| | Much of the world's tropical timber is still supplied from natural forest, but under current systems of management many areas of forest are rapidly becoming exhausted. Unless management practices change, neither the forest nor the essential contribution of the timber industry to many economies will survive. Implicit in this is the successful integration of timber production systems and ecological conservation. This book is based upon a study carried out for the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). The purpose of the study is to examine the management of natural forest for the sustainable production of timber within the producer countries of ITTO: how much is being managed in a sustainable manner (so that its character as forest is preserved and its potential to produce is maintained); where is management succeeding (and what local conditions make it successful); where has management failed (and what conditions have contributed to failure). |
