Despite the dramatic economic transformation experienced by the Asia-Pacific region in the last 30 years, a significant proportion of its population is still living in extreme poverty. A very large number of the poor are forest dwellers or living in forest fringes. It is paradoxical indeed that their dependency on forests has led directly to their impoverishment, but yet these forests can also be the solution to their indigent condition. Innovative approaches for development and diffusion of poverty alleviation technologies are being pioneered in many parts of the developing world. However, disparities in scientific capacity and capability, coupled with the often archaic and bureaucratic administrations in the developing and underdeveloped countries have hindered the effective adaptation and application of these technologies. This publication is a compilation of papers presented at a workshop, 17 - 18 June 2003 in Dehradun, India, which was organized to share the experiences hitherto gained from renovating forestry research and development agencies to enable them to tackle poverty in the Asia Pacific region.
