Book Review

by Paul Ganderton

Salim E. and Ullsten O. 1999. Our Forests, Our Future - report of the world commission on forests and sustainable development. Cambridge University Press. pp xxi +225. ISBN 0 521 66956 1.

h Brandt and Brundtland were concerned about the future of the human population and how it could deliver better quality of life for all. This report comes from the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development - a group of experts in forestry and the environment. This report continues the tradition but applies it to forests. The basic argument is that forests are under threat as never before. They provide a vast range of global services. Unless we start to manage these forests sustainably we will lose a significant portion of the world's biota and with it the ability to sustain our lives. Further it sees the solutions are being complex and requiring adjustment by all parties concerned. The opening chapter reviews the distribution of forests and describes their importance to us in terms of biodiversity, products, energy etc. A second chapter reveals how we got into this situation whilst the third looks at public and private interests in forests. From this point onwards, chapters start to reveal how forests could be managed (alongside some practices that should be discarded, for comparison). A final chapter presents us with an overview and a series of resolutions from the committee.

book is copiously illustrated with full colour photographs and graphs. Tables of data and the usual boxes describing certain concepts and issues in greater depth are found throughout the book. The standards of writing and presentation are both high making it a good sourcebook likely to be used by students. Given the nature of the topic and the quality of the argument this is one text that should be on every library shelf.