This report is the first in a series to be published by the Commonwealth Secretariat within the next year. Each volume will trace the development of tropical forest management in a Commonwealth country, to illustrate the range of experience and knowledge that has been gathered during the past century and more of Commonwealth forestry. Forest management is no longer the concern of foresters alone, and the fate of the tropical forests is increasingly dependent on the understanding of interested people outside the profession, especially environmentalists, politicians, social scientists, the general public and the media.