Dear netters, I'm curious about the fact that so much of this debate is focused on the producer side. Discussing the demand seems more appropriate. It never struck me as a good idea to go after the poor farmers in Bolivia, when the fault really lies with all those people who persist in demanding their produce. It's true that the farmers may be a much more conveniant target, but that's another thing entirely. The situation with forest products is largely analogous. If our societies decided that they would rather use substitutes or else change their pattern of living, and thus lower the demand for forest products, the problem of "forest exploitation" would disappear. Whether this is wise policy or not is another matter, and well worth a discussion. It's not obvious to me that the substitutes would be more environmentally friendly, even if they did accomplish the great service of moving the dirty production we so abhor out of our backyard. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Lars Laestadius, Ph.D. (Lars.Laestadius@cf.slu.se) Avdelningsdirektör / Research Planning Coordinator SLU Skog, Box 7070, 750 07 UPPSALA, tel 018 - 67 10 20, fax 018 - 67 35 09 College of Forestry, Swedish Univ of Agr Sciences P.O. Box 7070, Uppsala, Sweden S-750 07 phone INT+46 - 18 67 10 20, fax INT+46 - 18 67 35 09 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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