Multiple-use forest management in the humid tropics
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Societal demands on tropical forests at the local, national and global scales are profound and varied: the regulation of the hydrological cycle; the mitigation of global climate change; the provision of timber and non-timber products; food security; recreation; biodiversity conservation; cultural and spiritual values; livelihoods and employment; and many others. The Statement of Principles on Forests, made at the Earth Summit in 1992, affirmed that forests should be managed to meet t he social, economic, ecological, cultural and spiritual needs of present and future generations. Yet we still seem far from implementing a truly holistic, multiple-use approach to forest management, or achieving the lasting conservation of tropical forests. Managing forests for multiple uses is a potential way of increasing the monetary value that communities, managers and owners ? who are sometimes the same people ? obtain from the forest resource. But knowledge of the techniques fo r managing the various forest products and services, and the availability of market opportunities for them, can differ greatly, and the capacity to implement multipleuse forest management is often low. Local communities face challenges in adjusting their traditional practices to implement forestry regulations, which are often drafted with little consideration of the multiple goods and services of forests or of local social and ecological issues. In many tropical countries, management approaches that optimize trade-offs among the various forest goods and services have traditionally been neglected, or else are not well known by managers and practitioners. Laws are usually drafted with narrow objectives, and they tend to undermine societal inclusion because of limited cross-sectoral dialogue.