People and Forest — Policy and Local Reality in Southeast Asia, the Russian Far East, and Japan

This book is a compilation of the results of strategic policy research carried out by the Forest Conservation Project of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), between 1998 and 2002.

The project's main purpose was to shed light on measures to conserve biodiversity and use forests sustainably, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.

Project work was conducted by academics, non-governmental organizations, and governmental officials in selected countries in the region and covered everything from the local reality at the village level, to forest policy at the national and global levels.

Based on a structural analysis of issues concerning forest loss and degradation, the project focused on the participation of local people in sustainable forest management.