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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 4, NUMBER 2, FEBRUARY 1991

NEWS...
TROPICAL FORESTS

Item #d91feb70

A survey of forest resources in the Malaysian state of Sarawak was the topic of heated debate at the November 1990 meeting of the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) in Japan. It concludes that at the current rate of logging, Sarawak's forests, the source of about one-fifth of all tropical wood on the market, would disappear in 11 years. The ITTO adopted a set of measures to promote sustainable forestry in the area, but the new logging rates, although lower, are considered too high by environmentalists.

Consisting of 47 countries that both produce and consume tropical wood, ITTO is considered by some to have conflicting interests, despite its official goal to bring all tropical forests under sustainable management by the year 2000. Because of the rapidly worsening situation, the World Wide Fund for Nature, based in Geneva, recently proposed a plan to achieve this goal by 1995. It calls for international coordination on land use planning, forest management and socio-economic policy. (Sources: New Scientist, p. 23, Dec. 1, 1990 and p. 17, Nov. 24; Greenhouse Effect Rep., p. 2, Jan. 2, 1991.)