Global demand for forest products is increasing daily. This implies an incremental pressure on tropical and subtropical forests to supply wood products. Natural forests continue to supply wood, although their capacity is decreasing steadily. We are depending more and more on forest plantations to satisfy industrial needs for solid wood as well as pulpwood. Fortunately, the warm climates have an enormous potential to produce wood fiber when the production is based on applied science. By selecting the appropriate species for given sites and the use of the principles of silviculture and genetic improvement, tree plantations can often produce more than 50 m3/ha/year. Because of their capacity for rapid growth, the tropical and subtropical regions have a great advantage over the temperate regions. William Ladrach has dedicated more than 40 years to the research and management of forest plantations in various parts of the world, principally in Central and South America. This book, Applied Forest Management for Tropical and Subtropical Plantations, provides a guide to future forest production. It is a guide to applied forestry and covers subjects from viewpoints of the biological, ecological, economic and industrial sciences. This work is of great value to foresters, students, industrial managers, researchers and others who work in equatorial countries. It will have a strong and positive impact on the establishment of tree plantations during the coming decades.

Plantation forests often have a negative image. They are typically assumed to be poor substitutes for natural forests, particularly in terms of biodiversity conservation, carbon storage, provision of clean drinking water and other non-timber goods and services. Often they are monocultures that do not appear to invite people for recreation and other direct uses. Yet as this book clearly shows, they can play a vital role in the provision of ecosystem services, when compared to agriculture and other forms of land use or when natural forests have been degraded. This is the first book to examine explicitly the non-timber goods and services provided by plantation forests, including soil, water and biodiversity conservation, as well as carbon sequestration and the provision of local livelihoods. The authors show that, if we require a higher provision of ecosystem goods and services from both temperate and tropical plantations, new approaches to their management are required. These include policies, methods for valuing the services, the practices of small landholders, landscape approaches to optimise delivery of goods and services, and technical issues about how to achieve suitable solutions at the scale of forest stands. While providing original theoretical insights, the book also gives guidance for plantation managers, policy-makers, conservation practitioners and community advocates, who seek to promote or strengthen the multiple-use of forest plantations for improved benefits for society. Published with CIFOR

This book integrates the latest global developments in forestry science and practice and their relevance for the sustainable management of tropical forests. The influence of social dimensions on the development of silvicultural concepts is another spotlight. Ecology and silvicultural options form all tropical continents, and forest formations from dry to moist forests and from lowland to mountain forests are covered. Review chapters which guide readers through this complex subject integrate numerous illustrative and quantitative case studies by experts from all over the world. On the basis of a cross-sectional evaluation of the case studies presented, the authors put forward possible silvicultural contributions towards sustainability in a changing world. The book is addressed to a broad readership from forestry and environmental disciplines.

This paper reports on three regional assessments carried out to identify and draw lessons from on-the-ground initiatives in multiple-use forest management in the Amazon Basin, the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia. In all three regions, information was collected through interviews with country-based forestry experts, forest managers and technicians. A complementary, web-based questionnaire further examines the reasons for the successes and failures of multiple-use forests management initiatives.

Eucalypt plantations in the humid tropics. Eucalyptus plantations in the equatorial zone, on the coastal plains of the Congo. Eucalypt and pine plantations in South Africa. Plantations of Eucalyptus urophylla S.T. Blake. Acacia mangium plantations in PT Musi Hutan Persada, South Sumatra, Indonesia. Eucalypt plantations in Monsoonal tropics - Kerala, India. Eucalypt plantations in South-Western Australia. Pine plantations on the coastal lowlands of subtropical Queensland, Australia. Chinese fir plantation in Fujian Province, China.

Many people worldwide lack adequate access to clean water to meet basic needs, and many important economic activities, such as energy production and agriculture, also require water. Climate change is likely to aggravate water stress. As temperatures rise, ecosystems and the human, plant, and animal communities that depend on them will need more water to maintain their health and to thrive. Forests and trees are integral to the global water cycle and therefore vital for water security – they regulate water quantity, quality, and timing and provide protective functions against (for example) soil and coastal erosion, flooding, and avalanches. Forested watersheds provide 75 percent of our freshwater, delivering water to over half the world’s population. The purpose of A Guide to Forest–Water Management is to improve the global information base on the protective functions of forests for soil and water. It reviews emerging techniques and methodologies, provides guidance and recommendations on how to manage forests for their water ecosystem services, and offers insights into the business and economic cases for managing forests for water ecosystem services. Intact native forests and well-managed planted forests can be a relatively cheap approach to water management while generating multiple co-benefits. Water security is a significant global challenge, but this paper argues that water-centered forests can provide nature-based solutions to ensuring global water resilience.