Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Overview
- 2 Indonesia: public policies, resource management, and the tropical forest
- 3 Malaysia: public policies and the tropical forest
- 4 Incentive policies and forest use in the Philippines
- 5 Price and policy: the keys to revamping China's forestry resources
- 6 Public policy and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon
- 7 West Africa: resource management policies and the tropical forest
- 8 Subsidized timber sales from national forest lands in the United States
- 9 Conclusion: findings and policy implications
- Index of Topics
1 - Overview
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Overview
- 2 Indonesia: public policies, resource management, and the tropical forest
- 3 Malaysia: public policies and the tropical forest
- 4 Incentive policies and forest use in the Philippines
- 5 Price and policy: the keys to revamping China's forestry resources
- 6 Public policy and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon
- 7 West Africa: resource management policies and the tropical forest
- 8 Subsidized timber sales from national forest lands in the United States
- 9 Conclusion: findings and policy implications
- Index of Topics
Summary
Introduction
Threats to the world's forests are evoking responses at all levels, from villagers organizing to protect their woods to international summit meetings of world leaders. Many articles, books, and films have been produced documenting forest losses and the many threats – from peasant farmers, fuelgatherers, ranchers, herders, large-scale development projects, multinational companies, and atmospheric pollution. This book is different. It reports the results of an international research project that identified the impacts that governments, most of which are committed in principle to conservation and wise resource use, are themselves having on the forests under their stewardship through policies that inadvertently or intentionally aggravate the losses.
Such policies, by and large, were adopted for worthy objectives: industrial or agricultural growth, regional development, job creation, or poverty alleviation. But the study's important finding is that such objectives typically have not been realized, or have been attained only at excessive cost. The government policies identified in this book, both those usually identified as forestry policies and those impinging on the forestry sector from outside, have resulted in economic and fiscal losses while contributing to the depletion of forest resources.
Forestry policies, the terms on which potential users can exploit public forests, include harvesting fees, royalties, logging regulations, and administration of timber concessions with private loggers. Governments have typically sold off timber too cheaply, sacrificing public revenues and the undervalued non-timber benefits of the standing forest while encouraging rapid logging exploitation. The terms of many timber concession agreements and revenue systems have encouraged wasteful, resourcedepleting logging.
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- Public Policies and the Misuse of Forest Resources , pp. 1 - 42Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1988
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