Discusses the ways in which we can continue to benefit from forests, while conserving their biodiversity.

While most efforts at biodiversity conservation have focused primarily on protected areas and reserves, the unprotected lands surrounding those area—the "matrix"—are equally important to preserving global biodiversity and maintaining forest health. In Conserving Forest Biodiversity, leading forest scientists David B. Lindenmayer and Jerry F. Franklin argue that the conservation of forest biodiversity requires a comprehensive and multiscaled approach that includes both reserve and nonreserve areas. They lay the foundations for such a strategy, bringing together the latest scientific information on landscape ecology, forestry, conservation biology, and related disciplines as they examine: the importance of the matrix in key areas of ecology such as metapopulation dynamics, habitat fragmentation, and landscape connectivity general principles for matrix management using natural disturbance regimes to guide human disturbance landscape-level and stand-level elements of matrix management the role of adaptive management and monitoring social dimensions and tensions in implementing matrix-based forest management In addition, they present five case studies that illustrate aspects and elements of applied matrix management in forests. The case studies cover a wide variety of conservation planning and management issues from North America, South America, and Australia, ranging from relatively intact forest ecosystems to an intensively managed plantation. Conserving Forest Biodiversity presents strategies for enhancing matrix management that can play a vital role in the development of more effective approaches to maintaining forest biodiversity. It examines the key issues and gives practical guidelines for sustained forest management, highlighting the critical role of the matrix for scientists, managers, decisionmakers, and other stakeholders involved in efforts to sustain biodiversity and ecosystem processes in forest landscapes.

One of the highest priorities for human societies in the 21st century, under the challenges of predicted great environmental changes, is to conserve all kinds of biodiversity across the planet. Among all the biota that exist on Earth, forest ecosystems demonstrate a high degree of biodiversity, being thought to comprise the most diverse ecosystems, as most of the terrestrial species in the world dwell in these ecosystems. Forest biodiversity is interlinked to a web of socio-economic factors, providing an array of goods and services that range from timber and non-timber forest resources to mitigating climate change and conservation of genetic resources; therefore, it is innately linked to ecosystems and human well-being. However, in recent decades, the decrease in forest biodiversity has been a crucial and ongoing environmental issue that needs special attention and adapted ecosystem management. This Special Issue book on forest biodiversity (FB) includes a selected number of research works from all over the world dealing with emerging issues, for understanding FB and its needs for conservation, ecological processes, disturbances, climate change and ecosystems resilience, structural complexity and ecosystem functions, ecological theories and silvicultural practices, and ecosystems stability. More specifically, it includes papers focused on the indicators and methods for assessing and monitoring forest biodiversity, evaluation of practices, planting and silvicultural treatments, and management and monitoring methods, with an overall goal to provide new insights on forest biodiversity conservation, conservation of forest biodiversity in protected areas, treatments of endangered or threatened forest habitats, and sustainable management of forest resources.

Synthesizes the existing literature about traditional and local ecological knowledge relating to biodiversity (BD) in Pacific NW forests in order to assess what is needed to apply this knowledge to forest BD conservation efforts. Four topics are addressed: (1) views and values people have relating to BD; (2) the resource use and mgmt. practices of local forest users and their effects on BD; (3) methods and models for integrating traditional and local ecological knowledge into BD conservation; and (4) challenges to applying traditional and local ecological knowledge for BD conservation. Focuses on the ecological knowledge of three groups who inhabit the region: Native Amer.,family forest owners, and commercial nontimber forest product harvesters.

Is it possible to sustain biological diversity in managed forests? Or should biodiversity strategies focus solely on reserves and protected areas? A group of well-known scientists specializing in forestry issues apply scientific expertise to the "hot politics" of the forestry debate and present compelling evidence as to the sustainability of biological diversity in managed forests.

Among terrestrial ecosystems, forests play a dominant role in maintaining biodiversity and providing ecosystem functioning, such as nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, and ecosystem stability. Over the past several decades, however, global forests are facing unprecedented pressure from climate change and anthropogenic disturbances, resulting in a high rate of biodiversity loss due to deforestation, fragmentation, and degradation. Determining how to maintain biodiversity is extremely urgent if we want to achieve the aims of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The complex structure, species interaction, heterogenic environment, and regional species pool all affect the spatial and temporal patterns of forest species, but it is still unclear how these effects maintain long-term forest biodiversity as forests undergo rapid variations in habitat features under global change. This reprint includes sixteen published articles related to the dynamics of forest spatial structure, community assembly, forest recovery patterns after disturbance, spatial distribution of species diversity, effects of abiotic and biotic variables on understory species diversity, and above- and below-ground biotic interactions. These studies cover different forest types across varied spatial and temporal scales, as well as different biological groups (plants, birds and microbes). We acknowledge all authors who contributed to this reprint "Maintenance of Forest Biodiversity" of Forests. We hope this reprint can improve our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of forest biodiversity maintenance.

Forests play important role in combating desertification, preventing erosion problems, other protective functions, climatic change and acting as carbon reservoirs and sinks. Forests, the biodiversity they contain and the ecological function they maintain, are a heritage of mankind. The vital role of forests in protecting fragile ecosystems, watersheds and freshwater reservoirs and as storehouses of rich biodiversity should be recognized. Forests contain not only woody species and wild animals but also a wealth of other species of actual or potentially socio-economic importance at the global, national and local levels, including wild relatives of important crop species. Biodiversity is the variety and variability of plant, animal and micro organism in a ecosystem. Biodiversity, in wild and domesticated forms, is the source for most of humanity food, medicine, clothing and housing, most of the cultural diversity and most of the intellectual and spiritual inspirations. In other words, it is the very basis of man s being. Currently, there is severe and widespread loss of biodiversity because of a variety of factors and therefore its conservation is of utmost importance. Conservation and development are partners in the process of environmental protection. To maintain and increase the ecological, biological, climatic, socio-cultural and economic contributions of forests, their conservation and management are urgently required. Biological diversity (biodiversity) is also to be preserved to achieve sustainable development. The book is a sincere effort of the authors to provide compiled information on the subject matter of forest environment and diversity. It includes the impact of forests on environment, basic concept, status and extent of biodiversity, its loss and suggests ways and means of conservation for achieving sustainable development. Contents Chapter 1: Introduction; Chapter 2: Land Use, Forest Area and Population; Chapter 3: History of Forestry in India; Chapter 4: Ecological Perceptions; Chapter 5: Ecology of Indian Forests; Chapter 6: Forests and Environments; Chapter 7: Ecosystem Theory and Application; Chapter 8: Forests and Environment: Soil Erosion and Floods; Chapter 9: Wildlife and Biosphere Reserves; Chapter 10: Atmosphere; Chapter 11: Socio-Economic Effects and Constraints; Chapter 12: Women and Environment; Chapter 13: Macro Issues: Pressure on Forests; Chapter 14: Forestry and Rural Development; Chapter 15: Peoples Participation in Afforestation; Chapter 16: Environmental Considerations; Chapter 17: The Environmental Scenario; Chapter 18: Environmental Problems; Chapter 19: Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment; Chapter 20: Methods of Impact Analysis; Chapter 21: Some Case Studies of Environmental Impact Assessment; Chapter 22: Pollution: An Appraisal; Chapter 23: Air Pollution; Chapter 24: Water Pollution; Chapter 25: Biological Diversity; Chapter 26: Management of Forests for Wildlife; Chapter 27: Conservation of Biodiversity; Chapter 28: Action Plan for National Biodiversity Strategy; Chapter 29: Social Biota for Biodiversity; Chapter 30: Biodiversity Loss and Threat; Chapter 31: Biological Diversity Convention; Chapter 32: Conservation of Biodiversity in Indian Scenario; Chapter 33: Diversity in Community; Chapter 34: Bioresources Protection; Chapter 35: Biodiversity of Threatened Species of Medicinal Plants in India: An Appraisal; Chapter 36: Vegetative Propagation; Chapter 37: Tree Improvement through Biotechnological Tools; Chapter 38: Forest Resources and its Management; Chapter 39: Production and Receipt of Forest Products. C