The project that commissioned the preparation of this paper is an initiative of the Forest Research Programme (FRP) of DFID. This project organized a workshop that brought together a range of people interested in NWFP assessment, to discuss the need for quantitative assessments and to decide on priority research themes. The workshop was held in Rome in May 2000 and was hosted by the European Tropical Forest Research Network (ETFRN) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The workshop endorsed the findings of the review and provided the impetus for the publication of this paper.
The review paper was written by Jenny Wong and the final draft of this publication was prepared by Jenny Wong, Kirsti Thornber and Nell Baker.
Many people contributed published and unpublished papers, personal advice and support in the development of the technical content of this paper. Of the many people who contributed, the following deserve special mention: James Acworth, Brent Bailey, Neil Bird, Bob Burn, Carol Grossmann, Becky
Kerns, Sandro Leidi, Patrick Mallet, Marc Parren, Oliver Philips, Dave Pilz, Giovanni Preto, Janet Rock, Kate Schreckenberg, Patrica Shanley and Doug Shiel.
Dieter Peltz (University of Frieburg); Mike Philips (retired lecturer, formerly at Aberdeen University); Ben Voysey (LTS International); and Jorge Malleux, Laura Russo, Petra van de Kop, Paul Vantomme, Sven Walter, and Mette L. Wilkie (FAO) provided extensive comments on the drafts.
Final editing, proofreading and formatting was done by Elisa Rubini, Tina Etherington and Roberta Di Chiara. Marco Perri prepared the CD ROM accompanying the publication. Overall coordination for the editing and publishing of this publication was provided by Laura Russo, Forestry Officer at the FAO Forestry Department.
Thanks are due to all involved in the workshop and editing process; this support was key to improving the output and is gratefully acknowledged.
FAO also expresses its sincere gratitude to the European Commission for the financial support (through the Tropical Forest Budget Line B7-6201/98-08/VIII/FOR) to the workshop and the publication of the present document.