Implementing Agency:
Department For International Development (NRRD)

Managing Institute:
NRIL (Natural Resources International)

Contractor:
University of Cambridge

Project Code: R4711 583-656-003	Start Date: Mar. 1, 1991	End Date: Mar. 31, 1994
Commitment: £47 802	Status: Completed	Type of Funding: Bilateral - TDR

Project Background:
Rates of tropical deforestation are extremely high, and are a matter of wide concern in relation to forest resource depletion in developing countries and associated environmental problems such as accelerated soil erosion and water quality deterioration. Catchment-sensitive forest management practices are necessary to minimise these effects, and this project addresses the need to educate forest managers to adopt such practices, by providing them with the means of predicting environmental effects of different logging strategies.

Project Objectives:
The project identified the need for a means of predicting the soil erosion effects of different logging activities that can be used to educate forest managers in the necessity for adopting water catchment sensitive management practices. Consequently, the overall objective was to develop user-friendly (numerical) models capable of predicting soil erosion, run-off and sediment yield at hillslope and catchment scales, and to implement simplified versions of these models to form a practical, microcomputer-based system for tropical rain forest management.