This study seeks to identify the process of forest loss of Madhupur sal forests in Bangladesh. The results indicate that the main factor of forest loss is the destructive activities by the migrated population rather than shifting cultivation. Illegal logging by the timber businessmen in close collaboration with the dishonest forest officials as well as theft of trees by local gangs are accelerating the loss of forests. The situation has become more worse as the poor hungry for land have followed the illegal loggers and local gangs to convert the cleared lands into permanent crop fields.

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Most statistics on forests and forestry date from the 1950's or 1960's, and currently contain several weak points. In particular, there are very serious discrepancies between the statistical data used by the forest planning system, the most important forest policy program, and the actual situation. In this paper, basic issues related to the statistics on private forests in Japan are highlighted. (1) Recently, several new trends have been developing in private forest management methods, for example, multi-storied forests and thinning at a high age. However, the statistics on forests and forestry have not been renewed despite these new management practices. (2) Part of the forest planning system has recently become ineffective. The forest management plan is a basic program in forestry policy. However, in some cases, forest owners are not even aware of the existence of a plan with regard to their own forests. (3) There are many problems regarding the forest resource database. The database is not updated correctly. In addition, the yield tables are not effective in some areas. (4) The cutting reporting system is an important procedure provided in the current forest law. Recently, this system has not worked well. (5) Forest owners and forest workers are becoming older and the numbers have been decreasing. This issue further promotes the first four problems. (6) The statistical system on the utilization of forest resources, for example, log production statistics and inforest tourism statistics, are not sufficiently developed.

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Even now the evaluation of swidden agriculture remains controversial while most of the causes of deforestation seem to have been made clear. Swidden agriculture is quite reasonable from an ecological point of view, but it is so fragile that it has changed drastically, like as the Kenyah's swidden system in Borneo island. Local resource management systems consist of three sub-systems such as swidden system, communal forest system, and the other systems. The sustainability and fragility of local resource management system are examined based on the commons discussion. To examine the ecological function of the commons, sustainable utilization is categorized into three types to serve as a conceptual device: "haphazard", "incidental", and "intended" sustainable use. It is concluded that the Kenyah's systems, from a view point of ecological function, are regarded as "loose local-commons" absent of "intended" sustainable use. This seems to be the reason why their systems go through a drastic changes in spite of ever being sustainable. On the other hand, the systems except for the other sub-systems can be considered to be "tight local-commons" from a view point of socio-cultural function. As a result, resource management systems are still effective in the local level. The framework to evaluate local resource management systems, shown in the paper, must be convenient to set up participatory forest management at local level. We can judge whether an application of local technology is reasonable or not, by examining the ecological function of the commons. By examining the sociocultural function of the commons, we can consider which is more reasonable to apply "endogenous bottom up approach" or "professional-guided participatory approach".

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The disparity between the legal right to use land and forest, and the actual use of land and forest by the local inhabitants in Laos, was confirmed. Then the strategy to make the legal system effective was proposed. According to the land law, the right of utilization of land is granted to organizations and individuals. Furthermore, the land for which the right will be allocated is only the degraded forestland, among the forestland classified into five types by the forestry law. In addition, the customary use of forest products by local inhabitants is not allowed in the protection forest and conservation forest, and has weak competence against other rights. On the other hand, our survey disclosed that local inhabitants are harvesting forest products from all types of land, and they regard the agricultural land, fallow land and grassland (partially) as swidden land as a unity. Therefore, the enforcement of the land use classification based on the present vegetation results in dispossessing people of their livelihood. Furthermore, the land use classification policy was planned on the presupposition that swidden agriculture will be abandoned, which makes its effectiveness doubtful. From the above, as a strategy to establish sustainable forest management, we propose 1) to frame the "transition period" and to adopt measures to sustain swidden agriculture on a small scale, and 2) to introduce an adjective law which will sustain the present harvesting of forest products as much as possible.

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A common opinion is that Japan has learned its fundamentals in forestry and nature conservation from Germany. Until the Second World War this point of view can be stated conditionally as right. However, after World War II, it is interesting to mention that newer development activities in the field of forestry were not introduced. This paper aims to explain a framework of spatial and regional planning, forest function mapping and forest development planning, and landscape planning in Germany. It obviously can not aim for a detailed description of all the sections. The explanations here can contribute for the creation of new impulses in Japan, especially for forest function mapping and landscape planning and they support the idea of necessity of comparative study processes about forest policy.

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