Forest Ecosystem Services: An Analysis of Worldwide Research

The relevance of forests to sustain human well-being and the serious threats they face have led to a notable increase of research works on forest ecosystem services during the last few years. This paper analyses the worldwide research dynamics on forest ecosystem services in the period from 1998 to 2017. A bibliometric analysis of 4284 articles was conducted. The results showed that the number of published research articles has especially increased during the last five years. In total, 68.63% of the articles were published in this period. This research line experiences a growing trend superior to the general publishing trend on forest research. In spite of this increase, its relative significance within the forest research is still limited. The most productive subject areas corresponded to Environmental Science, Agricultural and Biological Sciences and Social Sciences Economic topics are understudied. The scientific production is published in a wide range of journals. The three first publishing countries are United States, China and the United Kingdom. The most productive authors are attached to diverse research centres and their contributions are relatively recent. A high level of international cooperation has been observed between countries, institutions and authors. The findings of this study are useful for researchers since they give them an overview of the worldwide research trends on forest ecosystem services

How the location of roads and protected areas affects deforestation in North Thailand

Using plot-level data, the authors estimate a bi-variate probit model to explain land clearing, and the siting of protected areas in North Thailand in 1986. Their model suggests that protected areas (national parks, together with wildlife sanctuaries) did not reduce the likelihood of forest clearing, but wildlife sanctuaries may have reduced the probability of deforestation. Road building, by reducing the impedance-weighted distance to market, has promoted clearing, especially near the forest fringe. The authors stimulate the impact of further road building to show where road building is likely to have the greatest impact on forest clearing, and where it is likely to threaten protected areas.Wetlands,Climate Change,Earth Sciences&GIS,Environmental Economics&Policies,Water Conservation,Climate Change,Wetlands,Earth Sciences&GIS,Environmental Economics&Policies,Forestry

A preliminary assessment of water partitioning and ecohydrological coupling in northern headwaters using stable isotopes and conceptual runoff models

Funded by European Research Council ERC. Grant Number: GA 335910 VEWA Swedish Science Foundation (SITES) Future Forest Formas (ForWater) SKB the Kempe foundation Environment Canada the Garfield Weston Foundation the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) the Northwest Territories Cumulative Impacts Monitoring ProgramPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Misc. Pub. 88-1

I submit herewith the annual report of the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, School of Agriculture and Land Resources Management, University of Alaska Fairbanks, for the period ending December 31, 1987. This is done in accordance with an act of the Congress, approved March 2, 1887, entitled "An act to establish Agricultural Experiment Stations, in connection with the Agricultural Colleges established in the several states under the provisions of an act approved July 2,1862, and under the acts supplementary thereto," and also of the act of the Alaska Territorial Legislature, approved March 12,1935, accepting the provisions of the act of Congress. James V. Drew, DirectorStatement of Purpose -- Plant and Animal Sciences -- Forest Sciences -- Resources Management -- Publications -- Financial Statement -- Staf

Misc. Pub. 91-1

I submit herewith the annual report of the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, School of Agriculture and Land Resources Management, University of Alaska Fairbanks, for the period ending December 31,1990. This is done in accordance with an act of the Congress, approved March 2,1887, entitled "An act to establish Agricultural Experiment Stations, in connection with the Agricultural Colleges established in the several states under the provisions of an act approved July 2,1862, and under the acts supplementary thereto," and also of the act of the Alaska Territorial Legislature, approved March 12,1935, accepting the provisions of the act of Congress. James V. Drew, DirectorStatement of Purpose -- Plant and Animal Sciences -- Forest Sciences -- Resources Management -- Financial Statement -- Publications - Staf

New IUFRO Initiative to Improve Forest Sciences Study Programmes: the Task Force EFS (Education in Forest Sciences)

The system of higher education has been facing fundamental changes, triggered by globalization and global change, altering expectations of stakeholders and society from university graduates and novel insights of educational sciences – calling for a move from teaching to learning. Programmes of higher forest education have been challenged even more by changing societal demands, such as climate change, changing patterns of demands for ecosystem services, and novel resource governance systems. The development of forest sciences as well as of forestry curricula should adapt to or even anticipate those trends. Consequently development of forest sciences curricula should move towards: • Focusing on generic and methodical competences instead of contents and descriptive approaches, enabling graduates to tackle novel, complex problems; • Competences to integrate and communicate knowledge across disciplinary boarders and to analyze the existing interactions; • New learning units addressing challenges such as climate change, adaptive ecosystem management, governance systems, gender issues, forests as source of energy, role of forests and forest products in rural development and poverty alleviation as well as the assessment of other environmental and social impacts. The IUFRO Task Force on Education in Forest Sciences (EFS – http://www.tf-efs.proste.pl) is an attempt to answer to the growing demand for coordination of research based knowledge and education at university level. The objective of EFS IUFRO TF is an improved practice of Education in Forest Sciences worldwide. EFS therefore aims at contributing to development of standards of Education in Forest Sciences, which meet the requirements of today, using experiences and examples of good practice in the IUFRO community and cooperation with higher education experts. Part of this is the development of a framework on required competences of graduates of education in forest sciences, to be characterized in terms of skill dimension, context, and level of mastery. This will be based, among others, on focus group discussions with higher forestry education specialists worldwide

Participatory land management planning in biodiversity conservation areas of Lao PDR

The importance of integrating forest conservation and rural development objectives is much better understood today than in the past. Despite an increased understanding such integration in many countries remains poorly supported in terms of co-ordination between government agencies and stakeholders. Environmental degradation and loss of biodiversity conservation areas to competing alternative uses is widespread throughout the world and Lao PDR is no exception. The forest policy in Lao PDR has developed under the framework of international conventions. The protected area system has been established with the aim of conserving healthy and diverse forests. Rehabilitation and reforestation policies are important complements. The former “rules by decree” approach has been replaced by a set of laws and regulations. This thesis presents and discusses a management approach for biodiversity conservation areas in Lao PDR. As part of that, it highlights the significance of appropriate policies and legislation as a base for sustainable management, discusses various interdisciplinary and interactive planning methods tested in case studies, and analyses the utilisation of non-timber forest products as part of a strategy for sustainable management of biodiversity conservation areas. The integration of techniques from social sciences and natural sciences is emphasised to encourage local participation in managing the conservation areas. Participatory Rural Appraisal, simple sampling methods, and remote sensing were used in the studies. A simple simulation model (the Area Production Model) strengthened the inter-action process. The integrated and cross-sectoral approach turned out to be simple, flexible and dynamic. The recognition of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) plays an important role in the conservation and development of protected area management. A literature review was made to gain insight into the research trend in Southeast Asia in terms of tenure rights of NTFPs and the way people utilise them. Quantitative resource assessment is an important part in sustainable management. In a case study, a participatory two-phase sampling approach for cardamom assessment was developed and tested with a promising result

Forestry sciences and global forest governance

Forschungsagenden von Wissenschaften, ihre institutionalisierten Netzwerke und gemeinsamen Grundannahmen werden durch das jeweilige soziale und politische Umfeld geprägt. Dieses Umfeld wird im Falle der Forstwissenschaften zunehmend durch inter- und transnationale Politikprozesse (wie bspw. zur Biodiversität oder zum Klimawandel) geprägt. Der Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, auf welche Art und Weise und wie intensiv eine solche „globale Governance des Waldes“ die deutschen Forstwissenschaften beeinflusst. Er beschreibt eine signifikante Verschiebung im Umfeld der Forstwissenschaften von der lokalen bzw. nationalen in Richtung der inter- und transnationalen Ebene. Dies wird zum einen anhand von Veränderungen in den Akteurskonstellationen deutlich (Entstehung einflussreicher nichtforstlicher Akteure wie NGOs, zwischenstaatliche Bürokratien und epistemische Gemeinschaften). Zum anderen scheint sich der politische Diskurs zu verändern (von einem lokalen Forst zu einem globalen Walddiskurs). Beide Veränderungen haben Konsequenzen: Es wird deutlich, dass die Forstwissenschaften innerhalb dieser globalen Prozesse lediglich eine Randstellung einnehmen. Interessanterweise werden innerhalb der Gemeinschaft der deutschen Forstwissenschaften diese Veränderungen (noch) nicht als signifikant für die Forstpolitik im Allgemeinen und die Wissenschaft im Besonderen wahrgenommen. Dies zeigt sich anhand der Auswertung einer Umfrage in der deutschen Forstwissenschaftsgemeinschaft und von Interviews mit in der internationalen Waldpolitik involvierten politischen Akteuren. Der Beitrag schließt mit Vorschlägen für eine engere Einbeziehung forstwissenschaftlichen Wissens in die globale Wald-Governance.Societal and political environments determine research agendas, networks and epistemic identities within the scientific and academic realm. In the case of forestry, it is argued, these environments are increasingly negotiated and discussed (“ framed”) within inter- and transnational environmental politics (such as biodiversity, climate change). This paper explores in which way and to what extent processes of “global forest governance” impair German forestry sciences. It describes shifts of forestry issues from the local and national towards inter- and transnational levels by focussing on changing actor constellations (emergence of powerful non-forestry actors like NGOs, transgovernmental bureaucracies and epistemic communities) on the one hand and changing political discourses (from local to global forest discourses) on the other. This paper shows that forestry sciences seem to be marginalized in global forest governance processes. Furthermore, data from questionnaires and interviews indicate that within the German forestry sciences community, these shifts are not yet fully acknowledged as significant processes for forest politics in general and for the scientific community in particular. Finally, it proposes strategies to facilitate the lock-in of forestry-related scientific knowledge for the global governance of forests