choice of technology in forestry a philippine case … · jan laarman,klaus virtanen,and mike...
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c#o-too 2-31 CHOICE OF
TECHNOLOGY IN
FORESTRY
A PHILIPPINE CASE STUDY
JAN LAARMAN, KLAUS VIRTANEN
AND MIKE JURVELIUS
ߣ/Y
CHOICE OF TECHNOLOGY
IN FORESTRY
A Philippine Case Study
The World Employment Programme (WEP) was launched by the International Labour Organisation in 1969, as the ILO's main contribution to the Interna¬ tional Development Strategy for the Second United Nations Development Decade. The means of action adopted by the WEP have included the following: — short-term high-level advisory missions; — longer-term national or regional employment teams; and — a wide-ranging research programme. Through these activities the ILO has been able to help national decision-makers to reshape their policies and plans with the aim of eradicating mass poverty and unemployment. A landmark in the development of the WEP was the World Employment Confe¬ rence of 1976, which proclaimed inter alia that "strategies and national develop¬ ment plans should include as a priority objective the promotion of employment and the satisfaction of the basic needs of each country's population". The Dec¬ laration of Principles and Programme of Action adopted by the Conference have become the cornerstone of WEP technical assistance and research activities during the closing years of the Second Development Decade. This publication is the outcome of a WEP project.
CHOICE OF TECHNOLOGY IN
FORESTRY
A Philippine Case Study
by
Jan G. Laarman Klaus Virtanen--^r7^ ~ Mike Jurveliu8 "ÂjaÀ&uuJ
JÏWcfi QiOù&Ci.
A study prepared for the International Labour Office within the framework of the World Employment Programme
New Day Publishers Quezon City
Copyright © International Labour Organisation 1981
Published by NEW DAY PUBLISHERS P.O. Box 167, Quezon City 3008, Philippines Telephone: 99-80-46 Cable Address : NEWDAY, Quezon City
The responsibility for opinions expressed in signed articles, studies and other contributions rests solely with their authors, and publication does not consti¬ tute an endorsement by the International Labour Office of the opinions ex¬ pressed in them. The designations employed and the presentation of material do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the International Labour Office concerning the legal status of any country or territory or of its autho¬ rities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers. References to firm names and commercial products and processes do not imply the endorsement of the International Labour Office, and any failure to mention a particular firm, commercial product or process in connection with the tech¬ nologies described in this volume is not a sign of disapproval.
ILO PREFACE
The Basic Needs Strategy adopted by the 1976 World Employ¬ ment Conference recommended that research aimed at strengthening the scientific and technological capacities of developing countries "should mainly be undertaken within and under the direction of the developing countries theinselves with the technical and financial assistance of international and other agencies". Furthermore, the Vienna Programme of Action adopted by the 1979 United Nations Conference on Science and Technology for Development (UNCSTD) recommended that such research and development efforts "should be consistent with the priorities of developing countries and should provide for the active participation of developing countries in their design, planning, execution and evaluation". The present volume by Jan Laarman,Klaus Virtanen,and Mike Jurvelius is a modest response to this call. In 1976, the Philippine Government requested the ILO to carry out a study on the feasibility of utilising more labour- intensive techniques in their forestry operations. A team of three specialists, the authors of this book, spent 18 months in the Philip¬ pines evaluating the existing techniques and advising on which of these techniques were the most appropriate (in terms of employment potential, safety and working conditions, etc.) and what measures would be required for their application. Thus, research work was combined with technical co-operation activity based in the Philip¬ pines and carried out jointly by the ILO and the Bureau of Forest Development of the Philippine Government.
The ILO World Employment Programme, within the framework of which the project was undertaken, has endeavoured to establish a close integration of research and operational activities. On the one hand, research initiated in innovative areas helps to generate new field activities and, on the other, the research benefits from the feed¬ back it receives from its integration with operational activities. This book is a good illustration of how research and technical co-opera¬ tion can go hand in hand.
The authors of the book show that intermediate or improved labour-intensive technologies for Philippine forestry do exist. Their use leads to increased productivity when compared with more 'pri¬ mitive' techniques, but decreased labour displacement when com¬ pared with more capital-intensive ones. In addition to generating
v
productive employment, these technologies offer, in varying degrees, the advantages of improved working conditions, less risk of injury and greater protection of the environment. Often, they are also shown to be the least-cost alternatives at prevailing market prices. This finding is very important for the application of these technolo¬ gies: the employers and other decision makers in the forestry sector are likely to consider these technologies as a serious alternative if they are low-cost.
The research-cum-operational project on which the present book is based gave rise to a great deal of interest in several countries of the Asian region. Consequently, the ILO, with the financial assist¬ ance of the Asian Development Bank and the Government of Fin¬ land, organised a seminar attended by senior forestry officials of developing countries from the Asian and Pacific region, at which the results of this study were discussed as was the feasibility of utilising similar technologies in the various countries of the region. As a follow-up of the seminar and the initial phase of the project, the ILO with the financial assistance of the Government of Finland has now undertaken the actual implementation of appropriate techno¬ logy in Philippine forestry. This new phase is designed to demons¬ trate the practical application of technologies that are identified as appropriate in the present volume.
This study is an example of a fruitful inter-agency collaboration at the field level. The ILO wishes to acknowledge with gratitude the contributions of UNDP, FAO and UNIDO field staff to the pro¬ ject. The research, particularly the work studies, described in the book could not have been undertaken without the full and willing co-operation of the Filipino forest-based industry.
Geneva, A. S. Bhalla November 1980 Chief
Technology and Employment Branch International Labour Office
vi
FOREWORD
The advantages of modern technology have not always been realised in developing countries because the knowledge it requires is often not present. In our haste to modernise our societies, we are often quick to borrow technologies which only a few of our people understand. That this happens on a large scale is very evident from the number of expensive farm machineries that are conspicuously idle in our countrysides due to lack of proper maintenance. No one has made any estimates of the amount of resources we have wasted in this manner but I venture to guess that they are extremely high. Not least of these costs is the social one of creating a technological dualism in our societies. We all have a modern sector represented by the metropolis which is different from the rest of the country.
For this reason, traditional technology is oftentimes found superior to modern alternatives, not because the latter are technically less efficient, but because the former is at least better understood by everyone who uses it. Traditional technology has become a part of people's lives and its logic is well embedded in the people's mind. It represents knowledge that has been absorbed by society and ab¬ sorbed well enough to enable the people to improve upon it.
In my view this book represents an excellent illustration of how "internalised" knowledge can be successfully employed to arrive at the most appropriate technology. Its value goes beyond the limits of the forestry sector on which it is based, for its message will not be lost to those who see the need for re-examining conventional wisdom in this field. In clear, simple and systematic fashion, the authors have succeeded in demonstrating the process by which we can select the most appropriate technology for any given task. I have not seen a more successful effort to combine economic theory with hard engineering data than what the authors have done in this book.
The book clearly demonstrates the existence of many options available for devising intermediate technologies where capital is expensive and labour is cheap. It is immensely convincing in de¬ monstrating the inefficiency of capital-intensive methods for many operations that can be redesigned to allow for the greater use of labour, and in identifying the possible alternatives. The rationali¬ sation of each step of logging operations is highly instructive and
vii
points to the need for re-examining conventional assumptions about efficiency and the parameters used to measure it.
I wish to congratulate the ILO, particularly the Technology and Employment Branch, for sponsoring the project which will undoubtedly have a long-lasting impact on the efficiency of our forestry industry in the Philippines. The publication of the project report in this volume will greatly enhance the dissemination of many valuable insights into the development of appropriate technology, not only in forestry but in other industries as well.
Republic of the Philippines
viii
AUTHORS'
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study reflects the efforts of a great many persons and organizations. We would like to express our gratitude for the infor¬ mation and assistance they have so generously provided. We cannot hope to cite everyone by name, but this does not mean to imply that the contributions of the unnamed persons were any less important.
First, we are deeply grateful to Edmundo V. Cortes, Director of the Bureau of Forest Development (BFD), for his interest, en¬ couragement, and furtherance of the project's objectives. It was through Director Cortes and Cirilo B. Serna, Chief of the Bureau's Planning and Evaluation Division, that the research team was so promptly given ample office facilities and supportive staff. In this respect we acknowledge the services rendered by Dolores Santillan, administrative officer, and Norma M. Leyva, secretary. Substantial technical inputs including collection, analysis and interpretation of data were provided by three BFD professional staff members: Danilo Morales, Roberto Igsoc and Celestino Pablo.
To all of the other personnel in the Bureau of Forest Develop¬ ment who kindly offered their time, advice, and data, we are very much indebted. This includes not only the staff of the central office in Quezon City, but also the foresters and other field staff in places such as Lucena, Baguio, Butuan, Bislig, Tuguegarao, Catarman, San Fernando, Cagayan de Oro, Aparri, Mt. Arayat, Tarlac and La Mesa.
This study mirrors the valuable suggestions and tireless liaison work of Iftikhar Ahmed, ILO, Geneva. His enthusiasm and energy propelled the research-cum-operational project since its inception, and his comments and advice helped steer us on the proper course. To him we owe a very special debt of gratitude.
For administrative support and guidance, we express our ap¬ preciation to the ILO Area Office in the Philippines. Special thanks are due to A. Dennis Granger and M.N. Unni-Nayar, former Director and present Director, respectively. We are equally grateful for the cheerful assistance of Pedro Salazar, administrative and finance officer. We also thank Josephine Cabrera, Fidela Dizon, and Erlinda Caratay of the office staff.
We further acknowledge the contacts and help provided by some of the ILO's sister agencies, especially UNDP, FAO, and UNI-
ix
DO. Within UNDP, we cite the work of John Melford, Joseph Calla- han, Somapala Wijayasingha, Romeo Albor, and Rizalino Llamas on matters related to vehicles and other administrative details. With¬ in FAO, we thank Campbell MacCulloch and Vlastislav Sulc. We are particularly indebted to M.J. Williamson, Arthur Browning, and Norman Endacott of the RP/UNDP/FAO Project for Training and Research in Multiple-Use Forest Management, not only for their cooperation in forestry matters, but also for their generous loan of a vehicle to the project. Within UNIDO, we thank Herman De Nie and Theodore De Jonghe for contacts in the metalworking industries.
We also benefitted from information provided by the RP/ German Training Center on Reforestation and Erosion Control. We are grateful for the contacts with Theodore Hoeninger, Jürgen Lessau, Hans Weidelt, and Isidro Esteban.
For advice and assistance on the development and manufacture of hand tools, we owe profuse thanks to Felipe Santillan, Commis¬ sioner of the Philippine Inventors Commission (NSDB) ; and to Egon Becherer, Chief Project Advisor of the German Advisory Group to the Philippine Metals Industry Research and Development Center. Furthermore, the study could not have been undertaken without the cooperation of the forest-based industry.
We are very grateful to R.A. Plumtree of the Commonwealth Forestry Institute (Department of Forestry), University of Oxford, who contributed substantially in the editing and revision of the manuscript.
We are also very thankful to Ofelia déla Cruz for long hours of computations, to Carlos Joaquín for excellent drawings and illustrations, and to Aurelia Simangan for assisting Norma M. Leyva in typing the manuscript.
x
CONTENTS
Page
ILO PREFACE A. S. Bhalla v
FOREWORD Blas F. Ople vii
AUTHORS' ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
Chapter I. INTRODUCTION 1
Background 1
Objectives and Scope 4
Organization of the Book 5
Chapter 2. FORESTRY AS A SOURCE OF EMPLOYMENT . . 9
Employment Rationale 9
Employment in the Philippine Forestry Sector at Present 10
Employment in the logging industry 12 Forest-based employment in government 14 Forest-based employment in rural
households 16
Prospects for Increased Employment 16 World trends 17 Changing forest composition 18 Intensified government forestry activities 19 Labour costs 20 Employment-loaded social programs 21
Conclusions 24
Chapter 3. COMPARISON OF ALTERNATIVE METHODS ... 25
Stump Site Activities 27 Virgin dipterocarps 28 Fast-growing plantations and other small trees 34
xi
Short-Distance Log Transport 38 Predominant methods 40 Labour intensities 40 Carabao and farm tractor as intermediate
methods 41
Debarking 48
Log Loading 51 Bataan self-loading 51 Manual methods for small logs 54
Underbrush Clearing 54
Tree Planting 57
Pruning 66
Chapter 4. RELATED TECHNICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES ... 69
Worker's Safety 69 Accident statistics 69 Accident prevention 72
Training of Forest Workers and Foremen 74
Local Manufacture of Forestry and Logging Hand Tools 79
Beyond Direct Costs 83 Attitudes and prestige value 83 Labour management and overhead 85 Questions of scale 85 Organization and coordination 86 Private costs and social costs 87
Chapter 5. POLICIES AND STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATION 91
APPENDIX: WORK STUDY METHODOLOGY AND ILLUSTRATION OF ITS APPLICATION 95
Preliminary Remarks and Qualifications 95 General methodology 95 Limited context 96 Interdependence 96 Time frame 98 Reduced self-consciousness vs. increased
proficiency 99 Identifying the source of productivity differences .... 99 General vs. specific context 101
xii
An illustration of the application of the work study methodology 102
LIST OF TEXT TABLES Page
1. Employment and Capital Invested in the Philippine Forest-Based Industries, 1974 11
2. Philippine Log Production by Size Class of Producer, 1974-75 12
3. Distribution of Logging Establishments by Employment Size, 1972 13
4. Monthly Employment Fluctuations for a Log Producer in the Cagayan Valley, 1975 14
5. Manpower Levels in the Bureau of Forest Development, Mid-Year 1976 15
6. Status of Land Use within Public Forest Lands of the Philippines, 1975 20
7. Accident and Fatality Rates of the Logging and Forestry Employees of Three Large Timber Concessionaires, 1973-76 71
8. Accident Reduction in the Timber Products Group of One Large Timber Concessionaire, 1967-75 73
9. Philippine Imports of Selected Hand Tools, 1974-75 81
xiii
1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
This book deals with the application of work study through joint collaboration between ILO and the Philippine Bureau of Forest Development to a number of forestry operations in the Philippines using a variety of types of equipment, some highly mechanised and some not. It attempts to evaluate what the most "appropriate" equipment and techniques are for the conditions now prevailing in the Philippines. The conclusions reached may or may not be directly applicable to other countries but it is submitted that the methods of study could and should be applied in many countries to determine what are the most "appropriate" tools and methods of using them for their particular conditions. In this connection the most "appropriate" tool will make the best overall use of the three factors, labour, capital (including funds, land and raw mater¬ ials) and skills. The supply of these three factors of production varies markedly from country to country and it is the optimal em¬ ployment of all three which constitutes "appropriate" technology for any one country. The ILO/ADB/Government of Finland Asian Regional Seminar on the Application of Appropriate Technology in Forestry and Forest Industries endorsed the approach used in this book.1
In the Philippines in the past the focus has almost invariably been on agriculture. Yet this may completely overlook forestry, a sector which in the Philippines figures prominently in the national economy, and which could figure much more prominently in the absorption of rural labour if aided through better hand tools and more know-how in labour-intensive methods. In light of a rapidly growing population of working age coupled with only limited em-
Senior forestry officials from the Asia and Pacific region agreed that what is appropriate technology in one setting is not necessarily appropriate in another because of the variability of the relevant aspects (e.g., labour costs, size of market, wood availability, etc.) in the regional setting. It was concurred that appropriate technology is neither necessarily labour-intensive nor capital intensive, but rather that the optimum factor intensity should mirror relative factor costs, especially when factor costs are evaluated at shadow values. [Report of the ILO/ADB/ FINNIDA Regional Seminar on the Application of Appropriate Technology in Forestry and Forest Industries, Manila/Geneva, July 1979, p. 4.]
1
ployment opportunities in Greater Manila, the question of the labour- using capacity of forestry takes on particular significance.
The present investigation follows upon the work of the ILO's employment mission to the Philippines in 1972-73.1 The mission's task was to formulate development guidelines to decrease unemploy¬ ment and underemployment, improve the distribution of income, and increase aggregate growth. Because the average Filipino's only income-earning resource is his capacity to work, the mission stressed the need to expand employment and make it more productive.
In the Philippines, forestry is a sector of considerable social importance, not only because of its commodity and amenity func¬ tions, but also because of its role as a source of rural employment. Yet the actual employment level is far below what it could be.
Wood products—logs, lumber, veneer, and plywood—have been the country's single most important export group since 1967, ac¬ counting for almost 25% of total foreign exchange earnings. As a proportion of all manufacturing, wood products industries had
6.7% of the number of establishments, 12.5% of the employment, and 8.1% of the value added in manufacture, according to the 1972 economic census.2 Yet loggers and forestry workers, the suppliers for these industries, represent only slightly more than one-half per¬ cent of the national workforce.3- While this percentage is low, as this book indicates, and there is little chance of forestry and harvesting operations having a very significant effect on the Philippine employ¬ ment problems in the near future, the techniques used are of wider application and interest than to forestry alone since simple work study can be applied to many disciplines.
The low level of labour participation in logging is explained by many different factors. Certainly it is related to the large size of timber and rugged topography characterizing the majority of current logging sites. There are obvious physical limitations to log handling and transport by labour-intensive methods when the trees have large buttresses, the logs weigh three or four tons or more, and slopes are steep. Under these conditions it is understood why there is a preference for large power chain saws to fall and crosscut the trees, and cable or tractor systems to bring the logs to the road¬ side.
But while equipment-intensive logging is sometimes necessary because of difficult timber stand conditions, in other cases the
1ILO. Sharing in Development (Geneva, 1974).
"National Census and Statistics Office, 1972 Census of Establishments, Vols, m and X (Manila, 1975).
q National Census and Statistics Office, Philippines 1970 Census of Popu¬
lation and Housing, National Summary, Vol. ÍI (Manila, 1974),
2
technical justification is not so apparent. A capital-intensive bias often exists even for activities which, from the viewpoint of physical production possibilities, could be made far more labour-intensive. To some extent this reflects a powerful foreign influence, especially from Japan and the U.S.A. The latter country, particularly, has had a long history of technical inputs into Philippine forestry, and most commercial logging in the Philippines is modeled after methods and equipment in use on the Pacific Coast of North America. Although the Philippines shares with the American Pacific Coast a mountainous topography and large-sized timber, the two regions are oceans apart in terms of capital-labour availability.
In those situations in which logging mechanization is merely imitation of labour-saving technology used in North America and elsewhere, methods that are more labour-intensive should have proved themselves less costly. However, less use of labour-intensive methods is made than could be because of low labour productivity, the result of inefficient working technique and scarcity of good tools. The low level of output makes the existing labour-intensive methods even less competitive than the expensive capital-intensive ones. Con¬ sequently, the possibilities for increasing worker productivity through training, better tools, and improved working technique are over¬ looked while employment opportunities are foregone through ever more mechanization.
Unlike logging, the problem in tree planting and other silvicul¬ ture is not so much one of mechanization as it is one of a poor selec¬ tion of hand tools and ineffective working organization. Many silvi- cultural activities are inherently labour-intensive, not readily lending themselves to the introduction of machines. But unless the activities are rationalized from a productivity viewpoint, many potential silvicultural improvements will continue to remain unattractive.
Despite the obvious need, there has been very little systematic research in developing more efficient labour-intensive methods. Research in North America, Europe, and the Nordic countries is aimed at making logging and forestry technology more labour- saving. In labour-abundant developing countries like the Philippines, comparative production and cost information for various combina¬ tions of labour and equipment are sorely lacking.
The present investigation is an attempt to remedy this situation. The work studies undertaken show that depending upon the particu¬ lar task at hand, labour-intensive methods can indeed be competitive. This is especially true when the manual methods are combined with labour-saving devices and properly designed tools.
3
1.2 Objectives and Scope
The study had the following objectives:
(1) To measure and compare the economic efficiency of various existing capital-intensive and labour-intensive methods in those cases where alternative methods of production are technically feasible;
(2) To increase the viability of the most promising labour- intensive methods through new tools and working tech¬ niques; and
(3) To point out the obstacles to be overcome and the policy decisions to be taken if labour-intensive methods are to have a wider implementation.
The foundation of the field work was a series of ten work stu¬ dies conducted in various parts of the Philippines with the co-opera¬ tion and assistance of both private logging companies and the Bureau of Forest Development. The private companies hold timber con¬ cessions (licenses) under agreement with the Bureau, which pres¬ cribes allowable cuts, cutting practices, forest charges (timber taxes), and other regulations and controls bearing on timber extraction.
Figure 1 shows the locations of the work studies according to the following numerical coding:
(1) Tree falling and crosscutting in virgin dipterocarp timber, comparing the large power chain saw, small power chain saw, and two-man crosscut saw—conducted at Las Navas and Bislig;
(2) Short-distance log transport (skidding from stump to road¬ side), comparing the crawler tractor, four-wheel skidder, farm tractor, and carabao (water buffalo)— conducted at Pagbilao-Tayabas, Tungao, Talacogon, and Bislig;
(3) Debarking, comparing bolos (machetes, jungle knives) with properly designed debarking spuds—conducted at Tungao and near Baguio;
(4) Log loading, comparing manual loading with a mechanical wheeled loader—conducted at Bislig;
(5) Underbrush clearing, comparing bolos, brush hooks (bill hooks), and a motorized clearing saw—conducted at Las Navas and Tungao;
(6) Tree planting, comparing wooden dibbles with oval-blade planting hoes—conducted at Bislig;
(7) Tree planting, comparing military-type spades, narrow- blade planting hoes, and oval-blade planting hoes—co- ducted near Montalban;
(8) Thinning in man-made tree plantations, comparir small power chain saw with bow saws—conducted atr
4
(9) Pruning, comparing bolos with pruning saws—conducted at Tungao; and
(10) Small-log crosscutting, comparing bolos, axes, and bow saws—conducted at Bislig.
Before proceeding further, it is essential to review a few terms which we have given very specific meanings. Following the voca¬ bulary used in this book, we are studying logging and forestry ope¬ rations. These operations are comprised of distinct activities, such as tree felling, crosscutting, log skidding, tree planting, branch pruning, and so forth. An activity can be accomplished by any of alternative methods, some of which are more labour-intensive than others. The method encompasses the machine or tools, and the wotking technique.
The activities discussed in this book are activities in the forest, not in wood processing industries and even within the forestry sector the coverage has been narrowed by the necessity to concen¬ trate on a few selected studies due to lack of time.
The field work was carried out during 1976 and early 1977, and all cost figures are referenced to 1976. Where not otherwise stated, the currency exchange rate is P7.40 (Philippine pesos) per US$1.00 (United States dollars). Increases in fuel prices were not built into the cost calculations, but now increasingly encourage the use of labour-intensive methods. Cost calculations are based on market prices rather than on shadow prices or accounting prices.
1.3 Organization of the Book
This book consists of five chapters. The text deals with the main rationale for undertaking the studies with a brief account of the studies and their results.
Chapter 2 examines the forestry sector as a source of employ¬ ment, both in general terms and in the Philippine context. Chapter 3 compares the alternative methods studied.
Chapter 4 is a pot pourri of technical and social issues bearing on the practicality of the labour-intensive methods. The chapter addresses itself to workers' safety, workers' training, local manufac¬ ture of the appropriate tools and accessories, and some of the in¬ direct and non-economic criteria which influence the choice of tech¬ nology.
Chapter 5 concludes by discussing the policies and strategies needed to implement the labour-intensive methods on a wider scale.
The Appendix presents the details of the methodology used for the work studies and an illustration of its application.
The present investigation of labour-intensive methods in Philip¬ pine logging and forestry is no different from other studies in ILO's
5
Figure 1. Location of Work Studies Conducted by the ILO/BFD Project.
0
o <5
Technology and Employment series which ask three basic questions :
(1) Are labour-intensive methods technically feasible? (2) Are they economically competitive? (3) Are they socially desirable?
The labour-intensive methods discussed in this book were con¬ sidered both technically feasible and economically competitive, at least in terms of direct unit costs. The optimal choice of methods in logging and forestry is very sensitive to factors such as log size, ground moisture, terrain conditions, and so on. Because it was not practical to test all methods in all timber-stand types, the labour- intensive methods were studied only where common sense and past experience suggested that they could prove viable.
Labour-intensive methods in forestry are frequently associated with social relief work. Different governments at different times have absorbed large numbers of the unemployed in make-work tasks connected with forestry public works programmes. The primary objective more often than not is to channel wage incomes to the needy workers, and the actual work accomplishment is of only secondary import. It is because of this relief aspect that labour- intensive forestry has so often in the past been associated with low productivity.
However, our interest goes beyond temporary relief work to longer-term forestry-sector employment. When projecting secular employment trends through a period of a few years and not merely months, it is imperative that labour-intensive methods be made more productive.
The present case studies thus advocate "intermediate" forestry and logging technologies which balance labour absorption with labour productivity. This implies technologies less labour-using than the most primitive manual methods, but certainly less labour-dis¬ placing than capital-intensive machine methods. Such "intermediate" or "improved" labour-intensive methods are indeed available, and are quite often the least-cost alternatives, or very close to them.
Limitations to the implementation of the improved labour- intensive methods are best understood within a framework of cons¬ traints. The labour-intensive methods require the availability of the proper hand tools in adequate quantities and qualities, together with workers' training to assure safe and efficient working tech¬ niques. Even when direct unit costs are competitive with those of more capital-intensive methods, indirect costs and non-economic criteria enter into the decision-maker's choices.
Total costs, whether monetized or otherwise, encompass considerations relative to ecological costs and ergonomie costs, organization and co-ordination, labour management and overheads, and prestige. It is these indirect and non-economic factors which
7
are least subject to objective analysis, even though they seem to pose the most serious stumbling blocks to the wider use of labour- intensive methods.
The package of proposals to support the implementation of labour-intensive methods includes the formation of a Forestry Em¬ ployment and Technology Working Group whether by or outside the Working Group, the expansion of forestry sector employment which requires continued work studies, continued tool manufacture and testing, and the collection of more employment statistics. It also requires the adoption of guidelines on mechanization, investi¬ gation of fiscal incentives favorable to the use of labour, efforts to stimulate worker's training' and instruction, and a review of laws and regulations bearing on technological choice.
8
2
FORESTRY AS A SOURCE OF
EMPLOYMENT
2.1 Employment Rationale
To provide productive and remunerative employment oppor¬ tunities for its rapidly growing population of working age is one of the most challenging of all problems facing the Philippines. Since 1950 gross national product has been growing by an average annual rate of about three percent per capita. However, the benefits of this growth have not necessarily been reflected in real earnings among the working population, and unemployment and underem¬ ployment are serious problems. In the last fifteen years, the income share of the bottom 60 percent of the population declined from 32.8% to 27.2%. The distribution of wealth and its social aspects cause increased preoccupation with employment problems, since employment is the only means through which the ordinary man derives benefits from the economic system.
The purely economic objective of increasing the utilization of abundant labour has never lost its primacy. However, this should always be linked with concern for accommodating the rising aspira¬ tions of the disadvantaged parts of society. Unemployment and underemployment are not simply problems of resource misalloca- tion. They are more fundamentally problems of human discontent and poverty, affecting the day-to-day lives and lifetime expectations of hundreds of thousands of Filipinos.
It is not our purpose here to elaborate, but only to summarize, some of the broadest observations on the employment situation con¬ tained in the report of the ILO employment mission to the Philip¬ pines:1
—Rapid population growth strains the capacity of the economy to absorb the large number of individuals attaining working age. —The share of employment in the manufacturing sector is small. During the 1960's the manufacturing sector accounted for some 12% of total employment, and in the 1970's its contribution has been about the same or slightly less (11.5% in 1971; 10.1% in 1973; 10.6% in 1975). —Despite the alarming increase in the size of the population
*ILO, Sharing . . . , op. cit.
9
of working age and the increasing use of labour-saving techno¬ logy in urban industry, open employment has been kept within relatively manageable proportions. —Yet this seemingly tolerable level of open unemployment presents a wholly misleading picture. The employment problem is revealed less by measures of worklessness than by measures of low productivity and inadequate real earnings. —Thus if the employment problem is defined as open unem¬ ployment plus a measure of underemployment based on inade¬ quate income, the magnitude of the unemployed labour-force may be as high as 25%. —On the surface it would appear as if the employment problem is confined to Greater Manila and other urban agglomerations. Official employment statistics show that rural unemployment for persons over 25 years old is negligible. However, open unemployment in the provinces is transferred quickly by mig¬ ration to Manila, or disguised by work sharing. The ILO mission, therefore, recommended a rural-based deve¬
lopment strategy and forestry satisfies ideally the criteria required, namely use of local raw materials and labour and an end-product which is largely used locally and labour intensively, thus contributing to further employment. The skills required are mostly simple or easily acquired and are similar to agricultural skills.
2.2 Employment in the Philippine Forestry Sector at Present
In spite of the need for employment and the valid arguments about forestry employment, the present employment in logging and forestry does not exceed 100,000 and may be only a half to two thirds that number. It varies considerably from year to year and season to season.
According to the 1970 census of population and households, the Philippines had 62,000 logging and forestry workers on the basis of "usual occupation",1 or 79,000 logging and forestry workers on the basis of "industry".2 This was only 0.5% of the total workforce based on "usual occupation", or 0.7% of the total workforce based on "industry ".3
Table 1, although it is based on rough estimates, is thought to give a reasonably reliable picture of employment in forest industries.
'''The usual occupation or activity during the 12 months preceding the census date,
o The activity of the establishment in which an economically active person
worked during the reference week of the census. Q National Census and Statistics Office, Philippines 1970 Census . . . ,
op. cit.
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11
The following points emerge from it:
—logging employment could be between the figure given and 60,000 but is still small in relation to the rest of the sector, -'the major employment and highest labor capital ratios are in the "cottage industries", woodcraft, minor forest products and furniture while logging is relatively capital intensive.
2.2.1 Employment in the logging industry
For purposes of analysis we can separate forest-based em¬ ployment into that found in (i) private forestry, (ii) the government, and (iii) the rural households. Of these three divisions, the private logging firms provide the largest source of employment and will be treated first.
Philippine log production is moderately concentrated among a handful of large producers (Table 2). For the period 1974-75, only 29 timber licensees (8.3% of the total) produced 63% of the logs. The eight largest log producers accounted for a full 38% of total production. On the other hand, 322 timber licensees (91.7% of the total) produced under 37% of the logs. This relatively concen¬ trated industry structure is reflected in the fact that the large produ¬ cers generally have several hundred employees.
Table 2. Philippine Log Production by Size Qass of Producer, 1974-75.
Ave. Annual Log Timber Aggregate Log Production, Licenses Production 1974-1975 No. % Thousand m& %
(thousand m°)
301+ 8 2.3 2,859 38.2 100 — 300 21 6.0 1,866 25.0 50- 99 31 8.8 1,052 14.1 20- 49 70 19.9 1,105 14.8 0-19 221 63.0 588 7.9
Total 351 100.0 7,470 100.0
Source: Constructed from data provided by the Philippine Bureau of Forest Development.
According to the most recent (1972) logging census, the modal class of employment in logging establishments was 100-199 persons (Table 3). The table omits establishments with less than 10 em¬ ployees, and also omits employment in logging which could not be separately reported from employment in wood-processing. Thus some very small and presumably some very large establishments
12
are not included. Despite the weakness of the data, it is evident that most logging employment is found in large concerns. The lar¬ gest is known to employ more than 10,000 persons when including the employment in its integrated processing complex.
This same logging census further reveals that:
—Mindanao had 65% of the 1972 logging employment. —Contractors accounted for a mere 0.9% of the employees; 99.1% of the employment was provided by the timber conces¬ sionnaires. (Of course, small contractors with fewer than 10 employees were excluded from the census.) —Working owners and unpaid family workers accounted for an insignificant 0.2% of logging employment; all other em¬ ployees were wage and salary earners. —In most regions there is little seasonal variation in logging employment. For 178 reporting establishments, the total number of employees on the payrolls (in 1972) was: February 15—26,845; May 15—27, 504; August 15—27, 421; and Novem¬ ber 15-28, 029.
Table 3. Distribution of Logging Establishments by Employment Size, 1972.
Number of Establishments No. of Timber Logging/Trucking
Employees Licenses Contractors
10-19 19 2 20-49 28 4 50-99 38 1
100-199 47 0 200-499 35 0 500-999 3 0
1,000+ 1 0
Source: National Census and Statistics Office, 1972 Census of Establishments, Volume I: Logging (Manila, 1975), p. 13.
The principal exception to only limited seasonal variation of logging employment is provided by the Cagayan Valley of northern Luzon. In this region typhoon rains commonly close down most "Bataan" logging operations during part of the year. Table 4 shows the monthly employment fluctuations during 1975 for one of the larger Cagayan Valley log producers. While this company's peak employment during the height of the dry season in April and May exceeded 500, by November and December it had diminished to less than 150. This is more or less the typical pattern for the Cagayan region.
13
Table 4. Monthly Employment Fluctuations for a Log Producer in the Cagayan Valley, 1975.
Month Number of Employees
January February March April May June July August September October November December
167 243 411 522 501 341 290 290 346 263 144 138
The position classification and wage survey were based on a sample of 25 timber concessionnaires.1 The enumeration of employees is not confined solely to those doing logging tasks per se, but also in¬ cludes personnel in auxiliary functions. For every 100 employees in logging itself, the sample indicated that there are:
—47 who work in office/administration/medical/canteen; —55 who work in workshop/bodega/motor pool; —26 who work in scaling/log pond/shipping; —27 who work in forestry.
Ten job functions account for just over one-half of the sample employees. In order of decreasing frequency, these functions are:
—rigger/choker setter/cableman/hook tender/log chaser; —mechanic (and helper); —chain saw operator (and helper) ; —log truck driver (and helper) ; —yarder crewman; —security guard; —log sealer/grader/marker/tallyman ; —dozer/crawler tractor operator (and helper); - -tree marker; and —concession guard.
2.2.2 Forest-based employment in government
There are some 15-17 thousand government employees at the
For details of job functions and wages of employees of 25 concessionaires see Appropriate Technology in Philippine Forestry, Report of the Joint Philip¬ pine Bureau of Forest Development/ILO/Government of Finland Project, ILO/ FINLAND/73/PHI/1, International Labour Office, Geneva, October 1977.
14
national level in the agencies most closely connected with the admi¬ nistration and development of the forest lands.1 This is roughly one-third the number of persons employed by the private logging companies.
Table 5 shows the number of employees by job function within the Bureau of Forest Development, the largest government employer in the forestry sector. Other than labourers, the job func¬ tions of highest frequency are those of forest guards, foresters, and tree markers. The table indicates that in mid-year 1976 there were less than seven thousand seasonal labourers engaged in the refores¬ tation projects. However, depending on the availability of funds, this number has ranged as high as twenty-five thousand.
Forestry employment within the government is planned to increase substantially in the years ahead in response to expanded activities. Positions created and approved but not yet filled would approximately double the permanent staff of the Bureau of Forest
Table 5. Manpower Levels in the Bureau of Forest Development, Mid-Year 1976.
Employees Job Function No.
Labourer 9,147 65.93 (1) Reforestation3 (6,788) (2) Land Classification*1 (1,978) (3) Regular (381)
Forest Guard 780 5.62 Forester 613 4.42 Tree Marker 474 3.42 Clerk 383 2.76 Sealer 358 2.58 Tree Nursery Foreman 91 0.66 Parks and Game Warden 87 0.63
Sub-Total 11,933 86.02
All Other Positions 1,938 13.98
Total 13,871 100.00
^Seasonal.
Source: Constructed from data provided by the Philippine Bureau of Forest Development.
Bureau of Forest Development; Forest Research Institute; Presidential Committee on Wood Industries Development; and Forest Products Research Institute and Development Commission.
15
Development. More will be said of the stepped-up government activities and their anticipated effect on employment generation in section 2.3.
2.2.3 Forest-based employment in rural households
The Philippine forests provide a supplementary source of in¬ come for what must be a substantial share of the rural households otherwise engaged mainly in agriculture and fishing. This income is derived not through wages, but rather through the salvage or col¬ lection of forest products for household consumption or sale to intermediaries. The individual or collective self-employment so provided could be said to make up the "unorganized" or "informal" rural household sector.
The forest-based employment found in the unorganized rural household sector is almost impossible to quantify, and difficult to qualify. But we can generalize that it is most often diffuse, sporadic, part-time activity engaged in by local family and neighbourhood groups. Much of their activity undoubtedly escapes government regulation and taxation.
Probably the largest segment of the sector's income and em¬ ployment derives from the so-called "minor" forest products. This connotes a miscellany of leaves, stems, barks, roots, saps, resins, flowers, nuts, seeds, etc., that have economic value in an equally broad range of end-uses. The Philippines has an exceptionally rich variety of minor forest products, and Table 1 shows 85,000 persons engaged in their processing and manufacture (as distinguished from collection).
Other than minor forest products, the rest of the forest-based income and employment within the rural household sector is diffi¬ cult to pinpoint. On agricultural lands some farmers engage. in part-time timber salvage for sale as pulpwood, firewood, or for their own consumption. A pulp and paper mill in Luzon buys pulpwood originating from labour-intensive methods on dozens of private holdings. All over the Philippines civic, school, church, and business groups are urged to plant trees, requiring their contribution of volun¬ tary labour. Finally, the World Bank through the Development Bank of the Philippines has helped establish a few thousand small- scale tree farms aimed for the most part at the level of family-sized operations (cf. the discussion of the tree farm program in 2.3 fol¬ lowing).
2.3 Prospects for Increased Employment
The level of employment in the Philippine forestry sector in the future is a matter of policy choice on the one hand, and circums-
16
tance on the other. On the whole, there is reason for optimism when taking into account (1) the main trends in the timber industry on a world scale; (2) the changing forest composition from old-growth to young-growth stands and man-made plantations; (3) the intensi¬ fied government forestry activities projected for the next several decades; (4) the constant or even declining real cost of Philippine forest labour; and (5) the beginning of some imaginative social programs in small-scale tree farming and "kaingin" (forest squatters) management.
2.3.1 World trends
Wood as a raw material has several advantages that make it attractive relative to other materials in this world increasingly con¬ cerned with environmental protection and energy conservation. It is one of the few renewable natural resources, its wastes are bio¬ degradable or usable as fuel, and its energy requirements for pro¬ cessing are relatively low. Timber can serve aesthetic and protective ends in combination with industrial ends. For all of these reasons the world timber industry is expected to expand its output, and this expansion should be more marked in the developing than in the industrialized countries.
Western Europe and Japan already suffer large timber deficits at the same time that environmental demands conflict with logging interests in the U.S.A. The tropical and sub-tropical countries there¬ fore present themselves as increasingly attractive for timber indus¬ tries on the merits of available land for timber-growing, fast biolo¬ gical growth, reduced environmental pressure, and low labour costs. Against these advantages are set weak infrastructure, uncontrolled shifting cultivation, and the institutional immaturity of forestry in many developing countries; however, there is reason to believe that these obstacles are being overcome.1
The Philippines could be expected to share in the general shift to the developing countries for timber production and its attendant employment benefits. Relative to many other developing countries, the Philippine timber industry has comparative advantages in the form of experience, establishing market contacts, and reasonably good access to sources of investment capital. Regionally, however, the Philippines has been losing logging enterprise to Indonesia and Malaysia, both of which presently have more old-growth timber within easy access and on good terrain than does the Philippines.
ILO, General Report: Recent Development and Progress in the Timber Industry, Second Tripartite Technical Meeting for the Timber Industry, Report I (Geneva, 1973), Chapter I, esp. pp. 19-24.
17
2.3.2 Changing forest composition
Yet the Philippines' shrinking base of old-growth timber is tied up with employment stimulation. It is already well understood that every effort must be made to rehabilitate understocked forest land through a program of reforestation, enrichment planting, and other silvicultural measures. The long-term trend should find more and more employment possibilities in forestry, including the rehabili¬ tation efforts noted above, and less employment in logging.
Partly because of endowment, but even more because of past cutting practices, a large proportion of the forest land in the Philip¬ pines is presently unproductive or severely cuto ver. Where there remain good stands of timber, they are often on steep slopes in areas that are only marginally accessible. The bulk of the remaining har- vestable timber is old-growth dipterocarps1 for sawlogs and veneer, having large diameters and log sizes. These factors combine to limit the extent of the operable forest area in general, and the scope for labour-intensive logging in particular.
In the Philippines, all proclaimed forest land is part of the public domain. Forest land accounts for about 57%, or 17 million hectares, of a total land area of 30 million hectares. Proclaimed timberland is a little more than 9 million hectares, and the difference of 8 million hectares has yet to be classified as to final use, either for timber or agriculture.2
Table 6 shows the forest type and stand classes on the forest lands. The large area of unproductive and non-forest types should be noted. Moreover, within the dipterocarp forest only 40% of the total type remains as old-growth. It is planned to log over these old growth stands in the next 30-35 years, if not earlier.
Therefore, if there are to be second and third harvests, they will have to come from land that is presently in the types young- growth and reproduction-brush. These types have unknown future commercial potential since data on stocking and growth are incom¬ plete.
-*-The Philippines has given its name to a group of species known in the world timber trade as "Philippine mahogany," also known as "lauan." The several commercial species comprising this group belong to three genera—Shorea, Parashorea, and Pentacme—indigenous to Southeast Asia. The species are fur¬ ther divided on the basis of heartwood color into the dark red and light red groups. In the dark red group are red lauan (Shorea negrosensis) and tanguile (Shorea polysperma). In the light red group are almon (Shorea almon), bag- tikan (Parashorea plicata), mayapis (Shorea squamata), and white lauan (Pen¬ tacme contorta). The Philippine mahogany group, when combined with asso¬ ciated species in the same family Dipterocarpaceae, is loosely referred to as "dipterocarps."
o Philippine Bureau of Forest Development, 1975 Philippine Forestry
Statistics, op. cit., p. 5.
18
As the virgin dipterocarps continue to be logged over, there should be ever-increasing momentum favoring the establishment and expansion of man-made plantations. With respect to employ¬ ment generation, the term "man-made" speaks for itself. The oppor¬ tunities for employment include not only planting, but also tree nursery operations, seedling transport, site clearing and preparation, mortality replanting, and follow-up cleaning and tending. More¬ over, the comparatively small tree size implies a broadened scope for labour-intensive harvesting of those plantations intended for com¬ mercial purposes.
Unhappily, plantation development has lagged very far behind the rate of dipterocarp removals. The country presently has about 235,000 hectares of man-made forests, almost 90% of which is in government reforestation projects. As of 1975, the private logging firms had planted a total of only 33,000 hectares.1 Yet hopefully there will be accelerated creation of man-made forests in the years ahead in response to increased timber scarcity, liberalized govern¬ ment incentives, adjusted land use policies, and improved refores¬ tation tools and working organization.
2.3.3 Intensified government forestry activities
Previous sections have alluded to an enlarged government role in the forestry sector. This section considers the planned expansion by the Bureau of Forest Development in greater detail, since it holds prospects for a significant increase in forest-based em¬ ployment. While some of the goals undoubtedly overestimate what can actually be accomplished, the high targets at least underscore the vast amount of work waiting to be done.
The objectives most directly bearing on employment increase are:
-to check shifting agriculture (kaingin-making) on the forest land by quintupling the number of forest guards; H;o up-date knowledge of the forest resources by undertaking a four-year national-forest inventory; —to classify and certify 7.9 million hectares of presently un¬ classified forest lands before 1980; —to reforest 290,000 hectares before 1980, and a full 1.4 mil¬ lion hectares by the year 2000.
Other goals specify the provision of office buildings; re-evalua¬ tion of lands used as pastures; development of roads and tree nur-
Of a sample 81 timber licensees examined in April, 1975, only 14 were found to have undertaken reforestation work. Philippine Bureau of Forest Development, 1975 Philippine Forestry Statistics, op. cit., pp. 23-26.
19
Table 6. Status of Land Use within Public Forest Lands of the Philippines, 1975.
Public Forest Thousand
Forest Type/Land Use Hectares
Dipterocarp forest 9,739 57.2 a) Reproduction-Brush 2,824 16.6 b) Young Growth 3,047 17.9 c) Old-Growth 3,868 22.7
Mangrove Forest 230 1.4 a) Reproduction-Brush 114 0.7 b) Young-Growth 104 0.6 c) Old-Growth 12 0.1
Pine Forest 200 1.2
Unproductive Forest 1,728 10.1 a) Dipterocarp 1,398 8.2 b) Mossy 328 1.9 c) Bamboo 2 *
Non-Forest 5,133 30.1 a) Openland 748 4.4 b) Managed Pasture 805 4.7 c) Marsh & Small Water 83 0.5 d) Cultivated & Urban 3,497 20.5
Grand Total: 17,030 100.0
* Less than 0.1%.
Source: Philippine Bureau of Forest Development, 1975 Philippine Forestry Statistics (Manila, 1976), p. 12.
series; construction of terraces and checkdams for erosion control; identification of areas for nature reserves, national parks, game refuges, and bird sanctuaries; and still more activities that consti¬ tute extremely ambitious programs.1 It remains to be seen at what levels these multifarious activities will be funded, but even modest progress towards these commitments should greatly augment man¬ power levels.
2.3.4 Labour costs
Also encouraging from the perspective of employment expan-
1 Philippine Bureau of Forest Development, BFD Programs and Plans 1976-2000 (Manila, 1976).
20
sion is continuing wage restraint. Increased employee remuneration has been granted mainly in the form of new social benefits rather than in the form of large increases in the minimum wage.
In 1975 the average daily wage of logging and forestry workers employed by a sample of 25 timber concessionaires ranged from P8.94 to P12.23.1 As could be expected, there was a substantial wage spread between the employees of small and large logging enterprises. For the year 1975, the conversion factor between Philippine pesos and United States dollars was P7.25 to US$1.00. Applying this factor to the wages indicated, Philippine forest labour earned from US$1.23-1.69 per day. Adding the estimated social charge of 30%, labour costs per man-day were US$1.60-2.20. By the standards of the industrialized countries these are low wages, espe¬ cially for the heavy equipment operators and skilled workers in¬ cluded among the selected positions. On the other hand, by domes¬ tic standards the wages of logging and forestry workers are not extraordinary.
Relative to agriculture, earnings in the forestry sector are high. Statistics maintained by the Department of Labor indicate that, depending on the region and kind of labour, farm workers earn 24-51% as much as the Manila industrial and trades workers dis¬ cussed previously.2 We could therefore estimate that farm workers earn about one-half to three-fourths as much as logging and forestry workers.
2.3.5 Employment-loaded social programs
The discussion of increased forestry sector employment would not be complete without mention of tree farming and kaingin man¬ agement. The first refers to agro-silviculture, or combined agricul¬ ture and forestry in family-scale operations aimed at food self- sufficiency plus cash income from the sale of the tree crop. Kaingin management refers to the efforts to stabilize or remove shifting culti¬ vators (i.e., kaingineros) from the forest lands, a main thrust of which is to give them alternative employment in forest rehabilita¬ tion.
Both tree farming and kainginero employment are still in their infant stages, especially the latter. Organized agrosilviculture to provide pulpwood for the country's largest producer of pulp and paper already embraces more than 3,000 individual tree farms.
'''For details see Appendix II of Appropriate Technology in Philippine Forestry . . . , op.cit.
2 Department of Labor, Yearbook of Labor Statistics 1975 (Manila, 1976), pp. 155,175.
21
The kainginero employment remains at present a social experiment that has yet to be proved successful on a wide scale.
An important exception is the same pulp and paper company noted previously, which has successfully induced kaingineros to abandon their slash-and-burn practices on the company's timber concession by recruiting them for wage employment in tree planting.1
Another large timber concessionaire provides a source of cash income by offering payment for supplies of bamboo pots used to grow tree seedlings, and for the collection of lumbang nuts.2
Estimates of annual forest destruction by kaingineros range from 60-172,000 hectares, and as of 1975 it was estimated that kaingins occupied more than 20% of the proclaimed forest lands.3
Kaingin-making may engage some 120,000 families, or an estimated one-half million individuals.4 The accuracy of these estimates is understandably open to question, but there can be no doubt con¬ cerning the large number of subsistence-level families involved, and their destructive impact on the forest ecosystem.
The objective of the government's kaingin management program is to transfer as many kaingineros as possible from their location in forest lands to lands classified for alienation and disposal. The resi¬ dual population which cannot or will not be resettled will be assisted in making their occupancy more stable and self-sustaining to prevent their encroachment on still other forest lands. The ideal would be to provide them with stable employment in tree nurseries; timber stand improvement; the construction and maintenance of roads, dams, and other forest infrastructures; and especially in reforestation of their own kaingins.
According to a recent investigation by F AO, kainginero em¬ ployment offers the most effective short-term remedy for reducing pressure on the land. It does not require large investments or large- scale resettlements. This does not deny that certain conditions must be met to help assure successful implementation, among them:
—the employment should be stable and last at least six months in each year; -H;he work and payment of wages should be safeguarded with contracts;
*W. L. Heymann, "Training and Research in Multiple-Use Forest Manage¬ ment in the Philippines: Agricultural Extension Work", UNDP/FAO Draft Report (Rome, 1976) pp. 42-45. n
Aleurites molueanna, the oil of which is used to make paints, varnishes, linoleum, and wood preservatives.
O Philippine Bureau of Forest Development, "BFD Programs. . . op. cit.,
pp. 9, 12. ^Presidential Committee on Wood Industries Development, "Philippine
Forestry arid Wood Industries Development" (Manila, 1971).
22
—payments should be regular and prompt; and —the employment program should extend for several years and have sound logistical support with respect to materials, tools, tree seedlings, etc.1
Thus progress in the direction of kainginero employment would seem to require mutual learning on the part of both employer and em¬ ployee.
Closely allied with kainginero employment in the quest of social amelioration is agro-silviculture. "Taungya"2 that integrates tree crops with food crops gives the farmer a means of self-subsis¬ tence while at the same time re-establishing the forest cover. How¬ ever, the country's most successful combination of agriculture with forestry is not true taungya, but rather small-scale tree farms aggre¬ gating food and livestock production in one parcel and tree planta¬ tions in another.3
Each tree farm is intended to be self-sustaining through the allocation of approximately 20% of its most productive land for farm crops, livestock, and fish ponds, and the rest of its land (80%) for fast-growing pulpwood plantations of falcata (Albizia falcataria).
By February, 1976, some 2,760 of 3,406 tree farms had been established without external financing. By this date, 706 tree farmers already had sold more than 370,000 cubic meters of pulp- wood to the company referred to earlier, even though the tree farm program had been initiated only eight years before.4 The success of the tree farm venture is unquestionably the single most encouraging sign of increasing labor absorption in Philippine forestry.
Mention should also be made of the Bureau of Forest Develop¬ ment's experiments with the "family approach", which in 1975-76 led to the reforestation of 500 hectares under contracts with indi¬ vidual families. Each of 100 families in the Bukidnon (Mindanao) project area was assigned five hectares of public forest land to plant
^Heymann, op. cit., p. 45. o
The term has several interpretations. The most general is an agricultural system in which tree crops alternate with agricultural crops, the latter being sown intermittently or simultaneously with the tree crop during the regene¬ ration period. E. Brunig, "Taungya Versus Shifting Cultivation", pp. 197-223 in Employment and Transfer of Technology in Forestry, Seminar Report of the German Foundation for International Development in collaborating with FAO and ILO (West Berlin, 1974).
3 It should be noted that the tree farmers are indeed encouraged to inter-
plant food crops within the newly planted trees during the earliest stages of plantation development, which is in fact taungya.
^Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines, Tree Farming—Its Me¬ chanics and Economics (Bislig, 1976), and The PICOP Agro-Forestry Develop¬ ment Program and Its Social Impact (Bislig, 1976).
23
and tend through the first two years of plantation establishment. The families were kaingineros, local farmers, and other residents in the project area. The Bureau of Forest Development paid the parti¬ cipating families on an installment basis according to their accom¬ plishments. The contracted activities were preparation of the plant¬ ing area, actual planting and fertilizer application, ring weeding, and protection and maintenance.
This payment-by-results scheme1 was designed to ensure that the family labourers will take an active interest in plantation main¬ tenance and survival. It also provides on-site vigilance against fire, stray cattle, and other agents of plantation destruction. Finally, it has the flexibility to allow the families to work at their own pace and with their own choice of hours, which is important for rural people hitherto self-sufficient and not yet accustomed to fixed work schedules. Hopefully the success of the Bukidnon project will en¬ courage similar contractual reforestation in other regions.
2.4 Conclusions
The overall picture is one of low employment levels at present, but of potentially highly elevated levels in the near and distant future. The main determinant of the forestry sector's labour ab¬ sorption in the years ahead will be the effort committed to refo¬ restation and silviculture as the purely extractive logging phase comes to an abrupt end. As virgin dipterocarp timber disappears, forest production will henceforth require human inputs, and in massive quantities.
A large fringe of rural households and farms derives supple¬ mentary income from forest-based self-employment. Most of this self-employment is provided through the collection of minor forest products. Other rural workers earn piece-rates for pulpwood cutting and loading. The agro-silviculture program provides employment for more than 3,400 small tree farmers and potentially many more.
The next chapter deals with the related matter of technologies and methods, which is the central focus of this book.
The payments were broken down into roughly equal amounts according to the following schedule: P500 (US$68) at the start of the planting season ; 1*530 when 50% of the area was planted; 1*675 (US$91) when the axea was fuily planted; P50Q during the period of maintenance and protection, and P5O0 when the planted stock attained 80% survival or more, and the area was ready to be turned over to the Bureau of Forest Development.
24
3
COMPARISON OF ALTERNATIVE
METHODS
This chapter summarises results of the work studies applied to a wide range of selected forestry operations.1
The basic methodology was similar for each work study. Equip¬ ment-intensive and labour-intensive methods were identified for each activity having alternative production possibilities. Stop watches were used to record the time elements and compute a production rate for each method. Hourly machine and labour costs were derived for each method as the sum of individual cost items, e.g., machine or tool depreciation; interest; fuel, oil, and lubricants; repair and maintenance; and wages plus extra-wage social benefits. This pro¬ cedure provided a direct comparison of private costs between methods (Figure 2). Details of the work study methodology and, for illustrative purposes, an example of its application are provided in the Appendix.
Included among the alternatives were "improved" labour- using methods and "intermediate" methods, entailing some com¬ bination of better hand tools, helping devices, and working organiza¬ tion. Productive labour-intensive methods depend on technologies said to be "improved" or "intermediate" because the machine/tool input is higher than in primitive manual methods, but much lower than in sophisticated capital-intensive ones.
The ubiquitous forestry hand tool in the Philippines is the bolo (i.e. machete, jungle knife—see Figure 3). It is commonly fashioned from discarded leaf springs of motor vehicles, old saw blades, and other pieces of hard steel that happen to be available. When speaking of primitive manual methods as in the preceding paragraph, the bolo is often the sole machine/tool input. Bolos are used for clearing underbrush, debarking, pruning, digging holes for tree planting, and sometimes falling and erosscutting small-diameter timber.
A sharp bolo can be a formidable cutting tool, and even small boys know how to wield it with skill. The problem, however, is that the bolo is not designed for the wide range of activities for which it is used. As a general-purpose tool adequate for a great number of
The specific context of each work study as well as a more complete enu¬ meration oí dita is to be found in Appendix I of the report, Appropriate Tech¬ nology in Philippine Forestry, op. cit.
25
Figure 2. Methodology of Work Study in Forestry.
PRODUCTION COST
26
tasks, the bolo cannot hope to be as productive as special-purpose tools in all of them.
Figure 3. Bolo with Sheath.
In the context of this chapter the "improved" method is some¬ times intended to displace a less productive or less labour-intensive one. In this category are the work studies of debarking, tree planting, and pruning. These are not equipment-intensive activities at present. However, if productivity levels are not kept satisfactorily high, there is always the possibility that the decision-maker-whether in govern¬ ment or private industry—will turn to an increasingly attractive machine-intensive alternative (e.g. for debarking or tree planting), or will discontinue the activity entirely (pruning).
In the other class of work studies the labour-intensive methods are pitted directly against alternatives having a higher machine content. The objective is to determine whether or not the labour- intensive methods' comparatively lower input rates are more than compensated by their lower operating costs. In this category are the studies of falling and crosscutting, log skidding, log loading, underbrush clearing, and thinning.
3.1 Stump Site Activities
The stump site activities comprise the first step in the logging sequence. Normally these activities embrace falling the tree from standing position to the ground; debranching the utilizable bole preparatory to log making, and crosscutting the bole into appropriate log lengths. When the logs are debarked in the woods, debarking is another of the stump site activities. However, in this report debark¬ ing is treated as a separate (roadside) activity.
The discussion of stump site activities is divided into two sections: (1) virgin dipterocarps, and (2) fast-growing plantations and other small trees. In each case the studies indicate that it is
27
economically feasible to move one step towards more labour-inten¬ sive practice from the prevailing cutting technology at present. For the virgin dipterocarps, this step is from the large, heavy-weight power chain saw of 9-13 horsepower to a smaller, lighter power chain saw of about 3-5 horsepower. For the plantations and other relatively small trees, this step is from the small, light power chain saw mentioned above to manual cutting with bow saws.
3.1.1 Virgin dipterocarps
The labour content of stump site activities in heavy tropical hardwoods, such as the Philippine dipterocarps, is low relative to the labour content of these activities in fast-growing tropical plantations. It is also low relative to the usual labour content of stump site acti¬ vities in more temperate regions.
The reasons are, first, that in the virgin dipterocarps the mer¬ chantable bole often represents less than two-thirds of the total height of the tree; the first large branch generally sets the limit for what will be utilized. Hence there is little or no debranching re¬ quired for log-making. Secondly, the number of crosscuts is rarely more than 3-4 per tree, since the logs are made in long lengths of up to 15 meters. Finally, the log size of at least three or four tons precludes manual handling and positioning.1
The scope for manpower use is therefore to be found chiefly in cutting speed. Because it is slower, manual sawing requires three crews to achieve the same level of daily output as a single power saw crew. Small power saws have a slower cutting speed than large power saws, and so likewise require more crews to equal the output level of the larger saws.
The first work study relates to the study of alternative falling and crosscutting technologies in Samar and eastern Mindanao. Ob¬ servations in eastern Mindanao covered the "large" one-man chain saw only. In Samar they covered the two-man crosscut saw and both "small" and "large" one-man chain saws (Figure 4).
Figure 5 shows the relative labour intensities of the alternative methods. It can be seen that the small chain saw was only slightly more labour-using than the large chain saw, but considerably less labour-using than the two-man crosscut saw. The small chain saw's machine cost was only half that of the large chain saw, but of course much higher than that of the two-man crosscut saw. The small chain saw could therefore be termed an intermediate technology, although it is closer to the existing machine-intensive than to the labour-intensive alternative.
^Supplementary background material is found in FAO, Logging and Log Transport in Tropical High Forest (Rome, 1974), pp. 8-13.
28
Figure 4. Falling Large Trees with Two-Man Crosscut Saw and with Power Chain Saw.
(a) Two-Man Crosscut Saw
Figure 5. Machine Cost and Labour Requirement to Fall and Crosscut 100 Cubic Meters of Virgin Dipterocarp Timber under Alternative Methods.
A—Large Chain Saw (Mindanao) j « B—Large Chain Saw (Samar)
C—Small Chain Saw (Samar) \ D—Two-Man Crosscut Saw (Samar) \
\ \ \
,A \ \
\
20 30 40 LABOUR REQUIREMENT, MAN-HOURS
Notes: (i) Two-man teams for all methods. (ii) Machine cost for chain saw covers depreciation,
fuel, chain oil, guide bar and chain, and repair and maintenance.
(ni) Chain saw data include breakdown allowance.
30
The lowest unit cost of US$0.19 per cubic meter was achieved by the small chain saw (Samar). In order of increasing cost per cubic meter, the other methods had the following unit costs: US$0.22 for the two-man crosscut saw (Samar), US$0.23 for the large chain saw (Mindanao), and US$0.26 for the large chain saw (Samar). Thus the costs were roughly uniform, irrespective of method.1
During the last several years there has been a quiet revolution in the development of chain saw performance and design. The over¬ all trend is towards lighter, safer, quieter saws that have a low level of vibration. Comfort of use and safety are implicit in good machine balance, low weight, low noise level, low vibration level, chain brake, and right-hand safety trigger. Chain saws of advanced design Eire available in a large number of makes and models, such that there is a very wide range of modern chain saws from which to choose.
At this point in time, however, the small, light-weight chain saw has not been used in the Philippines for falling and crosscutting large-diameter dipterocarps. Heavy, gear-driven saws weighing 15 kilograms and more, frequently without any of the modern safety or anti-vibration devices, are normally used'. The larger saw is said to be preferred because of machine reliability, ability to withstand harsh treatment, and the power needed to cut through large-dia¬ meter trees and logs. Yet the use of the large saw entails hidden ergonomie costs borne by the workers in the form of heavy carrying weight and high risks of work-related accidents and impairment of hearing.
That a smaller, more modern chain saw of reduced power and weight could not be used in the virgin dipterocarp forest has never been substantiated. In fact, the work study goes a long way towards demonstrating that the small chain saw is quite suitable for trees up to 4 ft (120 cm) in diameter, or even larger if the trees have but¬ tresses. Using the technique of cutting "around" rather than "through" the tree, it was possible to fall trees having cutting diameters of about 2.5 times the 20" guide bar used.
The usual method of cutting "through" the tree with a large chain saw and long guide bar is illustrated in Figure 6. The technique of cutting "around" the tree with a small chain saw and shorter guide bar is illustrated in Figure 7. When using the small saw, the under¬ cut—or felling sink— is made as usual. The next step is to make the center cut with the help of the roller-nose bar. Leaving hinges at
■^'Uniformity of costs is what could be expected based on a study by FAO in 16 developing countries during the period 1966-69. With daily wages of USÇ1-2, there were only small cost differences when comparing stump site activities by one man using an axe, two men using a crosscut saw, and two men using a power chain saw. See M. Bendz and A. Jatvholm, Logging and Transport in Tropical High Forest (Stockholm Royal College of Forestry, Research Note No. 38, 1970).
31
the sides of the undercut, the final step is to walk around the tree and complete the falling cut.1
If light, low-powered chain saws are to be used on a wider scale in large-diameter timber, there will have to be much greater publicity for this special working technique than exists presently. Secondly, the large chain saw cannot be completely displaced, since there are some trees too big to be handled by the small chain saw and its 20" guide bar. In the timber type of eastern Mindanao there are about three trees per hectare that could not be cut with the small chain saw. In the timber type of Samar and other regions often frequented by typhoons, the number of such trees is lower.
Figure 6. Cutting "Through" a Large Tree with a Large Chain Saw and Long Guide Bar.
But in both regions the small chain saw could be used in combi¬ nation with the large chain saw, either simultaneously with different teams, or sequentially with the same team using first the small and then the large chain saw. The small saw could be used for the ma¬ jority of the trees, and the large saw only to cut the few giants. Of course, these combination methods bear a certain cost for additional organization and coordination not incurred when using the large chain saw alone.
The truly labour-intensive method, the manual crosscut saw, proved to be very cost competitive with the chain saws. But to convince the logging industry to go back to manual falling and crosscutting as used up till the 1960's is difficult.
For a buttressed tree this procedure changes slightly to include (i) pene trating the nose of the bar through the first buttress to mark a level sawing po tion on the main trunk; (ii) continuing the falling cut on the main trunk betv all other buttresses in the same way; and (iii) finishing by cutting the butt- where they adjoin the main falling cut.
32
Figure 7. Cutting "Around" a Large Tree with a Small Chain Saw and Short Guide Bar.
(2)
(5)
33
However, there are some real as well as imagined shortcomings to the manual method, one of the main ones being the high stump height associated with the construction of platforms to place the cutting diameter above the buttresses. Secondly, without the aid of power chain saws there is a tendency to cut only medium-sized trees to the exclusion of the very large ones. Finally, it may be argued that manual falling and crosscutting of large tropical hardwoods are too strenuous, especially if the workers' diet is not completely adequate.1
On the other hand, objections to the method because it is "old-fashioned" or not prestigious are founded on a vulnerable psychology. It must be asked if this position is supported by actual cost calculations. Furthermore, the fight against "backwardness" will become even more tenuous in the light of rising fuel prices.
3.1.2 Fast-growing plantations and other small trees
If there is a tendency to resist manual sawing in the large dip- terocarps, it should be much less pronounced in plantation-sized and other small trees.
A very appropriate intermediate method for small trees is the bow saw (Figure 8). Figure 9 shows two alternatives to the bow saw—the small power chain saw and the axe. Figure 10 shows that the bow saw is far more labour-intensive than the small chain saw, and that it has a very low hourly machine/tool cost. On the other hand, the bow saw is less than half as labour-intensive as the axe, but much less wasteful of wood.
The work studies of interest are a thinning study and a cross- cutting study, both carried out in plantations of Albizia faleatoria. These plantations have excellent bow saw potential, especially for the small-scale tree farmers who can neither afford nor justify the investment in chain saws. The introduction of bow saws would free the tree farmers from dependence on contractors, or prevent them from buying or leasing chain saws that they cannot fully utilize.
But the economical use of bow saws is not restricted to tree farmers and other small-scale operations. The timber concession¬ aires, also, should find that bow saws are cost-competitive with chain saws. Unit costs in the work study of thinning were US$35.- 27 per thousand stems thinned by small chain saw, as against US $34.50 per thousand stems thinned by bow saw. As before, these
■*-J. Hansson, A. Lindholm, and H. Birath, Men and Tools in Indian Logging Operations (Stockholm Royal College of Forestry, Research Note No. 29, 1966), pp. 8-10.
34
Figure 8. Thinning with Bow Saw.
Figure 9. Thinning with Small Power Chain Saw and with Axe.
36
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data support the general contention that the cost of stump site activities is relatively uniform, irrespective of method.
However, beyond a particular diameter limit the bow saw is no longer competitive with the small chain saw. The maximum dia¬ meter of tree felled by bow saw in the work study was 60 centimeters, but this was well over the economic margin. The economically optimal diameter range for the bow saw in falcata (Albizia falca- taria) is approximately 15-35 centimeters.
The most labour-intensive methods for plantations and other small trees depend on the axe and the bolo. If they are not at the opposite extreme of using chain saws, many of the falcata tree farmers are limited to these tools at present. However, a detailed, work study1 revealed that not only did the bow saw's cutting speed exceed those of the bolo and axe by a factor of five, but also that the bow saw had no more than 9% and 15% the cutting waste of these two tools, respectively. Average kerf in centimeters was 3.83 for the axe, 2.38 for the bolo, but only 0.35 for the bow saw (Figure 11). At current stumpage prices the substitution of the bow saw for the more primitive axe and bolo could pay for itself on the basis of reduced wood waste alone in the cutting of only 225 trees.
In conclusion, advocacy of the intermediate small chain saw for large-diameter timber and bow saw for small-diameter timber moves the sector in the direction of rationalized stump site activities. Neither method is as labour-intensive as more primitive alternatives, but they eliminate drawbacks connected with high stumps, avoidance of large trees, and wide kerfs. Most importantly, they imply a reasonably good balance between labour use and labour productivity.
3.2 Short-Distance Log Transport
From the stump site the logs or trees are transported to the river, road, or roadside landing. This can be done either by skidding them resting on the ground with the use of mobile animal or machine power, or by yarding them towards a stationary power unit with the aid of cables, drums, blocks, chokers, and other cable logging acces¬ sories (Figure 12).
Of the various methods of short-distance log transport, cable systems generally require the largest capital investment. They necessitate meticulous advance planning and engineering, a high level of competence on the part of the logging foremen and yarder crews, and considerable organization to clear the landings, rig the spars, and change the cableways. Because fixed costs are high, cable sys¬ tems are economically justified only where steep slopes prohibit mobile skidders, and where a relatively heavy volume can be extrac¬ ted per unit area.
■''See Work Study No. 10 in Appropriate Technology in Philippine Fo¬ restry, op. cit.
38
Figure 11. Comparative Kerfs for Small Logs Crosscut by Bolo, Axe and Bow Saw.
3.83 cm
AXE
2.38 cm
BOLO
0.35 cm
BOW SAW
39
Figure 12. Highlead Cable Yarding.
3.2.1 Predominant methods
Notwithstanding that cable logging is often the alternative of last resort because of its high cost, in the Philippines it is the predominant method. This is because of steep slopes supporting a heavy density of large trees. According to records maintained by the Bureau of Forest Development, 70% of the timber concession¬ aires use cable systems (highlead, skyline, highlead-skyline combina¬ tion, or tractor-skyline combination) in some or all of their short- distance log transport. Because cable logging is especially prevalent in the larger companies which can bear the fixed investment, it accounts for an estimated 80% of total Philippine log production.
The primary methods used in the remaining 20% of short- distance log transport are: (1) ground skidding with crawler trac¬ tors, articulated four-wheel s ladders, carabao (water buffalo), and farm tractors; (2) yarding with truck-mounted winches, such as by "Bataan" and "wrecker" trucks; (3) use of aerial tramways in the precipitous pine ¡region of Luzon; and (4) manual carrying and dragging of small logs, pulpwood pieces, and firewood.
3.2.2 Labour intensities
The scope for labour absorption is obviously highly variable among the different methods. Yet due to great variation in log size and terrain it is often difficult to compare alternatives. On the labour-using end of the spectrum are carabaos, farm tractors, and
40
manual carrying and dragging, but these methods are feasible prima¬ rily where log size is small and the topography is gentle. The labour- intensive method least sensitive to slope is manual carrying, which in some instances is used even on steep hillsides.
Figure 13 compares the labour intensities of the four ground skidding methods.1 These methods are crawler tractor, four-wheel skidder, farm tractor and carabao (Figure 14). To this we have added manual carrying of pulpwood in a plantation of falcata.
Manual carrying generated more than twice the labour input of carabao skidding, but load size transported manually averaged only .08 cubic meters. This compared with 0.17 cubic meters by the carabao and 0.25 cubic meters by the farm tractor, and this was subsequently found to increase to 1.0 cubic meters when a winch was added to the tractor (a four-fold increase). For the men working singly the observed average load size of 50-60 kilograms balanced on their shoulders was equal to or greater than their own body weights, surpassing the recommended limit set for safe handling and avoidance of muscle strain^2 Subject to this constraint on log weight, human transport provides the most readily available and by far the least costly conveyance for individuals such as the falcata tree farmers and the people in the pine region of Luzon. Opportunity cost of their own labour in the agricultural off-seasons is almost negligible.
Figure 15 graphs log transport costs as a function of distance for the four ground skidding methods studied. The least-cost en¬ velope curve shows the carabao to be the most economical method for round-trip distance under 440 meters, and the four-wheel skidder to be the most economical method for round-trip distances 440 meters and longer. The crawler tractor and the farm tractor— neither of which was properly designed or equipped for skidding— did not prove competitive.
3.2.3 Carabao and farm tractor as intermediate methods
Within limitations on load size, terrain, and distance, the cara¬ bao and farm tractor are highly practical ground skidding methods intermediate to purely manual transport on the one hand, and the capital-intensive crawler tractor and four-wheel skidder on the other. Furthermore, the productivity of both carabao and farm tractor can be raised with the addition of simple helping devices.
Carabaos are no longer seen in large numbers in commercial
^For details see Work Study No. 2, Appropriate Technology in Philippine Forestry. . op. cit.
%LO, Guide to Safety and Health in Forestry Work (Geneva, 1968). For males, safe limits are 40% of body weight for continuous work, or 50% of >->ndy weight for intermittent work.
41
Figure 13. Machine Cost and Labour Requirement to Transport One Cubic Meter of Logp a Round-Trip Distance of 500 Meters under Alternative Methods.
A — Four-Wheel Skidder B — Crawler Tractor
x° C — Carabao B D — Farm Tractor * E — Manual Carrying
\ \ \ \
A \
\
2 3 4 5 LABOUR REQUIREMENT, MAN-HOURS
Notes: (i) Operator and choker setter for crawler tractor, four- wheel skidder, and farm tractor. One-man crews for carabao and manual carrying.
(ii) Machine cost for crawler tractor, four-wheel skidder, and farm tractor covers depreciation, interest, fuel, oil, lubricants, and repair and maintenance. "Machine" cost for carabao covers carabao hiring, feed, and rope.
(iii) Data for crawler tractor, four-wheel skidder, farm tractor, and carabao include breakdown allowance.
(iv) Farm tractor inefficient due to lack of winch and tire chains.
Figure 14. Log Skidding with Crawler Tractor, Four-Wheel Skidder, Farm Tractor, and Carabao.
(a) Crawler Tractor
(b) Four-Wheel Skidder
43
(c) Farm Tractor
(d) Carabao (with Sledge)
44
Figure 16. Cone, Grapple, and Sledge to Assist Log Skidding by Carabao.
(a) Cone
(b) Grapple
(c) Sledge
46
logging. They are found only in scattered operations in remote areas, and where farmers supplement their income through part-time salvage of residual timber. On a limited scale or in combination with faster and larger machine skidders, carabao skidding has the fol¬ lowing advantages:
— the animals are adaptable, not easily excited, and easy to train;
— they are particularly useful in roadless and swampy areas, and where heavy equipment cannot be risked in rainy periods;
— they have a minimal opportunity cost during agricultural off-seasons; and
— they are economical where the timber is too small or scat¬ tered to justify machine skidders.
The disadvantages are:
— the animals may be in short supply during agricultural planting and harvesting;
— the carabao is a non-sweating animal that needs frequent bathing on hot days to keep down its temperature, requiring the presence of nearby water holes;
— the carabaos are susceptible to overwork and foot-and-mouth disease, and their lifetime expectancy in woods work is much less than in farm work;
— the modest pulling capacity of a carabao working singly limits the size of load it can skid to .30-.45 cubic meters;
— carabaos cannot work on steep slopes; and — forage grasses are sometimes difficult to find in forested
areas.
Yet before the era of mechanised logging the carabao was the principal means of ground transport. Logs of up to three or four cubic meters were pulled with the aid of several carabaos hitched together. Devices to facilitate hauling included (1) crude sleds made from the natural forks of small trees; (2) carabao carts, either with spoke wheels or solid wooden wheels; and (3) narrow- gauge railroads in which wooden poles served as the rails, and the railroad car was pulled by carabaos. However, the carabao carts and the carabao-powered railroads were restricted to level terrain.
Although it did not prove economical in the work study be¬ cause it was not properly equipped, the farm tractor also has definite potential as an intermediate skidding method. Indeed subsequent trials had revealed that the addition of the winch to the tractor raised hourly output by 200% while the corresponding increase in hourly costs was only 9%. As in the case of the carabao, the farm tractor can be used to skid logs in idle periods when not needed in agricul¬ ture. Because it has a low machine cost and does not travel as fast
47
or pull loads eis large as the four-wheel skidder or the crawler tractor, the farm tractor is more labour-intensive than these larger machines.
To be practical, however, the farm tractor should be equipped with winch and tire chains. Secondly, the farm tractor cannot com¬ pete with the four-wheel skidder for distances over a few hundred meters.
Taking into account the differences in travel speed and load size, an integrated approach could use some combination of manual carrying, carabaos, and farm tractors equipped with winches to transport the logs the short distance from stump site to main trail, from where four-wheel skidders would transport the bunched logs the longer distance to the roadside. Within constraints on minimum scale of operation and suitability of the terrain, this kind of integ¬ rated system could produce considerable employment in harvesting the industrial plantations and the tree farms.
3.3 Debarking
Bark is removed from the logs either at the stump site, the roadside, the log pond, the processing plant, or not at all. Potentially available mechanical debarking methods at the processing plant in¬ clude machines with cutting knives, rotating drums, or pressurized jets of water. However, mechanical debarking is not widely em¬ ployed in the Philippines due to the unsatisfactory performance of machine methods in taking off the thick, tough bark of the dip- terocarps and other tropical hardwoods. This generally relegates bark removal to manual methods, even though productivity levels often leave much to be desired.
We discuss next the debarking of Benguet pine (Pinus kesiya), falcata (Albizia falcataria), and gubas (Endospermum peltatum) by means of bolos on the one hand, and properly designed debarking spuds on the other (Figure 17). Introduction of the spuds increased productivity by 129% for gubas, 62% for Benguet pine, and 33% for falcata. Compared with the bolo, the debarking spud allows the worker to maintain a semi-upright stance rather than a stooped position. Secondly, use of the spud reduces the risks that the worker will lacerate himself. When used to debark pine, the spud helps reduce bodily contact with the resinous wood.
Figure 18 shows the man-hours required to debark the different species under the alternative methods, including one point represent¬ ing mechanical debarking of mixed hardwood. The figure indicates that the spud is the improved labour-using method having producti¬ vity and labour absorption intermediate to the bolo at one extreme, and the mechanical debarker at the other. The point which shows the mechanical debarking of mixed hardwood represents an attempt
48
Figure 17. Debarking with Boie and with Debarking Spad.
(b) Spud.
49,
Scale 1:5
Figure 18. Machine Cost and Labour Requirement to Debark 100 Cubic Meters of Small-Diameter Logs under Alternative Methods.
A—Spud (Falcata) B—Bolo (Falcata)
G C—Spud (Gubas) w 50. * D—Bolo (Gubas)
\ E—Spud (Pine) y F—Bolo (Pine)
(J5 4o ■ \ G—Mechanical (Mixed Hardwoods) O ü _i O
\
\ \ o30 • \ \%.
\ % % Sfc
LU
\ \ X
ioo* ' 200 300 LABOUR REQUIREMENT, MAN-HOURS
Notes: (i) Data for mechanical debarker- from large pulp and paper producer.
(ii) Machine cost for mechanical debarker covers deprecia¬ tion, debarking knives, electricity, and repair and main¬ tenance.
50
at manpower substitution that was not successful. The largest pulp and paper producer in the Philippines, and
the first in Southeast Asia to produce newsprint from tropical hardwoods, installed an important ring-type debarking machine in 1975. However, it was found that the machine did not work well for the indigenous hardwood mix. The machine had particular difficulty with pieces that had fibrous or stringy bark, and the waste disposal capacity of the machine was not adequate to keep it from getting clogged. Cost levels were 72% higher than projected, and the mechanical debarking was discontinued.
Company engineers believe that the debarking machine will be perfectly suitable for thin-barked species like falcata and gubas. Tfre machine is also known to work well for pine. But it must be accepted that 20-30% of the native hardwood mix cannot be peeled mechanically. For the present the company has reverted entirely to manual peeling of up to 3,000 pulpwood pieces per day, which provides employment for more than 100 workers.
3.4 Log Loading
Truck loading and unloading can be carried out in a great variety of ways. The alternatives range from strictly manual methods to methods requiring only one piece of equipment and a single ope¬ rator.
Among the loading methods most commonly observed in the Philippines are heelboom loaders with single tongs, trackloaders mounted on crawler tracks or rubber tires, mobile cranes, and mobile front-end loaders with hydraulic forks. Many methods rely on various power sources and rigging schemes to lift the logs by means of A-frames and suspended blocks. Other methods are self-contained on the truck, such as truck-mounted grapple loaders and "Bataan" self-loading.
3.4.1 Bataan self-loading
Truck logging in the Philippines is known as "Bataan" logging due to its development by small logging contractors in the Bataan Peninsula just after the Second World War. With the Bataan method of self-loading, a crew of three or four men can load 10-15 cubic meters of logs in a little more than one hour. At two to four cubic meters per man-hour, Bataan self-loading is moderately labour- intensive, and merits mention here.
The trucks are the old military-type "six by six", so named because of their six-cylinder engines and original six-wheel drive. Most of these trucks by this time have been thoroughly overhauled
51
and converted to carry loads of up to 15 tons, even though they were originally designed for loads of only one-third that amount. Modifications from the original "six by six" typically include a change to double from single wheels on the dual rear axles, exten¬ sion and reinforcement of the frame, addition of extra leaf springs, conversion of the differential and under-chassis, and use of 12-ply rather than the original 8-ply tires.
A winch equipped with 50-80 meters of wire cable is mounted on the front of the truck. With the winch line threaded through a block attached three to five meters high on a convenient tree, the truck can yard logs, load itself (Figure 19), and haul the load to its destination.1
Although still practiced in the Cagayan Valley of northern Luzon, Bataan logging apparently faces a dim future. Bataan yarding often leaves patches of forest unlogged, for which reason crawler tractors have largely taken over the function of short-distance log transport. This has left only the self-loading and hauling to the trucks.
Bataan trucks are becoming unpopular also because they are often associated with seasonal dirt roads rather than more perma¬ nent all-weather roads. Finally, from the standpoint of employment generation, Bataan logging is not as labour-using as it is capital- saving.
^R. Baggayan, "Loading in the Philippines." Philippine Lumberman
Figure 19. Bataan Truck Self-Loading.
XIX (3) : 6-12, 19.
52
Figure 20. Pulpwood Loading Manually and Mechanically
(a) Manual
(b) Mechanical with Front-End Loader
53
3.4.2 Manual methods for small logs
Labour-intensive log loading is more feasible for industrial plantations, tree farms, and miscellaneous small-diameter timber than for virgin dipterocarps.
Pulpwood loading by purely manual methods is compared with pulpwood loading by a rubber-tired front-end loader (Figure 20). Relative to the mechanical alternative, the manual method had a longer truck standing time waiting to be loaded, and it incurred the cost of extra cross-cutting to 2.5 meter lengths for manual handling even when ascribing a cost of US$0.88 per cubic meter relative to US$0.91 for the mechanical loader.
The hand loading however did not make use of labour-saving devices other than wooden poles to serve as ramps, and the occa¬ sional use of ropes. Hand tools such as tongs, stacking claws, pulp- wood picks, and lifting hooks (Figure 21) were not used.
The introduction of these hand tools indicated that potentially output can be raised by a factor of three, but with ten times the labour input of the mechanical alternative.
3.5 Underbrush Clearing
Many applications, both on small scale and large scale, call for the removal of underbrush, vines, and herbaceous vegetation. Among these applications are clearing to make fire trails, roads, and other access paths; clearing around building sites, agricultural plots, and places of human habitation; clearing along roadsides both to open the view and to let the sun dry the road surface; and clearing to prepare for tree planting in industrial plantations and refores¬ tation projects. Young plantations require tending and weeding, which is yet another form of clearing. Liberation cutting, young- tree selection, and other elements of timber stand improvement often necessitate clearing.
The principal means for controlled removal of vegetation can be divided into three broad classes: fire, chemicals, and mechanical cutting. Mechanical clearing ranges from crawler tractors equipped with dozer blades on the one hand, to very labour-intensive clearing with bolos on the other. Technologies between and in combination with these two extremes use chain saws, motorized clearing saws, hand saws, and axes.
Yet another tool for clearing—the brush hook—is introduced (Figure 23). The brush hook was compared with the motorized clearing saw as an equipment-intensive alternative, and with the bolo as a more primitive hand tool alternative (Figure 24).
The brush hook is heavier and stronger than the bolo, and it is used with two hands rather than one. Swinging from an overhead
54
Figure 21. Hooks, Picks, and Tongs for Handling Small Logs.
55
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56
position, a worker using a brush hook can completely sever a sapling of seven to eight centimeters in diameter with a single blow. Use of the "bolo requires many more strokes.
Figure 25 shows that the brush hook is more labour-intensive and has a much lower machine/tool cost than the motorized clearing saw. The brush hook is the intermediate or improved labour-using method. In terms of unit cost, the brush hook compared excellently with the two alternatives at US$23.24 per hectare. This was in rela¬ tion to US$47.57 per hectare for the bolo, and US$51.35 per hectare for the motorized clearing saw.
3.6 Tree Planting The Philippines has vast employment opportunities in tree
planting and auxiliary activities in reforestation. This includes many adjunct activities in addition to actual
planting. The area is cleared, and saplings are cut and planting rows staked. Sometimes additional strip clearing is required in the rows. Seedlings are transported to the planting area from the tree nursery, and carried in on foot from the road to the planting sites. The next step is planting, while the follow-up phase includes weeding and tending through the first one to three years of plantation deve¬ lopment, and replanting where there has been seedling mortality. There are many variations to the pattern above, but it represents a general if not comprehensive outline of the component activities.
With respect to technology and employment, the most interest¬ ing phase is the planting. At one end of the technology spectrum is capital-intensive aerial seeding1 while at the other end is manual planting with wooden dibbles (Figure 26). Various types of mecha¬ nical planters and motorized drillers are potentially available from abroad. The assortment of alternative hand tools include an array of planting hoes, planting bars, notching spades, and -axe-hoes.
To date mechanized planting methods have had little success in the Philippines. Tractor-drawn planting machines can operate only on relatively level ground where there are not too many impe¬ diments. Yet the government's planting priorities are located in some of the most difficult site conditions in the country:
— bare or grass-covered tracts of forest lands with at least 50% slope;
— bare or grass-covered tracts of forest lands with less than 50% slope, but with soil so highly erodible as to make grass cover inadequate for the prevention of soil erosion;
— brushlands or largely brush-covered forest lands, which need
1 Direct seeding presents an entirely different set of activities from those described in the preceding paragraph.
57
Figure 23. Underbrush Clearing with Brush Hook.
58
Figure 24. Underbrush Clearing with Motorized Clearing Saw with Bolo.
(a) Motorized Clearing Saw
(b) Bolo
59
Figure 25. Machine Cost and Labour Requirement to Clear One Hectare of Saplings and Brush under Alternative Methods.
\
\
\
\
A - Motorized Clearing Saw B — Brush Hook C — Bolo
50 100 150 LABOUR REQUIREMENT, MAN-HOURS
Notes: (i) Machine cost for clearing saw covers depreciation, fuel, blade, and repair and maintenance.
(ii) Clearing saw data include breakdown allowance.
60
to be developed to increase their productivity; — open tracts of forest lands with slopes or gradients generally
exceeding 50% interposed with patches of forest, each of which is less than 250 hectares in area;
— denuded or inadequately timbered areas proclaimed as criti¬ cal watersheds, national parks, game refuges, bird sanctuaries, national shrines, or national historic sites;
— inadequately-stocked forest lands within forest concessions; — portions of areas covered by pasture leases having a slope
of at least 50%, and — river banks, easements, road rights-of-way, deltas, swamps,
former river beds, and beaches.
Thus, fully mechanized planting would seem to be confined to isolated level sites within larger tracts of generally steep wastelands. Unit costs could be expected to be high, and the degree of utilization low in view of the scattered location of suitable terrain.
This puts the burden of the reforestation effort on manpower. In both the government and private sectors, manual methods could be much improved through better planting tools and more efficient seedling transport. Transport is particularly important, since most tree planting in the Philippines is done with potted rather than bare-root seedlings so that a considerable mass of soil has to be moved from nursery to roadside to planting site.
Two more work studies were undertaken which deal with tree planting in the context of an industrial plantation and a govern¬ ment reforestation project, respectively.1 Both compared different hand tools for planting; one of these also evaluated the effect of using ordinary market baskets to augment the number of seedlings that can be carried from the roadside to the planting site.
The most satisfactory planting tool for general purposes was an oval-blade planting hoe (Figure 27). The oval-blade hoe penetrates the soil more easily than a blade with a straight edge. Unlike the wooden dibble, it does not leave an air pocket under the seedling, or compact the soil on all sides of the planting hole. Finally, the oval-blade hoe's cutting edge curves around the sides of the blade to facilitate patch clearing in dense grassland.
In the government reforestation project, the oval-blade hoe increased the planting rate by 22% above that of the military-type spade in easy terrain, and by 35% above that of the narrow-blade planting hoe in difficult terrain (Figure 28). In the industrial plan¬ tation, a smaller but otherwise similar oval-blade hoe—in combina¬ tion with carrying baskets for the seedlings—increased the planting
■'•Work Studies 6 and 7, Appropriate Technology in Philippine Forestry, op. cit.
61
Figure 26. Tree Planting with Wooden Dibble.
62
Figure 28. Military Spade and Narrow-Blade Planting Hoe.
(a) Narrow-Blade Hoe
(b) Military-Type Spade with Folding Blade
Note: Insets show that neither of these two tools is adapted for patch clearing, i.e., scraping the ground to remove grass and debris.
64
Figure 29. Machine Cost and Labour Requirement to Plant 1,000 Seedlings in Easy Terrain under Alternative Methods.
Xa A — Mechanical Planter, mounted on Crawler Tractor
B — Mechanical Planter, mounted on Farm Tractor
\C — Oval-Blade Planting Hoe O — Military Spade E — Narrow-Blade Planting Hoe F — Wooden Dibble \
XB \
\
\
\ X
D E F
10 20 30 LABOUR REQUIREMENT, MAN-HOURS
Notes: (i) Tractor (crawler) operator plus planter rider for mecha¬ nical planter. One-man crews for manual methods.
(ii) Data for mechanical planter estimated from infor¬ mation provided by Manila distributor.
(iii) Data for mechanical planter include breakdown allow¬ ance.
65
rate by 33% above that of the wooden dibble. Figure 29 shows that while the oval-blade hoe was the most productive manual method, it nevertheless retained seven times the labour input of the machine alternative.
3.7 Pruning
The objective of pruning industrial tree plantations is to mini¬ mize the number of size of knots in the lower boles of trees grown for veneer and sawlog purposes. To be economically justified, the enhanced grade recovery of the logs due to pruning must more than compensate its costs. While knot reduction is important in pro¬ ducing high-quality peeler and sawlogs, it is not often practical in short-rotation pulpwood.
Pruning has other miscellaneous applications. Sometimes it is used to allow access. It can be used in regions where forest fires are common to eliminate lower limbs and foliage which could trans¬ mit ground fires upward to the crowns. Pruning may also satisfy purely aesthetic objectives of improving the appearance of stands exposed to public view.
In the Philippines pruning is not yet widely practiced. One large timber concessionaire has initiated priming in its industrial plantations. But for the most part pruning is used only on an experi¬ mental scale. The introduction of suitable tools and working tech¬ niques should help establish its feasibility and contribute to em¬ ployment.
Another work study compared the existing bolo method of pruning (Figure 30) with the use of a pruning saw (Figure 31). Due to a difference in cutting action, the bolo was found to have a some¬ what higher output rate than the pruning saw. The pruning saw attained 75% of the bolo production rate in Benguet pine (Pinus kesiya), and 95% in falcata {Albizia faleatoria). That is, introduction of the pruning saw actually decreased rather than increased labour productivity, if only by a small margin.
Yet the productivity difference over a short period is not the same as over a period of weeks or months which includes work- related absences and injuries. In the long-run the pruning saw's ergonomie advantages may outweigh its slight loss of speed.
Climbing the tree, as necessitated by the bolo method, incurs the risks of insect stings, lacerations, and falls. Workers are wary of bees and wasps, and serious accidents have been known to occur in their panic to jump out of the tree to avoid being stung. Further¬ more, climbing, reaching, and chopping with the bolo would seem to be more physically tiring than use of the pruning saw. The pruning saw is therefore to be considered as an improvement if only on the basis of enhanced workers' health, safety, and personal security.
66
Pruning with Bolo.
Figure 31. Pruning with Pruning Saw.
4
RELATED TECHNICAL AND
SOCIAL ISSUES
In this chapter we take up aspects of occupational safety, workers' training, local tool manufacture, and indirect and non- economic criteria bearing on the selection of methods. Increased employment in the forestry sector hinges upon the provision of reasonable standards of know-how and working technique, together with concern to minimize sickness and accidents. It also depends on supplies of the appropriate hand tools and helping devices being made available in acceptable quantities and qualities. Finally, it depends on an understanding of the indirect costs and psychological factors that influence technological choice.
4.1 Workers' Safety
Technological choice favorable to increased employment in the forestry sector cannot be divorced from the context of living and working conditions. Worldwide logging and forestry rank among the most hazardous of all occupations.
4.1.1 Accident statistics
Work in the forestry sector, particularly in logging, exhibits high accident frequency and severity when compared with other industries. Logging ranks with mining in constituting the most hazardous occupations in a cross-section of industrialized countries. From the scant data available on accident frequency rates in deve¬ loping countries, it appears that they, too, are characterized by higher accident rates in the timber industry than in other industries.
Logging is hazardous for reasons that axe not difficult to dis¬ cern. The work is arduous, and it frequently takes place in incle¬ ment weather and in difficult terrain. Accidents occur due to sliding, rolling, or falling timber; slippery ground conditions; lacerations with sharp tools; moving equipment and equipment
''"See ILO, Conditions of Work and Life in the Timber Industry, Second Tripartite Technical Meeting for the Timber industry, Report II (Geneva, 1973).
69
parts; etc.1 Additionally, power chain saws and heavy tractors and skidders bring with them excessive levels of noise and vibration, which are among some of the hidden costs of capital-intensive methods.
The ergonomie problems of logging and other physically de¬ manding forestry work are especially pronounced in tropical count¬ ries. Heat stress, small body size, unsatisfactory nutrition, lack of skill and experiences, long hours, and lax safety standards limit work capacity and increase vulnerability to accidents.2 The Philippines is no different from other tropical developing countries in most of these respects, although conditions vary greatly from one enterprise to another.
The broadest observations arising out of the survey conducted under this study are the following:3
(1) The workers most frequently hurt are (i) chain saw opera¬ tors and helpers, and (ii) riggers and choker setters. Work¬ ers in these two job functions accounted for 61% of the identified woods accidents.
(2) Most injuries result from the worker being struck by moving objects. Falling trees and falling branches are the principal instrument of injury. Outside of motor vehicle accidents, the other most frequent sources of injury are:
— the worker striking himself with his bolo (usually around the knees or shins);
— the workers (generally rigger) getting hit by a snapping cable or wire rope;
— the worker getting hit by rolling logs or rocks; — the chain saw operator suffering kick-back or in other
ways being struck by his chain saw; and — the worker being struck by projectiles such as branches,
sticks, and flying splinters.
(3) By nature of. injury, lacerations and punctures predomi¬ nate, although they are not always the most important in terms of seriousness. By part of the body affected,
1 Many other causes are cited in Appendix III of Appropriate Technology in Philippine Forestry . . . , op. cit.
O See FAO, Logging and Log Transport in Man-Made Forests in Developing
Countries, FAO/SWE/TF 116 (Rome, 1974), Chapter 7 and Appendix B. B. Strehlke, "Problems of Accident Prevention in Forestry in Tropical Developing Countries," pp. 230-40 in Symposium on Ergonomics Applied to Forestry, FAO/ECE/LOG 243, Vol. II. g
For details once again see Appendix III of Appropriate Technology in Philippine Forestry . . ., op. cit.
70
most accidents happen to the appendages, especially the fingers and hands. Again, however, frequency is a matter quite apart from seriousness.
(4) Accident occurrence by time of day exhibits the expected bimodal distribution. Accidents happen when workers are tired or no longer attentive, which is usually well into their work. This explains a first peak at 11:00 a.m.; a sharp decline at noon; and a subsequent build-up to a second but smaller peak at 3:00 p.m., which is already near the end of the day for many of the workers.
Accident frequency rates per man-hour or per man-year are difficult to quantify. On the one hand, measures of labour input aie frequently rough approximations; on the other, the number of accidents recorded undoubtedly falls short of the number of acci¬ dents actually incurred. Subject to these qualifications, Table 8 shows estimated accident and fatality frequencies for the three timber concessionaires surveyed.
It should be borne in mind that these three concessionaires are well-organized "show case" companies, and that their rates of injury probably understate the case of the majority of other opera¬ tors. Nevertheless, their rates of 1.5-4.3 fatalities per thousand man-years of employment are considerably higher than correspon¬ ding rates of 1.05 for Canada (1969), and 0.5 for Central Europe.1
Table 7. Accident and Fatality Rates of the Logging and Forestry Employees of Three Large Timber Concessionaires, 1973-76).
Source: Appropriate Technology in Philippine Forestry .. . (Appendix III), op. cit.
With respect to accidents, rates in the Philippines of 48 to 189 lost-time accidents per thousand man-years appear to compare favorably with rates of 106 disabling injuries per thousand man- years in logging in the U.S.A. (1962),2 and 252 accidents per thou-
^ILO, Conditions of Work . . ., op. cit., p. 89. o Frequency in thousand man-years was derived from frequency in million
man-hours assuming that one full man-year is equivalent to 12 months of work at 192 hours per month.
Frequency per Thousand Man-Years Worked
Lost-Time Accidents Fatalities
Concessionaire A (1973-75) B (1975-76) C (1975-76)
48 189 188
1.5 3.2 4.3
71
sand man-years in forestry in the Federal Republic of Germany (1959).1 However, accidents reported in the industrialized countries often include very minor injuries, sometimes even when the work is not interrupted, which are certainly not recorded by the Philippine timber concessionaires. Because of these dissimilar criteria of acci¬ dent reporting, the between-country figures are not directly com¬ parable. It must be concluded that the accident problem in Philip¬ pine logging and forestry is far more serious than indicated by the statistics.
4.1.2 Accident prevention
Accident prevention requires a comprehensive approach encom¬ passing several elements. These include adjustment of working hours and rest breaks to the physical capacity of the worker, provision of adequate nutrition, use of personal protective equipment and safe working tools, and knowledge of correct working techniques and methods. Since these measures generally lead to higher productivity, improved social conditions complement rather than conflict with economic ones.2
The beneficial results of aggressive safety programs are evi¬ denced in Table 9. The data refer to the enterprise in this report known as "Concessionaire A". For many years, the company has taken positive steps to improve safety standards not only around the processing complex, but also in its logging and forestry opera¬ tions. Although the number of man hours worked has continually increased, fatalities have held more or less constant, while lost-time accidents have dramatically declined. Thus, in the face of rising costs generally, the company has been able to reduce or at least contain the compensation paid to injured employees.
For the other two Concessionaires ("B" and "C"), we estimated the proportion of reported logging and forestry accidents that could have been prevented—or the seriousness of which could have been significantly diminished—by using safety boots, gloves and long sleeves, and a wire-mesh visor (eye net). Figure 32 illustrates these items, together with hearing protectors, safety vest, etc., for a model chain saw operator. While the model shown in Figure 32 is perhaps quite futuristic in the Philippine context, it points in the right direction, providing a normative target of the highest stand¬ ards of personal protection currently known.
The accidents of the two concessionaires were analyzed ex post on the basis of descriptions found in their medical record books.
1Ibid., p. 87.
^Strehlke, op. cit., pp. 236-37.
72
Table 8. Accident Reduction in the Timber Products Group of One Large Timber Concessionaire, 1967-75.
Lost Performance Compensation Man-Hours Fatal Time Frequency (-)Decrease Paid to
Year Worked Cases Cases Rate (+) Increase Employees
1967 7,092,287.0 6 1,070 152.0 P176.082 1968 8,912,667.5 8 903 101.4 (-) 33.3% 198,379 1969 8,703,889.5 6 708 81.4 (-) 19.7% 158,897 1970 9,544,870.0 3 392 41.2 (-) 49.3% 110,593 1971 11,048,174.0 7 334 30.3 (-) 26.4% 123,287 1972 14,832,992.0 5 295 29.1 (-) 36.9% 94,515 1973 18,647,259.0 11 461 24.8 (+) 29.1% 194,531 1974 18,935,206.0 6 334 17.6 (-) 29.0% 156,529 1975 19,563,079.5 8 279 14.3 (-) 18.7% 98,152
Note: For the years 1967-73, data for the Timber Products Group include processing and maintenance units that could not be disaggregated from logging and forestry. Logging and fo¬ restry accounted for 37% of the Group's man-hours in 1974, and 31% in 1975. Hence the statistics above provide only a general indication of postulated parallel trends at the lower level of the logging and forestry component.
Note: Frequency rate (per million man-hours worked).
Hindsight is highly fallible, especially when details are few or too general. But according to our best assessment of causes, circums¬ tances, and nature of the injuries recorded, the work-related acci¬ dents that could have been prevented or greatly reduced in severity are as follows:
— 115 out of 144, or 80% of the injuries to the fingers, hands, and arms through the combination of long sleeves and gloves;
— 49 out of 107, or 52%, of the injuries to the toes, feet, and lower part of the leg through the use of steel-toed safety boots; and
— 20 out of 25, or 80%, of the injuries to the eyes and upper part of the face through the use of a wire-mesh visor.
Additionally, a small number of head injuries would not have occurred if the workers had been wearing their safety helmets. While most companies have a general policy requiring helmets for all woods employees, in practice the workers sometimes dispense with them. This has the expected serious consequences.
During the three years 1973-75, Concessionaire A paid an average compensation of F409 (US$55.24) per lost-time accident. This does not include medical costs, wages paid for lost time, nega¬ tive psychological impact, or other indirect costs of injuries. It is
73
estimated that medical overhead plus paid lost time amount to an additional P354 (US$47.78) per accident.1
Applying the estimated cost of US$103.02 per accident to the preceding data, the use of gloves and long sleeves, safety boots, and wire-mesh visors would have saved the two companies concerned some US$18,956, or US$12,309 per year.2 Of course, this is only a crude estimate, given that both the composition of injuries and the level of costs could be highly variable among different companies. Moreover, we have assumed that accidents not prevented but only reduced in severity are costless, which is not realistic. Yet, the sum of about US$12,300 per year reveals the general magnitude of losses presently experienced.
To equip a worker with gloves, safety boots, and wire-mesh visor would cost approximately US$20.50 per man per year.3
Priority should be given to chain saw operators and riggers, since their hazardous work implies that they are in the best position to benefit. But even if all logging and forestry employees were so equipped—approximately 850 men in the two companies-^the annual expenditure of US$17,425 is only slightly more than the US $12,309 otherwise incurred for employee compensation, medical expenses, and lost time. If it were possible to quantify them, a com¬ plete accounting of indirect costs to include reduced employee morale, incapacitation of key personnel, and lost time by employees dependent on the injured persons would more than close the appa¬ rent gap between the preceding costs and benefits.
4.2 Training of Forest Workers and Foremen
The "intermediate" or "improved" labour-intensive methods discussed in Chapter 3 require that the workers be trained in the correct working techniques. The productivity of a particular method is as much dependent on the worker's know-how and technique as on the tool itself. This is depicted schematically in Figure 33, in which it is seen that output can be increased in step-wise fashion through incremental improvements in tool maintenance, working
1 Based on an average lost-time of 5.2 days per accident registered by Concessionaire B, and assuming that each lost day bears a cost of P18 for wages and P50 for medical expenses (imputed hospital rate). O
The period(s) covered in the accident survey were equivalent to a total of 1.54 years.
O Computed as follows: 6 pairs of heavy-duty cloth gloves (leather not
suitable in wet conditions) per year at US$1.50 per pair; rubber steel-toed safety boots of the kind locally manufactured at US$4.00 per pair, to be re¬ placed every six months; and wire-mesh visor at US$1.75 each, to be replaced every six months. Unit prices are based on an assumed 25% discount for pur¬ chases made in bulk.
74
Figure 32. Protective Apparel for a Model Chain Saw Operator.
Safety helmet with eye net and hearing protectors.
Safety blouse, bright orange color. Ventilation for cooling
First aid bandage in the pocket of 'tool belt.
, Gloves
Saw equipped with "kick-back" and 'chain brake".
Knee protection: flexible protecting .fiber inside the trousers.
Steel-nosed boots, preferably with cover over the ankle.
75
technique, and the adoption of more suitable tools. These composite steps do not follow in any particular order, but working technique is always an indispensable component among them.
Figure 33. Steps on the Way to Improved Productivity of Labour-intensive Methods.
Choice of Working Tool Technique
I I T E 1 TE E t E E
Quality of Maintenance
E = Existing
I = Improved
Even when speaking of ostensibly simple hand tools, it is not axiomatic that the worker will know how to use them to maximum advantage : a forest worker must be given some instruction and training before he becomes effective with the tools of his trade.
Likewise, the forest worker must appreciate and be able to maintain these tools correctly. The significance of tool maintenance is evidenced by experiments in India which showed that the output rate of a correctly maintained saw was more than 200% that of saws not properly maintained. Moreover, the energy expenditure for the unmaintained saws averaged 221% that for the correctly maintained saw.1
In the Philippines most forest workers obtain their know-how through on-the-job experience. Although the government sponsors training and seminars at high levels for its forestry administrators, there is very little organized vocational training—either public or private—at the level of forest workers and foremen.
An exception is the School for Forest Workers maintained by an important timber concessionaire in Mindanao, which during the period 1966-75 graduated a total of 133 students. The school is intended to give a few selected young men technical training in various activities of industrial forestry, and to enable them to acquire high proficiency as forest workers. The course consists of 45 weeks
^Hansson, Lindholm, and Birath, op. cit., p. 19.
76
of training in technical and practical work in various company ac¬ tivities.1
This company's model of forest workers' training is probably more sophisticated than required for most kinds of manual work. The course is in fact designed to provide the technical background and general interest to spur the participants on to collegiate forestry studies. Yet excluding mechanized methods, the level of skills and knowledge required in most non-supervisory forestry tasks does not demand 45 weeks of training; a much shorter and more direct approach may often suffice.
Usually foremen or other key workers will be selected and trained as instructors. They, in turn, will train the other workers in short on-the job courses. Those who are to serve as instructors therefore must be thoroughly instilled with knowledge of the alter¬ native methods, skill in tool selection and maintenance, knowledge of work physiology and accident prevention, and effective teaching techniques.
An account of the rationale for forest workers' training and the extent of its realization is found in other sources.2
It is generally agreed that the aim of such training in developing countries is to secure skilled, qualified workers in order to increase output and reduce costs, accidents, and raw material wastage. How¬ ever, the usual situation at present-^which also characterizes the Philippines—is that the forest worker receives no more in the way of vocational training than a brief on-the-spot introduction before starting work.
Yet it is this man on the ground who in fact determines how much or how little is accomplished, frequently without much ins¬ truction from technical supervisors. Instruction and supervision are especially problematical because forestry and logging are area- extensive, and the work sites are far apart.
Added to this is the adjustment problem with new tools, such
■^Classroom studies concentrate on English, mathematics, social science, and nature studies, with special emphasis on forest botany, dendrology, wood technology, forest mensuration , and log scaling. The second phase of the course is devoted to field work in forest surveying, timber cruising, silviculture, main¬ tenance of logging equipment, logging practices, construction of roads and bridges, tree marking, forest protection, and aspects of forest entomology and pathology. The school is intended primarily for in-service training of deserving company employees between the ages of 18-35.
2 See for example: FAO/ECE/ILO, Joint Committee on Forest Working
Techniques and Training of Forest Workers, The Vocational Training of Forest Workers, FAO/ECE/LOGr 226 (1968); B. Marsater, "Training of Forest Work¬ ers," pp. 49-66 in Employment and Transfer of Technology in Forestry, Semi¬ nar Report of the German Foundation for International Development in colla¬ boration with FAO and ILO (West Berlin, 1974); ILO, Conditions of Work and Life . . . , op. cit., pp. 12-19; and ILO,General Report: Recent Developments . . . , op. cit., pp. 35-52.
77
<■ as those introduced by the project. Without guidance from someone to show him the most efficient working technique, the worker fre¬ quently dismisses new tools as too heavy or too cumbersome. He reverts to more primitive, more traditional tools with which he feels more familiar.
Examples in point include substitution of the brush hook for the bolo in underbrush clearing, substitution of the debarking spud for the bolo in debarking, substitution of the planting hoe for the wooden dibble in tree planting, substitution of the bow saw for the axe in manual falling and crosscutting, and so forth. If workers are to accept the new tools as useful and more productive than the tools used previously, they must be sufficiently trained to get them past the initial period of unfamiliarity and uncritical rejection.
It is interesting that the Philippines is well known for having some of the most highly skilled logging personnel in Southeast Asia. Already in the early 1950's, the Philippines was selected as host country for the Far Eastern Mechanical Logging Training Center on the basis of its extensive previous experience in logging mechaniza¬ tion.1 In recent years the Philippines has been exporting logging expertise to Indonesia, and more lately to Papua New Guinea.
But the individuals in this category are principally mechanics and machine operators employed in heavily mechanized logging. This is a cadre of forest labour distinctly different from the less skilled labour performing more ordinary tasks in reforestation and other silviculture. Circumstances have changed since the convening of the Mechanical Logging Training Center in 1952-53, and there is now quite rightly more concern with the problems of unemployment and low productivity than ever envisaged at that time. It is there¬ fore the manual labourers rather than the equipment operators who presently require serious training to promote the forestry sector's balanced development.
There are many approaches that would provide the requisite training to accompany the introduction of the improved labour- intensive methods. One possible avenue is to have forestry and log¬ ging instructors travel from place to place, giving training and super¬ vision in an on-the-job framework. Another is the gathering of dif¬ ferent groups of forest workers in more permanent facilities in the setting of a demonstration forest, such as the present Training Center for Reforestation and Erosion Control in Baguio.
The latter approach is limited mainly by logistics and support costs, while the former approach is limited mainly by the number of workers that can be assembled and trained at any single work site. The training strategy adopted will be very much in response to ac-
^H.G. Keith, "Report on the Far Eastern Mechanical Logging Training Center of the Philippines," Philippine Journal of Forestry, 19 (1-4): 115-87.
78
commodating the relative importance of these two constraints. We conclude by noting that neither the Bureau of Forest Deve¬
lopment nor the timber concessionaires employ training managers for forest workers, even though such a function could prove very worthwhile. The training manager would impart knowledge on pro¬ per tools and working techniques, and oversee the execution of the labour-intensive methods. At present these responsibilities are infor¬ mally shared among several different technical persons, or more commonly, left to chance.
The position of training manager may not be feasible if his salary has to be charged against the training of only a handful of workers. But forest-based operations in the Philippines include a number of large organizations having hundreds or even a few thousand employees each, and in these circumstances a full-time training manager should easily justify his existence.
4.3 Local Manufacture of Forestry and Logging Hand Tools
The practicality of improved labour-intensive methods in the forestry sector hinges not only upon workers' training, but also upon the availability of the appropriate tools and equipment. Ideally these tools could be made domestically, preferably in small-scale rural workshops. This would help promote rural employment, as well as fit into the country's program for industrial dispersion.
Table 10 shows that at present the Philippines pays a tremen¬ dous bill for imported hand tools. Imports of the kinds of basic hand tools and accessories used in agriculture and forestry cost the country an annual average of more than three million dollars in foreign exchange during 1974-75. This does not include hardware items such as wrenches, hammers, etc., nor cutlery items such as scissors and knives. The country's only major manufacturer of hand tools started commercial operation in 1973, which explains the con¬ tinuing dependence on imports to meet domestic needs.1
On the other hand, there are a few hundred Lilliputian enter¬ prises which do manufacture hand tools and agricultural implements on a very small scale. These are mainly blacksmiths, metalcraft shops, and ironworks whose product lines are bolos, hoes, scythes, sickles, spades, pick-mattocks, shovels, grub hoes, etc., usually on a made-to-order basis. These shops tend to be undiversified, and seldom carry stock. Their markets are generally limited to the imme¬ diate community, although a handful of them claim that their knives are sold in industrialized countries like the U.S.A.
Experimental manufacture of a variety of the introduced log-
^Philippine Metals Research and Development Center, Metalworking In¬ dustry of the Philippines (Manila, 1974), p. 32.
79
ging and forestry hand tools in several of these small workshops was undertaken.1 Observations arising out of contact with these workshops and field testing of the sample tools made by them can be summarized as follows:
— Most of the deficiencies of hand tools made in small rural workshops are related more to lack of suitable materials and facilities than to any shortcomings of craftsmanship.
— Under existing Philippine technology, the forestry /logging tools and accessories most satisfactorily produced are items such as the carabao cone; felling aids; felling wedges; wooden bow saw frames; and tongs, hooks, and picks for manual log handling and loading. Items produced less satisfactorily are planting tubes, planting hoes, brush hooks, and debarking spuds. Finally, items out of technological reach include saw blades and skidding grapples.
— The metal used to make planting hoes, brush hooks, and debarking spuds is not uniform from one piece to another. Discarded leaf springs from motor vehicles are the principal raw material, and these originate from different and un¬ known sources. In general, the silicon content of most spring steels is too high to make a blade that can be kept sharp with a file, and that will not crack or split under hard use. Although perfectly adequate for traditional bolos and knives, spring steel is not as satisfactory in fulfilling the more rigo¬ rous demands of planting hoes, brush hooks, and debarking spuds, all of which are subjected to greater strain.
— Without proper analysis of the metal or quality control other than subjective trial-and-error, existing methods of heat treatment in an open flame make some of the pieces too brittle and leave other pieces too soft. Sometimes a single piece may be both too brittle and too soft in different places (Figure 34). The rural workshops do not possess—nor can they justify as individual small-scale producers—the facilities and equipment ideally suited for final heat treatment of the metal at very high, controlled temperature (such as in an electric furnace).
— It is not evident that small workshops would be able to take advantage of economies of scale for production in large quantities. Handling is on a piece-by-piece basis, and this individuality is particularly accentuated in view of the heterogenous materials used.
1 For details of these experiments see Appropriate Technology in Philippine Forestry . . . , op. cit., Appendix IX.
80
Table 9. Philippine Imports of Selected Hand Tools, 1974-75
Cost No. of Insurance, Pieces Freight
(thousands) (thousand US$)
Shovels. 1974: 127.4 241.7
1975: 117.8 207.0
Total 245.2 448.7
Spades, picks hoes, forks, axes, hatchets, 1974: 680.6 413.1 scythes, timber wedges and similar hewing tools and 1975: 414.4 586.4 other hand tools used in agriculture, forestry. Total 1,095.0 999.5
Saws (non-mechanical) 1974: 2,406.8 1,743.0 and blades for hand or machine saws. 1975: 3,188.7 2,333.8
Total 5,595.5 4,076.8
Files and rasps. 1974: 982.0 497.2
1975: 826.1 507.8
Total 1,808.1 1,005.0
1974: 4,196.8 2,895.0
1975: 4,547.0 3,635.0
Grand Total 8,743.8 6,530.0
Source: Central Bank of the Philippines.
81
On the other hand, the situation of the small workshops is not as bleak as the preceding description would indicate. The small workshops can indeed participate in the manufacture of high-quality forestry hand tools through use of appropriate steel and adoption of slight changes in their system of organization. This requires, first, the purchase of uniform batches of steel having known composition and specifications suitable for the intended purpose, and, secondly, final heat treatment of the pieces so produced in an electric furnace or similar facility on a cooperative or subcontract basis. As in some communities a single welding shop now serves other workshops which do not have welding equipment, so, too, could hardening facilities be jointly arranged or contracted.
The Philippines already possesses all of the basic elements to implement the improved system of hand tool manufacture. These include facilities for metal testing and analysis, plants which have furnaces for controlled hardening, and intelligent and experienced craftsmen. Still needed on the part of both buyers and producers is an appreciation of the false economy of cheap tools, and know¬ ledge of how to combine the above elements to produce the higher quality desired.1
The project's experience indicated that the price of the steel raw material increases from US$0.30-0.40 per kilogram for salvaged leaf springs to US$2.30-4.00 per kilogram for imported tool steel of the proper specifications. In addition, hardening treatment in a controlled furnace adds about US$1.00 per kilogram. Finally, nominal costs must be imputed for handling and transport between the workshop and the hardening facilities. Allowing for the fact that hourly productivity increases slightly because the steel is uniform, total average costs rise by some 50-80% above present levels.
Yet this is not a high price to pay when considering that tool depreciation is only a minor cost element. According to the work studies, wages usually account for at least 80% of the total costs of the labour-intensive methods. As a general principle, it is never wise to underutilize the primary cost element (labour) because of deficiencies in a comparatively unimportant cost element (tools). The changeover from cheap tools to tools of greater durability and improved design should easily pay for itself in a few days or weeks.
This is because the improved tools reduce the defects and breakage that otherwise keep the workers less than fully productive, and the output correspondingly low.
At least two Manila firms already use homogenous steel and subcon¬ tracted hardening as discussed above. One of them produces hand tools and implements for the Philippine Army. The other makes knives to cut sugar cane.
82
Figure 34. Blade of Locally Made Debarking Spud Damaged Due to Uneven Heat Treatment.
4.4 Beyond Direct Costs
We conclude this chapter by briefly outlining some of the indirect and non-economic constraints to the application of the labour-intensive methods discussed in this study. The decision- maker, whether a government agency like the Bureau of Forest Development or a private timber concessionaire, seldom has com¬ plete cost and output data on all of the available methods for a given activity. This results in selecting from a very limited number of choices within a much broader field of potential alternatives. Even with complete knowledge of the full range of technological alterna¬ tives, the methods actually selected may often be explained more by indirect costs and personal preference than by direct unit costs per se. It is therefore worthwhile considering some decision-making criteria that may sometimes obscure the influence of direct costs.
4.4.1 Attitudes and prestige value
Whether in the forestry sector or elsewhere, labour-intensive methods often run up against psychological resistance. Planners,
83
government officials, and industrialists may reject all but the latest and most sophisticated technologies. Technological sophistication is equated with progress and development, not considering the social consequence on employment. The most modern capital-intensive methods may be selected even when careful cost studies show labour-intensive methods to be more economically rational. Mecha¬ nization is glorified for its prestige value and because "engineering man" tends to prevail over "economic man".1
Entrepreneurs and workers face genuine psychological hurdles when taking a step downward on the technological ladder. For ins¬ tance, the project encountered some difficulties in arranging for manual falling and crosscutting in large timber. Since the two-man crosscut saw was generally discarded some years ago, workers who have already used chain saws ridicule the manual method as "primi¬ tive". The workers cooperated in the work study, but treated it as a joke and were taunted by their companions.
Likewise, the operator of the chain saw in the thinning study looked down contemptuously upon the bow saws. The bolo crew in the clearing study inquired if they could not use chain saws, instead.
Thus a machine mentality is already pervasive among most of the timber concessionaires. It may be difficult if not impossible to arrest the one-way change in mental attitude. This implies that the labour-intensive methods discussed in this report cannot be thrust upon workers presently well acquainted with more capital- intensive techniques. Rather, the labour-intensive methods will be acceptable only to workers at a lower level of experience, such as new workforce entrants, casuals, part-time farmers, and so forth.
But in the same way that an experienced -faller venerates the chain saw, a worker, who has nothing more than an old and decrepit Eixe admires the bow saw. Because the existing hand tool technolo¬ gies are so impoverished, the workers on the very bottom of the tech¬ nological spectrum look up to the new hand tools and accessories. A sturdy hand tool of good design and with bright red or orange paint can be as attractive and stimulating as a new chain saw to these men. A worker's mental disposition towards the improved labour- intensive methods is therefore a matter of whether he is presently "above" or "below" that level of sophistication.
Instances of this happening in Indonesia are documented in L.T. Wells, Jr., "Economic Man and Engineering Man: Choice of Technology in a Low- Wage Country," in Economic Development Report (Harvard University, 1972).
84
4.4.2 Labour management and overhead
The acceptability or rejection of labour-intensive methods is determined not only by the workers, but even more by the em¬ ployers. The decision-maker may explicitly or implicitly attempt to reduce the "headache" of workers' absences, sickness, and turn¬ over by minimizing his labour requirements. The amount of over¬ head connected with work-related accidents, subsidization of housing, workers' recruitment, workers' transportation, possible legal em- battlements in the case of workers' death or serious injury, etc., is proportional to the size of the labour force. Unlike machines, workers have personality conflicts, require hospitalization, get drunk, and develop feelings and motivations that affect their dispositions towards work. Individuality and free volition reflects a fault no more serious than being born human, but these same qualities are the bane of production control.
4.4.3 Questions of scale
The large timber concessionaires are those which generally have the most interest in forestry over a long period. They are the ones which can justify investments in reforestation, timber stand improvement, and maintenance of permanent roads. Although they have diversified activities and plan over long periods, it is these large companies which can most feasibly mechanize due to the scale of their operations.
In comparison, small undertakings are less often able to mecha¬ nize, since their low output levels result in high average fixed costs. These small loggers cannot often justify long-term activities in silvi¬ culture, road construction, and other permanent investments.
Some operations are so small that they may not even adopt the improved labour-intensive methods. A central theme of this report has been the need to elevate primitive labour-intensive me¬ thods to a higher, intermediate level through the introduction of better tools, accessories, and working techniques. Yet for many small owner-producers such as tree farmers, an increased rate of produc¬ tion may result in increased leisure time but not necessarily in increased income.
This is because their log supplies are inelastic and the oppor¬ tunity cost of their time is very low, at least in the agricultural off-season. Therefore, attempted improvements in the rate of out¬ put may be pointless unless bolstered by other arguments. For instance, the bow saw is a good tool for falcata tree farmers not so much because its cutting speed is five times faster than the bolo or axe, but because it greatly reduces wood waste and consequent
85
lost revenue in the form of kerf. The same is true of some farmers engaged in carabao log skid¬
ding. During certain times of the year, the number of logs they have to skid is much less than the time they have available. This suggests that devices to assist the skidding should be related less to hourly output than to other considerations, such as maintaining the health and strength of the animal. In practice, however, these devices are similar for both objectives.
4.4.4 Organization and coordination
Labour-intensive methods in large-scale operations suffer from their low rate of output, even if unit costs are favorable. Some of the labour-intensive methods studied by the project were looked upon with skepticism by the companies concerned due to their low output per hour or per day. The solution to higher output per unit time is to increase the numbers of the labour-intensive crews, but this implies additional costs for organization and super¬ vision to make these operations efficient.
Capital-intensive methods, because they produce faster and/ or larger quantums of output, require fewer teams or units to co¬ ordinate. For instance, manual falling and crosscutting with the two-man crosscut saw needs 2.8 to 2.9 times as many crews as the power chain saw to obtain the same level of aggregate output per hour. In log skidding, 25.1 carabao crews are needed to achieve the same hourly output as a four-wheel skidder (at the skidding distance where their unit costs break even). In thinning of man- made plantations, 3.4 workers with bow saws are needed to equal the hourly production level of a single worker with a power chain saw. Pulpwood loading requires 33.5 men to manually load the same hourly pulpwood volume loaded by a single operator using the mechanical alternative.
The extra employment generated is precisely the raison d' être of this research. However, there are external administrative and managerial costs associated with massive-scale employment not evident when observing individual workers and crews under work study. In this respect the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and we must allow for the demand which labour-intensive methods place on scarce managerial and supervisory talents. The project heard the argument that mechanical skills generally are not as limit-
86
ing as supervisory ones.1
In fact, the presence or absence of competent management and organization perhaps more than anything else will determine the practicality of the labour-intensive methods. Some of the talents required are the ability to think in terms of unit costs rather than gross production rates, and to conceptualize and implement "mixed methods" and "parallel systems". Examples of mixed methods and parallel systems include (1) carabao skidding and manual carrying to transport small logs from the stump site to a bunching point, from where machine skidders take them the longer distance to the road; (2) labour-intensive methods to fall and crosscut small trees combined with power chain saws for large trees; (3) manual loading of Small logs in parallel with mechanical loading of large logs; and (4) mechanical tree planting on easy terrain integrated with manual tree planting on difficult terrain.
The preceding is by no means an exhaustive list of possibilities. Even the improved system of hand tool manufacture discussed in section 4.3 requires sub-contracting or the formation of a producer's cooperative to afford final hardening treatment of the steel. In other words, the success of the labour-intensive methods depends very much upon flexible organization and imaginative combinatory skills, often in new forms not yet well conceived or developed. The guiding principle here is that the benefits received, or the savings realized, must be greater than the increased costs of the required organization and coordination.
4.4.5 Private costs and social costs
We conclude this chapter by noting that the criteria for eva¬ luating the alternative methods are still far from adequate. Neither the theoretical background nor the practical techniques have been very well developed in this area, and it is seldom possible to make the comparisons thoroughly comprehensive. Cost as used in this report refers to pecuniary outlay for equipment, tools, fuel, wages, and the like. But it often excludes important quality differences and externalities which cannot be monetized.
"''Because of the self-esteem and personal prestige it offers, workers are eager to learn how to use heavy equipment and chain saws. But it is more difficult to find supervisors and foremen, since Filipinos do not like to tell each other what to do or how to do it. This is explained by pakikisama, mean¬ ing the exercise of silence and discretion, to keep up good relations. If a fore¬ man observes that one of his men could improve upon some aspect of his work, he is reluctant to voice his advice or criticism, preferring not to express his negative feelings and so provoke an unpleasant and stressful situation. This is especially true when the foreman is a neighbor, friend, or relative of the subor¬ dinate, in which case the maintenance of smooth personal relationships will usually take precedence over possible improvements in the work.
87
In particular, direct monetary expenditures fails to take into account differential ecological cost and differential ergonomie cost as they vary between methods. For example, log extraction with carabaos, light tractors, and Bataan trucks does less damage to residual trees than does extraction with heavy tractors or cable systems, but as of yet no one has evaluated the difference quanti¬ tatively.
Without adequate hearing protection the prolonged use of power chain saws impairs the operator's hearing ability, but present knowledge of occurrence and severity is inadequate to quantify the hearing loss in monetary terms. Therefore, when compared with the costs of using axes and manual saws, the true social costs of using chain saws are underestimated.
Ideally one would combine all out-of-pocket costs, ecological costs, and health and safety costs into one common unit of measure¬ ment. The inclusion of ecological and ergonomie considerations generally strengthens our arguments for the improved labour-inten¬ sive methods. But in the absence of actual measurement, we have been able to do no more than note the external aspects qualitatively.
Also, we have not made full use of the concept of opportunity costs. In many developing countries the adoption of more labour- intensive methods is restrained by credit, exchange, wage, and price policies that distort the real scarcities of capital and labor. Minimum wages and extra social benefits push the market rate of hired labour above its social opportunity cost. Society's real cost of employing labour may be less than even the low money wage because the value of alternative production foregone would be nil or very low if the worker were otherwise wholly unemployed or severely underem¬ ployed.
Conversely, a combination of overvalued foreign exchange, subsidized credit at low rates of interest, and tariff and tax exemp¬ tions tend to make the actual cost of capital and foreign exchange for some privileged types of investment lower than rates in the open market. As a consequence, labour is more expensive and capital less expensive than warranted by their relative scarcities.1
Most of these distortions apply in varying degree in the Philip¬ pine forestry sector. The Board of Investments grants special terms for the importation of wood-processing equipment to help redirect the industry from log exports to domestic processing. The capital- cheapening incentives apply to logging equipment as well, if that equipment supplies logs for an approved processing plant.
"'"See Frances Stewart, "Technology and Und.ergovernm.ent". Macmillan 1977, pp. 95-96.
Gerald Meier, Leading Issues in Economic Development, Second Edition (Oxford University Press, 1970), pp. 435-36.
88
Secondly, many of the sector's larger companies obtain loans from financing and banking institutions abroad, principally from Japan and the U.S.A., where interest rates are relatively low com¬ pared with interest rates domestically. Loans secured from abroad have maturity periods ranging from 2-10 years, and per annum interest ranging from "none" (presumably barter for logs) to 14%.1
If from the social viewpoint the private cost of capital is too low, it can be argued that the private cost of forest labour is too high. In 1975 skilled forest labour generally received an average daily wage of P10-12, not including the piece-rate incentive bonus sometimes paid in addition to the nominal wage.2 Unskilled labour (brushers, tree markers, survey crew members, tree planters, etc.) usually earned about P9-10, while the minimum daily wage for non- agricultural employees was P8.00.
If these labourers were not employed in logging and forestry, it is assumed that many of them—especially the unskilled ones- would be absorbed in agriculture and miscellaneous services. Earn¬ ings, whether in cash or in kind, are generally lower in these sectors than the wages paid by the logging companies. For this reason a "shadow wage" rather than the "market wage" might more appro¬ priately value the social opportunity cost of Philippine forest labour.
Yet in the present study we have not used shadow prices for either capital or labour. In the first place, most employment in Philippine forestry is in the private sector. Shadow prices are more appropriate for government projects, where the employing agency can fix the employment level so as to value social externalities as well as profitability. When applied to private industry, the appli¬ cation of shadow prices indicates the subsidies or taxes the govern¬ ment would have to consider to make private and socially optimum levels coincide. But this is a complicated exercise that would have taken us away from labour-intensive methods in forestry to macro- economic policy-making.
The other reason for not using shadow prices is that the labour- intensive methods discussed in this report are generally competitive on the basis of market factor prices alone. This should be suffi¬ ciently convincing in itself. If we had used shadow prices, the via¬ bility of the labour-intensive alternatives would have been all the more evident.
Finally, the choice of methods from the standpoint of private costs does not take into account fundamental social considerations connected with what is termed "peace and order". At the heart
^Philippine Department of Natural Resources, Five-Year Integrated Program for Wood Industry Development (Manila, 1976), pp. 10-11 and Annex 3.
2 See Appendix of Appropriate Technology in Philippine Forestry ■■■. op. cit.
89
of labour-intensive methods in the forestry sector is the provision of a wage income to satisfy the basic food, clothing, and shelter needs of the rural poor. When the basic needs are not met, des¬ peration and smoldering resentment generate social unrest.1
What kind of social progress can be achieved when in one timber concession, jobless local inhabitants strew nails on the roads because the company will give them neither transport on company trucks nor employment with the company? What progress in refo¬ restation can be attained when, in another concession, jobless and displaced kaingineros return during the night to pull out seedlings planted by the company during the day? The answers to these and similar questions are not heartening unless positive and immediate steps are taken to create more employment opportunities to absorb the discontented into the socioeconomic mainstream.
For an elaboration of this issue see ILO, Meeting Basic Needs: Strate¬ gies for Eradicating Mass Poverty and Unemployment: Conclusions of the World Employment Conference 1976, Geneva.
90
5 POLICIES AND STRATEGIES FOR
IMPLEMENTATION
Chapter 2 shows the potential of forestry and forest industries for providing employment while chapter 3 points out the "appro¬ priateness" of using a number of improved labour-intensive methods. Chapter 4 indicates that the successful introduction of appropriate todls is linked to accident prevention, local manufacture of tools and the attitudes of people to using labour-intensive methods.
This chapter examines policies and strategies required to move the forestry sector closer to its employment potential.
The present book represents only a beginning in demonstrating the feasibility of more labour-intensive methods. Further work could be undertaken by relevant agencies such as the Bureau of Forest Development, the Forest Research Institute and the Presi¬ dential Committee on Wood Industries Development with the object of providing employment targets as well as targets for wood products exports, allowable cut and reforestation. An important first step could be the setting up of a Forestry Employment and Technology Working Group to investigate methods of working, to promote training and introduction of tools and methods of working, to inves¬ tigate fiscal incentives for employment of more labour, and to monitor developments.
The results of the work studies undertaken (summarized in chapter 3) only begin to highlight the opportunities and limitations of labour-intensive methods. They are only pilot investigations requiring validation and refinement through extended work study in many more operations and regions. We have emphasized that the feasibility of labour-intensive logging and forestry is very sensitive to changes in terrain, species, tree and log diameter, ground condi¬ tions, and a whole host of other factors. This implies that the degree of inference from a single study is limited. Furthermore, equipment and labour costs vary not only spatially from one enter¬ prise to another, but also through time. Consequently, continuing studies are required.
The equipment required for undertaking work studies is mini¬ mal and techniques can be easily acquired locally. The attractiveness of work study is that the study team may be able to achieve savings several times greater than the study cost. Improved labour producti¬ vity is the most important by-product.
91
Indeed a recent Regional Seminar on the application of appro¬ priate technology in forestry attended by senior forestry officials from Asia and the Pacific region examined the findings of this study and recommended the continuation of "research and demonstration on the improved use and maintenance of forestry tools and equip¬ ment for the benefit of the countries in the region".1
Collection and dissemination of logging and forestry employ¬ ment statistics is one of the most effective means of building an employment-conscious forestry sector. The information serves to monitor trends and to focus thinking on employment policies. There is, therefore, need to provide periodic and trustworthy em¬ ployment data on a continuing basis.
Chapter 4 discusses the virtual absence of technical training programs reaching down to the level of foremen and workers. Al¬ though the government has courses for foresters and related pro¬ fessionals at the administrative level, there is little or no organized training for labour in the field. The country's forestry programs depend upon educated, competent administrators. Yet no matter how good the administration there is little that can be accomplished on the ground without also extending technical training to workers and their foremen. Increased productivity is related as much to correct working technique as to the proper tool.
Therefore, there is a need for vocational training at the level of foremen and workers. There are many ways in which this training could be offered, ranging from itinerant workshops to permanent training centers. The program could begin with employees on the government reforestation projects, and eventually include workers on the timber concessions. The training could be financed through a levy attached to the present forest charges.
It is evident that supplies of good forestry hand tools—the sine qua non of productive labour-intensive methods—are difficult to obtain in the Philippines. This is also true for the rest of South East Asia. The forestry policy makers from Asia and the Pacific observed that "throughout the region, tools and equipment for logging and forestry are in short supply and often of poor quality. This has resulted in waste of forest resources, impaired health of the workers, and low income for their labour input".2 Their importa¬ tion requires foreign exchange and at the same time reduces em¬ ployment and value added in manufacture that could be generated domestically. The forestry policy makers of the Asia and Pacific
'''Report of the ADB/ILO/FINNIDA Regional Seminar on the Application of Appropriate Technology in Forestry and Forest Industries, Part I, Summary of Proceedings Manila/Geneva, July 1979.
2Ibid„ p. 10.
92
region also recognise this problem.1
Large metal working industries in the Philippines could provide the quality of tools desired, but the market capacity for logging and forestry hand tools appears to them too small to start these pro¬ duction lines. Small workshops of the blacksmith genre can cer¬ tainly support themselves in the limited market, but for them the problem is one of high unit costs and uncertain availability and qua¬ lity of materials. Thus forestry hand tools are neglected.
The problem is accentuated by the preference of exporting countries to sell ready-made tools rather than the component steel materials, while Philippine importers earn higher margins importing these ready-made tools rather than encourage the making of tools locally. Hand tools have little of the glamour or profits for sales¬ men associated with the more expensive machinery such as chain saws and mechanical logging equipment.
Hence forestry hand tools need to be promoted by government authorities. Secondly, as far as possible, authorities should influence foreign aid received for forestry to include the appropriate hand tools.2
For the equivalent currency value of one mechanical tree planter, the Philippines could have instead some 2,000 tree planting hoes. For the equivalent currency value of one power chain saw, the Philippines could have instead some 50 bow saws.
Fiscal incentives need to be investigated to encourage the use of such things as safety equipment where waivers of tariff on this equipment could be considered and possibly similar waivers or reduc¬ tions in tariffs on hand tools. Tax allowances on labour costs could also be considered. It appears that much labour could be used to complement the use of heavy machinery and machine-comple- menting methods and multiple shifts could be used to optimise the use of the machines by using more labour in running and main¬ taining them. Some concrete ways of doing this are as follows:
— use of labour to cut skidding trails, — use of bullock carts to skid logs to main mechanical skidder
trails, — use of manpower at log decks to speed up crosscutting which
at present delays loading, — use of supplementary labour in the preparation of traces for
logging roads and speeding up bulldozer operation,
1 The Asian seminar recommended that efforts need to be made to "ini¬ tiate local tool production by extending reasonable incentives to manufacturers". (Report of the ADB/ILO/FINNIDA Regional Seminar on the Application of Appropriate Technology in Forestry, op. cit., p. 10).
o A good example is the German/Philippines Assistance Program which
offers hand tools to 86 different reforestation projects in the Philippines.
93
— use of "carriers" in felling crews to transport equipment from tree to tree and reduce load on fellers and to locate trees requiring felling,
— the provision of stand-by mechanics to speed up repairs to vehicles and equipment.
Other efficient uses for labour can undoubtedly be found.
Employment rotation might be used to employ a large number of workers on a part-time basis rather than fewer on full-time work. This can make good sense where workers need to work on their own land to produce agricultural crops for food as well as being employed for a cash wage. Another policy strategy that could be considered is: payment of individuals engaged in forestry work by results. It leads to greater productivity and piece-rate working or combination of daily wages and piece rates or daily wages and bonuses, if correct¬ ly applied can be fair, safe and productive. It is important to formu¬ late guidelines on mechanisation which distinguish labour-augmen- ting mechanisation from labour-displacing mechanisation and favour the former. It is often difficult to distinguish between the two and it would clearly be wrong to discourage all mechanisation but it needs to be recognised that organisations and individuals promoting the sale of heavy and capital intensive equipment often have very considerable political and financial influence not available to the suppliers of less sophisticated equipment. This can usefully be counteracted by the use of a set of guidelines of this nature.
A preliminary review of existing laws and regulations reveals instances of bias against the use of labour-intensive methods. For example, requirements for potential concessionaires to have more than minimum quantities of available capital before being allowed to bid for concessions, discriminate against the kind of small-scale entrepreneur who ordinarily does not have large amounts of equip¬ ment at his disposal, and who would therefore be inclined towards a large input of labour. This points to the need for making such requirements less rigid. Similarly, relaxation of laws against sub¬ contracting (e.g., in log loading and hauling, thinning of industrial plantations, etc.) would enable the use of more labour-intensive methods by small contractors. In the light of this, a wider and more in-depth review of existing laws and regulations needs to be under¬ taken.
94
APPENDIX: WORK STUDY METHODOLOGY AND ILLUSTRATION
OF ITS APPLICATION
1.1 Preliminary Remarks and Qualifications
This appendix deals with the work studies comprising the pro¬ ject's field research. In addition to the 10 studies included in the original report,1 the study team collected a modest amount of field information on manual log transport, axe falling and crosscutting, Bataan (truck) yarding and log loading, and highlead yarding. Be¬ cause observations of these methods were too fragmented to be con¬ sidered proper work studies, they have been excluded from the ap¬ pendix.
As in any other sector, the comparison of alternative methods in forestry requires an assessment of production rate on the one hand, and cost on the other. Yet there is interdependence between successive production stages, as well as between alternative kinds of cost. In view of the many different approaches, the present section briefly introduces our analytical framework before we present the work studies themselves.
1.1.1 General methodology
The first step was to identify the activities to be investigated. The activities selected had to have flexible production possibilities that included a potentially viable labour-intensive method among them.
Often we thought in terms of "existing" and "improved" methods. "Existing" refers to common practice at present under the prevailing technologies, whether characterized by hand tools or heavy machines. "Improved" refers to the introduced labour-inten¬ sive methods entailing some combination of better hand tools, helping devices, and working organization.
"®"See Appendix 1 of Appropriate Technology in Philippine Forestry..., op. cit.
95
Each activity was broken down into its component parts, or sub-activities. Using stop watches, the study team timed and recorded the component sub-activities to the nearest second. We also made observations of explanatory variables other than the method, e.g., worker's skill and motivation, terrain class, soil mois¬ ture, species, size of log, and so forth. The identity of these relevant biophysical factors changed from study to study.
In the office, calculators were used to aggregate the time ele¬ ments for each sub-activity by method, and sometimes also by worker and the biophysical factors noted previously. An hourly production rate was then derived from the aggregated time elements and record of output.
On the cost side, we computed an hourly operating cost by consulting the user enterprises where the work studies were conduc¬ ted. We also consulted equipment distributors and catalogues. For the hand tool methods, the only items of direct cost are a dep¬ reciation charge and labour's wages and social benefits. For the machine methods, the items of direct cost are: machine deprecia¬ tion; interest; fuel, oil, and lubricants; repairs and maintenance; and labour's wages and social benefits.
To the direct costs should be added the indirect costs of labour supervision and training. But forest workers' training is presently little more than on-the-job experience. For this reason we have omitted a pecuniary cost for formal training. Rather, the alternative "cost" of no training is implicit in reduced levels of output.
1.1.2 Limited context
It should be emphasized that the work studies are meaningful only within a very specific context. In logging and forestry, pro¬ ductivity is intimately related to local environment. Work in the woods is not like work in a controlled industrial process; the work varies through wide ranges in conditions from area to area, and even as the weather and micro-site vary in a single area. Depending on the activity in question, the important biophysical factors are ter¬ rain, weather, species composition, tree or log diameter, stand den¬ sity, wood hardness, bark thickness, ground moisture, the extent of underbrush and vines, and so on.
The fact that forest parameters are infinitely variable in no way invalidates our findings. However, it does imply that we must exer¬ cise great caution before extending inferences. We have made an effort to note carefully the relevant site conditions in order to clarify under what particular circumstances the work studies took place.
96
1.1.3 Interdependence
Work studies such as those of interest to us are complicated by the interdependence of sequential production stages. This interde¬ pendence can sometimes pose problems of measurement, especially when the time graduations are as small as seconds.
For simplicity of study, we measured production rate and operating cost of particular activities and particular production stages within those activities. But in fact these production stages are connected like links in a chain, such that optimization requires that we consider all these linkages.
The interdependence is illustrated in the following examples:
— Tree planting. The labour and machine input for site prepa¬ ration is inversely proportional to the input required later in tree planting. Moreover, the need for mortality replanting is inversely proportional to the adequacy of the first planting. By focusing on only the middle stage, we necessarily miss these connections.
— Debarking. The time and effort spent to debark pine pulp- wood decrease as the time and effort spent on preparatory debranching increase. This is a factor that affects the pro¬ duction rate. Yet because the work study confined itself to debarking, our measurements did not encompass the com¬ bined steps. Rather, we could only speculate that better debranching at the stump site would more than pay for itself in faster debarking at the roadside.
— Directed falling and short-distance log transport. The care taken to fall timber in the proper direction is inversely related to the ease of skidding or yarding it to the road or landing. Directed falling is justly "first transport" if it reduces the distance or time to move the timber out of the woods. For small-sized timber, short distance log transport can be streamlined even further through prebunching or stacking. Because of this joint cost relationship, a good case can be made that stump site activities and short dis¬ tance log transport should be evaluated as a whole. Yet in our work studies they have been separated.
There are many more examples to illustrate that logging and forestry are based on a flow of materials and energy into and through the component activities. Ideally, all activities should be studied in series, with production rates and costs measured over the total sequence. This would constitute a true systems approach.
97
In practice, however, this suffers very real disadvantages. With respect to labour input, the consideration of a whole series of activi¬ ties masks the relative employment contribution of each. Secondly, the effect of a newly introduced tool or working technique at any single stage is not easily accounted for in the total chain. Too many extraneous variables enter to cloud the evaluation of the technology and method.
Lastly, the time taken to study activities in series may be weeks or months rather than hours or days. Our time budget would have limited us to the study of one or two activity series rather than the 10 studies actually completed. In short, some of the fine points of interdependence have been foregone to obtain greater total coverage.
1.1.4 Time frame
It is important to explain the time elements included and excluded from the work studies. One would normally compute mandays of output by multiplying the hourly production figures by 8. This would yield misleadingly high estimates, since our produc¬ tion rates are based on net rather than gross working time. Net working time is seldom more than 6 hours a day, and usually bet¬ ween 3V2 and 5.
Net working time is the actual time allocated to the main and auxiliary tasks of the activity under study. It excludes all interrup¬ tions and unavoidable delays not a part of that work. It also ex¬ cludes allowances and unavoidable delays for walking in and out to the work area, personal time, and the midday meal.
Sometimes unavoidable delays are caused by transportation failures or unusually foul weather. Other delays unavoidable at the worker level (but often "avoidable" at the management level) are caused by lack of synchronization among the activities. Exam¬ ples include waiting for a sealer, for the arrival of a log truck, for seedlings to be delivered to the planting site, for a skidder to move out of a falling area, etc.
Additionally, we have deducted as "study delay" the inter¬ ruptions for training, instructions, and measurement necessitated by our work studies. All of these and similar interruptions were dis¬ regarded in the computation of production rate on the premise that they interfered with work that otherwise would have been accom¬ plished. They were not a component of normal work, but on the contrary, a deterrent to it.
Machine breakdown was treated somewhat differently. During the course of operations one has to expect mechanical failure. Therefore, the breakdown of chain saws and heavy equipment should be included within working time.
98
However, breakdown is difficult to quantify directly. It occurs very irregularly both through time and among individual machine units. Also, the length of downtime can be highly variable from one breakdown to the next.
For these reasons we were not able to compute breakdown from field data, but instead made ex post allowances for the "aver¬ age" unit of equipment in question. This was done in consultation with the workshops and scant repair records of the companies where the work studies took place.
Not only breakdown, but also other kinds of time elements were not correctly proportioned in the hourly time frame. The periods of observation were too brief to assess accurately the share of net working time that will normally be allocated to rest. Part of the rationale for many of the "improved" methods is based on conservation of human energy and reduced risk of worker injury. But these are virtues that can be validated only through a period of several months. The frequency of rest pauses and accidents in a short work study cannot be relied upon to reflect the frequency over the long-term.
1.1.5 Reduced self-consciousness vs. increased proficiency
Related to the discussion of the preceding section is the decline in production rate occurring when outside observers are not present. Most surely our presence spurred the motivation of the workers under observation. Upon termination of the work studies they presumably settled into a more relaxed pace. Again, the time frame was too short to completely remove their self-consciousness.
On the other hand, the time frame also was too short to show the production rate increase arising out of greater proficiency. Even with hand tools, the acquisition of high levels of skill often requires months of practice. Yet the work studies cover only the beginning phases of the improved methods, and therefore understate the pro¬ duction rate implicit in longer experience.
Beyond the span of work studies, then, we postulate a produc¬ tivity adjustment downward because of reduced pressure to perform under observation, and upward because of gains in proficiency. Although counteracting, these effects are not necessarily cancelling.
1.1.6 Identifying the source of productivity differences
The work studies are intended to compare methods and tech¬ nologies. It is implied that the machine or tool contributes the ob¬ served difference between production rates. Yet proper working technique and proper maintenance are included in the productivity
99
package, and the machine or tool alone is only part of the total explanation.
Productivity may be increased by nothing more than simple maintenance, such as the correct sharpening of a saw. Productivity increases even more with proper working technique. Working tech¬ nique improves with increased practice. Finally, productivity in¬ creases still further by using a saw of improved design, or a subs¬ titute tool based on a different principle.
The variables are confounded, and the problem is to deter¬ mine the object of measurement. It is necessary to identify the respective parts played by the machine or tool, its condition, and the experience and effort of the operator. We can compare one machine or tool with another only if the importance of their res¬ pective capabilities is not overshadowed by their state of repair, or by the competence and motivation of their users.
When there are large numbers of workers and individual tools or pieces of equipment, extraneous influences can be handled through randomization, matching, or other means of experimental control. However, the small sample size in the work studies made experi¬ mental control more difficult, although not impossible.
With respect to state of working order, we excluded from the studies equipment in defective condition; therefore, a low pro¬ duction rate cited anywhere in this report should not be ascribed to faulty equipment.
Most of the work studies—falling and crosscutting, debarking, underbrush clearing, thinning, and pruning—feature some kind of mechanical cutting or shearing action. In each work study the cutting edges were maintained sharp throughout the period of observation.
With respect to the influence of the worker, the study subjects without exception performed at or near their top capacities. This was true under both "existing" and "improved" methods. As noted earlier, the presence of outside observers kept up their will to work hard.
Nevertheless, there are inherent differences in working capacity among individuals. No two workers have identical skill, muscular coordination, strength, endurance, work habits, and state of health.
We attempted to control the variation among workers by ob¬ serving the same individuals in both the "existing" and "improved" methods. This was feasible in the studies of debarking, crosscutting, and tree planting. In these studies we used analysis of variance to partition differences explained by workers from those explained by methods.
Unfortunately, we were unable to organize the other work studies as favorably. Sometimes the time schedule obliged us to
100
collect observations on the alternative methods simultaneously. In other instances we could not move company personnel from one job or working area to another.
The greatest obstacle, however, was that the operators of chain saws and heavy equipment were not available for the hand tool and carabao skidding methods. The companies hesitated to spare their equipment operators for several days of work in an experimental situation. Even more importantly, equipment operators often tend to scoff at manual methods. Taking ridicule from their companions, they generally make poor study subjects when called upon to engage in "primitive" methods.
Conversely, the time limitations made it impractical to train the men observed in the manual methods for the machine methods. In many instances, then, there was little recourse but to accept a division of labour. When we were obliged to use different workers in alternative methods, we made subjective judgments to adjust for variation in their skills and habits.
1.1.7 General vs. specific context
There remains the problem of determining whether costs should be defined in the specific context where the work studies were con¬ ducted, or be broadened to refer to the country more generally. While the latter would seem to be appropriate from the standpoint of enlarging the scope of inference, it is dangerous to dissociate the observed production rates from the particular maintenance and re¬ placement practices, skill of the labour force, and general cost rela¬ tionships where the work studies took place.
Between any two enterprises, the costs of owning and operating equipment and tools vary because of differences in access to sources of finance, terms of sale, availability of quantity, discounts, agree¬ ment on warranty and services, and cost of delivery. Likewise, wage levels vary with function, experience, productivity, regional location, and whether or not the workers are unionized.
For two different logging enterprises in eastern Mindanao sepa¬ rated by a distance of not more than 80 kilometers, one pays its chain saw operators P7.45 per day, while the other pays P19.25 (plus piece-rate bonus). The first company produces matchwood in a semi-isolated region in which it is a virtual labour monopolist. The second operates a large integrated processing complex, where production activities are carefully monitored.
Context is equally important in understanding price differences for equipment and tools. Continuing with the example of the chain saw, small contractors buy one or two saws at a time, while the larger
101
companies buy 30 or 40. To operate their 100 or more chain saws, the larger companies may order a thousand feet of chain and 50 thousand liters of fuel per month. Obvious savings arise out of these bulk purchases.
In trying to capture or enlarge their share of the market, equip¬ ment distributors compete with each other in servicing arrangements. One logging company was able to get a Manila chain saw distributor to stock spare parts according to the company's request, and to buy back all used saws at a predetermined price after a specific length of service. Such concessions are made only to win potentially import¬ ant customers and they help contribute to the unevenness in user's costs.
Other factors that lead to price differences among purchasers include the number and amount of instalments, interest charge related to risk and length of finance period, and cost of delivery. In a fragmented country of seven thousand islands, the latter can be highly significant.
It is important to stress that there is no single cost, but rather a whole range of costs that could apply to a given input combination of equipment and labour. Most of the work studies were made at large timber concessions characterized by low capital costs and high labour costs relative to the majority of other operators. Labour- intensive methods are perhaps more costly for these companies than for any others. But the fact that we can demonstrate the feasibility of labour-intensive methods even at the large concessions sets a lower limit of what can be expected where labour is less expensive.
An Dlustration of the Application of the Work Study Methodology Large Chain Saw Vs. Small Chain Saw Vs. Two-Man Crosscut
Saw for Falling and Crosscutting in Virgin Dipterocarps
Background — The objective of the study was to determine the pro¬ duction rate and cost to fall and crosscut (i.e. "buck") large-diameter trees in virgin dipterocarp forest. The study compared three alter¬ native methods: (1) large power chain saw of 9-13 horsepower, equipped with 36" conventional guide bar; (2) small power chain saw of 3 horsepower, equipped with 20" roller-nose guide bar; and (3) two-man crosscut saw. The study is divided, into two main parts: (i) observation of the large power chain saw at Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines (PICOP), and (ii) observation of the large power saw, small power saw, and two-man crosscut saw at the sister companies San Jose Timber Corporation and Dolores Timber, Inc.
Specific details of the conditions of working, different loca¬ tions, topography and makes of saw are given in the original report
102
"but not included here. The Uees cut by species and size classes are given below:
Number of Trees PICOP San Jose-Dolores
mayapis (Shorea squamata) 10 37 tanguile (Shorea polysperma) 12 24 red lauan (Shorea negrosensis) 15 19 almon (Shorea almon) ' 14 17 palosapis (Anisoptera thurifera) 0 13 bagtikan (Parashorea plicata) 6 5 white lauan (Pentacme contorta) 0 3 maggachapui (Hopea acuminata) 0 1 guijo (Shorea gisok) 0 1
57 *120
The diameter distributions at cutting height were:
Diameter Class, Number of Trees Centimeters PICOP San Jose-Dolores
61 - 80 12 43 81- 100 26 46
101- 120 13 26 121- 140 3 5 141- 160 2 0 161 — 180 1 0
57 120
Results at PICOP — The chain saws observed were two units of the McCulloch 895 (9 hp.) and one unit of the Model 895 (10 hp.), gear drive and without chain brake. The saws were equipped with 36" guide bar and chain of 9/16" pitch. With a full tank of fuel, each saw weighed 17.7 kilograms. Prior to the work study, the 9-hp. 895's had been in use for six months, and the 10 hp. 895 for three months.
Tables A-l and A-2 show the time elements in falling and crosscutting respectively, as recorded during the period of obser¬ vation. Tables A-3 and A-4 present a similar set of time elements extracted from an earlier and more extensive study by PICOP, modified slightly to fit into the present format.
PICOP conducted its study in 1973 to set falling and cross- cutting production quotas. Because the data pertain to the same class of heavy chain saws used in large-diameter timber, our ILO/ BFD study can be compared directly with the PICOP study.
In so doing, it can be seen that the production rates observed in the ILO/BFD study were higher than the rates determined by PICOP. This could be a reflection of the skill and effort of the par-
103
ticular workers in the ILO/BFD study, especially since they were under observation by outsiders.
But the difference in production rates seems more closely related to the larger size of individual trees in the ILO/BFD study. The timber at the landing where the ILO/BFD study was conducted averaged 8.5 cubic meters of net utilizable volume per tree, as com¬ pared with 5.1 cubic meters in PICOP's study. It should be noted that PICOP's observations were spread among a greater number of crews and greater number of cutting areas than ILO/BFD's observa¬ tion, and therefore are more representative of average conditions.
If the ILO/BFD data are combined with those of PICOP, the results are as follows:
I. Falling Rate
No. of trees 260 trees Net working time 2,750 mm. Production 1,523 m Time requirement 1.81 min./m^ Production rate 33.1 m^/hr.
n. Crosscutting Rate
No. of logs 383 logs Net working time 2,774 min. Production 1,399 m^ Time requirement 1.98 min./m^ Production rate 30.3 m^/hr.
III. Combined Falling and Crosscutting Rate
Time requirement, F. 1.81 min./m^ Time requirement, C. 1.98 min./m^
TOTAL 3.79 min./m3
Combined rate, F & C. 15.8 m^/hr.
The combined falling and crosscutting rate had to be adjusted to include an allowance for chain saw breakdown which was estima¬ ted at 10%.
This results in an adjusted combined falling and crosscutting rate of : .90 x 15.8 = 14.2 m /hr.
Results at San Jose-Dolores — The workers observed using the two- man crosscut saw were the logging foreman and a sealer, who had last done manual falling and crosscutting in 1961 and 1965. The four individuals observed in the chain saw studies were regular members of the falling crews.
The two-man saw was a "4 x 1" (four cutting teeth per each
I 104
raker tooth) with a length of six feet. The saw was manufactured in the U.S.A., but purchased locally in Manila.
The small power chain saw observed in the study was a Jonsereds 52E, fitted with a 20" roller-nose guide bar. This model belongs to the class of light-weight chain saws equipped with modern anti- vibration and protective devices. It has a fast safety stop (chain brake), guard plate for the right hand, safety catch in the throttle finger, and rubber pads to reduce vibration. With a full tank of fuel, weight is only 7.7 kilograms.
The large power saws were a McCulloch 895, a Dolmar CT-115, and a Dolmar 152, all equipped with 36" guide bars. As at PICOP and most other timber concessions, the technology at San Jose- Dolores is presently dominated by chain saws in this heavy-weight class.
For combined falling and crosscutting, Tables A-5 through A-7 show the production rates of the alternative methods. Allowing 10% for chain saw breakdown, the adjusted rates are:
m? /hour
Large chain saw 12.6 Small chain saw 12.1 Two-man crosscut saw 4.3
Costs — Labour and a very small saw depreciation charge constitute the only items of cost for the two-man crosscut saw. The Manila price of the saw was PI40, and useful economic lifetime should exceed five years. But even when using a conservative estimate of 3,000 working hours, the depreciation charge is a mere P0.05 per working hour.
Because productivity in manual falling and crosscutting is only one-third that when using power chain saws and because less training is required, wage levels were assumed to be lower. It was assumed that the labour costs for the manual method are two-thirds of the labour costs for the chain saw method, or P6.85 per net working hour. With the saw depreciation charge included, total cost of manual falling and crosscutting is therefore P6.90 per net working hour.
The operating costs of the "large" and "small" chain saws are as follows:
I. Large Chain Saw (9-13 hp.)
A. Summary (i) Depreciation P 1.98 (ii) Fuel and chain oil 7.36 (iii) Guide bar and chain 2.88 (iv) Repair and maintenance 1.70 (v) Labour 10.23
105 P24.15/net working hr.
B. Sources and assumptions
(i) Depreciation: Acquisition price of P5,500 complete with guide bar and chain (Manila distributor; October, 1976). Without guide bar and chain, compute P4,795 (cf. ff iii). Salvage value (for parts) is 10%, or P479. From the work studies, there are 3.89 hours of net working time per day (weighted average, PICOP and San Jose-Dolores). This implies 93.4 net working hours per month, or 84.0 net working hours per month after deducting breakdown allowance of 10%. Saw to be replaced after 26 months of use (PICOP), i.e., after 2,184 net working hours.
(ii) Fuel and chain oil: (a) 4.0 liters of fuel mixture per net working hour at PI.60 per liter, (b) 0.2 liters of chain oil (SAE 30) per net working hour at P4.80 per liter.
(iii) Guide bar and chain: (a) Original 36" guide bar plus replacement of 1.2 bars per year, or 3.6 guide bars in the useful economic lifetime of 2,184 net working hours. Price is P538 per bar (PICOP; June 1976). (b) 6.7 feet of 9/16"-pitch chain per month at P25.00 per foot (Manila distributor; August, 1976).
(iv) Repair and maintenance: (a) Assume that yearly parts cost amounts to 30% of acquisition price, (b) There are an estimated 9.4 hours of repair and maintenance in the chain saw shop per month (breakdown allowance) at PI.90 per hour direct labour cost, plus estimated shop overhead of P0.50 per saw per hour.
(v) Labour: Operator plus helper at P11.00 per day for the operator and P10.00 per day for the helper at San Jose- Dolores (September, 1976); P19.25 per day for the operator and P13-18 per day for the helper at PICOP (April, 1976). Piece-rate bonus equivalent to 2 hours' pay for every 20 logs at San Jose-Dolores; unknown amount pér cubic meter for daily production in excess of 53 cubic meters at PICOP. Employer's cost for workers' social benefit at 90% of wage rate at PICOP; unknown amount at San Jose-Dolores.
Assume general case of P15.00 per day for the operator and P11.00 per day for the helper, plus social benefits at 30% of wages, plus P3.00 each for daily piece-rate incentives bonus.
106
II. Small Chain Saw (3 hp.)
A. Summary (i) Depreciation P 1.43 (ii) Fuel and chain oil 2.48 (iii) Guide bar and chain 1.55 (iv) Repair and maintenance 1.06 (v) Labour 10.23
P16.75/net working hr. B. Sources and assumptions
(i) Depreciation: Acquisition price of P3,000 complete with guide bar and chain (Manila distributor; October, 1976). Without guide bar and chain, compute P2,671 (cf. ff iii). Salvage value (for parts) is 10%, or P267. From "Large Chain Saw" (I), there are 84.0 net working hours per month. Saw to be replaced after 20 months of use, i.e., after 1,680 net working hours.
(ii) Fuel and chain oil: (a) 1.1 liters of fuel per net work¬ ing hour at PI.60 per liter, (b) 0.15 liters of chain oil (SAE 30) per net working hour at P4.80 per liter.
(iii) Guide bar and chain: (a) Original 20" guide bar plus replacement of 1.2 bars per year, or 3.0 guide bars in the useful economic lifetime of 20 months. Price is P234 per bar (PICOP; June, 1976). (b) 3.8 feet of 3/8" -pitch chain per month at P25.00 per foot (Manila distributor; August, 1976).
(iv) Repair and maintenance: (a) Assume that yearly parts cost amounts to 30% of acquisition price, (b) Chain saw shop labour and overhead as in "Large Chain Saw" (I).
(v) Labour: Labour as in "Large Chain Saw" (I).
Conclusions — Based on the evidence available here, the small chain saw generated the lowest unit costs of the alternative methods, although unit costs were remarkably uniform :
(1) Two-man crosscut saw (San Jose-Dolores):
F6-9T- - P1.60/m3
4.3 m /hr.
(a) Small chain saw (San Jose-Dolores):
F16-7%ta- - hjmw.3 12.1 m /hr.
107
(3a) Large chain saw (San Jose-Dolores):
= P1.92/m^ 12.6 m /hr.
(3b) Large chain saw (PICOP):
P24.15/hr
14.2 m3/hr. = P1.70/IX13
The following points should be noted:
1. The companies bulk buy equipment and actual costs can be expected to be lower. PICOP also has higher wage rates.
2. Observed production rate of the cross cut saw may not be sustainable over a long period and trees were fairly small and easy to fell.
3. Advantages of the small chain saw were low fuel consump¬ tion and ease of handling but knowledge of how to "cut around" the tree was necessary. On larger trees the large saws are quicker.
4. The small saw is safer and less tiring.
108
Table A-l Falling and Crosscutting: Time Elements—Large Chain Saw for Falling in Eastern Mindanao, ILO/BFD Study.
A. Production (57 trees) 483.1
Time Element: Minutes
B. Net working time 598.3
B.l Actual cutting 292.5
B.2 Auxiliary time 305.8
B.2.1 Walk between trees 150.6
B.2.2 File/tighten saw chain 77.8
B.2.3 Clear underbrush, vines, obstacles 35.5
B.2.4 Make footholds 19.0
B.2.5 Rest 11.3
B.2.6 Free guide bar ("stuck-up") 7.2
B.2.7 Add fuel/oil 4.4
SUMMARY:
Production = 483 m^ Working time = 598 min. Time requirement = 1.24 mm./m Production rate = 48.4 m /hr.
109
Table A-2 Falling and Crosscutting: Time Elements—Large Chain Saw for Crosscutting in Eastern Mindanao, ILO/BFD Study.
A. Production (109 logs) 478.6 m3
Time Elements: Minutes
B. Net working time 850.7
B.l Actual cutting 392.4
B.2 Auxiliary time 458.3
B.2.1 Walk between trees 175.8
B.2.2 Free guide bar ("stuck-up") 96.3
B.2.3 File/tighten chain 68.7
B.2.4 Walk between crosscuts (same tree) 40.4
B.2.5 Rest 27.1
B.2.6 Clear underbrush, vines, obstacles 26.7
B.2.7 Add fuel/oil 14.6
B.2.8 Change bar and chain 6.2
B.2.9 Remove cut wedge 1.9
B.2.10 Make footholds 0.6
C. Other observed time 48.4
C.l Breakdown 31.4
C.2 Scaling delay 17.0
SUMMARY:
Production Working time Time requirement Production rate
= 479 m3
= 851 min. = 1.78min./m3
= 33.7 m /hr.
110
Table A-3 Falling and Crosscutting: Time Elements—Large Chain Saw for Falling in Eastern Mindanao, PICOP Study.
A. Production (203 trees) 1,040.5 m 3
Time Elements: Minutes
B. Net working time 2,151.9
B.l Actual cutting
B.2 Auxiliary time 1,243.8
B.2.1 Walk between trees 539.7
B.2.2 File/tighten saw chain 279.4
B.2.3 Clear underbrush, vines, obstacles 214.5
B.2.4 Free guide bar ("stuck-up") 64.4
B.2.5 Add fuel/oil 52.7
B.2.6 Rest 50.2
B.2.7 Make footholds 36.8
B.2.8 Remove cut wedge 6.1
C. Other observed time 161.2
C.l Breakdown 90.0
C.2 Clear road of branches 39.8
C.3 Scaling delay 22.3
C.4 Study delay 9.1
SUMMARY:
Production Working time Time requirement Production rate
1,040 m3
2,152 min. 2.07 mui/m 29.0 m /hr.
Ill
Table A-4 Falling and Crosscutting: Time Elements—Large Chain Saw for Crosscutting in Eastern Mindanao, PICOP Study.
A. Production (274 logs) 919.8 m3
B.
C.
Net working time
B.l Actual cutting
B.2 Auxiliary time
B.2.1 Walk between trees
B.2.2 Free guide bar ("stuck-up")
B.2.3 File/tighten saw chain
B.2.4 Walk between crosscuts (same tree)
B.2.5 Clear underbrush, vines, obstacles
B.2.6 Add fuel/oil
B.2.7 Debranching
B.2.8 Remove cut wedge
Time Elements: Minutes
1,922.8
783.3
1,139.5
Other observed time
C.l Breakdown
C.2 Study delay
242.5
239.2
3.3
377.6
172.3
286.7
142.3
76.2
50.2
25.4
8.8
SUMMARY:
Production Working time Time requirement Production rate
= 920 m3
= 1,923 min. = 2.09 mui/rn3
= 28.7 m /hr.
112
Table A-5 Falling and Crosscutting: Time Elements—Large Chain Saw for Combined Falling and Crosscutting in Samar.
A. Production (63 trees; 88 logs) 335.2
Time Elements: Minutes
B. Net working time 1,441.2
B.l Actual cutting 639.2
B.2 Auxiliary time 802.0
B.2.1 File/tighten saw chain 166.3
B.2.2 Clear underbrush, vines, obstacles 136.7
B.2.3 Free guide bar ("stuck-up") 129.2
B.2.4 Walk between trees 128.0
B.2.5 Walk between crosscuts (same tree) 100.8
B.2.6 Rest 79.1
B.2.7 Add fuel/oil 34.9
B.2.8 Start/warm-up engine 27.0
C. Other observed time 161.8
C.l Repair/adjust saw 62.4
C.2 Interference by other faller 32.4
C.3 Fall cull trees 19.8
C.4 Study delay 16.0
C.5 Help other faller 15.3
C.6 Scaling delay 12.6
C.7 Get fuel 3.3
SUMMARY:
Productioi Working time = 1,441 min. Production = 335 m^
q Time requirement = 4.30 mjn./m Production rate = 14.0 m /hr.
113
Table A-6 Falling and Crosscutting: Time Elements—Small Chain Saw for Combined Falling and Crosscutting in Samar.
A. Production (53 trees; 77 logs) 324.5 mc
B. Net working time
B.l Actual cutting
B.2 Auxiliary time
B.2.1 Clear underbrush, vines, obstacles
B.2.2 File/tighten saw chain
B.2.3 Walk between trees
B.2.4 Walk between crosscuts (same tree)
B.2.5 Rest
B.2.6 Add fuel/oil
Time Elements: Minutes
1,457.6
C. Other observed time
C.l Study delay
C.2 Repair/adjust saw
C.3 Fall cull tree
104.4
863.0
594.6
90.6
18.0
11.1
139.7
121.8
108.6
78.4
73.2
72.9
SUMMARY:
Production Working time Time requirement Production rate
= 324 m3
= 1,458 min. = 4.49 min./m = 13.4 m3/hr.
114
Table A-7 Falling and Crosscutting: Time Elements-Two-Man Crosscut Saw for Combined Falling and Crosscutting in Samar.
A. Production (6 trees; 6 logs) 30.4 m 3
Time Elements: Minutes
B. Net working time 420.8
B.l Actual cutting 173.2
B.2 Auxiliary time 247.6
B.2.1 Rest 82.6
B.2.2 Saw maintenance 51.2
B.2.3 Clear underbrush, vines, obstacles 51.0
B.2.4 Make platform 32.8
B.2.5 Walk between trees 13.3
B.2.6 Walk between crosscuts (same tree) 10.5
B.2.7 Drive/remove wedges 4.9
B.2.8 Change sawing position 1.3
C. Other observed time 88.3
C.l Fall cull trees 85.8
C.2 Study delay 2.6
SUMMARY:
Production Working time Time requirement Production rate
= 30 m3
= 421 min. = 14.0 min/m = 4.3 m /min.
115
