ABSTRACT
Better agricultural, forestry and conservation techniques will not by themselves control deforestation, even if they are applied in an integrated way. They must be supported by sound policies on the part of governments and international agencies or they will fail. Since the major underlying causes of deforestation and poor forest management are social and economic factors and government policies, policy changes are needed to influence these too. Contrary to the opinions of some commentators, in the majority of countries government policies are not the dominant cause of deforestation, much of which is currently outside governmental control. But deforestation rates could be reduced if governments changed some of their policies on agriculture, forestry and natural resources, and modified their social and economic policies too, though that is more difficult, as most governments probably do not appreciate the eventual impacts that those policies have on the environment.
