ABSTRACT
A critical issue to the advance of environmentally sound forest practices, especially in mountainous terrain, is an appropriate system for the planning, control and evaluation of harvesting operations. The objective is simple, namely to ensure practices that are safe, productive and environmentally sound. Yet, at the international level, forestry is at a critical juncture in the sustainable provision of economic, social and environmental services to society. Policy-makers must develop national codes of practice with reference to regional and local considerations and, above all, establish a coherent framework for decision analysis. To this effect, codes of practice must address recommendations that are compiled with reference to the basic sciences, sound engineering practices, socioeconomic constraints, and a critical evaluation of field experience from case studies. Nowhere is this more profoundly evident than in mountainous regions,
where the impact of improper forest operations is so immediately apparent (Fannin 2003).
