"A World Resources Institute book." Includes bibliographies and index.

Overview / Robert Repetto -- Indonesia / Malcolm Gillis -- Malaysia / Malcolm Gillis -- Incentive policies and forest use in the Philippines / Eufresina L. Boado -- Price and policy: the keys to revamping China's forestry resources / Li Jinchang et al. -- Public policy and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon / John O. Browder -- West Africa / Malcolm Gillis -- Subsidized timber sales from national forest lands in the United States / Robert Repetto -- conclusion / Malcolm Gillis and Robert Repetto. This book documents how government policies affecting taxation, credit, timber concessions, and public investment contribute to deforestation and the misuse of forest resources in both the developing and the developed worlds. Ten case studies - of the United States, Braxil, China, the Phillipines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Liberia, Ghana, Gabon, and the Ivory Coast - show how forests have bben sacrificed to make quick profits and how many such ventures are intrinsically uneconomic but are supported by generous public subsidies. The authors argue that deforestation results not just from population growth or landlessness, but also from misguided government decisions. They convincingly describe the serious fiscal and economic losses such decisions entail and propose policy changes that can preserve forest resources without interfering with other economic objectives.