The publication National Forest Programmes (NFP) UPDATE 34 is produced as a regular NFP UPDATE. Initially planned as a biennial publication, it is issued as a supplement to the comprehensive information concerning forest and forestry aspects provided by FAO in different formats, including electronic (such as web-sites) and hard copies.
The publication (English language version only), contains information on the progress of the National Forest Programmes (in the form of regional and country profiles) of 30 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. For the time being it was not achievable for this publication to cover all the countries in the region as recommended by the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) at its meeting in February 2000 that NFP cover all types of forests.
Due to various reasons such as limited information and time constraints, country profiles for some countries could not be presented. However, new country profiles for Maldives, Brunei Darussalam and the United States of America are included in the present document. The information presented in the document is brief, derived from several sources, such as electronic web-sites, project reports, other relevant publications, and the country reports presented at the 18th Asia Pacific Forestry Commission meeting held in Australia in May 2000.
In line with the broad definition of national forest programmes as formulated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Forest at its Fourth Session in 1997, a variety of strategic frameworks are included in this publication, including the Forestry Sector Master Plan (FMP), the Tropical Forestry Action Plan/Programme (TFAP), the National Forestry Action Plan (NFAP), the Biodiversity Action Plan, the Environmental Action Programme, the Forestry Sector Review, the Desertification Control Plan, National Policies for the implementation of UNCED, etc.
Readers may note that the quality of information varies from country to country; some could not be updated in this NFP UPDATE 34 due to a lack of newly available material, particularly regarding recent changes in forest and forestry development. We are fully aware of this situation, and are counting on all those involved in the forestry sector development and national forest programmes process to help us obtain additional information and re-define the format and content for the coming issues. Indeed, we depend on all partners to improve the information we can collect and disseminate. Please feel free to make any suggestions you may have for further enhancing this publication.
We are confident that the present edition will be useful, and for those who contributed to making this publication, we would like to express our appreciation and thanks and count on your continued co-operation in the future.
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