ABSTRACT
Undisturbed forests may be harvested for nonwood forests products such as rattans, fruits and nuts without sacrificing any of the benefits of importance in watershed management. This chapter deals with some of the real versus touted soil and water benefits resulting from watershed management and rehabilitation. It contends that only those benefits which can be realized should be accepted as a mandate from society in watershed forestry programmes. Keeping the cloud forest and fog forests intact makes good hydrologie sense in watershed management as a source of additional water for downstream agricultural, domestic and industrial use. In the tropical dry forest, or even seasonal forest, fire can be a factor in watershed management. Good soil conservation farming (or grazing) must prevail if an agroforestry system is to claim erosion reduction benefits in a watershed strategy. Soil shear strength can also be imparted by roots of many fruit trees that may be used in an agroforestry system.
