The Tropical Timber Trade Regime

This book explains why international negotiations have not produced a sustainable solution to tropical rainforest degradation. Using an innovative, critical approach to international regimes, the author analyzes the structure and operation of the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO). He shows how the timber industry and producing- and consuming-country governments created a blocking alliance that favored developmentalist interests and ideas. The ITTO bolstered this alliance by permitting environmentalists merely to voice, but not negotiate, their concerns.

This book explains why international negotiations have not produced a sustainable solution to tropical rainforest degradation.

Booknews

Gale (political science, U. of Victoria, British Columbia) examines the structures and operation of the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), created to balance tropical timber demand with supply. He argues that the tropical timber industry plays a key role in structuring social relations in developing countries, thereby providing both the ideological justification for overcutting and the wherewithal to carry it out. He also details how the interests of corporations and governments coalesced to form a coalition against environmentalists, preventing the adoption of genuine sustainable forest management policies. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Fred P. Gale is Eco-Research Chair of Environmental Law and Policy at the University of Victoria, British Columbia.