Search

As of 2020, the world has an estimated 290 million ha of planted forests and this number is continuously increasing. Of these, 131 million ha are monospecific planted forests under intensive management. Although monospecific planted forests are important in providing timber, they harbor less biodiversity and are potentially more susceptible to disturbances than natural or diverse planted forests. Here, we point out the increasing scientific evidence for increased resilience and ecosystem service provision of functionally and species diverse planted forests (hereafter referred to as diverse planted forests) compared to monospecific ones. Furthermore, we propose five concrete steps to foster the adoption of diverse planted forests: (1) improve awareness of benefits and practical options of diverse planted forests among land-owners, managers, and investors; (2) incentivize tree species diversity in public funding of afforestation and programs to diversify current maladapted planted forests of low diversity; (3) develop new wood-based products that can be derived from many different tree species not yet in use; (4) invest in research to assess landscape benefits of diverse planted forests for functional connectivity and resilience to global-change threats; and (5) improve the evidence base on diverse planted forests, in particular in currently under-represented regions, where new options could be tested.

What is meant by sustainability depends on what is sustained and at what level. Sustainable forest management, for example, requires maintenance of a variety of values not the least of which is sustained timber yields (STYs). For the 1 Bha of the world's forests subjected to selective or partial logging, failures to maintain yields can be hidden by regulatory requirements and questionable auditing practices such as increasing the number of commercial species with each harvest, reducing the minimum size at which trees can be harvested, and accepting logs of lower quality. For assertions of STY to be credible, clarity is needed about all these issues, as well as about the associated ecological and economic tradeoffs. Lack of clarity about sustainability heightens risks of unsubstantiated claims and unseen losses. STY is possible but often requires cutting cycles that are longer and logging intensities that are lower than prescribed by law, as well as effective use of low-impact logging practices and application of silvicultural treatments to promote timber stock recovery. These departures from business-as-usual practices will lower profit margins but generally benefit biodiversity and ecosystem services. Significance Statement Commitments to sustainable forest management (SFM) deserve praise but also scrutiny. Here we examine the sustained timber yield (STY) component of SFM for the 25% of Earth's forest subjected to selective logging. Legitimacy of STY claims depend on whether, over time, the number of species included in yield calculations increases, minimum cutting diameters decrease, or lower quality logs are accepted. STY is possible without such dubious accounting practices if harvest intensities and collateral damage decrease, harvest intervals increase, and treatments are applied to promote recovery. These changes will reduce profits relative to those of timber mining, but climate-change mitigation funds should be available to cover some of the costs given the carbon and other benefits of responsible forest management.

Tropical Secondary Forests (SFs) are vulnerable forest systems growing in areas that have been subject to unsustainable human activities leading to deforestation. SFs account for swathes of tropical forest landscapes that have lost their capacity to provide a high level of goods and services. They are also located in highly dynamic and human-pressured landscapes and are vulnerable to natural and human-induced catastrophic events, such as hurricanes or fires. Without appropriate silvicultural management to increase their economic value and restore their ecological functions, they often become degraded and are sometimes cleared for more short-term economically productive activities. Given the increasing demand for tropical timber in recent decades that will continue in the near future, we suggest that active restoration geared towards wood production is an opportunity for SF conservation. Promoting sustainable wood production -i.e. associated with other environmental services- in these disturbed forest ecosystems is also a way to reduce logging pressure on the remaining intact primary tropical forests, indeed, this may be the most important reason to enhance active restoration aimed at wood production in tropical SFs worldwide. Future research in forest ecology and management should produce experimental evidence of enhanced production of wood and ecosystem services in SFs through appropriate silvicultural experimentations.

Recognizing the potential interactions and synergies between adaptation and mitigation in land-use policies in general and forest policies in particular, research on climate change policy has increasingly focused on integrating both objectives simultaneously (hereafter “interaction model”). However, while support exists for the integration of adaptation and mitigation, very few policies have successfully integrated both objectives in practice (hereafter “separation model”). In addition to the interaction and separation models, we introduce the “adaptation-first model”—an approach to climate policy integration that centers adaptation at the core of forest management, with mitigation as one benefit amongst others—and assess whether it more effectively characterizes the practical realities of forest management than the separation or interaction models. Drawing on a review of policy documents, a survey (n = 48) and interviews (n = 22) with government managers in British Columbia (BC), Canada, we analyze which of the three models have been used for integrating climate objectives into BC’s forest policy and explore views of government managers on the relationships and trade-offs between adaptation and mitigation and which model should be prioritized for their integration into forest management. Our analysis of climate-focused forest policy documents indicates that a possible shift from the separation to the interaction model is taking place in BC. However, our results also indicate that while government managers support the interaction model in principle, they perceive numerous barriers to policy integration that may prevent the shift towards the interaction model to materialize in practice. Because of the fundamental perceived differences in the levels at which adaptation and mitigation intervene in decision-making, government managers in our study were generally more comfortable with the adaptation-first model, which ultimately suggests the need to rethink how we frame climate integration into forest management and policies.

HIGHLIGHTSBenishangul-Gumuz Regional State (BGRS) has the highest proportion and area of natural bamboo forests in Ethiopia, mostly lowland bamboo (Oxytenanthera abyssinica).In BGRS, bamboo resources were poorly managed and wasting away.There is a lack of bamboo-focused training among foresters, and local bamboo value chains are under-developed.We characterize the existing bamboo business models, and the state and non-state actors influencing the sustainable management of bamboo resources and bamboo value chains.We identify the support needed by small-scale enterprises, including training in business and bamboo-specific technical skills, access to financing adapted to their capacity and needs, improved infrastructure and market linkages, and land use planning that accounts for the economic and environmental values of bamboo resources.SUMMARYWe document the perceptions, practices and policy options in managing lowland bamboo [Oxytenanthera abyssinica] in Benishangul Gumuz Regional State (BGRS) in Ethiopia, particularly to enable small-scale enterprises (SSE) to become more active in this field. This region hosts the largest extent of natural bamboo forests in Ethiopia. There is a recent push to realize bamboo's economic and environmental potential in Ethiopia, which puts SSEs as crucial actors. There is little or scattered published information on local perceptions and practices surrounding natural bamboo forest management and options for realizing bamboo's potential from a subnational/local perspective in Africa, including in Ethiopia. In 2018, we conducted a literature review, spatial analysis, participatory mapping, and interviewed experts working in governmental and non-governmental organizations and local stakeholders in BGRS. We find some consensus of the environmental importance of bamboo. In contrast, there is some debate at the subnational level about the economic importance of bamboo, leading to decisions favouring other land uses. Bamboo forests in this region suffer neglect, as they are perceived to be ‘owned by no one and used by everyone’ and will continue to be there without management. Lack of market-driven opportunities, bamboo-specific training among foresters, data on economic contributions of bamboo, and regulations or guidelines to support existing laws have prevented effective management of the bamboo resource. There are multiple bamboo management approaches that open economic opportunities for SSEs in the region. There needs to be more clarity on how to secure land use rights over bamboo forests, accessible financing, market linkages, business training, and low-tech/low-cost technologies to encourage the development of bamboo SSEs.

Accurate estimates of commercial volume in tropical forests are key for the implementation of sustainable forest management plans. Because of the lack of local or generic volumetric equations, most forest managers and forestry services are still using traditional expansion factors (i.e., multiplication of the diameter by a given value) to estimate the volume of commercial tree species in the Amazon. Volumetric models were developed through a unique data set of 1,264 fallen trees fully measured in 150 sample plots located across a broad range of forests in Amapá, Brazil. Forest-specific volumetric models were developed and compared with a generic (i.e., across all forests) model and with published equations developed elsewhere in the Amazon. The generic equation performed well in all forest types and allowed precise predictions. The most efficient sampling design to develop volumetric models consists of measuring approximately 50 trees across four different size classes representing the whole population. The form factors (FF) developed locally generated substantial bias but performed better than the traditional FF (0.7). Overall, our results suggest that it is possible to develop accurate generic models to estimate commercial timber volume, and this study can serve as a guideline for forest managers or scientists interested in calibrating volumetric models in a cost-efficient way. Study Implications: This work provides useful information on volumetric modeling methods for Brazilian Amazon tropical forests. Most of the studies in the literature only investigate the classical modeling using regression models considering only boom metrics with or without bark, and, in this way, they provide incomplete and biased total knowledge and estimates for a given population. Therefore, detailed and accurate analyzes are crucial tools for decisionmaking. If the harvesting interventions are carried out without considering the most appropriate method to estimate the total wood stock, there may be damages or even extinction of some species, as has happened with other forest domains in Brazil and in other rainforest regions in the world. In this work, the results clearly show the importance of testing different methodologies and selecting the one best suited for a particular site, as well as carrying out techniques for the sustainable and correct management of the forest. Because the analysis procedures provide only information on how methodologies behave statistically, our results may contribute to a more refined analysis to be applied in the future in similar environments. Currently, the Brazilian forestry sector is looking for alternatives to obtain forest resources within the concept of sustainability. For the Brazilian Amazon tropical forest domain, it is extremely important to achieve a sustainable management of resources through forest management. Most studies in the literature investigate the management of tropical rainforest, whereas there is a lack of scientific information on the transition range for the cerrado. Made available in DSpace on 2020-12-16T09:06:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CPAF-AP-2020-Accurate-estimation-of-commercial.pdf: 928769 bytes, checksum: dff30beaa41574825f8df54580bc8d84 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2020

The combined and interacting effects of land-use change, resource extraction and climate change threaten the sustainability of millions of mainly smallholder farms in tropical agroforested landscapes. In many of these landscapes, coordinated action among stakeholders at landscape level would help to address challenges such as pests and diseases, price crises and climate change. However, methods to facilitate the co-production of sustainable landscape management in such complex multi-stakeholder systems are currently largely lacking. In this paper, we present a novel approach to explore pathways for the sustainability transition of agroforestry systems. By combining participatory forecasting and backcasting approaches, based on serious games and future vision development, we explore relevant agroforestry management strategies for reaching sustainable future coffee-based agroforestry landscapes. We focused our research on the challenges faced in the main coffee-producing area in Nicaragua. Here, we organized five participatory game sessions to explore farmer decision-making processes, farming strategies and to develop new networks and stimulate social learning among farmers. In the associated backcasting workshop, the most influential game session participants joined technicians, researchers and municipality officials to collectively envision sustainable future landscape management. In all game sessions, farmers developed diversified coffee-based agroforested landscapes characterised by increased density and diversity of shade trees, for the purpose of income diversification as well as forest conservation. During the backcasting workshop, the participants identified policy instruments and community-based solutions for the transition to sustainable landscapes. Our participatory approach facilitated discussion on landscape planning among farmers and other stakeholders and allowed the outline of a pathway towards the collective envisioned future landscape. The combination of participatory forecasting and backcasting proved to be a helpful tool to support multi-stakeholder processes towards sustainable landscape management in this and other complex landscapes.

About 80% of forests in Ethiopia are dry forest. For the last 20 years they have been subject to land use changes, and replaced by agricultural land and settlements. This situation may be due to the little recognition, at the national level, of the actual and potential contribution of dry forests to the national economy, especially as a source of income for the poor and for exportation. Despite this situation, the Government of Ethiopia has made sustainable forest management a priority, and it includes the management of dry forests. This Guidelines on Sustainable Forest Management in Drylands of Ethiopia provides information on the national context on dry forests, and practical guidelines adapted to the Ethiopian context. It fills important gaps that should help decision-makers to understand better the role and value of dry forests in the country. It shows that dry forests should be sustainably managed and protected for all the economic, social, and environmental services that they provide, and pleads for a better recognition of such an important ecosystem.

International audience; Pas de résumé spécifique au chapitre

International audience; Tree species is one of the main attributes of forest ecosystems, that modifies resources levels (light, nutrients, water) that affect understory vegetation composition and diversity. This is therefore no surprise that tree species diversity and sometimes abundance or composition are used as biodiversity indicators in various monitoring schemes – e.g. European-level and French level monitoring of sustainable forest management. In a previous study, we have found in some French lowland forests that tree species abundance – and especially late-successional or undergrowth tree abundance – was a better indicator of part of floristic biodiversity than tree species richness and diversity. We here continue this test by analyzing other data from mountain French forests, with a special emphasis on the magnitude of the relationship and its variation in geographical and ecological space. We developed Bayesian statistical models to test these indicators for the richness of ecological groups of understory vegetation species, classified according to their successional status and/or their shade tolerance. These results highlight that if we want to relate pressures to states of biodiversity in an inferential and quantitative perspective it is important to include a potential variation of the relationship with the ecological context. We in particular stress the importance of aspect as a key variable of contextualization of the relation between dendrometric indicators and floristic biodiversity.

Diplôme : Dr. d'Université; This study analyses the international timber trade between Malaysia and Europe with respect to the importance of environmental issues on trade and the role of Malaysia as a major timber exporter to Europe. It also evaluates the comparative advantage of Malaysian wood products and the willingness of French consumers (to represent European communities) to pay for sustainable forest management. The first part gives an overview the clashes of perception between developed and developing countries on the environmental concerns over trade. It was observed that environmental standards may act as non-tariff barriers to exporting countries. In addition, the stringent requirements posed by importing countries on technical, marking and labelling to some extent provide unnecessary barriers to trade. The second part deals with the role of Malaysia as a key player in the tropical timber trade. This part evaluates the main export market for Malaysian wood products to the world. For the purpose of this thesis, the analysis focuses on the European market. From the observations, it was found that the export of wooden furniture surpassed major timber exports in 2004. However, to penetrate the European market, Malaysia has to compete with the Chinese with their lower cost tropical wood products, and Brazil with their advantage in certification and labelling of tropical wood products. In tandem with that, the commitment towards sustainable forest management at national level causes shortage of raw materials in Malaysia. To a certain extent, the internal and external factors create necessary challenges to enter the European market. In the third part, the Balassa approach was used to classify the comparative advantage of Malaysia’s twenty one types of wood products in Europe. It was estimated that Malaysia had high comparative advantage only in five products which were mechanized and intermediary industrial products. The products identified were sawn wood, wooden mouldings, plywood, veneer and builders’ joinery and carpentry. The remaining products had lower comparative advantage and disadvantage to export to the European market based on the Balassa index. In the last part, the estimation on the willingness to pay for sustainable forest management attributes was conducted. Besides that, additional attributes such as fair trade and wood origin were included. A questionnaire was set up using all the attributes reflected in the hypothetical wood flooring product in the market. Based on the result, consumers were willing to pay the highest for the presence of fair trade and wood origin (in this study referring to French origin); nevertheless they were still willing to pay for sustainable aspects of forest. However, the willingness to pay for all the attributes was altered depending on the respondents’ knowledge of forest labelling, their attitudes towards environmental preservation, living area, education level, type of job and income level. In the overall finding of the thesis, all the results from each part were synthesized in a systemic approach simultaneously deliberating on the macro and microeconomic perspectives as well as the dimensions on demand and supply. Overall, the findings suggest that the challenges and constraints facing the Malaysian timber industry indirectly shaped the export of Malaysian wooden products. Malaysia has adapted by going into value-added products to lessen the impact of environment-related trade barriers and to circumvent the shortage of raw materials supply. Malaysia has successfully customized the wooden products to the sustainability and legality requirements of the European market by pursuing the national certification (Malaysian Timber Certification) and being committed to sustainable forest management objectives.; Ce travail étudie l’influence des questions environnementales sur le commerce international à partir des échanges de bois tropicaux Malaisie – Europe, la Malaisie étant un important exportateur de bois. Les avantages comparatifs des produits forestiers Malaisiens sont évalués, ainsi que la propension à payer le bois issu de gestion forestière durable par les consommateurs français (en tant qu’Européens). La première partie envisage les différences de perception entre pays développés et pays en développement pour le lien entre commerce et environnement. Il apparaît que les normes environnementales agissent comme des barrières non-tarifaires. Ces barrières sont accentuées par les critères de marquage, d’étiquetage, et de technologie imposés par les pays importateurs. La seconde partie analyse le rôle clé de la Malaisie dans le commerce des bois tropicaux. Les principaux marchés d’exportation des bois Malaisiens sont évalués. Le marché Européen est étudié plus en détail. Il apparaît que les ventes de meuble ont dépassé en 2004 celles des autres principaux produits forestiers. Sur le marché Européen la Malaisie fait face à la concurrence de produits tropicaux à bas prix venant de Chine, et à celle de produits forestiers éco-certifiés venant du Brésil. Concomitamment, l’engagement de la Malaisie dans une dynamique de gestion plus durable y crée une pénurie relative de matériau brut. La troisième partie calcule l’index de Balassa d’avantage comparatif, pour 21 produits forestiers Malaisiens sur le marché Européen. Seuls 5 produits industriels intermédiaires ou à transformation fortement mécanisée, ont un avantage comparatif marqué. Il s’agit des sciages, moulures, contreplaqués, placages, charpente et menuiserie industrielle. Les autres produits présentent des avantages comparatifs faibles ou même négatifs. La quatrième partie estime la propension à payer pour différents attributs environnementaux, ainsi que d’autres tels le commerce équitable et l’origine géographique. Un questionnaire reprenant ces attributs pour du parquet bois hypothétique a été utilisé. Il semble que les consommateurs soient prêts à rémunérer le plus les critères de commerce équitable et d’origine Française, la gestion durable étant recherchée dans une moindre mesure. La propension à payer les tous les attributs varie en fonction des notions et attitudes qu’ont les consommateurs sur l’éco-certification, l’environnement, ainsi qu’en fonction de leur lieu d’habitation, niveau d’éducation et de revenu, et type de profession. Enfin les résultats des 4 parties sont synthétisés en reliant les échelles micro et macroéconomiques, avec les dimensions de demande et d’approvisionnement. D’une façon générale, les résultats suggèrent que les opportunités et contraintes propres à la l’industrie du bois de Malaisie façonnent les exports de produits. La Malaisie s’adapte en se tournant vers des produits à plus haute valeur ajoutée et à moindre impact environnemental, pour pallier aux barrières commerciales et à la pénurie relative de matériau. La Malaisie s’est dotée d’une certification nationale (Malaysian Timber Certification) propre à remplir les critères de durabilité et de légalité de l’Europe, et s’est engagée la gestion durable des forêts.