washington, dec 9 1993 (ips) - a u.s. environmental body is advising governments to loosen their control of forest land and to enter into joint management arrangements with local residents.

the washington-based worldwatch institute said thursday thesystem of property rights is one of three features of the moderneconomy that should be changed in order to halt deforestation.

''nations disregard the rights of tropical forest dwellers. market pricing does not reveal the full cost of wood. and forest policies are shaped by the few who profit from deforestation,'' said alan thein durning, the author of a new worldwatch report.

he said the number one priority for creating a sustainable forest economy is a property rights system that connects the interests of forest people with the health of forest ecosystems.

''unless these things change, the forests will continue to fall,'' said durning, as he released the report, 'saving the forests -- what will it take?'

durning's report shows that third word reforestation initiatives routinely fail when the forest land is under the exclusive control of the state and not of local residents.

but thousands of recent examples show that ''joint management'' arrangements, in which residents benefit from forest use and protection, produce tangible results in reforesting and forest protection, says the report.

durning points to india, where as of this year, some 10,000villages were sharing management responsibilities in an area of some 1.5 million hectares.

it's a concept that has gained popularity elsewhere in asia and in africa, while the american tropics are moving towards forest tenure reform, according to the report.

the report notes that bolivia, brazil, colombia, ecuador, and venezuela have, in recent years, demarcated vast areas of the amazon basin as indigenous homelands -- ''the most hopeful sign for the world's forests in years''.

worldwatch has found that goods and services from forests provide more money and jobs than that gained from chopped down trees.

durning argues that the market value for non-timber products in the united states -- including berries, decorative plants, and mushrooms -- may exceed that of the solid wood harvested from u.s. national forests which earned one billion dollars in 1992.

he estimates that the market for just one forest product from southeast asia -- the palm stems used to make wicker furniture known as rattan -- is worth three billion dollars a year.

but without secure control of these resources, their potential for sustainable employment will be lost, he says.

the report, which notes that virgin timber is priced far below cost, says ecological pricing is the second priority for creating a sustainable forest economy.

the price of teak, for instance, does not reflect the costs of flooding that teak logging has caused in burma. the report says. nor does the price of old growth fir from the u.s. pacific northwest include losses suffered by the fishing industry, it says, noting that logging destroys the salmon habitat.

in addition, durning notes that current policies in both rich and poor countries only serve to increase forest loss. in this regard, the report advises governments to end subsidies for logging.it says governments should ''stop subsidising deforestation'' and start using taxes, user fees, and tariffs to make ecological costs apparent in their economies.

the report says another requirement for a permanent forest economy is political change. it calls attention to the ''vice-like grip'' of big timber interests on political power, and says unless this is broken, ''all bets for forest conservation are off''.

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