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The need to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation is more urgent now than ever. International efforts through REDD+, CDM and voluntary carbon markets aim to encourage complementary activities of forest preservation, reforestation, afforestation and sustainable forest management. Many existing programs for sustainable forest management, agriculture and development dovetail with payment for ecosystem services (PES) programs in their similar concerns regarding the allocation of rights and responsibilities, agreements on service provision, and the verification and quantification of benefits. Recent efforts to link biodiversity conservation with national scale REDD+ initiatives depend on the explicit regulatory linkage of biodiversity preservation goals with carbon targets. We emphasize the need to include biodiversity conservation and sustainable development as integral components of forest carbon projects. As fundamental social, political and cultural issues have yet to be addressed in the current market structure, we urge a better understanding of the tradeoffs between the full suite of ecosystem services provided by different forest types. Here, we provide a conceptual framework for the integration of payment for ecosystem services programs with biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. © Author(s) 2012.

Taking readers out of the laboratory and into the humid tropical forests, this comprehensive volume explores the most recent advances occurring in tropical plant ecophysiology. Drawing on the knowledge of leading practitioners in the field, this book synthesizes a broad range of information on the ways in which tropical plants adapt to their environment and demonstrate unique physiological processes. This book is arranged into four sections which cover resource acquisition, species interactions, ecophysiological patterns within and among tropical forest communities, and the ecophysiology of forest regeneration. These sections describe plant function in relation to ecology across a wide spectrum of tropical forest species and growth forms. How do different species harvest and utilize resources from heterogeneous tropical environments? How do patterns of functional diversity reflect the overwhelming taxonomic and morphological diversity of tropical forest plants? Such fundamental questions are examined in rich detail. To illuminate the discussions further, every chapter in this book features an agenda for future research, extensive cross referencing, timely references, and the integration of ecophysiology and the demography of tropical species where the data exist. Tropical Forest Plant Ecophysiology provides plant scientists, botanists, researchers, and graduate students with important insights into the behavior of tropical plants. Biologists and foresters interested in tropical ecology and plant physiological ecologists will also benefit from this authoritative and timely resource

Existing guidelines and best-practices documents do not satisfy, at present, the need for guiding implementation of Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) based on core principles. Given the wide range of FLR practices and the varied spectrum of actors involved, a single working framework is unlikely to be effective, but tailored working frameworks can be co-created based on a common conceptual framework (i.e., a common core set of principles and a generalized set of criteria and indicators). We present background regarding FLR concepts, definitions, and principles, and discuss the challenges that confront effective and long-term implementation of FLR. We enumerate the many benefits that a transformative criteria and indicators framework can bring to actors and different sectors involved in restoration when such framework is anchored in the FLR principles. We justify the need to co-develop and apply specifically tailored working frameworks to help ensure that FLR interventions bring social, economic, and environmental benefits to multiple stakeholders within landscapes and adjust to changing conditions over time. Several examples of working FLR frameworks are presented to illustrate the goals and needs of communities, donors and investors, and government agencies. Transparency, feedback, communication, assessment, and adaptive management are important components of all working frameworks. Finally, we describe existing FLR guidelines and what we can learn from them. Working frameworks can be developed and used by different actors who seek to initiate an FLR process and to align restoration actions at different scales and levels.

The global restoration movement is gaining momentum. International and national leaders are demonstrating unparalleled political will for achieving ambitious targets. However, the knowledge base for implementing large-scale forest and landscape restoration (FLR) needs further development. Besides application of scientific and local knowledge, a broad understanding of the social, economic, and environmental context in which this knowledge is being applied is also needed. To address knowledge gaps and guide implementation of FLR at local to global scales we propose a knowledge creation agenda that we derive from emerging policy goals. We present a holistic approach that addresses food security, ecosystem services, and livelihoods, and that supports implementation by a wide array of actors from farmers and municipalities to corporations and state agencies. Our knowledge creation agenda is based on six broad policy goals, with several associated knowledge gaps for each goal. We recognize that this agenda is simply a starting point and will surely evolve and become more locally focused as the concept of FLR gains ground and as multiple groups of stakeholders engage in the long-term process of restoring functionality and value to ecosystems and landscapes around the world.

The world's forests and forestry sector are facing unprecedented biological, political, social, and climatic challenges. The development of appropriate, novel forest management and restoration approaches that adequately consider uncertainty and adaptability are hampered by a continuing focus on production of a few goods or objectives, strong control of forest structure and composition, and most importantly the absence of a global scientific framework and long‐term vision. Ecosystem‐based approaches represent a step in the right direction, but are limited in their ability to deal with the rapid pace of social, climatic, and environmental changes. We argue here that viewing forest ecosystems as complex adaptive system provides a better alternative for both production‐ and conservation‐oriented forests and forestry. We propose a set of broad principles and changes to increase the adaptive capacity of forests in the face of future uncertainties. These span from expanding the sustained‐yield, single‐good paradigm to developing policy incentives and interventions that promote self‐organization and integrated social‐ecological adaptation. ; This research was supported by the Marie Curie IRSES Newforests Project (EU‐FP7–612645).

The world's forests and forestry sector are facing unprecedented biological, political, social, and climatic challenges. The development of appropriate, novel forest management and restoration approaches that adequately consider uncertainty and adaptability are hampered by a continuing focus on production of a few goods or objectives, strong control of forest structure and composition, and most importantly the absence of a global scientific framework and long-term vision. Ecosystem-based approaches represent a step in the right direction, but are limited in their ability to deal with the rapid pace of social, climatic, and environmental changes. We argue here that viewing forest ecosystems as complex adaptive system provides a better alternative for both production- and conservation-oriented forests and forestry. We propose a set of broad principles and changes to increase the adaptive capacity of forests in the face of future uncertainties. These span from expanding the sustained-yield, single-good paradigm to developing policy incentives and interventions that promote self-organization and integrated social-ecological adaptation. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.