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Key Programmes and Activities
Based on the advice of TFC’s
professional forestry team (whose cumulative
experience spans some 85 years locally and
internationally) and arising from preliminary
consultations with government and private interests,
certain key opportunities have been identified for
project formulation and appraisal towards early
financing and implementation.
A first priority is the
Private Forest Plantation Development,
commencing with support for commercial production of
fine hardwood timbers on the idle and underutilized
agricultural lands. Subsequently, attention would be
given to encouraging multi-purpose forests and
conservation plantings.
TFC has also identified a major
potential for Bamboo Utilization and Culture
that would include production of components for
low-cost housing, techniques for harvesting and
processing bamboo for a wide range of craft
products, management of existing bamboo stands and
introduction of better varieties to widen the scope
for utilization. Using its limited resources, in
2004 TFC has initiated a pilot demonstration of
tissue culture Teak, the World's most valuable
tropical timber, on 52 acres of private lands and at
Bodles Agricultural Research Centre. Since then.
JAMPRO has offered to support a further 50 acres in
2006.
A third priority
has been approved by the Directors, namely to
provide technical assistance with watershed
protection efforts, particularly because of the
devastation caused by recent hurricanes and storms.
As a member of the National Integrated Watershed
Management Council, TFC has been instrumental in
supporting two local watershed groups with
reforestation projects funded by the Environmental
Foundation of Jamaica. Based on these experiences,
the company is poised to obtain further support for
other critical watershed groups, using an agro
forestry approach.
In the long run, TFC hopes to invest
in income-generating subsidiaries that would ensure
its own sustainability and thereby its longevity in
servicing the needs and interests of its partners
and clients.
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