Afforestation/reforestation (or forestation) has been implemented worldwide as an effective measure towards sustainable ecosystem services and addresses global environmental problems such as climate change. The conversion of grasslands, croplands, shrublands, or bare lands to forests can dramatically alter forest water, energy, and carbon cycles and, thus, ecosystem services (e.g., carbon sequestration, soil erosion control, and water quality improvement). Large-scale afforestation/reforestation is typically driven by policies and, in turn, can also have substantial socioeconomic impacts. To enable success, forestation endeavors require novel approaches that involve a series of complex processes and interdisciplinary sciences. For example, exotic or fast-growing tree species are often used to improve soil conditions of degraded lands or maximize productivity, and it often takes a long time to understand and quantify the consequences of such practices at watershed or regional scales. Maintaining the sustainability of man-made forests is becoming increasingly challenging under a changing environment and disturbance regime changes such as wildland fires, urbanization, drought, air pollution, climate change, and socioeconomic change. Therefore, this Special Issue focuses on case studies of the drivers, dynamics, and impacts of afforestation/reforestation at regional, national, or global scales. These new studies provide an update on the scientific advances related to forestation. This information is urgently needed by land managers and policy makers to better manage forest resources in today’s rapidly changing environments.

The aim of this book is to provide an accessible overview for advanced students, resource professionals such as land managers, and policy makers to acquaint themselves with the established science, management practices and policies that facilitate sequestration and allow for the storage of carbon in forests. The book has value to the reader to better understand: a) carbon science and management of forests and wood products; b) the underlying social mechanisms of deforestation; and c) the policy options in order to formulate a cohesive strategy for implementing forest carbon projects and ultimately reducing emissions from forest land use.

Human-induced climate change is an important environmental issue worldwide, as scientific studies increasingly demonstrate that human activities are changing the Earth's climate. Even if dramatic reductions in emissions were made today, some human-induced changes are likely to persist beyond the 21st century. The Kyoto Protocol calls for emissions reporting that separates out management-induced changes in greenhouse gases from those changes caused by indirect human effects (e.g., carbon dioxide fertilization, nitrogen deposition, or precipitation changes), natural effects, and past practices on forested agricultural lands. This book summarizes a September 2003 workshop where leaders from academia, government and industry came together to discuss the current state of scientific understanding on quantifying direct human-induced change in terrestrial carbon stocks and related changes in greenhouse gas emissions and distinguishing these changes from those caused by indirect and natural effects.

Increasing evidence suggests that the composition and spatial configuration – the pattern – of forest landscapes affect many ecological processes, including the movement and persistence of particular species, the susceptibility and spread of disturbances such as fires or pest outbreaks, and the redistribution of matter and nutrients. Understanding these issues is key to the successful management of complex, multifunctional forest landscapes, and landscape ecology, based on a foundation of island bio-geography and meta-population dynamic theories, provides the rationale to deal with this pattern-to-process interaction at different spatial and temporal scales. This carefully edited volume represents a stimulating addition to the international literature on landscape ecology and resource management. It provides key insights into some of the applicable landscape ecological theories that underlie forest management, with a specific focus on how forest management can benefit from landscape ecology, and how landscape ecology can be advanced by tackling challenging problems in forest (landscape) management. It also presents a series of case studies from Europe, Asia, North America, Africa and Australia exploring the issues of disturbance, diversity, management, and scale, and with a specific focus on how human intervention affects forest landscapes and, in turn, how landscapes influence humans and their culture. An important reference for advanced students and researchers in landscape ecology, conservation biology, forest ecology, natural resource management and ecology across multiple scales, the book will also appeal to researchers and practitioners in reserve design, ecological restoration, forest management, landscape planning and landscape architecture.

The Forest & Agricultural Sector Optimization Model (FASOM) is a dynamic, nonlinear programming model of the forest & agricultural sectors in the U.S. The FASOM model initially was developed to evaluate welfare & market impacts of alternative policies for sequestering carbon in trees but also has been applied to a wider range of forest & agricultural sector policy scenarios. This report describes the model structure & gives selected examples of policy applications. A summary of the data sources, input data file format, & the methods used to develop the input data files also are provided.

A concise but comprehensive interdisciplinary examination of global deforestation for a broad audience of scientists and policymakers.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. Through detailed and wide-ranging analysis, the Handbook on European Union Climate Change Policy and Politics provides a critical assessment of current and emerging challenges facing the EU in committing to and delivering increasingly ambitious climate policy objectives. Highlighting the importance of topics such as finance and investment, litigation, ‘hard to abate’ sectors and negative emissions, it offers an up-to-date exploration of the complexities of climate politics and policy making.