Asia

At the meeting of the International Tropical Timber Organization held in Bali in 1990, ITTO adopted the target of ensuring that all tropical timber marketed internationally should, by the year 2000, come from forests that are managed sustainably. This study is an attempt to determine whether the member countries of the ITTO have a legal and administrative basis for managing their production forests in ways which will allow these forests to contribute to biological diversity conservation.

This Action Plan lists 39 endangered and Vulnerable species and 55 “Potentially Vulnerable” species; in all 94 marsupials and 2 monotreme species that need some form of conservation action. It first describes the zoo-geography of Australasian marsupials and monotremes and the taxonomy used, and then provides a conservation overview on a country-by-country basis. It looks at possible causes of decline in Australian populations.

This Action Plan considers elephant populations across Asia on the basis of size and provides recommendations to enhance their long-term survival. It also considers the management of elephants in captivity.

Given that the basis for improved management of elephants throughout Asia must be sound systematic scientific research, the Action Plan recommends a number of research projects that need to be carried out in the field.