Most journalists and academics attribute the rise of wildfires in the western United States to the USDA Forest Service's successful fire-elimination policies of the twentieth century. However, in ...Fire Management in the American West, Mark Hudson argues that although a century of suppression did indeed increase the hazard of wildfire, the responsibility does not lie with the USFS alone. The roots are found in the Forest Service's relationships with other, more powerful elements of society--the timber industry in particular. Drawing on correspondence both between and within the Forest Service and the major timber industry associations, newspaper articles, articles from industry outlets, and policy documents from the late 1800s through the present, Hudson shows how the US forest industry, under the constraint of profitability, pushed the USFS away from private industry regulation and toward fire exclusion, eventually changing national forest policy into little more than fire policy. More recently, the USFS has attempted to move beyond the policy of complete fire suppression. Interviews with public land managers in the Pacific Northwest shed light on the sources of the agency's struggles as it attempts to change the way we understand and relate to fire in the West. Fire Management in the American West will be of great interest to environmentalists, sociologists, fire managers, scientists, and academics and students in environmental history and forestry.
A quiet revolution is taking place in America's forests. Once
seen primarily as stands of timber, our woodlands are now prized as
a rich source of a wide range of commodities, from wild mushrooms
and ...maple sugar to hundreds of medicinal plants whose uses have
only begun to be fully realized. Now as timber harvesting becomes
more mechanized and requires less labor, the image of the
lumberjack is being replaced by that of the forager.
This book provides the first comprehensive examination of
nontimber forest products (NTFPs) in the United States,
illustrating their diverse importance, describing the people who
harvest them, and outlining the steps that are being taken to
ensure access to them. As the first extensive national overview of
NTFP policy and management specific to the United States, it brings
together research from numerous disciplines and analytical
perspectives-such as economics, mycology, history, ecology, law,
entomology, forestry, geography, and anthropology-in order to
provide a cohesive picture of the current and potential role of
NTFPs.
The contributors review the state of scientific knowledge of
NTFPs by offering a survey of commercial and noncommercial
products, an overview of uses and users, and discussions of
sustainable management issues associated with ecology, cultural
traditions, forest policy, and commerce. They examine some of the
major social, economic, and biological benefits of NTFPs, while
also addressing the potential negative consequences of NTFP
harvesting on forest ecosystems and on NTFP species
populations.
Within this wealth of information are rich accounts of NTFP use
drawn from all parts of the American landscape-from the Pacific
Northwest to the Caribbean. From honey production to a review of
nontimber forest economies still active in the United States-such
as the Ojibway "harvest of plants" recounted here-the book takes in
the whole breadth of recent NTFP issues, including ecological
concerns associated with the expansion of NTFP markets and NTFP
tenure issues on federally managed lands.
No other volume offers such a comprehensive overview of NTFPs in
North America. By examining all aspects of these products, it
contributes to the development of more sophisticated policy and
management frameworks for not only ensuring their ongoing use but
also protecting the future of our forests.
Open access edition funded by the National Endowment for
Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book
Program.
As an emerging cellulosic nanomaterial, microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) and nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) have shown enormous potential in the forest products industry. The forest products ...industry and academia are working together to realise the possibilities of commercializing MFC and NFC. However, there are still needs to improve the processing, characterisation and material properties of nanocellulose in order to realise its full potential. The annual number of research publications and patents on nanocellulose with respect to manufacturing, properties and applications is now up in the thousands, so it is of the utmost importance to review articles that endeavour to research on this explosive topic of cellulose nanomaterials. This review examines the past and current situation of wood-based MFC and NFC in relation to its processing and applications relating to papermaking.
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. Keywords: non-wood forest products, well-being, socio-cultural transformation, service-based economy, regional variation Un nouvel interet se developpe en Europe quant au role et a l'importance des produits forestiers autres que le bois (NWFPs). Cet article analyse les perspectives emergeantes du developpement des NWFPs en Europe et relie celles-ci a quatre facteurs principaux affectant le developpement des NWFPs dans les pays tropicaux: diversite dans la contribution des NWFPs aux revenus des ruraux, centralite de la culture, les echelons entre l'extraction des NWPFs et la monoculture, et l'importance des marches locaux et regionaux. Alors qu'une grande attention a ete portee sur le role des NWPFs en tant qu'atout de revenus de base dans les pays tropicaux, les pays europeens s'orientent davantage vers le role des NWFPs comme produits de boutique ou produits contribuant au bien-etre au sein des services pedagogiques et de recreation. Quatre orientations principales de developpement peuvent etre distinguees, distribuees non uniformement en Europe. Cinq regions europeennes possedant des caracteristiques differentes quant a l'usage et au developpement des NWFPS sont identifiees, dependant de conditions socio-economiques, culturelles et ecologiques. En Europa estan apareciendo nuevos intereses en la funcion y la importancia de los productos forestales no maderables (PFNM). Este articulo analiza las perspectivas emergentes sobre el desarrollo de PFNM en Europa y las relaciona con las cuatro causas principales de cambios en los PFNM en paises tropicales: diferencias en la contribucion de los PFNM a los medios de vida (rurales), importancia de la cultura, gradiente desde extraccion de PFNM a monocultivos y la importancia de los mercados locales y regionales. Mientras que en los paises tropicales se ha prestado mucha atencion al papel de los PFNM como un activo basico de los medios de vida, en los paises europeos el enfoque se orienta cada vez mas hacia los PFNM como productos para mercados nicho o productos de bienestar integrados en los servicios de recreo y pedagogicos. Se pueden distinguir cuatro direcciones principales en los cambios. Estas direcciones no estan distribuidas uniformemente en Europa. Dependiendo de las condiciones socioeconomicas, culturales y ecologicas, se identifican cinco regiones europeas con diferentes caracteristicas en cuanto al uso y cambios en los PFNM.
In May 2014, the Member States of the United Nations adopted Resolution 23/1 on “strengthening a targeted crime prevention and criminal justice response to combat illicit trafficking in forest ...products, including timber.” The resolution promotes the development of tools and technologies that can be used to combat the illicit trafficking of timber. Stopping illegal logging worldwide could substantially increase revenue from the legal trade in timber and halt the associated environmental degradation, but law enforcement and timber traders themselves are hampered by the lack of available tools to verify timber legality. Here, we outline how scientific methods can be used to verify global timber supply chains. We advocate that scientific methods are capable of supporting both enforcement and compliance with respect to timber laws but that work is required to expand the applicability of these methods and provide the certification, policy, and enforcement frameworks needed for effective routine implementation.
The overexploitation of forest resources in the charcoal production basin of the city of Lubumbashi (DR Congo) is reducing the resilience of miombo woodlands and threatening the survival of the ...riparian as well as urban human populations that depend on it. We assessed the socio-economic value and availability of plant-based non-timber forest products NTFPs in the rural area of Lubumbashi through ethnobotanical (100 respondents) and socio-economic (90 respondents) interviews, supplemented with floristic inventories, in two village areas selected on the basis of the level of forest degradation. The results show that 60 woody species, including 46 in the degraded forest (Maksem) and 53 in the intact forest (Mwawa), belonging to 22 families are used as sources of NTFPs in both villages. Among these species, 25 are considered priority species. NTFPs are collected for various purposes, including handcrafting, hut building, and traditional medicine. Moreover, the ethnobotanical lists reveal a similarity of almost 75%, indicating that both local communities surveyed use the same species for collecting plant-based NTFPs despite differences in the level of degradation of the miombo woodlands in the two corresponding study areas. However, the plant-based NTFPs that are collected from miombo woodlands and traded in the urban markets have significant economic value, which ranges from USD 0.5 to USD 14.58 per kg depending on the species and uses. NTFPs used for handicraft purposes have a higher economic value than those used for other purposes. However, the sustainability of this activity is threatened due to unsustainable harvesting practices that include stem slashing, root digging, and bark peeling of woody species. Consequently, there is a low availability of plant-based NTFPs, particularly in the village area, where forest degradation is more advanced. It is imperative that policies for monitoring and regulating harvesting and promoting the sustainable management of communities’ plant-based NTFPs as a priority, be undertaken to maintain their resilience.
Multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) have become a vital part of the organizational landscape for corporate social responsibility. Recent debates have explored whether these initiatives represent ...opportunities for the "democratization" of transnational corporations, facilitating civic participation in the extension of corporate responsibility, or whether they constitute new arenas for the expansion of corporate influence and the private capture of regulatory power. In this article, we explore the political dynamics of these new governance initiatives by presenting an in-depth case study of an organization often heralded as a model MSI: the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). An effort to address global deforestation in the wake of failed efforts to agree a multilateral convention on forests at the Rio Summit (UNCED) in 1992, the FSC was launched in 1993 as a non-state regulatory experiment: a transnational MSI, administering a global eco-labeling scheme for timber and forest products. We trace the scheme's evolution over the past two decades, showing that while the FSC has successfully facilitated multi-sectoral determination of new standards for forestry, it has nevertheless failed to transform commercial forestry practices or stem the tide of tropical deforestation. Applying a neo-Gramscian analysis to the organizational evolution of the FSC, we examine how broader market forces and resource imbalances between non-governmental and market actors can serve to limit the effectiveness of MSIs in the current neo-liberal environment. This presents dilemmas for NGOs which can lead to their defection, ultimately undermining the organizational legitimacy of MSIs.
PDF
