ABSTRACT
The floristic, biochemical and architectural diversity of the tropical forests makes it a store and source of a vast number of divers products and functions of which many are actually or potentially beneficial to man. In the event erosion, deforestation and land degradation could become a serious challenge not only to the value of the forest resource, but also generally to environmental and social stability, if large tracts of land are affected, as it commonly happens. Intensive industrial timber plantations must be restricted to good soils and almost flat sites and are linked with definite projects of forestry industry. From the start in India and Burma, the environmental and social functions of forestry were realized and motivated the formulation and implementation of forest policies which aided at land-use integrated forest management and conservation. Potential timber yields from natural silviculture of mixed forests are usually underestimated while yield expectations from monocultural tree plantations are usually overly optimistic.
