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This paper explores the significance of ecosystem functions in maintaining the health and balance of ecological systems, particularly in the context of planning, managing, and maintaining trees in landscape settings. It emphasises the multifaceted relationship between humans and trees, encompassing cultural, ecological, economic, and emotional connections, and underscores the value of traditional ecological knowledge alongside empirical science. By combining these two ways of knowing, along with social science insights into human health and well-being, future landscapes can be crafted to be sustainable, diverse, and functional. As urbanisation continues to shape landscapes globally, urban planners face the challenge of managing rapidly changing environments. Urban forestry and arboriculture have emerged to address these challenges, aiming to enhance environmental quality and human well-being. The concept of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) has gained traction, recognising the importance of integrating natural systems into urban planning to address environmental challenges while preserving functional ecosystems. This paper advocates for an enhanced understanding of tree and human ecology to navigate the complex relations between trees, people, and their environments. It calls for interdisciplinary collaboration, research, and education to inform policy, assess environmental impacts, and widen approaches to ecosystem management. By monitoring ecosystem health and collaborating across disciplines, arboriculturists and urban foresters can shape resilient practices for tree conservation and sustainable urban development. In conclusion, integrating tree ecology into urban planning and management practices is essential for ensuring the health, resilience, and sustainability of tree populations and the ecosystems they inhabit. By embracing a holistic understanding of trees and their environments, professionals can contribute to shaping future landscapes that support both human well-being and biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Forestry Chronicle is the property of Canadian Institute of Forestry and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper charcoals from the Syrian sites Tell Mozan and Tell Jerablus are investigated to understand the impact of 4th to 2nd millennium BC settlement on the vegetation. Charcoals from these sites have been identified and oak fragments have been measured for their maximal diameter and annual ring widths. Our results show that while oak had reached its maximal expansion in the Mid-Holocene, and vegetation in the Euphrates Valley was lusher than today, strong anthropogenic impact on the vegetation was occurring, probably already prior to the Late Chalcolithic period. Due to potentially enormous herds of sheep and goat, and possibly large-scale agriculture with perhaps some understory cropping, oak was growing very slowly, to the degree that it must often have had a shrub-like appearance. People did not apply systematic oak woodland management practices, such as coppicing or pollarding. They used dung as an additional fuel, probably to cover for shortages in wood resources. The land appears to have been used both intensively and extensively to a degree that was not sustainable in the long term. This, combined with aridity impact on the oak, probably led to a decrease in oak proportion at Mozan in the Middle Bronze Age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the challenges faced by trees in urban areas due to extreme weather events and changing climate patterns. The author highlights instances of trees collapsing in parks and the impact of weather on iconic trees like Sherwood's Major Oak. The article also addresses the issue of staff shortages in tree and woodland services, which can lead to lapses in professional standards and missed opportunities for funding. The journal presents research papers on various topics related to urban forestry, including tree loss in Nigeria, the evolving human-nature paradigm, historic tree bounties in the USA, urban forests in Ethiopia, and roadside tree species in India. The author emphasizes the importance of sharing and disseminating research on urban trees and climate change. [Extracted from the article]

Trees across the urban-rural continuum are recognized for their ecological importance and ecosystem services. Municipalities often utilize spatial canopy cover data for monitoring this resource. Monitoring frameworks typically rely on fine-scale maps derived from very high spatial resolution sensors, which are high quality but expensive and unwieldy for consistent wide-area monitoring. In this paper, we explore how free Landsat imagery, supported by very high-resolution imagery interpretation and/or digital hemispherical photographs, can be used to effectively map canopy cover at a scale appropriate for municipal monitoring. We compare linear models and random forest machine learning for predicting canopy cover across a landscape (general) and within specific land covers (specialized). We create 2018 canopy cover maps and track progress towards forestry objectives in a region of southern Ontario, Canada. Random forest models using all reference data perform best for general use (R2: 0.90, RMSE: 10.1 %), separating non-canopy vegetation (e.g., agricultural fields) from tree canopy. Specialized models are useful in forest land cover patches, where hemispherical photographs relate with Landsat at a moderate strength (R2: 0.67, RMSE: 2.73 %), and in residential areas, capturing the totality of canopy cover variation (R2: 0.85, RMSE: 5.66 %). Accuracy was assessed with standard cross-validation, which is useful given limited resources. However, following best practice, an independent reference sample was also leveraged to assess the best general model (R2: 0.86, RMSE: 11.4 %), indicating that cross-validation was slightly overoptimistic. Results show that Caledon, a rural-dominant municipality within the study area, is the greenest (34 % canopy cover). The two cities (Brampton and Mississauga) have 15.9 % and 17.5 % canopy cover. Residential canopy criteria indicate "Good" performance in Caledon, "Moderate" in Mississauga, and "Low" in Brampton based on our 2018 assessment. The methods described here can provide municipalities with a low-cost approach for tree canopy monitoring across complex landscapes. The data used for this paper are available at: https://zenodo.org/records/12549244. The code created for this paper are available at: https://github.com/ZZMitch/PredictTreeCC_Landsat_1972to2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy transition in many African countries involves the shift from firewood to charcoal and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as the primary domestic energy source. In Ghana, the demand for charcoal is on the rise, leading to diverse socio-economic and ecological outcomes in the Savannah woodland. Based on data produced through interviews, focus group discussions, observation, and a survey with 200 questionnaires administered, the paper examines the dynamics of charcoal livelihoods for energy and the ecological effects in the Savana woodland of Ghana. The article shows that charcoal production is critical to meeting household energy needs, supports the livelihood of different categories of people along the value chain and transforms local economies with unequal benefit streams to different actors. However, charcoal production results in loss of vegetation and ecological resilience with different levels of culpability on large migrant producers and small survivalist indigene producers. The paper shows that vegetation loss is highest in areas where indigenous charcoal producers continue to produce after the large-scale producers migrate when they exhaust matured trees. We recommend that stakeholders rethink governance strategies toward regulating the charcoal sector, considering its critical role in meeting domestic energy needs and supporting the livelihoods of many people. • Charcoal production is critical to meeting household energy needs • Charcoal supports livelihoods and transforms local economies with unequal benefit streams. • Charcoal production results in loss of vegetation and ecological resilience with different levels of culpability • Vegetation loss is highest in areas where indigenous charcoal producers continuously produce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has paid little attention to the multiple meanings of the concept of forest restoration. To gain a more comprehensive view of forest restoration, this paper compares the US forest restoration debate of the 1940s and 1990s, in the disciplines of ecology and forestry. The paper focuses on historical approaches to pasts and futures, and on "sociotechnical imaginaries" providing societal legitimacy to restoration ventures. Historical scientific papers constitute the paper's empirical sources. The analysis shows that, among ecologists and foresters, forest restoration of the 1940s was oriented towards efficiency and challenges such as wood demands during World War II, whereas restoration of the 1990s was oriented towards conservation and environmental challenges. The approaches of the 1940s′ ecologists and foresters seem motivated by a sociotechnical imaginary connecting forest restoration to societal progress , whereas the approaches of their 1990s′ counterparts seem motivated by a sociotechnical imaginary connecting forest restoration to the task of mitigating society's impacts. Based on the conclusions, it is argued that future research on forest restoration would benefit from comparing the idealized pasts of both yield- and conservation-oriented conceptions of forest restoration. • Historically, US ecologists' and foresters' approach forest restoration similarly. • Historically, US aims of forest restoration have changed from yields to conservation. • Research on forest restoration benefits from comparing restorers' view on the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a leading cause of forest health degradation, non‐native invasive plant species are a key focus for many forest management and conservation efforts. These efforts come at a high price for resource‐limited agencies and organizations making cost‐effectiveness an important objective of invasion response plans. In this paper, we present an approach to guide the prioritization of locations for invasion management using species distribution models that account for the non‐equilibrium of invasive species distributions and use readily available land use data as the primary explanatory variables. This approach takes advantage of the relatively high spatial resolution, as well as the broad, continuous geographic coverage, of land use data to provide results at a landscape scale relevant to practitioners responsible for invasive species management. In our example from northern Virginia, we simultaneously modeled a suite of invasive plant species to identify common indicators of invasion. We found that the proportions of surrounding non‐forested land use types (grasses, crops, and development) were the most common and strongest indicators of invasion risk. These outcomes can guide managers of large protected areas to focus on major divides between forest and non‐forest land over linear disturbances. We also found useful species‐specific traits that can inform specific management actions. Additionally, we demonstrate through a case study how organizations that manage multiple smaller properties can take advantage of the projected distribution maps when considering acquiring or administering properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The government of Indonesia continues to commit to social forestry as one of its cornerstone rural development policies. Social forestry mechanisms aim to grant legal rights/ permits to groups of local communities to manage previously inaccessible state forests, with the dual aims of improving the livelihoods of rural communities and encouraging participation in forest rehabilitation. Explicit policy targets include the allocation of 12.7 million hectares of state forests for local communities through a suite of social forestry project mechanisms. While the number of social forestry licenses have increased markedly over the past few years, current social forestry initiatives still fall short of meeting the ambitious land area targets. More importantly, increasing evidence points to social forestry policy outcomes only partially serving its initial intended promises. This paper helps to explain these partial outcomes and unmet promises from the perspective of social forestry bureaucracy structures and designs. We found that despite the core social forestry bureaucracy undergoing substantial expansion, several other bureaucracies also channeled their interests into the realm of social forestry policy. These other bureaucracies do not necessarily fit within the intended goals of social forestry policy. Indeed, several bureaucracies continue to hold social forestry policy implementation hostage through other forestry mandates, which results in an institutional chokehold on key social forestry interests. These other bureaucracies even introduced models to redirect social forestry initiatives by retrofitting mandates into their own policy priorities. To address these increasing roadblocks to achieving social forestry policy designs, this paper outlines and proposes a more simplified bureaucratic structure to assist in the implementation of a social forestry policy more in line with its intended goals. Specifically, tasks and responsibilities could be transferred to a single bureaucracy that has mechanisms more closely connected to local people, such as those already envisioned and established in the form of forest management units. • The lens of bureaucratic politics is used to explain the unmet objectives of social forestry policy initiatives. • Non-social forestry bureaucracies have increasingly channeled their interests through social forestry policy. • Non-social forestry bureaucracies are holding intended goals hostage by obstructing policy through several means. • Fragmentation of the social forestry bureaucracy hinders intrinsic policy goals of social forestry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Karanga is the formal call of welcome in Māori culture. Māori are tangata whenua, the Indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand. Karanga as an expression of culture is more than a call: it is an aspect of intangible heritage. The call is performed by women, representing specific roles within traditional Māori culture, to transfer expertise and information (Ruwhiu, 2009). Karanga is the first voice heard when groups are ceremonially meeting, traditionally occurring as an exchange between senior and trusted women on behalf of the groups. In taking this role, the women assert their place in the extended section of the tribe or group, as well as in Māori ritual and protocol. The karanga may also be sent out to other indivisible life forms such as forests, creatures, mountains, rivers and metaphysical deities. It is an exchange between people, and between people and nature. The elements of nature – birds, insects, land, all life – hear and respond (Menzies and Wilson, 2020, p 60). Adopting a kaupapa Māori rangahau methodology (S Walker et al, 2006, p 331), this paper is based on wānanga karanga which took place at Te Whare Wānanga o Wairaka, held quarterly with practitioners. Karanga is practised as personal and group expansion of life experiences and knowledge of language, tikanga and customary traditions. This is related to land, place identity, and healing. Ancestral knowledge enables cultural practice in a contemporary world that can point to solutions for more sustainable ways of living with Papatūānuku | Earth Mother. This paper addresses how karanga as a cultural practice can enhance landscapes through relationships with land and by offering strategic ways to tackle wicked manmade problems, including biodiversity loss, climate change and pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of anthropogenic climate change, forest and tree populations must adapt, migrate, or face extirpation. Assisted migration (AM) has emerged as a promising forestry strategy to mitigate the impacts of climate change, yet its role in the evolutionary and ecological processes remains unclear. Various models, including climate niche models and transfer and response functions, have been employed to guide AM efforts. Each of these models has advantages and limitations, necessitating a comprehensive understanding of their rationale and constraints for further development and improvement. In our review, we aimed to define the role of forestry AM and elucidate the scenarios in which AM becomes a critical necessity in the context of climate change. Furthermore, we provided a comprehensive overview of the rationale and development of commonly used models and functions in the realm of forestry AM. Finally, we analyzed 214 published papers related to forestry AM, examining how previous evidence either supports or opposes the implementation of AM, and the underlying reasons for the agreement or disagreement. Our findings reveal that nearly 60% of the reviewed papers express a positive stance towards AM. More than one-fifth of the papers emphasize AM's potential to enhance adaptation. Another significant aspect supporting AM is its capacity to increase production and reduce extirpation risks. However, AM can also introduce invasive risks, lead to maladaptation, and even raise moral concerns. In conclusion, we advocate for a holistic approach to AM, incorporating genetic knowledge, models accounting for biological interactions and edaphic adaptation, and the formulation of comprehensive policies. This integrated strategy will be pivotal in guiding AM practices aimed at mitigating the impacts of anthropogenic climate change. ● Explores AM's ecological and evolutionary role under climate change. ● AM enhances species adaptation and productivity. ● AM risks: invasive species and maladaptation. ● Advantages and limits of forestry AM models. ● Calls for integrated policy in AM strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tecnología y Ciencias del Agua is the property of Instituto Mexicano de Tecnologia del Agua (IMTA) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Forest management practices have been addressed widely in the forestry discipline but are rarely considered from a linguistic perspective. Linguistic exploration of the construction of meaning in forest discourses helps provide greater detail on how forest resources are governed through the forest management practices carried out by forestry professionals. This study adopted the approach from Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and Halliday's Introduction to Functional Grammar to examine how lexicogrammatical resources are used by forestry professionals to institutionalise their narrative on sustainable forest management practices. Six field inspection reports issued by the Forestry Department of Peninsular Malaysia were selected as data for analysis. The reports were examined as a genre to ascertain their generic structure and the elements they contained. The findings show that the reports provide essential information concerning various aspects of forest management best practices, including technical information of the forest areas, their geographical and topographical conditions within and around the areas, the distribution of tree stands and other equally important aspects including their environmental, socio-economic and economic values. This paper suggests that a linguistic orientation employed in uncovering forestry matters such as the field inspection report allows concrete evidence of how forest management practices are communicated, especially in written reports and whether these practices are aptly represented through their language use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the occurrence of governance innovations for forest ecosystem service (FES) provision in the forestry sector in Europe and the factors that influence innovation development. Based on a European-wide online survey, public and private forest owners and managers representing different property sizes indicate what type of governance innovation activities they engage in, and why. To investigate forestry innovations as systems, the analysis focuses on biophysical, social and technical factors influencing innovation development. The results of our exploratory quantitative analysis show that most innovation activities identified are largely oriented towards biomass production. Accordingly, most forest owners implement efficiency-driven optimisation strategies for forest management and technological improvement for provisioning service supply, to generate income. In contrast, the provision of regulating and cultural services is not yet a prominent part of forestry innovation activities.Reasons are rooted in a market-oriented economic rationale focusing on timber production, a lack of financial resources to compensate for other FES provisions or institutions to provide backup and security to forest owners and managers for engaging in innovation development. Given that the provision of a wide range of FES is a politically well-established objective for forest management in Europe, a strategy is needed that helps to align actors and sectors for supporting and co-financing related forest management approaches and business models. The current revision of the forest related policy framework on EU level under the EU Green deal poses a window of opportunity for better fostering novel governance approaches for more sustainable FES provision. • Sustainable provision of FES require a system- and innovation-based perspective. • Most innovation activities are characterised by optimisation strategies for biomass provision. • Lacking resources and institutions prevent foresters to engage in innovation activities. • New forms of communication, cooperation and financing are needed for providing non-wood FES. • Current revisions of EU policy frameworks pose possibilities for novel forms of FES governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A dominant cattle-based pathway characterises the Nicaraguan agrarian frontier. • Agrarian diagnoses unveils techno-economic conditions that shape dominant pathways. • Q-Method categorises four different perspectives on territorial pathways. • Alignment of practices and values towards technification reinforce dominant pathways. • Bottom-up actor coalitions could challenge underlying power structures and discourses. In many places around the world, the continuing expansion of agricultural land into forested areas is a context which urgently needs transformative change towards more sustainable pathways. Defining and implementing such transformations requires critical reflection to avoid reproducing business-as-usual practices. Transformative alternatives need to be capable of challenging detrimental power structures underlying social injustices and environmental degradation. Implementing such alternatives therefore needs a deeper and plural understanding of the historical processes underpinning the interrelation between social and environmental dynamics. In this paper we focus on the northeastern Nicaraguan agricultural frontier to analyze the historical emergence and consequences of a dominant cattle-based territorial pathway and to unveil local actors' practices and perspectives on possible transformative change. We thereby aim to enrich the debates on Transformations to Sustainability and the identification of alternatives capable of challenging hegemonic dynamics. Our methodological contribution lies in adopting an original mixed-methods strategy based on the joint use of agrarian diagnoses and Q-method. First, our results provide an in-depth understanding of the historical evolution of agricultural practices and processes of social differentiation, and how these processes relate to techno-economic conditions influencing farmers' strategies. Second, we identify four perspectives within a specific network of actors regarding the processes of social-environmental change and analyze the perceived opportunities and limitations of actual and imagined alternatives. Based on these insights, we show that certain alignment of practices and motivations generally reinforces the dominant cattle-based territorial pathway. We also indicate that the most commonly promoted alternative strategies (often by external organizations) tend to reinforce the incumbent pathway rather than addressing the related social and environmental concerns. Yet, we also identified a subaltern niche of perspectives and practices from which a bottom-up actor coalition could emerge, addressing power imbalances and re-assembling ideas and practices towards transformative change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista NERA is the property of Revista NERA and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

• 5210 forestry Brazilian theses and 2228 forestry articles were evaluated. • Climate change on forest environments are understudied given its relevance. • Three key opportunities to improve science about climate change are presented. This article explores the extent to which research in forestry is directly related to the issue of climate change. The study conducted two surveys, one analyzing 5,210 theses from Brazilian forestry-related postgraduate programs between 2013 and 2022, and another examining 2228 articles published in ten forestry journals in 2022. We classified the extent of a focus on climate change in four classes: strong focus, relevant focus, using it as a context and not considered. Given the pervasive impacts of changing climates, we found a small representation of the topic within the theses with only 2% with a strong focus, 2% of relevant focus and 5% mentioned climate change as a contextual factor but provided no clear connections or inferences about climate change and forests. The focus on climate change was developed better in the forest journals. Almost one-third at least justified their projects based on connections to climate change, and 14% directly studied climate change and its impacts. Six percent of the papers with a direct focus on climate change also incorporated climate change effects into their experimental designs. We propose three key opportunities for improve the science about climate change related directly with forestry. Firstly, an opportunity is related with the writing of papers by itself, where articles might have substantive connections and insights connected with the core theme of the research. Secondly, taking Brazil as an example, there should have an increment in the number of graduate students working directly with the theme of climate change given its relevance. Lastly, we identified an opportunity for a more balanced science in the distinct types of forests. Tropical forest represents 45% of the forests worldwide but comprises only 14% of studies in our sample. By addressing these opportunities, we will not only benefit the forests but also contribute to a more sustainable and climate-resilient future for both forests and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land emerged as a critical element to understand India's new urban transition and development-dispossession debate since it adopted the globalization policies in 1991. The land grab and land-based accumulation have been widely studied in leading cities in the backdrop of the neoliberal urban process. The relatively smaller, medium-sized cities contribute to comprehending this process's sub-regional and local variants. In this paper, we study Siliguri, a rapidly growing city in West Bengal, a federal state that was a major epicenter of the country's land debates in the recent past. Land is relatively scarce in Siliguri due to its location in the narrow land strip, India's strategically important 'Chicken-Neck Corridor.' The land is also diverse, including tea plantations, defense, and forested land, protected through various legal arrangements. The growing demand-supply gap and land price speculation led to an emerging new political economy. At the local level, new legal and extra-legal mechanisms have taken care of alternative routes of land-based accumulation ranging from land liberalization, commodification, new enclosures, and land grabbing, which are orchestrated by the local business class, tea lobby with an ineffective legal state, land mafia, and shadow state agencies. All these suggest a complex, variegated land accumulation under a rapid urban transition process that marginalizes the indigenous landowning community and tribal population in the region. • Land-based accumulation is critical to understanding urban transformation in the global south and India. • Medium-sized cities contribute to the regional and local variants of land accumulation and urban transformation processes. • The demand and scarcity of land emerged a new political economy- involving the state, business class, and land mafia. • The legal and extra-legal mechanisms operated variegated accumulation strategies, marginalizing the weaker segments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Analyzed areas of tree removal along interstates in Georgia, USA with NAIP imagery. • 25% of previously forested interstate roadsides to have experienced tree removal. • Tree crashes were not reduced despite this program goal. • Agencies need to consider measures other than tree removal to prevent tree crashes. Transport agencies worldwide remove roadside trees in the name of traffic safety. In 2017, the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), the agency managing state and federal highways in the US state of Georgia, began clear-cutting trees on all transport agency property statewide, amounting to thousands of hectares of cleared land. As justification, GDOT cited fatal traffic crashes with trees. In this paper, we quantified the extent of tree removal within a 60 m buffer along the five major interstates in Georgia, using aerial imagery from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency's National Agricultural Imagery Project (NAIP). We used supervised image classification and change detection on aerial imagery between 2015 and 2021. We also collected pre- and post-treatment crash data and conducted a difference-in-differences analysis on sampled road segments to isolate the effect of tree removal on crash rates. Results showed that 28.4 sq km of previously forested land in the interstate corridors were cleared of trees, 25% of the total forested land in the corridors. Tree crash fatalities did not decrease. Findings provide insight into approaches to roadside safety like tree removal while helping assess impacts and plan for next steps. The lack of evidence for reduced tree crash fatalities indicate that transport agencies should consider measures other than large-scale tree removal to prevent fatal crashes with trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Assisted migration (AM) is being considered to adapt forests to climate change. • We review 104 North American common-garden studies and experiments focused on AM. • Forty-seven species were investigated, but studies focused on commercial conifers. • Recent studies include local environmental variables and effects of extreme weather. • Strengths and weaknesses of studies and pathways for future research are summarized. As greenhouse gas emissions rise unabated and temperatures continue to rise, forest managers have begun to consider assisted migration (AM) of trees as a strategy to adapt forests to climate change. To investigate the risks and benefits of AM, old provenance trials have been repurposed and new common-garden experiments initiated. In this paper, we review three decades of common-garden based research into the adaptation of species and provenances (geographically specific varieties) to current and future climates in North America. Using a filtered data base of 106 papers and reports, we investigate multiple aspects of this work, including subject species, tree response variables and their climatic predictors, statistical techniques, and the patterns of adaptation revealed in results. Although the reviewed work contained valuable insights into provenance-climate relationships, much of this work focused on growth in commercial conifer species and the correlation of that growth with annual or monthly climatic averages. A minority of studies investigated the effects of climate variables with direct mechanistic effects on growth or phenology, including temperature extremes, frost and drought indices, or growing-season duration. Furthermore, recent research has opened new avenues of investigation into the influence of local soil and topographic variables, and even ectomycorrhizal communities over provenance performance. We make the case that future common-garden research into provenance-climate relationships should focus on climatic variables with demonstrated mechanistic connections to growth, survival, and phenology. The effects of extreme weather merit particular attention because extreme weather is likely to be a key determinant of long-term tree health and persistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore ways of improving the field performance of oak plantations for the regeneration of open woodlands in Mediterranean environments. Using the evergreen, sclerophyllous holm oak species (Quercus ilex L. subsp. ballota (Desf.) Samp.), we analyzed the effects of the outplanting date (October vs. February), vegetation competition (weeding vs. untreated), the environmental conditions imposed by the outplanting site, and the interactions between all these factors. For test purposes, 3 blocks of 200 one-year-old holm oak nursery-grown seedlings were set up in four sites in SE Spain (Becerra, Mágina, Jarosa and Hinojosa). Half of each block (plot) was weeded to prevent competition from other vegetation. In each plot (weeded or not) half of the seedlings were outplanted in October 2019 and the other half in February 2020. In total, 2400 holm oak seedlings were planted to be monitored over the course of two growing seasons. Survival and growth-related parameters such as height, root collar diameter, number of leaves and total and fractional aerial biomass were recorded. Weeding was shown to be the most important factor affecting both survival and seedling growth, especially in sites with a milder autumn and winter, and a long, intense summer, such as Jarosa and Hinojosa. In colder locations, however, October outplanting was more advantageous, especially if accompanied by weeding (Becerra and Mágina). In cases where competition from native species is not controlled, it would be advisable to plant in October, in terms of both survival and development of the seedlings, especially in colder sites. In general terms, the best option was outplanting in October plus weeding, while the worst option was outplanting in February with no weeding. This study provides new tested recommendations on how to improve the success of oak plantations in different Mediterranean environments. [Display omitted] • Oak plantations (Quercus spp.) have a poor field performance in the Mediterranean. • Weeding, outplanting date and site were evaluated over two growing seasons. • Weeding is highly recommended, especially in warmer sites. • October outplanting showed better results than February outplanting. • Interactions between weeding and outplanting date and site were found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Laser scanning allows evaluating structural effects of forest management concepts. • Management intensity affects spatial distribution of plant material in forests. • Management history influences tree lean, sweep, DBH and length of beech stems. • Silviculture can create old-growth-like structures in managed forests. For about half a century, attempts have been made to manage forests as close to nature as possible. This management targeted the creation of structures that resemble those found in primary forests. Laser scanning provides the opportunity to quantify such structural "naturalness" and allows to evaluate which management practices come closest to forest structures found in primary forests. In this paper, European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forests with different management intensity were compared to primary forests in terms of their structural complexity and the shape of tree stems. For this purpose, data from mobile and terrestrial laser scans (MLS and TLS) of managed forests, of forests whose management has been abandoned, and of primary forests was used. We found that management intensity influenced the distribution of plant material in the forest stand and thus the structural complexity on stand level. Also, management affected the shape of the stems. Here, it is important to consider the management history of the forest stands and the forest development phase in which management was abandoned. The stem shapes of trees in primary forests were significantly different (larger stem diameters and longer branch free boles) from those of the other investigated forests. Nevertheless, our results showed that it is possible to achieve old-growth-like structures such as high standing volumes, a multi layered canopy, high number of large trees and high variation in tree size and age through targeted silvicultural treatments in order to accelerate the close-to-nature development of forests. The present study illustrates the possibility of using mobile and terrestrial laser scanning to objectively compare and evaluate the structural effects of different silvicultural concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Forest assisted migration (FAM) is a strategy to align tree composition with changing climate. • FAM is risky because migrated individuals may be misaligned with climatic and site conditions. • DREAM fuses modelling, physiology, and silviculture research to reduce FAM risk. • DREAM modeled data identifies future adapted seed and forecasts FAM planting outcomes. • DREAM lab and field data inform FAM responses to novel abiotic and biotic conditions. Global change is reshaping climatic conditions at a tempo that exceeds natural migration rates for most tree species. As climate change amplifies the disparity between species' adaptive capacity and local climates, tree populations risk becoming geographically stranded in increasingly unsuitable conditions. This mismatch may cause catastrophic losses of key forest ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, habitat provisioning, and forest products. In response, forest managers and researchers are developing a suite of climate-adaptive strategies designed to sustain forest diversity and function. Among these, forest assisted migration (FAM) involves the movement of planting stock from source populations to locations either within or beyond their current ranges. The goal is to establish forests that can survive in today's climate and expected to thrive in future conditions, thereby sustaining ecosystem good and services. Because FAM is still in its infancy, implementation is limited by many uncertainties. Climatically derived seed sourcing is needed to ensure that planting stock possesses the ecophysiological amplitude to withstand both current and future climatic conditions at the destination site. Additionally, more knowledge about the impacts of local herbivores and intraspecific competition are needed because these drivers will co-regulate seedling success along with climate. Practically, these uncertainties must be addressed to instill in managers sufficient confidence that FAM investments will fulfill long-term management and societal goals relative to other silvicultural approaches. The Desired REgeneration through Assisted Migration (DREAM) framework is an international collaboration that uses basic and applied research to reduce these uncertainties and derive climate-informed planting approaches. DREAM is self-reinforcing in that each step in the process informs and strengthens subsequent phases. Namely, it sources seed in a climatically informed manner, experimentally tests this sourced stock to probe for physiological maladaptation under controlled settings, grows the stock in the field under a range of silvicultural scenarios, and finally forecasts long-term outcomes using models parameterized from the controlled- and field-tests. In this paper, we describe the DREAM framework and illustrate aspects of its implementation drawing from two experimental sites: one in Québec, Canada and one in Wisconsin, USA. Moreover, we place the DREAM study into the broader FAM context by briefly contrasting it with other operational examples throughout North America. Knowledge gained from this research-management collaboration will expand current reforestation paradigms to include future climate-adaptive ones that aim to use the right seed , planted in the right places , under the right conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the increasing influence of international trade on regional land use, this paper presents a comprehensive overview of forest land use across global supply chains by means of embodiment accounting based on EXIOBASE 3 database, with a specific focus on the climate vulnerability and adaptation readiness of supply chain agents. Globally, 2268.3 million hectares (Mha) of forest land was exploited for forestry in 2015, while 30% was associated with export production, mainly sourced from Russia, Canada, Africa, South America and tropical and subtropical Asia-Pacific and linked to the final consumption of developed (e.g. the EU, the USA and Japan) and emerging (e.g. China and India) economies. During 2000–2015, forest land exploited in climate-vulnerable regions rose to 689.4 Mha, contributing over 50% of the overall increase in global forest land exploitation. Forest land use displaced from China and India to these regions increased by 2.6 and 3.3 times, respectively, due to escalating imports from tropics and subtropics (especially Asia-Pacific), where the readiness to take adaptation actions was also low. For the EU and the USA, virtual forest land use sourced from these regions remained large in absolute magnitude despite decreasing import volume. Therefore, transnational mutual efforts are needed to secure local forestry of climate-vulnerable regions, improve the resilience of global supply chains and mitigate negative influence on other sustainable development goals supported by forest ecosystems. • 30% of global forest exploitation was associated with export production in 2015. • Increasing forest land was exploited in climate-vulnerable regions. • China, the EU, the USA, India and Japan were major final consumers. • Russia, Canada and many tropical and subtropical countries were leading exporters. • Transnational governance is needed to improve climate and supply chain resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the response of commercial timber species to fire is fundamental to designing sustainable forest management strategies in West Africa. In this area of high deforestation for agriculture, semi-deciduous tropical forests have been reduced to a trickle in 50 years and are now subject not only to logging but also to increasingly frequent fires. This paper aims to study the long-term (37 years) demographic and growth responses of 20 timber species after a spatially heterogeneous fire in a West African semi-deciduous forest. We (i) inventoried, in 2020, 100 hectares of plots already established before the 1983 fire, (ii) built demographic and growth models, in a Bayesian framework, to estimate the vulnerability to fire of each species and (iii) linked this vulnerability to functional traits: wood density (WD) and bark thickness (BT). Our results show that most species have lower current abundances but higher growths in burnt areas than in fire-preserved areas. We identified three categories of vulnerability to fire: 1 non-vulnerable species, 16 species with vulnerable demography, and 3 highly vulnerable species. Species with high wood density or thin bark show higher demographic vulnerability to fire. Our results show that fire management is a top priority in West African semi-deciduous forests to maintain long-term populations of timber species and ultimately the forest industry. The differences in vulnerability observed, and the strong predictive power of the functional traits studied, should make it possible to (i) better define harvesting rates and adapt them to fire risk and (ii) better select commercial species to be promoted for reforestation or natural (assisted) regeneration. • Most West African timber species have lower abundances but higher growths 37 years after fire • Timber species with high wood density or thin bark show higher demographic vulnerability to fire • Urgency to better define harvesting rates and adapt them to fire risk and. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Regional ecological benefits of developing forest carbon sequestration projects in carbon markets are empirically investigated. • The pilot policy of China's one regional offset mechanism (Guangdong PHCER) is used as a quasi-natural experiment. • The carbon market can effectively increase city greening by encouraging the development of forest carbon sequestration projects. • This effect does not crowd out arable resources.Thank you very much. This paper investigates the regional spillover effects of the project-based voluntary market under the carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS). By exploiting one local offset mechanism (China's PHCER) as a quasi-experiment, we detect the unintended causal effect of the carbon market on greening the city. Using the difference-in-differences (DiD) estimator, we find that the voluntary carbon market resulted in a 14.45% (14.34%) increase in city-year-level NDVI summary value (per capita). The primary mechanism is the expansion of forest carbon sequestration projects. Cities with lower carbon emissions and fewer carbon market participants experience a greater causal effect. More importantly, we find no evidence to support the crowding out of arable land by forest carbon sequestration projects. Finally, several policy implications for a more functional carbon market are discussed. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to document "the Gudo culture" in the Sheka zone, south-western Ethiopia from 2016 to 2019. The study adopted criterion sampling for this study in line with an ethnographic method involving the use of a semi-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistical data techniques were used to analyse the field data. Qualitative methods involving interviews and focus group discussions with villagers are used to gather data. Eighty-five percent (85%) of respondents confirmed that the sacred forest is a cultural symbol related to indigenous beliefs and signifies spiritual connections to the forestland. Wide conservation practices were observed (a) people's beliefs, (b) conservation mechanisms, (c) taboos and totems, and (d) people's knowledge of the sacred forest (e) forbidden Forest (f) spiritual significance of sacred forests (g) conservation and management of sacred forests (h) cutting of trees in the sacred forest (i) protection of the sacred forest (j) conservation of biodiversity. This paper concludes that Gudo forest conservation culture provides important insights into protecting various forest types and tree species, contributing to biodiversity conservation. • The ethnographic research design employed based on participant perception on traditional forest conservation knowledge and belief system. • The results of this research work show that own indigenous knowledge, beliefs, and management practices related to forest. • The study suggested this useful culture has demonstrated its significance in the protection of various forest types and tree species, contributing to the conservation of biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This review demonstrates a growing trend in research about planting density in the last 20 years. • Most studies were developed in countries with a well-established forest industry. • Studies focus on species with great commercial interests, as Pinus and Eucalyptus species. • Morphological characteristics are the most used to evaluate how planting density affects plant growth instead of physiological characteristics. • Individual growth tends to negatively correlate with planting density while stand productivity positively correlates with it. Knowledge of the morphological and physiological responses of trees to planting density is important for adjusting plantation establishment practices to attain the desired size and characteristics of wood products. In this review, we provide an overview of how planting density is managed as a silvicultural practice and summarize recent advances, trends, and gaps to guide future research in this field. We applied a PRISMA methodology to select papers published between 1981 and 2020 that tested how monospecies planting density affects the morphological and physiological characteristics of planted trees; we observed an increasing trend in the number of relevant publications over this period. These studies focused mainly on species used for timber production (Eucalyptus and Pinus), and research was concentrated in the United States, China, and Brazil. In general, the 255 selected studies identified that planting density has a major impact on stem diameter and volume, resulting in greater stand productivity of high-density stands, especially for trees having a smaller individual volume. Studies evaluating the physiological response of trees to planting density also showed that species ecology, solar radiation, water requirements, and site-specific characteristics have a greater influence on plant growth than planting density. Considering the physiological aspects in high-density plantations, water relations based on transpiration and water use efficiency are the main aspect guiding plants growth rate. Despite major advances in intensive silviculture around the world, there remains a knowledge gap for tree species grown for their leaves, fruits, or seeds and a lack of data related to the physiological response of trees to planting density. The results of this literature survey can improve forest management decisions in regard to forest stand use and develop novel study avenues for silviculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Woodland expansion and related targets are central to the Scottish Forestry Strategy (2019–2029). However, planting rates over the last decade have mostly fallen short of targets and, with the majority of Scottish land in private ownership, estates could play an influential role in achieving these targets. The current political (e.g. Brexit) and ecological (e.g. climate and biodiversity emergencies) uncertainty impacting the UK presents both opportunities and potential threats to the forestry sector and environmental policies. This research used walking interviews with estate managers to gain insights into perceptions of forestry and woodland culture on private sporting estates. Co-planning of new planting areas involved discussions with a mixture of estate owners, factors and land managers from neighbouring estates, along with the researcher. The co-planning process provided scope to navigate the uncertainty between estate priorities, woodland expansion targets and wider management issues by exploring the local culture and land capability from the perspective of individual land managers. A range of constraints and opportunities were identified including the influence of deeply embedded perceptions of past and current woodland creation schemes that continue to impact the estates, market instability, and the desire to design and create beneficial integrated deer and amenity areas. These are counterbalanced with a clear passion for trees among some managers, but a relatively low interest in extensive woodland management, which was underpinned by a widespread lack of in-house forestry knowledge. The woodland planning exercise resulted in managers identifying explicit areas for potential woodland expansion on every estate, favouring mixed native woodlands with limited productive objectives. Woodfuel production was viewed as an output from early woodland thinnings with the potential to increase short-term profitability and offset management costs. This paper highlights that strengthening personal connections between land managers and woodland management, through knowledge building and contact with up-to-date forestry knowledge from a trusted provider, could further opportunities for expanding and enhancing woodland culture, and become a more significant part of the rationale that drives decision-making. Facilitating local knowledge of the estate and local community involvement in woodland design and planning, even on a small-scale, offers potential to support the expansion and integration of woodland on some private estates that have lost or reduced woodland culture. • Private estate managers are influenced by past and current woodland design, as well as expected value of woodlands. • Uncertainty such as climate change and BREXIT presents opportunities for land use integration but can also impede action. • Face-to-face engagement and co-planning can increase the likelihood of managers implementing woodland expansion. • Loss of woodland management knowledge and local experience on estates and communities influence resistance toward expansion. • Perceived challenges relating to long-term investment, space and relative value, outweigh perceived benefits. • Changing narratives from targets to primary benefits, practicalities and personal motivations facilitates greater acceptance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Climate change can yield both direct and indirect effects on forest hydrology. • The impacts of climate change on the forest-water nexus are complex among watersheds. • The interactions among forest, water, and climate change introduce more complexities. Climate change can directly affect forest hydrology by altering precipitation, evapotranspiration, and streamflow generation, or indirectly by changing disturbance regimes and forest structures at multiple scales. Climate change impacts on the forest-water nexus across biomes are pervasive characterized by a great complexity and uncertainty, significantly impeding the design of adaptive forest watershed management to mitigate climate change risks. This paper reviews our current knowledge on the interactions between climate change and the forest-water nexus at the scales of individual tree, stand, and watershed. We found that climate change dramatically altered watershed hydrology in many parts of the world, with varying hydrological responses at multiple scales of tree species, forest types, climate types, and hydrological regimes. The streamflow response was often more pronounced in snow-dominated or water-limited watersheds, especially in watersheds with increasing droughts due to climate change and intensively managed plantations of either non-native tree species (e.g., Eucalyptus plantations in Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, and Australia) or young coniferous species. Climate change impacts can be compounded or offset by forest changes (i.e., deforestation, and forestation) through forest-climate interactions and feedbacks. Forest management can mitigate or aggravate the negative hydrologic impacts of climate change. Adaptive forest management is a prerequisite for managing the forest-water nexus in the face of climate change. Various forest management strategies aiming at maintaining optimal forest structure and high species diversity are recommended to enhance forest resistance and resilience to climate change and sustain water provision services from forests and other beneficial ecosystem services while minimizing negative impacts and risks of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do uneven agrarian histories and resource sectors intersect to yield new extractive developments in one landscape? How are local livelihoods, social relations and differentiation implicated in cumulative extractivism over time? Contributing to emerging literature on the political ecology of cross-sectoral extractive development, we answer these questions by examining the origins and interactions of overlapping phases of resource extraction and the uneven livelihood implications for different social groups in frontier Southeast Asia. Drawing on a case in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, we show how seemingly separate processes of extractivism––industrial logging, palm oil plantations and coal mining–– overlap and reinforce one another to enhance uneven access to and use of land and forest resources, social differentiation and NGO-enabled resistance in a Dayak Modang community. While older Modang involved in early land clearing dynamics had secured greater landholdings and were bettered positioned to diversify livelihoods, younger Modang and migrants experienced greater livelihood constraints and precarity in the overlapping spaces claimed by palm oil and now coal mining. As land availability declined with the expansion of plantations and mines, locally perceived differences ran along ethnic lines and adat (customary) markers leveraged by NGOs, reinforcing tensions among 'indigenous' and 'migrant' peoples. We argue that as social differentiation sharpens, 'collective' resistance against expanding plantations and mines became becomes increasingly difficult. Our paper suggests that paying attention to how and why historical processes of extractivism and land accumulation work synergistically can provide deeper insights into how social differentiation and livelihood insecurity unfolds in terms of the spatial and temporal character of landscapes. • Past phases of resource extraction overlap and reinforce one another, enhancing uneven access to and use of land and livelihood resources for different social groups in Kalimantan, Indonesia. • Narrowing access to land and livelihood opportunities affects younger generations of Dayak and newly arrived migrants most detrimentally. • Underlying livelihood challenges and a lack of access to land compels local people to enrol in further phases of resource extraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Review sociohistorical and academic context of triad forest management. • Summarize potential benefits of triad and suggest guidelines for implementation. • Outline challenges to adopting the triad and suggest strategies to over come them. • Encourage empirical testing to challenge and validate triad or alternative large-scale approaches to forest management. The term "triad" in forestry refers to a landscape management regime composed of three parts: (1) intensive plantation management, (2) ecological forest reserves, and (3) a matrix of forests managed for multiple uses following the principals of ecological forestry. In this paper we review the sociohistorical and academic context for triad forest management and related concepts. We argue that the triad has the potential to minimize trade-offs between meeting global demand for timber products and forest ecosystem services that are typically under-provisioned in forests intensively managed for timber production. The triad should include intensive monitoring of multiple ecosystem services outcomes from each of the three management types so that specific practices and allocation between intensive plantations, reserves and the matrix can be adapted to changing societal and ecological conditions. We describe guidelines for implementing the triad that may assist policy makers and forest managers in putting theory into practice and provide a real-world example of triad adoption from Nova Scotia, Canada. While the triad concept has many promising qualities, there are many challenges to its wider adoption; we summarize four significant challenges (multiple ownerships, saturation of high productivity plantations, reserves under global change, and shifting wood demand and production) and offer ways to potentially overcome come them. The triad is an auspicious landscape approach, but to date there is very little empirical evidence supporting triad over alternatives, thus experimental and observation studies are needed to compare the efficacy of the triad over other forest landscape management schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of forests in the provision of ecosystem services that provide multiple benefits to society is increasingly being recognised. These services include climate change and greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation, water quality protection, fibre for timber processing or wood energy and recreation opportunities. However, afforestation targets across Europe are not being met, despite the availability of planting subsidies in some countries. Using Ireland as a case study, this paper uses a novel technique to examine the afforestation participation decision utilising a choice modelling framework, where a revealed preference methodology is applied to the land use change from agriculture to forestry at individual farm level for the first time. The model coefficients are consistent with economic theory relative to the utility maximisation of income, leisure and wealth (long term land value) and suggest that while income is a key driver of the participation decision at individual farm level, the non-pecuniary benefits from farming are also a consideration. • Discrete choice modelling is advanced by estimating structural parameters for the planting decision on individual farms. • A dataset incorporating policy and economic variability enables the quantification of the utility function for farm forestry. • The quantitative analytical method confirms theoretical perspectives in relation to financial drivers in a formal manner. • However, results also confirm the importance of non-financial drivers of planting decisions. • The framework has potential for use in other life-cycle decisions on farms, forests and other land use choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Paper studies relationship between land cover (LC) and urban heat island (UHI). • Land surface temperature is retrieved using mono-window algorithm. • LC classification was retrieved via random forest classifier to explore LC result. • The LST of each land change is retrieved to study its effect to UHI intensity. • Relationship between greenness degree and LST is revealed using NDVI index. In this study, the relationship between land cover (LC) characteristics and urban heat island (UHI) intensity in the main urban area of Wuhan City are investigated. The effects of LC change on green space and land surface temperature (LST) was investigated, along with the relationship among LST, LC, and normalised differential vegetation index (NDVI). The land was divided into five categories, namely, built-up area, agricultural land, water, forest, and bare land. LST was determined using the infrared band image from the same period. The area of built-up areas accounted for only 32.81% in 2007, and it increased to 46.01% in 2020, while agricultural land decreased by 12.14%, which is the primary reason for the increase in built-up areas. The average LST in the study area increased from 25.92℃ to 31.71℃, and the range of LST moved forward to high-temperature range. The high-temperature areas (>32℃) expanded from point distribution to plane distribution and its expansion direction was consistent with the urbanisation direction. The water and forest have the strongest mitigation capacity for UHI and should be protected. Urban managers should avoid the increase of bare land due to the degradation of agricultural land and forest because the increase in LST caused by this type of LC change is obvious. LST was negatively correlated with NDVI, indicating that fewer vegetation resulted in higher LST. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyze transformations within a land reform settlement in the Brazilian Amazon, with special land-use regulations targeting forest conservation. We conducted long-term action research in the Virola-Jatobá Sustainable Development Project (PDS), where peasant farmers who were the early settlers of the area, and more recent occupants allied to illegal loggers, land grabbers and speculators adopt antagonistic positions and challenge respective entitlements towards land and forest. In this research we highlight issues of power asymmetry and social injustice when assessing how social relations and environmental conditions in the study area are affected by land use and forest conservation policies since year 2000, when the scheme was established. The PDS situation approached a collapse in late 2017 when the integrity of its forests and the beliefs and practices of vulnerable local residents were damaged. This case study empirically demonstrates that Amazon forest frontier systems have a limited capacity to endure extreme perturbations in the social and ecological interconnected domains. We argue that when a threshold is reached in systems featuring heavily institutionalized social asymmetries that constrain the action of vulnerable resource users, few conditions remain to reorganize the constituent setup through adaptive changes in the same regime or state. Reaching this stage will likely result in drastic changes that will lock the system into a pathway that compromises human wellbeing and the provision of ecosystem services. The fundamental nature of a tenurial scheme that combines social justice and environmental conservation tends thus to be lost for good, to enter a new regime with fewer options and novelties in social-ecological advances, reflecting the overall setbacks currently experienced in Brazilian policy. • Failed delivery and enforcement of land and forest policy in Amazon forest frontier. • Land tenure modality in a liminal status between environmental and agrarian reform regulations. • Social support for conservation affected by political and economic factors mediated by governmental agencies. • A new regime takes place with lower complexity in both social and ecological terms. • Outcomes reflect overall setback in Brazil's current social and environmental policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Soil pH decreased by 0.23 unit after forestation over the globe. • Climate was the most important predictor of soil pH change after forestation. • Forestation significantly decreased soil pH in humid areas but not in arid areas. Forestation is a key strategy to mitigate climate change caused by anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. However, the impacts of forestation on soil pH remain unclear, despite critical roles of soil pH in regulating key soil biogeochemical processes. Here, we collected a global dataset of soil pH change after forestation, which included 1082 observations from 171 published papers. Results showed that soil pH declined significantly by 0.23 after forestation over the globe. Soil pH consistently declined after forestation, no matter the forest was established naturally or by planting, on croplands or grasslands. The decline of pH after forestation was generally larger in neutral soils (pH 6–7) than in acidic soils (pH < 6) and alkaline soils (pH > 7), and larger in boreal and temperate forests than in tropical forests. Soil pH decreased significantly in humid areas but not in arid regions. Random forest analysis showed that climate was the most important regulatory factor to influence soil pH change after forestation. Mean annual temperature and precipitation probably affected soil pH both directly and indirectly via altering soil physiochemical properties. Given vital roles of soil pH in regulating carbon and nutrient dynamics, our findings have important implications for the long-term impacts of forestation on carbon and nutrient dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• High grading destroys wealth but is widely and sometimes purposefully practiced. • Deliberate high grading strategies exploit imperfect information in forestland markets. • Responses should focus on the role of information in market institutions. High grading is, by definition, wealth-destructive, and yet the practice is widespread. Explanations of high grading typically assume landowners are greedy, impatient, or ignorant. None of these explanations are robust. This paper develops an analytical model of landowner decision making that provides a richer explanation for this counterproductive practice. The model centers on buyers' behavior in markets for heterogeneous-quality forestland. Facing imperfect information, it is rational for buyers to shade their estimated valuation of a prospective property up or down toward the region-wide average. Because high-quality forestland thus sells at a discount, and low-quality forestland for a premium, the so-called strip-and-flip strategy can outperform good, long-term silviculture. A simulation case study for a northern hardwood forest in the Adirondack region of New York illustrates this theoretical model. The simulation incorporates empirical growth models, continuous quality-specific price functions, and integer programming methods to specify the tree-by-tree harvest schedule that maximizes long-term net present value. An alternative simulation conditions cutting decisions on the expected sale price at the end of a ten-year investment period, resulting in a systematic—or, perhaps, "selective"—shift in harvesting patterns favoring removal of high-value trees. In presenting an improved theory of high grading, this study helps direct policy makers' attention away from dismissive characterizations of landowners as dumb, greedy, or both, and toward closer analysis of the institutional factors that drive deliberate forest degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tiering in impact assessment has been advocated for mainstreaming environmental goals into different levels of planning. Likewise, the ecosystem services concept has been receiving increased attention for its potential contribution to the difficult mission of integrating the fragmented views of society's dependence on nature when taking decisions about development proposals and public policies. Using the tiered planning of transportation infrastructure in São Paulo, Brazil, this paper examines the use of the ecosystem services concept as a thread to tiering in impact assessment from the strategic to the project level. By exploring a particular case in the transportation infrastructure sector, we aim at advancing knowledge and drawing lessons about the contribution of ecosystem services as an integrative tool to knit the analysis of impacts at successive levels of planning. The highway affects forest lands and watersheds that provide invaluable services for a large population. By analyzing strategic and project environmental assessments, we found that although ecosystem services underpin three out of five key strategic issues, they were addressed mostly implicitly, both at the strategic and at the project levels, missing an opportunity to integrate societal concerns into the assessment. The explicit and upfront consideration of ecosystem services is necessary to support an integrated assessment and the structured consideration of socio-ecological systems in decision-making and to reveal trade-offs that are usually hidden in piecemeal assessments. • Lessons learned from a highway are used to explore how to embed ES in tiered impact assessments. • Ecosystem services are often considered only implicitly in SEA and EIA reports. • Tiering SEA to EIA could be strengthened if guided by the ecosystem services concept. • The ecosystem services concept could add value to each stage of vertical SEA-EIA tiering. • The ES concept supports integrating biophysical and social impacts across planning tiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding farmers' preferences for efficiency and equity regarding different land use rights is necessary for the success of land reforms because economic efficiency with equity is the key distinguishing feature of China's land reforms. This paper presents a comparative analysis of farmers' preferences for tenure security (a measure of efficiency) and distribution equality in two similar but distinct land use practices: reallocating physical farmland and reallocating forest monetary shares, both of which contradict government-imposed tenure individualization policies but have long co-existed in some parts of Southeast China. The analysis includes farmers' self-interested as well as prosocial motivations. Data from 222 households, collected from five communities using surveys and a public good game, shows that farmers have a high preference for distribution equality over tenure security in both types of land reallocations. Using bivariate probit models, we find farmers' preferences for reallocating land property rights are associated with their prosocial preferences, but the influence of prosocial preferences varies across reallocations. Moreover, the higher cost of implementing farmland reallocations contributes to farmers' higher preference for tenure security in farmland reallocations than in forest shareholdings reallocations. The research provides empirical evidence of the influence of prosocial motivations on farmers' land property rights preferences and demonstrates that farmers in the same communities may have different preferences for land property rights for two land uses (agriculture and forestry), and the influencing factors and their influence on land property rights preferences may also vary across land uses. • China's land rights reallocations show the equal access vs. secure tenure trade-off. • Farmers' preferences for reallocations manifest their prosocial motivations. • Reallocations take different forms across various land use contexts. • Reallocating physical farmland is more costly than reallocating forest shareholdings. • Cost factors affect how farmers balance equal access against secure tenure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The eco-cultural nature of ancient woods and forest landscapes in the UK is well-established. Furthermore, the loss of cultural knowledge and memories as traditional management reduced and in many cases ceased during the twentieth century presents challenges for site conservation and that of the eco-cultural resources. Additionally, both tangible and intangible cultural heritage of these landscapes are seriously threatened and cultural severance is a major driver of ecological change and species loss. This paper takes a regionally-based case-study of these eco-cultural landscapes and their biocultural resources as evidenced by archaeology, archival sources, oral histories, and ecological field survey. This information provides detailed time-lines for specific sites from Domesday to the twenty-first century. Finally, site assessment and evaluation, and practical management implementation are considered. Issues of lack of recognition of biocultural heritage and hence of inadvertent or unknowing damage are discussed. Lack of accepted evaluation processes or effective kite-marking for sustainable forest products presents significant problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forest fires is one of the most dangerous disasters to the livelihood planet of earth. Human intervention into the field of the destruction of nature is another cause of these forest fires. The ability to heal nature is dampened due to the expansion of human territories into forests causing loss of lands for the forests. While human expansion cannot be halted, so we as human must take a responsibility for the consequences and make sure the climatic changes due to such disasters, should be as low as possible. Halting the forest fires is an impossible task, and the best we can do control the fires and the amount of area burnt. This process can be improved by predicting the forest fires and the amount of area that might get burnt due to the predicted fire and take measures against it such that there would be no fire at all or the very least reduce the amount of area burnt during the fire. Machine learning in predictions of forest fires is heavily researched and mostly used in real-time. Though usage of machine learning algorithms has been in use, the accuracy of these models is of the lower levels. The paper introduces using a model which is a hybrid of its predecessors, taking as many postulates from them as possible and leaving the cons behind. The hybrid model which is a combination of support vector machine and random forest regression model is using the data of forest fires in the period of 2011–2020 in India, and able to give more accurate predictions. The proposed RVFR model also results in achieving an accuracy of 94%, which is greater than all of the predecessors and with a variance of 1.0. • Provides an extensive survey for finding the distribution related to the forest fire data used for predictions. • Provide comparative analysis of existing models implemented using random forests, support vector machine, etc. • Proposed an algorithm– Random Vector Forest Regression (RVFR) Model for optimal results in predicting the forest fire • The results demonstrated an accuracy of 94% with the proposed RVFR model which is greater than all of the predecessors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research on the changes of the spatial and temporal characteristics of land-use landscape patterns can deeply insight the movement of the Earth's surface by human activities, natural factors, and biological factors in time and space. This paper uses Landsat data for eight periods from 1984 to 2020 to explore the spatial and temporal characteristics of the land-use landscape pattern. First, the remotely sensed data were pre-processed. Then, the supervised classification was performed using the maximum likelihood-based method to obtain the information about the land-use and land cover changes in the study area, and an accuracy evaluation was carried out. Finally, the analysis of gravity center movement for the land-use type landscape pattern was carried out. The research results show that the construction land increased from 18.19 km2 in 1984 to 115.97 km2 in 2020. The forest land decreased from 205.72 km2 in 1984 to 194.39 km2 in 2020. The water bodies increased from 5.51 km2 in 1984 to 12.60 km2 in 2020. The mudflats decreased from 19.24 km2 in 1984 to 13.73 km2 in 2020. The cropland/grassland decreased from 210.98 km2 in 1984 to 203.87 km2 in 2020. The bare land decreased from 19.05 km2 in 1984 to 6.09 km2 in 2020. The average annual change area of the construction land, forest land, water bodies, mudflats, cropland/grassland, and bare land were 2.72 km2, −0.31 km2, 0.20 km2, −0.15 km2, −0.20 km2, and −0.36 km2, respectively. The average annual change rates of the construction land, forest land, water bodies, mudflats, cropland/grassland, and bare land were 5.28%, −0.16%, 2.33%, −0.93%, −0.10%, and −3.12%, respectively. The moving distance of gravity center of the construction land, forest land, water bodies, mudflats, cropland/grassland, and bare land were 2.98 km, 0.20 km, 2.38 km, 3.32 km, 0.98 km, and 8.39 km, respectively. The spatial distribution continuity and regional coordination of the construction land was significantly enhanced. The continuity of the spatial distribution of the forest land was continuously maintained at a high level. The spatial distribution of the water bodies was highly discrete. The continuity of the spatial distribution of the mudflats decreased. The spatial distribution and morphological features of the cropland/grassland tended to be discrete. The spatial continuity of the bare land increased. This research provides valuable dataset and gives insights for regional sustainable development planning and ecological assessment in Zhoushan Island, China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We assessed the effect of headwater buffer widths in providing targeted functions. • Current buffers around Swedish headwaters do not provide all targeted functions. • Buffer width only consistently moderated shading across the geographic location. • Site-specific and upstream linkages are needed for optimally functional buffers. In many national guidelines and policies regarding protection of freshwater systems from stressors associated with forestry, riparian buffer width is a commonly prescribed strategy, typically with no other refinements of protection measures. In Sweden, the Strategic Management Objectives (SMOs) were developed to ensure that riparian buffers that are left after harvesting sustain important ecosystem attributes in aquatic systems, referred to as objectives, namely shading, biodiversity, reduction of sedimentation, and provision of deadwood and food. However, little specification is given on threshold targets or how to manage riparian zones to effectively provide these objectives. In this paper, we evaluated whether existing riparian buffers of different widths along small, recently harvested (<8 years) streams were able to provide proxies of these targeted objectives, and further compared harvested streams to counterparts situated in mature unharvested production forests (reference) in northern and southern Sweden. The influence of buffer width varied with objective and geographic location. In both regions, canopy cover (proxy for shading) increased with riparian width, and riparian deadwood was highest in no buffer sites. Organic matter (OM; proxy for food) was highest in the northern no buffer streams, while in the south OM increased with buffer width. All other parameters tested had no relationship to buffer width. These differing responses even in streams subjected to similar land-use and management within a close vicinity and region, suggest that the contemporary strategy of prescribing fixed buffer widths and/or stating objectives without defined guidelines for what constitutes an effective riparian buffer is insufficient given the large variability of stream ecosystems across small spatial scales. More comprehensive consideration synergistically accounting for site-specificity and land mosaic planning are needed to develop functionally effective buffers that can mitigate forestry impacts on stream ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]