Canada is experiencing an unparalleled crisis involving forests and communities across the country. While municipalities, policy makers, and industry leaders acknowledge common challenges such as an overdependence on US markets, rising energy costs, and lack of diversification, no common set of solutions has been developed and implemented. Ongoing and at times contentious public debate has revealed an appetite and need for a fundamental rethinking of the relationships that link our communities, governments, industrial partners, and forests towards a more sustainable future. The creation of community forests is one path that promises to build resilience in forest communities and ecosystems. This model provides local control over common forest lands in order to activate resource development opportunities, benefits, and social responsibilities. Implementing community forestry in practice has proven to be a complex task, however: there are no road maps or well-developed and widely-tested models for community forestry in Canada. But in settings where community forests have taken hold, there is a rich and growing body of experience to draw on. The contributors to Growing Community Forests include leading researchers, practitioners, Indigenous representatives, government representatives, local advocates, and students who are actively engaged in sharing experiences, resources, and tools of significance to forest resource communities, policy makers and industry.

Collaboration and leadership strategies for long-term success Fueled by the popularity of permaculture and agroecology, community food forests are capturing the imaginations of people in neighborhoods, towns, and cities across the United States. Along with community gardens and farmers markets, community food forests are an avenue toward creating access to nutritious food and promoting environmental sustainability where we live. Interest in installing them in public spaces is on the rise. People are the most vital component of community food forests, but while we know more than ever about how to design food forests, the ways in which to best organize and lead groups of people involved with these projects has received relatively little attention. In The Community Food Forest Handbook, Catherine Bukowski and John Munsell dive into the civic aspects of community food forests, drawing on observations, group meetings, and interviews at over 20 projects across the country and their own experience creating and managing a food forest. They combine the stories and strategies gathered during their research with concepts of community development and project management to outline steps for creating lasting public food forests that positively impact communities. Rather than rehash food forest design, which classic books such as Forest Gardening and Edible Forest Gardens address in great detail, The Community Food Forest Handbook uses systems thinking and draws on social change theory to focus on how to work with diverse groups of people when conceiving of, designing, and implementing a community food forest. To find practical ground, the authors use management phases to highlight the ebb and flow of community capitals from a project's inception to its completion. They also explore examples of positive feedbacks that are often unexpected but offer avenues for enhancing the success of a community food forest. The Community Food Forest Handbook provides readers with helpful ideas for building and sustaining momentum, working with diverse public and private stakeholders, integrating assorted civic interests and visions within one project, creating safe and attractive sites, navigating community policies, positively affecting public perception, and managing site evolution and adaptation. Its concepts and examples showcase the complexities of community food forests, highlighting the human resilience of those who learn and experience what is possible when they collaborate on a shared vision for their community.

Community forestry focuses on the link between forest resources and livelihoods and contributes to forest conservation and reforestation. It is widespread in Nepal, with a very high proportion of the rural population involved, and is widely recognized as one of the most successful examples of community forestry in Asia. Through a combination of literature reviews and original research, this volume explores key experiences and outcomes of community forestry in Nepal over the last four decades as a model for improving forest management and supporting local livelihoods. The book takes a critical approach, recognizing successes, especially in forest conservation and restoration, along with mixed outcomes in terms of poverty reduction and benefits to forest users. It recognizes the way that community forestry has continued to evolve to meet new challenges, including the global challenges of climate change, environmental degradation and conservation, as well as national demographic and social changes due to large-scale labour migration and the growing remittance economy. In addition to examining the changes and responses, the book explores ways that community forestry in Nepal might move forward. Lessons from Nepal have relevance to community forestry and community-based approaches to natural resource management around the world that are also experiencing global pressures and opportunities.

A combination of broad disciplinary coverage and scientific excellence, the Encyclopedia of Forest Sciences will be an indispensable addition to the library of anyone interested in forests, forestry and forest sciences. Packed with valuable insights from experts all over the world, this remarkable set not only summarizes recent advances in forest science techniques, but also thoroughly covers the basic information vital to comprehensive understanding of the important elements of forestry. The Encyclopedia of Forest Sciences also covers relevant biology and ecology, different types of forestry (e.g. tropical forestry and dryland forestry), scientific names of trees and shrubs, and the applied, economic, and social aspects of forest management. Valuable key features further enhance the utility of this Encyclopedia as an exceptional reference tool. Also available online via ScienceDirect – featuring extensive browsing, searching, and internal cross-referencing between articles in the work, plus dynamic linking to journal articles and abstract databases, making navigation flexible and easy. For more information, pricing options and availability visit www.info.sciencedirect.com. Edited and written by a distinguished group of editors and contributors Well-organized encyclopedic format provides concise, readable entries, easy searches, and thorough cross-references Illustrative tables, figures, and photographs in every entry, produced in full color Comprehensive glossary defines new and important terms Complete, up-to-date coverage of over 60 areas of forest sciences - sure to be of interest to scientists, students, and professionals alike! Editor-in-Chief is the past president of the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations, the oldest international collaborative forestry research organization with over 15,000 scientists from 100 countries

Provides a wealth of practical tools and methods for our field workers who work with local communities in developing collaborative management of forests. While the manual focuses on participatory techniques for community forests in Nepal, many of the techniques can be readily applied to other forms of collaborative natural resource management.