CHAPTER: 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Introduction:
Management of forest is being practiced since a very long time. Whenever human found that their stock of the forest resources are decreasing, since then they have taken various types of management practice for the renewal of their forest resources. Traditional forestry or "multiple-use sustained-yield" forest management has guided public forest managers for many decades. Sustained yield dates back to the 18th and 19th century central European tradition of forest management that aimed to maximize and sustain the yield of a single resource- ‘commercial timber’ (Behan, 1991). The introduction of sustained-yield forestry to North America in the 1890s was an important innovation, intended to ameliorate the devastating exploitation of forests in the 19th century. Multiple-use forestry began to be discussed in the 1930s, but was not seriously considered until after World War II, when demand for recreation, wildlife, water, and other non-timber forest resources began to increase. The basic idea of multiple-use forestry was to broaden forestry's traditional focus on timber production to include the production of other commodities. Multiple-use forestry was required by law on the national forests beginning with the Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960. But the practice of multiple-use forest management has not been accepted widely, the "timber primacy" has continued to dominate forestry practice (Clary, 1986; Gliick, 1987; Hays, 1988; McQuillan, 1990; Shepard, 1990). Shands (1988) has argued that ‘multiple-use’ has become a pejorative term that many people believe is synonymous with management that emphasizes timber production to the detriment of other forest resources". The emerging forestry paradigm that is challenging traditional forestry is called by various names: new forestry, new perspective, forest ecosystem management, holistic forestry, sustainable forestry, multi-resource forest management, multi-value forest management etc. New forestry is probably the most widely used term to date, but the more descriptive "forest ecosystem management" is becoming more common.
1.2. Objectives of this study:
As the time passes, human values about the forest and the forest products have been changed simultaneously. From the management practice ‘timber primacy’ to now ‘forest ecosystem management’ all have been changed due to the varying demand of people and the understanding the value of the forests. My main objectives were:
Ø To review the trends of forest management evolution.
Ø To review the major initiatives taken for this evolutionary change of the forest management.
Ø To review the conceptual establishment of sustainable forest management.
Ø To review the present status of forest management of Bangladesh.
