Th e popularity of community-based natural resource management has grown both within British Columbia’s forests and around the world. It is oft en assumed that increased local control of resources will enable more ecologically sensitive forestry practices, but this is not necessarily the case. Th rough case study examples of “earlier” community forest models in British Columbia and Mexico, the ...

Ecosystem services provided by forests (e.g., nutrient cycling) are critical in midwestern landscapes. We conducted collaborative workshops with forest landowners and management professionals using specific strategies to provide information about nutrient dynamics in forests and learn about goals/obstacles for forest management in Iowa. Preparticipation surveys assessed knowledge and goals and ...

Global attention to climate change has advanced an awareness of human impacts on the environment. Progressing more slowly is recognition of the critical link between forest ecosystems and human welfare. Forests provide a number of societal benefits or ecosystem services, such as water purification, climate and flood regulation, recreational opportunities, and spiritual fulfillment. This paper e...

Many services generated by forest ecosystems provide essential support for human well-being. However, the vulnerability of these services to environmental change such as forest fragmentation are still poorly understood. We present spatial modeling of the generation of ecosystem services in a human-dominated landscape where forest habitat patches, protected by local taboos, are located in a matr...

Forest ecosystem could significantly sequestrate some atmospheric CO2 and, therefore, partly mitigate current pressure on global warming. The carbon sequestration capacity of forest ecosystem is determined by both the NPP increase trend and turnover time. In order to estimate the capability of forest C sequestration in China, a carbon turnover model, which bases on NPP increase trend monitored ...

Adaptation of forest management practices in the context of rapid climatic and socioeconomic changes is a global concern. Stakeholders in the forest-based sector as well as policy makers need improved methods and tools to assess potential impacts of changes in management on sustainability indicators. In this special feature, we introduce a methodological framework for classification of forest m...

Huge areas of diverse tropical forest are lost or degraded every year with dramatic consequences for biodiversity. Deforestation and fragmentation, over-exploitation, invasive species and climate change are the main drivers of tropical forest biodiversity loss. Most studies investigating these threats have focused on changes in species richness or species diversity. However, if we are to unders...

Forest restoration projects are occurring throughout the world. Restoration projects can vary greatly depending on the type of forest and the type of stressors that have caused ecosystem degradation and the need for restoration. Because of this variability, and because objective criteria for determining the success of restoration projects are lacking, it is difficult to evaluate the overall suc...

Sustainable forest management integrates ecological, social, and economic objectives. To achieve the former, researchers and practitioners are modifying silvicultural practices based on concepts from successional and landscape ecology to provide a broader array of ecosystem functions than is associated with conventional approaches. One such innovation is disturbance-based management. Under this...