BOOK REVIEWA History of the Uganda Forest Department, 1951-1965.By G. Webster, OBE & H.A. Osmaston. Commonwealth Secretariat, London, 2003. ISBN: 0-85092-757-9. 169 pages. Price: Sterling £12.50.This is the third instalment in a series of histories of the Uganda Forest Department. The previous histories begin in 1898, when the Uganda Forest Department was established, and cover the years up until 1950. This volume takes up from there and documents all aspects of the Forest Department until 1965.Webster and Osmaston served in the Uganda Forest Department, and, according to the Preface, are beneficiaries of the salubrious environment provided by Uganda's outdoors... which is why they were able to undertake this task while 90 and 80 years of age, respectively. Indeed, the authors have meticulously recorded the events of those years, when a number of new forestry techniques were being tried out, and Uganda became an important country in the forestry sector. Readers will be interested to see some of the same challenges that forestry sectors face today.The book is mostly concerned with Central Government Forestry, with a short section on Local Government Forestry. Part 1 of the book explains the policy and legislation, and the extent of the forest estate for the country and then documents major events in mapping and enumerations, management and research, infrastructure, training, administration and summarises the revenue and expenditure for the period under examination. The chapter on production and trade is particularly interesting, and I was interested to see that shea butter nuts were obviously a lucrative product in 1951, even though shea butter might not have been such a fad as it is at the moment.Discussion of Local Government Forestry is limited to policy and legislation, and the forest estate managed by the African Local Governments, who came to take over more and more of the responsibilities for these forests after 1952.The last part of the book consists of Appendices and data and analyses set out in Tables, which are a story in themselves and provide valuable baseline information. The book includes a colour map of Uganda's forest reserves and parks from 1966.Not having seen the first two volumes of this series, I am not able to compare this latest contribution, but it will be an important resource for those interested in the history of Uganda's forest management, production and trade, and a valuable reference for the future.Deborah L. Manzolillo Nightingale