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There is increasing pressure on the forestry industry to adopt sustainable practices, but a lack of knowledge about how to facilitate this, and how to measure sustainability. This book reviews current thinking about scientifically based indicators, and sustainable management of natural forests and plantations. Information is applicable to boreal, temperate and tropical biomes. The contents have been developed from papers presented at a IUFRO conference held in Australia, in order to develop a state-of the art report on this subject. ... Read more

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Uses an innovative approach toward integrating biophysical and socioeconomical components into environmentally sound, sustainable forest management practices in dryland regions. Covers technical considerations in dryland forestry, agroforestry systems, rehabilitation of saline regions, investment and employment opportunities, forestry extension programs and much more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Relationship.
I have not read the book, but I am a relative of Peter Folliott and would love to be in contact with him.If possible, could he please contact me by email. Thankyou. ... Read more

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A collection of papers, many translated from Russian, that were originally presented at a seminar held in 1995 to increase international awareness about Kyrgyzstan's unique walnut-fruit forests. Subject matter includes the historical and present-day utilization and management of these forests, their ecological diversity and importance for biodiversity conservation, and measures adopted for the genetic improvement of walnut, Juglans regia, and other commercially important species. ... Read more

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Across the United States, people are developing new relationships with the forest ecosystems on which they depend, with a common goal of improving the health of the land and the well-being of their communities. Practitioners and supporters of what has come to be called community forestry are challenging current approaches to forest management as they seek to end the historical disfranchisement of communities and workers from forest management and the all-too-pervasive trends of long-term disinvestment in ecosystems and human communities that have undermined the health of both.

Community Forestry in the United States is an analytically rigorous and historically informed assessment of this new movement. It examines the current state of community forestry through a grounded assessment of where it stands now and where it might go in the future. The book not only clarifies the state of the movement, but also suggests a trajectory and process for its continued development. ... Read more

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"Sustainable forestry is right where organic gardening was a generation ago--at the very beginning of working out the techniques and technologies that will let logging thrive at a scale appropriate to both the human and natural communities that depend on the forest. This book is at--if you will pardon the expression--the absolute cutting edge of that process."
Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature, Hope, Human and Wild, Enough, and other books
If the future really mattered . . .

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During the 4th International Consultation on Forest Geneticsand Tree Building, held in 1998 in Beijing, China, leading scientistswere invited to review past achievements, to redefine the role offorest genetics and breeding in contemporary forestry, and to setpriorities for future research and development. On the basis of theinvited presentations, the volume summarizes the state of knowledge invarious fields, such as the impact of forest management and ofchanging environmental conditions on genetic resources, and the valueof genetic markers as indicators for adaptational potential, as wellas the tasks of conservation. Detailed reports from the different continents provide a comprehensivediagnosis of the global situation of forest genetics and tree breedingresearch. The book offers not only an overview of contemporary trendsand expected future developments, but also identifies current mainproblems in funding and cooperation. It may prove therefore useful notonly for scientists, university lecturers and advanced students in thefield of forestry, ecology and conservation biology, but also fordecision makers and managers in companies and conservationorganizations. ... Read more

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-- Thomas Lovejoy, The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment

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Save time and effort with this practical guide to all aspects of water and soil conservation

Soil and Water Conservation Handbook is a concise, compact encyclopedia of the policies, practices, conditions, and terms related to soil and/or water conservation. This handy A-to-Z guide contains descriptions of more than 700 entries, presented in a practical, non-technical format that's suitable for beginners as well as experts. It's a ready reference source of information for researchers, extension agents, policymakers, academics, and anyone else concerned about soil and water conservation.

Internationally acclaimed soil scientist Dr. Paul Unger has called on his 35 years experience researching the effects of tillage, crop residues, and soil management as well as his observations in more than 40 countries to assemble a resource on soil and water conservation that's concise but comprehensive. Sources for the book's main and secondary entries--many of which are cross-referenced--include technical journals, bulletins, reports, farm magazines, commercial leaflets, books, and Internet resources. Soil and Water Conservation Handbook also includes a detailed table of contents and an index, allowing quick and easy access to any entry.

Soil and Water Conservation Handbook includes entries that cover:
Climate characteristics
Cropping systems and sequences
Erosion types
Human factors
Management issues
Planting and seeding methods
Crop residue types and management practices
Soil and land conditions
Tillage methods
Water control practices
And much more!

Soil and Water Conservation Handbook is an invaluable reference for researchers, agricultural extension agents, Natural Resource Conservation Service personnel, educators and students, land managers, and farmers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent pick any college-level agricultural or horticultural holding should have.
Soil and Water Conservation Handbook: Policies, Practices, Conditions and Terms is an excellent encyclopedia of such for any college-level holding strong in conservation issues and science. Here are over 700 entries provided in a non-technical format suitable for beginners, covering policies and agendas in agriculture and horticulture. An excellent pick any college-level agricultural or horticultural holding should have. ... Read more

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A thought-provoking look at how man and nature coexist, somewhatuneasily, within the Appalachian Forest, the world's most diverse temperatewoodlands, 80 percent of which is privately owned-by the ancestors ofhomesteaders, outsiders who've bought large and small tracts, absentee landlordsand landowners, private groups and institutions, and giant corporations.Interviews with a diverse group of landowners-a horse logger, a selectivecutter, a ginseng grower, a clear cutter, a forest steward, a summer-camp owner,and others-and the author's own experiences as a landowner illustrate theprivate forest's past, present, and future. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

One of The Top Three
...Ms Bolgiano is both a skilled researcher and a talented writer.

The newest of Ms Bolgiano's books, Living in the Appalachian Forest, zeros in on relationships between man and the wooded lands of our eastern mountains.In its pages, the reader meets people who care enough about the trees to dedicate their lives and often to risk their livelihoods to develop sustainable ways for humans to live with the forests, to use them wisely and in ways that keep the woods growing more and more healthy instead of descending into destruction.Of course, the folks who care about nothing but a quick profit appear here and there.The emphasis of Living in the Appalachian Forest, however, is on the conscientious, caring people who love the forest and the hope their activities inspire.

There's some interesting history in this book.Though I grew up in West Virginia, I had never before heard the real stories of the 1920 Matewan Massacre or the famous feud between the Hatfields and McCoys.Ms Bolgiano shares well written accounts of both these incidents, and many more.

In the pages of Living in the Appalachians, I learned quite a bit about forestry.I also became aware of several government and private organizations that involve themselves in the forest industries.Some are harmful, while many others are working diligently for sustainability.

There is a fine account with a lot of excellent description of the odious practice of mountaintop removal.This mining technique, a giant step beyond the destructiveness of even poorly managed strip mining, is used widely in the Appalachians by supposedly legitimate mining companies under the watch of supposedly honest government agencies.

Living in the Appalachian Forest is truly a fine book.It is a work of considerable insight and love and of hard research and fine writing.It holds the reader's interest like a really good novel...

Living in the Appalachian Forest: True Tales of Sustainable
Fun, serious, and thoroughly readable.Chris Bolgiano weaves grounded environmentalism and ecological awareness with history and stories/case studies to bring our awareness to a complex subject.This book presents solid Appalachian forest information to the reader in a manner that keeps one reading.Forests are complex, there are many approaches and techniques to sustainability, and Ms. Bolgiano seems to get to most.Simply, I found this book a delight to read and I learned so much from it.

Sustainable Forestry from the Roots Up
Those of us who own and/or treasure portions of Appalachia's forest will find in Chris Bolgiano's concise 200 pages a wealth of useful information.She interviews a wide spectrum of foresters, loggers, strip-miners, nature lovers, and other "shareholders"---bringing us up-to-date about the use (and too often the abuse) of what might be the most diverse temperate forest in the world.When Bolgiano visited mountaintop- removal stripmine sites, she found that over 99 percent of the natural diversity had been destroyed---but that western elk had been imported to the stripmined land as a sort of fig leaf to cover the devastation.She describes ways that land can be put in trust and legally protected against such abuse--including against abuse by future owners.One of the book's main themes is sustainable logging---which can best be done with horses rather than machines, and which increasingly now rejects the "high-grading" system of timber selection in favor of "low-grading"---thereby leaving the best trees in place to reproduce.These practices are spreading fast in Appalachia with the help of Smartwood certification and also thanks to professional forestry consultants such as Appalachian Sustainable Development, based in southwestern Virginia.In first-person prose that often sparkles, Bolgiano relates her adventures while visiting all sorts of people whose lives and livelihoods revolve around the forest.She embeds a major delivery of crucial history and current facts in a light-hearted telling of her personal adventures.Her book is not only a pleasure to read but highly informative.It's a major resource for anyone who wants to pitch in and try to save some special part of the Appalachian region from becoming a national sacrifice area. -Paul Salstrom ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Sustainable forest management (SFM) is the management of forests according to the principles of sustainable development. Sustainable forest management uses very broad social, economic and environmental goals. A range of forestry institutions now practice various forms of sustainable forest management and a broad range of methods and tools are available that have been tested over time. The "Forest Principles" adopted at The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 captured the general international understanding of sustainable forest management at that time. A number of sets of criteria and indicators have since been developed to evaluate the achievement of SFM at both the country and management unit level. These were all attempts to codify and provide for independent assessment of the degree to which the broader objectives of sustainable forest management are being achieved in practice. In 2007, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Non-Legally Binding Instrument on All Types of Forests. The instrument is the first of its kind, and reflects the strong international commitment to promote implementation of sustainable forest management through a new approach that brings all stakeholders together. A definition of SFM known as sustainable forestry to this present day is understanding the forest management that was developed by the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe MCPFE), and has since been adopted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). It defines sustainable forest management as: The stewardship and use of forests and forest lands in a way, and at a rate, that maintains their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity, vitality and their pote... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=4473245 ... Read more

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No discussion of sustainable forestry would be complete without considering the unique aspects of nonindustrial private forests (NIPFs). Owners of these forests control 58% of the commercial forests in the United States. East of the Mississippi this type of ownership accounts for more than two-thirds of the region's timberland, whereas west of the Great Plains the majority of forests are in public ownership. The 261 million acres in NIPFs protect watersheds, provide wildlife habitat, offer scenic beauty, and supply 49% of the timber harvested in the United States, according to the U.S. Forest Service. This supply is critical for many large wood products manufacturers. Weyerhaeuser Co., for instance, harvests 58% of its timber supply from NIPFs nationally, and 90% of these lands are in the South.

The ten million NIPF owners - a diverse group including individuals, partnerships, estates, trusts, clubs, tribes, corporations, and associations - confront a variety of challenges that can complicate the practice of sustainable forest management (SFM). Many are not well informed about the economic value of their resource or the importance of consulting professional foresters when making management decisions. Annual property taxes and capital gains taxes can be disincentives to sound, long-term forest management. Without proper estate planning, owners can be forced into making decisions that may prevent them from passing forest land from one generation to the next, and may lead to the conversion of the forest to other uses. Equally important, the objectives of the owners combined with their individual financial circumstances are determining factors whether forest land will be managed sustainably or not.

The cases of seven NIPF ownerships presented here range from a small family forest that is managed for amenity values to a large tract managed for timber and investment. They are located in the Northeast, Pacific Northwest, and Southeast, which represent very different timber-growing regions. Although all these owners use professional forestry advice, and all the properties have been in family ownership for decades, they are indicative of the wide range of NIPF owners' backgrounds, objectives, and financial circumstances. They also illustrate how a diverse group of private landowners has addressed issues of forest sustainability. A section on certification examines three innovative approaches now underway to certify NIPFs: a certified resource manager, a chain-of-custody certified manufacturer, and a single forest owner seeking certification. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Wood & Wood Products, published by Vance Publishing Corp. on January 1, 1995. The length of the article is 3028 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: Sustainable forestry refers to the management of forests and forested landscapes in such a way that ecological functions are maintained and timber supply is sustained. The federal government and the private sector played active roles in conserving US forests through their support of research on sustainable forestry management.

Citation Details
Title: The forest through the trees: a century of sustainable forestry. (includes related article)(1896-1996: Wood & Wood Products Centennial)
Author: Debra Sykes
Publication: Wood & Wood Products (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 1995
Publisher: Vance Publishing Corp.
Volume: v100Issue: n14Page: p106(6)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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The forest products industry ranks as one of the world's most important industries ;for the global economy and the environment. It represents close to 3% of the world's gross economic output. The forests upon which it depends are among the most critical ecosystems for the health of the planet and for human well-being. The size of the industry, its links to the rest of the world economy, and the importance of its resource base for environmental services make it the target of intense public scrutiny and government regulation. Understanding sustainable forestry requires understanding the evolving dynamics of the forest products industryan evolution that is increasingly making the cost of wood a smaller fraction of the final value of a forest product.

Two frameworks are used here as prisms through which to view the industry. The first section describes how the major business and environmental trends sweeping the industry are transforming Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) into a major industry force. It then outlines the most critical nonenvironmental drivers that make or break all businesses within the industry, and explains how they will influence sustainability issues. The second section describes how all these forces play out within each of the three major industry segments: paper, solid wood, and engineered wood products, and maps out in which parts of the industry sustainable forestry is already a major issue, where it is not, and why.

This approach makes sense given the history of SFM. Most sustainable forestry businesses have started from the forest, then tried to move forward to the market. An analysis that assesses the industry and links market conditions back to sustainable forestry supply capabilities reveals where sustainable forestry is well integrated, where it may not have much current opportunity, and where opportunity for closer end-market integration remains untapped.

The forces transforming the industry include: tightening supplies, a shift in production regions, globalization, increased raw material efficiency, intensified product consistency, and heightened government regulation. Just as these forces are affected by environmental pressures, they also have environmental impacts of their own.

As population growth and burgeoning economies spur the consumption of forest products, wood supplies are tightening worldwide. While no crisis is imminent, the industry is turning to new regions, especially South America and South Asia, as a source for wood. It is also gradually shifting from a supply based largely on natural forests to one that depends on plantations, many located in the southern hemisphere. Just when environmental restrictions are curtailing wood production in many northern countries, heightened demand elsewhere is causing the industry to expand into delicate ecosystems in the Southern Hemisphere. Meanwhile, the industry is becoming increasingly globalized, with raw materials sourced throughout the world to create products for equally diverse markets.

Shifts in producing regions and globalization are creating new opportunities for value-added industries in the southern hemisphere. Primary and secondary processing industries will follow wood supplies for financial reasons, as timber producing nations try to capture a larger share of the production from forest products. These changes will draw significant investment to the Southern Hemisphere.

Globalization brings improvements in communications, shipping, and distribution that facilitate the transfer of knowledge about state-of-the-art forest management techniques. These same developments make the emergence of an international trade in certified forest products possible. As capital travels to formerly untapped forest reserves, for example those in eastern Russia, the forces unleashed by globalization will exert even greater pressures on forests worldwide in the next twenty years.

Evermore efficient raw material use and increasing product standardization are also contributing to the industry's transformation. Over the past several decades, the industry has created many technological silver bullets that enable it to create more product from less wood.

The industry-wide drive for standardization and consistency is moving down the value chain from final consumer products through to the forest. Instead of emphasizing efforts to use individual species such as oak and cherry, resources are now allocated to figure out how to make a vanilla feedstock such as rubber wood look and perform like oak or cherry. Eventually, this trend will lead to more investment in processing assets that can guarantee consistency, and a movement toward either tree plantations or homogenization during primary and secondary processing.

Environmental forces have flexed their political and market muscles, placing the forest products industry under intensifying public scrutiny and government regulation of its environmental performance. New regulations and market initiatives are curtailing access to government controlled forest resources, and influencing the management of private forests. While a number of international agreements designed to improve forest practices might eventually affect the industry, few now have the teeth to do so.

In the past five years "certification" has emerged as a nongovernmental initiative that may further transform the way the industry manages its forests. Certified forest products are defining the market for wood products grown in an environmentally sound fashion. While the full impact of certification is still unknown, if it focuses the concerns of consumers and purchasers on the quality of the forest from which a product is harvested, and if certification is widely adopted, it could dramatically improve forest management and change markets.

How the business and environmental forces affect the paper, panels, and sawnwood segments of the industry will determine, in large measure, the future of sustainable forest products. The paper industry, with its massive capital investments, huge pollution abatement costs, extreme business cycles, and susceptibility to buyer power, has long been beleaguered. The paper industry's recent shift to greater use of recycled paper demonstrates both its vulnerability to outside pressures and its ability to adapt rapidly to a new business environment.

Panels and engineered wood products may be a model for the future. Products in this segment, capitalizing on rapid-fire technological advances, are among the fastest growing in the industry. From an environmental perspective, these products' ability to use a variety of woods now makes them more attractive than plywood, the once dominant panel product. On the other hand, certified panel products will be much tougher to bring to market because it is so difficult to ensure that all the woods used in them come from sustainably managed forests.

Sawnwood products draw most of the attention from the certification community. The sawnwood segment is more fragmented, less capital intensive and adds relatively less value to its products than paper or panels. Sawnwood companies in temperate regions that produce hardwood will have opportunities to sell to markets opened up by a new resistance to tropical hardwoods. The forest management practices of softwood producers, however, are under heavy scrutiny, and they will find fewer opportunities to leverage superior forest management. Although tropical countries are under enormous international pressure to improve their forest management practices, most of the internal and Pacific Rim markets they serve, so far, remain relatively uninterested in the environmental qualities of forest products. Niche opportunities, though, are available in Europe to tropical producers that can produce certified forest products.

In the future, the successful forest products company will understand and embrace the forces that are transforming the industry. Environmental trends are at the leading edge of these changes, and will be instrumental in determining the industry's winners and losers. Companies that understand the role of the environment will profit by doing so: Those that underestimate the force of environmental issues will do so at their peril. ... Read more

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Financing is an indispensable ingredient for achieving SustainableDevelopment, enabling the world to implement the decisions takenon sustainability plan of action. Forest ecosystems play a veryimportant role in environmental, social and economic aspect of life.Therefore, the role of forests in the human life calls for effectivefinancial mechanisms that will prevent further deforestation. TheLome Convention is one of the international conventions betweenthe European Union (EU) and the Africa, Pacific and Caribbean (ACP)Group of States that is aimed at ensuring socio-economicdevelopment of its member states through various instruments andis seen as a tool for achieving Sustainable Forestry. As deforestationhas continued to negatively impact human, the alarming rate offorest degradation in African States needs to be addressed.Achieving sustainable forestry requires the establishment ofGovernment Forestry Policies beneficial to the civilsociety and also executable strategies put in place for financing thisimportantsector.This book highlights ways in which financing Forestry wasachieved through the ACP-EU cooperation with Botswana as a casestudy. ... Read more

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The discussion of the certification of forest systems has, until recently, revolved largely around the forests and those landowners who elect to invest in certification. However, the response of wood products manufacturers to certification efforts and their willingness to work with certified wood is as important to the acceptance of certification as timber producers' willingness to adopt it. If certification is, as many argue, incentive-based and market-driven, then a system must be in place beyond the forest that tracks certified wood flow through to finished products for consumers. Between the forest and the consumer stands the wood product manufacturer. Wood product manufacturers have their own set of criteria for deciding if and when to invest in certification. Some argue that in the present environment investment in certification is premature, since many questions about its economic viability and performance remain unanswered. They ask, for instance:

• Is there documented demand of sufficient size for certified wood products in the marketplace to warrant manufacturers to change their traditional business practices?
• Can a wood product manufacturer capture a premium off the sale of certified wood products?
• Is there added market and business advantage to offering certified wood products that is demonstrated in either increased product market share and/or increased company visibility?
• Can a manufacturer be cost competitive in product development if required to separate certified and noncertified wood supply and finished product at the production facility?
• Can certified wood production make a positive difference to the business bottom line?

The business case surrounding Colonial Craft provides some surprising answers. ... Read more

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As experience grows with sustainable forest management (SFM) practices throughout the world, one single factor continues to emerge as noncontrovertible: SFM practices do appear to cost more to implement in the forest. It is this factor that continues to drive the debate over whether SFM practices are economically-feasible for the forest products industry. If SFM proponents fail to recognize the importance of helping industry to increase the higher value of wood produced with equal or less resource use, then incentive-based efforts to infuse SFM practices and certified wood product development into accepted industry standards will not succeed. Finding ways to foster the adoption of emerging technologies that enable the forest industry to accomplish better bottom-line results could prove to be of significant benefit to fast-tracking the implementation of SFM practices worldwide. Identifying these emerging technologies, however, and providing a pathway for easier entry into the market is no simple task.

This Emerging Technologies note highlights some of the most promising technologies, techniques, and strategies that may foster the implementation of SFM practices by offering improved environmental and bottom-line results to the forest products industry. ... Read more