The Tropical Forestry Action Plan - the main response of the United Nations agencies and the World Bank to the international problem of tropical deforestation - continues to be hailed as the solution to a crisis that has now reached global proportions. Based on a detailed study of nine national plans, the authors demonstrate how the Tropical Forestry Action Plan is systematically failing to achieve its objectives. A narrow focus on forestry and forest-based industries, is leading the planners to ignore the main causes of deforestation. At the same time the national plans are promoting a massive increase in logging in primary forests.