Francis E. Putz

This book features five peer-reviewed reviews on sustainable tropical forest management. The first chapter reviews environmental factors determining different types of tropical forest such as temperature, precipitation, sunlight, atmospheric and soil chemistry, as well as mechanical factors. The second chapter discusses definitions of sustainable forest management (SFM) and reviews how the current scope of SFM can be expanded from individual stands to the scale of forested landscapes. The third chapter considers the restoration of tropical forests, focusing specifically on forest landscape restoration (FLR). It begins by addressing the importance of implementing forest landscape restoration and provides an overview of different guides and tools for FLR. The fourth chapter summarises the current state of knowledge on the interactions between forest ecosystems and the climate system and the way in which forests influence the water cycle. The final chapter provides a detailed overview of recent research undertaken on achieving sustainable management of tropical forests. It discusses the importance of tropical forest ecology, as well as the role of SFM in contributing to achieving several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This collection features five peer-reviewed literature reviews on sustainable forest management. The first chapter discusses the varying definitions of sustainable forest management (SFM) in tropical landscapes, as well as the trade-offs associated with SFM. The chapter also reviews the spatial scales of assessing SFM and explores expanding the scope of SFM from individual strands to forested landscapes. The second chapter provides a comprehensive review of the current research undertaken in sustainable forestry. It considers the concept and evolution of sustainable forestry and the challenges which arise as a result of implementing SFM practices. The third chapter reviews the role and impact of forest certification schemes in the achievement of SFM. The chapter summarises the wealth of research available on the development of forest certification and how individual elements can be optimised to further improve the model. The fourth chapter discusses the recent history and implementation challenges of SFM across the Congo Basin, including logging concessions, land zones and the processes and institutions required to implement effective SFM policies. The final chapter analyses the potential trade-offs between ecosystem services and biodiversity in the southern Patagonian forests. The chapter explores the implementation of SFM as a strategy to mitigate these trade-offs at a landscape level.

Lianas are woody vines that were the focus of intense study by early ecologists, such as Darwin, who devoted an entire book to the natural history of climbing plants. Over the past quarter century, there has been a resurgence in the study of lianas, and liana are again recognized as important components of many forests, particularly in the tropics. The increasing amount of research on lianas has resulted in a fundamentally deeper understanding of liana ecology, evolution, and life-history, as well as the myriad roles lianas play in forest dynamics and functioning. This book provides insight into the ecology and evolution of lianas, their anatomy, physiology, and natural history, their global abundance and distribution, and their wide-ranging effects on the myriad organisms that inhabit tropical and temperate forests.