This publication is the second volume of the papers submitted to the Regional Expert Consultation on Eucalyptus, held at the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, during 4-8 October 1993. The first volume was issued in 1995 and contained the proceedings of the Consultation: resource papers, record of discussions and recommendations. Most important subjects were covered in Volume I. However, we have received many inquiries about when Volume I! would be available. Many people were eager to read the papers submitted by government and international organizations, NGOs, and private companies.
We requested Mr. Kevin White, one of the four resource persons for this Consultation, to undertake initial editing work on papers. He completed this in January 1996, but problems converting files between various word processing programs proved to be both difficult and time consuming. This was the main reason why it has taken such a long time to complete Volume II.
Readers of Volume II will find that these papers about Eucalyptus reflect a wide range of interests and opinions, as well as varying quality. Generally speaking, country papers written by government organizations such as forestry departments and forest research institutes cover a wider range of subjects (historical background, policy, research results, etc.) than the papers submitted by NGOs and private companies, mainly because their concerns are more specific. That may be a reflection of different mandates of each group.
The editors regret that we have had to remove some tables ('figures' in the publication) and diagrams that were attached to the original papers. Reasons include: 1) original plates (for diagrams) were either not available or of too poor a quality for printing; 2) figures were either too detailed or simply too many. We were ultimately forced to strike a balance between long and short papers, as well as to reduce the bulkiness of this publication (321 pages in an initial assessment has been reduced to 277 pages finally).
If, however, you wish any of the omitted figures and diagrams, please contact the author directly (their addresses are listed in Volume I).
The original papers were formatted in many different styles. The editors have reformatted them to a common structure as far as possible. We have tried to improve some of the writing for easier reading, though always giving careful consideration not to change the meaning of text. If you find any statements to be unclear, please contact the authors directly and also copy to me at FAO. Readers' feedback would be much appreciated.
Finally, FAO would like to express our heartfelt appreciation to all the authors and organizations who contributed papers. The views and recommendations expressed in these papers will be (some of them already have been) incorporated as valuable guidelines for FAO in the implementation of our forestry programmes.
M. Kashio
Regional Forest Resources Officer
