Despite all the attention the problem of illegal logging has recently attracted, the empirical base remains remarkably weak in many countries including Ghana. Using both official reported figures and actual harvest figures estimated from domestic and export consumption statistics, the annual average illegal logging for the period 2000–2011 among the formal sector in Ghana is estimated at 0.78 million m³ or 104% of the legal harvest. The results indicate that illegal logging was much more prevalent in the forest reserves than outside forest reserves, and among the traditionally endangered timber species more than the lesser known timber species. The implications of these findings on forest law compliance, enforcement, and the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) between the European Community and Ghana are discussed and recommendations proffered.

Small loggers' associations in Guyana have grown from one to 73 between 2000 and 2014 with over 2 000 members and 4 000 chainsaw millers. They hold 128 2-year renewable harvest licences to 488 Kha, generally in rainforest already degraded by uncontrolled logging. The slippages between government policies and actual practices in respect of the associations are traced through the evolution of chainsaw milling from the mid-1980s. Using the institutional analysis of property theorists, SLAs are shown to be associations in name only. The State regulatory agency controls access to concession licences and the structure and functioning of the associations. The political patronage system, administrative discretion and the short-term licences awarded on the one hand and the individual milling operations of members on the other hand lead to dysfunctional associations. Only 1/3 of the associations have formally registered legal personality and so the majority are ineligible for bank credit or direct donor support.

Forests play a crucial role in mitigating climate change, and carbon markets offer a good alternative for financing forestry sector projects. However, the forestry sector in Turkey has not attempted to benefit from these markets yet. This paper presents the current situation of the Turkish forestry sector in carbon markets and evaluates the viability of these markets for financing forestry projects. This paper argues that under current international restrictions, the Turkish forestry sector can benefit only from voluntary carbon markets through afforestation, reforestation, improved forest management, and agro-forestry activities. To do this, Turkey will have to establish an institutional framework and estimate the national carbon sequestration potential for the forestry sector. If forestry activities were financed through compliance and voluntary carbon markets, it is possible that substantial funds could be raised through these markets. Carbon markets thus offer viable options for financing forestry projects in Turkey now as well as in the future.

Semi-structured interviews were used to explore how rural communities near forests are responding to environmental change in three African nations — Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Rwanda. The study first recounts people's perception of environmental change — what are the issues of greatest concern identified by local communities? Second, it explores people's responses to identified environmental problems and in particular the role of forests in these processes. Finally, it concludes with a discussion of changing land management practices, and how their implementation may affect the future adaptation strategies of such communities. Results suggest that people's current and potential responses and adaptation to environmental change are influenced by the availability and access to forests and forest resources, and the degree to which their livelihood strategies have diversified away from forest dependence. Thus we conclude that forest policies such as REDD will need to be responsive to diverse forest-based adaptation needs, rather than assuming a ‘one size fits all’ relationship between forest conservation and adaptation to climate change.

Deforestation is the most critical issue of climate change in Indonesia, as well as in other tropical countries, meanwhile major forests is managed under concession or permit system. This paper investigates the effect of forest permits on deforestation in Indonesia. Two major forest permits are taken into analysis, resulting that logging permit is insignificantly correlated to forest cover loss, whereas plantation conversion permit diminishes more forest cover in Indonesia. These results pose a question on the effectiveness of the current forest moratorium policy as well as the forest tariff policy to the attempts in mitigating deforestation. At the end, this paper summarises possible alternative forest policies derived from the empirical findings, from both short and long term perspectives.

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards support enhancement of certified forests. However, the performance of certified forests in enhancing forest structure has rarely been examined empirically. Forest structure, human forest use and forest governance indicators are assessed in a comparative study of FSC-certified community forests, open access forests (non-FSC) and state forest reserves (non-FSC) in Kilwa District, Tanzania. The FSC-certified forests have better forest structure, appropriate regeneration, and lower fire incidences than open access forests and state forest reserves. Certified forests also provide more economic benefits to communities compared to non-FSC forests. These findings imply that forest certification could be an appropriate management intervention, and that adoption of FSC standards may lead to more effective management in human-dominated landscapes. However, because of the short time certification has been operational, it is hard to precisely identify all effects of certification. Further empirical evidence on effects, in space and time, is therefore desirable.

The stakes are high for tropical forestlands in multi-actor power relations because of their interdependence (climate change mitigation), their above- and below-ground resources (wood, mines) and their arable lands. In tropical countries, where the State owns most of the forestlands, many governments feel that any external initiative to change their forestland use policies infringes on their sovereignty. The governments' reactions to pressure for forestland governance reforms advocated by the international community may reflect the level of their national strength, international credibility and the attractiveness of offsets for forestland use conversion. Governments either use a tactic based on strength or on cunning, in the Machiavellian sense of the term, to impose their domestic agenda. Referring to the two last decades of forestland use policy reforms in Cameroon, this article seeks to understand why and how some governments of developing countries like Cameroon use cunning strategies to circumvent the implementation of undesired forest policy reforms while avoiding blame from the international community.

Conflicts between satisfying the growing global demand for food and energy and simultaneously preserving natural ecosystems have spurred renewed debate about how to optimise future land use. This study reviews the role of forests and forest management within these proposed land-use strategies and reveals that discussions about future management of forest and agricultural lands take place largely exclusive of one another. Based on these results, a land-use concept is proposed in which sustainable agricultural intensification is paired with land-use diversification as a risk reduction strategy and complemented by productive restoration and compensation payments for forest conservation. Improving afforestation and agroforestry practices on degraded lands and investigating effects of diversification on the landscape scale are identified as important objectives for future interdisciplinary research. Considering forests as part of a comprehensive land-use portfolio will be vital in order to help strengthen links and ease conflicts between forest and agricultural land uses.

Harvesting with variable retention (VR) applied in Nothofagus forests combines two types of retention: patches of original forest (aggregates) and single isolated homogeneously distributed trees (dispersed). This study assesses the assumption that VR maintains mature forests conditions after harvesting by synthesizing 605 individual results from long-term studies in two regions of Tierra del Fuego (Argentina) with permanent monitoring. VR effects on (i) forest structure, (ii) microenvironment, (iii) biodiversity, and (iv) forest reproduction, were investigated. Aggregated retention had no effect on forest structure and microenvironmental variables, but increased biodiversity variables and forest reproduction compared to unmanaged primary forest (control). Dispersed retention negatively affected the forest structure, increased biodiversity, but did not affect microclimate and forest reproduction when compared to primary forest. Thus, the ecological conditions of N. pumilio forests are influenced by variable retention harvesting, but direction and magnitude of the effect depend on the treatment and differ among groups of variable. Inside aggregates several primary forest components and conditions were maintained.

Large-area forest assessments are attracting increasing attention owing to their role in providing information related to carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation and enhancement of rural livelihoods. The information needs actually hold good for all geographic levels from the local to the global. Forest assessments on national level are of particular interest because countries that wish to engage in the REDD initiative and to benefit from results-based payments, need to give quantitative evidence of their progresses in enhancing their forest resources.

This contribution analyzes the capacity building needs for national forest assessments with a focus on the situation in developing countries, identifies key areas in which national capacity may be developed and makes suggestions for implementation. India's forest assessment systems are used as an example.

The National Forest Inventory (NFI) system needs to be institutionalized to ensure a practical way for proficient monitoring and analysis of forest ecosystems. The institutions established to carry out NFI require continued institutional and financial support with qualified and committed scholars and professionals from relevant disciplines, including forest mensuration, forest inventory and remote sensing.