Abstract

Continuous increase in one side of human populations and on the other side on the number of extinct and endangered species in Asia requires appropriate land use and forest preservation. Forests provide a number of benefits such as regulation of global climate and ecosystems, provision of raw materials and wild foods for local communities, watershed protection for a region, national income from ecotourism, carbon sequestration, being a landscape and habitat of rare species. This introduction provides summary for land use, forest preservation and biodiversity policy in Asia.