The Regional Workshop convened by M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in collaboration with the Bay of Bengal Programme of FAO (BOBP) is designed to address these issues and to develop an action plan for saving the remaining coral reefs in the SAARC region. Since its establishment in 1989, M S S R F has given priority attention to the conservation and sustainable use of Coastal Mangrove ecosystems. In many areas, Mangroves, sea grass meadows and coral reefs constitute an integrated ecosystem. The Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve represents one such integrated ecosystem.

This book contains a number of commissioned background papers presented at the workshop on ‘Research on Non-timber Forest Products’ (Hot Springs, Zimbabwe, 28 August - 2 September 1995). Bringing together experiences from different regions and professional backgrounds, the book attempts to analyse the complexity of multiple use of forests from a multidimensional perspective that incorporates environmental, social, economic, technological, political, historical and cultural factors. Current topics of discussion are reviewed.

In July 1996, with assistance from FAO, USAID, and the USDA Forest Service, CIFOR offered its first International Research Training Seminar on Reduced-Impact Timber Harvesting and Natural Forest Management. Participants were drawn from ten countries and represented disciplines ranging from silviculture and hydrology to wildlife biology. Throughout the workshop, field exercises were integrated with classroom activities, initially in the experimental forest plantation near CIFOR's headquarters, and later at an industrial timber concession in East Kalimantan.

This study set out to analyze the agricultural potential in
a newly settled Masongaleni Settlement Scheme being an example
of an Arid and Semi-Arid land. The potentials here are the
under-utilized rainfed, irrigated agriculture and livestock
production particularly bee keeping. A comparison of selected
rainfed crop yields from Masongaleni Settlement Scheme and
similar ~cological areas is used to identify the potentials of
the &chem~.
On the irrigated crops, the study compares the farmers'

Coproductie RPD Staring Centrum

This issue of Unasylva focuses on the challenges facing forestry extension and current attempts to respond to them.