International Legal protection of forests in the context of sustainable development.

Abstract

The legal attention to the protection of forests is the key axe to protect the environment in the world, as well as ensuring the economic and social development for generations. Effective legal protection of forest heritage can be achieved only under the sustainability model. This latter ensures the exploitation of forest heritage as an important economic resource while preserving its ecological value in front of contemporary environmental threats, also estimating its role in meeting the social needs of the local population. The international society had paid attention to the importance of this vital wealth and started looking for appropriate mechanisms to protect them, while organizing how to exploit them as an economic resource, besides their social place and cultural aspects. This paper will deal with how does international law devote legal protection to a forest in the light of the sustainable development approach, especially after the united conference on environment and development in 1992.