Silviculture and timber production in tropical forests have a long history going back many centuries; there is thus a considerable body of evidence on both sustainable and destructive forestry practices, evidence central to the ongoing debate on the future of tropical forests. Based on the
authors' fifty years of experience in the tropics and their extensive research of the literature, this book collects essential information on the development of silvicultural systems in a variety of tropical forests. The book begins with the early history of silviculture in the tropics and goes on
to present the many technical developments and the growth of global exploitation. It describes in detail examples from many countries and considers the economic, ecological and social implications of each. The authors demonstrate that sustainable timber production in many tropical forests is not
only possible, but that the necessary techniques have been known to foresters for many decades. This book is a valuable resource for forest managers in the tropics and for advanced students and researchers in forestry and ecology, and will also be of interest to economists, policy makers, and
environmentalists.