Man's use of land - forested land, land that borders forest, and land that long ago ceased to be forest - is the subject of this contribution. The point made is that in most developing countries, the economic potential of forestry and the ecological importance of forest ecosystems are very low priority issues. If we are concerned with the survival and perpetual utilization of tropical forest, we have to analyze the question: why do forests disappear in an alarming increasingly rate Not because there is an evil conspiracy aiming at clearing the world of tropical forests. There are two main reasons: people and nations need new land for food production, and they need wood for a variety of different purposes. Forests, where the exist, can provide both; in many cases forests are the only reserves of land and wood
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00122637Altmetric score:
Dimensions Citation Count:
Publication year
1985
Authors
Language
English
Keywords
deforestation, land use, forest ecosystems
