This book, which contains 14 chapters, considers the interactions between forestry and environmental (climatic) change, from social and economic perspectives. Topics discussed include: deforestation in temperate and tropical forests, the application of forest zoning as an alternative to multiple use forestry, capital management, establishment of large-scale reserves in temperate and boreal forests, and social revolutions in forest management. This book will be of significant interest to those studying forestry, climate change and natural resource economics.

Five years of research carried out by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Services' Northern Global Change Program, contributing to our understanding of the effects of multiples stresses on forest ecosystems over multiple spatial and temporal scales. At the physiological level, reports explore changes in growth and biomass, species composition, and wildlife habitat; at the landscape scale, the abundance distribution, and dynamics of species, populations, and communities are addressed. Chapters include studies of nutrient depletion, climate and atmospheric deposition, carbon and nitrogen cycling, insect and disease outbreaks, biotic feedbacks with the atmosphere, interacting effects of multiple stresses, and modeling the regional effects of global change. The book provides sound ecological information for policymakers and land-use planners as well as for researchers in ecology, forestry, atmospheric science, soil science and biogeochemistry.

This book contains 28 chapters grouped into six sections providing information on forests interact with the other components of the physical and natural world with the human society, and how we could manage forests globally to make the most of their contribution to mitigation of climate change along with the established objective of sustainable management to maximize the full range of economic and non-market benefits which forests provide. Topics covered include: introduction on the interaction between forests and climate change; climate change, forestry and science-policy interface; forestry options for contributing to climate change mitigation; options for adaptation due to impacts of climate change on forests; current and future policy of national and international frameworks; and implications for future forestry and related environmental and development policy.

This book reviews current knowledge of most types of geohazards in forested areas. The 11 chapters cover hydrologic impacts, including flooding and soil erosion, desertification in Mediterranean Europe and Africa, landslides, and hazards in mangrove forests and along shorelines. Examples covered are from all five continents.

This resourceful book draws on several case studies to derive implications for the design of Payment for Environmental Services (PES) schemes that are very relevant to current climate change negotiations and the implementation of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) schemes at the national level. With its focus on livelihoods, the book also provides important lessons that are relevant to the design of PES schemes focusing on environmental services other than carbon conservation. Drawing practical lessons for the design of activities aimed at reducing deforestation and forest degradation while benefiting rural people, this book will appeal to academics, practitioners and students involved in the fields of environment and natural resource management, forestry and development studies. This insightful study is accessible also to non-experts in presenting the key issues faced in avoiding deforestation and benefiting livelihoods.

Societies throughout the world depend on food, fiber and forest products. Continuity and security of agricultural and forest production are therefore of paramount importance. Predicted changes in climate could be expected to alter, perhaps significantly, the levels and relative agricultural and forestry production of different nations over the next few decades. Agriculture and forestry are also likely to influence the rate and magnitude of such change, as they can be both significant sources and sinks of a number of greenhouse gases. Adaptive management strategies therefore need to be formulated and implemented for these sectors, to enable them to both adapt to future environmental change, and to limit greenhouse gas emissions. This book arose from an international workshop held in Canberra, Australia, under the auspices of the former IPCC Working Group III - Agriculture, Forestry and Other Human Activities Sub-Group (AFOS). A number of leading speakers at the workshop were approached to encapsulate the concepts discussed and developed at this workshop. The resulting papers make up this volume. The book promotes a greater understanding of the major sources and sinks of greenhouse gases within intensive and extensive cropping and animal production systems, and of agroforestry. It highlights the need to adopt a holistic systems approach to monitoring and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and assessing impacts, and to integrate climate change-related goals and activities with other issues, such as biodiversity, desertification, and sustainable agriculture and forestry.

Climate change is one of the major global environmental problems, one that has the potential to confront us with great costs during the decades to come. Climate change is caused by emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide (CO). As z deforestation leads to CO emissions and growing forests sequester CO, forestry z z projects provide us with options to mitigate CO effects. This study analyses the z contribution Jorestry projects can make within the context of climate change. The contribution of forestry projects is here discussed on two levels. On a first level, the COz effect of individual projects is analysed. On a second level, the study asks whether the analysis of forestry projects can contribute to questions on climate change which have been discussed in the economic literature during the past two decades. While most studies on forestry projects focus on particular details, predominantly on technical issues, this study takes a rather broad perspective, drawing together different relevant aspects: the stability of international agreements is discussed, costs and benefIts of reducing GHG emissions in industrial countries are reviewed, the underlying causes of deforestation are analysed and insights from resource economics are taken into consideration. Such a wide perspectiveallows the identifIcation, discussion and appreciation of problems and opportunities associated with forestry projects in the context of climate change which are otherwise not recognised.

An area of forest the size of England is cut down in the tropics each year. Forestry is responsible for a fifth of global carbon emissions - more than the entire world transport sector. Urgent action to tackle the loss of global forests needs to be a central part of any new international agreement on climate change. Climate Change: Financing Global Forests is an independent report commissioned by the UK Prime Minister to address this vitally important issue. It assesses the impact of global forest loss on climate change and explores the future role of forests in the international climate change framework, with particular emphasis on the role of international finance. It also looks at the economic and policy drivers of deforestation and describes the incentives required to ensure more sustainable production of agriculture and timber in order to meet global demand while reducing carbon emissions. The report draws on a wide range of international expertise and will have significant national, EU and international interest and influence. It includes new modelling and analysis of the global economic impact of continued deforestation and provides a comprehensive assessment of the opportunity and capacity-building costs of addressing the problem. It shows that the benefits of halving deforestation could amount to $3.7 trillion over the long term. However, if the international community does not act, the global economic cost of climate change caused by deforestation could amount to $12 trillion. In this comprehensive and detailed report, Johan Eliasch makes a clear and forceful case for forests to be included in international carbon trading mechanisms. He calls for the international community to support forest nations to halve deforestation by 2020 and to make the global forest sector carbon neutral by 2030.

This edited open access volume explores the role of forest bioeconomy in addressing climate change. The authors put a particular focus on planetary boundaries and how the linear, growth-oriented economy, is coupled with climate change and environmental degradation. Biobased products and sustainable production paths have been developed, but how can they be scaled in order to lead to an economic paradigm shift? This and other questions are discussed throughout the volume. Since science indicates that climate change will continue this century, the authors also analyse how forests can be adapted to increasing forest disturbances that changing climate are expected to cause. The authors propose climate-smart forestry as useful approach for climate mitigation and adaptation of forests to climate change, as wells as sustainable increase of economic well-being based on forestry. The book illustrates the application of climate-smart forestry in the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany and Spain, i.e., in EU countries with quite different forests and forest sectors. This proactive and inspiring volume is an essential resource for Forest Management professionals, decision makers, scientists, and forestry students.