More than two decades have been passed since the introduction of the people participatory community forestry in Nepal. This paper explores changes in rural livelihoods with changed circumstances that have been largely brought by the community forestry. Chaubas-Bhumlu community forest of Middle Mountain was taken as a case study for the analysis. Based on the case study, the situation before community forestry intervention and the present situation after Community forestry have been analyzed at the household level. Households as units of analysis were chosen based on the systematic random sampling and were interviewed with structured questionnaire. Two key informant groups, one consisting of ten village elites and other ten elders, were formed and were discussed to access the community level information. The result indicates that community forestry is successfully achieving its objectives from resources demand fulfillment to increased economic benefits. However, economic improvement has been visible at the community level but not at the household level. It means only the access to resources use is not enough for the household economic development. On the other hand, the farm activities are gradually declining with increasing off-farm activities. This situation has led the "complex" farming system from a stable state, though stagnant, to a vulnerable state. This paper concludes (1) the present community forestry model lacks mechanism to utilize the income from the forest to households' economic benefits; (2) the farming system which has a major role in household economy has not been integrated to and supported by community forest; (3) the socio-economic development activities should go simultaneously with the development of community forest to multiply the total benefit from forest.

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This paper discusses the stand structure and growth characteristics of twenty one-hectare plots in selectively cut natural forests in Papua New Guinea. The research sites are Ari, Hawain, Iva Inika, Serra, Sogeram, Manus, Gumi and Vudal. These plots were re - measured to analyze changes in stand structure and growth. Tree species were grouped according to their regenerative characteristics into three species groups, (I) Primary species (P), (II) Secondary species (S) and (III) Primary/Secondary species (P/S). It was found that total diameter distribution showed an exponential decrease pattern from a lower DBH class to a higher DBH class. This pattern is true for P and P/S species, however S species showed high growth in the lower DBH class (P>P/S>S). Recruitment was mostly from P and S species and was high in Vudal plots, while mortality was mostly from P and P/S species. Fire and logging damage was the main cause of mortality. BA gain in Vudal 2 and Serra 2 had the highest increase of 2.34 and 2.09m^2/ha respectively. Gumi 3 and 4 had a high lost of 7.32 and 15.15m^2/ha respectively. Generally high diameter growth for P and P/S species was found to be at a DBH class of 20 to 50cm, high growth for S species was encountered to be at a 10 to 15cm DBH class in most of the plots studied. P/S and S species showed slightly higher growth than P species. Three types of natural forests were proposed from this study based mostly from the diameter transition pattern after selective cutting system. Type I showed an increasing trend from a lower DBH class to upper classes in stands at Ari, Hawain, Serra, Gumi and Manus. Type II showed a decreasing trend from a lower DBH class to an upper class at stands in Iva Inika and Sogeram. Type III showed the highest increase in the lower DBH class with mostly S species going from low to upper classes in stands at Vudal.

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Logging bans as means of trying to control deforestation and other wrong forestry practices has been in use for along time in many parts of the world. It is evinced by command and control regulation. Recent cases of interest are in Asia Pacific countries. This mainly involved logging bans in natural forests. In the case of Kenya, cutting in natural forests was banned many years back. What is of interest lately is the near total ban, which includes a cutting moratorium on plantations. Kenya's case is unique in the sense that the ban is a presidential decree. The aim of this paper is to explain the relationship between the ban and law and policy, and to show that imposition of a logging ban without due consideration of existing forest law and forest policy does not enhance the well-being of the forest plantation. This research was conducted through an examination of the Forests Act and Forest Policy and interviews with forestry officers and saw millers. Other forms of secondary data were also examined. Results indicated that there is lack of convergence to the law and policy, as the President does not derive his powers from the forest law and policy. There are associated impacts on plantation forestry. These are both positive and negative. Long term unintended effects are negative and this is a lesson that we can learn from this form of command and control in forestry when applied to plantations. Stakeholders should learn that adverse political solutions do not sit well with good plantation forest management.

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This paper examines use of multi-sensor remote sensing approach for deforestation detection in the tropics. Multi-sensor satellite data of Landsat-MSS of 1973 and Landsat-TM of 1991 and 1996 were employed. Accuracy of image-to-image registration was below 1 pixel. Relative radiometric normalization of Landat-MSS 1973 and Landsat-TM 1991 to Landsat-TM 1996 as the reference image was carried out to remove the unwanted variabilities between all the satellite images. Image differencing algorithm with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was examined for deforestation detection. The performance of the NDVI image differencing algorithm for deforestation detection between 1973 and 1996 was investigated at three test sites covered with reliable ground truths. The accuracy of detection was satisfactory that the algorithm was used in deforestation detection of the whole study area in two change periods i.e. I: 1973-1991 and II: 1991-1996. Although false deforestation pixels in period I were also detected, it can easily be rectified using a land use map of 1984. In total, 2,445ha of forest, which is almost 1% of the study area, were cleared from 1973-1996 and most of them were deforested in period I (2,090ha). This study concludes that the multi-sensor approach is a useful solution for deforestation detection because of better temporal coverage. It can also provide more satellite data for the application and thus lessen data acquisition problem due to cloud cover which is a consistent problem for the tropics.

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