Sustainable Forest Management

The polar extremes of conservation and development of publicly-owned native forests are often vigorously argued by the respective interest groups. Biodiversity, climate change, protecting rare and endangered species and ecosystems, ecotourism, water quality, protecting the interests of indigenous people, sustainable management, economic development, and ensuring community stability are but a few of the lines of argument that are advanced by one or other of the interest groups. International agreements are being pursued to achieve sustainable management of tropical forests, most of which are publicly-owned, by 2000. Similar measures have been proposed for temperate forests. Rational resolution of these controversies is not simple because many of the variables are difficult to define and measure, the time periods involved are long and clouded by uncertainties, and the institutional processes are complex. Further, these controversies inevitably involve biological and economic factors, not to mention political, anthropological, legal and others with the added difficulty of quite different sets of terms, theories and principles.
The principal aim of this book is therefore to review critically and synthesize the underlying elements of these controversies and to place them within an ordered framework of processes for choice, not with any pretext of providing a universal solution, but rather of contributing to a better understanding and analysis of the issues. This may seem at odds with the title of a book that seems to promise a panacea in terms of sustainable management of public forests, yet it is the very essence of sustainable management.