ABSTRACT
The fate of the global forest resource at the end of the twentieth century is a major environmental issue in its own right, and it encapsulates many of the wider modern problems of environmental resources. The developing-world forest-dweller perceives the forest quite differently from the developed-world city-dweller. The forest resource has a diverse ecology; it is managed under a wide range of resource regimes; and it offers many different goods and services. The extent of forests and woodlands on the Earth’s surface is uncertain. Around 60 per cent of the world’s forests are in the tropical zone, and the bigger biomass volumes that are found in the humid tropics mean that the tropical share of the wood volume is disproportionately high. Wood volumes equivalent to the projected industrial needs for the year 2000 could in theory be met by 100–200 million ha of plantations.
