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Social forestry (SF) has long been implemented in production and protected forests in Indonesia. SF is considered to be a win–win solution for occupied and cultivated forest areas. The aim of this paper was to review the implementation of social forestry in Indonesia and its strengths and challenges. The secondary purpose was to synthesize the lessons learned and recommendations for the government about designing SF that can integrate the objective of forest biodiversity conservation and the social welfare of the surrounding communities. The study used a systematic literature review (SLR) of international and national peer-reviewed articles. The results of the study indicate that SF is intended to achieve benefits in three main areas: social, economic, and ecological. However, the review found that the ecological aspects of biodiversity conservation often receive less attention compared to the social and economic goals. A strong point of SF implementation is increasing community access to forest land use, while a challenge that must be resolved is that including communities in forest management can result in fragmentation and changes to animal habitats; thus, there is the potential for population decline and extinction. This study advises policymakers to pay more attention to ecological functions to ensure forest sustainability in SF development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Universum is the property of Instituto de Estudios Humanisticos Juan Ignacio Molina, Universidad de Talca 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.)

Facing a dramatic depletion of forests in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, throughout the last decades of colonial rule (between the mid-eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries) the Bourbon administration wrote and published a considerable number of laws, reports, surveys, and ordinances on forest management and conservation. In this paper we examine discourses of forest conservation and the measures applied to preserve this critical resource by colonial official and experts. Drawing on forest laws, ordinances, and reports from national archives in Mexico City, we argue that conservation became part of the concepts which defined how forests were conceptualized and managed, but also that conservation was intrinsic to colonial processes of state-making and territorialization. This paper aims to approach Bourbon officials' understanding of conservation as a complex interrelation between renewed discourses of nature and the practices of colonial forest administration through the idea of indeterminacy. Likewise, it sheds light on patterns that have defined the ways in which forest conservation has been constituted in modern Mexico, addressing a little-studied period in forest management in this country. • Forest conservation was contentious questioning the universality of colonial laws. • Conservation became a site of experimentation to know, govern, and produce forests. • Conservation provides insights into the colonial state's territorial actualization. • Colonial forest laws played an important role in defining the context of depletion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the restoration of forest ecosystems highlighting the importance of ecological features. The focus is furthermore on a global perspective, with analyses taking in the main aspects of forest degradation and restoration from both theoretical and practical standpoints. Particular emphasis is placed on environmental policy as pursued currently, first and foremost in regard to the main instrument of ecosystem restoration that is constituted by the United Nations' Decade thereof, running from 2021-2030 (in accordance with UN Resolution A/Res/73/284). The article points to the linkage between policies seeking to counteract forest degradation on the one hand, and on the other to achieve the conservation of biodiversity, the protection of land, and both mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. Stress is further placed on an appropriate hierarchy of strategies seeking to improve the state of the world's forests. While conservation, restoration and reforestation are the three main directions to Sustainable Forest Management, it is the first of the three that must always be emphasised first and foremost. The study work at the heart of this article highlights a need for worldwide acceleration of the processes restoring forest ecosystems. Following the logic of interrelations between degradation and restoration, the problem of ecosystem degradation is first turned to, with an analysis of global deforestation also incorporated. Trends as regards the loss of forest and of tree cover in general over in the last 30 years are presented, with the basis for this examination being data from the FAO's Forest Resource Assessment and Global Forest Watch. Furthermore, forest degradation and deforestation have been proceeding to an advanced degree in recent decades. In this way major losses have afflicted tropical forests and the so-called Intact Forest Landscapes. Importantly, many international commitments have now been taken on, with ambitious targets set in regard to the need for both deterioration of forest and the loss of tree cover to be stemmed. However, as the New York Declaration on Forests and other instruments make clear, most of the targets set for 2020 were not actually achieved. In its consideration of the theoretical foundations of forest-ecosystem restoration, this paper reflects upon resilience, the recovery of native ecosystems, and the process of natural regeneration. The main contemporary paradigms to the theory and practice of forest-ecosystem restoration are here demonstrated, with the basis of the enquiry being formulae for the restoration of ecosystems elaborated by the Society of Ecological Restoration. Quite a large part of the study has been devoted to the Forest Landscape Restoration approach, with a presentation of the main FLR options as elaborated by the FLR Global Partnership. Two dominant types of FLR ('wide-scale' and 'mosaic restoration') are here integrated, while examples of challenging actions in the field of forest-ecosystem restoration have been provided, including AFR100, The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel, the 20 x 20 Initiative, and the Trillion Trees Campaign. Taking into account the importance of the latest EU activity in the field of nature protection, remarks are made in regard to the 2022 Nature Restoration Law. The discussion brings to light certain aspects of criticism vis-à-vis the pursuit of forest restoration, which are to be found in the subject literature. This signals a problem of the conservation of forests being overshadowed by careless application of activities driven by climate-change policies. As numerous scientists demonstrate (see e.g. the Kew Declaration on reforestation..., 2021), this practice frequently leads to the mass-planting of fast-growing trees of exotic species, sometimes even invasive. In this way a threat may actually be posed to the ecological richness and valuable landscape features the given area possesses. Indeed, the present study underlines repeatedly the significance of natural and native ecosystems. However it also puts emphasis on the multi-purpose nature of the effort, the need for a holistic approach to be taken, and the importance of context as projects seeking the restoration of forest ecosystems are planned and implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the partial detachment and transferring of the painted layer of the private icon “Saint Mark” on a wooden panel to alternative support. Due to severe environmental conditions (relative humidity, temperature), poor storage and intense insects attack, the wooden panel becomes powdery and fills with holes and insect tunnels. Hence, it disables to do the major function as a support, carried and protected painted layer. The partial detachment and fixing painted layer on a new alternative support considered the important parts of the conservation process to this painted icon. Some investigation techniques used to provide a deeper understanding of the original wooden panel used, and deterioration phenomena on it include imaging [Visible (VIS), Ultraviolet-induced luminescence (UVL) and X-Ray radiography] and Optical Microscopy (OM). After that the authors made an experimental study, between suggested alternative support '15HL21 Piral HD Hydrotec Panel' and the same type of the original wooden panel of painted Icon 'Willow wood'. The alternative support, compared with the original wooden panel, proved successful toward artificial aging (i.e., heat, relative humidity, acids and alkalies). Plextol B500 was effective in fixing the painted layer to alternative support as an adhesive more than Beva 371 and Polyurethane isocyanate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Forestry Review is the property of Commonwealth Forestry Association 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.)

This paper summarises information on the occurrence of the Common Wombat in the Pilliga Forest, based on 12 years of observations and collation of records from additional sources. The core of the species' distribution in the Pilliga Forest appears to coincide with the most topographically rugged areas, which contain forested hillslopes providing suitable burrow sites and a slightly more mesic microclimate than the broader Pilliga Forest. Outlying records are located where higher quality soils occur in proximity to topographically rugged areas. The paper also notes the regional conservation significance of this edge-of-range population and highlights the local climate refuge value of the south-eastern Pilliga Forest for wombats and other mesic-dependent fauna in the Pilliga Forest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines self-enforcing contracts as a financial mechanism for reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation when the opportunity cost of the land (i.e., landholder type) is private information and is imperfectly correlated over time (i.e., partially persistent types). Because self-enforcement limits the feasible incentives, the conservation levels are constrained by the surplus created. Regardless of the degree of persistence of such opportunity costs across contracting periods, a first-best self-enforcing contract can deliver 'additional' carbon sequestration beyond the business as usual scenario only if the value of forest conservation is sufficiently high. Otherwise, self-enforcing contracts can induce some, suboptimal level of carbon sequestration. The degree of persistence of opportunity costs across periods does not affect the amount of total payments provided in the optimal menu of contracts, but greater persistence of opportunity cost types leads to contracts that feature more of the total payment as a bonus in contracts for landholders with a high opportunity cost for their land and more of the total payment as an upfront fixed payment for landholders with a low opportunity cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This co-authored paper offers Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal perspectives on the emergence of urban/nature/child pedagogies in a project to reclaim remnant woodlands. Set in the context of indigenous issues explored in a special edition of the journal on land based education, the paper engages critically with a claim by a group of ecologists, that as urbanisation increases globally indigenous languages and knowledges are being lost in parallel with the loss of species.1 The paper analyses children's multimodal images and texts in the book, Because Eco-systems Matter, produced as an outcome of the project. In identifying possibilities for alternative storylines to those of loss and moral failure, the paper concludes that pedagogies incorporating contemporary hybrid Aboriginal forms of language and representation offer all children the possibility of re-imagining a traditional past into a contemporary present/future. In this present/future their learning and actions have the potential to name and change their worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bio-grafía. Escritos Sobre la Biología y su Enseñanza is the property of Universidad Pedaggica Nacional 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.)

This paper examines philosophical debates about concepts of biodiversity, making the case for conceptual pluralism. Taking a pragmatist perspective, I argue that normative concepts of biodiversity and eco-centric concepts of biodiversity can serve different purposes. The former would help stress the values of local communities, which have often been neglected by both early scientific approaches to conservation, and by policy makers prioritizing the political or economic interests of specific groups. The latter would help build local research programs independent of pressures from economic or political actors. I employ a case study on environmental research on walnut forests in Kyrgyzstan in support of my argument. Against tendencies to frame different understandings of biodiversity in terms of geographical areas, I propose an interpretation drawing on the philosophy of ecology. Adherence to environmental pragmatism enables a sufficiently complex picture of developing environmental research in the area, capturing issues about scientific framings and local understandings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virungas National Park, Rwanda, is a pristine wild environment abutting some of the most fertile agricultural land in Africa. Climate and altitude provide ideal conditions for many valuable crops there. In this paper, Human Wildlife Conflict (HWC) is highlighted in an excerpt from a fieldwork diary. Various elements that contribute to a wider understanding of challenges faced by various groups, including wildlife are explored through the perspective of global economic and political forces. The paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach from a perspective firmly grounded in conservation biology. It addresses a need for dialogue across fields and disciplines in order to contribute to more robust and effective strategies for both rain forest conservation and the well-being of precarious agricultural, hunter-gatherer and wildlife communities. Human agency in the face of monolithic business models, of 'primitive' versus 'modern' binaries, and the sustainability of conservation models that exclude such perspectives are outlined and explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor communities living in rural areas have complicated and essential relationships to the environment in which they live. Such communities often live in degraded ecosystems where natural disasters and climate change incur systematic and largescale damage to communities. Income earning potential most often comes from agriculture and from ecosystem services, which are gathered or farmed products such as timber, clean water, plant material, and wildlife that are farmed and sold. Driven by survival needs or poor government management, these activities are often practiced using unsustainable methods that cause further harm to degraded landscapes. To combat this phenomenon, and to tackle the exceptionally large goals of improving economic livelihood for rural poor communities while conserving diverse ecosystems, several largescale policy programs have been implemented in multiple developing nations around the world. Most of these programs including components of payment for ecosystem service models (PES), which compensate communities in various ways for harvesting and selling forest products such as timber, water, and wildlife. This paper reviews four such programs: RFFP in China, a wetlands payment for ecosystem services structure in Rwanda, CAMPFIRE in Zimbabwe, and REDD+ in Mexico. It identifies pros and cons of each and begins to make broad recommendations about efficacy of such programs. Recommendations center around ensuring effective land use policy, utilizing communitybased program management, promoting land ownership at a community level, and a balancing of forest conservation and economic activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individual tree detection (ITD) and crown delineation are two of the most relevant methods for extracting detailed and reliable forest information from LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) datasets. However, advanced computational skills and specialized knowledge have been normally required to extract forest information from LiDAR.The development of accessible tools for 3D forest characterization can facilitate rapid assessment by stakeholders lacking a remote sensing background, thus fostering the practical use of LiDAR datasets in forest ecology and conservation. This paper introduces the treetop application, an open‐source web‐based and R package LiDAR analysis tool for extracting forest structural information at the tree level, including cutting‐edge analyses of properties related to forest ecology and management.We provide case studies of how treetop can be used for different ecological applications, within various forest ecosystems. Specifically, treetop was employed to assess post‐hurricane disturbance in natural temperate forests, forest homogeneity in industrial forest plantations and the spatial distribution of individual trees in a tropical forest.treetop simplifies the extraction of relevant forest information for forest ecologists and conservationists who may use the tool to easily visualize tree positions and sizes, conduct complex analyses and download results including individual tree lists and figures summarizing forest structural properties. Through this open‐source approach, treetop can foster the practical use of LiDAR data among forest conservation and management stakeholders and help ecological researchers to further understand the relationships between forest structure and function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropical rainforest in Peninsular Malaysia is home to a highly diverse flora and fauna. The biodiversity and sustainability of the forest are highly potential to mitigate climate change and its adverse consequences. Although Malaysia is committed to preserve the forest in recognition of the important services, the threat against the forest of degradation and even deforestation for demand of other prevailing interests remain. Bio banking scheme has been one of market-oriented mechanisms which have been suggested to fund towards ensuring the sustainability of the biodiversity in Malaysia. By examining the experience of biobank for forest or environmental conservation, this paper considers issues and challenges in the creation of such biobank in Peninsular Malaysia as proposed in a study. For this, it considers two existing schemes of biobanking, one is implemented in the New South Wales, Australia, and the other is in Sabah, Malaysia, the Malua Biobank. The main features of these two schemes are examined and the issues faced are considered in the context of the Peninsular Malaysia. Creation of such biobank is significant to promote for further efforts in finding alternatives in forest conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Heart of Borneo initiative in Brunei Darussalam led to a Faunal Biodiversity Survey in the Sungei Ingei Conservation Forest and a variety of other localities in the country from 2009-2016. This paper highlights the differences between the two Muntiacus species based on camera trap images and establishes that their distribution is allopatric. Our data from camera traps deployed in different habitats have shown conclusively that Muntiacus atherodes ranged from secondary forests, lowland forests that include mixed dipterocarp forests, kerangas forests, riverine forests, mineral licks and low hills while Muntiacus muntjac was only recorded in the Ulu Temburong National Park and hills in other parts of Temburong and higher hills in Tutong without any instance of both species co-occurring in the same habitat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The latest reports from the European Commission warn of the need to improve the conservation status of its forest habitats. Native populations of priority habitat 9570 (Tetraclinis articulata forests) in continental Europe are located in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula. The LIFE-TETRACLINIS-EUROPE project aimed to improve habitat conservation conditions. As part of the results of this project, a habitat quality index was proposed with the intention of evaluating both its conservation conditions and its evolution after the implemented action measures. The variables used in this index were selected with the aim of achieving high representativeness of the quality of the habitat while at the same time being easily integrated into monitoring programs. In this paper, we intend to verify the suitability of the variables chosen for this index, its sensitivity to discriminate different conservation levels, and its possible inclusion in forest management programs through a cost-effectiveness analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans and elephants have shared social, historical and ecological relations for ages. However, their interactions have not been as pleasant as one would like that to be. Although the problems associated with human‐elephant conflict (HEC) are widely known, the increasing rate and extent of conflicts suggest that improved strategies are required to promote their co‐existence. Several measures such as compensation for loss of lives and livelihood, deployment of deterrents, erection of fences to restrict the movements, promotion of conservation education to reduce antagonism, preservation of forests and habitation, etc. have been adopted extensively to mitigate human‐elephant conflict and foster coexistence. Despite persistent efforts, the problem refuses to wither away. Stakeholders' perceptions and attitudes also vary widely across the categories. Many studies show that the impacts of human‐elephant conflict penetrate far deeper than the immediate threats from each other. This paper attempts to understand the plurality of stakeholders' connect with elephants, their perceptions, effectiveness of existing mitigation strategies and future of their coexistence, drawing from empirical data. On the basis of inputs from key informants, focus group discussions among community members and Forest Department officials and field observations from one of the migratory elephant corridors of India, we locate mixed perspectives from various stakeholders and their experiences and responses to human‐elephant conflict which, as we envisage, will go a long way in designing participatory and community‐based mitigation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the 'input–output analysis' technique to investigate why the Joint Forest Management program in India has expanded while the uptake of the Community-based Forest Management program in the Philippines has been relatively slow. The forward linkage of the forestry sector with downstream industries in the Philippines was found to be weak when compared with India. In contrast, the wood and wood-products industry in the Philippines has strong forward linkage in contrast to that of India. These findings indicate that further research into the supply chain of forest products in the Philippines is needed. Such research may then inform policy to bridge the gap between industrial demand for timber and national forestry production. The paper suggests that while rights-based institutional reforms are essential for promoting community forestry, the long-term success of community forestry may depend on the performance of the forestry sector within the context of the whole economy. An additional finding is that input–output analysis may provide important insights concerning the economic context for the uptake and long-term sustainability of community forestry programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Resources & Ecology is the property of Journal of Resources & Ecology 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.)

Reconciling conservation with rural development often constitutes a socio-environmental dilemma, in which ecotourism plays the part of either the panacea or the ‘poverty trap’ for local populations. Features of the local context, such as social heterogeneity, opportunities for education and jobs, and images of rural and urban life, provide a more nuanced understanding of this polarised debate. In this analysis of a youth ecotourism project, we consider that youth face distinct daily struggles and have aspirations in life that differ from those of the older generation. Therefore, the opportunities/constraints in and around protected areas influence and affect them in particular ways. In this paper, we address the gap in the literature on the position of young people living in peri-urban areas nearby conservation units, as we believe that these factors may shed some lights on the importance of intangible outcomes of sustainable development/conservation projects. Based on data from the peri-urban ‘forest town’ Curuçá on the Amazonian Atlantic coast of Brazil, we discuss how young people, involved in an ecotourism project in the Marine Extractive Reserve Mãe Grande de Curuçá, perceive their roles when it comes to conservation and development, education, jobs and their aspirations for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article covers the results of the study of a historical wooden holiday architectural ensemble called Świdermajer, located on the outskirts of Warsaw in Poland. The fashion for traveling and resting within natural surroundings emerged in the 19th century, contributing to the popularization of a new model of spending free time. It had an impact on the development of a new type of architecture, including the "Swiss style", today representing an extremely picturesque European architectural heritage integrated into the landscape. The area of Otwock is one of a very few of such places in Poland, where the entire complexes of suburban wooden holiday buildings from the late 19th and early 20th century have survived. This paper aims to show an overview of a development of the local wooden building trend on the "Otwock Line" within its historical and social background. The main goal of the study focuses on identifying the characteristic features of the architectural wooden local style. As a final outcome of the study, the article presents the method applied for the recording and assessment of historic wooden summer villas. The conducted study confirmed the distinctiveness of the phenomenon represented by cultural values and, at the same time, its strong links with the Alpine style of architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest conservation is crucial for the maintenance of a healthy and thriving ecosystem. The field of remote sensing (RS) has been integral with the wide adoption of computer vision and sensor technologies for forest land observation. One critical area of interest is the detection of active forest fires. A forest fire, which occurs naturally or manually induced, can quickly sweep through vast amounts of land, leaving behind unfathomable damage and loss of lives. Automatic detection of active forest fires (and burning biomass) is hence an important area to pursue to avoid unwanted catastrophes. Early fire detection can also be useful for decision makers to plan mitigation strategies as well as extinguishing efforts. In this paper, we present a deep learning framework called Fire-Net, that is trained on Landsat-8 imagery for the detection of active fires and burning biomass. Specifically, we fuse the optical (Red, Green, and Blue) and thermal modalities from the images for a more effective representation. In addition, our network leverages the residual convolution and separable convolution blocks, enabling deeper features from coarse datasets to be extracted. Experimental results show an overall accuracy of 97.35%, while also being able to robustly detect small active fires. The imagery for this study is taken from Australian and North American forests regions, the Amazon rainforest, Central Africa and Chernobyl (Ukraine), where forest fires are actively reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has direct and indirect impacts on forest ecosystems worldwide. In this context, changing site conditions and altered disturbance regimes as well as forest management responses are challenging the conservation of biodiversity in forests. Climate-induced dynamics and uncertainties related to future forest ecosystem development are calling into question current conservation strategies and concepts. Given the longevity of trees, slow development rates of forest ecosystems and slow migration rates of many forest species, the planning of adaptation measures in response to climate change are especially difficult though highly important for forest biodiversity conservation. This paper introduces a special issue with eight contributions which deal with a variety of aspects of forest biodiversity conservation in the face of climate change. More specifically, the papers address direct impacts of climate change on forest biodiversity, adaptation measures for forest and conservation management, as well as resulting challenges for conservation strategies and concepts. In conclusion, adaptation measures that enhance diversity and provide different options for future action, thereby maintaining ecosystems' resilience, as well as conservation management operating on a landscape level, are promoted as being beneficial for coping with uncertainties related to climate change. Adaptive management, which constantly reviews conservation goals and measures, and which takes into account both science-based and local ecological knowledge on climate change can be a valuable tool to inform decisions for forest biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resistance surfaces are often used to fill gaps in our knowledge surrounding animal movement and are frequently the basis for modeling connectivity associated with conservation initiatives. However, the methods for quantifying resistance surfaces are varied and there is no general consensus on the appropriate choice of environmental data or analytical approaches. We provide a comprehensive review of the literature on this topic to highlight methods used and identify knowledge gaps. Our review includes 96 papers that parameterized resistance surfaces (sometimes using multiple approaches) for a variety of taxa. Data types used included expert opinion ( n = 76), detection ( n = 23), relocation ( n = 8), pathway ( n = 2), and genetic ( n = 28). We organized the papers into three main analytical approaches; one-stage expert opinion, one-stage empirical, and two-stage empirical, each of which was represented by 43, 22, and 36 papers, respectively. We further organized the empirical approaches into five main resource selection functions; point ( n = 16), matrix ( n = 38), home range ( n = 3), step ( n = 1), and pathway ( n = 1). We found a general lack of justification for choice of environmental variables and their thematic and spatial representation, a heavy reliance on expert opinion and detection data, and a tendency to confound movement behavior and resource use. Future research needs include comparative analyses on the choice of environmental variables and their spatial and thematic scales, and on the various biological data types used to estimate resistance. Comparative analyses amongst analytical processes is also needed, as well as transparency in reporting on uncertainty in parameter estimates and sensitivity of final resistance surfaces, especially if the resistance surfaces are to be used for conservation and planning purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A primary prerequisite for the preservation of global diversity is often assumed to be a high level of naturalness. This paper reports a synthesis of naturalness definitions, distinctions between the concepts of naturalness and of hemeroby and an analysis of different naturalness assessment approaches. Naturalness may be commonly defined as ‘the similarity of a current ecosystem state to its natural state’. Hemeroby, a concept related to human impacts, is often associated with naturalness but, in principle, the two concepts are not inversely related. The hemeroby concept defines narrow assessment classes for greater hemeroby, whereas the naturalness concept defines narrow assessment classes for great naturalness. The rapidly increasing number of forest naturalness papers relies on the following main indicators in decreasing order of use: tree species, forest structure, fauna, ground vegetation and deadwood. A review of the literature on forest naturalness suggests four main reasons for the lack of a widely accepted approach for assessing naturalness: (1) the lack of a commonly accepted reference concept, (2) an incomplete list of essential naturalness traits, (3) unknown linkages between some naturalness traits and biodiversity and (4) the lack of an assessment approach that can be adapted for use at both regional and large scales. Following review of the literature on forest naturalness, a seven-level framework is presented to guide development of naturalness assessment approaches as a component of forest biodiversity monitoring and conservation management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The basic component of any society's knowledge system is undoubtedly its indigenous knowledge. This consists of skills, experiences and insights which the people apply to maintain and improve their lives. Indigenous patterns of behaviour are well known for not only being relevant for preserving local forest resources but also for enriching livelihood systems. Adopting participatory rural appraisal research methods consisting of transects, trend analyses, seasonal calendars, institutional analyses and direct observations, this paper discusses how increased privatisation of forestlands and resources within forest-dependent communities of Cross River, Nigeria is evolving into well-developed alienating structures of neoliberal markets, thereby incapacitating local populations in adapting to environmental changes and resulting stressors of extreme events. This issue is also complicated by their cultural ability to tackle challenges of external adaptation and internal integration that confront them. Hence, actions and policies of forest conservation within forest-dependent communities of Cross River need to be more directed at promoting indigenous knowledge systems that brace common meaning for forests. Indigenous educational systems should also be strengthened in ways that help community people begin to think historically about alternative outcomes, and how they are agents and victims of history and their forestlands and resources are no longer for the public good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Forestry Review is the property of Commonwealth Forestry Association 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.)

Copyright of Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente is the property of Universidade Federal do Parana 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.)

Markets for ecosystem services are gaining the interest of both entrepreneurs and environmentalists as a way to further environmental protection and conservation goals while turning a profit for investors and land managers. The Panama Canal Watershed is currently struggling with the effects of land use change on its water quality and quantity. This paper examines two types of land management in the Panama Canal Watershed (large-scale reforestation with native species and smallholders' agroforestry projects) to analyze the supply side of a possible market for watershed services. Forest cover provides the following watershed services: (1) regulates water flow by controlling flooding and peak flows, and possibly increasing dry season flows; and (2) improves water quality by increasing dissolved oxygen levels and reducing erosion, sedimentation, pathogens, eutrophication, and chemical contaminant loading. Based on the research presented in this paper, large-scale reforestation may not be desirable in the Panama Canal Watershed unless decreased water yield is an acceptable outcome or improved dry season flows can he shown. Consequently, this paper concludes that efforts to develop markets for watershed services in the Panama Canal Watershed should focus on smallholders and water quality improvement, at least until scientists agree that increasing forest cover increases dry season water yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Southern Chile experienced serious deforestation during the past century and it is projected that by the year 2025 Chile will be devoid of native forests. One of the most important endemic tree species of the country and at the same time one of the most endangered ones is Araucaria araucana (Mol.) C. Koch, the monkey-puzzle tree. It grows in the Andes Mountains, homeland of the indigenous Mapuche Pewenche people who depend on this tree. This paper is based on participatory field research with a Mapuche Pewenche community in the southern Chilean Andes on their ecological knowledge, values, use and management of the Araucaria araucana forest. It attempts to reveal how indigenous people and their knowledge contribute to the sustainable management of these forests. The paper (1) illustrates the complexity of indigenous ecological knowledge of Araucaria araucana and its efficacy in native forest management, (2) explores the link between the conservation and use of biodiversity by the indigenous people, and (3) provides answers relevant to native forest management and conservation strategies ex-situ and in-situ incorporating indigenous and scientific knowledge, thus providing a contribution towards integrated natural resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically examines the local community benefits associated with intensively managed industrial roundwood plantations (IMPIRs). It is based on a review of existing literature. I focus on three issues: natural resource access and control, job creation, and the effects of creating forest reserves as a corollary of establishing industrial roundwood plantations. The cases reviewed here indicate that IMPIRs often bring about land ownership concentration, loss of customary rights of resource access, rural displacement, and socioeconomic decline in neighboring communities. Beneficiaries include large rural landowners who sell or lease their land to forestry companies, and people who are able to find jobs in the forestry sector. IMPIRs do not appear to provide enough quality .jobs to stimulate community development, and rarely benefit people who are already politically and economically marginalized. The paper concludes by suggesting ways in which plantation forestry can become more integrated with surrounding communities to increase local benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the impacts on timber and forest products markets of increasing forest conservation in Norway. A partial equilibrium forest sector model is applied to analyse effects on roundwood and forest products prices, quantities and trade of four alternative conservation extents. These alternatives are based on a recent biological analysis of the conservation needs in order to protect biodiversity in Norway. Roundwood prices are projected to increase moderately when conservation increases domestically only, since the Norwegian forest industry substitutes imported fibre for domestic. The impacts on roundwood prices are more substantial if also Norway’s forest products trading partners increase the forest conservation. If forest owners voluntarily conserve forests subject to an economic compensation (which currently is the most likely policy in Norway), the model results imply that forest owners on average are better off with increased conservation. Domestic sawnwood production is projected to reduce when assuming increasing forest conservation, while the production level in the pulp and paper industry is almost unaffected in the short-run. Finally, increasing demand for forest products as a result of “environmental good-will” may increase roundwood prices and harvest levels in unaffected forest areas significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the post-fire regeneration of Pinus halepensis Mill. ecosystems in the Sithonia peninsula in northern Greece. The pre-burning stands consisted of two storeys; the overstorey of the dominant tree species P. halepensis and the understorey of evergreen sclerophyllous shrubs. The wildfire took place in June 1994. Three months after the fire two experimental plots of 0.75 ha each were established on a northeastern and a southwestern facing slope. In each experimental plot different restoration treatments were applied by using P. halepensis reproductive material. The treatments were the following: (i) planting of paper- pot seedlings, (ii) planting of bare-root seedlings, (iii) seeding in patches, (iv) seeding in strips, (v) seeding in strips and lines. The results of these treatments were compared to the control (no treatment applied). The results showed that all applied restoration works accelerated the rate of regeneration, while the best results were obtained by the method of planting paper-pot seedlings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High Conservation Value Forests or botanical parks are critical forested areas that need to be appropriately managed and protected against fire, as they contain large concentrations of biodiversity-which includes endangered or threatened species–which are very sensitive to fire outbreaks. Thus, early detection and rapid responses are so important in combating and containing fire in these areas. As such, a lot of innovative methods are used for the containment and combating of fire. This paper proposes a stand-alone program called FireLocator created by LabVIEW that can detect in real-time the geolocation and behavior of fires by superposition of detection areas through state-of-the-art multispectral infrared detectors using wireless transmitters and mathematical modeling algorithms at a very early stage with maximum spatial resolution. In this context, four alternative models for the optimum positions of detectors in pilot control area are analyzed with Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. Experimental results demonstrated that preferred alternative model for FireLocator program has the highest percentage with 38.22% based on the AHP algorithm that validates the model used in this study. Moreover, FireLocator outperformed other fire monitoring systems and provided high spatial resolution (up to 3 m) which assisted in determining fire behavior and the geolocation of the fire in a minimum pilot area of ~ 3598.9 square meters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although deforestation rates are declining, protected forest areas remain under threat. While the importance of spatialized ('mapped') community knowledge for conservation planning is acknowledged in scientific literature, the integration of such knowledge in forest governance and conservation planning remains scarce, particularly in Ghana. This paper aims to make clear how participatory spatial knowledge tools and geographic information systems can be used to assess the threats to forest conservation in Ghana's high forest zone. The results show that holders of spatial community-embedded knowledge not only sketch-mapped the location and spatial distribution of the threats to forest conservation in the forest reserves, but also provided information on the actors they perceived to be causing such threats. Such information is not available in forest inventories conducted by the responsible government agencies, but is needed to focus conservation strategies and make them more effective. Maps with the anticipated condition of the forest in 10 years' time furthermore provided insights which can help governance actors to deal with the underlying drivers of forest degradation. This suggests that local spatialized knowledge needs to be integrated into the institutional arrangements for the governance of forested landscapes, and that such governance cannot be effective without the inclusion of local people's knowledge. Due consideration is however to be given to the conditions that ensure that spatialized knowledge production and its use in landscape management decision-making occurs in an inclusive manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Circular economy is presented as an approach to economic growth that is in line with sustainable development. However, the recent literature has highlighted the limits of the concept in terms of environmental sustainability. The study examines the relationship between circular economy and conservation of ecosystems, using a case study on the implications of a circular economy for Slovak forests and forest sector. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopts a qualitative methodology through a focused review of the relevant literature on circular economy and sustainable development and primary data gathered through semi-structured interviews with 15 experts and practitioners in the forest sector, forest conservation and circular economy context, both from within as well as outside of Slovakia. Findings: The study finds that the forestry sector has an important role to play in a shift to a circular economy in Slovakia, with significant opportunities for improved efficiency as well as substitution of wood for non-renewable resources. There is also growing potential for ecosystem stewardship and restoration. However, the increased application of biomass could crowd out other needs, including for biodiversity. Safeguarding these services depends ultimately on good governance. Originality/value: The study highlights that circular economy taken in a narrow focus on resource efficiency is insufficient to ensure environmental sustainability but rather needs to be set within the broader environmental and social context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: A nature reserve set up in a disaster-stricken area can have various functions, e.g. as a place where biodiversity is favored and sometimes as a memory of a traumatic event. This study presents four different record-breaking disasters during 1992–2014 in Sweden, where the idea of setting up reserves has been advanced in the aftermath, but with slightly different results in relation to attitudes about nature conservation and modes of remembering. The phenomenon is primarily discussed against theory formation around disaster memorials and window of opportunity for change. Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses a comparative case study approach. The cases are described through narratives on the basis of "grey" literature, i.e. documents from Swedish authorities in the form of evaluations, summaries from experience seminars, political decisions on the establishment of nature conservation or information material addressed to the public, and also media reporting. Findings: The nature reserves will be reminiscent of the disasters since the natural regrowth will take decades but may also be accompanied by exhibitions in visitor centers, arts and plays, monuments and bureaucratic documents, all of which contribute to the memory. In all but one case, such artifacts are secondary in relation to the explicit goal of forest conservation. The local population's attitude to the reserve formation plays a big role for the plans to be implemented. Originality/value: Foundation of nature reserves in the immediate aftermath of a disaster may have different functions for actors, affected people and interested public; some are exemplified and discussed here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptive capacity, one of the three determinants of vulnerability to climate change, is defined as the capacity of species to persist in their current location by coping with novel environmental conditions through acclimation and/or evolution. Although studies have identified indicators of adaptive capacity, few have assessed this capacity in a quantitative way that is comparable across tree species. Yet, such multispecies assessments are needed by forest management and conservation programs to refine vulnerability assessments and to guide the choice of adaptation measures. In this paper, we propose a framework to quantitatively evaluate five key components of tree adaptive capacity to climate change: individual adaptation through phenotypic plasticity, population phenotypic diversity as influenced by genetic diversity, genetic exchange within populations, genetic exchange between populations, and genetic exchange between species. For each component, we define the main mechanisms that underlie adaptive capacity and present associated metrics that can be used as indices. To illustrate the use of this framework, we evaluate the relative adaptive capacity of 26 northeastern North American tree species using values reported in the literature. Our results show adaptive capacity to be highly variable among species and between components of adaptive capacity, such that no one species ranks consistently across all components. On average, the conifer Picea glauca and the broadleaves Acer rubrum and A. saccharinum show the greatest adaptive capacity among the 26 species we documented, whereas the conifers Picea rubens and Thuja occidentalis, and the broadleaf Ostrya virginiana possess the lowest. We discuss limitations that arise when comparing adaptive capacity among species, including poor data availability and comparability issues in metrics derived from different methods or studies. The breadth of data required for such an assessment exemplifies the multidisciplinary nature of adaptive capacity and the necessity of continued cross‐collaboration to better anticipate the impacts of a changing climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Russian forest resources are important for global carbon cycling. In contrast to traditional analyses that focus on the harvest and direct use of Russian timber resources (a.k.a. production-based accounting), this study investigates how the consumption of nations drives Russian timber harvest (a.k.a. consumption-based accounting or the Russian timber footprint). China is the biggest direct importer and final consumer of Russian timber. The United States, Japan, and major European countries directly import relatively small amounts of Russian timber, but serve to drive large amounts of Russian timber harvest through their final consumption. Through structural path analysis, individual supply chain paths are delineated to show linkages between Russian timber harvest and the final consumption of nations. Findings of this study inform consumption-side measures for Russian forest conservation, for example, taking shared responsibility and improving the production efficiency of key sectors in consuming nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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