Fields and forests are gendered spaces. Women's crucial contributions to productive and reproductive work within and beyond the household have been made visible since the 1970s. There has also been a persistent call for mainstreaming gender in sustainable development and environmental concerns. Prior work discusses the importance of women and gender for forests, and provides guidelines and methods to integrate them in forestry research. This paper assesses the uptake of women and gender issues in recent (2014–2016) forestry research. We found that women and gender concerns are still largely absent or inadequately addressed in forestry research published in scientific journals. Despite the call for greater gender integration in forestry, much needs to be done in quantitative and qualitative terms to meet this goal.

Numerous inter-governmental conservation initiatives have failed to halt the loss and degradation of forests. This paper explores the role of policy processes in developing and delivering desired future forest outcomes that meet both global environmental goals and the needs of local forest users. There is a clear disconnect between global commitments and local interventions to achieve forest outcomes. There is an incoherence in forest policy development at different spatial scales. Future forest governance needs to recognise the diversity of actors in the policy process and the complexity of local forest contexts. New actors in the policy process will include knowledge brokers and policy entrepreneurs who increasingly shape the policy discourse. There is also a need for policy durability and problem focused policy-learning pathways. Forest and allied sciences continue to be critical for delivering desired forest outcomes, and learning from the diversity of local contexts is critical to creating effective and coherent policies.

The Indonesian government is committed to allocating 12.7 million hectares of forest land to local communities through community-based forest management (CBFM) schemes. We analysed CBFM case studies from three provinces throughout the archipelago. In all cases, actions focused on nominal redistribution of land but ignored local participation and aspirations. CBFM was used as a tool to solve problems of forest tenure, legalization of forest communities and forest rehabilitation, rather than to empower communities and therefore address issues of social justice. Communities remained subject to land-use restrictions, limiting their opportunities. Their participation was often weak and limited to the village elites. Technical support to communities was almost inexistent, leaving them without the financial and technical skills required to run the schemes efficiently. The analysis indicates that redistribution of rights only serves social justice when the process recognises local aspirations and cultural values of participants.

State forest enterprises (SFEs) in Vietnam for decades were the main source of industrial wood production, but smallholder forest plantations have become common. Smallholders need positive financial returns to be viable. Likewise, financial returns are an important consideration of proposals to turn SFEs into joint ventures, because the potentially involved private companies would seek reasonable returns on investment. Financial analyses of smallholder and SFE forest plantations were undertaken to evaluate their competitiveness and profitability, and to assess opportunities and challenges for the sector. It was found that forest plantations in Vietnam, under current market conditions, can be profitable. Smallholders who received technical assistance and financial support could generate average land expectation values (LEVs) of about US$ 5 100/ha at 8% discount rate. Even without financial support, and assuming smallholders pay for the cost of technical assistance, average LEVs were about US$ 4 600/ha. Smallholders participating in a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification pilot had higher LEVs, assuming price premiums for certified wood. Positive LEVs were robust to lower wood price and higher discount rates. SFEs, on the other hand, had poorer returns because of lower growth and yield of wood, which may be due to differences in sites and management. Vietnamese wood producers are competitive internationally, and have opportunities to tap domestic and international markets.

This study aims to analyse the current perceptions of forest owners regarding long-rotation forestry in South Korea, and to explore reforestation policies, in order to identify ways in which they may improve their applicability to successful management of timber resources. The majority of forest owners had a negative perception of long-rotation forestry, and preferred to select tree species that produce short-term profits. Government subsidies to reduce the costs of timber production, tax benefits, and technical supports are required in order to encourage forest owners to pursue long-rotation forestry. Such efforts need to be enacted in conjunction with policies that improve the profitability of forest ownership in the domestic timber market, such as a new log scaling system that places higher value on locally produced timbers, as well as policies that facilitate active use of government support systems.

Payment for ecosystem services (PES) programs have emerged as a financial mechanism to ameliorate market failures associated with the multitude of non-market ecosystem services (ES) provided by forest ecosystems. However, the defining principles of PES in theory is far from what pertains in practice. Focusing on the concept of total economic value (TEV) of ES, we identify that PES often include compensation as a proxy for the supply of ES and largely neglect to encompass the different attributes of an ES' TEV, particularly existence values. Most PES schemes are limited by scope of funding and incentives often account for as little as 0.1% to 8.5% of the full annual ES economic values per ha. The mechanism of PES therefore needs to be broadened to integrate potential levels of payments that direct and indirect beneficiaries might be willing to pay to preserve forest ecosystems and their services. Some beneficiaries might be willing to pay for some ES and altruistically expect others to free-ride on their payment. Research efforts should aim at providing better understanding of beneficiaries' willingness to pay in order to expand the demand-side of PES and reduce uncertainties.

Land reform in South Africa, like in other developing countries with a history of land grab and people's displacement, is an issue of serious contestation. The study therefore assessed the accrual of benefits to claimant communities from the two forest-based public-private partnership (PPP) land reform models (Sales and Leaseback, and Community Managed Enterprise). A random sampling technique was used to select 140 and 175 households in Amabomvini and Cata communities in Kwazulu Natal and Eastern Cape Provinces, respectively. Ordinal logistic regression, descriptive analysis, including frequencies and Chi-square were computed to process the data using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software (Version 20). From the results, the socioeconomic status of Cata household beneficiaries improved compared to that of Amabomvini after the implementation of forest-based PPP land reform models. Both communities were concerned about non-implementation of post-settlement support by the government upon settlement of their land claims. Tailor-made leadership and business management training should be designed for the CPA committee members and trustees in order to achieve mutual distribution of benefits to all beneficiaries

The role of Village Participatory Land Use Plans (VPLUPs) and associated Village Land Forest Reserves (VLFRs) under the REDD initiative is a fairly new concept with limited information on the success of its implementation. This study examined community perceptions of VPLUPs as well as their perceptions of the inclusion of VLFRs in these plans in the Kilosa district of Tanzania. A mixed method research design, which integrates participatory community mapping (PCM), focus group discussions (FGDs), key informant interviews (KIIs), direct observations and household interviews were applied. Results indicated a significant involvement of the respondents (84%) in the process of implementation of VPLUPs, especially in meetings (95%). A significant majority (91%) favoured the inclusion of VLFRs in VPLUPs. Most of the respondents (85%) were satisfied with the implementation process of VPLUPs and most (94%) were willing to adhere to VPLUPs initiatives. Both challenges to and supportive factors for the implementation of VPLUPs were identified by the respondents. Due to the current high levels of participation in the initiative and potentially agreeable outcomes, it is concluded that VPLUPs and VLFRs might contribute to sustainable implementation of the REDD initiative.

Within Europe new interests in the role and importance of non-wood forest products (NWFPs) are developing. This article analyses emerging perspectives on NWFP development in Europe and relates these to four main issues effecting NWFP developments in tropical countries: diversity in the contribution of NWFPs to (rural) livelihoods, centrality of culture, the gradient from NWFP extraction to monocultural cultivation, and the importance of local and regional markets. Whereas in tropical countries much attention has been given to the role of NWFPs as a basic livelihood asset, in European countries the focus is increasingly oriented on NWFPs as niche-marketed products or as well-being products embedded in recreation and pedagogic services. Four main development orientations may be distinguished. These are not uniformly distributed over Europe. Depending on socio-economic, cultural and ecological conditions five European regions with different characteristics in respect to NWFP use and development are identified.