In a year marked by several formal expert-level meetings on certification of forest management and criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management (C&I), most of which were related to the mandate of the Inter-governmental Panel on Forests (IPF), CIFOR and CATIE decided to lead off by hosting an informal meeting of experts from a cross-section of important certification and C&I initiatives.

This study analyses seven factors used to explain the conversion of forest to pasture in Central America between 1979 and 1994: 1) favourable markets for livestock products; 2) subsidised credit and road construction; 3) land-tenure policies; 4) limited technological change in livestock production; 5) policies which reduce timber values; 6) reduced levels of political violence; and 7) characteristics specific to cattle which make conversion attractive. Deforestation rates in Central America declined in the 1980s, but remained high.

Andrew P. Vayda, drawing on his long experience in studying the relations between people and their environments, addresses here the question of how human influences can be better incorporated into ecological studies. Citing relevant sources from the literature of philosophy as well as social and biological science, he argues that we should be guided in our research by the goal of giving causal explanations of concrete human behaviour and its concrete environmental effects.

A UNEP-sponsored project, implemented by CIFOR focused on the West African humid forests of Ghana and Nigeria. Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cameroon also were included in the study. The general objective of the project was to integrate all available information on humid forest formations in this region in order to promote initiatives to foster the adoption of sustainable forest management principles. The report is organised into nine chapters.

There have been several major research efforts on the rate and causes of Indonesia's deforestation in recent years and much associated literature, but there is still no consensus in the research community on these issues. This paper reviews the areas of uncertainty and confusion, and proposes questions that must be answered to get a better grasp of the subject. Among the key questions are: (1) How are we to define "forest", "deforestation" and "agency” in the context of Indonesia?

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 report documents the conduct of the first field tests of criteria and indicators (C&I) at the forest management unit level. Interdisciplinary and international teams of five persons conducted tests of five sets of C&I in four countries (Germany, Indonesia, Brazil, and Cote d’Ivoire). This report provides a description of the methods used, a thorough analysis of the findings, a combined generic template of C&I dealing with production forestry, policy, social and ecological issues, based on the groups’ results.