ABSTRACT
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was created in 1945 as a United Nations specialized agency and its Forestry Department was created shortly thereafter. In 1982, an Experts' Meeting on Tropical Forestry, convened by UNEP, UNESCO and FAO, suggested that FAO's Committee on Forest Development in the Tropics (CFDT) take a more active coordinating role in tropical forestry affairs. In 1986 the FAO created a Tropical Forestry Action Programme (TFAP) Steering Committee, which has since been superseded by a Multidisciplinary Support Group comprised of FAO officials. The CFDT meets only every two years, key policy decisions in the interim are taken by the Multidisciplinary Support Group, with day-today operations the responsibility of the Coordination Unit. The World Resources Institute (WRI) report noted that opportunities for slowing deforestation by launching policy and institutional reforms were being neglected. National Forestry Action Plans/Programmes (NFAPs) had ignored the causes of deforestation that lie outside the forest.
