Posts Tagged ‘ecosystem services’

Spotlight #83 – Examining the Economic Drivers of Wildfire: Where There’s Smoke, There’s Finance

Spotlight #83 – Examining the Economic Drivers of Wildfire: Where There’s Smoke, There’s Finance

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Professional firefighters try to stop an advancing fire with the help of local volunteers in Galicia, Spain. Photo by Nelson Grima

“The world is ablaze. Or so it seems, and the scenario is repeating itself every year now,” says Dr. François-Nicolas Robinne, of the University of Alberta’s Department of Renewable Resources, and Coordinator of IUFRO’s Fire$: Economic Drivers of Global Wildland Fire Activity Task Force (TF).

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IUFRO Spotlight #78 – More robust strategy needed to combat forest fires in Alps

IUFRO Spotlight #78 – More robust strategy needed to combat forest fires in Alps

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An increasing risk of forest fires in the European Alps has led to a white paper that proposes a framework for integrated fire management to address the drivers of the current and future fire regimes in mountain forests.

Photo: 272447, Pixabay

To develop the white paper, entitled Forest Fires in the Alps, a panel from all member states of the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP) – Austria, Germany, Italy, France, Slovenia, Switzerland and Liechtenstein – was established. These scientists, members of action forces, authorities and other forest fire experts pulled together the fire experiences and knowledge of the various countries.

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View from the forest: the interlinked crises of COVID-19, environmental degradation and inequity – A Guest Blog

The underlying cause of the COVID-19 pandemic is the spill-over of a virus from a presumed bat wildlife source – and its spread in the vast human population and its vulnerable systems. There are many questions yet unanswered about the virus’s source – which species of bat, was it sold in the Wuhan Wet Market, did a number of bat-human transmissions occur or were transmissions to other animal species involved in the development of a virus capable of human to human transmission. For the moment all efforts are on controlling the disease. It has emerged and spread rapidly around the highly connected planet. In the long run, understanding how to prevent further such pandemics will be a major focus.

Photographer: © Yingyod Lapwong,
Link to license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode
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How will the Sustainable Development Goals affect forests and people?

How will the Sustainable Development Goals affect forests and people?

Since Agenda 2030 was launched in 2015, plenty of attention has been paid to the contributions which forests can make to its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, relatively little attention has been given to the possible impacts which the SDGs will have on forests, forest ecosystems and people benefitting from forests, and how this might contribute to, or undermine, the role forests play in improving human well-being and protecting the environment.

Photo: Safia Aggarwal, FAO
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Congress Spotlight #71 – High Time to Again Pay More Attention to Ecological Processes in Sustainable Forest Management

Congress Spotlight #71 – High Time to Again Pay More Attention to Ecological Processes in Sustainable Forest Management

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Human needs and our environment continue to change. Because of that, forest management practices, in terms of sustainable forest management (SFM), need to be updated, said Dr. Liu Shirong, Professor of Forest Ecology and Hydrology and President of the Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China.

Introducing nitrogen-fixing tree species of Erythrophleum fordii into Eucalyptus plantation for preventing soil fertility degradation while enhancing soil carbon sequestration in the Experimental Center of Tropical Forestry (ETCF), Chinese Academy of Forestry, Pingxiang city, Guangxi Autonomous Region, PR. China. Photo: Guo Wenfu, ETCF.
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IUFRO Spotlight #67 – Tapping the potential of restoring disturbed tropical forests

IUFRO Spotlight #67 – Tapping the potential of restoring disturbed tropical forests

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Since the 1980s most deforestation globally has occurred in tropical countries – Africa, South America and Asia. The high rate of deforestation and degradation contributes to the disappearance of 13 million hectares of tropical forests each year.

Secondary forests in Costa Rica. Photo by Geoffrey Venegas, CATIE.
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IUFRO Spotlight #66 – A forest mix may best address global change

IUFRO Spotlight #66 – A forest mix may best address global change

Mixed stand of Pinus sylvestris and Quercus pyrenaica in Matas Forest (Valsaín), Central Spain. Photo by Andrés Bravo-Oviedo.

Managing a mixed forest in the context of environmental and social change is the focus of a recent publication put together by members of IUFRO Research Group 1.09.00 (Ecology and Management of Mixed Forests).

The structure, dynamics and functioning of such forests are increasingly relevant topics for researchers.

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Congress Spotlight #64: Latest in forest science to be showcased in Brazil


Latest in forest science to be showcased in Brazil

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IUFRO Spotlight issues up to September 2019 will primarily focus on the XXV IUFRO World Congress that will take place on 29 September – 5 October 2019 in Curitiba, Brazil.

Individual Congress sessions will be highlighted in order to draw attention to the broader Congress themes, the wide variety of topics that will be addressed at the Congress and their importance on a regional and global scale.

Visit the Congress website at http://iufro2019.com/ or https://www.iufro.org/events/congresses/2019/.

For the first Spotlight in this series we have invited Dr. Jerry Vanclay, Chair of the IUFRO World Congress Scientific Committee, to offer a sneak peak of the attractive and comprehensive technical program and talk about his personal expectations of the Congress.

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Forest restoration means more than planting trees

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INTERVIEW with keynote speaker Dr. Robin Chazdon,
University of Connecticut, USA

Keynote Plenary Session 2
Friday, 22 September, 10:30 – 12:00
Rolf Böhme Saal (Konzerthaus Freiburg)

“Restoration Forestry: Challenges and Opportunities for Foresters, Forests, and Landscapes”

 

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IUFRO - The International Union of Forest Research Organizations