Forests in Landscapes: Ecosystem Approaches to Sustainability

Description

i? At last a really useful book telling us how all the rhetoric about ecosystem approaches and sustainable forest management is being translated into practical solutions on the groundi? CLAUDE MARTIN, WWF INTERNATIONAL i? For too long, foresters have seen forests as logs waiting to be turned into something useful. This book demonstrates that forests in fact have multiple values, and managing them as ecosystems will bring more benefits to a greater cross-section of the publici? JEFFREY A. MCNEELY, CHIEF SCIENTIST, IUCN i? This book demonstrates that [ecosystem approaches and sustainable forest management] are neither alternative methods of forest management nor are they simply complicated ways of saying the same thing. They are both emerging concepts for more integrated and holistic ways of managing forests within larger landscapes in ways that optimize benefits to all stakeholdersi? ACHIM STEINER AND IAN JOHNSON, FROM THE FOREWORD Recent innovations in Sustainable Forest Management and Ecosystem Approaches are resulting in forests increasingly being managed as part of the broader social-ecological systems in which they exist. Forests in Landscapes reviews changes that have occurred in forest management in recent decades. Case studies from Europe, Canada, the United States, Russia, Australia, the Congo and Central America provide a wealth of international examples of innovative practices. Cross-cutting chapters examine the political ecology and economics of forest management, and review the information needs and the use and misuse of criteria and indicators to achieve broad societal goals for forests. A concluding chapter draws out the key lessons of changes in forest management in recent decades and sets out some thoughts for the future. This book is a must-read for practitioners, researchers and policy makers concerned with forests and land use. It contains lessons for all those concerned with forests as sources of people's livelihoods and as part of rural landscapes. Published with IUCN and PROFOR

Jeffrey A. Sayer is Senior Associate of WWF International's Forests for Life Programme, was Founding Director General of CIFOR (1993 - 2001) and is editor of The Earthscan Reader in Forestry and Development and The Earthscan Forestry Library. Stewart Maginnis has worked in forestry in both Europe and the developing world and now heads the Forest Conservation Programme of the World Conservation Union (IUCN).

"Combining discussions with case studies, the editors have assembled a varied group of authors and successfully considered the issue of ecosystem approaches to sustainability within forestry. This work is written largely from the perspective of the forester, which in no way detracts from the reading. The international case studies show that local groups, who often work within the context of sustainability, in many ways promote conservation. Case studies are gathered from Europe, Africa, North America, Australia, and beyond. The authors suggest that a holistic approach to forest management means that forests become more than just logs, and that forest stewardship is more prevalent than most people believe. This book arose from discussions held at the third meeting of the UN Forum on Forests, specifically from a debate on ecosystem approach principles versus sustainable forest management. Readers will discover that the list of acronyms and abbreviations is essential to understanding this book. Overall it is thorough, extensively researched, and well written. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-lever undergraduates through conservation practitioners / professionals."--L. S. Rigg, Northern Illinois University in CHOICE