The Global Assessment of Tropical Forest Resources: GEMS PAC Information Series No. 3

This assessment represents the first attempt to gather together the wealth of information on tropical forest resources that is scattered throughout the world literature, together with the mass of unpublished data held in national agencies and at international centres. All this information has been compiled into a report according to a single, uniform tropical forest resource classification system developed specifically for this assessment. This is the first time that this has been attempted and is a major reason for considering the UNEP/FAO Tropical Forest Resources Assessment to be the best and most reliable so far produced. It will serve as a baseline against which future tropical forest changes may be measured. The data are to be continually up-dated with the aim of publishing new more comprehensive global tropical forest resource assessments every five years.