| Abstract: | Recent literature has brought the perils and potential of the world's forests to public attention, and has revealed the extent to which the poor of the developing world depend upon forest resources to meet energy and other subsistence needs. This literature also reveals how little is understood about such needs and about what measures are required to develop these resources so that rural interests can be served. Only through a vastly improved understanding of forest energy production and consumption and of political, economic and social factors involved in forest land development will planners acquire the knowledge necessary to exploit the potential of the forest resource, and to meet the needs of the rural peoples for whom this resource is of the utmost importance. |
