Despite the Asian Development Bank setting up a social dimensions unit to liaise with NGOs and involve them in projects the bank funds, Asian NGOs are unconvinced of the bank's seriousness.

Increasing instances of theft of plant species from Asian countries led delegates at a recent symposium of botanists in New Delhi to stress the need to recognise the importance of taxonomy - the

ASIA TOPS the list of continents with the highest deforestation rate. The initial estimates of the 1990 tropical forest resources census show about 3.6 million ha -- or about 1.2 per cent -- of