WWF and USAID have set out to address an extraordinarily challenging --and important --set of issues in the E/GCC initiative. Resolution of the population, income and power distribution, and addressing migration, poverty, and economic policy issues that lead to the rapid deforestationthat this program seeks to slow, are clearly far beyond the scope of the modest resources USAID and WWF have at their disposal. However, E/GCC can play an important role in developing alternative models for land use, natural resource management, and local NGO and communityinvolvement in natural resource management issues that could prove invaluable if the societal pressures ever abate.