The Purpose of Forests

This volume brings together, for the first time, the principal writings of arguably the most important figure in the developmental aspects of international forestry in the postwar period. Jack Westoby was the first to argue that forest resources could be harnessed to Third World development. For three decades he has been at the centre of debates about the role of forestry in socio-economic development and his writings, speeches and comments have advanced theory and influenced practice. He has continually posed new questions about the role of forest development in the third world. Papers in this collection not only summarized the issues and the experience gained; often they changed the direction of the debate. The book is in three parts. The seminal paper in the first chapter held out the promise that forest industries could be mechanisms for development, and the rest of the first part elaborates this idea. Part Two reveals the author's growing doubts about the consequences of the forestry development projects which were actually being implemented. These doubts led eventually to his famous denunciation of tropical forest development which impoverished the many and enriched the few.
This and other chapters in the third part look to an alternative, a forestry oriented towards people's needs. The book should be of interest to academic and professional foresters, forest managers and administrators, development economists, sociologists, political economists, rural sociologists, and conservation groups.