Due to deforestation, there is a growing trend in India, that the Government has started planting eucalyptus and other varieties of trees under the afforestaion programme for their commercial value. ...This has caused the disappearance of traditional forest trees and has triggered the change of the total eco-system of the forest in the eastern part of India. As leaf plates and bowls are made from the leaves of sal trees, the use of these plates and bowls can draw the attention of the Government towards the importance and economic value of the sal trees. This can definitely encourage the Government and the forest officials to plant more sal trees than eucalyptus trees, if the former are now regarded as “commercial plants”. Such practice can directly help indigenous people to sustain their livelihood, preserve the traditional craft and prevent the deforestation in this region as well.
The article explains the stakeholders' interactions and satisfaction with their participation in the forest policy processes in Estonia. The interactions during the policy formulation and ...decision-making stages are observed with special attention to the role of scientists. Representatives of three target groups were interviewed: forestry officials, stakeholders and forestry scientists. The stakeholders tend to believe their main form of participation in policy processes is decision-making, not realising that the final decisions are made by forestry officials or by politicians: the minister, government or Parliament. Consensual proposals or decisions are important because these usually form the basis for final formulations in policy documents. The policy processes are mostly facilitated by forestry officials whose mediation skills need improvement. There is a major conflict between stakeholders representing timber production and environmental protection. In policy discussions, the environmentalists should provide more analysis, otherwise their viewpoints are ignored. Forestry scientists fall short in their most important role as honest brokers; they must learn how to integrate themselves into policy processes. Very often scientists act as observers, but other participants expect them to actively bring scientific information and knowledge into discussions. In addition to the face-to face meetings, new communication tools (e-consultation and e-participation) are available, but they are underused in the policy formulation processes.
•Advocacy is the main form of stakeholders' participation in Estonian forest policy.•The greatest conflicts occur between timber production and nature protection.•Stakeholders have delusive opinion that they are decision-makers.•Scientists act in policy-making processes as observers.•Modern communication tools are underused by general public.
Norms of justice are often invoked to justify the globalisation of forest policies but are rarely critically analysed. This paper reviews elements of justice in the values, knowledge, access and ...property rights relating to forests, especially in developing countries. Rather than defining justice in general terms of distribution of benefits and recognition of stakeholders, we argue that these processes are mutually defining, and can foreclose what is distributed, and to whom. Much recent forest policy, for example, emphasises forest carbon stocks and the benefits to indigenous peoples; but these terms de-emphasise livelihood outcomes for forests, and non-indigenous smallholders. Accordingly, we argue that current operationalisations of justice in forest policy based on John Rawls' principles of fair allocation to known actors need to be replaced by Amartya Sen's more deliberative and inclusive vision of justice that focuses instead on how different users experience different benefits, and seek to achieve multiple objectives together.
Spatial segregation of different forest landscape functions can accommodate rival forestry objectives more comprehensively than integrated approaches. Russia has a unique history of forest zoning ...separating production and environmental functions. However, the Russian Forest Code of 2006 increased the focus on wood production. We reviewed the history of zoning policy in Russia and assessed if the recent policy change affected logging rates and conservation of riparian forests. Using Russia’s Komi Republic as a case study, we specifically assessed (i) if policy change led to increased logging near streams, (ii) if logging rates were different in headwaters vs. main rivers, and (iii) how logging changed among catchments with different accessibility to logging. Using a global open-access remote sensing dataset, we compared mean annual forest loss as a proxy of logging rates in 10 large forested catchments in the Komi Republic in one period with strict zoning policy (2000–2006) and one with moderate zoning policy (2007–2014). Harvesting rate was positively related to the distance from streams. On the other hand, it increased after the policy change in the buffer zone but decreased outside it. Forests were harvested more in headwater buffers than along larger rivers, and harvest in the catchments near industries was higher and increasing; remote catchments had low forest loss. We discuss the opportunity for adopting forest zoning policy in different governance contexts.
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Dostopno za:
BF, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
This paper investigates how sustainable forest management is addressed within the legal tools and the institutional framework in Portugal, and proposes a methodology for enhancing stakeholder ...participation in forest management. Portuguese forest policy is dealt with at the national level, incorporating the international and European guidelines. Based on a review of relevant policy documents and legislation, three key-principles towards sustainability were identified according to the national context: the prevention and mitigation of forest resources threats; the enhancement of the full value of forests; and the promotion of stakeholder participation in forest policy-making. The analysis demonstrated that most of the principles coming from the supra-national agenda are already included in the national forest policy. Nevertheless, stakeholder participation in forest policy-making in Portugal has been very limited. This is reflected in a poor implementation of forest policies, leading to the need for developing innovative participatory methodologies able to promote collaboration among all relevant stakeholders. Keywords: sustainable forest management, forest policies, multifunctionality of the forest, stakeholders, stakeholder participation Cet article analyse la maniere dont la gestion durable des forets est abordee sur le plan des outils juridiques ainsi que dans le cadre institutionnel au Portugal et propose une methodologie pour ameliorer la participation des acteurs dans la gestion forestiere. La politique forestiere portugaise est etablie au niveau national, cependant elle integre les lignes directrices internationales et europeennes. Une etude des documents les plus pertinents sur les politiques et la legislation, a permis d'identifier trois principes cles de la durabilite dans le contexte national: la prevention et la mitigation des menaces qui pesent sur les ressources forestieres; le renforcement de la pleine valeur des forets; et la promotion de la participation des acteurs du secteur forestier dans la prise de decision des politique forestieres. L'analyse a mis en evidence que la plupart des principes enonces dans l'agenda supranationale sont deja inclus dans la politique forestiere portugaise. Cependant, la participation des acteurs du secteur forestier dans l'elaboration des politiques au Portugal a ete tres limitee, d'oU leur faible implementation. Ceci demontre la necessite de developper des methodologies participatives innovatrices capable de promouvoir une reelle collaboration entre tous les acteurs concernes. En este articulo se investiga como se aborda la gestion forestal sostenible en los instrumentos juridicos e institucionales en Portugal, y se propone una metodologia para mejorar la participacion de los interesados en la gestion forestal. La politica forestal portuguesa se define a nivel nacional, a traves de la incorporacion de directrices internacionales y europeas. Con base en una revision de los documentos politicos y legales a nivel nacional, se identificaron tres principios clave de la sostenibilidad: la prevencion y mitigacion de las amenazas a los recursos forestales; el incremento en el valor de los bosques y la promocion de la participacion de los agentes forestales en la toma de decisiones politicas sobre los bosques. El analisis mostro que la mayoria de los principios que figuran en la agenda internacional ya estan incluidos en la politica forestal portuguesa. Sin embargo, la participacion de las partes interesadas en la formulacion de politicas en Portugal ha sido muy limitada. Esto se refleja en una pobre aplicacion de las politicas, lo que lleva a la necesidad de desarrollar metodologias articipativas innovadoras capaces de promover la colaboracion entre todos los interesados.
Abstract Forests and human connection with nature have a major impact on human health. Through exercise and recreation in the forest, people receive many benefits from forest ecosystem services (FES) ...which have a positive impact on their physical and mental health. The paper tackles two main goals i) the first one is an overview of existing literature related to human health and well-being derived from forests in the countries of Central Europe published in the Scopus database. ii) The second goal was to create an overview of policy instruments related to forest cultural services (FCS) in the forest policy documents of selected Central European countries (CEC). A partial goal of the research is to identify gaps and to find a focus of future research in the field of human forest well-being and FES. The results showed that on the national level there is a lack of guidelines for culture services and their anchor in legislative documents. A challenge for the anchor of cultural services is to improve communication between different resort organizations and forest stakeholders. For future research is recommended to survey the forest impact on human health that would provide a base for creating a platform for policy tools related to FCS and help to set up recreation planning in European forests.
The advocacy coalition framework (ACF) has developed into a comprehensive theoretical approach to the policymaking process. Empirical findings have however posed challenges in understanding important ...questions about the identification of advocacy coalitions, explanations for possibilities and sources of shifting coalitions, and the role of exploitive coalitions in policy change. We argue that the integration of relevant aspects of cultural theory (CT) into the ACF provides answers to these open questions. First, the theoretical synthesis of both perspectives suggests an exhaustive typology of four distinct sets of policy actors’ cultural biases. In environmental and natural resource policy, they are mainly expressed by myths about physical nature that can be understood as deep core beliefs that entail, guide, and constrain policy core beliefs in the policy subsystem. Second, linking ACF and CT allows for the conceptualization of cognitive mechanisms for strategic cross-cultural alliances between different advocacy coalitions, which are enabled through specific shared or complementary core beliefs. Third, the synthesis provides an explanation for exploitive coalitions who take advantage of issues triggered by external and internal disruptive events through strategic issue (re-)framing and shifting coalitions that, together with ideological congruence related to veto and institutional players, make major policy change possible. To illustrate our theoretical arguments, we present a long-term analysis of policy change through forest sector reforms and forest certification in Germany and Bulgaria. We conclude by underlining the promising explanatory power of combining ACF and CT as a basis for developing a more comprehensive cognitive theory of policymaking in the context of environmental and natural resource management.
The debate on ecological and climatic benefits of planted forests at the sensitive dry edge of the closed forest belt (i.e. at the 'xeric limits') is still unresolved. Forests sequester atmospheric ...carbon dioxide, accumulate biomass, control water erosion and dust storms, reduce river sedimentation, and mitigate small floods. However, planting trees in areas previously dominated by grassland or cropland can dramatically alter the energy and water balances at multiple scales. The forest/grassland transition zone is especially vulnerable to projected drastic temperature and precipitation shifts and growing extremes due to its high ecohydrological sensitivity. We investigated some of the relevant aspects of the ecological and climatic role of forests and potential impacts of climate change at the dryland margins of the temperate-continental zone using case studies from China, the United States and SE Europe (Hungary). We found that, contrary to popular expectations, the effects of forest cover on regional climate might be limited and the influence of forestation on water resources might be negative. Planted forests generally reduce stream flow and lower groundwater table level because of higher water use than previous land cover types. Increased evaporation potential due to global warming and/or extreme drought events is likely to reduce areas that are appropriate for tree growth and forest establishment. Ecologically conscious forest management and forestation planning should be adjusted to the local, projected hydrologic and climatic conditions, and should also consider non-forest alternative land uses.
Forests have diverse values and functions that produce not only material products, but also non-material services. The health functions provided by forests have been used for a very long time, but ...they have only been emphasized in many fields of society in recent years.The rapid increase in urbanization and the problems of stress, sedentary occupations, and hazardous urban environmental conditions due to modern life may be factors that place great demand on forests' health functions. Scientific research has shown that there are various psychological and physiological human health benefits of exposure to forests, parks, and green spaces.This collection of papers highlights up-to-date findings and evidence to reveal the beneficial effects of forests on human and public health. The findings provided here can be implemented in practice and policy using forests and nature for human and public health.
A bibliometric analysis of community forestry research outputs in Canada was undertaken to 1) better understand the current status as well as spatial and temporal trends in research published in ...peer-reviewed journals, 2) identify gaps in the research literature, and 3) provide baseline data to inform future research. For each publication, information on several core metrics was gathered, for example: (i) year of publication, (ii) number of authors, (iii) author affiliation, (iv) gender and role, (v) journal title, (vi) citation count and (vii) keywords. Temporal and spatial trends were analysed to detect periods of heightened activity and geographical focus. Using a systematic and comprehensive approach we identified 85 papers published in peer-reviewed journals between 1935 and 2014. Research output during WWII and 1990 onwards corresponds with the implementation of provincial policy and programs initiated for conservation, economic development, and to resolve social unrest. Notably, most papers analysed originated from social science research, particularly geography, and not forestry or the biophysical sciences presenting a clear disciplinary gap. Findings portray the temporal, spatial, and thematic evolution of community forestry research and policy in Canada.
•Canadian community forestry research bibliometrics were analysed for trends and gaps.•85 journal papers were identified spanning 1935 to 2014.•Peak output years and research hotspots coincide with provincial policy changes.•Female authorship, global profile, theme variety and collaboration are increasing.•Social science and not natural science dominates community forestry research in Canada.
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