Forests are crucial not only for the livelihoods of thousands of village communities throughout the country, but also as an important economic resource for the country in its "new era of development" (Premrudee Daoroung, 1997).
Deeper recognition of the fact, that environmental destruction is directly related to the survival of human beings and should not be overlooked or ignored any more, ignited international efforts to balance environmental conservation and economic development. Since the United Nations Conference on Human and Environment (UNCHE) held in 1972 adopted the conservation of the earth environment as a universe priority by presenting the slogan "The Only One Earth", the concept of "sustainable development" was first introduced in the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) in 1980 and the rules of "Environmentally Sound and Sustainable Development" became a dominant principle in the 80’s and 90’s. Since then, the concept of sustainable development came to be discussed internationally through Rio De Janeiro Declaration made by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) (Mi-hee Kang, 2008).