Alleviating forest degradation in the Lancang-Mekong Region requires closing management—measurement gaps

Deforestation and forest degradation are having profound negative impacts on social-ecological systems in the emerging economies across the tropics.Consequently,interest in restoring and rehabilitating degraded forests has been growing.This paper explores current issues related to addressing forest degradation in the Lancang-Mekong Region(LMR)of Southeast Asia through a review of the use of criteria and indicators for forest degradation and rehabilitation.Forest degradation must be understood in the context of its underlying drivers,which are numerous and complex.Understanding these underlying drivers of degradation requires diagnosing the entwined political,social,economic,and environmental systems that aff ect forests.Landscapes are the relevant scales to diagnose and intervene for improved forests.Interventions to restore or rehabilitate forests should be process-driven,focused on the underlying social,ecological and political processes that degrade landscapes.Interventions should also include negotiation among all actors infl uencing and competing for natural resource claims in forest landscapes.Criteria and indicators for forest landscape restoration should therefore help to improve the governance of forest landscapes.Criteria and indicators provide measures of the biophysical outcomes of degradation,in addition to processes,but these should be adapted to changing contexts and emerging challenges,and should rectify any pre-existing fl awed change-logic.Restoration activities should synthesize,integrate,and build upon the rich history of pre-existing restoration guidelines,but should be adaptable in order to be applied eff ectively in the contexts of local landscapes.This project is facilitating a dialogue around the use of criteria and indicators to help solve the degradation challenge in the LMR.We will trial the use of the criteria and indicators generated through this research in the LMR to learn what works and what doesn’t.This will provide an opportunity to build consensus around the ways in which restoration investments made by governments,civil society,and the private sector can infl uence sustainability.

Analysis of the changes in forest ecosystem functions,structure and composition in the Black Sea region of Turkey

We used geographical information system to analyze changes in forest ecosystem functions, structure and composition in a typical department of forest management area consisting of four forest management planning units in Turkey. To assess these effects over a 25 year period we compiled data from three forest management plans that were made in 1986, 2001 and 2011. Temporal changes in forest ecosystem functions were estimated based on the three pillars of forest sustainability： economics, ecology and socio-culture. We assessed a few indicators such as land-use and forest cover, forest types,tree species, development stage, stand age classes, crown closure, growing stock and its increment, and timber biomass. The results of the case study suggested a shift in forest values away from economic values toward ecological and socio-cultural values over last two planning periods. Forest ecosystem structure improved, due mainly to increasing forest area, decreasing non-forest areas（especially in settlement and agricultural areas）, forestation on forest openings, rehabilitation of degraded forests, conversion of even-aged forests to uneven-aged forests and conversion of coppice forests to high forests with greater growing stock increments. There were also favorable changes in forest management planning approaches.

Policy Review on Watershed Protection and Poverty Alleviation by the Grain for Green Program in China

The sustained growth of Chinese economy in the new century is a silver lining in the continuouslydepressed global economy. Meanwhile, the rapid development of Chinese economy is still confronted withconstraints from deteriorating environment and rural poverty issues. It has become a significant policyoption in maintaining high speed, efficiency and sound development of Chinese economy to rehabilitateforest resources, improve ecological conditions, increase farmers income and get on a sustainable roadfeaturing coordinated development of population, resources and environment. The Grain for Green Program,as a CDM activity of Chinese style, launched on trial in 1999 and implemented in 2002 across the country,is the biggest land use transition, watershed management and poverty alleviation program involving thelargest population in Chinese history and across the globe. It covers 25 provinces/regions/cities and gets over1 600 counties, 15 million households and 60 million farmers were involved. Hence the Grain for Tree policyhas a significant bearing on ecological protection and farmers poverty alleviation in the soil and watererosion-prone region. A review and assessment of the background, essentials, effects, problems and trend ofthe Grain for Tree policy is of great significance for both China and the other developing countries in theworld in their efforts to combat the deteriorating environment and alleviate poverty.