EUROPEAN COMMISSION DIRECTORATE-GENERAL VIII DEVELOPMENT

Data Collection and Analysis for Sustainable Forest Management in ACP Countries Linking National and International Efforts

EC-FAO PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMME (1998-2001) Tropical forestry Budget line B7-6201/97-15/VIII/FOR PROJECT GCP/INT/679/EC

Review and improvement of data related to Wood-Products By Million BEKELE August, 2000 Addis Ababa

This report has been produced as an out put of the EC-FAO Partnership Programme (1998-2000) Project GCP/INT/679/EC Data Collection and Analysis for Sustainable Forest Management in ACP Countries - Linking National and International Efforts. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the EC or the FAO. This paper has been minimally edited for clarity and style

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1.

Overview

In Ethiopia, natural forests and plantations are important in maintaining environmental stability, providing fuel wood, saw logs, building posts and poles. They are also used for household consumption and as a source of industrial raw material. They also provide a variety of non-wood forest products such as gum arabic, incense, medicinal plants, foodstuffs and honey. The country is known for its natural resource endowment and diversity. Until recently the various natural resource base potentials of the country had not been identified and inventoried, and the inter-dependence and inter-relationships of the resources not been studied nor their characteristic defined. For a country like Ethiopia where sustainable forest management is a priority for the overall development, availability of relevant forest information at all levels is very crucial. Access to information is also a prerequisite for formulating effective policies and strategies at both the federal and regional levels. It promotes the efforts towards sustainable forest management. At present, organised forest product data is not available or that available is not properly managed and not easily accessible to users. Several forest product data are confined in certain institutions and not properly shared. The collection of reliable, comprehensive and timely statistical information on forest products is very essential for planning purposes and formulation of policy. Although precise figures are not available, the major demand for forest products is for fuel wood. It is estimated that about 24 million cubic meters of wood is produced annually, of which 10 % is used for industrial and building purpose and the remainder for fuel wood and charcoal. Estimated consumption demand for fuel wood for energy varies from 49 to 64 million m3. However, considerable quantities of wood are also used for construction purposes (poles and posts, as well as lumber). Plywood, fibreboard, particleboard, sliced veneer, pulp and paper manufacturing units also consume industrial round wood. Industrial wood production (and consumption) per capita is one of the lowest in the world. The low level of production and consumption reflects the fact that the country has limited forest resources base, which has been, and continues to be primarily exploited for fuel wood. The current demand for industrial wood in the whole of the country is estimated at about 400,000 m 3 per year. Projection for the year 2014 according to EFAP report of 1994 is 1.6 million cubic meters. The annual demand for construction wood is estimated to be 2.1 million m 3 , which is anticipated to be 4.2 million m 3 by the year 2014. Major sources of supply of forest products are: •

Natural forests

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• •

Plantations, and Trees outside forests such as, trees around homestead, trees along the road side, trees on farm land and import of forest products

The area of natural forests and other woodlands is estimated to cover 31.5 million hectares based on the information collected for FRA 2000. Plantations are estimated to cover an area of 255,000 hectares and are sources for construction wood, fuel wood and to a limited extent sources for wood based industries. Forest product suppliers are state enterprises, private dealers and small-scale rural suppliers. Forest products consumption and production are categorised as fuelwood and charcoal; industrial round wood which consists of saw logs and veneer logs which give veneers, sawn wood and ply wood; wood-based panels which include particle board, fibre board and plywood, and other forest products such as pulp and paper. 1.1.

The product types in detail are:

Fuel wood and charcoal: data on the production of fuelwood and charcoal are not reported despite their value. Estimates are based on the per capita consumption that is estimated at 1 m 3 for rural households and 0.94 m 3 for urban ones. Round wood: include wood after harvest with or without the bark. It is measured in solid volume. Round wood is produced, consumed and exported, however limited. Most of the production is mainly from non-conifers. There has been very insignificant export to neighbouring Eritrea, which is estimated up to 3000 m 3. Industrial round wood: includes saw logs and veneer logs. Industrial round wood is mainly produced from non-conifers and the product is produced locally and is mainly consumed in domestic markets. There has been a decline in the production of logs from 130,000 cubic meters in 1980s to 20,000 cubic meters in 1996. This could be due to the decline in the available forest resources in the country. See the trend in the table below.

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Table 1. Production trend of industrial round wood

Year 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1990 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

Log input in m 3 133,378 124,184 121,377 112,012 101,497 66,929 80,342 62,734 60,991 60991 28257 20795 9713 4985 5563

1.1.1. Production of sawn wood: The production of lumber is also on the decline when one looks at the trend in production from 1979 to 1989. The average production of lumber from 1980 to 1990 has been about 23000 m 3 per year. Table 2. Production of sawn wood

Year 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

Production (000 m 3 12 17 25 23 25 16 25 27 25 25 25

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1.1.2. Wood based panels: This includes veneer sheets, ply wood, particleboard and fibreboard. The total domestic production is estimated at 12,000 m 3 with an average import of 1000 m 3 per annum. This includes local production of plywood, particleboard and fibreboard for which particleboard production takes the highest share in the production system. 1.1.3. Production of veneer sheets: This product is both imported and produced locally. It includes mainly volume of veneer sheets produced for the production of plywood. There is a decline in the production rate of this product from 156,000 cubic meters in 1986 to 82,000 cubic meters in 1996. They are mainly produced from non-conifers. In Ethiopia, only sliced veneer mainly for decorative purposes and rotary peeled veneer for the production of plywood are produced. There is no plant for the processing of sawn veneer. Table 3. Trends of annual production and sales of sliced veneer

Year 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1995 1996

Production m 3 156,000 154,000 187,000 134,000 133,000 100,699 82,733

Table 4. Production of plywood:

There are two plywood plants in Ethiopia with an average annual production of 3000 cubic meters. Year 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

Production m 3 2900 2900 2800 2600 2800 2800 3000 2000 2000 2763 958

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Table 5. Production of particle board:

Year

Production in m 3

1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

5300 4600 5500 6100 6200 6200 7000 7000 7466 7254 7275

Table 6. Production of fibre board:

Year 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

Production in m 3 NA 4000 4500 3100 3800 3100 4000 3000 3000 5494 3551

1.1.4. Wood pulp: It is not produced in Ethiopia. It is an import wood product. Of the different pulp products imported, chemical wood pulp has the highest share compared to other pulp products. The different woodpulp types imported include chemical wood pulp, bleached sulphite pulp and bleached and unbleached sulphate pulp. There are also additional products such as, • • • • • •

Mechanical Wood pulp Semi-chemical wood pulp Recovered paper News print Printing and writing paper Household and sanitary paper which are imported.

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1.1.5. Pulp and paper Ethiopia does not produce its own pulp, but only paper. There are two paperproducing factories. The paper mill uses imported pulp and waste paper as its raw material. The mill produces some 9500 metric tons per annum of different qualities of finished paper. All pulp used for the process is imported at an annual cost of about US 8 million dollars. The trend in the production of paper is as shown in the table below: Table 7. Trends of annual production of paper

Year 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

Production in metric tons 9756 11,829 11825 10002 10101 8299 7300 6860 9181 9437 7421

1.1.6. Forest Products Trade: Data on the export of forest products is scarce. The value of exports of forest products is very small compared to total imports. Forest products import amount to one percent of the country’s total imports. Forest products which are imported are, sawn wood, wood based panels, wood pulp products, printing and writing papers and news print. The list of forest products imported and their value is compiled and attached.

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1.1.7. Production of poles and posts Pole and posts are produced mainly from Eucalyptus species. The production of transmission poles in the country, which is documented, ranges from 24,000 cubic meters to 42,000 cubic meters from 1979 to 1989. The production of poles and posts for fencing and construction purposes ranges from 22,000 to 80,000 cubic meters for the same years. 2.

Current Status of National Forestry Statistics related to wood products

2.1.

Types of information collected related to wood products

The types of information collected related to wood products include, the amount of different wood products produced such as:

1. Volume of round wood produced, 2. The volume of industrial round wood produced in the form of logs which could be either over bark or under bark and is measured in cubic meters, 3. Data on the import of forest products 4. The demand and supply of fuel wood in cubic meters which usually comes to the market place in stacks, bundles, baskets and head loads 5. Paper products produced and data on the amount of import of pulp wood which are measured in metric tons 6. Volume of sawn wood produced which is measured in cubic meters and data on the amount of veneer sheets produced locally and imported 7. The volume of wood based panels produced which include veneer sheets, plywood, particle board and fibre board measured in cubic meters 8. The amount of money spent on importation of different forest products 9. The types of wood based industries and their capacity, status and recovery percentage etc.

2.2.

Methodologies for data collection

Effective management of the forest resources sector requires reliable, consistent and timely flow of forestry data and information. With the setting up of regional administration, the bulk of forest products information is currently generated by the regional agricultural bureau. As it stands now, the federal ministry of agriculture apart from providing technical advice to regional agricultural bureau remains to be a liaison between regions and a third party. The data production system in the country is decentralised with all regional offices of agriculture collecting data in uncoordinated manner. Currently, the practices used for 8

data collection are not systematic and uniform. Different units are used for the measurement of similar forest products. Some of the weaknesses are • • • • •

lack of standardisation of formats for data collection lack of well documented instructions to accompany data collection formats insufficient training poor data handling after collection poor access to any existing information system.

The methodology employed in data collection differs depending on the type of forest product and the objective of the data collection as indicated below. 2.2.1. For fuel wood: Data acquisition method employed is through household survey which measures the amount of fuelwood consumed by a house hold which is then extrapolated to estimate total consumption by the local community. There is also another method used to estimate fuel wood production through intake survey which measures all the fuel wood entering to a given market place and making a direct measurement. The data that is recorded in the FAO yearbook for 1993 to 1996 is based on per capita demand estimation and does not reflect the actual production. The actual production data from 1990 to 1992 is documented at the national level as indicated in the table below. However, after decentralisation, it was not possible to get any data concerning fuel wood and round wood. Therefore, it could be helpful for the FAO to project based on the information given on the past trends in wood fuel, charcoal and round wood production which is based on actual consumption.

Table 8. Consumption of fuel wood and round wood in cubic meters (in 000)

Year 1990 Product type Fuel wood Round wood Poles

109301 52084 1530

1991

1992

127678 50012 6080

114788 36650 8283

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2.2.2. Industrial round wood: These are collected by direct measurement in the field and compiled by local experts who indicate the volume of logs harvested with reference to logging site. The source of information for round wood used is the cutting permits or pass permits, which are collected at checkpoints and aggregated for total volume of logs transported. The measurement methodologies is at the point of harvesting from the forest and at checkpoints that compare the volume indicated on the pass permit with the direct measurement at the checkpoints.

2.2.3. Sawn wood production: Data is collected from mill production sheets, which could be by public or private sawmill owners and is obtained through questionnaire enquiry. Some times the volume is estimated from the round wood inputs or the volume of wood delivered to the sawmills based on the recovery percentage in saw milling which helps to convert the log input volume into sawn wood output volume.

2.2.4. Wood-based panels: These products include veneer, plywood, particleboard and fibreboard the data of which is collected from production records through questionnaire enquiry.

2.2.5. Pulp and paper: The information is collected from production records through request to the factories.

3.

Methods for data compilation, validation and dissemination

Data is compiled at different levels. The smallest unit that compiles data is Woreda, followed by zone levels and later regional levels. The highest level for data compilation is at national level. The data compiled is validated by the planning department at each level. Dissemination is upon request by users that can be through photo coping of the source document. Some times data is made available through sales of the source document. 4. Organisations involved in the collection, analysis and Dissemination of data related to wood-products

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The Regional Agricultural Development Bureaux are the main sources of forest product data after decentralisation of Governments. The Regional Agricultural Bureaux are independent of each other, but have similar structures for data collection. Data is collected by the Development Agents at the development centre level. The development agents collect any relevant information regarding any forest products, compile and submit for the wereda office of agriculture that aggregates it. The data from each Woreda is then aggregated at the zone level and then submitted to the Regional Agricultural Bureau. At the Regional level, the data from different zones are aggregated and presented to different users. The data is then provided to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture on request. The planning and programming service is responsible for co-ordinating statistical data collection and compilation activities of the bureau of agriculture. The bureau is responsible to pass and transmit information to the concerned bodies. Organisations involved in the collection, analysis and dissemination of data related to wood products are: • • • • • • • • •

Ministry of Agriculture CSA Private investors Consultants Mass media Customs department Researchers Educational institutes Policy makers and planners

5. Important wood products produced in the country, consumed, traded (imported and exported)

The major categories of forest products produced in the country include, fuel wood, industrial wood and construction wood. The principal types of industrial wood products are sawn wood, wood-based panels that include plywood, fibreboard, particleboard and paper. The country does not export wood products outside the country, but imports different sawn timber, veneer sheets, wood pulp, and paper products. 6.

Existing wood based industries and their capacities

6.1

Sawmills and other wood processing industries:

6.1.1. Stationary Saw mills

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Currently, there are over 38 stationary sawmills which process wood from logs harvested from the high forests of the country, one plywood factory and six mobile sawmills, which operate in plantations. The mobile sawmills have an average annual production capacity of 45,000 cubic meters of sawn woods. They are introduced by SIDA for the conversion of thinning and logs from industrial plantations. The wood based industries are dominated by old sawmills 30-40 years old, which utilise large logs from the indigenous forests. They are old and obsolete and need to be renovated or condemned. They are not capable of utilising logs from plantation forests. They are run by non-skilled workers. Most of the mills are designed to convert large indigenous sawlogs of the major commercial tree species. The machines are worn out so they affect the quality of the final product. The log intake per annum on average of sawmills ranges from 2500 to 3500 m 3. Recovery is estimated to average 55 %. The physical conditions of the sawmills are extremely poor; machines are worn out beyond their economic life with poor wood production and finishing. Their management is below standard as they are staffed with unskilled technicians. Most government owned industries have been operating for a long time at a loss due to the product price regulations imposed by the government. The saw mills are not equipped to handle logs from plantations since they are suited only to bigger diameter logs. Most of the sawmills have band saws with more than 25 years of establishment. Forest based industrial development is insignificant and the capacity of the forest industries is very small annually decreasing, partly due to the depleting raw material base and partly to old and poorly maintained machinery with frequent breakdown. 6.1.2. Plywood factory There are two plywood factories that have been operating since 1962 and 1969 respectively. They are owned by the government under the ministry of industry. They have the capacity to produce up to 2900 cubic meters of plywood per year with a recovery percentage of 35-40%. They are integrated with secondary processing plants that manufacture furniture and doors. 6.1.3. Particle board factory There are two particle board factories which have been operating since 1970 with a combined output of 5600 cubic meters per year. They use Eucalyptus globulus as the main raw material. They are also integrated with saw milling and pre-fabricated housing. 6.1.4. Fibre board factory

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The fibre board factory which is Government owned has been in operation since 1969. It produces both hard and soft board. It has a capacity to produce up to 4000 cubic meters of fibreboard. 6.1.5. Mobile Sawmills There are six mobile sawmills for the conversion of thinnings and logs from plantations and natural forests. The machinery used are circular saws and were established in 1986. Both the breakdown and the re-sawing are done on circular saws with a maximum cut of 40 cm. The recovery percentage is reported to be 45-50%. There are also over 250 furniture and joinery factories, which are owned by the private sector.

6.1.6. Pulp and paper mills There are two paper-producing factories, which use imported pulp and waste paper as raw materials. The mill produces some 9500mt per annum of different qualities of finished paper. They produce newsprint used mainly for the printing of newspapers, printing and writing paper, other paper and paperboard, household and sanitary paper and wrapping and packing paper and paper board. In general, there has been no significant advance made in developing the technologies to achieve a higher recovery rate and improvement in product quality and diversifying the use of raw materials. The industries do not adjust to changes in the supply of raw materials such as the use of different tree species, smaller sized wood. There has been an increase in the use of mobile sawmills, which promoted the use of wood from plantations.

7.

Evaluation of the data collected and the methodology used

The major shortcomings of the system of data collection and the methods used are: • • • •

Lack of appreciation of the importance and role of forest product data in the development of forests. Therefore, not enough resource is allocated for the collection of data for forest products. The mechanism used for the verification of data is very weak and those compiling data are not well trained about the difference in forest product types and their units of measurements. After decentralisation, some regions have prepared their own formats for data collection which has a serious implication for data aggregation in order to get higher level estimates for the national figure. Training of experts in all aspects of data production which include data collection, processing, analysis, interpretation and reporting is lacking.

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• • • • • • • 8.

Lack of standard formats for data collection, which has serious implications for data aggregation. Data timeliness has been one of the causes for the inconsistency of data. Different data producers use different concepts, definitions, measuring tools, classifications, methodologies to collect and present data. This invariably leads to data inconsistency. Forestry data is collected from annual reports, but after the regionalisation, the regular report flow was terminated. Lack of frame work for collecting and disseminating essential data and no networking of information Lack of appropriate data collection and dissemination policy and strategy Lack of proper inter-institutional linkages Improvements of National Forestry Statistics Process

In order to improve the current system of data collection and collation, interinstitutional co-ordination in data production is essential. This helps to avoid duplication of efforts and to improve data quality and its usage. The future development should take into account the need for improved data sharing between stakeholders. In addition, procedures for data collection and reporting between regions and the federal state should be standardised to ensure that data aggregation is possible. This should include standardised formats for data collection. However, possibilities for adapting formats to individual regions to meet specific data requirements could be incorporated. Reports must be delivered when they are needed and the formats for data collection should be simple and easy to fill. Clear guidelines and instructions on how to collect data and fill formats should be given to all data collectors.

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9. • • • • • • • 10.

Recommendations: Create a forum for forest product producers and users to share experience and reach consensus on the methodological framework for information exchange Develop appropriate policies and strategies that will help to create an information exchange mechanism as well as an obligation for all stakeholders to access the information, which is collected at public expense. Computerisation of documentation system Development of harmonised manuals on data collection and aggregation methodologies Introduction of networking among data producers and users including bulletins Use well designed format for data collection and clear instruction on how to fill the formats Conduct training in order to enhance data quality References:

i) Cesen-Asnaldo/Finmeccanica Group. 1986. Biomass energy resources. Ministry of Mines and Energy. Addis Ababa. ii) Ethiopian Forestry Action Program (EFAP). 1994. The Challenge for Development, Vol. II. Addis Ababa, MoA. iii) Ethiopian Forestry Action Program (EFAP). 1994. Issues and Actions, Vol. III. Addis Ababa, MoA iv) Food and Agricultural Organisation of the UN, 1984. Land use, production regions and farming systems: Assistance to land use planning. Technical Report no. 3. Rome. v) SFCDD. 1990. Study on Forest Resource Base: Identification, conservation and Rational Use in Ethiopia. Internal Report. Addis Ababa. vi) Vletter, Jaap de. 1989. Some aspects of natural forest management. MoA. Unpublished Report. Addis Ababa.

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