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Governing through markets
In recent years a startling policy innovation has emerged within global and domestic environmental governance: certification systems that promote socially responsible business practices by turning to the market, rather than the state, for rule-making authority. This book documents five cases in which the Forest Stewardship Council, a forest certification program backed by leading environmental groups, has competed with industry and landowner-sponsored certification systems for legitimacy.The authors compare the politics behind forest certification in five countries. They reflect on why there are differences regionally, discuss the impact the Forest Stewardship Council has had on other certification programs, and assess the ability of private forest certification to address global forest deterioration.
eBook
Fire management in the American West
Most journalists and academics attribute the rise of wildfires in the western United States to the USDA Forest Service's successful fire-elimination policies of the twentieth century. However, in Fire Management in the American West, Mark Hudson argues that although a century of suppression did indeed increase the hazard of wildfire, the responsibility does not lie with the USFS alone. The roots are found in the Forest Service's relationships with other, more powerful elements of society--the timber industry in particular. Drawing on correspondence both between and within the Forest Service and the major timber industry associations, newspaper articles, articles from industry outlets, and policy documents from the late 1800s through the present, Hudson shows how the US forest industry, under the constraint of profitability, pushed the USFS away from private industry regulation and toward fire exclusion, eventually changing national forest policy into little more than fire policy. More recently, the USFS has attempted to move beyond the policy of complete fire suppression. Interviews with public land managers in the Pacific Northwest shed light on the sources of the agency's struggles as it attempts to change the way we understand and relate to fire in the West. Fire Management in the American West will be of great interest to environmentalists, sociologists, fire managers, scientists, and academics and students in environmental history and forestry.
eBook
Social and Ecological Synergy: Local Rulemaking, Forest Livelihoods, and Biodiversity Conservation
Causal pathways to achieve social and ecological benefits from forests are unclear, because there are few systematic multicountry empirical analyses that identify important factors and their complex relationships with social and ecological outcomes. This study examines biodiversity conservation and forest-based livelihood outcomes using a data set on 84 sites from six countries in East Africa and South Asia. We find both positive and negative relationships, leading to joint wins, losses, and trade-offs depending on specific contextual factors; participation in forest governance institutions by local forest users is strongly associated with jointly positive outcomes for forests in our study.
Journal Article
Testing a silvicultural recommendation: Brazil nut responses 10 years after liana cutting
Lianas or woody vines can be detrimental to the trees that support them. Research on liana cutting for tropical timber management has demonstrated positive yet costly benefits, but liana cutting to enhance commercial outputs of nontimber forest products has not been examined. We implemented a controlled experiment to quantify the effects of cutting lianas on Brazil nut Bertholletia excelsa Bonpl. fecundity. We conducted our 10‐year experiment in a Brazilian extractive reserve where local harvesters collect fruits from this Amazonian canopy‐emergent species as part of their forest‐based livelihood system. We cut 454 lianas with a total basal area of 2·41 m² from 78 of 138 host trees ≥50 cm diameter at breast height. Treated trees were significantly better producers 3 ½ years after liana cutting, and these differences increased dramatically in subsequent years, with consistent proportionally higher production in treated versus untreated individuals. The number of lianas rooted within 5 m of the host tree significantly explained production levels, suggesting both above‐ and below‐ground liana–host tree competition. Once host crowns were liana‐free, branch regrowth was highly visible, particularly in heavily infested trees, and crown reassessments suggested that liana cutting improved crown form. Additionally, liana cutting may induce some nonproducing trees to become producers and may circumvent mortality of trees heavily infested with lianas (> 75% crown covered). Liana removal can be implemented easily when harvesting Brazil nut fruits. Only lianas associated with B. excelsa trees should be cut to conserve liana ecosystem functions. Synthesis and applications. We quantified effects of liana cutting on Brazil nut host tree fecundity and provided estimates of increased commercial yields. Our long‐term (10‐year) study permits understanding of biological variation and informs related management decisions. Findings suggest that liana cutting reduces above‐ and below‐ground competition with individual trees, ultimately allowing mature host crowns to recover such that 9–10 years after liana cutting, treated trees produced on average three times more fruits than untreated trees. Application of liana cutting to other tropical species would likely boost fruit and seed production, increase host tree fecundity and potentially enhance future recruitment.
Journal Article
Past, present and future of industrial plantation forestry and implication on future timber harvesting technology
Plantation forests are established, and expanding, to satisfy increasing global demand for timber products. Shifting societal values, such as safety, productivity, environmental, quality and social are influencing the plantation forestry sector. This is primarily driven through an ever increasing world population, which in turn influences the way nations view the value systems by which they live. More people require more resources—also forest products. Also, the availability of information is influencing the pace of technological development. These changes could result in a difference in the management of plantations that could affect the forest engineering systems of the future. This review aimed to summarize the current status of plantation forests; summarize future developments and possible scenarios in forest plantation management for the various products; and assess whether these developments in a plantation environment could affect the harvesting systems used. Factors influencing the form of plantations include the type and nature of the plantation owner; the change in demand for different and new forest products; climate change factors, including the use of biomass for energy, carbon sequestration and trading; ecosystem services and other products and services; and sustainability certification of forest management. The impact and influence of these factors were summarised into a series of key drivers that will influence the technology used in harvesting machines, as well as the choice of harvesting machines, systems and methods. These drivers were the effect of variations in tree size, the expansion of plantation areas onto more difficult terrain, diversity in plantation design, increased attention towards site impacts and the increased use of biomass for energy. Specific information is provided regarding how the harvesting systems could be affected.
Journal Article
Socioeconomic Factors Determining Extraction of Non-timber Forest Products on the Slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) from natural forests in sub-Saharan Africa provide significant benefits to rural communities. In this study conducted on the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, we assumed that the extraction of NTFPs by local communities is related to sex, income, age, household size, and distance from the forest. We interviewed 313 household heads from six villages. We employed a logistic regression with a logit link to test the significance among the variables. Younger females of larger households with lower income and less cultivated land cut fodder and collected firewood more frequently than other villagers. Firewood collection frequency decreased with increasing distance from village to forest whereas fodder collection frequency increased. Men collected medicinal plants more frequently than younger women and if the distance from the village was greater. For firewood and fodder extraction, inter-village variation was greater than intra-village variation, suggesting that differences in access to infrastructure and alternative fodder sites also strongly determined NTFP extraction. Our results contribute to a better targeted participatory forest management.
Journal Article
Trade-offs in the multi-use potential of managed boreal forests
1. Implementing multi-use forest management to account for both commercial and non-commercial ecosystem services is gaining increased global recognition. Despite its spatial extent, and great economic and ecological values, few studies have evaluated the boreal forest and its management to assess the potential for simultaneous delivery of a suite of ecosystem services. 2. Using data from a Swedish long-term experiment, this study explores how biodiversity of the ground vegetation and potential delivery of multiple ecosystem services (timber production, carbon [C] storage and non-timber forest products) are influenced by two common silvicultural practices (thinning, fertilization and their interaction). 3. Diversity (diversity indices and species richness) of the ground vegetation was higher in thinned than in unthinned forest, a result attributable in part to six species of lichens that only occurred in thinned forest. In addition, supply of lichens for reindeer forage was three times higher in thinned forest. Fertilization negatively affected the lingonberry shrub (Vaccinium vitis-idaea). Timber production increased with fertilization, but decreased with thinning. The potential for C storage was highest in fertilized forests, which, apart from having the highest timber production, also supported the highest standing tree biomass. 4. The silvicultural practices evaluated induced trade-offs among the ecosystem features studied as thinning increased biodiversity of the ground vegetation, production potential of wild berries and lichens, but reduced timber production and the potential for C storage. Fertilization had the opposite effect, promoting the potential for C storage at the expense of biodiversity and the ecosystem services delivered by the ground vegetation. 5. Synthesis and applications. Increased multi-use potential is a common goal for forest management in many parts of the world. Our result shows that commonly used silvicultural practices can be used to determine the multi-use output and might be applied to maintain, or even increase the multi-use potential of the boreal forest biome. Nevertheless, trade-offs among values were common, indicating that the multi-use potential will be limited at the site level. Allowing management objectives to vary across the landscape might, in such cases, be a preferable way to achieve high multi-use potential.
Journal Article
ecological implications of harvesting non-timber forest products
1. The harvest of wild non-timber forest products (NTFP) represents an important source of income to millions of people world-wide. Despite growing concern over the conservation of these species, as well as their potential to foster forest conservation, information on the ecological implications of harvest is available only in disparate case studies. 2. Seventy studies that quantify the ecological effects of harvesting NTFP from plant species were reviewed, with the aims of assessing the current state of knowledge and drawing lessons that can provide guidelines for management as well as better directing future ecological research in this area. 3. The case studies illustrated that NTFP harvest can affect ecological processes at many levels, from individual and population to community and ecosystem. However, the majority of research was focused at a population level and on a limited subset of plant parts that are harvested. 4. Tolerance to harvest varies according to life history and the part of plant that is harvested. Moreover, the effects of harvest for any one species are mediated by variation in environmental conditions over space and time, and by human management practices. 5. In order to withstand heavy harvest, specific management practices in addition to gathering are necessary for many NTFP species. Management practices can be carried out at different spatial scales and some are highly effective in fostering population persistence. 6. Synthesis and applications. Substantial advances have been made towards identifying the ecological impacts of NTFP harvest. However, there is a need for longer-term studies that focus on multiple ecological levels (ranging from genes to ecosystems), that assess the mechanisms underlying impacts and that validate current models. Researchers and forest managers need to work with local harvesters in designing and evaluating management practices that can mitigate the negative effects of harvest.
Journal Article