Ecosystems - forests

Mitigating the impact of climate change presents governments and communities throughout the world with one of the main environmental challenges of our times. This publication provides an overview of the opportunities and challenges for carbon sequestration activities in the forestry and agricultural sectors of both industrialized and developing countries. It outlines a set of strategies and approaches seeking to ensure that forest and other land-use climate change mitigation measures deliver sustainable development benefits in an equitable and cost-effective manner.

Mitigating the impact of climate change presents governments and communities throughout the world with one of the main environmental challenges of our times. This publication provides an overview of the opportunities and challenges for carbon sequestration activities in the forestry and agricultural sectors of both industrialized and developing countries. It outlines a set of strategies and approaches seeking to ensure that forest and other land-use climate change mitigation measures deliver sustainable development benefits in an equitable and cost-effective manner.

Large areas of the world’s forests have been lost or degraded and landscapes everywhere are being simplified by current land-use practices. In this publication, Lamb and Gilmour present approaches to restoring and rehabilitating the vast areas of degraded, fragmented and modified forests which cover much of the world. They argue that by applying best practice at the site level it is possible to enhance socio-economic and ecological gains at the landscape level.

Have you ever heard of cloud forests? These intriguing ecosystems only represent 2% of the world’s tropical forests. And yet, they are important treasure houses of biodiversity and suppliers of large volumes of high-quality stream-flow. However, these cloud forests are among the most threatened forest ecosystems in the work. In this film scientists try to unravel the secrets of these amazing ecosystems and understand how forest protection works in Costa Rica.

At the meeting of the International Tropical Timber Organization held in Bali in 1990, ITTO adopted the target of ensuring that all tropical timber marketed internationally should, by the year 2000, come from forests that are managed sustainably. This is an attempt to determine whether ITTO member countries have a legal and administrative basis for managing their production forests in ways which will allow these forests to contribute to biological diversity conservation; and the extent to which such management is already applied on the ground through member country studies.

At the meeting of the International Tropical Timber Organization held in Bali in 1990, ITTO adopted the target of ensuring that all tropical timber marketed internationally should, by the year 2000, come from forests that are managed sustainably. This is an attempt to determine whether ITTO member countries have a legal and administrative basis for managing their production forests in ways which will allow these forests to contribute to biological diversity conservation; and the extent to which such management is already applied on the ground through member country studies.

This account of extractive reserves in the Brazilian Amazon region provides practical examples of sustainability based on first-hand reports. The historical background is followed by examination of social organization, analyses of the economic viability of reserves, the key elements in developing an extractive reserve system, establishment of legislation in Brazil, and subsequent management. It underlines the importance of community involvement.