Forest products
Resource information
Date of publication
November 1991
Resource Language
ISBN / Resource ID
FAODOCREP:8d3d975e-5698-5f40-9c90-531077eba1c0
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© FAO. FAO is committed to making its content freely available and encourages the use, reproduction and dissemination of the text, multimedia and data presented. Except where otherwise indicated, content may be copied, printed and downloaded for private study, research and teaching purposes, and for use in non-commercial products or services, provided that appropriate acknowledgement of FAO as the source and copyright holder is given and that FAO's endorsement of users' views, products or services is not stated or implied in any way.
Throughout history, the forests have been valued for the multiplicity of products and benefits that they provide, both for subsistence and for trade: foods, medicines, spices, resins, gums, latexes, wildlife, fuelwood, and of course timber and other wood products. The literature is rich with examples of international trade in forest products, many dating back thousands of years. Significantly, in most cases the products sought by traders were resins, oils, spices, and much less frequently timber. For most of the modern era, however, from a development perspective forests essentially have been seen as a source of one product: wood.