Since 1992, international action aimed at improving forest management has accelerated. This Briefing Paper looks at forest problems and provides an outline of the policy framework and strategies for the EC s development cooperation to forests .
Forests provide many benefits.
Rural populations in many countries depend on forest resources for part of their livelihoods, and poorer people among them do so in particular. There are also national and international demands for forest goods and services such as watershed protection, timber and non-timber products, biological diversity and carbon storage. Forests thus have multiple values, many of which cannot be provided by any other land use. Yet these values are being undermined. Forests everywhere are in trouble.