What future for forests?
More forest was lost between 1981 and 1990 than in any other decade in human history. Forests are being cleared to provide land for food and cash crops. Fuelwood is the main cooking fuel of nearly half the world's people. wood is essential for building construction and a host of other uses and timber exports are a source of foreign exchange for many countries. Cutting trees and clearing forests make perfect sense to those who are doing it, but as the trees disappear there are also losers. Forest dwellers are deprived of their homes and livelihoods. Fuelwood and other forest products become harder to obtain. Land is eroded and lakes and dams are filled with silt. With fewer trees to soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the risk of global warming is increased. As plant and wildlife species become extinct, biological diversity is reduced. The challenge of sustainable forest management is aimed primarily at a non-technical audience, including decision-makers and the concerned general public. It may also be of value to those foresters whose professional education was completed before the present-day concert of sustainability was established. Since there is no prospect of an early end to the pressures causing the clearance of forests, large areas of forest land, especially in the tropics, will inevitably be converted to agricultural use in the coming decades. Logging and cutting for fuelwood will continue. The challenge is not to prevent these activities but to manage them. This book is a contribution to increasing public awareness of the issues involved. The challenge of sustainable forest management 1993 128 pp ISBN 92 5 103370 6 Pbk FAO Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 00100 Rome ITALY
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| Format: | News Item biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
1994
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/49413 http://collections.infocollections.org/ukedu/en/d/Jcta51e/ |
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