FAO's collaboration with Dr Richardson, a specialist in applications of communication tools to community development processes focusing on development communication, was facilitated through FAO's Programme of Cooperation with Academic and Research Institutions, one of the Organization's Partnership Programmes. The latest edition of Unasylva, FAO's quarterly international journal of forestry and forestry industries, offers another in-depth examination of the effects of computers and related technology, focusing on their impact on sustainable forestry processes. As most people with direct links to forests have no access to computers, they cannot be seen as the answer to problems facing world forestry in our time. But they certainly can help provide the technical means to address many of these challenges. Another exciting development is the increased opportunity for policy discussion and debate at the international level made possible by the information highway, which can facilitate dialogue on some of the key issues facing forestry today.
Conflict management is one of the important issues currently at the top of the forestry agenda.
An overview of this experience is presented in Unasylva.