People And Forest

People and Forest-Policy and Local Reality in Southeast Asia, the Russian Far East, and Japan

People and Forest-Policy and Local Reality in Southeast Asia, the Russian Far East, and Japan

This book is a compilation of the results of strategic policy research carried out by the Forest Conservation Project of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), between 1998 and 2002. The project's main purpose is to shed light on measures to conserve biodiversity and use forests sustainably, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. Project work was conducted by academics, non-governmental organizations, and governmental officials in selected countries in the region and covered everything from the local reality at the village level, to forest policy at the national and global levels. Based on a structural analysis of issues concerning forest loss and degradation, the project focused on the participation of local people in sustainable forest management. The book: -presents a framework for sustainable forest management in the Asia-Pacific region. -analyzes forest policy and legislation in terms of local participation. -sheds light on the local reality in forest use and management. -proposes methodologies and concepts for sustainable forest management through local participation. Audience: The book offers a helpful framework for forest conservation, as well as key concepts and measures that will be useful for policy makers, non-governmental organizations, and academics alike.

People, Forests, and Change

We owe much of our economic prosperity to the vast forested landscapes that cover the earth. The timber we use to build our homes, the water we drink, and the oxygen in the air we breathe come from the complex forested ecosystem that many of us take for granted. As urban boundaries expand and rural landscapes are developed, forests are under more pressure than ever. It is time to forgo the thinking that forests can be managed outside of human influence, and shift instead to management strategies that consider humans to be part of the forest ecosystem. Only then can we realistically plan for coexisting and sustainable forests and human communities in the future. In People, Forests, and Change: Lessons from the Pacific Northwest, editors Deanna H. Olson and Beatrice Van Horne have assembled an expert panel of social and forest scientists to consider the nature of forests in flux and how to best balance the needs of forests and the rural communities closely tied to them. The book considers the temperate moist-coniferous forests of the US Pacific Northwest, but many of the concepts apply broadly to challenges in forest management in other regions and countries. In the US northwest, forest ecosystem management has been underway for two decades, and key lessons are emerging. The text is divided into four parts that set the stage for forests and rural forest economies, describe dynamic forest systems at work, consider new science in forest ecology and management, and ponder the future for these coniferous forests under different scenarios. People, Forests, and Change brings together ideas grounded in science for policy makers, forest and natural resource managers, students, and conservationists who wish to understand how to manage forests conscientiously to assure their long-term viability and that of human communities who depend on them.