An agricultural watershed, situated on an island of the Aegean archipelago, was studied in order to gain insight into the structure and the design of a typical terrestrial ecosystem of the Mediterranean region. Fieldwork was focused on the comparative study of seasonal patterns of inorganic nutrients, organic nitrogen, and erosion over the most abundant vegetation types of the area, such as olive groves, maquis, and wetlands. Nutrient losses via the pathway of erosion were provided by the determination of nutrient concentrations in runoff sediments.

The Belgian climate policy is formulated at the federal level, requiring cooperation between regional and federal administrations. Around a fifth of the total area of Belgium is covered by forests. Around 80/ of the productive forests are in the Walloon region. Reported values for land use change and forestry categories give a potential of 2,057 kt eq. CO2 per year. Given the existing regional forest inventories (RFI): RFI1 for 1984 and RFI2 for 1999, an estimate has been made to consolidate reported data.

The Belgian climate policy is formulated at the federal level, requiring cooperation between regional and federal administrations. Around a fifth of the total area of Belgium is covered by forests. Around 80/ of the productive forests are in the Walloon region. Reported values for land use change and forestry categories give a potential of 2,057 kt eq. CO2 per year. Given the existing regional forest inventories (RFI): RFI1 for 1984 and RFI2 for 1999, an estimate has been made to consolidate reported data.

The rate of forest clearing by small farmers in the humid forest zone (HFZ) of Cameroon increased significantly in a period of economic crisis dating from 1986. A random sample survey of 648 households was conducted in 54 villages in the HFZ to understand the effect of the crisis and of a 1996 currency devaluation on the practices of small farmers, and the effect of these practices on forest cover change.

Popular concern about tropical deforestation largely drove the rapid growth in forestry assistance in recent years. Nevertheless, forestry assistance has had limited impact on forest clearing and much of it has gone to address other problems. To reduce inappropriate deforestation requires a combination of a multi-sectoral approach, greater regulation, and payment for environmental services. Aid officials have been partially unwilling and partially unable to adopt these approaches.

A sample survey of 648 households was conducted in 54 villages in the humid forest zone of Cameroon to understand the effect of the economic crisis (dating from 1986) and the 1994 currency devaluation on the practices of small farmers, and the effect of these practices on forest cover change. Four hypotheses were tested concerning: the balance between plantation crop and food crop production; the degree of market-orientation of food crop production; the gender division of labour; and the degree of dependence on non-timber forest products (NTFPs).

Loggers, miners and rural communities all exploit forests in unsustainable ways in search of profits and means of subsistence. They are the primary actors in forest decline and their immediate motivations are the direct causes of deforestation and degradation. However, these motivations are determined, through complex causation chains, by deeper and much more fundamental forces: the underlying causes of deforestation. Effective action against forest decline requires an understanding of these underlying causes and their distant impacts on forests.