The book is a comprehensive manual of practice for execution of afforestation and tree planting programmes in arid and semi-arid tropics. It includes a compact running account of the technology of afforestation and the relevant principles and practices in management of afforestation projects. It provides a wide range of structured information and a number of model designs which can be gainfully put to use by the field level supervisors as also by the managers concerned with planning and control of such projects. Written by a practising specialist, the book is invaluable for anyone concerned with the practice of afforestation and tree planting, be he a tree hobbyist or a school teacher, a professional forester or a senior policy maker in government, an industrialist or a philanthropist, an environmental activist or a member of a community service organization.

Economic plants have been defined by SEPASAT as those plants that are utilised either directly or indirectly for the benefit of Man. Indirect usage includes the needs of Man's livestock and the maintenance of the environment; the benefits may be domestic, commercial or aesthetic. Economic plants constitute a large and so far uncalculated percentage of the quarter of a million higher plants in the World today. However, it has been calculated that 10% (25 000) of these species are now on the verge of extinction and extinction means that a genetic resource that could be of benefit to Man will be lost for ever. Furthermore, for every species lost an estimated 10-30 other dependent organisms are also doomed. Fewer than 1 per cent of the World's plants have been sufficiently well studied for a true evaluation of the potential floral wealth awaiting discovery, not only in the rain forests, which man is now actively destroying at a rate of 20 ha a minute, but also in the very much neglected dry areas of the World.