INTRODUCTION

The purpose of planning for forestry development is to establish a workable framework for forest use and conservation which incorporates the economic, social and environmental dimensions on a sustainable basis. The framework is about creating a shared vision of how forests will be used and protected. This can be summed up in a single central question: Trees and forests for whom and for what? The question is not new but what is new is the perception that so many different groups have an interest in the reply.

Forestry planning has traditionally been mainly concerned with the production of timber for industry and other wood products, and with forest industry development. Planning for environmental goals also has a long history but was largely restricted to designated areas for exclusive conservation. National forestry development agencies were essentially responsible for the sustained yield management on protected public forest lands and for reserved forests. The term "sustained yield" was mostly limited to wood production and therefore excluded the majority of other forest products and services. Although most forestry agencies have made progress towards multiple-use management, planning remains often biased towards timber in a wide range of countries. Many of the actions taken in order to stimulate forestry development in the immediate failed to sustain the momentum of growth in the longer term. Short term achievements sometimes resulted in degradation or destruction of the stock of natural capital needed in order to maintain growth in the future or reduced options for future end uses by degrading the forest capital.

Today, forestry planning must adapt to rapidly changing social, economic, and political circumstances. Around the world, the forestry profession is challenged to embrace new goals, principles, and management approaches. These changing perspectives (see Box 1) imply that forestry planning has to adjust as follows:

· To manage forests not only for industrial timber, but also for nontimber products and for aesthetic, spiritual, cultural, and environmental contributions;

· To account for both the private and public goods supplied by forests, and to search for helpful processes that determine how much of each to produce;

· To apply multiple criteria in order to compare forest options in terms of biological diversity, social acceptability, total economic value, and overall sustainability;

· To expand the spatial scope of planning from individual forest sites to entire ecosystems;

· To conduct planning in a manner that will recognize biological, social, and environmental uncertainties;

· To make greater efforts to reflect the interaction of forestry with other sectors like agriculture in particular with reference to food security;

· To recognize that policies outside the forestry sector such as macroeconomic policies, population growth, agricultural, energy or environmental policies play an important role in forest use and conservation;

· To emphasize the potential contribution to poverty alleviation and the priorities of vulnerable groups such as indigenous people, women and children, people at the lowest levels of subsistence, and those in future generations;

· To recognize that disagreements about forest uses occur within a world of sharply divided values and preferences, and that forest-based communities are local and global.

Among the leading themes in forestry planning are: (1) wide participation by interest groups, (2) negotiation of competing rights to forest resources, and (3) decisions that lead to forest sustainability. These themes are relevant everywhere, even though their context varies from one country to another.

Box 1. Changing Perspectives on Forestry
Yesterday	Today
Forest products are timber, game, fuelwood, and water.	Forest produces not only commodities, but also biological diversity, protection benefits, indigenous homelands, preservation values, and other cultural and spiritual benefits.
The natural world can be managed and controlled.	Humans have profound impacts on the natural world, and many of these impacts are beyond our capacity to understand and control.
Forest-dependent communities are local farms and villages.	Communities which benefit from forests are local, regional, national, and global.
Forest management should sustain harvests (of industrial wood, fuel, etc.).	Forest management should sustain the forest as a complex ecosystem.
Private property owners have every right to do as they wish with their forests.	Governments take an interest in property rights in order to protect the public good.
The forester is expert and decisionmaker.	The "public" is decisionmaker. The forester is technical advisor.

The shift in emphasis of forestry development towards improvement of the welfare of people and protection of biological diversity and of long term local and global environmental benefits requires associated shifts in the planning process. Many old ideas about planning are being discarded. Traditional planning has been too ambitious, Utopian, and inflexible. Traditional planning has attempted to control, but has done little to empower. In principle, the new emphasis is on planning as a means for empowerment.

This Agenda for Training Workshop provides a framework of principles, strategic approaches and new ways of thinking (see Worksheet 1) regarding how to achieve sustainable forest development in the long run. First, the concept of planning in relation to forests is revisited. Chapter 2 presents a typology of useful planning methods and tools in relation to forests. Chapters 3 and 4 advocates the integration of participation and conflict management into the planning process with a view to strengthening the (internal and external) planning environment and building partnership. Finally, Chapter 5 proposes orientations for effective forestry planning. At the end of the publication, three appendices are presented. The first is a glossary to define planning terms. Many terms have meanings not found in ordinary dictionaries. Secondly, references are provide for those who want to go deeper into planning concepts and methods. Thirdly, 38 training worksheets are provided. The worksheets are user-friendly and can be used separately or group by sub-themes. They are also flexible insofar as the user can adapt, expand or reformulate them to fit his own planning situation and needs.