Considers the contribution of sustainable forest management(SFM) to achieving several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Addresses the environmental factors which determine types of tropical forests Reviews the ways in which tropical forests can influence the water cycle

The often-claimed environmental and social benefits of forest certification remain to be empirically evaluated. Despite numerous publications on the impacts of tropical forest certification, virtually all are based on secondary sources of information and not on field-based measurements. This paper proposes an empirical research framework for a carefully designed field-based evaluation of the ecological, social, economic, and political impacts of tropical forest management certification taking into account location-specific contextual factors which shape certification outcomes. The paper also suggests that solid methodological quantitative and qualitative approaches be used to build proper counterfactuals on which to base the comparisons for inferring impacts, all informed by a thorough theory-of-change and through processes that bring stakeholders together. The proposed research framework represents a first step towards the design and future implementation of evaluation research in the context of tropical forest certification on a global basis. It is hoped the research framework proposed contributes to learning from past mistakes, building on lessons learned and enhancing decision-making towards the maintenance of forest values over the long term, and for the benefit of society as a whole.

This collection features five peer-reviewed literature reviews on sustainable forest management. The first chapter discusses the varying definitions of sustainable forest management (SFM) in tropical landscapes, as well as the trade-offs associated with SFM. The chapter also reviews the spatial scales of assessing SFM and explores expanding the scope of SFM from individual strands to forested landscapes. The second chapter provides a comprehensive review of the current research undertaken in sustainable forestry. It considers the concept and evolution of sustainable forestry and the challenges which arise as a result of implementing SFM practices. The third chapter reviews the role and impact of forest certification schemes in the achievement of SFM. The chapter summarises the wealth of research available on the development of forest certification and how individual elements can be optimised to further improve the model. The fourth chapter discusses the recent history and implementation challenges of SFM across the Congo Basin, including logging concessions, land zones and the processes and institutions required to implement effective SFM policies. The final chapter analyses the potential trade-offs between ecosystem services and biodiversity in the southern Patagonian forests. The chapter explores the implementation of SFM as a strategy to mitigate these trade-offs at a landscape level.

Forests are landscape-embedded complex systems with fates determined by multitudes of changing and interacting factors that are sectoral and extra-sectoral, biophysical and political, predictable and chaotic. The diversity of forest states (e.g. secondary, degraded, fragmented, invaded and managed) and the fact that none of these states is permanent gives reason for hope; even deforestation need not be permanent. With so many forest values recognized to different degrees by different people, the future of tropical production forests is likely to represent an ever-changing mosaic of a gradient of forested-type landscapes. To assure that this future is as environmentally, socioeconomically and politically sound as possible, researchers need to synthesize and evaluate what is known and then build on that knowledge while they continue learning. There is a critical need for interdisciplinary research at appropriate scales with the best designs possible to capture the impacts of relevant silvicultural treatments on the full range of response variables

Management decisions on appropriate practices and policies regarding tropical forests often need to be made in spite of innumerable uncertainties and complexities. Among the uncertainties are the lack of formalization of lessons learned regarding the impacts of previous programs and projects. Beyond the challenges of generating the proper information on these impacts, there are other difficulties that relate with how to socialize the information and knowledge gained so that change is transformational and enduring. The main complexities lie in understanding the interactions of social-ecological systems at different scales and how they varied through time in response to policy and other processes. This volume is part of a broad research effort to develop an independent evaluation of certification impacts with stakeholder input, which focuses on FSC certification of natural tropical forests. More specifically, the evaluation program aims at building the evidence base of the empirical biophysical, social, economic, and policy effects that FSC certification of natural forest has had in Brazil as well as in other tropical countries. The contents of this volume highlight the opportunities and constraints that those responsible for managing natural forests for timber production have experienced in their efforts to improve their practices in Brazil. As such, the goal of the studies in this volume is to serve as the foundation to design an impact evaluation framework of the impacts of FSC certification of natural forests in a participatory manner with interested parties, from institutions and organizations, to communities and individuals.

Les avantages sociaux et environnementaux de la certification forestière, souvent allégués, restent à évaluer empiriquement. Les publications sur les impacts de la certification des forêts tropicales sont nombreuses, mais presque toutes s’appuient sur des sources d’information secondaires plutôt que des mesures de terrain. Cet article propose une grille de recherche empirique pour une analyse de terrain rigoureusement menée des impacts écologiques, sociaux, économiques et politiques de la certification de la gestion des forêts tropicales en prenant en compte les facteurs contextuels spécifiques de chaque localisation, ceux-ci influant sur les résultats de la certification. Cette publication préconise aussi d’utiliser des approches méthodologiques quantitatives et qualitatives solides pour établir les scénarios contrefactuels adéquats qui permettent de faire les comparaisons servant à déduire les impacts ; ces approches s’appuyant toutes sur une théorie complète du changement et des modalités de rassemblement des acteurs. La grille de recherche proposée représente la première étape de la conception et de la réalisation future de travaux d’évaluation appliquée au contexte de la certification des forêts tropicales à l’échelle de la planète. Nous espérons qu’elle contribuera à tirer les leçons des erreurs passées, utiliser les acquis pour aller de l’avant et améliorer la prise de décision de manière à favoriser la pérennisation des valeurs liées aux forêts au profit de la société toute entière.