The study of anthropogenic impacts on tropical forests is vital in the design and development of sustainable extraction systems for both timber and non-timber products. However, distinguishing non-timber forest products (NTFPs) harvesting impacts from timber extraction consequences on the vegetation could be difficult, since tropical forest species often have a multipurpose status. This study explores the purposes and characteristics of timber and non-timber products usage in the Swamp Forest of Lokoli (in the south of Benin Republic) and assesses extraction impacts on the forest dynamics. We used structural parameters analysis and ecological indices to explain the vegetation structure and the species responses to anthropogenic pressures. The results suggest that the forest is being devastated by extraction activities of the local people including both timber collection and non-timber harvesting. Finally, this paper suggests that management policies balancing socio-economic and conservation priorities, through introduction of alternative economic activities, strengthening of the local agriculture and a participatory management plan are the best options for the long term preservation of this forest.

In recent years inclusiveness has been promoted as an integral element of forest management and certification. Under Forest Stewardship Council certification, consultations and engagement with local communities are required in planning operations. Yet little research has been done to examine how local men and women participate in decision making in the context of forest certification. This case study aims to examine and compare inclusiveness in a certified and a non-certified forest management unit in the Republic of the Congo. Focus group discussions and individual interviews indicate that male participation is significant in both units. However, female participation is more active in the villages of the non-certified unit, where some of the women have achieved strategic positions. They display a greater level of selfmobilization and active participation, which can be linked to self-started initiatives. These findings may have important implications for voluntary certification bodies in encouraging women's participation.

Stumpage prices are important to both public and private landowners as they affect the profit received from a timber investment and are an important aspect of the total cost equation for forest products. We performed a review of the major factors affecting stumpage prices mainly using peer-reviewed forestry literature published from 2000 to 2015. We concentrated on journals published in English that were judged the most relevant for publishing research which assessed stumpage price trends and the economics associated with stumpage price levels. Most of the published literature concerned trends observed in North America and Europe, and computational analyses into the factors that helped explain variation in stumpage prices. Variation in stumpage prices arises from national and regional demand and supply factors and market developments, regional and local manufacturing costs, seasonal variation in wood supplies, the occurrence of natural disasters, and various regulatory and organizational policies and procedures. At a local level, the sale mechanism (auction, negotiation), the physical location of forests with respect to mills or woodyards, the forest site characteristics, and other sale-specific aspects can affect the stumpage price. Variation in regional stumpage price levels also is influenced by geography, hauling distance, and competition. We proposed a few areas of future research that would complement prior analyses of local and regional stumpage price trends and that might examine the global technology, business, and market factors that may influence stumpage prices received by private landowners in countries where private ownership of land is significant.

Since its emergence largely as a nonstate, market-driven governance system, certification has grown into a complex field in which states also use it as a regulatory instrument. Our research aimed to analyse the impacts of certification initiatives implemented under government control as a mandatory requirement, which remains understudied to date. The Indonesian mandatory forest certification, Pengelolaan Hutan Produksi Lestari (PHPL), was used as a case study. We employed an adapted corrective action requests (CAR) approach based on audit reports. Seventy-eight concessions were audited until December 2015; most of them were eventually granted a PHPL certificate. They scored better on the production aspects than on the main preconditions, social and ecological aspects. Further analysis of the changes in the grades over time showed that the grades across indicators varied, either improving or worsening. Social and ecology-related forest practices appear to be the most challenging aspects in Indonesia, as we found that the grades declined over time despite the fact that the concessions were able to maintain their certification.

The history of forests regulation and institutional policy in Cameroon dates back to the erstwhile colonial period (1884–1961) when the German, British, and French administrations setup administrative and managerial entities to regulate the forest sector. The post-colonial administration continued with the colonial era regulations until 1981 when a new forest law was adopted. Cameroon's forest sector went through a reform process in 1994 with the enactment of a comprehensive forestry law linking the forest sector with a network of subsectors. This paper employs the case of Cameroon's forest policy reform process to respond to three logical research questions on the effects of sectoral and subsectoral forces on forest policy related issues: (1) what differentiates a critical subsector from a non-critical one? (2) does a stable sectoral network represent a successful takeover bid by a critical subsectoral one? (3) what are the conditions under which sectors can continue to affect subsectors? A structured literature search to identify the appropriate and related information specific to Cameroon's forest sector was carried out using two electronic databases — Web of Science and Google Scholar — relevant to the topic of forest policy change and policy subsystems. Articles from three types of sources were considered: primary source (original researcher(s) of study), secondary source (review articles), and conceptual/theoretical sources (theories and concepts related to forest policy). A total of 136 articles were reviewed and appraised. The analysis in this paper concentrates on structural power within the forest sector and the public domain in Cameroon. The paper illustrates the sectoral-subsectoral concept by analyzing actors' relationships and power configurations, problematizing the role played by different actors in the decision-making process in the forest sector in Cameroon. The paper aims to broaden understanding of the effects of sectoral and subsectoral forces and configuration on forest policy development and change in Cameroon.

This paper examines laws, policies, organizations and other governance elements and arrangements that influence forest conservation and sustainable resource management in the U.S. through a set of 10 Indicators associated with Criterion Seven of the Montréal Process Criteria and Indicators Framework. The applicability and utility of these indicators as a measure of forest governance at the national level is examined and associated quantitative and qualitative data are presented and discussed. In the U.S., a broad range of laws governs public lands, dictating management processes and practices. Federal and state laws protect wildlife and endangered species on all public and private lands, and foster a range of prescribed and voluntary forest practices to protect water, air, and other public goods and services on private lands. Federal and state laws also provide for technical and financial assistance, research, education, and planning on private forest lands. Market based mechanisms increasingly are used to advance forest sustainability, as are policies, programs, and partnerships that link related policy networks, purposes, and desired outcomes across an expanding range of sectors. Nevertheless, challenges in advancing forest sustainability in the U.S. remain, particularly where incentives for sustainable forest management are low and pressures for development and agriculture are high. Furthermore, while such multilateral agreements help identify common forest goals, develop metrics, and report individual country status, they by no means enforce specific forest practices or ensure good forest governance.

In the past a wide spectrum of conservation strategies has been used to manage forests and recently a country-driven policy instrument known as REDD has been proposed as a new tool for forest protection. This paper reviews a set of Cameroon policy instruments alongside 86 relevant publications in the conservation area to feed the existing REDD debate. Two specific shortcomings are identified: (1) incoherence between existing forestry policy instruments with regard to community forest concept and REDD rules and (2) locally over-constraining approaches used in forest management which would provide guidelines and caution about the REDD implementation. These shortcomings, if not considered, may lead to ineffectiveness of emission reduction programs as well as to social disconnection at the local level. This means that effective implementation of REDD will require further policy actions mainly dealing with actors' consents within developed equitable instruments while setting up efficient conflict management systems.

The climate change impacts of using harvested wood products (HWPs) have attracted attention in recent years from Kyoto Protocol's second commitment period to the Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2015 (FAO 2016). This segment includes wood-based products, which in comparison to competing materials, have a low global warming potential (GWP). Studies have been conducted since the early 1990s on this aspect and despite this, studies analysing the benefits of the furniture sub-sector are rare. This paper estimates the climate change mitigation potential associated with the use of wood in kitchen cabinet, based on an evaluation of its storage and substitution benefits in selected countries in Western Europe. Results indicate that this wood furniture segment could potentially store an average of about 15 million t C annually and avoid the additional production of about 7 million t CO₂. The results presented constitute a benchmark analysis that may be useful for integrating the wooden furniture sub-sector in climate change mitigation strategies.

Notwithstanding a strong theoretical background along with a burgeoning stock of literature in Gender Research, the result of all efforts put towards gender mainstreaming in Forest Policy and Practice has been far from desirable. Research and policy predominantly overlooks the historical perspectives and social basis of gender roles. The assumption that the status of women and forests can be improved by simply increasing the number of women in decision-making is problematic and incomplete. It does not address the struggle women face in joining the existing male-dominated institutions. This paper seeks to enhance the understanding of Gender as an analytical dimension in assessing local forest management and governance regimes by systematically tracing the lineage of related discussions, thereby deriving insights from the last 25 years of forest research and policy.