What Tree Species Work Best for Reforestation? Human Perceptions and Beliefs in Ghana’s High Forest Zone

We identified the perceptions and beliefs that underpin species selection for reforestation among smallholder farmers in the Wassa Amenfi District located in Ghana’s High Forest Zone. Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour as a conceptual framework, we collected perceived outcome beliefs, social referents, and control factors from the farmers with a pre-tested, Likert scaled, structured questionnaire. A Mann–Whitney U test was conducted to test for significance of differences between the responses from farmers already planting trees (PF) and those not planting trees (NPF). We found that NPF were significantly higher than PF in belief strength that tree species that have straight boles, grow fast, and have coppicing abilities are the ideal species for reforestation. We found no significant differences between the farmer groups in their motivation to comply with family members and target market as social referents in species selection; however, NPF were significantly higher in compliance with fellow farmers and landowners. NPF were significantly higher than PF that inadequate planting materials and length of investment are the main control factors, serving as the impediments discouraging NPF from participating in indigenous species reforestation.     

It’s what’s inside that counts: computer-aided tomography for evaluating the rate and extent of wood consumption by shipworms

Experiments were done to investigate in situ colonization of pine wood blocks by marine wood borers at the mouth of a small mountain river in the foothills of the Eastern Pyrenees. Standardized blocks were recovered after remaining underwater for increasingly long durations, until the available resource was exhausted by the shipworms assemblage that developed. Computer-aided tomography (CT) was used for visualizing and quantifying biogenic structures into the wooden blocks. The biodiversity survey of the wood pieces colonized indicated that up to three species of shipworms shared the resource at the same time. The specific wood consumption rate of Nototeredo norvagica was estimated 185 mm³ ind^?1 day^?1. The quantification of voids created by shipworm crowding indicated that total tunnelling represents, on average, 60% of the initial volume of a wood block, revising upward earlier estimates of wood destruction by 28%. CT analysis provides the quantitative measurements necessary to parameterize individual-based growth models linking wood consumption with the species diversity of shipworm assemblages.     

Construction and application of an assessment index system for evaluating the eco-community＇s sustainability

An assessment index system including environment, socio-culture, economy and technology was established for evaluating environmental construction level of community (objective construction), and questionnaire was designed according to paper review for evaluating residential satisfaction (subjective satisfaction). The index system was divided into four layers: system (A), subsystems (B), categories (C), and indicators (D), and in total of 38 indicators was established. The Xihe community, affiliated to Nanfen district, Benxi City, Liaoning Province, China was selected as a case study. Results indicated that the community sustainability index related to objective environmental construction was 0.4355 and was classified as class III (moderate); the community sustainability index related to the residential satisfaction was 0.4255, belonging to class III. In conclusion, the sustainability of Xihe community was moderate and needed to be improved. Residential satisfaction was lower than objective environmental construction. The assessment index system established in this study is able to reflect the comprehensive sustainability of community and can be used to evaluate other similar communities’ sustainability Foundation items: This study was supported by the National Key Technologies R & D Program of China (2006BAD03A09), Agrifund of China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (2006GB24910472).     

Discussion of Xixia’s Forestry A Model for the Development of China’s Township Forestry

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Management and Administration of Urban Forest

Urban forest includes the forest that grows in the citycore and the city fringe. And its scale should be largeenough to affect temperature, precipitation and wildanimal activities so that city residents will gain a feelingof returning to the nature. American experts arguesthat only when standing ground basic area reaches5.5 ~ 28.0 m2/ha, the forest can be classified as anurban forest (Liang Xingquan, 2001). With thedevelopment of urban construction and urban forestry,all trees, including bush…     

Gender and agroforestry in Africa: a review of women’s participation

This paper presents a review of agroforestry in Africa from a gender perspective. It examines women’s participation relative to men and the challenges and successes they experience. Particular agroforestry practices examined include fodder production and utilization, soil fertility management, woodlots and indigenous fruit and vegetable production and processing. The review shows that agroforestry has the potential to offer substantial benefits to women; however, their participation is low in enterprises that are considered men’s domain, such as timber and high in enterprises that have little or no commercial value, such as collection of indigenous fruits and vegetables. Furthermore, the degree of women’s involvement relative to men in technologies such as soil fertility management, fodder production and woodlots is fairly high in terms of proportion of female-headed households participating but is low as measured by the area they allocate to these activities and the number of trees they plant. Data on whether women are able to manage agroforestry practices as well as men are mixed, although it is clear that women do most of the work. In cases where they do not perform well, the reasons are mostly due to scarcity of resources. In marketing, women are confined to the lower end of the value chain (retailing), which limits their control over and returns from the productive process. In order to promote gender equity in agroforestry and to ensure that women benefit fully, the paper recommends various policy, technological and institutional interventions. These include (1) facilitating women to form and strengthen associations, (2) assisting women to improve productivity and marketing of products considered to be in womens’ domain and (3) improving women’s access to information by training more women extension staff, holding separate meetings for women farmers, and ensuring that women are fully represented in all activities.     

Fifteen Years of Forest Community Management in Niger: from a Technician’s Dream to Social Reality

Forest management policies in tropical countries have undergone a paradigm shift in the 1980s. International environmental policies have recommended redirecting natural resource management from state control to approaches giving responsibilities to local people. In Niger, forest cooperatives and firewood rural markets characterized the transition in forest policies toward the integration of rural people in forest management. Forest management principles have been progressively adapted to the social and ecological context, since the establishment of the first cooperatives in 1986. Changes in forest policies concerned two fronts: forest management governance and forest management technical instruments. In this paper, the impact of governance and technical instruments on forest management is studied in two types of firewood rural markets found in Niger. Both rural markets have been designed to bring about a governance shift in favour of rural people. In one type of rural market, rigorous technical instruments were added, consisting in a rotational system among several plots to be harvested in the forest. This paper shows that in the implementation of rural markets, the shift is mainly on governance of forest management, and not so much on technical instruments. The general management principles remain based on scientific knowledge and are not enforced by rural people. These principles have been shown to be inappropriate with regard to Sahelian people’s representation of space, but because they are scientific, they cannot be questioned. The study suggests that sustainable forest management will be better served by interesting rural people in the rural markets, and thereby promoting their appropriation of forest resources, than by defining rigorous technical rules.     

Farmers’ Motivations to Plant and Manage On-Farm Trees in Ghana

Deforestation and forest degradation, especially in the agricultural landscapes, are serious threats to biodiversity conservation and sustainability of the timber industry. Planting trees on farms has been identified as having great potential to increase forest resources from agricultural landscapes. This paper examined farmers’ motivations and behaviour to engage in on-farm tree planting and management in Ghana by combining internal and external factors in a socio-psychological model. Data were collected from 156 smallholder farmers from five communities in two forest districts using a semi-structured questionnaire. Additional farm inventory data were collected from 33 farmers under two on-farm tree planting schemes. On-farm tree planting was perceived as providing income, access to personal timber for furniture, and access to loan facilities. Incentives such as provision of grants, farming inputs, capacity training, and access to markets for agricultural produce are factors that motivate on-farm tree planting in Ghana. The average standing volume of on-farm trees in the study area is 51.9 m³/ha which is almost twice the national average for the off-reserve areas in the semi-deciduous forests to which much of the study sites belong. Many farmers considered high financial costs and limited knowledge of appropriate techniques in managing planted on-farm trees as barriers to the development of tree stock on farms.     

Discussion on Status and Functions of China’s Forestry

In recent years, the quantity and quality of global forest resources are declining continually. Contrarily, the both in China are increasing, which is deeply related to the sustainable forest management and eco-system management in China. With the trend that world community knows more about the important role of forest, more and more functions of forest are recognized. The impact and functions of China’s forestry deserve more concern. Based on some experiences in the field of forestry research, the authors introduced and analyzed the key role of China’s forestry for the sustainable development, and explained the functions of China’s forestry, such as ensuring ecological safety, addressing climate change, improving economic development, promoting social harmony and prospering ecological culture.     

Implications of Indian Foresters’ Perspectives of Joint Forest Management

A study was conducted in Kullu district in the province of Himachal Pradesh in Indian Western Himalaya, to investigate the perceptions of Indian foresters about aspects of forest management relevant for effective Joint Forest Management (JFM). A lack of uniform understanding was found amongst forestry staff about almost all the studied issues pertaining to JFM. A need is identified to emphasise social aspects in the training of the foresters (including in-service training), along with the existing silvi-technical aspects. For JFM success, measures need to be devised to reduce the political interference in JFM, reduce hierarchical rigidity, and increase interaction between field staff and the administrative hierarchy. Strategies should be devised to make JFM participants as well as forestry staff equally responsible to honour their commitments with respect to JFM.

The implications and challenges of First Nations forestry negotiations in British Columbia,Canada: The Tl’azt’en Nation experience

Abstract

This article examines the implications and limitations of First Nations forestry negotiations in British Columbia (BC), Canada by assessing how effectively the Tl’azt’en Nation is able to realize benefits under the current form of negotiations. The primary goal of the Tl’azt’en Nation has always been to defend their Aboriginal interests within their ancestral lands, which would entail the cessation of clear-cutting on their traditional territory. Although the community has pursued some economic opportunities in the forestry sector to improve their socioeconomic conditions, despite their efforts, the socioeconomic status of the community remains unchanged. The collective experience of the Tl’azt’en Nation illustrates that simply obtaining certain forest tenures and short-term-based revenue sharing agreements does not adequately meet their forestry and self-sufficiency goals. Without addressing the fundamental issues and challenges facing the community, the current practice of forestry negotiations between the Provincial government and the Tl’azt’en Nation has produced no significant benefits to the community.     

Determining Young’s modulus of timber on the basis of a strength database and stress wave propagation velocity I: an estimation method for Young’s modulus employing Monte Carlo simulation

In this article, we report on an estimation method for Young’s modulus that entails measuring only the stress wave propagation velocity of timber built into structures such as wooden buildings. Methods of estimating Young’s modulus that use the stress wave propagation velocity and characteristic frequency of timber in conjunction with timber density have long been used. In this article, we propose a method of easily and accurately estimating Young’s modulus from the stress wave propagation velocity without knowing the timber density. This method is based on a database of wood strength performance and density accumulated from a variety of research data and the method estimates Young’s modulus by a simulation method. We compared the Young’s moduli estimated by this method with those obtained by the bending test and by the measurement of the stress wave propagation velocity and density, and found similar results. This coincidence suggests that the method of estimating Young’s modulus presented in this article is valid. For example, the method is effective for convenient evaluation on site when determining whether a wooden building’s structural components should be reused or replaced when repairing or remodeling a building.     

Emission Removal Capability of India’s Forest and Tree Cover

India is the world’s tenth most forested nation with 76.87 M ha of forest and tree cover occupying 23.4% of its geographical area. Forests—with their intrinsic of carbon sequestration and storage values—are in the front line of India’s climate change mitigation strategies. This paper provides estimates of sequestered carbon in India’s forest and tree cover for the years 1995 and 2005 as per the IPCC good practice guidelines method. It is based on the primary data for the soil carbon pool through collecting soil samples by laying out quadrats across the country and secondary data for the growing stock of all forest and tree cover in the country. The estimates are compared with current and future projected emissions. It is found that conservation policies have resulted in increase of the country’s forest carbon stocks from 6244.8 to 6621.6 Mt with an annual increment of 37.7 Mt of the carbon from 1995 to 2005. Annual CO₂ removal by the forests is enough to neutralise 9.3% of the country’s 2000 level emissions. Continued removals by the forest and tree cover would offset 6.5 and 4.9% of India’s projected annual emissions in 2010 and 2020 respectively. Economically, the annual value of this forest carbon in the international market is about US $188 million. The result is of use in the REDD and REDD+ context for India.     

Development Trend of Foreign Trade Policy for China’s Forest Industry

The paper analyzed the current status of foreign trade of forest industry in China and the national and international market changes. Based on the analysis, the orientation and transformation of foreign trade policy for China’s forest industry were discussed.     

Mating system and progeny genetic diversity of Camellia oleifera ‘Ruan Zhi’

Camellia oleifera Abel.is an important economic tree species of southern China.In this study,we evaluated the mating system and genetic diversity of a series of cultivars of C.oleifera‘Ruan Zhi’.A total of 159 individuals from the progenies of four cultivars were tested by simple sequence repeat molecular markers.Results reveal that 11 pairs of primers showed polymorphism and their polymorphism information content value was greater than 0.73,suggesting that these primers could be used to identify the genetic diversity of open-pollinated populations.The average number of effective alleles(Ne=4.88)was significantly different from the average number of alleles(Na=12.18),and their distribution in the sample population was not uniform.The average observed heterozygosity(Ho=0.96)was greater than the average expected heterozygosity(He=0.79),and the population heterozygote was excessive.Shannon index was 1.84 and populations showed high genetic diversity.As regards to the mating system,the multilocus outcrossing rate was 0.996,and the single locus 0.866.These results indicate a high degree of outcrossing by C.oleifera‘Ruan Zhi’.We recommend selecting individuals for high genetic gain from the progenies of cultivars because of outcrossing characteristics and genetic diversity for application to germplasm conservation and promotion.     

“A Privilege and a Challenge”: Valuation of Heirs’ Property by African American Landowners and Implications for Forest Management in the Southeastern U.S.

African Americans have historically struggled to retain land that has been held in their families for generations as heirs’ property, or land held collectively by heirs of the original owners without clear title. Ethnographic interviews with sixty landholding African American families in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama reveal the cultural meanings associated with family land, forestland in particular, and the role of heirs’ property in inhibiting forest management, including the threat of land loss, intra-family conflict, and legal limitations on forestry activities. The majority of interviewees have a strong desire to pass family land on to their heirs, but they also need the land to be economically productive. Sustainable forest management offers both an incentive to obtain clear title to heirs’ property land and a means of paying property taxes and generating intergenerational wealth within families. The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities is currently collaborating with local institutions in several states in an innovative program designed to help African American landowners navigate the legal system in order to obtain clear title and provide educational workshops about the financial and ecological benefits of sustainable forestry as well as site visits by consulting foresters. Analysis of the situations faced by African Americans with heirs’ property adds to the diversity of our understandings of the complex relationships between land tenure and forestry, with potential application for other minority communities in the U.S. and elsewhere.     

Improve regression-based models for prediction of internal-bond strength of particleboard using Buckingham’s pi-theorem

Internal bond (IB) strength is one of the most important me-chanical properties that indicate particleboard quality. The aim of this study was to find a simple regression model that considers the most ...     

Heterogeneity and Collective Action: Community Integration Appraisal for REDD+ Forest Management Implementation

Small-scale Forestry - This study employs in-depth qualitative and quantitative research methods including survey and other ethnographic methods, concept mapping and informal qualitative...