It is Recommended that a future Outlook Study specifically incorporate a major component to update and document rapidly changing forest policies for the Asia Pacific Region countries. The development of outlooks and scenarios will reflect critical elements of policy and the conditions for implementation as much as exogenous macro-economic trends and developments. Such factors must be identified and structured in a consistent manner relevant to incorporation into the analysis of future options rather than simply considered as parameters held constant over the outlook period and/or imposed as operational constraints.
The 'checklist' of policy groupings and sub-issues developed in this review can be supplemented from many other sources and through regional discussion and cooperation around areas of mutual concern. A major component of this recommended policy analysis should be, nevertheless, focused on the potentially significant impact of economic or market reforms which can profoundly reshape how forestry is undertaken and how production, consumption and trade evolves. Past patterns of sector performance will increasingly have little to contribute to an understanding of a significantly restructured forestry sector operating in a completely new macro-economic framework at both the country and regional level.
