This is the sixth publication in the ITTO Policy Development Series which aims to provide practical assistance
to member countriesin their efforts to ensure the protection and sustainable management of tropical forests.
These fire management guidelines are designed to provide a base for policy makers and managers at various
levels to develop programmes and projects in which the specific national, socio-economic, and natural problems
related to fire in tropical natural and planted forests will be addressed. The scope of the Guidelines is to assist
the ITTO producer and consumer countries to develop programmes for reducing damage caused by fire; and
to help tropical forest managers and rural residents to safely use and take advantage of the beneficial effects of
fire in land-use systems.
The Guidelines are in accordance with the UN Resolution 44/236 in which the 1990's were designated as the
International Decade on Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR). One objective of IDNDR is to reduce damage,
economic disruption, and loss of life caused by wildfires through concerted international actions, especially in
developing countries.
This document is well-written and concise. It treats a range of issues, including policy and legislation, strategies,
monitoring and research, institutional framework and capacity development, socio-economic considerations,
land resources management and utilization, and training and public education.
Orders:International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), International Organizations Center, 5th
Floor,Pacifico-Yokohama, 1-1-1 Minato-Mirai, Nishi-Ku, Yokohama 220, Japan.
Tel: +81 45 223 1110, Fax: +81 45 223 1111
This newsletter covers fire management and fire research issues at global scale and intends, among others, to build a bridge between fire researchers and fire managers. It also contains information on fire seminars, conferences and training courses. IFFN is distributed twice per year through the United Nations system. For further information contact: Timber Section, UN-ECE Trade Division, Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland.
This new publication from ATIBT (Association Technique Internationale des Bois Tropicaux) describes an
approach to the methodology of sustainable management of moist dense tropical forests. In particular the
methods used in calculating alternatives, one of the fundamentals of management, is explained.
The book is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the basic knowledge indispensible to the
understanding of sustainable management. Experiments in Africa, Asia and America are compared. Next to
regeneration and biodiversity greater care should be taken during transport and reducing wastage.
The second part of the book describes the practicalities of management, with considerations on the institutional
framework, human and social factors, land use and forest management units. Finally the technical appendices
in part three introduce two methods for estimating the management possibilities of a dense forest zone.
Preliminary studies needed to prepare forest zone management are discussed and solutions towards sustainable
management are given.
Orders: (publication available in English and French) Editions Scytale, 24 bis, Rue Tournefort, 75005 Paris,
France. Tel: +33 143 370 373, Fax: +33 145 870 784, E-mail: scytale@aol.com.
Price ff 100. ISBN 2-912309-00-X.
The guidelines provide a summary of the major issues and principles that need to be addressed in the planning,
establishment and management of planted forests in tropical environments. They also aim to introduce readers
to the existing literature on various aspects of the establishment and management of planted forests in the tropics
that has been produced by FAO and other agencies. It is hoped that this will help to make this already well
documented wealth of both research and management experience more accessible to operational forest managers
and planners working in tropical countries.
The report has four major sections which emphasise the various steps in the sustainable establishment and
management of planted tropical forests vis, the development of appropriate policy and legislation, feasibility
assessment, planted forest establishment and post-establishment management. Each of these sections contains
a set of basic principles and recommended actions. The text has been intentionally kept concise to appeal to a
wider audience. The recommended actions are proposed in general terms because the primary target group is
the tropical forest managers and administrators who work in settings where ecological, economic and social
circumstances can vary considerably. The framework of these guidelines should therefore be modified and
shaped into more specific guidelines which are compatible with regional and national circumstances.
There are still 30 copies of this publication available free of charge.Orders: International Tropical Timber
Organization (ITTO), International Organizations Center - 5th Floor, Pacifico-Yokohama, 1-1-1 Minato-Mirai,
Nishi-Ku, Yokohama 220, Japan.
Tel: +81 45 223 1110, Fax: +81 45 223 1111
The purpose of this publication is to provide a source document setting out recent developments in thinking and
conclusions concerning (mainly) international steps towards ensuring sustainable forest management. The
booklet records principal decisions concerning forests emerging from the 1992 Rio Conference and summarises
international conventions bearing on forests which were agreed at that conference or earlier. Summaries are
given of two major initiatives (Malaya-Canada and India-UK) which were organised in support of international
discussion of the case for a world agreement on conservation and sustainable management of forests. These
are followed by summaries of 11 initiatives organised by a wide range of countries to support the
Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF) which was established by the United Nations in 1995 to carry forward
the international debate, together with the June 1997 decision of the Special Session of the UN General
Assembly (Rio +5) which registered the continued failure
to achieve international agreement on a world convention. Other chapters record recent discussions and
thinking on criteria and indicators of sustainable management, certification and labelling, activities of other
institutions and 4 examples of national forest accords. A supplement is planned which will record the full texts
of the final reports of the 11 IPF initiatives.
Orders: Commonwealth Forestry Association, Oxford Forestry Institute, Oxford OX1 3RB, United Kingdom.
Fax: +44 1865 275074.Price:£9 ($15) plus £2 ($3) for airmail. Paperback. 150pp.
Sustainability, and in particular the sustainable use of natural resources, is the subject of much debate. This
paper is a conceptual contribution to the management of natural resources, including forests, for sustainable
development. Though inspired by North American work for forest ecosystems, the ideas described are
applicable to other natural resources and in different ecoregions.
The author first briefly reviews relevant results from the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the 1993
Helsinki Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe and several other international efforts.
This is followed by short discussions on sustainability and ecosystems and the concept of ecosystem
management, as developed in the US. The main section of the report presents principles of managing natural
resources for sustainable development, a definition of ecosystem-based management, as well as instruments and
scientific challenges.
IUFRO Occational Paper 6. ISSN 1024-414X. Orders: IUFRO Secretariat, Seckendorff-Gudent Weg 8, A-1131
Vienna, Austria.
Fax: +43 1 877 93 55, E-mail: iufro@forvie.ac.at
This 17 page report, including annexes, provides general information on programmes and projects
funded by the European Commission's Tropical Forests Budget Line. The Annex tables contain programme and project
titles and budget, arranged per country and region for each of the years of the period 1992 - 1995.
The new tropical forests Regulation adopted by the European Council in December 1995 establishes a framework for cooperation in the period 1996 - 1999. The provisional amount allocated for the years 1996-99 is ECU 200 million.
The budget line is managed by the European Commission's DG VIII for the ACP countries, and DG 1B, for
Asia and Latin America. In addition to the tropical forest budget line, 10 % of the resources provided under
financial and technical cooperation with the Asian and Latin American countries are earmarked for
environmental and tropical forest operations. Similarly, a number of tropical forest programmes are carried out
in the ACP states under the Lomé convention. These programmes are not covered by this report, nor are the
scientific programmes financed by the Community, such as Science and Technology for Development and
Tropical Ecosystem Environment Observation by Satellite (TREES).
The report is available in English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish language versions.
For free copies of the report please contact the ETFRN Coordination Unit indicating the pre-ferred language
version.
This PhD manuscript has recently been completed and will not formally be published, but can be made
available at net cost to interested researchers in Indonesia and abroad. If you want to find out more about Dr.
Supriyanto's work or wish to made an order please contact:
Prof. Dr. ir. Robert De Wulf, Laboratory of Forest Management and Spatial Information Techniques,
Department of Forest and Water Management, University of Gent, Coupure 653, B90000 Gent, Belgium.
Tel: +32 9 264 61 10, Fax: +32 9 264 62 40,
E-mail: Robert.Dewulf@rug.ac.be
Intended to be used at undergraduate and postgraduate degree course level, as well as in short courses and at workshops. They will be of interest to policy makers, mid-level professionals and programme coordinators. The titles in this series are:
This study brings together recent literature and the author's regional experience to assess the problem of rapid land turnover in colonisation zones in the Amazon Region. Based on field or project experience, various land use alternatives are assessed, including 'slash and burn' farming, The study indicates that institutional factors and market incentives are more powerful determinants of colonist farmer stability than land productivity, and discusses why development efforts need to pay particular attention to the dynamic nature of the frontier. Farmer response to economic and institutional incentives changes as the frontier matures, and projects/technologies have often missed their 'moving target'. Greater success has come when policy, institutional and technical strategies have been more integrated. Orders: ODI Publications, Portland House, Stag Place, London SW1E 5DP, UK. Tel: +44 171 393 1600, Fax: +44 171 393 1699, E-mail: publications@odi.org.uk. Price £10.95 + postage (UK and Europe £2.00 per book, other countries £4.00 per book).
The Pilot Program to conserve the Brazilian Rain Forest publishes a quarterly newsletter.
The Pilot Program supports an integrated set of projects that will contribute to a reduction
in the rate of deforestation of Brazil's rain forests in a manner consistent with the sustainable development of
the area's natural and human resources, and that will provide lessons for designing future activities. The Pilot
Program is designed to address the underlying causes of deforestation in Brazil's rain forests through a three-pronged
approach. Projects will help strengthen the capacity of the public sector to set and enforce sound environmental
policy; improve management of special protected areas, including parks, extractive reserves, national forests
and indigenous lands; and increase the knowledge base on conservation of the rain forest and sustainable
utilisation of its resources.
For more information about the newsletter please contact:
Judith Lisansky and Loretta Sprissler, The World Bank, Pilot Program to Conserve the Brazilian Rain
Forest,Rain Forest Pilot
Program Update, 1818 H Street, N.W.
Room Q7-057,Washington DC 20433, USA
Source: Rain Forest Pilot Program Update
These publications are the result of an international workshop on "The Current and Potential State of
Management and Development of Secondary Tropical Forests in Latin America", which was held in Pucallpa,
Peru from June 2-6 1997. It was funded by the German Development Cooperation Agency (GTZ), the
Directorate General for International Cooperation (DGIS) of the Netherlands and the Ministry of Agriculture,
Nature Management
and Fisheries of the Netherlands. Technical assistance was provided by the GTZ and the National Reference
Centre for Nature Management (IKC NATUURBEHEER) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries of the Netherlands.
Specialists from the FAO and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) attended the workshop,
as did representatives from national and international institutions such as the Centre for International Forestry
Research (CIFOR), the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), and Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE), which work on secondary forests in Latin America.
The brochure is published in English and Spanish. It contains a short general section on secondary forests, their
origin, definition, extent and potential, followed by an introduction to the workshop and its objectives.
The third section, the Pucallpa proposal, contains the general and specific conclusions and recommendations
of the workshop.
The proceedings of the workshop are published in Spanish, except for one paper which was submitted in
English.
For copies of both publications, please contact either of the following:
Kees van Dijk or Herman Savenije, National Reference Centre for Nature Management, IKC-N, P.O. Box 30,
6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands. Fax +31 317 474930, E-mail: k.van.dijk@ikcn.agro.nl; or h.j.f.savenije@ikcn.agro.nl
Helmut Dotzauer, German Development Cooperation Agency - GTZ, P.O. Box 5180, 65726 Eschborn,
Germany. Fax +49 61 96797333, E-mail: helmut.dotzauer@gtz.de
Víctor Palma Valderrama, TCA-FAO, Av. Canaval y Moreyra 756, San Isidro, Lima 27, Perú. Fax: +51 1 224 1409,E-mail: vpalma@spt-tca.org.pe
Juan Blas Zapata Padilla,Consejo, Centroamericano de Bosques y Areas Protegidas (CCAB-AP), B. Palmira, Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Fax: +504 200683, E-mail: jbzapata%ccabap@sdnhon.org.hn
This book contains illustrations and descriptions, in English and Portuguese, of 172 tree species commonly
found in primary and secondary forests of the central Brazilian Amazon region, focussing on the Tapajós
National Forest in western Pará State. Photographic illustrations for each species include foliage (plus flowers
and/or fruits for some species), seedling, bark and trunk features that are intended to facilitate field
identification. Written descriptions of each species include identification characteristics
not apparent from illustrations, as well as information on wood and nonwood uses. Also included are a general
introduction to the ecological characteristics of the Tapajós National Forest, a glossary of botanical terms used
in the text, and indices of scientific and local common names.
Orders: Single copies are available, free of charge, on request for departmental or institutional libraries, or
individuals actively engaged in botanical, ecological or forestry research and development activities in the
Amazon region. Please send your requests to: Dr John Parrotta, International Institute of Tropical Forestry,
USDA Forest Service, PO Box 25000, Rio Piedras, PR 00928-5000, USA.Fax: +1 787 766 6302
Tropical Montane Cloud Forests have recently received considerable attention. Considered as probably one of the most fragile ecosystems in the world, they are also recognized as one of the world's main centres of biodiversity. At present their future is at stake.
This book, written in Spanish, focuses on one particular Tropical Montane Cloud Forest area in the Neotropical
Realm: the Talamancan oak dominated mountain forests of Costa Rica's Amistad Biosphere Reserve. It seeks
patterns in biodiversity, especially vascular and non-vascular plant diversity, and addresses current issues in
ecology, nature conservation and sustainable development. This forest area is considered one of the most
biodiverse regions worldwide and is presently increasingly threatened due to population pressure and
unsustainable land use. This book presents the results of a ten-year joint research effort conducted by Costa
Rican and Dutch research institutions. It offers detailed information on advanced and strategic plant and
community ecological research in a threatened neotropical montane cloud forest region. Simultaneously, it
represents a major contribution to local and regional knowledge which is urgently needed for the development
and implementation of land management systems with an ecologically sound socioeconomic approach. This
edition is directed towards scientists, students, governmental and non-governmental policy makers as well as
to local community leaders active in the field of biodiversity, ecology, environmental education, nature
conservation and sustainable development. It intends to provide a framework for a much needed sustainable
land management system for the fragmented tropical montane forest region of the Talamancan mountain range
in Costa Rica.
First edition in Spanish. xvi and 320 pages, paperbound and illustrated with 32 full colour photos, 52 b/w
figures and 38 tables. ISBN 99 6870 205 6. Price: Dfl 45.00 or US$ 25.00 (excluding shipping/postage costs).
Orders: Hugo de Vries Laboratory, c/o Secretary, University of Amsterdam, Kruislaan 318, 1098 SM
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Fax: +31 20 5257662, E-mail: santos@bio.uva.nl, or:
INBio Institute, c/o Publication Department, Apartado Postal 22-3100, Santo Domingo, Heredia, Costa Rica,
Fax: (+506) 244 2816. More information is available on Internet:
http://www.frw.uva.nl/acd/fgb/icg/COSTARIC/costa.htm
As part of the Tropenbos Cameroon Programme, a hydrological study is being carried out in the rain forest area
of South Cameroon by the "Institut de Recherches Géologiques et Minières" (Cameroon) in collaboration with
the DLO Winand Staring Centre (The Netherlands). The study aims to
provide information on the spatial distribution of rainfall, surface runoff and evaporation in a 2000 km2
research area, as well as to assess the impact of selective logging (low intensity, 1 tree ha-1) and shifting
cultivation on soil properties, catchment water yield and sediment yield.
The present report gives an overview of the results obtained in the first year of the study.
Rainfall varied considerably, ranging from about 1700 mm y-1 in the western lowlands (<100 m a.s.l.) and
eastern uplands (>700 m a.s.l.) to 2100-2300 mm y-1 in the lowland-upland transition zone. The spatial
variation of rainfall was reflected in the runoff from three small catchments (2.7-7.7 km2) under primary rain
forest, selectively logged forest, and forest (65%) - shifting cultivation (35%). Catchment water balance
calculations indicate that the impact of land use changes on the annual evaporation (1209-1314 mm y-1) is small
at the prevailing low land use intensities and falls within the range of measurement errors. Rainfall must
therefore be considered as the main factor affecting the spatial variation of runoff in the area. Catchment
sediment yields, however, were clearly affected by the land use changes, with the lowest annual total (56 kg
ha-1) observed for primary rain forests, and significantly higher yields for the catchments under forest - shifting
cultivation (105 kg ha-1) and selective logging (564kg ha-1). In the latter, most of the sediment was produced
on skid tracks where the topsoil was severely disturbed and compacted. The first results of the study do not give
rise to great concern on the impact of the present low-intensity land use changes on the regional hydrology.
However, in view of the increased sediment concentrations in streamwater observed after selective logging, and
to a lesser extent after shifting cultivation, special attention should be given to the protection of village water
supply areas to guarantee an adequate supply of good-quality water in the future.
Orders:Winand Staring Center for Integrated Land, soil and Water Research, P.O. Box 125, 6700 AC Wageningen, The Netherlands.Tel: +31 317 474304, Fax:+31 317 424812. E-mail : m.j.waterloo@sc.dlo.nl
This volume contains the proceedings of the International Conference on Domestication and Commercialization
of Non-Timber Forest Products in Agroforestry Systems, held in Nairobi, Kenya from 19 to 23 February 1996.
It includes the conference recommendations to FAO for the World Food Summit (Rome, 13-17 November
1996), a summary of the Working Group reports, background papers and poster abstracts. The report is
organised according to the five thematic areas considered by the conference: assessment and monitoring of non-timber forest
products; indigenous knowledge and ethnobotany; product development and management; product
domestication and adoption by farmers; and policy and institutional aspects. The 26 background papers give
a comprehensive overview of resource identification and assessment, domestication, policy issues and product
development prospects of non-timber forest products.
Orders: Distribution and Sales Section, FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy.
In many countries forests are one of the most valuable resources on which a sustainable economy can be built.
Yet today, in Amazonia, Mainland Southeast Asia, the Congo Basin, the South Pacific, Indonesia, Central
America, Siberia, Alaska and beyond, vast areas of primary forests are rapidly being depleted for short-term
gain. These remaining large, ecologically intact, and relatively undisturbed natural forest ecosystems, or
"frontier forests", also house most of the world's terrestrial biological diversity and provide such vital ecosystem
services as watershed protection and catchment, soil conservation, and carbon storage. Globally, these forests
are home and livelihood to thousands of cultures and to some of the poorest people in the world.
Commercial extraction of timber from these areas promises much-needed revenue to governments, private
business, and communities. All too often, however, short-sighted policies reduce the forest's value and local
economic benefits.
Working in collaboration with the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) and the World Wildlife
Fund-US and drawing on the expertise of 90 of the world's top forest specialists, WRI has completed the first
global study on the status of the frontier forests. The study graphically depicts the extent of human impacts on
global forests, documenting historic forest loss over the past 8,000 years. It also provides systematic, easily
comparable forestry profiles for Oceania, Asia, Europe and Russia, South America, North and Central America,
and Africa. Threats to the world's remaining forest areas are analysed and recommendations given on how to
reverse these trends.
The report is published in Spanish and English and is available through WRI's website at
http://www.wri.org/wri/ffi/.
Orders: Copies can be purchased for $14.95 plus $3.50 shipping and handling from WRI Publications, P.O.
Box 4852, Hampden Station, Baltimore, MD 21211, Tel: +1 800 822 0504 or +1 410 516 6963. Complimentary
copies are available for journalists - call +1 202 662 2542.