Education

[jim king]

This is not a for sure deal but a maybe.  It is possible that starting in 2010 there will be a study starting that will last five years in the Amazon of Peru.  The study will be made to see what type of forestry methods should be practiced here .  Labor intensive or mechanized.

The study will also identify tree species in cooperation with the USDA Tropical Forestry Lab.  They are one of the biggest in the world in tropical identification.  It is hoped that this 4 year study will attract forestry students and biology students from universities in the States.

The program is also educational in that it will teach proper forestry, saw sharpening, kiln drying and value added products such as flooring.  For this it is needed to have real hands on pros with experience that can teach what they know to people that know basics  but need to know a lot more.  This is also a four year program.

The time required would be for teacher types would be a couple of weeks twice a year and the student types studying the species would be as much time as it is possible to spend.

The question is , if we get this all together how many volunteers would be out there if all expenses were paid for the person and his wife or wife and husband ?¿  Expenses would mean airfare, food, taxis, hotel etc..   This would be of interest mainly to retired people and students.   

Would this be of interest to anyone ?

[Jeff]

Well, I don't know if I know anything of value unless you have sawmills, but I would be.

[Ron Wenrich]

I'm turning 62 in 49 weeks.  I was thinking on doing the retirement thing and was looking for something that I could volunteer with, most notably something with expenses paid.  Not looking for the Peace Corps, but something like you're talking about.  So, put me on the interested list.

What are the language requirements? 

[jim king]

Jeff:
Sawmill experience is a major part of what we need.

Ron:
The language here is Spanish but we will have translators available if this all goes together.

Here is an outline of the program.

IQUITOS FORESTRY NEEDS 2010-2014
This paper is to put forward ideas and facts in relation to the needs of the forestry industry of Iquitos and the wishes of ----- to assist the industry to develop from its current status.
There are certain basics which are fundamental to this paper and must be remembered to come to a correct conclusion and the proper form to help the timber industry.
The State of Loreto has approximately 368,000 km2 and the state of Oregon in the United States has 251,000 km2 .  The State of Oregon over the last 50 years has produced a yearly a harvest of 4.5 billion board feet of lumber and Loreto has normally harvested under 30 million board feet of lumber.  Loreto produces about .0001 percent of Oregon or simply put there is no forestry industry.  The figures for Oregon come from the Oregon Dept of Natural Resources and Peru come from Peruvian harvest statistics.
The forests of Peru are shamefully under used and a very important resource is rotting away while the area lives in poverty and turns to cocaine production..  The forestry laws of Peru were made as a reaction to the scare tactics that the Amazon is disappearing propaganda.  There is no way the current forestry laws of Peru could be considered a result of proper forestry management techniques. Harvesting less than 200 cubic inches of wood per hectare or enough to produce a small salad bowl is not in the realm of reality of proper forestry management.  This is the harvest average based on timber acreage in Loreto and the actual harvest figures. Forestry management is the best use of the forest while maintaining the forest balance and producing maximum yields for society.  The forest is a crop to be harvested or it rots and gives off immense amounts of Carbon Dioxide " Green House Gas" .

BASIC  MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND NEEDS OF THE FORESTRY INDUSTRY OF LORETO
1:  Forestry in Loreto is virtually nonexistent contrary to common belief and needs a complete rethinking as to how to make it work and be productive.
2:  Forestry in Loreto does not contribute to clear cutting and deforestation.  Loggers do not have the time or money to do deforestation.  Loreto harvests at the most 15 species and in this form it is impossible to create deforestation.
3:  Deforestation is caused by the ignorance of many well meaning people who support logging bans.  People actually believe that logging creates deforestation when in fact deforestation is caused by the peoples need to grow food as they cannot log the forests properly and need to clear cut for slash and burn farming.  If the people could cut , transport and sell one tree from their land they would not have to clear cut dozens for slash and burn.
4:  As everyone knows there is an abundance of NGO´s on the internet purporting to help the forest in Loreto , just Google " NGO Iquitos Forestry "  but it is doubtful if there exists one actually doing anything in Loreto , but they do collect a lot of money. 
5:  To my knowledge there has not been any forestry study in Loreto or Peru that specifies and identifies what woods are in the forest and what volumes and uses they may have.  No one knows what is here in the jungle but everyone has advice on it.  I believe if it were to be checked out that between the Molina in Lima and the University in Iquitos there are not 80 species properly identified with vouchers and less shared with other researchers for double evaluation which is very important.
6:  There is a serious need of education in the area of forestry management, forestry studies to determine volumes of each species, use of said species ,  re-growth cycling times and markets.  These basics do not exist.
7:  Further educational programs are needed in the area of mill management, processing of lumber from the log to obtain maximum yield and profit, species  identification , value added products and accounting.  Accounting may seem unusual to include here but accounting in Loreto is used as a tool to defend against SUNAT and not a tool to manage the business.  People do not have an understanding of the basics.
8:  One of the most unusual of the misunderstandings that many people actually believe is that the use of the chainsaw is more damaging to the forest than mechanized logging.  It is apparent that people have never seen what a forestry skidder of several tons can do to a forest compared to a family with a chainsaw carrying out cants for flooring.
More simply put which would you rather have in your back yard clearing a downed tree ?  The choice is a three ton tractor with 20" wide tires chewing up the soil and sinking in the mud  or a man with a chainsaw carrying out the pieces neatly cut.  It seems so simple and logical but somewhere along the line people came up with the story that it is better conservation to mow down thousands of small trees skidding out a log plus destroying the forest floor than losing 1/8 of an inch in the longitudinal cut over the skidder system.  This is not even good theory much less reality.
9:  The Loreto forests are very heavy on dense hardwoods which are excellent for flooring products.  The idea that Mahogany and Spanish Cedar are "thee" valuable woods of Loreto can only come from the mind of a person that does not know the profitability of good quality flooring woods or the wood business in general.  The future of Loreto starting today is flooring.

THINGS TO DO TO HELP THE WOOD INDUSTRY IN LORETO
1:  Forestry studies must be made to determine what is in the forest.  Now it is like having a grocery store full of merchandise that you need to sell and not having an inventory in order to advertise what you have.  This can only be accomplished in cooperation with the USDA Tropical Forestry Lab "the biggest in the world" or some similar entity with international credibility.  The Peruvian Universities do not have the resources and reference material to do this alone.  The studies must be done in cooperation between both countries and a wood library including specimens, species drawings , equipment for testing the mechanical properties of the woods , wood samples cataloged , books and literature.
A contact and working relationship with the USDA must be established to complete this area of the project.  This will include on site work collecting samples in the forest.  The identification of all species is very important.    The USDA says very clearly that they may be the biggest but they also have a long way to go.  An example is a wood called Quinilla , we have Quinilla in red , black, white and yellow.  The USDA groups all Quinilla as one for lack of samples and vouchers to properly name them individually.  This would be like identifying  Red Oak and White Oak with the same scientific name.
With the "Lacey Act" now in effect improperly identified species can now be confiscated upon entry to the US.   It may be surprising but sadly true that most tropical species are not clearly named and this constitutes an illegal shipment without the proper name on the export documentation. 
Lacey act info: 
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/publications/plant_health/content/printable_version/fs_laceyact.pdf
In past centuries explorers would name a tree in Brazil and another would name the same tree in Colombia plus other countries.  The people had no way to communicate with each other and thus unknowingly created a series of different  names for most species.  All was well until the advent of the internet and the information sharing began to show a disaster in the scientific community until then mainly unknown.  This problem still exists today.  Five experts  equals at least 10 names.  Bloodwood  is a simple example , try this link from the USDA for the common name
http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/piper/query/startQuery/357520a5-f92a-4ac6-9a2e-0b9a8166c3ac
Here is one with the scientific name
http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/piper/query/startQuery/357520a5-f92a-4ac6-9a2e-0b9a8166c3ac

2:  A study must be made to determine the damage to a forest using a forestry skidder vs a labor intensive method.  This is a no brainer but everything needs a study . 
Another study must be made comparing the profitability of mechanized logging vs families working with chainsaws. 
Mechanized  logging is marginally profitable if at all in the tropics and very destructive to the forest as the law stands now.  Under the current forestry  law it can be assumed that 100% of the harvest is illegal .  This study will clearly show that the current forestry law must be amended to permit the  people to work in an ecologically sound method with the chain saw and eliminate thousands of families from the poverty  level and subsistence farming.  My experience has been that a family of cousins , uncles , granny etc. can easily earn working together $5000 US per month working with a chainsaw or two.  Near Loreto the cocaine production is the only thing the people have to earn a meager living.  Cocaine and poverty are growing and the most valuable resource of Loreto is rotting in the forest.
The only part of the forestry industry that earns a profit is the money laundering aspect which is large.
3:  A complete package of educational programs must be introduced.
    A:  Forestry Management, watershed care, species over harvest , cutting the tree for highest yield, utilizing parts of the tree other than the normal log for high value specialty products and scaling logs plus more.
    B:  Scaling and grading sawn Lumber to international standards.   Now  the local mills are cheated on every export shipment due to over grading and bad scaling.  This many times can spell the difference in a company making a profit or not.
    C:  Species identification and its uses and markets.  Each species should have a spec sheet like this but of Amazonian woods I don't think more than 60 would be available.
http://128.104.77.230/TechSheets/Chudnoff/TropAmerican/html_files/virola1new.html
     D: Cost  accounting  as a management tool and not only as a defense against SUNAT.  Local accountants do not understand this type of accounting and only provide SUNAT defense accounting.
    E:  Classes on how to properly do forestry inventories and studies using experts from the USDA as the teachers.  I have in fact had the head of forestry in the university in Iquitos tell me that to inventory a forest you would have to inventory every tree .  On a 5000 parcel such as the concessions are currently it would take at least a life time to count the trees and then one would ask why.  Nobody knows what the most of them are or what they are good for.  Please forget the stories about the river people who know the forest.  They  don't have a clue about what trees are in the jungle but will give you a name for each one but come back next week and the trees will have different names..  I did a forest inventory using two of the professors of forestry/biology in Iquitos.  The first day each stacked out a 25 x 100 meter belt and did the inventory .  The next day they were told to check each others work without the benefit of the prior days data.  The two inventories were distinctly different.  They did not now and without a solid research program no one will ever know.
    F:  Saw filing for different types of wood is an unknown technology.  Far more wood is wasted in the mills due to bad filing and sawing than by using a chainsaw in the forest.
     G:  There are no educational programs for the general public teaching about the forestry use in a practical and not theoretic way.
INDUSTRY EXPANSION
The forestry industry as it stands today is a no starter for the future of the people in Loreto .  The biggest problem facing the industry other than a forestry law written by non foresters is how to grow the potentially largest industry in Iquitos.  With the above suggestions implemented the final phase would be bringing in equipment and machinery to produce value added products using export credit facilities from EXIM Bank .  The new small  scale  turnkey  factories should be for the use of dense woods and make Iquitos known internationally as a flooring center. 
One thing that is unusual of the Loreto lumber industry is that in most cases the logger tries to be the transporter, saw mill , kiln dryer and exporter.  In the US the logger, trucker, sawmill-kiln operation and exporter are generally different parties with the exception to very large operations such as Georgia Pacific and others .  The system in Loreto is one does all and is extremely inefficient.
A projection including costs,  personnel , office equipment, space needed etc. needs to be detailed.

Attached:
Personell required   :                   Office
                                                         Field research
                                                         Processing Lab
                                                         Educational and accounting
                                                         Carpenter shop
Budgets thru 2014 per sector:

[woodtroll]

Jim
I do not think it will be hard to come by volunteers. Good luck with your proposal and keep us informed.

[jim blodgett]

"Carpentry shop"?

I'm a carpenter.  I'll be ready for an adventure like that in a couple years.  What are you thinking of for that part of it?

[ljmathias]

I'm a university educator in the "throes" of a phased retirement program... main effort now is education and outreach activities focused on polymers, which trees are: natural polymers and composites with unique properties that nature builds in depending on species, climate, environment and other factors.  I also have an LT40 hydraulic and do some lumber production and conversion to finished products.  I've considered changing my main education focus to forestry, lumber production and use, and related areas- all in the "green" categories of current government funding interest.  I've also written lots of scientific papers and several books in my academic career- something I'd like to continue in the "green" areas related to wood.

I might be interested in working with you on the education materials development aspect (see my education website at www.pslc.ws as an example of what I've done in the past) and on helping with workshops and on-site activities.  Let me know if you're interested.

Lj

[sjfarkas]

I would be interested.  My expertise is in Mulching/mastication, harvesting with small equipment, slash cleanup and converting timberland to other uses in the most eco friendly way feasable.  My day job is manageing an apple ranch.  We have cleared forest for a new orchard, irrigation resevoir and access roads and had the slash/stumps ground into a fine mulch and after ripping spread the mulch for soil stabilization and weed control.  Then on nights and weekends I have my own Land clearing bussiness.  If my expertise would fit I would be excited to participate.

[baronthered]

sounds interesting. I won't fly so I guess I'm out unless I could go by boat.  :D I'd love to do something like that but I doubt yer looking for mechanical engineering students.

[mad murdock]

Actually went through Iquitos in 1990, while enroute to and from Bolivia.  Nice area, remote, no decent road system, everything of any import is moved up or down the Amazon.  Jungle is dense, wet, and lots of nasty critters, the locals can cope well enough.  Would be nice to see some decent industry down there start up, problem as I see it, is that the Narco-trade/terrorists would have a large say in what goes on, as they have more money than the government, and can buy there way into anything that goes on down there.  Woudl be a huge uphill battle, to get a legitimate business going in any area where there is so much corruption, due to the huge amount of illegal activity that they are used to having coexist.  Anyone going down there should really be careful about who you trust, and where you go.  The locals are real nice people, it's the parallel drug economy that is the biggest hinderance to any real lasting change in that part of the world, not to mention the influence of groups like the "Sendero Iluminoso", communist guerrillas that run around that country, though they used to run a bit further south than Iquitos.  Good luck in your efforts, sounds like a good plan has been laid out..