The Delhi Declaration on forest management, conservation and sustainable development, adopted at the first ministerial conference of the forestry forum of developing countries, calls upon the international community to:

Various international fora and mechanisms have been formed to check deforestation, but tropical forest countries have always been wary of them, fearing interference by the North

For centuries, the Iban tribals of Malaysia have cultivated crops by clearing trees, but without endangering the rainforests. At the centre of their practices are traditional rights that each generation inherits.

Governments and loggers unhesitatingly blame tribals for the destruction of rainforests, but studies show otherwise.

At a recently held conference on tropical timber, producer nations demanded temperate forests be included in any agreement on international timber trade.

THE BRAZILIAN government swung into action recently to evict thousands of gold-panners from a 94,000- sq-kin Yanomami reserve near the Venezuelan border to save the 9,000 members of South

Rich in flora and fauna, rain forests are nevertheless ecologically fragile. Their loss due to human depredation could result in environmental degradation and climatic change on a scale never experienced before.

There has been a gradual decline in the natural vegetation around Madras. The reduction and fragmentation of the mainly tropical, dry, evergreen forest, also called scrub jungle, has led to the

Malaysia is gaining support to fight industrialised countries who are pressing for a ban on logging in the tropical rainforests. Its partners in the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN)