IUFRO World Series #32: Forests Under Pressure - Local Responses to Global Issues
Creators: name: International Union Of Forest Research Organizations
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: Soil Science
subject: Education
subject: Environmental Science
subject: Ecology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: Solid Earth Sciences
subject: Economics
subject: Climate Science

description: Forests under Pressure – Local Responses to Global Issues is the third major publication produced by the Special Project World Forests, Society and Environment (WFSE) of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO). The two previous volumes are Forests in Global Balance: Changing Paradigms (Mery et al. 2005) and Forests and Society – Responding to Global Drivers of Change (Mery et al. 2010). IUFRO-WFSE is an open, independent network of scientists and practitioners steered by 10 interna- tional research organisations, involving more than 100 researchers from throughout the world. It sup- ports sustainable natural resources management, sustainable development and livelihoods, and re- lated policy processes, focusing principally in two main efforts: 1) collating, critically analysing, and synthesising existing scientific knowledge on topics of international relevance in the forest, society, and environment interface in order to draw out important lessons learned and recommendations and 2) under- taking new research to fill in crucial gaps in exist- ing knowledge. WFSE addresses these topics in a cross-sectoral, holistic, and interdisciplinary fashion, encouraging innovative approaches and anticipating what will influence future forest-related development at different scales, from local to global. The idea to produce this book originated from discussions in the IUFRO-WFSE Steering Commit- tee (SC) meetings in Vienna (2011) and Helsinki (2012). The SC concluded that, despite the consider- able attention devoted to advancing sustainable forest management (SFM), increased understanding of the aspects that foster or hinder progress towards SFM is needed. The sustainable management of natural resources, especially forests, is of vital importance to global, regional, and national efforts to achieve sustainable development and should play a key role in efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change and further low-carbon development. The goal of this book, therefore, is to increase the understanding of the conditions and combinations of conditions that foster or hinder progress towards SFM and forest-related sustainable development. The book focuses on these conditions at the local level and also includes processes and influences originating at broader national and global scales. The book is divided into four parts: Part I introduces the rationale, overall structure, and analytical framework of the book; Part II consists of 27 local- and regional- level case studies from different parts of the world; Part III presents a synthesis of the case studies and the main findings derived from an analysis across the cases; Part IV is forward-looking and discusses several of the issues and findings from Parts II and III in the context of future outlooks and scenarios. We hope that this publication provides invaluable in- sights that may help advance SFM and forest-related livelihoods in different parts of the world.