ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors focus on pitfalls that they see as particularly germane to development forestry. Most of the extension community's attention in rural development (RD) has been directed towards those farmers who are interested in innovation and willing to take risks. An especially distressing problem in RD has been the tendency for successful cash crops to displace staple food crops, and the people who grow them as well. The problem of public policy decreasing food production carries over into the employment sector as well. The problem of transforming forestry services from regulatory agencies to RD extension organizations is a topic frequently encountered in forestry circles in recent years. It is often depicted in terms of turning forest guards into extension agents, or changing policemen into salesmen, and is rightly considered a difficult goal to achieve, albeit one well worth striving for.
