Introduction

Abstract

Since the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, forests have gained a prominent place on the international agenda of global environmental problems. Our anxieties about the loss and degradation of forests range from dwindling precious timber stocks and forest-dwelling people’s unmet subsistence needs, to diminished carbon storage, compromised watershed protection and even reduced inputs for biotechnology. In spite of the considerable political attention that forests have received, little has hitherto been achieved on the ground: tropical deforestation and forest degradation have continued at an unaltered pace. The demands of present societies continue to create pressures that lead to the elimination of forest cover in developing countries.

Of all manifestations of life which evolution has produced, the tree is the most complete. Trees possess this peace of mind, this distinct repose which they gained ages ago, winning the struggle for height and light. Clearer than anything else, the tree displays the place of all living things between Earth and Cosmos.

Rolf Edberg, By the foot of the tree (1974)¹

For humans, coexistence with tropical forests has always been problematic. Antagonism is not at any given moment a necessary part of the relationship, but forest ‘clearing’ is not merely a dictate of cultural prejudice and pride or of improvident political and social arrangements. The aggrandizement of our species has been based upon the destruction of forests that we are ill equipped to inhabit.

Warren Dean, With broadax and firebrand (1995)