Accelerating deforestation in the Third World: a threat to forest-based development

(…) Alternative scenarios for 60 tropical countries estimated a deforested area of 4.6−9 million km 2 during 1980-2025. Deforestation and the utilization ― or misuse ― of forest resources are closely linked. There are only a few countries in the Third World where forest-based economic development can be observed on a scale that might have had net effects on the general economic development of the country. Instead, wide-scale deforestation initiates a form of antidevelopment process that is extremely difficult to halt or decelerate. Effective measures to reverse accelerating excessive deforestation in the Third World are urgently required