucalyptus. I hope you may visit
them, taking advantage of the good technical material they offer at
a no cost basis.
As
already mentioned, this time all selected and suggested Euca-Links
are from South Africa. We have prepared a great
selection
to you, ranging
from universities, R&D centers, industry, associations, etc.
Everything you may need to improve your skills not only about South
Africa, but
about the wonderful world of the Eucalyptus. Please, enjoy them.
Forestry
and wood/fiber based associations in South Africa:
Forestry South Africa. (English)
This association represents the interests of many foresters and forest companies
in South Africa. The association website is very rich on reports, articles, speeches,
and many publications about the forest and forest industry in the country. In
case you may wish to learn more about these issues, please, visit this website,
it definitively worth.
http://www.forestry.co.za/fsa/home.do
http://www.forestry.co.za/fsa/contents.do;jsessionid=
7317E9A3A6F78FF9534C04FF4382016D?section_id=2 (Excellent downloading section)
PAMSA
- Paper Manufacturer’s Association of South Africa. (English)
PAMSA was founded in 1992 to assist and to coordinate the pulp and paper manufacturers
interests in the country. Today, the members of the association correspond
to about 90% of the production of these items in South Africa. PAMSA is today
managed by my dear friend Mrs. Jane Molony, I wish a lot of success to her
http://www.pamsa.co.za
http://www.pamsa.co.za/images/pamsa/Pamsa_Industry_Data_2007.pdf (Excellent
2007 statistical report about the pulp and paper industry in South
Africa)
PRASA
- Paper Recycling Association of South Africa. (English)
This association is oriented to paper recycling, trying to link paper
production to environmental preservation in a sustainable way
http://www.prasa.co.za/index.html
TAPPSA
- Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry of Southern
Africa. (English)
TAPPSA is the technical association of the pulp and paper industry.
It is a great source of technical information to the engineers and
technical people working in such industry. The way it promotes knowledge
diffusion is majestic, have a look. TAPPSA is also our partner and
cooperates to the dissemination of the Eucalyptus Online Book & Newsletter.
I'm proud for being a TAPPSA member.
http://www.tappsa.co.za
Universities
in South Africa having careers and R&D linked to the forestry
industry:
Stellenbosch
University. (English)
The Department of Forestry and Wood Science offers careers in Wood
Products Science and also in Forestry and Natural Resources Management
.
http://academic.sun.ac.za/forestry
http://academic.sun.ac.za/forestry/BScWood.html (Wood
Products career)
http://academic.sun.ac.za/forestry/BScFor.html (Forest
Science career)
University of Pretoria. (English)
This university is renowned because the expertise in fundamental
sciences as genetics, biology and biotechnology. University of
Pretoria has partnerships with the forest based industry, and maintains
an excellent institute of R&D, the FABI - Forestry & Agricultural
Biotechnology Institute.
http://web.up.ac.za/default.asp?ipkCategoryID=56&subid=56&ipklookid=11
http://web.up.ac.za/default.asp?ipkCategoryID=1258&subid=1258&ipklookid=11
http://www.up.ac.za/academic/fabi/eucgenomics/euc_mapping (Eucalyptus genome
mapping website)
http://microarray.up.ac.za/files/projects.htm#euc (ACGT
Microarray Eucalyptus genotyping)
http://www.fabinet.up.ac.za (FABI
Research Institute)
University
of Witwatersrand. Johannesburg. (English)
This university has focused careers in fundamental and applied sciences
and in business management. Scientific areas as botany, plant micro-propagation,
biotechnology and genetics are very developed and renowned by the
industry.
http://web.wits.ac.za/WitsHome.htm
http://web.wits.ac.za/Academic/Science/Schools.htm
University
of KwaZulu-Natal. (English)
This university is famous for providing good quality assistance to
the South-African wood and forestry segments through the College
of Agriculture, Engineering and Science. Among the various R&D
centers and institutes the university has, we may point out the Forestry
and Forest Products Research Center (http://ffp.csir.co.za)
http://caes.ukzn.ac.za/HomePage318.aspx (College
of Agriculture, Engineering and Science)
http://www.sciag.ukzn.ac.za (Faculty
of Science and Agriculture)
Fort
Cox College of Agriculture and Forestry. (English)
This college is renowned because the "Social Forestry" career,
with classes in King William's Town.
http://www2.dwaf.gov.za/webapp/Documents/CareersBrochure06.pdf
IInternational
Forestry School. (English)
This college has the forestry classes given in the English language,
since the orientation is also to international students, from African
neighbor countries. The college has partnerships with the Forestry
Department of the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the Southern African
Institute of Forestry
http://www.forestry.unp.ac.za/international%20forestry%20school/intro.htm
http://www.forestry.unp.ac.za/Bior130_1.pdf
Nelson
Mandela Metropolitan University. (English)
The NMMU houses one of the most renowned historical centers for forestry
education in the country, the Saasveld Forestry College.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saasveld_Forestry_College
http://www.nmmu.ac.za
http://www.nmmu.ac.za/default.asp?id=566&sid=&bhcp=1
http://www.nmmu.ac.za/default.asp?id=6012&sid=&bhcp=1 (College
of Forestry at the George Campus)
University
of Venda. (English)
Venda has a course of "Bachelor on Forestry" thanks
to its School of Agriculture, Rural Development and Forestry.
http://www.univen.ac.za/agiculture/agriculture.php
R&D
- Research & Development centers in South Africa oriented
to the forest-based sector:
CSIR
- Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. (English)
CSIR is an outstanding research organization developing technologies
to several South-African industrial segments, inclusively to the
forest sector and to the pulp and paper industry. CSIR has a strong
position on forest and wood breeding, selection of top quality
tailor-made clones developed according to the end-use, etc. The
center has also the mission to sell and to transfer technologies,
doing this through reports, researches, consulting services, and
courses. CSIR has a solid partnership with the University of KwaZulu-Natal
to maintain a specific research center for wood products and pulp
and paper developments: the Forestry and Forest Products Research
Center.
http://ffp.csir.co.za (Forestry
and Forest Products Research Center)
http://www.csir.co.za/nre/forestry_resources/overview.html(Forest
research lines)
http://www.csir.co.za/nre/forestry_resources/index.html (Recent
CSIR forestry research projects)
http://www.csir.co.za/nre/tree_improvement(Forest
and tree improvement scientific program)
http://www.csir.co.za/nre/forestry_resources/pdfs/cloning_lowres.pdf (An
example of a selected Eucalyptus clone developed by CSIR)
http://researchspace.csir.co.za/dspace/simple-search?query=eucalyptus&submit=Go (A
bibliographical search in the CSIR Research Space using the word
Eucalyptus )
http://www.csir.co.za/nre/forestry_resources/brochures.html (Brochures
and informative flyers about the CSIR services to the forestry
segment )
FABI
- Forest and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute. (English)
FABI is a research center associated to the University of Pretoria. It has
the objective to bring advanced know-how to the forestry sector from the excellence
and competence this university has in the biotechnological sciences
.
http://www.fabinet.up.ac.za (General
webpage)
http://www.fabinet.up.ac.za/cfepp/index (Forest
protection program directed to the Eucalyptus)
http://www.fabinet.up.ac.za/tpcp/index (Cooperative
program in forest protection)
http://www.fabinet.up.ac.za/featuredpublication (Publications)
http://www.fabinet2.up.ac.za/eucagen (EUCAGEN
- International Eucalyptus genome network website
http://www.ieugc.up.ac.za (EUCAGEN
captive website - International Eucalyptus genome network)
FFP
- Forestry and Forest Products Research Center. (English)
As it has already been mentioned, FFP is the result of a partnership
between CSIR and the University of KwaZulu-Natal for the following
main lines of investigations: wood products, remote sensing, precision
forestry, forestry-oriented softwares and IT developments, and evaluations
of wood and forest resources.
http://ffp.csir.co.za
ICFR
- Institute for Commercial Forestry Research. (English)
ICFR is a private owned institute to research forestry issues to
the South-African forest-business companies. The institute is located
and has the facilities in the Pietermaritzburg campus of the KwaZulu-Natal
University. The main research lines are focused in studying genetic
breeding of Eucalyptus and black wattle, in the management of Eucalyptus plantations by coppicing, in the reestablishment of new plantations
replacing less productive genetic materials, and also places strong
emphasis in the sustained productivity of the plantation forests
in the long-term.
http://www.icfr.ukzn.ac.za/default.aspx (General
website )
http://www.icfr.ukzn.ac.za/icfrresearch/default.aspx (Research
lines)
http://www.icfr.ukzn.ac.za/icfrresearch/eucalypt.aspx (Eucalyptus forests genetics breeding)
SAIF
- South-African Institute of Forestry. (English)
SAIF is an institute devoted to provide good quality services to
the South-African forest sector. Recently, the institute has reached
40 years of age, a synonymous of great success along the organization
life. Among these services, it is possible to number: courses, technical
evaluations, auditing, analyses, rewards for performances, edition
of the Forestry Handbook, publication of the Southern Hemisphere
Forestry Journal, etc
.
http://www.saif.org.za
http://www.saif.org.za/index.php?page=forestry-handbook
South-African
forest-based industrial and manufacturing companies:
In
this sub-section, we are to mention and to provide links to some
of the most outstanding companies in South Africa, but not all
of them. It is a selection we have made, and we are sorry for
missing some others, mostly due to the lack of full knowledge
we have about a so huge forestry country as South Africa is .
By navigating on the websites, you may have a good idea on the
technological level of the industry in South Africa. All websites
are in English language.
Abuti
Eucalyptus. (Wood and wood products)
http://www.abuti.co.za
Eucalyptus Industries. (Furniture)
http://www.eucalyptus.co.za
Hans
Merensky. (Saw-timber and lumber)
http://www.merensky.co.za/HM_Timber/about/about_HM_timber.htm
Kimberly
Clark - South Africa. (Tissue papers)
http://www.kimberly-clark.com/southafrica
Komatiland Forests. (Pinus plantations
and lumber)
http://www.komatilandforests.co.za/content/index.html
Mint
Road Saw Mills. (Eucalyptus wood products)
http://www.treatedpoles.com/prod01.htm
Mondi. (Pulp
and paper)
Mondi is one of the major pulp and paper companies in the world, with mills
not only in South Africa, but also in some European countries. Please, visit
the links to know more about Mondi, the mills and the products they manufacture.
http://www.mondigroup.com/desktopdefault.aspx
http://www.mondigroup.com/PortalData/1/Resources/sustainability/reports/Mondi_SDAR.pdf (2007
Mondi sustainability report)
http://www.forestry.sgs.com/6274-za_-_mondi_business_
paper_sa2006-24_-_ad37_gm_-_psummary.pdf (Forestry management plan - Sustainable
forestry and forest certification)
PG
Bison. (Resins, lumber, poles, veneers, etc)
http://www.pgbison.co.za/our_company/company_main.aspx?page=our-operations.html
Pole Africa. (Poles)
http://www.satimber.co.za
PSP
Timber. (Poles)
http://www.psptimber.co.za/page_3.html
SAPPI. (Pulp
and paper)
SAPPI is one of the leading world companies in the pulp business. It is the
major manufacturer of Eucalyptus dissolving grade market pulp, among a series
of diversified products. The company has placed emphasis on R&D, both for
forestry and mill technologies. I have a good friend of mine working there,
my dear Charlie Clarke, one of the greatest experts on the fibers of the Eucalyptus.
http://www.sappi.com/sappiweb (General
SAPPI website)
http://www.sappi.com/SappiWeb/About+Sappi/Sappi+Saiccor/Our+products.htm (Sappi
Saiccor dissolving pulp)
http://www.ajol.info/viewarticle.php?jid=23&id=1046&layout=abstract (An
article by Charlie Clarke about the potential of some Eucalyptus clones to the manufacture of dissolving pulp. Charlie Clarke is
SAPPI Fiber Processing Manager)
http://www.sappi.com/SappiWeb/Sustainability/Publications%20and%20reports (2007
SAPPI sustainability report)
http://www.sappi.com/SappiWeb/About+Sappi/Sappi+Forests/Tree+farming+guidelines.htm (Majestic
guidelines about plantation forests oriented to farmers, a precious
work made available by SAPPI to the rural community)
http://www.sappi.com/NR/rdonlyres/3303C805-8998-4461-
B0C8-DAEAFA59EC42/0/CapeKraft8Feb2008.pdf (A summary of a visit to Cape
Kraft mill, showing nice photos and operational data of the mill)
South-African
Paper mills. (Papers)
The company manufactures packaging papers and board, with high recycling rates.
http://www.sapaper.co.za
York
Timber. (Veneers,
plywood, lumber)
The company has plantations both of Pinus and Eucalyptus.
http://www.yorkcor.co.za
NGO
showing a contrary position in South Africa concerning plantation
forestry:
TimberWatch Coalition. (English)
http://www.timberwatch.org.za/index.htm
Online
Technical Journals & Magazines
Here, we are bringing to you a selection
of excellent online journals and magazines with connection to the
Eucalyptus. In these journals, you may freely download articles or read the news,
without the need of memberships, passwords or payments. The maximum
you may need to do is to register yourself. They are journals or
article collections at our hands (or eyes), available to all those
wondering to read and to learn more about forestry, environment,
pulp, paper, woods, and Eucalyptus, surely. Please, go to the search
tool in each journal, and type "Eucalyptus". Then, have
a look in the result. In this way, many times you may find valuable
technical material. To the editors of these journals, our most sincere
appreciation and thanks. We hope many other journals may join forces
to this scientific and technical knowledge chain.
In this present
Eucalyptus Newsletter issue, the referenced online journals and
magazines are from South Africa. Learn more about the
Eucalyptus reading them.
TAPPSA
Journal. (English)
TAPPSA Journal is an online and paper printed magazine published
by TAPPSA - Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry
of Southern Africa. The journal official language is the English,
and it has 6 editions per year. The technical articles remain in
the TAPPSA website archives to be accessed by the interested public.
A great offer to the technical society, thanks for this TAPPSA
.
http://www.tappsa.co.za/html/tappsa_journal.html
http://www.tappsa.co.za/html/current_issue.html (Current
issue, total content made available to readers)
http://tappsa.co.za/archive3/Journal_papers/journal_papers.html (Recent
technical articles published in the TAPPSA Journal)
South
Africa Forestry Magazine - SA Forestry. (English)
It is a traditional forestry journal in South Africa, with editions
since 1986.
http://www.saforestrymagazine.co.za/site/default.asp
Southern
Hemisphere Forestry Journal. (English)
The magazine of the Southern African Institute of Forestry has the
mission to promote the excellence in the forest plantations and in
the wood products industry operations. Environmental preservation
is also a constant issue associated to these economic technologies.
Until recently, the magazine was named Southern African Forestry
Journal.
http://www.ajol.info/journal_index.php?jid=23&tran=0&ab=0
Eucalyptus: Doubts, Creeds, Myths, Facts e Realities
Part 02: The opinion of the "favorable
interested parties"
As I have already said in the past edition of
the Eucalyptus Newsletter, the Eucalyptus trees are able to bring
emotions that travel from
the most pure love and admiration to the most warm positions against
their planting. These contradictory viewpoints exist in different
regions of our planet. Some of these negative positioning are strongly
attached to political or religious ideologies; other are result of
mistakes made by the plantation forest sector some decades ago, mostly
based on the silvicultural technologies available on those times.
Another thing we cannot forget is that the Eucalyptus trees grow
so well and so fast that to everyone, incidentally or not, is giving
the chance to pay attention to them. For these reasons and for many
others, there are millions of literature citations about the Eucalyptus in articles, interviews, scientific papers, columns in newspapers,
reports and studies. It is quite right that the Eucalyptus are, among
the trees, one of the few to deserve this honor to be so much referenced
by the literature. Surely, as in any democracy it should be, the
opinions are divided. This is very healthy, since different points
of views may be drivers for changes and improvements. I'm quite sure
that some of the environmentally friendly technologies being adopted
in the Eucalyptus plantation forestry are result, in some extent,
to the criticism placed by some NGOs or by the media, or because
some researches that have pointed negative impacts. The negative
opinions are important to bring a chance for reflections and eventually
to show new routes to be followed in our process and operations.
I
have always believed that the best way to understand
the opinions placed against us is to clearly hear them.
If we don't do this, and
try to warmly defend our points, without understanding the someone
else views, the conflict is absolutely inevitable. It is much better
to use the dialogue to try to find common points or roads of understanding.
For this reason, I have decided to create this section in our Eucalyptus
Newsletter: my purpose is not to present magnificent arguments
in favor of the Eucalyptus or to clarify the doubts by
myself. What
I intend to do is to offer to all of you the chance to navigate
in selected references available in the web. Some are
in favor, some
against. To those who admire the Eucalyptus, as myself, the reading
of contrary points may disclose some new points for reflections.
I hope that the contrary parties may also have a chance to think
about the thousands of positive contributions of the Eucalyptus to Mankind. They may also get acquainted to the more
sustainable technologies
and attitudes being now-a-days adopted in the plantation forest
segment. I'm not considering to indicate to you the literature
based or sustained
just on ideologies, although they are frequent. My selection is
more related to technical issues, either to those writing
in favor or
against the Eucalyptus.
I have written several articles in the Eucalyptus Newsletter about
these contradictory points. I have written about the planted forests
of Eucalyptus and the water consumption, about the biodiversity
impacts, about the soil conservation, etc. Recently, I presented
a review
of the major positive and negative impacts of the Eucalyptus plantations,
with associated measures to mitigate the negative and to leverage
the positive ones. In this edition, I'm bringing to you another
mini-article, this time commenting on the sustainability
concept applied to the
plantation forests and to the productive
chains depending on these
forest products. Doing this through my mini-articles, I understand
I'm bringing my contribution to better inform the Society about
the importance of the Eucalyptus for people's welfare and how to
grow
them with minimum impact to the environment.
In
this edition, I'm bringing a selection of articles and
speeches in favor to the Eucalyptus. Some of them are very good papers clarifying
many of the doubts someone may have about the Eucalyptus. I'm
sure that some of the myths are to be destroyed by the
facts being presented.
Thus, this today edition is to show the favorable interested
parties viewpoints and arguments. It may be found very
good information
in the literature. However, we are not to keep an eye on the
extensive papers and academic theses presenting environmental
and social
impacts,
either positive or negative. My purpose is to introduce to readers
some literature more related to positively explain aspects on
the Eucalyptus myths and creeds, with the aim to clarify
these points
in a didactic and accessible approach.
The great majority of these explanations are being made available
by associations (both technical or business-related); others
are speeches or articles written by renowned experts on the subject
or university professors. Most of the information is published
in Brazil,
but we have also suggestions for reading articles and reports
made
available in other countries, as Portugal, Spain, Australia,
etc. Unfortunately, to those not used to the Portuguese language,
several
of the references are in this idiom. Even so, have a look to
the PowerPoint presentations, they are plenty of nice pictures
to sustain
the arguments.
Celso
Foelkel's mini-articles released in past Eucalyptus Newsletters
having the aim to inform environmental issues related to
the Eucalyptus plantation forests
Eucalyptus planted forests and water consumption
http://www.eucalyptus.com.br/newseng_set07.html#quatorze
Eucalyptus planted forests and the biodiversity
http://www.eucalyptus.com.br/newseng_nov07.html#quatorze
The
Eucalyptus and the soil conservation
http://www.eucalyptus.com.br/newseng_14.html#quatorze
The Eucalyptus plantation forests and the environment
http://www.eucalyptus.com.br/newseng_june08.html#quatorze
Associations, companies and organizations websites providing
information and arguments in favor of the Eucalyptus plantations
ABRAF
- Brazilian Association of the Planted Forest Producers. (Brazil)
ABRAF has a special section in its website titled "Por dentro
do eucalipto - About the Eucalyptus". This section has the
aim to elucidate and to clear the doubts coming from the society
about the myths and creeds concerning the Eucalyptus. You are to
find many illustrative figures and data, photos and images, all
to give strong support to the arguments being presented. There
is also a selected literature referenced, in which the answers
were based to reply the questions.
http://www.abraflor.org.br/duvidas/cartilha.asp (Doubts
about the Eucalyptus)
http://www.abraflor.org.br/duvidas/mitos.asp (Myths
about the Eucalyptus)
BRACELPA - Brazilian Association of Pulp and Paper. (Brazil)
BRACELPA has placed a section in its excellent website to share
the opinion of forest experts and its own positioning with
regard to the Eucalyptus myths. The section "Saiba
mais sobre o eucalipto - Know more about the Eucalyptus" has
many data, figures, images and demonstrative illustrations
to help the explanations about these unique trees. BRACELPA
has also a two page flyer to those willing to have simpler
and more objective explanations. In it, BRACELPA express
its own view sustaining and comprising the knowledge received
from its members.
http://www.bracelpa.org.br/bra/saibamais/eucalipto/index.html (Section "Know
more about the Eucalyptus)
http://www.bracelpa.org.br/bra/revista/pdf/Pag50-51_MitoRealidade.pdf (Flyer:
Myths)
SBS
- Brazilian Society of Silviculture. (Brazil)
SBS has a good number of articles and speeches providing elucidation
to clear up the doubts from the interested parties. SBS uses
the cooperation received from members, university professors,
experts, and other people from the forestry segment
http://www.sbs.org.br/destaques_plantacoesnobrasil.htm (Article
by prof. S.R. Valverde - UFV)
http://www.sbs.org.br/audienciapublicasp.pdf (Eucalyptus: problem or solution? PowerPoint presentation: 22 slides. 2004)
http://www.sbs.org.br/secure/download/sustentabilidade.htm (Ecological
and economic sustainability of the Eucalyptus plantations. P. T.
Alvim; J. G. Mageste)
IPEF
- Institute for Forestry Research and Studies. (Brazil)
In a sub-page about forestry hydrology, the professors from
ESALQ/USP and IPEF are giving good and sound explanations about
the effects of the plantation forests on the water resources
and their hydrology.
http://www.ipef.br/hidrologia
Eucalyptologics.
(Spain)
Eucalyptologics, the amazing blog from our dear friend Mr. Gustavo Iglesias
Trabado, brings many and valuable information about the Eucalyptus plantations,
aiming to light up the question-marks some parts of the communities still may
have.
http://git-forestry-blog.blogspot.com
REFLORE MS. Sul-Mato-Grossense Association of the Plantation
Forests Producers and Consumers. (Brazil)
REFLORE MS has a rich website presenting many articles trying
to demonstrate the positive points of the Eucalyptus plantations.
This economic activity is deserving special attention in this
particular Brazilian state due to the enormous growth potential
it has to some of the state regions.
http://www.reflore.com.br/exibe.php?id=279&cod_editorial=2&url_back=&pag=0&busca (Questions
and Answers about the Eucalyptus)
AMS
- Minas Gerais Silviculture Association. (Brazil)
AMS is a young association, founded in 2003 to help and to
give support to the main forest companies in that specific
Brazilian state. AMS has an interesting guidebook that has
been written to clarify the questions coming from the interested
parties. Please, access "Por dentro do eucalipto - About
the Eucalyptus .
http://www.silviminas.com.br (AMS
website)
http://www.showsite.com.br/silviminas/html/AnexoCampo/cartilha.pdf (Guidebook "Por
dentro de eucalipto - About the Eucalyptus")
RIPASA - Frequent questions. (Brazil)
RIPASA, as well as many other companies involved with sound
plantation forestry, are used to supply information to the
interested parties of the society. In general, many people
come with questions, and RIPASA in this section of its website
is giving answers to the most frequent. In case you like,
you may also search for the same service in other forest-companies.
They are very used to have such kind of services, associated
to the sustainability section of their websites.
http://www.ripasa.com.br/faq.asp
Articles,
books, speeches, and reports providing arguments in favor
of the Eucalyptus
Guia
do eucalipto - Oportunidades para um desenvolvimento sustentavel. CIB - Conselho de Informacoes sobre Biotecnologia. 20 pp.
(2008). (Portuguese)
http://www.cib.org.br/pdf/Guia_do_Eucalipto_junho_2008.pdf
O
eucalipto: um seculo no Brasil (The Eucalypt: a century
in Brazil). L.R.S. Queiroz; L.E.G. Barrichelo.
Edicao Duratex S/A. 131 pp. (2007). (Portuguese/English)
http://www.celso-foelkel.com.br/artigos/outros/O%20Eucalipto_Duratex.pdf
Eucalipto felizmente existe. R.F. Novaes. Universidade Federal
de Vicosa. Powerpoint presentation: 92 slides. (2007). (Portuguese)
http://www.sif.org.br/files/eucalipto_felizmente_existe.ppt or
http://www.reflore.com.br/palestras/MitosEVerdadesSobreEucaliptocultura.pdf
Eucalipto
felizmente existe. R.F. Novaes. Jornal
da SIF nº 82.
Edicao especial em texto. Sociedade de Investigacoes Florestais.
4 pp. (2007). (Portuguese)
http://www.sif.org.br/files/especial.zip
Eucalipto:
desfazendo mitos e preconceitos. J.C. Silva. Universidade
Federal de Vicosa. (2007). (Portuguese)
http://farminginbrazil.blogspot.com/2007/06/myths-about-eucalyptus-forestry.html
Eucalipto:
mitos e verdades. R. Garlipp. Seminario Florestas Plantadas
do Mato Grosso do Sul. PowerPoint presentation: 52 slides.
(2007). (Portuguese)
http://www.sbs.org.br/secure/PalestraCampoGrande-EucaliptoMitoseVerdades.pdf
Impacto
ambiental de florestas de eucalipto. M.H.F. Vital.
Revista do BNDES 14(28): 235 - 276. (2007). (Portuguese)
http://www.bndes.gov.br/conhecimento/revista/rev2808.pdf
Consideracoes
ecologicas sobre plantios de eucaliptos. F.R. Alcides; L.P.C. Pereira.
Congresso de Ecologia do Brasil. 2 pp. (2007). (Portuguese)
http://www.seb-ecologia.org.br/viiiceb/pdf/1554.pdf
Metodologia
para avaliacao de impactos ambientais da eucaliptocultura para
fabricacao de celulose. E.P. Floriano. ANORGS. 181 pp. (2004).
(Portuguese)
http://ambienteinteiro.org.br/livros/metodologiadeaia.pdf
Fast
growing forestry. Myths and realities. C. Cossalter; C.
Pye-Smith. CIFOR Center for International Forestry Research. 60
pp. (2003) (English)
http://www.cifor.cgiar.org/publications/pdf_files/Books/ForestPerspective.pdf ou
http://assets.panda.org/downloads/fastwood.pdf or
http://www.wwf.de/fileadmin/fm-wwf/pdf-alt/waelder/umwandlung/
Fast_Wood_Forestry_Myths_and_Realities.pdf
Impacto
ambiental das florestas plantadas. W.P. Lima. Congresso Internacional
de Agroenergia e Biocombustiveis. 8 pp. (2007). (Portuguese)
http://www.cpamn.embrapa.br/agrobioenergia/palestras/
IMPACTO%20AMBIENTAL%20DAS%20FLORESTAS%20PLANTADAS%20.PDF
Eucalipto - Um cidadao exemplar. Mitos e verdades. Parte I. R. Ferron. REMADE
Ano 18, nº107. (2007) . (Portuguese)
http://www.remade.com.br/pt/revista_materia.php?edicao=107&id=1140
Eucalipto - Um cidadao exemplar. Mitos e verdades. Parte II. R. Ferron. CREA
Conselho em Revista nº 38. 1 pp. (2007). (Portuguese)
http://saturno.crea-rs.org.br/crea/pags/revista/38/CR38_area-tecnica-artigo7.pdf
Eucalipto excomungado. A. Teixeira. REFLORE MS. Associacao Sul-Mato-Grossense
de Produtores e Consumidores de Florestas Plantadas. (2007). (Portuguese)
http://www.reflore.com.br/exibe.php?id=245&cod_editorial=2&url_back=&pag=0&busca
Analise de impactos ambientais de florestas plantadas no contexto
de bacias hidrograficas: principios norteadores. C.A.B. Mendes;
W.P. Lima. Anais Evento UNITAU "O Eucalipto e o Ciclo Hidrologico".
8 pp. (2007). (Portuguese)
http://www.agro.unitau.br/serhidro/doc/pdfs/263-270.pdf
Pesquisas fortalecem beneficios dos eucaliptos. REFLORE MS. Associacao Sul-Mato-Grossense de Produtores e Consumidores
de Florestas Plantadas. (2007). (Portuguese)
http://www.reflore.com.br/exibe.php?id=287&cod_editorial=2&url_back=&pag=0&busca
Crendices e falacias. X. Graziano. REFLORE MS. Associacao Sul-Mato-Grossense
de Produtores e Consumidores de Florestas Plantadas. (2007). (Portuguese)
http://www.reflore.com.br./exibe.php?id=217&cod_editorial=2&url_back=&pag=0&busca= or
http://www.ageflor.com.br/index2.php?p=productMore&iProduct=381 (AGEFLOR
RS)
Eucalipto nao seca e nao empobrece o solo. L.F. Branco. REFLORE
MS. Associacao Sul-Mato-Grossense de Produtores e Consumidores
de Florestas Plantadas. (2007). (Portuguese)
http://www.reflore.com.br/exibe.php?id=250&cod_editorial=2&url=noticias.php&pag=0&busca=
Contraponto: uma abordagem hidrologica. C.A.
Mendes; S.A. Grehs; P.R.A. Madruga. Jornal SEDUFSM. February. 1
pp. (2007). (Portuguese)
Eucalipto: nem vilao, nem heroi. H. Firmino. Website Manejo Florestal.
(2004). (Portuguese)
http://www.manejoflorestal.org/noticia_print.cfm?id=132267
Florestas plantadas para energia: aspectos tecnicos, socio-economicos
e ambientais. L. Couto; M.C. Muller; A. Tsukamoto. Energia 2020
UNICAMP. 13 pp. (2002). (Portuguese)
http://www.cgu.unicamp.br/energia2020/papers/paper_Couto.pdf
Farm forestry - Frequent questions and common myths. M.
England. Farm Forestry Notes 2/98. 10 pp. (1998) (English)
http://www.pir.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/37718/Farm_Forestry_-_FAQs.pdf
Local communities and Eucalyptus. An experience in India. V.
Patil. FAO Proceedings on Regional Expert Consultation on Eucalyptus.
Volume I. (1993) (English)
http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/ac777e/ac777e09.htm
The ecological effects of Eucalyptus. M.E.D. Poore; C.Fries.
FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization. (1985) (English)
http://www.archive.org/download/ecologicaleffect034584mbp/ecologicaleffect034584mbp.pdf
The facts versus the myth. Aracruz Celulose website.
Acess in July 2008. (English)
http://www.aracruz.com.br/show_press.do?act=stcNews&menu=true&lastRoot=253&id=943&lang=1
Aspectos economicos, sociais e ambientais da cultura do
eucalipto. E. S. Baena. IF/FANOPI. PowerPoint presentation: 42 slides. (undated).
(Portuguese)
http://forestbrazil.com/artigos/fanorpi1.pdf
Eucalipto: verdades e mentiras. A. Bertola. 29 pp. (undated). (Portuguese)
http://www.celuloseonline.com.br/imagembank/Docs/DocBank/dc/dc009.pdf
Eucalipto - 100 anos de Brasil. A. Bertola. 91 pp. (undated). (Portuguese)
http://www.celuloseonline.com.br/imagembank/Docs/DocBank/dc/dc022.pdf
Eucaliptocultura e preservacao ambiental. Suzano Papel Celulose.
40 pp. (undated). (Portuguese)
http://www.suzano.com.br/suzano/Eucalipto.pdf
In general, insect repellents are liquid substances
which are applied to the skin or clothes. They can also be air
sprayed and are used to avoid insect contact or to discourage their
permanence on the place where the substance was applied. Some sound
frequencies and electromagnetic waves are also able to frighten
some insect species and are considered repellents as well.
Today,
the liquid repellent lotions used on human skin may be synthetic
products as DEET (active ingredient = N,N-diethil-meta-toluamide),
considered to be the most frequent repellent; or organic ones,
that are chemical products derived from plants or their natural
extracts. They are mostly known as plant essential oils.
Generally
speaking, most of the natural insect repellent products found on
the market have low mammalian toxicity, low environment
permanence, and are originated from renewable sources. In addition,
they are considered less environmentally aggressive and are supposed
to cause no pollution. All these advantages are increasing the
search for the natural repellents, specially by the conscious consumers.
There is a good number of natural plant extracts
used as insecticides, miticides, acaricides, termiticides and other
arthropod repellents.
The most common ones are the oils derived from: citronella, Eucalyptus, soybean, lemon grass, neem, mustard and some other plants. Researches
are being done in a world basis, having the aim to discover the
scientific efficiencies of these products. All the insect repellent
studies do not only aim human and mammalian uses, but also agricultural
crop fields, food storage bins and post harvest food applications.
Eucalyptus natural extracts are showing positive
results on repelling insects. The efficiency of the repellent varies
according to the
environment conditions as temperature and humidity. It can also
depend on the insect species and the host attraction. The Eucalyptus insect repellent power is already known for a long time. Although
some Eucalyptus essences have been used since the first original
Australian aborigine times, they have just been commercially registered
as insect repellents in 1948 in the United States of America. Since
then, the Eucalyptus essential oils are being studied
with other similar action plant extracts in mixtures or with synthetic
compounds
as DEET. An Eucalyptus active ingredient is the responsible for
the insect repelling action. It’s called p-menthane-3,8-diol
(PMD) and can be found on many Eucalyptus species, in the leaves,
branches and twigs. The PMD grants the natural smell to the Eucalyptus oil, similar to menthol. This odor is capable to chase away the
insects.
This Eucalyptus essential oil derives from an
organic compound known as eucalyptol, cineol or cineole. It has
already
been extracted
from several Eucalyptus species such as Eucalyptus
cneorifolia, E. dives, E. dumosa, E. globulus, E. horistes, E.
goniocalyx, E.
kochii, E. leucoxylon, E. oleosa, E. polybractea, E. sideroxylon,
E. smithii, E. tereticornis and E. viridis. Corymbia
citriodora (Lemon Eucalyptus), described in the past as Eucalyptus
citriodora, is responsible for the major Eucalyptus oil production due to its
quantitative and qualitative characteristics. Besides PMD, C.
citriodora produces the citronelol, a chemical compound that
has also proved to show repellent properties against mosquitoes.
This essential
oil is also known as "Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus". Besides
Australia, place where the Eucalyptus come from, the major Eucalyptus oil extractors actually are: China, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Chile
and South Africa.
The recently added micro-encapsulation technology
gave longer lasting repellency to the natural extracts with almost
no perceptive smell
to human beings. Besides this fact, natural Eucalyptus repellents
cause less damage to plastics, cotton tissues, and cloths when
compared to the synthetic ones, which is another very positive
point. Most natural repellent have less allergic reactions and
are recommended to sensitive skins. There are even PMD repellent
formulations specific for kids.
It was scientifically proved that
PMD has a positive and efficient repellent effect to some mosquito
species. Its efficiency was similar
to the low concentration commercial synthetic DEET repellents (less
than 5% AI). The PMD can repel mosquitoes for two hours without
any new application. The maximum lasting efficiency registered
for a product containing Eucalyptus oil was four hours (26% Eucalyptus oil plus 2% soybean oil). The p-menthane-3,8-diol compound has
also been chemically synthetized; although, studies proved the
synthetic product being less efficient when compared to the natural
one. Researches showed that PMD was the most powerful active natural
ingredient to repel the mosquito carrying the West Nile virus,
commonly found on Florida and other American states.
The Eucalyptus insect repellents have recently been registered in Brazil. Till
now, there are no evidences that this oil may repel
the malaria mosquito. On the other hand, studies have been made
testing the Eucalyptus extract as a potential repellent to Aedes
aegypti (the dengue virus vector). Thus, all these advantages that
the Eucalyptus oil has are making it each time more popular in
every place where it has already been registered for commercial
utilization.
Some people believe that the Eucalyptus oil
doesn’t
need precautions on the use or application because it is a natural
product.
Although being natural, this fact does not mean it’s totally
safe. The Eucalyptus oil shall never be ingested and it is recommended
to wash the hands after ever application. It’s suggested
to read the product label and the instructions for use as any medicine,
paying attention to the precautions, side effects and indications
for safe utilization. It’s usually not recommended to reapply
the Eucalyptus oil repellent more than twice on a day, specially
for kids. In some cases, a continuous and long-term use promotes
skin reactions. Special care should be taken with Eucalyptus insect
repellents on children, using only specific formulations oriented
for them. The American Environment Protection Agency (EPA) doesn’t
recommend Eucalyptus oils for children younger than 3 years of
age.
The Eucalyptus oil is a natural product efficient
and tested for repelling mites, acari, insects, flies and other
arthropods.
Its
action as insect repellent is being improved via researches,
and its use is growing, partially replacing the DEET formulations.
Researches should be encouraged searching for new technologies
to make the natural Eucalyptus repellents more durable, less
toxic
and with lower prices.
We suggest to everyone interested on knowing
more about the Eucalyptus oil insect repellency to take a look
at the links presented just
bellow. Most of them have interesting information about application
care, the active ingredient action, formulations, the positive
points and the negative ones and products for sale on the Brazilian
market and on other parts of the world.
You can also find Eucalyptus oil research articles proving its efficiency as an insect repellent.
Observe them and find
out
more about this fantastic property the Eucalyptus also have:
the insect
repellence of the essential oil some Eucalyptus species have
to help human beings.
Technical
mini-article by Celso Foelkel
The Eucalyptus Planted Forests and the Sustainability
In the
recent past decades we have succeeded in developing in Brazil a
fantastic forest planting and growing technology. We
have learned
to make them develop well and to produce specialized woods for specific
end uses. The leaps in forest productivity were equally fantastic:
from growth rates below 20 cubic meters per hectare.year in the ’60s
to about 40-55 m³/ha.year at this end of the first decade of
the 2000s. The forest plantations have been developed to produce
wood (or other forest products as well), where it is required by
the social and entrepreneurial activities, or where an additional
source of revenue is required for the rural farm producers. With
these forests and their products we have attracted the admiration
of the forest world. We are seen as competitive and competent: holders
of one of the most modern forest planting technologies in Earth.
In short, something that fills us with pride and responsibilities
as well. We have had success with the Eucalyptus and with the Pinus. In
both cases, the reasons are sometimes the same, but the unquestionable
point is that this Brazilian planted forest sector composes an appreciable
portion of the richness and welfare generation in Brazil. Recently,
the ABRAF – Brazilian Association of Planted Forest Producers – ranked
the sector as responsible for 4 % of the Brazilian GDP (Gross Domestic
Product), something really impressing, considering the tender age
of the business and of the activity in the country.
The genus Eucalyptus has a fundamental participation in
this process and it is very much thanks to it that we have had this
set of successes.
The cloning technique developed to grow new trees was the great impeller
of the forest growth rate, as well as of the more homogeneous planted
forest quality. Initially timid in the ’80s, cloning boomed
in the ’90s. Nowadays, it is the dominant practice in the country.
In parallel with it, the companies keep genetic banks, so that new
genes can be placed to action as required. Hence, the importance
of the genomic mapping and the studies of forest biotechnology, in
full development by universities, institutes, and companies. The
wood is also being improved for its end uses, whichever it is: coal,
energetic biomass, printing paper, tissue paper, sawn-timber, plywood,
etc. There are at present clones, the woods of which become dry without
cracking, there are special woods for veneering and to manufacture
plywood, etc., etc. Technology changed, conferring competitiveness
to business. Definitively. But what about sustainability, so much
spoken of nowadays? Have we evolved in this respect as well?
We have now-a-days heard many managers, from any branches of business,
speaking about sustainability. The same thing is heard from many
environmentalists, politicians, and even from common citizens. It
seems even that it became a current practice to say "sustainable":
banks, department store chains, cosmetic manufacturers, forest planters,
all of them define themselves as "sustainable". All this
would be very good if it were true and practiced with determination!
I do hope this not to be just rhetoric, but to have a solid foundation
in the form of actions towards its achievement.
The word sustainability is nice to say and it is exalted in the ears
of the one hearing it. Although it is a fashion word, it is perfectly
possible that everyone has an own definition for it. Many undertakers
believe to be doing "everything they should do or even a little
more" to be "green" and they try to guarantee the "sustainability
of their businesses" as well. On the other hand, the definition
of many environmentalists is founded on the obstinate prevention
of the impacts on the environment, the fauna and the flora, forgetting
about the economic pillar of the sustainable development. Apparently,
some of them are contrary to all initiatives of expanding the industrial
production, mining, energy generation at thermoelectric or nuclear
power stations, planting of agricultural crops and afforestation
with plantations. They may be trying to help save the animals and
the natural resources, but what about the human being’s requirements?
How will they be met?
When nowadays an environmentalist NGO tries to prevent energy generating
or paper manufacturing companies from growing, they are forgetting
that the demanding population will be lacking on these not generated
or wasted jobs. Furthermore, the lack of future energy and consumer
goods (among which paper, food, etc.) may be even more chaotic and
perverse to the planet. For this reason, sustainability does not
mean necessarily to be just green, but rather to display the color
of all components allowing life and happiness to thrive and to flourish
on our planet.
All of us know that our society grows in number and consumption requirements,
which is another irreversible factor up to this moment: the socioeconomic
development model chosen by the human beings favors these aspects.
To meet these increasing requirements, we must go on producing goods
to guarantee our own happiness and sustainability. The higher the
world population and the greater its facility to consume, the better
for people and business, but the greater the threat to sustainability.
After all, it is the human being’s sustainability that is always
the background when the word sustainability is mentioned. Sustainability
is in essence an anthropocentric concept: we are those under threat,
and curiously, we are the threat ourselves. It was for this reason
that the concept of sustainable development appeared in the ’90s,
having evolved to the word sustainability in the 2000's.
Sustainability
aims to guarantee the conservation of the human being’s life
conditions on the planet in the long-term. Its horizon is definitively
the long-term. It is not possible to say being sustainable today,
since sustainability is an endless way, it always requires to be
striven for. When defending the environment, we will be also defending
healthy life conditions for the human population existing in a distant
future. For this reason, sustainability must be seen by everybody
from the long- term perspective, focussing on the conditions we will
leave the planet in to the mankind that will succeed us for generations
and on the assumption that these human people will require consumer
goods, food, energy, etc.
With so many concerns we have seen and heard from eminent scientists
with regard to the future of Earth, sustainability must be really
striven for intensely, in the same way as we strive for the growth
of our companies and businesses. Therefore, sustainability involves
and must be practiced by everybody, not only by some "lighted" people.
As far as the increase of population is concerned, we hope that our
rulers and political and religious leaders will reflect more thereupon,
a more than urgent matter, to be followed by effective actions to
restrain this avalanche of people falling every year onto a finite
planet having finite resources.
It was just recently that we discovered that to be sustainable the
environment should be kept healthy and well-balanced. We are now
on the alert; as to action with this regard, we are just beginning;
but with antennas directed to the future, rather than just to the
present. Sustainability, as it is a dynamic long-term concept, will
be never achieved, we will have always to strive after it, as it
is an endless way, as already mentioned. As the forest-based sector
has the use to work in the long-term, it is easier for us to understand
this and put this concept into practice.
Although the entrepreneurial success depends on the growth of consumption
by an increasing population, we have to focus on managerial actions
allowing us to achieve business success, so as to leave the place
where we are acting in good conditions to continue to be productive
in the distant future. For example, the areas where we plant our
forests should maintain their productive capacity in the future,
no matter how distant it may be. They must not be necessarily only
productive for the forest type of plantation which they are being
used for at present, but they must be capable of generating valuable
goods for our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc.
In other words, we must act locally for the long run and think in
global terms, the scope being the Earth planet.
Definitively, we must reach a differentiated level in our relationships
with the environment, no doubts about. As far as the forest sector
is concerned, there is still much to be done to reach an optimum
level, but this sector is aware of what it is doing, as well as of
what it can and must do for sustainability. We had marvelous gains
in our environmental performance and attitudes in the past decade.
We succeeded in improving our way of forest management by inserting
environmental commitments which resulted in ISO, OHSAS, FSC, CERFLOR
certifications, among other ones. We succeeded in changing much of
our faults of the past, we have improved and we can even improve
a lot further. The process may be still distant from the optimum
situation, we have much to learn from the new and required scientific
discoveries, but we are doing our homework. The path to tread is
distant, but the steps are being taken and the horizon can now be
seen more clearly, more objectively and in a more committed way.
Sustainability has been a banner for many companies and business
groups. The Brazilian pulp and paper sector embraced this cause,
although still without so deep a knowledge of what should be done
and at what rate. Many actions for environmental preservation, pollution
prevention and control, socio-environmental management, have been
and are being taken. One thing is absolutely certain: the intention
of achieving sustainability exists, it only remains to strongly direct
the actions and to work for both company and sustainability-related
results. I would like very much these commitments and actions to
result from a process involving a more intense dialog between the
interested parties, capable of aggregating different points of view
to the process.
Our Eucalyptus pulp producing companies have extremely important
relationships with Nature. Our industry has a strong environmental
involvement. It may have very significant negative impacts if mismanaged.
On the other hand, as it is concerned with numerous activities based
on using renewable natural resources, this industry has immense possibilities
of becoming more and more sustainable. Its fibrous raw material coming
from the planted forests and its energy originating from organic
biomass are examples thereof. By sustainable one should understand
a company generating minimum negative environmental impacts on the
fauna, flora, ecosystems, and on the human being himself. Such a
company is capable of maintaining itself indefinitely in the business
and in the ecosystem it is present in and using it. It also contributes
to the happiness of society with its products and tries to do it
so as to prevent environmental damages and to maximize social benefits.
In case someday it will come to abandon the business, it will leave
its lands and surroundings in suitable condition for other equally
sustainable activities to flourish.
When speaking today about sustainability at the forest-based companies,
4 approaches are basically concerned:
Business sustainability: it is the undertaker interest that his business
continues to be competitive in the future and succeeds in growing
and/or keeping its market share. It means to keep the business in
a competitive position, without losing ground to the competitors
and guaranteeing a better and better performance in the markets;
Forest site sustainability: it is the work to maintain the forest
area productivity, controlling the factors that may reduce the forest
productive capacity of the land, such as erosion, fertility, pests
and diseases, water resources and hydrology, weed competition, stresses,
etc.
Environmental sustainability: it consists in the suitable application
of preservationist and prevention practices, intended to minimize
the environmental plantation impacts on biodiversity, soil, water
regime, climate, and on the human being too.
Social sustainability: it consists in guaranteeing perpetuity conditions
for the human species, so that it can not only survive on the planet,
but also have the desired happiness.
The result of these four approaches leads to Sustainability or to
the Sustainable Development, the foundations of which lie in the
economic (business), environmental (nature) and social (human being)
aspects. We are running fast in this direction, it is of interest
for all of us: undertakers, workers, and society. Many new technologies
are being gradually introduced, mitigating adverse impacts. Undoubtedly,
there is still much to develop, to innovate, and to implement. But
there is the interest and awareness, greater and greater. It is certain
that the Brazilian forest sector wants to grow, to compete, to be
winner in the business; but also to keep the environment sustainable,
as thereby both forests and society will gain. The recent decisions
to promote forest growth along with the rural producer, by multiplying
small planted forest areas in agroforestry programs, will allow greater
environmental and social balance, as well as better division of the
richness generated by the planted forests. The transfer of technology,
of the best genotypes and of the knowledge acquired to the rural
farmers show that we are beginning to put the concepts of sustainability
more into practice and to be less selfish. By applying these new
procedures, the forests will be able to yield more social benefits
and to have greater environmental safety, as they will be much better
distributed over the ecosystems.
The leading Brazilian forest companies know that the natural resources
represent their greatest patrimonies and for this very reason they
are placing all efforts to maintain the forest site productive capacity
and sustainability. For this purpose they adopt conservationist practices,
fertilization, erosion control and a suitable planning for the use
of the soil, studies of environmental impacts and their mitigation
and control, etc., etc.
The Brazilian forest planting companies do not practice a migratory
and predatory extractivist silviculture. On the contrary, they are
acting for decades in the same area, which demonstrates that the
activity is not exhausting the productive capacity of the land. On
the contrary, the planted forests are at present definitively more
productive than they were some decades ago, because the companies
are dedicated to optimize the factors defining the sustainability
of the productive capacity of the site, such as forest management,
soil, climatic aspects, hydrology, and genetic improvement. The perpetuity
in using the areas is also associated with the continuous development
on the tree genetics. T
hrough the genetic improvement more ecoefficient
trees have been developed, capable of being more productive and consuming
less nutrients and less water. This means that the forest sector
is in search of its sustainability, not only through conservationist
and preventionist practices, but also by developing less impacting
plantations, requiring less natural resources to develop and to produce.
The companies studying biotechnology and genetic engineering as an
additional tool for forest improvement must be strongly committed
to the legal biosafety requirements and to the demands applied thereto,
showing it to society by displaying a higher transparency.
Planning the use of the land in mosaics, by inserting in between
the planted forests of different genetic materials and ages with
the natural areas of permanent preservation and natural areas of
legal reserve helps to improve this sustainability process. On average
in Brazil, the occupation rate with planted forests ranges from 55
to 65% of the total area managed by the forest companies, the native
forests and ecosystems occupying about 30 to 40% of this same total
area.
By adopting these protection and conservation practices, the forest
planters expect to maintain the productivity of the same planted
area for successive forest generations.
Some practices recommended for this purpose are as follows:
• Maintenance and enrichment of the organic forest litter deposited
on the soil surface, what increases the content of carbon, nutrients,
moisture, and microbiology of the superficial soil layers;
• Higher effectiveness in nutrient cycling;
• Higher effectiveness in water use by the trees;
• Maintenance of a part or almost all forest harvesting residues on
the soil (including tree bark), also contributing to the increase
in organic carbon and moisture, erosion reduction, and soil compaction
prevention, as well as soil enrichment with nutrients;
• Improvement in structuration, porosity, and water infiltration and
water storage capacity in the soils;
• Mineral fertilization and soil liming;
• Planning the use of the soil by adopting conservationist practices;
• Greater understanding of the interrelations of the planted commercial
trees with the biodiversity, including the forest understories of
the plantations;
• Culture rotation and alternation in the same land area, interchanging
forestry with other activities, productive or conservationist;
• Use of interplanting, mixed plantations, or alternate Leguminosae
plantings, to improve the soil quality;
• Increase the forest rotation length, to favor nutrient cycling, increase
the plantation eco-efficiency, reduce the anthropic action on the
area, reduce the specific agrochemical applications per year and
per ton of produced wood, etc., etc.;
• Understanding the causes limiting the achievement of the productive
planted forest potential and working to break down the barriers making
difficult this achievement (hydrological deficit, stresses, diseases,
pests, reduction in photosynthetic capacity, etc., etc.);
•
Work hard to consolidate and to sustain the gains already obtained
in terms of forest productivity. It was feasible to reach 40 to 55
m³/ha.year in the Eucalyptus plantations; now we have to think
not only about increasing these rates a little more, but also of
guaranteeing such gains in the long-term.
I have no doubts that there is a lot going on in the forest sector
and that the silviculture will be able to continue to find more and
more sustainable ways in the next years to come. However, it should
not be forgotten, my friends, that the real sustainability will be
only achieved with the strong commitment and responsibility of the
people working in the sector, all of them, starting from the top
managers. It should be also focussed on the equalitarian distribution
of the gains among business, environment, and people. Whenever there
is an unbalance favoring one of the pillars, it will be the sustainability
concept that will be losing ground. If only the social development
or only the environment is privileged, the companies will lose profitability
and will no longer generate new jobs and profits to be invested in
environmental and social projects. If we think selfishly only about
our businesses and forget about environment and people, we may degrade
our sources of natural raw materials and inputs, also losing people’s
confidence and motivation. Therefore, finding the right balance is
the fundamental mission of undertakers, government, and citizens.
As always, there will be different points of view among the interested
parties involved. The dialog and the mutual commitments should be
stimulated. This is something that is not happening to the extent
it should be. More forums, more multipurpose researches, more technological
developments aiming at the three sustainability pillars are required.
A final suggestion: you should always insert economic, environmental
and social evaluations into all studies of opportunities in the business,
market or technology you are or have. Yes, I said in all of them.
It is an easy thing to do, which will help consolidate a culture
directed towards sustainability. Thus, we will be really attaching
more economic, environmental and social value to the planted Eucalyptus forests in all their dimensions.
I would like to finish this mini-article with some phrases:
"
The sustainable development is built by doing things, making
mistakes, correcting, insisting, and succeeding! One should be humble
to recognize
his mistakes and to make corrections; not being prostrated before
the limitations; have sensitivity as to the individual and collective
aspects; and being aware of the past, present, and future".
(Nelson Barboza Leite’s quotations, SBS - 2002)
" The dialog, the search for understanding and scientific knowledge,
in addition to the recognition of the different points of view, will
help to build a better Silviculture, a better Industry, a better
Society, and a better Environment" and this another one "Those
planting forests believe in the future". (Celso Foelkel’s
quotations).
Eucalyptus
Online Book & Newsletter are technical information texts
written and made available free of charge to all people involved
with the
forestry and utilization of the Eucalyptus. It depends only on registering
yourself to receive them.
Technical coordination - Celso Foelkel
celso@celso-foelkel.com.br
Webmaster / editing - Alessandra Foelkel
Celsius Degree: Phone (+55-51) 3338-4809
Copyright © 2007-2010
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