Power point of presentation available. Contact the Thorndike Library.

Lloyd C. Irland, a professor at the Yale School of Environmental Science and Forestry, will be offering a talk on India, "India's Forest Products Economy in World Perspective," at 4:10 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 22 in College of the Atlantic's McCormick Lecture Hall. The talk is part of COA's Human Ecology Forum. 
 
India, with about 20 percent of its land in forest, is a nation with extreme population pressure. It is also a rapidly growing economy with rising needs for raw materials. Building materials are a critical need, and the country has multiple daily newspapers. Traditional local uses and practices for forests are probably not sustainable; important conservation and biodiversity issues persist.  Efforts to retain unmanaged forests for biodiversity lead to an illusion of preservation. India is now the second-largest importer of tropical hardwoods. To handle these needs, new methods of forest management, improved market models and improved landscape perspectives are emerging. Irland's talk speaks to these trends and India's future.