| Abstract: |
| Increasing concern about environmental degradation and the resulting environmental movement in the 1970s is one reason for the many and varied demands that forests are expected to meet. This was expressed in increasingly vocal concerns about deforestation as well as the establishment of protected areas, to be managed for conservation purposes. A related concern arose from the energy crisis (rapid increase of fossil fuel prices) at around the same time. This led to increasing interest in energy, the discovery of the fuelwood crisis, and recognition that many rural and urban people in developing countries depend on wood as a source of energy. To address these needs, forestry for rural development was regarded as a solution. This also contributed to the recognition of ‘trees outside the forest’ and agricultural activities inside areas classified
as forest, leading to the ‘discovery’ of agroforestry in the 1980s. However the international demand for timber kept growing and the exploitation of natural forests in Southeast Asia rose sharply from the 1960s to the 1980s. Many forest concessions were allocated to timber companies, fuelling timber booms that contributed considerable resources to the private sector and some to the public sector. It proved difficult for forestry institutions to capture the rents generated by the companies. One reason for this difficulty is that the great potential for rent seeking and seizing contributed to a ‘natural resource curse.’ Powerful interests became involved in the allocation of concessions and undermined the capacity of state forest organizations to manage the concessionaires, and administer their activities. In response, logging bans were imposed in many Southeast Asian countries, usually after most of the forest had been logged (Durst et al. 2001). |
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