Due to the shortcomings of state control over forests, participatory approaches to managing forests have evolved. However, the motivation for people to participate voluntarily in forest management has received less research attention in Ghana. This research examined what motivated the fringe communities of the Suhuma Forest Reserve in Ghana to participate in its management. The study was designed to be consistent with the convergent parallel mixed methods. In this regard, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected at the same time to determine the motivation of the communities to participate in the management of the reserve. The qualitative data were obtained through focus group discussions with members of Community Forest Committees. The quantitative data were also obtained through a survey of 112 households (half of whom were members of Community Forest Committees) selected from 12 fringe communities. Analyses of the data revealed that participation in the management of the reserve was through voluntary Community Forest Committees. Access to the forest reserve for non-timber products, and the hope of getting degraded portions of the forest to farm were the factors that motivated the members of the Community Forest Committees to participate voluntarily in the management of the forest reserve. However, the Committees complained about the lack of motivational packages, inadequate logistics and non-response to requests for assistance from the Forest Services Division, but the need for farmlands has kept them on. The study recommends that the committees should be motivated by allocating the degraded sections of the forest to them for tree-crop planting, which could not only contribute to the restoration and sustenance of the forest reserve but also serve as a source of livelihood for the members of the Committees.

Land administration in Bangladesh relies significantly on paper-based records which are stored in multiple government offices. This deters public access to land records that breeds inefficiencies. This article assesses the anticipated impacts and challenges of a digital archiving system for the forest land records on the land governance in Bangladesh. The system is expected to contribute to improving land administration and governance in the country by, (i) permanently preserving forest land records, (ii) helping resolve land disputes and fight land grabbing, and (iii) improving the accessibility and transparency of these documents. However, lack of adequate funding and skilled manpower pose challenges to the sustainability and scaling up of undertaken digitization and archiving initiatives. Thus, the capacity for forest land administration should be strengthened. Land-related policy and legislative frameworks should also be reformed to fully realize the advantages of digitization.

The forest sector directly and indirectly serves several industries and economic activities. In addition to this, forests also provide various environmental services at local and global scales. The demand and conservation of these services has been increasing more strongly in recent decades. A mechanism created to highlight “good forest management” and ensuring the sustainability of forests, is forest certification. The American continent has vast forest areas and a strong forest sector, with big consumers and producers, especially Brazil, Canada and the United States. However less than 5% of this area is certified. Thus, this study aimed to review how the different countries of the Americas carried out the process of forest certification by the FSC system and to discuss how external factors would have influenced these processes. As a result, we found that the establishment of certification was not homogenous among the American countries. It has grown faster in countries with large activities in the forest sector, namely Brazil, Canada and the United States. Overall, different factors were instrumental in furthering certification in different countries, for example market requirements in Canada and government requirements in Mexico. In Brazil and in the United States, environmental requirements have been driving the need for adherence to the process. In South America, the countries with the largest exports to the European Union have a greater number of certificates, indicating a possible influence in the market. We also conclude that domestic markets need more support and encouragement from stakeholders so that forest certification can expand.

This paper presents a literature review and case study on constraints to smallholder's tree planting in northern mountainous areas of Viet Nam. It reveals that existing literature primarily highlights constraints within the ‘input domain’ that relates to inputs to tree system establishment such as land availability, or ‘output domain’ associated with market of tree system products, but sparsely report constraints within ‘knowledge domain’ namely knowledge in tree management practice. Our case study exploring farmer's perspectives also finds those related to input and output domain but identified lack of knowledge as the prime constraint, especially to poor farmers and ethnic minorities. We recommend that the dissemination of knowledge on tree system management, farmer's skill capacity building, and improvement in the national extension system as well as its linkage with research and education, be placed in the forefront of policy to sustainably expand and intensify tree planting in the country.

The objective of this study was to investigate the design and application of a carbon baseline for commercial timber harvest activities involving conventional timber harvest activities (CNV), relative to reduced-impact logging (RIL) in Sabah, Malaysia. As only RIL is eligible to be practiced in production forests, a baseline of CNV was estimated from the literature. The principle of net present value was applied to the post-harvest accumulation of carbon stocks after RIL to model a conservative ‘crediting’ baseline. Two areas representing opposite ends of a range of anthropogenic disturbance were sampled, with an old growth lower montane forest, and a lowland severely logged-over dipterocarp forest investigated before-, and two- and three-years after harvest, respectively. Areas impacted by CNV were estimated to contain 12–39% of pre-harvest carbon stock, relative to 57–63% under RIL and estimated to accumulate carbon in the range of 0.68–1.25 tC ha^-1 yr¹, averaging 14–55 years for recovery; in-line with body of knowledge. While the main limitation was our inability measure CNV directly, a balance of understanding is required for the development of a ‘best estimate’ using the literature.

The paper discusses the chronological changes in Indian participatory forest management from the perspectives of forest conservation and the impact of participatory forest management approach in the context of socio-economic issues of native dwellers, using archival resources, secondary information and previous academic and non-academic materials. The idea of participatory forest management in India can be traced back to the British colonial period. However, this idea was revitalized in the 1980s. Historically, it was hard to protect entire forest areas by the Forest Department because the forests had been part of local peoples' day-to-day life. Therefore, native peoples' participation in forest management along with their socio-economic improvement has been required to protect forests. Throughout the history of community participation, villagers have been involved in forest management schemes through a give-and-take symbiotic relationship. Community participation in forest management from the standpoint of forest conservation in India has shown that it is an evolving process, embedded within local socioecological systems and negotiated between the state and local communities.

Trees outside forests (TOF) in India are defined as trees growing outside government recorded forest areas (RFAs). They are well known contributors towards the rural economy, food security and biodiversity. Recently, TOF have emerged as an important source for timber production globally as well as in India after a significant decline of timber production from forests in the last 25 years due to stricter conservation policies, acts and regulations. The paper attempts to analyse the state level TOF policies and guidelines, and suggest strategies to augment timber supply in the country through TOF. Analysis revealed that the potential of TOF for timber production is not being realized due to the absence of a uniform nationwide policy related to management, harvest, transit and marketing of timber from TOF. We further describe how the ambiguity and cumbersome nature of existing policies pose as constraints for farmers who want to grow and benefit from TOF. Finally, the paper concludes with a recommendation for a nationwide strategy for developing an umbrella policy and a network of markets to realize the complete potential of TOF for timber production in India. This in turn would also significantly reduce the growing gap between demand and supply of timber at the country level, in addition to reducing pressure on forests and timber import.

Forests, by acting as carbon sinks, mitigate the effects of climate change. Forests, and their associated biodiversity, on the other hand are directly and indirectly impacted by changing climatic conditions as well as elements of climate policy. While the climate change gained prominence in political and public discourse, biodiversity lagged behind, so did the adaptation under the existing market mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol. These mechanisms have resulted in loss of natural forest cover and growth of monocultures in pursuit of carbon credits. The adaptation gap can be addressed by new mechanisms: Cooperative approaches, non-market approaches (NMAs) and Sustainable Development Mechanism (SDM) established by the Paris Agreement which accords equal importance to mitigation and adaptation. This paper compares NMAs with Kyoto mechanisms and studies their role in environmental and social safeguards. It addresses three main aspects: (i) Role of climate policies in biodiversity conservation; (ii) Creating socio-environmental safeguards in forestry, and; (iii) Importance and role of NMAs in encouraging forest protection. It comes to the conclusion that lessons learnt from the on-going projects must be accounted for while implementing NMAs, which offer better options for streamlining climate change and biodiversity actions through joint mitigation and adaptation approach.

In the Congo Basin, the economic, social and environmental value of non timber forest products (NTFPs), such as bush mango (Irvingia gabonensis) is widely acknowledged. However, knowledge of the volumes traded, extent and distribution of revenues along the value chain is limited while little is known about the chain's sustainability. The survey of the value chain was followed by field observations and semistructured interviews with 174 stakeholders in Estuaire, Nyanga and Ngounié provinces of Gabon. Women dominate in the bush mango value chain. Most bush mango sold in urban and rural markets came from neighbouring countries. There is skewed distribution of revenues, with traders and processors earning higher incomes than harvesters. Deforestation, lack of harvesting standards and poor management of resources, according to the stakeholders, represent the main factors threatening the sustainability of the chain. Long-term socio-economic and environmental sustainability of the chain calls for raising the political visibility of the chain, training and collective action.

Silvicultural practices are generally developed to meet societal objectives given the constraints of the site. This simple premise is a foundation of modern silviculture. However, silviculture may vary for other reasons related to cultural factors. This paper reviews the differences in silviculture in the twelve countries that comprise southeastern Europe, an area that includes a variety of cultures, and a complex history. The silviculture generally follows three models: coppice systems that are largely unregulated, even-aged stands that include former coppice stands and other reforested sites, and systems to develop and maintain complex stand structures. Plantation management is not common. Cultural and historic drivers have affected the development of silviculture in this region. Additional drivers include forest access, the importance of wood for fuel, and proximity to central Europe. It is anticipated that European Union membership of countries in the region will lead to greater regional and international exchange and cooperation in the future.