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.

Twenty years ago, little was known about the biology, ecology or the social impact of indigenous fruit trees on rural populations. Since then, new concepts and approaches have been developed, case studies have been produced and the potential and feasibility of their domestication and commercialization has been explored. This focused study on the tropics brings together a comprehensive review of this research.

Effective data analysis requires familiarity with basic concepts and an ability to use a set of standard tools, as well as creativity and imagination.

The decentralization of control over the vast forests of the world is moving at a rapid pace, with both positive and negative ramifications for people and forests themselves. The fresh research from a host of Asia-Pacific countries described in this book presents rich and varied experience with decentralization and provides important lessons for other regions.

Illegal logging is massively widespread - more than 50 per cent of all timber in some countries - and hugely damaging, yet how can it be tackled without causing poverty in local communities? Written by the world's foremost experts, this book examines the key issues including law and enforcement, supply and demand, corruption, forest certification, poverty, local livelihoods, international trade and biodiversity conservation.

This book, written for a broad audience, is the first comprehensive introduction to the issues surrounding the health of people living in and around forests, particularly in Asia, South America and Africa.

Many countries around the world are engaged in decentralization processes, and most African countries face serious problems with forest governance, from benefits sharing to illegality and sustainable forest management. This book summarizes experiences to date on the extent and nature of decentralization and its outcomes - most of which suggest an underperformance of governance reforms - and explores the viability of different governance instruments in the context of weak governance and expanding commercial pressures over forests.

Approximately 17 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions are caused by land-use change and, in particular, the destruction of tropical forests. Reducing land-use change and forest degradation has been shown as a cost-effective way of slowing carbon emissions compared to other mitigation strategies such as curbing emissions from power stations.

This powerful new book from leading experts provides an in-depth account of how trends towards increased local governance are shifting control over natural resource management from the state to local societies, and the implications of this control for social justice and the environment.

Forests are not only important for the 1.6 billion people who depend on them for their livelihoods, but for the world’s population at large. Forests play a critical role in the Earth’s life support system, including global carbon and hydrological cycles. The Vital Forest Graphics provides an overview of the global trends in forest cover and looks specifically at the four largest forest ecosystems and analyses the trends and challenges in their conservation and management. It scrutinizes some of the key drivers behind forest loss, including the increasing demand for commodities and energy.

This study explains the role of forests in the hydrological cycle, with a particular focus on critical, "red flag" forest situations such as mountainous or steep terrain, river and coastal areas and swamp ecosystems, as well as the special case of mountainous small islands.

As new mechanisms for ‘reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation’ (REDD) are being negotiated in international climate change talks, resource tenure must be given greater attention.

This report reviews the status of SMFEs in Ghana. It provides information on the various issues confronting the sub-sector and identifies mechanisms for harnessing the potential of SMFEs to effectively contribute to poverty reduction and sustainable forest management in Ghana.

In recent years governments in the South have transferred at least 200 million hectares of forests to communities living in and around them . This book assesses the experience of what appears to be a new international trend that has substantially increased the share of the world's forests under community administration.