Forest and forest products have provided food,
shelter, clothing and other necessities of life to
human beings since pre-historic days. With the
development of knowledge, men gradually discovered
better ways of living. Along with that they
discovered better uses of forests and forest products.
Thus, at different levels of the advancement of
human civilization, men have utilized the forest and
forest products in different ways to meet their socioeconomic
needs. While men of the Stone Age were
satisfied with their abodes in forest caves, eating
roots, shoots and fruits of trees and having the
leaves and barks of trees as their clothing, the modern
men have found other uses for forests and forest
products to cater to their socio-economic needs.
Forests and trees today, therefore help men in
agricultural development, industrial growth, economic
advancement, recreation, environmental control
and meet the demands of the human being in all
walks of life, from cradle to coffin. It is an irony
that realization of the importance of forests has
been quite jalc. Nevertheless, this late realisation if
properly implemented by different nations of the
world might save the human being from total
destruction. To arouse public consciousness concerning
(i) the significance of forest wealth (ii) the direct
and indirect benefits derived from the forests and
(iii) the importance of forest as a factor in nature
conservation the World Forestry Day is being celebrated
on the 21st of March every year indifferent
countries of the world. Bangladesh emerged as a