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.
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.
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 BellettiRead more…
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.Read more…
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.
The United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) held this week in New York shined a spotlight on the topic of forest education.International organizations and member countries alike discussed the importance of strengthening forestry education, beginning from a young age in elementary level education up to university level and beyond. The relevance of forest education at schools is based on ensuring the next generation understands the positive role forests can play in helping humanity combat some of our most profound challenges; contributing to mitigation and resilience efforts in the face of climate change, housing massive terrestrial biodiversity and positively contributing to food and water security all of which are outlined in the UN’s 2030 agenda and featured in their 17 sustainable development goals.
Dr. Mika Rekola, representing the University of Helsinki and IUFRO, was featured on a panel discussion where he presented his background paper co-authored by Dr. Monica Gabay. The paper highlighted three key messages.
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.
As a result of the extreme weather driven by climate change, fires are an increasingly common fact of life globally – one that calls for new approaches to living with fire, according to a report developed by a multinational team of experts.
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.
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.
The Society of American Foresters held seven small group dialogues throughout the United States. One of the questions discussed was how natural resources professionals—resource managers and policy-makers—find the science they need to do their jobs. 66 people attended the dialogues. Over half represented non-governmental organizations and public agencies. Elected officials, university faculty and industry practitioners were also represented.
Six Key Findings Emerged
Figure 1. Word cloud of the 68 coded and indexed major points that emerged from all seven dialogues.
On-line searches are the most popular approach. Google Scholar and ResearchGate are the favored applications. Google Scholar is a web-crawler, indexing content across most peer-reviewed on-line academic journals and many other technical documents. ResearchGate is a networking site for researchers, who upload publications to share, seek and provide answers to questions, and search for potential collaborators. Read more…
