Miombo woodlands are the most extensive vegetation type in Africa south of the equator. These dry tropical woodlands cover some 2.5 million hectares and are home to over 40 million people. Miombo products are very important to the livelihoods and basic needs of an additional 15 million urban Africans. The book demonstrates how much livelihood strategies of rural communities depend on miombo goods and services, and indicates the strong differentiation of uses within communities and in space and time.

This article analyzes why it has been easier to promote some types of environmental policy reform in Latin America than others. It first looks at the main groups that might promote such reforms - developed country organizations, the urban middle class, groups that have direct material interests in reform, and movements for social justice.

The area northwest of Mt Kenya is undergoing rapid land use changes caused by a population influx. Rapid population growth and subsequent pressure on land raise the problem of how to increase and sustain agricultural production while at the same time conserving the natural resources (montane forest with Olea africana and Juniperus procera as main species at 2900 m asl.). Deterioration in soil physical and chemical properties following deforestation for agriculture can adversely affect crop production, especially from soils on mountain slopes.

A tree is more than timber. It is food, income, medicine, fuel/energy, fodder. Forestry plays an important role in providing food security and poverty alleviation.

Los principales defensores del aprovechamiento del bosque admiten la necesidad de tomar en consideracin la conservacin. Incluso los ms acendrados grupos ecologistas reconocen que los programas de conservacin encaminados a preservar los bosques deben incluir algunas actividades de aprovechamiento. La cuestin que hay que dilucidar es si se deben conservar los bosques y qu grado de utilizacin se ha de aceptar, o si, partiendo del supuesto de que se necesita utilizar los bosques y hacerlo de manera sostenible, qu grado de conservacin se ha de garantizar.

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

This paper outlines FAO's past and present activities on combating desertification, with particular emphasis on the Near East Region, in an attempt to mobilise all the potential efforts towards the establishment of an adequate strategy to enable this particular part of the world to build efficient regional and national programmes to combat resource degradation, restore land productivity and achieve food security.

La foresterie joue un role important dans la sécurité alimentaire. L’accès à la forêt est indispensable pour que la communauté puisse tirer des avantages des resources forestières.