Bureaucracy and the Unmanaged Forest Commons in Costa Rica (Or Why Development Does not Grow on Trees)

Abstract

"Due to the continuing manifested lack of viable planning for forestation by most governments, there are analysts who firmly believe that the responsibility for long-range planning and implementation and control of plans will increasingly fall upon large domestic and multi- national corporations. If governments are truly concerned about the probably increasing dominance of the world economy by multinational corporations (both privately and/or publicly owned), the most apparent alternative to sheer volatile legislative control is to improve national planning modes substantially, including the control of the implementation of long-range and related short-range plans. Government sponsored control systems must always remain relatively ineffective unless tied inextricably to major viable objectives (long-range aims) and appropriate, viable strategies for their long-range implementation. Similarly, they must be integrally related to viable short-range goals (aims) and operational plans."