We offer an ethnographic account of how forest conservation is diversely assembled at the contiguous Tambopata National Reserve and Bahuaja Sonene National Park, biodiversity hotspots in the southern Peruvian Amazon. In so doing, and revising Elinor Ostrom and collaborators' Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework, we put together a theory framework of forest institutional change, informed

In light of growing pressure on forests benefit sharing is increasingly gaining attention as a governance approach to facilitating more equitable and sustainable interactions and outcomes. While benefit sharing is one of the key components of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks) programs and policies under the United Nations

The co-existence of customary and statutory land tenure institutions makes land tenure a complex issue for farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, land tenure systems are gendered, which is often to the disadvantage of women. We outline a land tenure framework, which acknowledges the interactions between gender and different land tenure institutions and their impact on investments in agroforestry

At the global level, two Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) systems, i.e., protocols and certification, have grown significantly in standardizing forest management practices. Protocols are driven by multi-stakeholder groups that outline a series of standardized criteria and indicators agreed upon by participating countries. On the other hand, forest certification involves market-driven multi-stakeholder

Mangrove ecosystems in Indonesia show great promise in contributing to climate change mitigation, but they continue to experience significant degradation primarily because of aquaculture conversion. This work analyzes the mangrove governance in Indonesia and how it fits the country's high emission reduction. The study is mainly based on the analysis of existing regulations, interviews with relevant

For the forest sector, it is important to produce wood in an efficient and cost-effective way, while at the same time satisfying customer needs. This requires careful management of the wood product supply chain; from the point of production (forest owners) to the intermediates who transform these into intermediate goods and final wood products (forest-based industries), and deliver these goods to the

We analyzed the interdependency between forest land conversion and economic land use in Brazilian Legal Amazon (BLA) from 2006 to 2017. More specifically, we assessed incremental economic gains from forest conversion in the perspective of environmental efficiency, and we analyzed the causes and implications of the interdependence based on a Forest Transition framework. Results suggested that despite

In the last decade, multiple scientists and policymakers have been promoting bioeconomy for decarbonisation and as a way to tackle the ongoing socio-ecological crises. An effective transition to the bioeconomy in developing countries, which are predominantly agrarian,depends partly on its amenability to existing land access regimes and how actors in such countries are able to manage competing claims

This article examines global trends likely to influence forests and tree-based systems and considers the poverty implications of these interactions. The trends, identified through a series of expert discussions and review of the literature, include: (i) climatic impacts mediated through changes in forests, (ii) growth in commodity markets, (iii) shifts in private and public forest sector financing

Market-based forest governance mechanisms such as reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+) are implemented in many forests rich countries to conserve biodiversity and mitigate against global climate change. The assumption is that communities will be better motivated to participate in forest conservation if monetary payments are provided to compensate for past efforts or future

The public forest policy's response to the threat of deforestation in Mexico has relied on different environmental tools for forest management, conservation, and survival. The present study compares the updated version of the Index of Economic Pressure for Deforestation (IRDef, in Spanish), one of the most commonly used public policy tools, to an alternative version this index incorporating a modification

Timberland ownership in the world, especially in the United States, has experienced significant changes in the past few decades. In this commentary, I reviewed a recently published book by Daowei Zhang under this theme. The book examined the driving forces of institutional timberland investment by compiling a number of landmark events through corporate reports and interviews with major parties involved

In this paper, we explore the interactions between political, social and environmental changes and forest governance in Kenya, through a study of Mukogodo forest in Laikipia county. Drawing on findings from key informant and group interviews as well as analysis of policy documents, we argue that political reform processes – including devolution and changing land and forest policies – combined with

An extensive set of policies, programmes, technologies and strategies have been implemented in the forest sector. Collectively, these ‘levers’ cover a diverse range of approaches, at a variety of scales and are governed by many different stakeholders. It is important for decision-makers to understand which levers might be most useful in achieving poverty alleviation. This paper seeks to answer the

China has endeavored to devolve collective forests to individual households or user groups in the past decades. However, few studies have explored the community-level institutional selection process in the forest devolution reforms. Based on a longitudinal case study in Fujian province, this study focuses on China's forest devolution reform in the early 2000s and explores in the reform why the community

This article deliberates the processes, principles, and rules relevant to forest-sector climate change mitigation and adaptation in light of the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) of the Paris Agreement (PA). We tackle such issues as targets and indicators, scope and information needs of forest-sector actions, progress tracking, stock taking, anthropogenic testing, carbon (C) accounting, and

The Forest Development Program (FDP) is a nationally renowned state-administered cost-share assistance program for forest landowners in North Carolina, primarily funded through taxation on primary forest products across the state. While the demand for FDP cost-share funds often exceeds available resources, over one-fourth of annual allocations on average go unused, due primarily to application cancellations

The influence of foreign donors and their development politics on domestic development policies has been an important research topic in the field of development studies. Lately, foreign donors have changed their strategy in forest-related development activities by substantially involving non-state actors. As a foreign donor, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has introduced

The “Fit for 55” climate package adopted by the EU is intended to prepare the way for the EU's climate neutrality in 2050. It contains measures affecting the forestry and timber sector. We evaluate three instruments: the proposal for a New EU Forest Strategy for 2030, the EU Renewable Energy Directive and the Land-use, Land-Use Change and Forestry Regulation with regard to their implications for sustainable

Forest and tree-based landscapes represent complex social-ecological systems. In tropical and subtropical regions, these landscapes are home to hundreds of millions of resource-poor people. Gaining a better understanding of how contextual factors influence forest-poverty dynamics is essential for the design, targeting and implementation of effective policy instruments and interventions to alleviate

This paper analyses timber and wood processing companies' views on opportunities and challenges for FLEGT implementation in Vietnam based on a literature review, online surveys with 56 timber and wood processing companies, in-depth interviews with 26 stakeholders from different institutions, and a consultation workshop involving 94 participants. Our paper shows that FLEGT has received increasing attention

Forests are sources of multiple ecosystem services (ESs) essential for human wellbeing. Forest owners are critical actors to decide which benefits they produce from their forests. To support the uptake of alternative forest management strategies in a way that is beneficial from the perspective of society as whole, new incentive schemes could be implemented in the future. We applied the choice experiment

The competitive advantage of traditional forest industry regions such as North America, Russia and the EU is based largely on the production and processing of coniferous (C) biomass. However, non-coniferous (NC) and recycled (R) biomass provide cost-effective alternatives to C biomass, which have already decreased the proportion of C biomass use and which can potentially have large impacts on the future

Prescribed fire is a management tool in many Australian and international ecosystems, where it can benefit biodiversity conservation and potentially reduce the risk of extreme wildfires threatening highly valued assets. However, the economic efficiency of prescribed fire is poorly understood. The aim of this study was to progress this understanding by improving estimates of prescribed fire costs. A

As programs with payments for ecosystem services (PES) have become more numerous, raising the need for and also the opportunity for rigorous evidence on their contributions, we examine shifts within Costa Rica's Pagos por Servicios Ambientales (PSA) program. The PSA was heralded from its initiation, despite demonstrations of low early impacts. We study shifts in impact over time across early periods

Payments for environmental services (PES) are considered an effective approach to solving both environmental and socio-economic issues. However, there lies a significant research gap in the context of their impact on income and attitudes toward conservation. Using household survey data and the propensity score matching technique, this study evaluates the impact of the payments for forest environmental

The alleviation of global poverty is a major objective of the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals (notably SDG1 “to end poverty in all its forms everywhere”). Many rural people experiencing poverty often rely on forests and tree-based systems, such as agroforestry, suggesting the existence of links between such systems and poverty outcomes. This paper reviews the evidence of such links across multiple

Factor endowment-based structural change theorems posit that increase in factor endowment of a region leads to an increase in output of the industries that use the factors more intensively. This study uses a dynamic panel regression analysis to examine the linkage between factor endowment and structural changes in Kentucky forest industry. The analysis uses forest-based industries' shares in employment

Opportunities exist for forestry companies to vertically integrate operations to include both forest estate management and timber processing. However, forest supply chains have traditionally functioned in a decoupled manner where forest operations and timber processing are uncoordinated in their planning and operation, leading to sub-optimal supply chain configuration and outcomes. To maximize the

Authoritarian environmentalism (AE) has become an important source of social injustice in China. Taking clues from the theory of just transition and a case study of forestry reform in Northeast China, this article discusses the tension between environmental protection and social justice in Chinese AE. From a procedural perspective, the belief in insulated eco-elites being best placed to make environmental

Major advances have been made over the past two decades in our understanding of the contribution forests and trees outside forests make to human well-being across the globe. Yet this knowledge has not always been incorporated into broader poverty and development policy agendas. The result is a missed opportunity to effectively and sustainably reach national and international poverty alleviation goals

Contingent valuation is used to examine the influence of environmental engagement and beliefs on willingness to pay (WTP) for urban forest preservation. We survey surrounding residents of two urban forest sites in Puerto Rico with distinct environmental experiences and beliefs about ecosystem services. We find that WTP for preserving the urban forest where the surrounding residents are involved in

How do policy-oriented learning and shifting coalitions among private and public actors affect the evolution of the regulatory governance of legal and sustainable global timber commodity production and trade? To answer this question, we study the interplay between the transnational private regulation of sustainable forestry certification under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) scheme and the public

A growing body of literature suggests a need to incorporate both complementary and competitive relationships among multiple objectives into conservation investment decisions. To do this, we hypothesize that spatial budget allocations and overall benefits for payment for ecosystem services (PES) are influenced by the complexity of complementary and competitive relationships among multiple objectives

Despite the increasing challenges wildfires are posing around the globe, and the flourishing production of high-quality wildfire scientific knowledge, the ability of fire science to impact knowledge on the ground, for people, society, economy, and the environment, in a way that facilitates change in the current wildfire management system has been limited. We believe that one reason for this limited

We analyze how two different ecosystem services: forest-based amenity values and carbon storage benefits, affect spatial targeting for conservation investment for protected area acquisition using selected forest clusters in Knox County, Tennessee in the United States. We determine return-on-investment (ROI) for these two different forest-based ecosystem services by estimating amenity values and carbon

In Ukraine, the timber volume harvested from sanitary cuttings is increasing, while the state of national forests is decreasing. These trends have focused the attention of public authorities and increased public debate on the role of forests for society. A forest policy reform process needs to build on a sound understanding of the relevant stakeholders, their mutual relationships and interests in the

We solve two related problems: i) the harvest scheduling problem and ii) the forest road maintenance scheduling problem. The main objective is to evaluate the effect of stochastic delays of forest road maintenance on forest harvesting. We built a control scenario to evaluate a deterministic model without road maintenance delay and measured the impacts of the delay through a stochastic programming model

In this paper roundwood prices were forecasted by means of the following time series models: (1) classical univariate autoregressive moving average (ARIMA), (2) seasonal univariate (SARIMA), and (3) seasonal bivariate with an exogenous variable (SARIMAX). The data consisted of time series of the nominal prices of pine, spruce, beech, birch, and alder roundwood and the construction confidence index

Forests and trees provide a range of goods and services vital for human well-being, particularly for people who live below the poverty line. Yet a number of important knowledge gaps remain regarding the relationship between forests, trees, and poverty dynamics. Here, we highlight five research priorities that require urgent attention if policy makers and practitioners are to realize the potential for

Empirical analyses of interlinkages and price dependencies in the forest-based sector support the forecast of market developments and the design of efficient utilization pathways. This article aims at analysing price cointegration between roundwood (sawlogs, pulpwood), sawmill by-products (sawdust, wood chips) and wood products (pellets, particle board) in the forest-based sector in Austria. Monthly

As societies seek to transition towards a sustainable economy, new conflicts may arise from additional competing demands placed on limited resources and space. Using a perceptional approach, we show that such structural-functional conflicts are primarily perceived when other sectors' demands encroach on traditional use of forest resources or space. Moreover, using experts' assessment of stakeholder

Community forest enterprises (CFEs) are community-owned businesses that manage their forest resources for income, employment, and public goods and services. Although CFEs exist throughout the world, Mexican CFEs have been emphasized as a particularly successful model of community forestry that can deliver social, environmental, and financial benefits to forest communities. The internal organization

A growing literature focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of forest conservation policies, but few studies explore where and under which conditions programs produce net positive benefits. Quantifying the costs and benefits of conservation policy instruments contributes to making impact evaluation more relevant for policy makers and can help to improve program design. Here we analyze the costs and

Failures of sectoral approaches to avert environmental degradation increase demands for integrated approaches that mitigate conflictual management of forest, tree, and land resources. Despite much agreement on the consequent need for a holistic landscape approach for a well-integrated governance system, the requisite governance interactions and processes remain under-studied. Under the idea of polycentric

Almost all countries have imposed large-scale mobility restrictions (or lockdown) to stop the spreading of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The mobility restriction has disrupted all types of business; causing a devastating impact on countries' economies; and pushing millions of people into extreme poverty. Scientists have been assessing the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on various fronts but there

Much uncertainty persists about how the coronavirus (COVID-19) and its derived crisis effects will impact both the economy and forests. Here we conceptualize a recursive model where an initial COVID-19 supply-side shock hits first the Global North that, mediated by country-specific epidemic management strategies and other (fiscal, monetary, trade) policy responses feeds through to financial markets

Sustainable forest management is a universally desired goal to provide ecological, economic, and social benefits. Sustaining forest benefits across the landscape in Arkansas depends on nonindustrial private forest landowners (NIPF) who own 58% of forestland in the state. Forest certification is an effective “market based” mechanism for improving forest management to achieve sustainability. A mixture

For those concerned with the future of forests, the COVID-19 pandemic has simultaneously offered cause for great concern, and renewed hope. On one hand, the pandemic is occurring at a time when forests are already under unprecedented pressures from climate change, amplifying concerns about unsustainable forest extraction in the name of economic recovery. On the other hand, however, the crisis has helped

While climate change and biodiversity loss have exposed humanity to major systemic risks, policymakers in more than 40 countries have proposed the transition from a fossil-based to a bio-based economy as a solution to curb the risks. In the boreal region, forests have a prominent role in contributing to bioeconomy development; however, forest-based bioeconomy transition pathways towards sustainability

The Mixteca Alta region in Oaxaca, Mexico is characterized by its severely degraded landscapes. In the last three decades, the region has experienced a remarkable local forest transition. This paper reveals the drivers that favored local forest transition in five communities of Mixteca Alta. Three questions were addressed: how much forest cover was gained during the last three decades? What were the

Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) seeks to achieve an equilibrium in the economic, social and environmental value of all types of forests. This practice contrasts with the conventional view of managing forests, in which the focus is productivity. Thus, discussions about conventional forest management versus sustainable forest management play a central role in the political and scientific agendas

Certification programs may include market access benefits for those business that have certified voluntarily, but there are also other consequences, such as the ban on the use of certain chemical pesticides imposed by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) that can negatively affect integrated pest management. The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) was created in response to

In recent years, several studies have found indications for data gaps and errors in the forestry production and trade section of the widely used FAOSTAT database. This manuscript focusses on inconsistencies in data on recovered pulp production, which have not yet been investigated in much detail. We develop national wood fiber balances for the pulp and paper sector for eleven countries. Our balances

Agroforestry, or the intentional integration of trees on crop or pastureland, is a sustainable land use system that provides ecosystem services including climate change mitigation and private benefits for smallholders. While existing reviews of agroforestry adoption focus on government policy, there is increasing interest from, and opportunities for, non-state actors to accelerate agroforestry adoption

In 2018, a strategy for Sweden's first National Forest Program was launched. As part of its implementation, County Administrative Boards have initiated dialogue processes for drafting regional forest strategies. Stakeholder deliberation is ascribed the potential to promote trust and mutual understanding, lead to more robust decisions and smoother implementation. We examine the dialogue processes, focusing

Despite the ambitious target to establish 12.7 million ha of social forestry across Indonesia and various government support for smallholder private forests, implementation has been slow and financial returns for smallholders from timber production have been variable. For most smallholders, any motivation to plant trees competes with their interest in planting short term food or cash crops to support

While forests are a primary source of energy for the majority of Tanzanian households, the forest cover is rapidly declining. The Tanzanian government has introduced a tree-planting campaign strategy, aimed at reducing pressure on natural forests. However, the campaign appears not to have contributed significantly to the forest recovery rate. Thus, this study aims at examining household perceptions

Forest certification has emerged as a market-based tool to safeguard the sustainability of the world's forests. Since media can shape public opinion, this study examines media treatment of forest certification in the United States, the world's largest producer and consumer of forest products. This study utilizes 309 print and digital newspaper articles published in the United States between 1989 and