2 minute read
Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines
from PNGAF MAG ISSUE # 9 B-5B4D3 Dr John Davidson Accompaniment "RAINBOW EUCALYPT MAN" Part 7 of 8 parts
by rbmccarthy
Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines
While I was on leave with the family in the Philippines late in 1978, I was given the opportunity to travel to Mindanao where I visited some commercial operations in the north and east of the Island. The main one in the northeast was the Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines (PICOP) operation located in Bislig Bay, southern Surigao del Sur Province.
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PICOP was originally incorporated on 1 April 1952 as Bislig Industries Inc. and renamed in 1963. It was operating in a forest concession of about 187,000 ha. Some 20,000 ha of about equal areas of kamarere and falcata (then called Albizia falcataria) had been planted by the company.
1978. Left: PICOP pulp mill. Right: The adjacent PICOP newsprint and kraft paper mill, with warehouse, ship berth, jetty/breakwater and log pond in the background.
1978. Left: E. deglupta in natural forest on the PICOP concession. Right: PICOP plantation of E. deglupta.
1978. Left: PICOP plantation of E. deglupta. Right: Thinned 100 x 100 m plot in a “vigour growth/yield study”, Rd 58 Km 11, age 7 years 4 months.
Left: E. deglupta mother tree, with white painted lower bole, located in native forest and used for seed collection that has resulted in most of the limbs being removed over time. Right: Seedlings of E. deglupta in a nursery in wood veneer tubes, a practical solution given PICOP also operated a veneer and plywood mill.
1978. PICOP E. deglupta seed orchard. Differing crown architecture was the result of the different age of the trees and the type and frequency of lopping carried out.
1978. PICOP research staff preferred marcotting for E. deglupta rather than grafting to multiply the trees already in the seed orchard. Marcotting meant there were no issues with compatibility since the eventual severed propagule was on its own roots. Left: Three marcots (arrows) covered with plastic sheet in place on a tree in the seed orchard. Right: Successful marcots in large veneer tubes after removal from parent trees.
1978 PICOP. Left: Successful marcot of E. deglupta. Right: Control pollination carried out near ground level on an early-flowering marcot of E. deglupta.
