The report contains the proceedings of a workshop held from 14-20 April 1996 in Quito, Ecuador. It was organized by INEFAN (the Ecuadorian Institute of Forests and Natural Areas), Tropenbos and the GTZ Forest Policy Counselling Project, with financial support from the European Union. The aim of the workshop was to present the results of the Tropenbos-supported study 'Law and the Tropical Forest' (available as Tropenbos Documents 11), to foster discussion about this neglected theme and to improve the understanding of the role of law for protection of forests by comparing case studies form various Latin American countries.