Logjam: Deforestation and the Crisis of Global Governance

Winner of the International Studies Association's Harold and Margaret Sprout Award 2008 for the best book on international environmental problems. This pioneering study examines the impacts of neoliberal global governance on forests and provides an exhaustive overview of international forest politics:Intergovernmental Panel on ForestsWorld Commission on Forests and Sustainable DevelopmentIntergovernmental Forum on ForestsUnited Nations Forum on ForestsForest CertificationNew policies to address illegal loggingWorld Bank's forests strategyConvention on Biological Diversity - and other international forest-related processesThe book is an essential reference for students of global environmental politics and required reading for forest policy makers. It concludes by arguing for a democratization of global governance and a fundamental restructuring of the regulatory environment so that final decision making authority is restored to the local level. Driven by concern at what forest loss means for communities and future generations, this is a book that stands to make a difference.

David Humphreys is Senior Lecturer in Environmental Policy at The Open University, UK, and author of Forest Politics: The Evolution of International Cooperation (1996).