Archive for the ‘IUFRO Spotlight’ Category

Congress Spotlight #72 – Radioactive Contamination and Forests: Learning Lessons from Chernobyl and Fukushima

Congress Spotlight #72 – Radioactive Contamination and Forests: Learning Lessons from Chernobyl and Fukushima

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Forests, except in the most severe cases, are quite resilient to radioactive contamination and will continue functioning normally.

That is one of the surprising takeaways from the nuclear accidents in Chernobyl and Fukushima.

Dose rate reduction test by decontamination work in Fukushima.
Photo: FFPRI
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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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Congress Spotlight #70 – Explaining forest research findings to non-scientists: Some tools and ideas to facilitate communication

Congress Spotlight #70 – Explaining forest research findings to non-scientists: Some tools and ideas to facilitate communication

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Communication has been defined as the process of passing information and understanding from one person to another. But, to be effective, the information passed must be in a language and terminology that the person or persons receiving it will understand.

By Анна Куликова from Pixabay (edited)
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Congress Spotlight #69 – Sifting through underlying values and ethics to make sound nature management decisions

Congress Spotlight #69 – Sifting through underlying values and ethics to make sound nature management decisions

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How does one decide how to manage a forest ethically?

Ema Image by arqgilson from Pixabay

One could simply say: do the right thing. But, the right thing for whom? And defining right and wrong – concepts that can vary according to moral climate or individual circumstance – is not all that simple.

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Congress Spotlight #68 – Forest Trees and the Climate Change Challenge: Survival May Mean Diving into the Gene Pool

Congress Spotlight #68 – Forest Trees and the Climate Change Challenge: Survival May Mean Diving into the Gene Pool

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Because of climate change, forest tree species have three options. They can adapt, migrate, or extirpate.

“The outcome depends upon the tree species and population, its genetic variation, its reproductive biology and flowering synchronization, its migration potential and whether the environments in the areas it can migrate will be hospitable enough to allow it to survive,” said Dr. Paraskevi Alizoti of the Laboratory of Forest Genetics and Tree Improvement in the School of Forestry and Natural Environment at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.

Altitudinally marginal population of Pinus mugo in Italy.
Source: http://map-fgr.entecra.it/?page_id=1377
Photo by Piero Belletti
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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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IUFRO Spotlight #65 – Tying up loose ends in gender equality in forestry

IUFRO Spotlight #65 – Tying up loose ends in gender equality in forestry

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Social movement by indigenous women (temporarily) stops mining inside community forest in Odisha, India.
Social movement by indigenous women (temporarily) stops mining inside community forest in Odisha, India. Credit: Landing Together Film/Purabi Bose, date 28/08/2016

“In recent years gender equality in forestry has received a lot of attention – or lip service, anyway – but that’s not good enough. There exist a lot of loose ends at the practice and at the policy level,” said Dr. Purabi Bose, author, social environmental scientist, filmmaker and deputy coordinator of the IUFRO Gender and Forestry Research Group.

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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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Spotlight #63 – What’s in the future for Non-Timber Forest Products?

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The roots of many forest plants are harvested for their medicinal values. Changes in climate and lack of management may imperil their long-term sustainability and the people who depend on them. Photo credit: James Chamberlain, USDA Forest Service.

The Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture has recently published “…the most comprehensive assessment covering the production and management of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and resources – as well as the cultural, social, economic, and policy dynamics that affect them.” The assessment covers every state in the U.S.

But the findings can be utilized far beyond the U.S. borders. Read more…

IUFRO - The International Union of Forest Research Organizations