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Mixed-species systems are well-suited to smallholder and community forestry, but reliable evidence regarding and procedures to assess species performance in such systems is scarce. This field trial uses a pair of clinal plots with varying spacing and species composition to gain insights into competition between four species proposed for landscape rehabilitation in the Philippines. We examine the efficiency of this compact clinal trial in revealing growth traits of four species (Paraserianthes falcataria, Pterocarpus indicus, Shorea palosapis, Swietenia macrophylla) in mixed plantings. The use of a size-distance competition index allowed an assessment of the competitive and collaborative influences between four tree species. Within the expected general trend for diameter increment to decline with increasing competition, there were indications that Shorea palosapis is a benign competitor that may stimulate the growth of neighbouring individuals. Paraserianthes falcataria is a strong competitor that is also strongly impacted by competition, especially through antagonistic intraspecific competition. Paraserianthes falcataria appears well suited as a solitary tree in a field or village, whereas Shorea palosapis seems ideal for plantations, in both monoculture and mixed plantings. The clinal spacing and mixture trial, when examined using a size-distance competition index based on diameter increment, revealed useful insights into species performance. Pterocarpus indicus exhibits strong intraspecific, but low inter-specific competition, so appears well-suited for polyculture plantings. Of the four species trialled, Swietenia macrophylla appears to be best-suited as a monoculture species as it exhibits the lowest intraspecific competition.

The Philippine Government launched in 2011 the National Greening Program (NGP), a massive forest restoration program that aimed to plant 1.5 billion trees in 1.5 million ha by 2016 to regain ecological integrity of denuded forest landscapes and improve the socioeconomic status of the participating farmers. While the main environmental and economic benefits of the NGP can be realized in the long run the program could potentially provide short-term socioeconomic benefits through capacity-building initiatives and payment for labour in implementing the restoration activities. This study compared the socioeconomic status (SES) of members of the Community-based Forestry Project Beneficiaries Association (CFPBA) in Caibiran, Biliran Province who implemented the NGP with community members who were not involved in the program. The Mann–Whitney U test showed that the two groups had the same SES scores in the 2014 baseline survey and the 2016 endline survey. This means that participation in the NGP did not result in significant difference between the socio-economic status of CFPBA-member households and non-member households from 2014 to 2016. However, the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test showed a significant increase in CFPBA-member households’ 2016 SES over 2014. Nonetheless, CFPBA-member respondents’ testimonies indicated that they did not feel the improvement. In spite of this, they acknowledged some benefits from their participation that included improvement of their occupational knowledge and skills through trainings and advisory services. They unanimously suggested the presence of a sustainable livelihood component, participation in planning and strong extension service to strengthen NGP implementation. The study demonstrates the advantage of using mixed-methods research strategy, the need to conduct process evaluation at the formative stages of the program and the efficacy an impact evaluation that combines before-and-after and with-without comparisons.

Shifting cultivation is a widespread land‐use in the tropics that is considered a major threat to rainforest diversity and structure. In the Philippines, a country with rich biodiversity and high rates of species endemism, shifting cultivation, locally termed as kaingin, is a major land‐use and has been for centuries. Despite the potential impact of shifting cultivation on forests and its importance to many people, it is not clear how biodiversity and forest structure recover after kaingin abandonment in the country, and how well these post‐kaingin secondary forests can complement the old‐growth forests. We investigated parameters of forest diversity and structure along a fallow age gradient in secondary forests regenerating after kaingin abandonment in Leyte Island, the Philippines (elevation range: 445–650 m asl). We first measured the tree diversity and forest structure indices in regenerating secondary forests and old‐growth forest. We then measured the recovery of tree diversity and forest structure parameters in relation to the old‐growth forest. Finally, using linear mixed effect models (LMM), we assessed the effect of different environmental variables on the recovery of forest diversity and structure. We found significantly higher species density in the oldest fallow sites, while Shannon’s index, species evenness, stem number, basal area, and leaf area index were higher in the old‐growth forest. A homogeneous species composition was found across the sites of older fallow age. Multivariate analysis revealed patch size as a strong predictor of tree diversity and forest structure recovery after shifting cultivation. Our study suggests that, secondary forests regenerating after shifting cultivation abandonment can recover rapidly. Although recovery of forest structure was not as rapid as the tree diversity, our older fallow sites contained a similar number of species as the old‐growth forest. Many of these species are also endemic to the Philippines. Novel and emerging ecosystems like tropical secondary forests are of high conservation importance and can act as a refuge for dwindling tropical forest biodiversity., We investigated parameters of forest diversity and structure along a shifting cultivation fallow gradient in Leyte island, the Philippines. Regenerating secondary forests following shifting cultivation abandonment can exhibit high resilience and recover rapidly. Novel and emerging ecosystems like tropical secondary forests are of high conservation importance and can act as a refuge for dwindling tropical forest diversity.

Background: Mixed-species systems are well-suited to smallholder and community forestry, but reliable evidence regarding and procedures to assess species performance in such systems is scarce. This study concern a field trial with a pair of clinal plots varying spacing and species composition that offered insights into competition between four species proposed for mixed-species plantings by smallholders for landscape rehabilitation in the Philippines. Results: Use of a size-distance competition index allowed an assessment of the competitive and collaborative influences between four tree species. Within the expected general trend for growth to decline with increasing competition, there were indications that Shorea palosapis is a benign competitor that may stimulate the growth of neighbouring individuals. Paraserianthes falcataria is a strong competitor that is also strongly impacted by competition, especially through antagonistic intraspecific competition. Paraserianthes falcataria appears well suited as a solitary tree in a field or village, whereas Shorea palosapis seems ideal for plantations, in both monoculture and mixed plantings. Conclusion: Pterocarpus indicus exbibits strong intraspecific, but low inter-specific competition, so appears well-suited for polyculture plantings. Of the four species, Swietenia macrophylla appears to be best-suited as a monoculture species as it exhibits the lowest intraspecific competition.

Soil organic carbon (SOC) supports essential functions in terrestrial biomes and global biogeochemical cycles, and tropical tree plantations are often called upon to reverse deforestation-induced SOC loss. Yet the comparative efficacy of different plantation types and associated drivers of SOC restoration remain unclear. Theory suggests that higher chemical and spatial heterogeneity of plant litter should promote greater efficiency of soil microbial communities involved in SOC formation, so we hypothesised that more species-diverse tree plantations should be more effective in accelerating recovery of SOC. To test this, we compared developmental recovery of SOC and soil microbial communities between monoculture (Swietenia macrophylla King, mahogany) and highly diverse and mostly native species plantations (termed “rainforestation”). All plantation types, which were aged 15 to 20 years, only restored the composition of the soil microbial community to 20–30% of the reference, selectively logged old-growth rainforest. Contrary to our hypothesis, mahogany plantations, but not rainforestation, restored SOC and microbial function. Rainforestation shifted soil microbial composition and the composition of the understory vegetation closer to reference conditions. Soil microbial composition at all plantation sites was correlated with plant composition and functional traits, and better explained variation in SOC than land use. In particular, soil fungal PLFA biomass displayed a strong positive correlation with topsoil SOC concentration. This suggests that belowground restoration with tropical reforestation is slow relative to typical rotation times of tropical plantations (15–20 years). We conclude that reliable and rapid restoration of SOC may depend on interventions both above and below ground to re-instate the soil microbial community. This may require careful selection of plant species in combination with microbial inoculations.

SummaryWe explore the difficulty of achieving equity for women in two forest and livelihood restoration (FLR) pilot projects, one each in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Philippines. We use institutional bricolage as a framework to explain the context and background of stakeholders’ decision-making and the consequent impact on equity and benefit distribution. In the Philippines, material and institutional support was initially successful in assisting participants to establish small-scale tree plantations. A structured approach to institutional development has successfully evolved to meet the needs of women, even though corruption has re-emerged as a destabilizing influence. In PNG, despite success in establishing trees and crops, the participation of women was subjugated to traditional customs and norms that precluded them from engaging in land management decisions. The capacity-building and gender-equity principles of FLR consequently became compromised. We conclude that in some patriarchal societies achieving equity for women will be difficult and progress will be contingent on a detailed understanding of the effects of traditional customs and norms on participation and decision-making.

The Sundarbans, in southern coastal Bangladesh, is the world's largest surviving mangrove habitat and the last stronghold of tiger adapted to living in a mangrove ecosystem. Using MaxEnt (maximum entropy modeling), current distribution data, land-use/land cover and bioclimatic variables, we modeled the likely future distribution of the globally endangered Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) in the Bangladesh Sundarbans. We used two climatic scenarios (i.e., RCP6.0 and RCP8.5) developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to provide projections of suitable habitats of Bengal tigers in 2050 and 2070. We also combined projected sea-level rise for the area in our models of future species distributions. Our results suggest that there will be a dramatic decline in suitable Bengal tiger habitats in the Bangladesh Sundarbans. Other than various aspects of local climate, sea-level rise is projected to have a substantial negative impact on Bengal tiger habitats in this low-lying area. Our model predicts that due to the combined effect of climate change and sea-level rise, there will be no suitable Bengal tiger habitat remaining in the Sundarbans by 2070. Enhancing terrestrial protected area coverage, regular monitoring, law enforcement, awareness-building among local residents among the key strategies needed to ensure long-term survival and conservation of the Bengal tiger in the Bangladesh Sundarbans.

Inequitable timber resource rents are a problem that has plagued tropical forest management in countries throughout the world, including Papua New Guinea (PNG), which exported 21% of the world's tropical hardwood logs during the last decade. Rural tropical forest resource owners (FROs) often have limited economic resources and resource rents from timber harvests can help them access goods and services that they otherwise cannot afford. This paper uses historical log export data and timber royalty rates to compare the timber resource rents received by FROs in PNG to log export duties and levies collected by the PNG government and the residual cash flows collected by logging companies from log exports. Between 2007 and 2017, PNG's FROs received an annual average of 6.1% of the market value of the logs harvested. By comparison, the PNG government received an annual average of 42.3% from duties and levies and the logging industry received 51.6% for its costs/profits. We also found that the real value of royalties for different timber species has declined by between 32% and 66% since 1991 due to the use of the fixed-rate system. We recommend that future royalty payments in PNG be calculated as a percentage of market value and that there be greater public participation in the determination of the appropriate income split to provide a more equitable distribution of timber harvest revenues between different actors.

Community forest enterprises facilitated by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), using portable sawmills to produce rough-sawn lumber is one approach being pursued by tropical forest indigenous communities to improve their livelihoods. To investigate the profitability of portable sawmills operated by community forest enterprises, we developed a discounted cash flow model with a Monte Carlo risk analysis simulation. We populated this model using forest inventory data from six forest sites in Papua New Guinea, combined with cost and revenue data collected in country. We found that the application of this small-scale native forest management model has a high likelihood of producing a negative net present value (NPV). The cash outflows to produce the lumber are found to be consistently greater than the cash inflows from lumber sales, resulting in a probability of achieving a positive NPV of 0.04. If only the most valuable species are harvested the probability of achieving a positive NPV increased to 0.56. However, the communities would be at risk of overexploiting or high-grading their forests. We recommend that future community forestry projects utilizing portable sawmills explore value adding opportunities for rough-sawn lumber to overcome the high costs of portable sawmill operations and reduce the potential occurrence of forest high-grading.

Wet‐sclerophyll forests are unique ecosystems that can transition to dry‐sclerophyll forests or to rainforests. Understanding of the dynamics of these forests for conservation is limited. We evaluated the long‐term succession of wet‐sclerophyll forest on World Heritage listed K'gari (Fraser Island)—the world's largest sand island. We recorded the presence and growth of tree species in three 0.4 hectare plots that had been subjected to selective logging, fire, and cyclone disturbance over 65 years, from 1952 to 2017. Irrespective of disturbance regimes, which varied between plots, rainforest trees recruited at much faster rates than the dominant wet‐sclerophyll forest trees, narrowly endemic species Syncarpia hillii and more common Lophostemon confertus. Syncarpia hillii did not recruit at the plot with the least disturbance and recruited only in low numbers at plots with more prominent disturbance regimes in the ≥10 cm at breast height size. Lophostemon confertus recruited at all plots but in much lower numbers than rainforest trees. Only five L. confertus were detected in the smallest size class (

Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in the central Philippines on 8 November 2013 as one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever. It also affected a 23-year-old multi-species ‘reforest’ at Manobo near Tacloban City on Leyte Island. As part of a larger hydrological investigation of the impacts of reforestation on streamflow response in the Tacloban area, gross rainfall (P), throughfall (TF; 24 roving collectors) and stemflow (SF; 12 trees) were monitored at Manobo between June 2013 and May 2014. Leaf Area Index (LAI) above each TF collector was measured regularly. Total rainfall interception losses (I) were determined using Gash’s revised analytical model for three consecutive periods:(i) pre-Haiyan (baseline), (ii) post–Haiyan (damaged canopy), and (iii) after initial canopy recovery. Modeled I was 18% of P before disturbance, 12% for the period with the most extensive canopy damage, and 17.5% after initial canopy recovery. Stemflow was low, and weighted mean values accounted for 2.7%, 1.3% and 2.0% of P for the respective periods. Contrasts in period-average values of I reflected changes in LAI as well as wet-canopy evaporation rates. Storm-based TF fractions at the 5 m × 5 m sub-plot scale were inversely related to LAI, especially for small storms and low rainfall intensities. Inferred hourly rates of wet-canopy evaporation showed a strong positive relationship to hourly rainfall intensity during large storms. The revised analytical model was also run using pre-disturbance parameter values for the entire year to assess the overall effect of canopy damage on I. Estimated annual losses with and without canopy disturbance were 514 mm (15% of P) and 572 mm (17%), respectively. Thus, observed and inferred changes in rainfall partitioning after canopy disturbance and initial recovery were comparatively modest, likely because the measurement site was relatively sheltered from the winds during typhoon passage and re-foliation relatively rapid. However, given the predicted increase in occurrence of ‘super-typhoons’ due to continued global warming and oceanic freshening, the structure of forests in affected regions can be expected to be modified, with potential consequences for rainfall partitioning and hydrological response.

We apply self-determination theory (SDT) to explain how psychological outcomes on participants in ‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation’ (REDD +) projects can provide lessons for other forest landscape management programmes. Evidence from REDD + case studies suggests that negative outcomes may result from three design factors. Payment for environmental services (PES) may reduce participants’ motivation and competence in livelihood activities. A large-scale landscape approach to REDD + increases stakeholder heterogeneity which may reduce participants’ ability to liaise and cooperate. Trade-offs between traditional forest uses and conservation goals may reduce participants’ autonomy to develop their livelihoods. By inference, replicating these design factors in comparable forest landscape management programmes or projects may also result in similar negative outcomes. Replacing PES with additional—not substitute—livelihood-based capacity building and reducing the physical landscape to the social landscape which encompasses stakeholders’ capacity to work together may mitigate these outcomes.

Alternative methods for restoring tropical forests influence the ecological processes that shape recruitment of understory species. In turn, the traits of species recruited will influence the ecological processes the forests provide now and over the long term. We assess the phylogenetic and functional structure of seedlings beneath monoculture plantations, mixed‐species plantations (both active restoration) and regenerating selectively logged native forests (passive restoration), considering traits of specific leaf area (SLA, including within‐species variation), leaf nitrogen and phosphorus content, life‐form, potential plant height, and dispersal type. Monoculture plantations comprised seedlings that were more closely related then would be expected by chance (i.e., phylogenetically clustered), and regenerating forest contained species more distantly related then would be expected by chance (i.e., phylogenetically overdispersed). This suggests that seedlings beneath monocultures assemble through environmental filtering and through the dispersal limitation of predictable functional guilds. However, dispersal limitation is frequently overcome by human‐assisted dispersal, increasing trait diversity. Comparing SLA values revealed that regenerating forests recruit seedlings with both high and low mean and variation of SLA, leading to higher overall diversity. Regenerating forest seedlings showed signs of environmental filtering, only based on within‐species variation of SLA. Regenerating forest understories appear to favor species that show a high intraspecific variation in SLA values (e.g., Pterocarpus indicus Willd.) and at the same time provided habitat for later successional seedlings that show a lower intraspecific variation in SLA (e.g., Canarium luzonicum (Blume) A.Gray). This trait diversity suggests limiting similarity or competitive exclusion may be reduced because of niche differences, allowing species with different traits to coexist. Phylogenetic and functionally distinct species are restricted in their regeneration capacity, many of which are of conservation significance (under the IUCN Red List). Reforestation projects should maximize desired ecological services (including conservation value) by actively managing for the recruitment of species that are phylogenetically and functionally (including intraspecifically) distinct. This management aim will increase the probability of fulfilling a wider array of niche spaces and potentially increase the diversity of ecosystem services provided.

Forest and landscape restoration (FLR) is being carried out across the world to meet ambitious global goals. However, the scale of these efforts combined with the timeframe in which they are supposed to take place may compromise the quality of restoration, and thus limit the persistence of restoration on the landscape. This paper presents a synthesis of ten case studies identified as FLR to critically analyse implemented initiatives, their outcomes, and main challenges, with an eye to improving future efforts. The identified FLR projects are diverse in terms of their spatial coverage, objectives, types of interventions, and initial socioeconomic, institutional, and environmental conditions. The six principles of FLR&mdash, which have been widely adopted in theory by large global organisations&mdash, are inadequately addressed across the initiatives presented here. The identified FLR project or interventions, although expected to offer diverse benefits, face many challenges including the lack of long-term sustainability of project interventions, limited uptake by regional and national agencies, limited monitoring, reporting and learning, poor governance structures, and technical barriers, which are mainly owing to institutional weaknesses. On the basis of these cases, we propose that the best pathway to achieving FLR is via an incremental process in which a smaller number of more achievable objectives are set and implemented over time, rather than setting highly ambitious targets that implementers struggle to achieve.

[Extract:] To protect the Sundarbans, any development in the region should also comply with policies that conserve local ecosystems and livelihoods.

Globally, Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) is gaining widespread recognition from governments and policymakers for its potential to restore key ecosystem services and to improve human wellbeing. We organized an international conference on FLR, titled—Forest and Landscape Restoration: Making it Happen, between 25–27 February 2019 in Manila, the Philippines with 139 participants from 22 countries. The Forest and Landscape Restoration Standards (FLoRES) task force also met prior to the conference, which included a field visit to a pilot community-based forest reforestation site in Biliran Island, the Philippines. Based on the three-day conference, case study presentations, and FLoRES task force meeting, we prepared the Manila Declaration on Forest and Landscape Restoration to highlight the need to support quality of FLR efforts and outcomes in the tropics. Here we provide a synthesis of the main messages of the conference, with key outcomes including the Manila Declaration on Forest and Landscape Restoration, and ways forward to make quality FLR happen on the ground.

Forest and landscape restoration in the tropics is often undertaken by groups of smallholders and communities whose livelihoods are primarily agricultural and forest-based. In the Philippines, the implementation of forest restoration programs involving people&rsquo, s organizations showed mixed results. We present a case study of a pilot community-based forest restoration project that was undertaken in Biliran Province to understand the impediments, and pilot test interventions to improve restoration outcomes. The project was designed using systems thinking, employing smallholder-based best-practice, and applying the principles of a participatory approach. The results revealed that the initial participation of smallholders is mostly driven by short-term financial incentives. However, long-term commitment to managing the trees is attributed mainly to sustainable livelihood, land and tree rights, equitable sharing of benefits, strong leadership, effective governance and improved human and social capitals. The support of extension officers, use of high-quality seedlings, and participation of women are essential for community-based forest restoration success. Key lessons from our research could contribute to fulfilling the forest and landscape restoration commitments of developing countries in the tropics.

The Philippines is both a biodiversity hotspot and a megadiverse country. The country also has experienced one of the highest rates of deforestation in Southeast Asia and is among the first countries to introduce a massive reforestation program to address the country’s rapid biodiversity and forest loss. Drawing upon an empirical study from the Leyte island and other relevant case studies from the Philippines, in this chapter, we demonstrate that recovering secondary forests following shifting cultivation, locally known as kaingin have the high potentials for biodiversity and carbon co-benefits. Based on our empirical study, we also found that secondary forest regrowing after kaingin use can potentially be used as a cost-effective reforestation measure with multiple benefits to people and the environment in upland areas of the Philippines. We also discuss measures that are essential for such programs to be successful.

Enrichment planting is often suggested as a means of enhancing the productivity of logged rainforest. However, little is known about the long-term survival and growth of these trees. In this study, we used historical data from enrichment planting trials ranging from 15 to 32 years old to examine the survival and growth of 16 tree species across different sites in north Queensland, Australia. The results complement and extend current knowledge on the potential role of enrichment planting from a production perspective. A key finding was that the initial level of post-logging overwood did not appear to affect the immediate survival of enrichment plantings, but in the longer term (up to 30 years) survival decreased as post-logging overwood and regrowth increased. This suggests that removal of overwood should take place at the time of enrichment planting. A further key finding was that despite regular tending to remove vegetation adjacent to the plantings, competition from saplings and trees that were situated outside the tended area emerged as a major source of competition in some plots. By implication, the success of enrichment planting may depend on removal of competition from the entire logged area, not just adjacent to enrichment plantings. Results between individual species and trials varied widely. The best development of Flindersia brayleyana resulted in a mean tree diameter of 32.5 cm at age 22 for the 100 tallest trees per hectare. Although Eucalyptus grandis, Eucalyptus microcorys, and Eucalyptus pilularis all failed&mdash, as expected, because they do not normally grow in rainforest&mdash, Corymbia torelliana, Cardwellia sublimis, Araucaria bidwillii, Khaya senegalensis, Flindersia amboinensis, and Swietenia macrophylla also failed although they grow naturally in similar sites. In other trials, tree height and basal area growth were often poor. For example, Khaya ivorensis grew to a basal area of only 1.3 m2/ha and a mean height of 7.7 m at age 10, and Flindersia ifflaiana only grew to a basal area of 0.7 m2/ha and a height of 7.9 m, also at age 10. Overall, these results emphasise the necessity of site&ndash, species matching before enrichment planting begins and the necessity of post-planting monitoring and remedial tending.

Managed tropical forests are a globally important carbon pool, but the effects of logging and thinning intensities on long-term biomass dynamics are poorly known. We investigated the demographic mechanisms of above-ground biomass recovery over 48 years in an Australian tropical forest following four silvicultural treatments: selective logging only as a control and selective logging followed by low-, medium- and high-intensity thinning. Initial biomass recovery rates following thinning were poor predictors of the long-term changes. Initial biomass recovery from 1969 to 1973 was slow and was largely concentrated on an increase in the biomass of residual stems. From 1973 to 1997, above ground biomass (AGB) increased almost linearly, with a similar slope for all sites. From 1997 to 2015, the rate of biomass accumulation slowed, especially for the L treatment. All thinning treatments stimulated more recruitment and regrowth of non-harvested remaining trees compared to the untreated control. Biomass at both the low and medium intensity treatments has almost fully recovered to 98% and 97% of pre-logging biomass levels respectively. The predicted times of complete above-ground biomass recovery for the logging only and high intensity treatments are 55 and 77 years respectively. The slower biomass recovery at the logging only site was largely due to increased mortality in the last measurement period. The slower recovery of the high intensity site was due to a combination of a higher initial reduction in biomass from thinning and the increased mortality in the last measurement period. The high mortality rates in the most recent measurement period are likely due to the impacts of two cyclones that impacted the study site. Our results suggest that it will take at least around 50 years for this site to recover to its pre-harvest biomass, much longer than many of the cutting cycles currently used in tropical forest management.

Forests in the Philippines, and many other developing countries in the tropics, have been extensively cleared over recent decades. There have been increasing efforts to reforest these cleared lands to achieve both socio-economic and environmental objectives. To date, planted forests have been dominated by monocultures. There has however been increasing calls to use mixtures of species, although there is limited evidence to support mixed-species plantations being a better or win-win approach to reforestation. To address this, we compared the tree growth, forest structure, and tree species diversity performance of monoculture and mixed-species tree plantations across 168 sites (251 survey plots) on Leyte Island, the Philippines. Our results indicate that mixtures of fast-growing exotics species had better growth performance compared to monocultures of fast-growing exotics species, and also better tree species diversity performance at both the plot and landscape scale. Our results suggest that mixtures of exotic or native species can provide benefits over monoculture plantations. Mixtures of productive exotic species are most suited to situations where the production function of the forest is most important, while mixtures of native species are most suited to situations where the biodiversity function of the forest is most important.

Mensajes principalesLas iniciativas de la restauracion del paisaje forestal pueden verse obstaculizadas por falta de comunicacion o tal vez por la superposicion entre sectores, politicas no alineadas con un objetivo comun y por desbalances de informacion y poder tanto al interior como entre diferentes niveles de gobierno.Es necesario enfocarse en como funcionan los acuerdos de gobernanza en una jurisdiccion o contexto dado antes de implementar las actividades de restauracion. Tales consideraciones a menudo se ignoran o se dejan de lado para favorecer una implementacion rapida, si no apresurada.En la practica, la implementacion efectiva de la restauracion del paisaje forestal requiere de una transformacion significativa de formas arraigadas basadas en la “mentalidad del proyecto”, con vision cortoplacista y gobernadas bajo “comando y control”.Lograr la multiplicidad de objetivos inherentes a la restauracion del paisaje forestal requiere considerar con atencion a la gobernanza tanto como un proceso, como un resultado.

Deforestation and forest degradation are problems common to many tropical countries, including Papua New Guinea (PNG). These problems are often a result of the environmentally unsustainable logging practices of industrial logging companies. Beginning in the 1990s, six organizations attempted to mitigate the deforestation and forest degradation occurring in PNG by facilitating small-scale native forest management by Indigenous forest landowners. All six organizations utilized an ‘eco-forestry’ approach, involving selective harvesting of timber combined with the milling of timber by Indigenous forest landowners using portable sawmills. The lumber produced was sold into local and international markets as sustainable certified under Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) principles. The use of portable sawmills was also intended to provide the landowners with a greater financial return compared to the timber royalty payments they could receive from logging companies. This study used a literature review and interviews with key informants from the eco-forestry organizations and the PNG Forest Authority to assess the effectiveness of variants of the portable sawmilling model. We found that each of the six organizations were unsuccessful in developing a financially viable model for small-scale native forest management by Indigenous forest landowners in PNG. All the Indigenous landowners were unable to continue their portable sawmill operations once the donor funding of the eco-forestry organizations ceased. In addition, the operators of portable sawmills struggled to produce lumber that met the quality and quantity demands of buyers, who ultimately ceased purchasing the lumber. Furthermore, the Indigenous landowners struggled to adhere to the FSC principles, resulting in a loss of FSC certification. The study identifies a need for a new small-scale native forest management model in PNG. We recommend that future research involve collaboration with private sector businesses and professionally trained operators to inform the development of a small-scale forest management model which is financially profitable while also adhering to the principles of eco-forestry.

Currently, more than 400 million hectares of tropical forests worldwide are now being managed for timber production. Understanding the long-term responses of tropical forests to management practices is critical for managing tropical forests sustainably. To investigate the responses of tropical forest dynamics to different silvicultural treatment intensities, permanent plots were established in 1967 in an Australian tropical forest with four treatments: selective logging only as a control and selective logging followed by three differing intensity silvicultural treatments in 1969. We investigated changes in the number of species, species dominance, and species composition of trees (DBH ≥ 10 cm) from 1967 to 2015. Before selective logging, the number of tree species did not differ between the treatments, ranging from 70 to 75. Selective logging alone had small immediate effects on the number of species and species abundance distributions. After silvicultural treatment, the number of species in the low-intensity treatment, medium-intensity treatment and high-intensity treatment were reduced to 48, 42, and 18 respectively. The number of species in the control, low-intensity, and medium-intensity treatments recovered to their pre-logging levels within 46 years, but recovery in the high-intensity treatment was incomplete due to much greater initial species loss through silvicultural treatment. Silvicultural treatments increased species dominance, with the differences being progressively more marked as the level of treatment intensity increased. Over 46 years, tree species abundance distribution in the silvicultural treatments became more even and largely returned to pre-logging conditions, with more rapid recovery after low and intermediate silvicultural treatments. Following silvicultural treatments, species composition in the logging only, low-intensity and medium-intensity silvicultural treatments did not change markedly, whereas species composition was substantially altered by high-intensity silvicultural treatment and was subsequently distinct from the other treatments. Within 46 years following treatments, species composition in the high intensity treatment showed a recovery trajectory towards pre-logging conditions, leading to increased species compositional similarity among the four treatments. Increasing the intensity of silviculture treatment led to greater time required for recovery of species diversity, composition and compositional similarity. We recommend that high-intensity silvicultural treatments should be avoided if rapid recovery of species diversity and composition is the desired management outcome in tropical rainforests similar to those in our study area.

Governments and international organizations are promoting or drafting programs to undertake Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) of hundreds of millions of hectares of degraded tropical landscapes to support the provision of ecosystem goods and services. But the challenge to recover economic and ecological functionality could be far beyond their financial capacity. Here, we explore the potential of markets and their interaction with policies to leverage investment for FLR in the tropics. We first review the challenges and opportunities of exploiting market forces for FLR, which can be essential for kick-starting the implementation of programs globally. We identify four key opportunities for regulating markets to promote FLR: economic mechanisms; technological, educational or infrastructural investment; legal and enforcement mechanisms; and market-led standards and certification schemes. Finally, we present five pitfalls that may arise when relying on markets to promote FLR. Governments will need to play a critical role in establishing appropriate policy frameworks and institutional arrangements to leverage investments when market signals are not strong enough to initiate changes in traditional land use or farming practices, or to regulate reforestation activities when market signals become so strong that they overwhelm all other land-use activities, leading to a transformed and homogenized landscape.

Studies of plant water sources generally assume that xylem water integrates the isotopic composition (δ2H and δ18O) of water sources and does not fractionate during uptake or transport along the transpiration pathway. However, woody xerophytes, halophytes, and trees in mesic environments can show isotopic fractionation from source waters. Isotopic fractionation and variation in isotope composition can affect the interpretation of tree water sources, but most studies to date have been greenhouse experiments. Here we present a field-based forensic analysis of xylem water isotope composition for 12 Eucalyptus tetrodonta and Corymbia nesophila trees. We used a 25-tonne excavator to access materials from the trees' maximum rooting depth of 3 m to their highest canopies at 38 m. Substantial within-tree variation occurred in δ2H (−91.1‰ to −35.7‰ E. tetrodonta; −88.8‰ to −24.5‰ C. nesophila) and δ18O (−12.3‰ to −5.0‰ E. tetrodonta; −10.9‰ to −0.3‰ C. nesophila), with different root-to-branch isotope patterns in each species. Soil water δ2H and δ18O dual isotope slopes (7.26 E. tetrodonta, 6.66 C. nesophila) were closest to the Local Meteoric Water Line (8.4). The dual isotope slopes of the trees decreased progressively from roots (6.45 E. tetrodonta, 6.07 C. nesophila), to stems (4.61 E. tetrodonta, 5.97 C. nesophila) and branches (4.68 E. tetrodonta, 5.67 C. nesophila), indicative of fractionation along the xylem stream. Roots of both species were more enriched in 2H and 18O than soil water at all sampled depths. Bayesian mixing model analysis showed that estimated proportions of water sourced from different depths reflected the contrasting root systems of these species. Our study adds evidence of isotopic fractionation from water uptake and along the transpiration stream in mature trees in monsoonal environments, affecting the interpretation of water sources. We discuss the findings with view of interpreting aboveground xylem water isotopic composition, incorporating knowledge of root systems.

Stable isotope tracing of plant water use can illuminate plant water sources. But to date, the number of species tested at any given site has been minimal. Here, we sample 46 tropical hardwood tree species in a 0.32 ha plot with uniform soils. Soil water was characterized at 6 depths at 0.2 m intervals down to 1 m and showed simple and predictable depth patterns of δ2H and δ18O, and simple and spatially uniform isotope composition at each depth. Nevertheless, tree xylem water δ2H and δ18O showed remarkable variation covering the full range of soil composition, suggesting strong sorting and niche segregation across the small plot. Wood density, tree size and mean basal area increment together explained approximately 55% of the variance of xylem water isotope composition through principal component analysis. A Bayesian mixing model was applied to the data and showed that sampled trees were either sourcing their water from very shallow or deep soil layers, with very little contribution from the middle portion of the soil profile. The majority of the observed species relied on 0.0–0.2 m depth soil water. This layer contributed approximately 75% of the xylem water which was significantly higher than the contributions from all other depths. The contribution from shallow soil was highest for trees with high wood density, slow-growing trees and small-sized trees. Our work suggests that stable isotope tracers may aid a better understanding of tropical forest water uptake depths and their relation to tree functional traits and potential hydrological niche segregation among co-occurring tropical species.

The complexities of Melanesian customary land tenure greatly influence the adoption of community-based reforestation (CBR) in Papua New Guinea (PNG). CBR has recently become a focus for the PNG government due to declining yield from native forests which has renewed attention on developing timber plantations to augment villagers' livelihoods. In this paper, we investigate the factors which affect adoption of timber tree-growing by farmers and communities. We assess the efficacy of a policy frequently employed by non-government organisations (NGOs) in which single or multi-clan based seedling nurseries are used to encourage tree growing. A key finding is that people's need for technical assistance is subordinate to social and cultural factors, principally the need for community harmony. Farmers' motivation to plant trees is adversely influenced by uncertainties inherent in PNG's system of customary land tenure. Interventions – in this case extension assistance to grow trees – may create or exacerbate intra- and inter-clan conflict by bringing long term uncertainties into short term focus. For villagers in PNG, as in other cultures, we conclude that key enabling conditions for collective action revolve around strengthening villagers' bridging social capital in a manner which is sensitive to their longstanding social traditions. Targeted, do-it-yourself, family assistance may be as effective as attempts to encourage collective action. The implications of our findings for Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) which envisages a participatory approach to community engagement, are that cross-community initiatives may not be feasible without extensive investment in building social capital. Initiatives targeted at families or family-groups may be most successful.

There is growing interest in using multi-species plantation systems when undertaking reforestation for timber production. Such plantations can have ecological and socio-economic advantages over those of traditional monocultures. Despite increasing evidence about the functional advantages of increasing species richness in reforestation, there are few silvicultural guidelines to assist in the design and management of multi-species plantings. This paper presents the results of a systematic assessment of previous studies of mixed-species plantings with a particular focus on their advantages and disadvantages for meeting the needs of rural smallholders and communities in tropical regions. Research on mixed-species plantations has increased in recent years. Many earlier studies were concerned with the capacity of mixed-species plantings to improve productivity or the nutritional impacts of mixtures. Many of these studies emphasised young plantations and mixtures of a few relatively fast-growing Acacia, Eucalyptus and Pinus species. More recent studies have explored a wider range of outcomes arising from using mixtures including on the supply of ecosystem services. Issues deserving further study concern the economic advantages or disadvantages of mixed-species plantations, how these plantations might be designed to suit various environmental and socio-economic situations, and how to manage older mixed-species plantations where the interactions between species may be different to those in younger plantations. There is also a need to explore how increased species richness may affect the capacity of new plantations to withstand damage from insect pests or disturbances such as storms or wildfire.

Some urbanising rural (i.e. ‘amenity’) landscapes have seen an increase in forest cover over recent decades. Small-acreage landowners are key stakeholders in this forest recovery and its future ecological trajectory. Using 17 qualitative case-studies of small-acreage properties located in the Noosa hinterland in south-east Queensland, this study explores the types and condition of forests on these properties, the landholder’s differing forest management perspectives, practices and outcomes, and the implications for local biodiversity conservation. The properties contained a diverse mix of managed and un-managed natural and planted forests. Invasive weed species were a common component. Protecting and enhancing the ecological values of amenity landscapes will require an increase in active, best-practice forest management on small-acreage properties. Small-acreage landowners will require greater access to labour support and other subsidised resources to implement recommended practices. Such practices include controlling and reducing the spread of invasive weeds and soil erosion, reducing fire hazards, and positively influencing the rate and pathway of succession in regrowth forests. Peer-mentoring programs incorporating guided tours of ‘model’ small-acreage forests, and supporting landowners to establish their own small native plant nurseries and engage with local community nurseries (i.e. supplying seeds, volunteering labour), could help to increase small-acreage landowners’ forest management interests, knowledge, skills and activity. Long-term cooperative, cross-boundary forest management projects with on-going monitoring and adaptive management guided or implemented by skilled professionals are needed in amenity landscapes, particularly to increase the success of restoration interventions in weed-dominated regrowth forests. There is also a need for long-term socio-ecological analyses of amenity landscapes’ diverse and evolving small-acreage forests to better inform their future management.

The establishment of protected areas (PAs) is a key strategy to conserve declining forests and biodiversity worldwide. Due to poor infrastructure and a limited capacity of PA managers, most of the PAs in developing countries fail to achieve their management targets. In this paper, the potential to integrate ecosystem services (ES) into land-use planning was assessed in order to better manage PAs in tropical countries. Firstly, we mapped the relative capacity of different land-use/land cover (LULC) to supply ES in and around the Satchari National Park (SNP) located in northeast Bangladesh. Two alternative scenarios to envisage the likely future supply of ES in the area were then analysed. The study reveals a relatively higher supply of supporting ES from LULC located inside the park compared to the ES supplied from surrounding forests, tea gardens, and oil palm and rubber plantations. Provisioning ES were greater in surrounding forests than from SNP. Both regulating and cultural ES were also higher in LULC within the park. Spatially explicit ES supply assessment and mapping was found to be useful for land use planning and the prioritization of future management actions. Based on our findings, we suggest that PA managers should consider the ES framework as an effective tool for the future-oriented PAs management.

Governance arrangements directly influence decision making processes and the degree to which different stakeholder groups are engaged in planning, implementing, and receiving benefits from Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR). Narrow institutional and agency mandates must be better aligned to permit new ways of governing landscapes that are centered on the needs and capacities of local stakeholders. This special issue highlights challenges and opportunities for governing FLR at different scales and under different contexts across a range of tropical and subtropical forest biomes. In this introductory paper, we explore common threads from diverse studies comprising the special issue to highlight key challenges for effective governance of FLR across many different contexts. We discuss enabling factors and conditions that can help to overcome deficiencies in governance processes and outcomes and illustrate how these conditions are linked to the six principles of FLR. We conclude by emphasizing several gaps in understanding how governance arrangements influence the planning, implementation and monitoring of FLR.

The Philippine National Greening Program (NGP) is a Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) initiative designed to increase forest cover on degraded lands for poverty reduction, food security, biodiversity conservation, and climate change mitigation. Despite the inclusion of an explicit biodiversity objective in the NGP, the Philippine government is struggling to implement projects that explicitly address biodiversity recovery. Using a case-study methodology, we identified three constraints that obstruct achievement of the NGP’s biodiversity conservation goals: 1) a focus on planting targets; 2) disregard for established community-based forestry practices; and 3) poor planning, organization, and implementation. These factors restricted establishment of diverse plantings suited to biodiversity recovery. Poor governance emerged as an overarching issue that connects each of these factors. Specific regulatory guidelines clearly need to be added to existing policy frameworks to assist planners and practitioners in the implementation of biodiversity-focused projects. Our results also indicate that these three factors and governance limitations, which impede attainment of biodiversity objectives, also affect production goals of the program. It is evident that establishing species-rich projects alone will benefit biodiversity little unless broader steps are taken to improve implementation processes across the NGP.

Shifting cultivation is a widespread practice in tropical forested areas that policy makers often regard as the major cause of forest degradation. Secondary fallow forests regrowing after shifting cultivation are generally not viewed as suitable for biodiversity conservation and carbon retention. Drawing upon our research in the Philippines and other relevant case studies, we compared the biodiversity and carbon sequestration in recovering secondary forests after shifting cultivation to other land uses that commonly follow shifting cultivation. Regenerating secondary forests had higher biodiversity than fast growing timber plantations and other restoration options available in the area. Some old plantations, however, provided carbon benefits comparable the old growth forest, although their biodiversity was less than that of the regenerating forests. Our study demonstrates that secondary forests regrowing after shifting cultivation have a high potential for biodiversity and carbon sequestration co-benefits, representing an effective strategy for forest management and restoration in countries where they are common and where the forest is an integral part of rural people's livelihoods. We discuss the issues and potential mechanisms through which such dynamic land use can be incorporated into development projects that are currently financing the sustainable management, conservation, and restoration of tropical forests.

Summary In tropical countries where little natural forest remains, such as the Philippines, small-holder monocultures and mixed-species plantations potentially provide conservation values by providing habitat for local fauna and recruiting diverse understorey species. However, little information exists as to whether monocultures offer a framework to kick-start understorey species recruitment and how this compares to mixtures. In this study, species and trait diversity were measured within the understories of three different forest types on the Island of Leyte, Philippines: mixed-species forests (known as ‘Rainforestation Farming’), Swietenia macrophylla monocultures and regenerating selectively logged forests. All plants less than 2 m in height were identified, and dispersal type, fruit type, seed and fruit size were extracted from literature and online data bases. We found that overall seedling richness and diversity were lower within the monoculture forests compared with the regenerating selectively logged forests, with the Rainforestation forests showing intermediate seedling diversity, including trait diversity. Monoculture understories had a higher proportion of large fruited domesticated species that are likely dispersed by people and significantly lower wind-dispersed native seedlings than the other forest types. Higher understorey diversity was generally negatively correlated with soil nutrients and positively correlated with increased leaf area index, that is more canopy cover. Our results confirm that mixed-species plantations and regenerating selectively logged forests recruit higher species diversity, but we also found evidence that monocultures can recruit diverse species in the understorey. However, monoculture understories were depauperate of native wind-dispersed traits that are often important emergent species in tropical rain forests. Synthesis and applications. Overall, our results show that just having trees in a cleared landscape provides conservation value, but if monocultures are used as less costly and technically simpler solutions for initiating recruitment, then wind-dispersed native species (e.g. species from the Dipterocarpaceae family) in addition to other limited functional traits (e.g. large-seeded species) should be planted to enhance long-term survival of ecologically significant native tree populations.

The use of low quality planting material is one of the major reasons for the limited success of past reforestation programs in the Philippines and elsewhere in the tropics. In the Philippines, a national policy has been in place since 2010, which regulates the quality of seedlings. As part of the policy, government reforestation programs are required to use only high quality seedlings from accredited seedling suppliers. A survey of nurseries producing seedlings for the National Greening Program in Eastern Visayas and Northern Mindanao regions was carried out to determine the effectiveness and challenges in implementing the forest nursery accreditation policy. The survey identified factors that limit the effectiveness of seedling quality regulation including lack of auditing of seedling quality in accredited nurseries, insufficient monitoring of the seedling supply chain among the network of nurseries supplying seedlings for reforestation programs, inadequate seedling production schedules, and inappropriate criteria for seedling quality assessment. The limited sources of high quality germplasm, nursery operators’ limited information on the attributes of high quality planting materials and lack of knowledge about high quality seedling production technologies contributed to the widespread production of low quality seedlings. The lack of seedling quality checks makes the government’s bidding scheme of seedling purchases prone to favouring the proliferation of low quality seedlings that are usually sold at lower prices. Nursery accreditation represents a major initiative in promoting the success of Philippine reforestation but our study found that considerable improvement of the policy and of its implementation is necessary. From our study, key lessons can be learned for the implementation of forest landscape restoration initiatives in other tropical developing countries.

This paper examines the impact of unequal power relationships on the governance of community forestry groups (CFGs) in the Philippines. Devolution of power has long been considered to be a ‘magic bullet’ in the governance of CFGs. However, poor governance which involves unequal power relationships between state agencies, forest user groups and rural people, produces unequal access in decision-making, sharing of authority and responsibility. This engenders local resistance from those who feel excluded and marginalised in the process. Drawing on Bourdieu’s notion of ‘symbolic violence’, we examine how unequal power relationships between State and local agencies have facilitated destruction of mature and newly planted timber plantations. Studies of a harvesting and a reforestation project found that the adverse effects of poor governance occurred at two tiers, first at an upper level between the government and CFGs, and second, at a lower level between CFG’s and local people. Poor governance at upper levels has triggered both symbolic and physical violence on and from people who remained marginal to the benefits of harvesting and reforestation. We conclude that a key requirement for sustainable community-managed forests is to expand benefit sharing to non-CFG local people. Our findings highlight the importance of lower-tier levels of governance within CFGs and between CFGs and local people.

The conservation value of forest fragments remains controversial. An extensive inventory of rainforest trees in post-logging regrowth forest in the southern Philippines provided a rare opportunity to compare stem density, species richness, diversity and biotic similarity between two types of post-logging forests: broken-canopy forest fragments and adjacent tracts of closed-canopy ‘contiguous’ forest. Tree density was much lower in the fragments, but rarefied species richness was higher. ‘Hill’ numbers, computed as the exponential of Shannon’s diversity index and the inverse of Simpson’s diversity index, indicated that fragments have higher numbers of typical and dominant species compared to contiguous forest. Beta diversity (based on species incidence) and the exponential of Shannon’s diversity index was higher in fragmented forest, indicating higher spatial species turnover than in contiguous forest samples. Lower mean values of the Chao-Jaccard index in fragmented forest compared to contiguous forest also indicated a lower probability of shared species across fragments. The high species richness of contiguous forest showed that an earlier single logging event had not caused biodiversity to be degraded leaving mostly generalist species. Fragmentation and further low-level utilisation by local farmers has also not caused acute degradation. Post-logging regrowth forest fragments present a window of opportunity for conservation that may disappear in a few years as edge effects become more apparent. For the conservation of trees in forests in south-east Asia generally, our findings also suggest that while conservation of remaining primary forest may be preferable, the conservation value of post-logging regrowth forests can also be high.

Many of the papers submitted to Small-scale Forestry contain financial analyses of forestry investments. Unfortunately, both the method of analysis and the reporting of the analysis in initial submissions are often inadequate, and result in manuscripts being rejected or requiring major revision prior to acceptance. This paper discusses some of the common deficiencies in financial analyses in research papers, and presents a simplified financial analysis of a forestry plantation development to illustrate key points. Simple guidelines are presented to overcome common major weaknesses, for example in identifying relevant cash flows, confusion between financial and economic analysis, dealing with capital outlays, and determining an appropriate discount rate.

Shifting cultivation has been attributed to causing large-scale deforestation and forest degradation in tropical forest-agriculture frontiers. This view has been embedded in many policy documents in the tropics, although, there are conflicting views within the literature as to the impacts of shifting cultivation. In part, this may be due to the complex nature of this land use making generalizations challenging. Here we provided a systematic map of research conducted on shifting cultivation in tropics. We first developed a literature search protocol using ISI Web of Science that identified 401 documents which met the search criteria. The spatial and temporal distribution of research related to shifting cultivation was mapped according to research focus. We then conducted a meta-analysis of studies ( n = 73) that focused on forest dynamics following shifting cultivation. A bias in research on anthropology/human ecology was evident, with most research reported from the tropical Asia Pacific region (215 studies). Other key research foci were – soil nutrients and chemistry (72 studies), plant ecology (62 studies), agricultural production/management (57 studies), agroforestry (35 studies), geography/land-use transitions (26 studies). Our meta-analysis revealed a great variability in findings on selected forest and environmental parameters from the studies examined. Studies on ecology were mainly concentrated on plant diversity and successional development, while conservation biology related studies were focused on birds. Limited impacts of shifting cultivation on some soil essential nutrients were also apparent. Apart from the intensity of past usage site spatial attributes seems critical for the successful development of fallow landscapes to secondary forests. Further research is needed to help ascertain the environmental consequences of this traditional land-use on tropical forests. Scientists and policy makers also need to be cautious when making generalizations about the impacts of shifting cultivation and to the both the social and environmental context in which shifting cultivation is being undertaken.

Studies in low-diversity temperate forests clearly establish that thinning leads to increased growth of remaining trees. However, few studies have investigated the long-term impacts of thinning regimes on the growth responses of tropical timber species. In this study, we analysed data collected over a period of 46 years to assess the long-term growth responses and growth patterns of remnant trees of three key commercial species (Flindersia brayleyana F. Muell., Flindersia bourjotiana F. Muell. and Flindersia pimenteliana F. Muell.). We also examined how initial tree size, crown size and crown position within canopy, and neighbourhood competition affected growth rates of the three Flindersia species. Within these species, we assessed growth responses of trees above 10 cm diameter at breast height (DBH) in an Australian tropical rainforest, to different intensities of thinning i.e. logging only as a control and low-, medium- and high-intensity thinning (L, LT, MT and HT, respectively). Medium and high intensity treatments facilitated recruitment of all three Flindersia species into the >10 cm DBH class while medium intensity thinning resulted in the greatest average annual basal area increments (BAIs). The lower individual BAI of Flindersia species in HT was due to fewer large Flindersia trees remaining after thinning, combined with large numbers of recruits and slow growth of small remnant trees. BAI in HT increased initially, with a peak during 1981–1989 and then decreased. BAI was constant and varied little over time within the other treatments. High intensity thinning had prolonged impacts on the growth patterns of Flindersia trees over 46 years. Tree initial DBH, crown size and crown position within canopy explained most variation in individual BAIs of Flindersia trees. Both thinning intensity and measurement periods explained variation in individual BAIs of Flindersia trees. Larger remnant Flindersia trees with broad and dominant crowns tended to grow faster. BAIs of individual trees were negatively correlated with neighbourhood competition. If the goal of tropical native forest management is to improve productivity of target species, the results indicate that thinning should be sufficiently intense to reduce neighbourhood competition while maintaining large diameter commercially desirable trees with large and dominant crowns, which may consequently facilitate the timber volume and above-ground biomass recovery after selective logging.

Enrichment of selectively logged rainforest by planting seedlings of commercially valuable species is often recommended to improve productivity, ecological functioning, and biodiversity. However, the survival and subsequent growth of enrichment plantings depend on how they respond to competition from neighbours. For successful forest restoration or commercial forest management, the challenge is to determine appropriate frequencies and intensities of silvicultural interventions, principally competition reduction. In this study, we use long-term data (49–60 years) from four enrichment planting experiments established after selective logging and girdling of non-commercial trees in a tropical rainforest in north Queensland, Australia, to assess the effects of competition on the survival and growth of enrichment plantings. We found that residual overwood development severely reduced the survival, diameter and volume growth of two widely planted rainforest species - Flindersia brayleyana (Rutaceae) and Agathis robusta (Araucariaceae). Both species responded well to overstory removal, either as an initial treatment or thereafter. Use of Hegyi’s competition index confirmed the strong suppressive effect of neighbours. The most abundant competitor was the fast-growing, early-secondary species Acacia aulacocarpa, which only became apparent after cessation of silvicultural treatments, 7 years after planting. Our results reaffirm the importance of an initial or early-age removal of the competing overstory for the success of enrichment planting. Further silvicultural treatments may be required for extended periods to control excessively increased overwood basal area and to remove late emerging pioneer or early secondary species.

Smallholder livelihoods and the restoration of tropical forests are intimately intertwined. To address the question of how reforestation affects livelihoods and how they in turn affect reforestation, a meta-synthesis was undertaken of 339 scientific publications identified from a systematic literature search. This study is focused on smallholders in the humid tropics, and uses the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework, which was developed by the UK Department for International Development as the framework for analysis. The links between reforestation and livelihoods are found to be diverse and highly interconnected. Reforestation is only one of a smallholder’s activities and typically forms part of a mosaic of land uses across a landscape. Therefore, reforestation should be designed, managed and evaluated under the perspective of a diverse livelihood portfolio, and not as a single activity isolated from other portfolio components, especially under current landscape approaches. It is important for reforestation to be a complementary rather than a competitive livelihood activity. Reforestation has great potential to address poverty, and to increase smallholder socio-ecological resilience and local social equity. However, reforestation outcomes are often suboptimal. Assessing smallholder capacity and the surrounding environment prior to reforestation, and addressing limiting local capacities and conditions in a timely manner, may enhance the likelihood of optimal benefits.

Post-logging silvicultural treatments involving thinning are commonly recommended to increase the commercial timber production under polycyclic harvesting regimes in tropical forests. However, thinning practices intentionally designed to improve commercial timber production may alter species composition and functional composition. Low, medium, and high intensity thinning following logging plus a logged only control was applied in an Australian tropical forest in 1969 to assess the long-term liberation thinning impacts on the commercial timber volume and the functional composition of the regenerating forest. Over 46 years following thinning, only medium- and high-intensity thinning promoted recruitment of commercial trees into the >10 cm diameter class. All three thinning treatments enhanced the standing volume of most desirable commercial species, mainly driven by the growth of remaining non-harvested trees in the 10–20 cm diameter class. The merchantable timber volume of other less desirable species was also promoted in the four treatments. Over the first 28 years after treatment (1969–1997), the average annual timber volume accumulation rate was highest in the medium-intensity thinning (1.97 m3 ha−1 year−1). The positive impacts of medium- and high-intensity thinning on commercial timber volume growth lasted longer than the low-intensity thinning. From 1997 to 2015, average annual volume increments increased in the medium- and high-intensity thinning, changed little in the low-intensity thinning, and decreased in the untreated control. Moreover, the medium- and high-intensity thinning led the community functional composition to shift towards early-successional species, which reduced community-weighted mean wood densities. The changes induced by intensive thinning treatments may affect the recovery of forest biomass and biodiversity. Hence, the trade-off between enhancing timber stocks and maintaining functional composition should be considered during planning and implementation of tropical forest management.

While community forestry has shown promise to reduce rural poverty, improve reforestation and potentially offset carbon emissions, many projects have failed, either partly or completely. In order to understand why community forestry succeeds or fails, we examined in detail the literature related to community forestry from three countries, Mexico, Nepal and the Philippines. We also drew on experiences in other countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa. We identified five main interconnected factors which the literature suggests are often critical to the success of community forestry. To integrate the many ways in which community forestry projects can improve the state of these factors, we use the concept of ‘bonding social capital’, i.e. communities’ ability to work together towards a common aim and ‘bridging social capital’, i.e. their ability to liaise with the outside world. To understand the interaction of the five success factors and the way in which improvements to bonding or bridging social capital may affect them, we developed a causal diagram which depicts the interrelationships between the success factors and the key points at which project inputs may be best applied. It is clear from our analysis that failing to appreciate both the complexity and interaction of the various influences may lead to project failure.

Reforestation is an expensive undertaking. It is a long-term, complex, and trans-disciplinary process and it involves uncertainties and changing conditions. There is also a complex array of drivers (including biophysical, technical, socio-economic, institutional, and management drivers) that affect reforestation success. Previous research has documented the independent effects of biophysical and technical, environmental and socio-economic drivers on reforestation success. However, research over the last decade has revealed that the outcome of multiple factor interactions is commonly non-additive (i.e. synergies and antagonisms). Therefore, in order to provide better decision support for reforestation planning and policy setting it is necessary to understand the interactive effects that drivers have on reforestation success. To understand these interactive effects, we developed a Bayesian network model based on data collected from 43 reforestation projects on Leyte Island, the Philippines. Non-additive interactions among reforestation success drivers (i.e. synergies and antagonisms) were found to account for up to 90% of interactions tested. This result suggests an urgent need to account for these non-additive interactions in reforestation policy and planning in order to avoid unanticipated outcomes, wasted effort and missed opportunities.

The limited supply of high quality planting materials for a wide species base is a major reason for the limited success of reforestation programmes or projects in many developing countries. This paper reports the research that was undertaken to improve the supply of high quality planting materials for agroforestry, tree farming and reforestation in the Philippines. A systems approach was used to identify mechanisms to improve the operational effectiveness of the forest nursery sector. A Bayesian Belief Network of the forest nursery sector was developed to examine the interactions between the key components of the forest nursery sector, identify key leverage points for intervention and explore potential impacts of possible policy interventions. Although improving the operational effectiveness of individual, communal and government nurseries will result in high operational effectiveness of the forest nursery sector, the operational effectiveness of government nurseries is likely to have a negative impact on the market for seedlings from smallholder nurseries i.e. individual and communal nurseries, thus impeding the sustainability of smallholder nurseries. Increasing the supply of high quality germplasm for a wide variety of species, improving the technical capabilities of smallholder nursery operators in seedling production and increasing the market demand of high quality seedlings from smallholder nurseries are the most important requirements for improving the operational effectiveness of the forest nursery sector. However, government nurseries can play a crucial role in improving the effectiveness of the forest nursery sector by diversifying their production to focus on species that are in demand by smallholder farmers and which cannot be supplied by individual or communal nurseries. Failing to do this will result in the current situation continuing in which government nursery sector competes with private and communal nurseries.