When, one speaks of self-sufficiency in any commodity, one
means balancing the supply with the demand or the consumption
requirement over a period of time. For achieving such balance or
eVen to plan for achieving such balance, it is necessary to have
reliable data about the current consumption requirement, the
current supply position and the trend of change in both upto a
certain point of time in the future. Unfortunately, there are no
adequate and reliable data on the pattern of consumption
requirement of various forest produces nor is there any data about
the supply position.except about those which are obtained from
the reserved forests. As a result it is extremely difficult even
to assess the situation correctly. There are no literature which
can be drawn upon to prepare any paper on the subject. There are
a number of feasibility studies on the aspect of utilisation of
forest produce but they do not reflect the total position. Three
publications which have been found to be useful and relevant to
the subject arc: (1) “Timber Trends studies in East Pakistan”
prepared in 1957 by Kr. S.I-I. Ishaque, Forest Utilisation Officer
of the then Government of Pakistan, (2) “The Forest Products
Market Survey” prepared in the year 1963 by Messrs Forestal
International, and (3) ”An estimate of long-term timber trends
and prospects in East Pakistan” prepared in the year 1968 by the
Chief Economist and the Assistant Chief of the Planning Department
of the then Government of East Pakistan. These publications have
been used freely in preparing this paper. In those works attempts
have been made to assess the consumption requirement of ‘various
forest produces and, in the absence of reliable data, it has been
done, obviously, on certain assumptions made by the authors
themselves and it is interesting to note that they have produced
results which do not agree with each other. This disagreement
amply clarifies as to how difficult it is to arrive at any
reasonably correct conclusion. As there is no better information
available, the figures mentioned in the estimates prepared by the
Planning Department, being the most recent one, has been taken as
guide and the discussion is being based on these figures.