This book is a comprehensive guide to fundamental ecological principles in tropical moist forest lands. This edition has been revised to encompass our increased knowledge and understandings of the complexities of forest management. It addresses the cross-cutting issues: the effects of government policies, land allocation and infrastructure development in forest lands. An analysis is made regarding various forest uses: forests for wood, forests for agriculture and forests for nature conservation and environmental protection.

Based on extensive research of the literature and fifty years experience by each author, this book provides a highly relevant, definitive history of the development of silvicultural systems in tropical moist forest (a broad term which encompasses many forest types). Much of the information is made widely available for the first time. The book demonstrates that sustainable timber production in many of these forests is not only possible, but the techniques necessary have been known to foresters for many decades. The authors begin by tracing the early history and go on to describe the later, more technical phases and the growth of global exploitation. Examples from many countries are described in detail, considering all aspects including the economic, ecological and social implications. This book is essential reading for forest managers in the tropics, as well as advanced students and researchers in forestry, ecology and natural resource management.

Temperate rainforests are biogeographically unique. Compared to their tropical counterparts, temperate rainforests are rarer and are found disproportionately along coastlines. Because most temperate rainforests are marked by the intersection of marine, terrestrial, and freshwater systems, these rich ecotones are among the most productive regions on Earth. Globally, temperate rainforests store vast amounts of carbon, provide habitat for scores of rare and endemic species with ancient affinities, and sustain complex food-web dynamics. In spite of their global significance, however, protection levels for these ecosystems are far too low to sustain temperate rainforests under a rapidly changing global climate and ever expanding human footprint. Therefore, a global synthesis is needed to provide the latest ecological science and call attention to the conservation needs of temperate and boreal rainforests. A concerted effort to internationalize the plight of the world’s temperate and boreal rainforests is underway around the globe; this book offers an essential (and heretofore missing) tool for that effort. DellaSala and his contributors tell a compelling story of the importance of temperate and boreal rainforests that includes some surprises (e.g., South Africa, Iran, Turkey, Japan, Russia). This volume provides a comprehensive reference from which to build a collective vision of their future.

This new edition of Conservation and Management of Tropical Rainforests applies the large body of knowledge, experience and tradition available to those who study tropical rainforests. Revised and updated in light of developments in science, technology, economics, politics, etc. and their effects on tropical forests, it describes the principles of integrated conservation and management that lead to sustainability, identifying the unifying phenomena that regulate the processes within the rainforest and that are fundamental to the ecosystem viability. Features of the natural forest and the socio-cultural ecosystems which can be mimicked in the design of self-sustaining forests are also discussed. A holistic approach to the management and conservation of rainforests is developed throughout the book. The focus on South-East Asian forestry will be widened to include Africa and Latin America. Recent controversial issues such as biofuels and carbon credits with respect to tropical forests and their inhabitants will be discussed. This book is a substantial contribution to the literature, it is a valuable resource for all those concerned with rainforests.

Forests, Water and People in the Humid Tropics is the most comprehensive review available of the hydrological and physiological functioning of tropical rain forests, the environmental impacts of their disturbance and conversion to other land uses, and optimum strategies for managing them. The book brings together leading specialists in such diverse fields as tropical anthropology and human geography, environmental economics, climatology and meteorology, hydrology, geomorphology, plant and aquatic ecology, forestry and conservation agronomy. The editors have supplemented the individual contributions with invaluable overviews of the main sections and provide key pointers for future research. Specialists will find authenticated detail in chapters written by experts on a whole range of people-water-land use issues, managers and practitioners will learn more about the implications of ongoing and planned forest conversion, while scientists and students will appreciate a unique review of the literature.

We live in an increasingly fragmented world, with islands of natural habitat cast adrift in a sea of cleared, burned, logged, polluted, and otherwise altered lands. Nowhere are fragmentation and its devastating effects more evident than in the tropical forests. By the year 2000, more than half of these forests will have been cut, causing increased soil erosion, watershed destabilization, climate degradation, and extinction of as many as 600,000 species. Tropical Forest Remnants provides the best information available to help us understand, manage, and conserve the remaining fragments. Covering geographic areas from Southeast Asia and Australia to Madagascar and the New World, this volume summarizes what is known about the ecology, management, restoration, socioeconomics, and conservation of fragmented forests. Thirty-three papers present results of recent research as well as updates from decades-long projects in progress. Two final chapters synthesize the state of research on tropical forest fragmentation and identify key priorities for future work.