The State of Forestry in Asia and the Pacific

Abstract

"Following the 15th FAO Regional Conference in New Delhi (March 1980), three significant FAO meetings on forestry issues in the Asian region were held: the fifth session of the Committee on Forestry, a meeting of the Committee on Forest Development in the Tropics, and the 11th session of the Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission. At these meetings two interrelated issues were discussed: increasing population pressure on a limited supply of land and the widespread depletion or degradation of forest cover and its effect on future supplies of forestry goods and services. Participants noted that wood will remain an important housing material in rural areas of Asia and that the majority of rural people will continue to depend on fuelwood as their primary energy source. Hence, rural forestry activities constitute an important source of income and employment. In the future, participants felt, forestry policies in this region should consciously be directed toward alleviation of poverty through rural development. In doing so, they should integrate productive, protective and social objectives. One social goal, equity, could be used to reinforce a strategy of growth based on active and voluntary participation of the people living in forest communities."