| Moving away from the former
limited understanding of forests and wildlife, a comprehensive approach
has increasingly been taken in a forestry and wildlife laws that
have been formulated with assistance from the Development Law Service,
and then enacted in various parts of the world over the last two
decades.
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Usually based on forest and
wildlife policy options and objectives, and stemming from
a wide perception of social, economic and ecological functions of
forestry and wildlife, current legislation in this area tends to address
a whole range of forest and wildlife resources management issues,
including planning, administration, use, development and conservation
aspects.
As a result of widespread degradation and overexploitation
of forest and wildlife resources, special emphasis has been increasingly
placed on securing environmental and sustainability concerns. Consequently,
the interdependence between nature protection and ecosystem preservation
on the one hand, and forest and wildlife use and development on the
other hand, are more and more broadly acknowledged in forestry and
wildlife legislation.
At the same time, with a view to meeting the pressing
socio-economic needs of local populations who make part of their living
from forest and wildlife products (fuelwood, game, grazing, cultivation,
etc.), traditional usage rights are being more formally recognized
and protected, and greater weight is being given to social and community
forestry, including in protected areas, as well as to people's participation
in, and benefit from, forestry and wildlife projects and activities.
Modern forestry and wildlife legislation tend also
to promote private initiatives and to encourage private sector involvement
in reforestation programmes, protected areas management and maintenance,
wildlife use and conservation, etc. Private forestry, in particular,
is being made more attractive in legislation, through economic incentives
and tax exemptions, in order to offset low rates of return, deferred
revenue and insecurity of investment in forestry.
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