As international concern over tropical deforestation has grown over the last ten years, researchers have sought to understand the causes of deforestation and possible solutions using quantitative economic models. This book reviews the results and methodology of over 150 of these models and synthesizes the main lessons that can be learned from them. Higher agricultural prices, lower wages, less off-farm employment, and more roads generally lead to more deforestation. Major doubts remain on the impact of technological change, agricultural input prices, household incomes, and tenure security.

Short-term trends show that livestock production is becoming an increasingly important factor in regional development, possibly because of the combined effect of increasing the forages on offer and planting crops better adapted to the environmental and economic conditions of marginal areas and the decreasing interest of the State in expanding the agricultural frontier. Overall planning of land use should be improved, but to do so, a more detailed characterization and monitoring of deforestation are essential.

In the last two decades, there has been increasing interest in the potential of small-scale non-timber forest product collection and other low-impact uses of the forest for achieving forest conservation. Experience suggests however that such uses do not guarantee conservation and economic outcomes. This book documents and compares methods to assess options for forest-based livelihoods and their outcomes.

If one is of the mindset that the world is fundamentally chaotic and irrational, then the discpline of economics probably has little to offer. But if one accepts the notion that there is some method to the apparent madness of individuals, governments and organizations, then economic inquiry does have no some contributions to make. In this excercise, we argue that economic criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management should reflect the dimensions of efficiency, equity and sustainability, and need to look beyond the forest stand to institutional and policy issues.

This report describes Reduced-Impact Logging(RIL) which will be implemented in the lowland and hill dipterocarp forest of the Bulungan Model Forest project in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. It is anticipated that through the implementation and supervision of the RIL practices described in this document, the timber concession operators (INHUTANI II) can expect to: reduce disturbances to soil and residual vegetation by at least 50% in comparison with conventional logging operations where these guidelines are not applied; limit overall direct impacts to the forest

This is the report of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) sixth test of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management. The test took place in October and November 1996 in and around Kribi, Cameroon. Unlike previous criteria and indicators (C&I) tests, the Kribi test placed emphasis on testing methods for developing the C&I. Eighteen experts in forestry, ecology and social science from Cameroon and other countries were involved in testing C&I developed by ATO, a Dutch working group, and a set collated from several sources.