A fully revised and extended version of a report with the same title, first published in 1989. The book deals with an important but long neglected aspect of the use and management of tropical forests, analyzing the role of the vast array of non-timber forest products in the local and national economies of Southeast Asia. The term "non-timber forest products" encompasses all biological material other than timber which are extracted from forests for human use.
These papers seek to show how environmental economics can be brought in to assist with the design and management of protected areas.
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.