Humans have altered terrestrial ecosystems for millennia, yet wilderness areas still remain as vital refugia where natural ecological and evolutionary processes operate with minimal human disturbance,

HYDERABAD: Close to six lakh trees were illegally axed between April 2013 and March 2016 in the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, accounting for over 55 per cent of the total destruction of tree

As President of the Congress host organization, the Chinese Academy of Forestry, Professor Zhang explains, among other things, why the theme Forests for Sustainable Development: The Role of Research has been chosen for the Congress. He also talks about the importance of sustainable forest management and the role of planted forests in China and the entire region of Asia and Oceania.


Visit:

the IUFRO-AO2016 Congress website at http://www.iufro-ao2016.org/en/ 
the IUFRO blog to read the complete interview at: http://blog.iufro.org/2016/10/20/interview-with-professor-zhang-shougong-chinese-academy-of-forestry-caf/ 
Download PDF:

Scientific Summary #141 - Engagement of Stakeholders at the Local Level is Critical for Success
Presentations at the conference held on 25-30 September 30, 2016, in Kenora, Ontario, Canada, covered a wide range of approaches to engagement and dissemination. Participants represented a variety of disciplines including agroforestry, community development, forest products, biofuels, prescribed fire, and social science

The major conclusion across presentations was that engagement of stakeholders at the local level is critical for success. Finding a local "champion" or utilizing peer-to-peer learning can be very effective in increasing capacity of local extensionists.


Download the full Scientific Summary:

As land managers and citizens around the world meet often daunting challenges in managing forests, professional communications plays an increasingly important role in science and land management organizations. The goal of a joint workshop of IUFRO and UNECE-FAO FCN communicators in Portland, OR, USA, was to help participants address major challenges and opportunities for communications about forests.

The conference of the IUFRO Extension & Knowledge Exchange Working Party in Kenora, Ontario, Canada, focused on "Increasing capacity for program delivery through knowledge exchange networks and peer-to-peer learning". The major theme across presentations was that engagement of stakeholders at the local level is critical for success. Finding a local "champion" or utilizing peer-to-peer learning can be very effective in increasing capacity of local extensionists.

Given the considerable current political momentum and commitment towards Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) by global and national policy makers, there is a need to discuss and to further develop approaches and mechanisms of FLR implementation on the ground. IUFRO took part by holding international knowledge-sharing workshops in Rwanda (26-27 July 2016) and El Salvador (20-21 September 2016) in close partnership with FAO, Wageningen University, and CATIE, with contributions by WRI, CIFOR, ICRAF, IUCN and national expert institutions.

Find more IUFRO activity reports, interviews with keynote speakers at the upcoming IUFRO Regional Congress for Asia and Oceania, and announcements of publications and upcoming meetings in this issue of IUFRO News!


To read the full text please choose among the PDF and Word options:

JAIPUR: Forest dwellers, social activists and district officials gathered in Banswara on Wednesday to hear out grievances of those who had attempted to submit claims for titles to land under the Forest

The Pulau Banding Foundation focuses their activity on conserving the Belum Temengor Rain Forest - a 130 million year old forest of about 300 000 hectares in Northern Malaysia. In its efforts to promote the conservation and sustainability of this important global resource, the Foundation arranged and sponsored the first Belum Rain Forest Summit (BRainS 2016) from the 17th to the 22nd October.  IUFRO participated in the Summit that was attended by many important Forestry Stakeholders including members of the EMKAY Group that fund the Palau Banding Foundation.  IUFRO President Professor Mike Wingfield and IUFRO Deputy  Executive Director Dr. Michael Kleine who is also the Coordinator of the IUFRO Special Programme for Development of Capacities (IUFRO-SPDC), participated in the meeting.  Mike Wingfield presented a keynote lecture during the opening ceremony of the meeting entitled "Building Sustainable Forest Ecosystems through collaboration and Networking: The role of IUFRO" and participated in a tree planting ceremony where a tree was planted on behalf of IUFRO.  This was the first BRainS gathering and the Pulau Banding Foundation plans similar events in the future in order to promote rain forest conservation.        


Further reading:

• http://www.belumrainforestsummit2016.com/
• http://www.pbf.org.my/ 

Photos: 1. IUFRO President Mike Wingfield holding a keynote lecture during the opening ceremony at BRainS 2016. Photo: Michael Kleine
2. IUFRO President Mike Wingfield and IUFRO Past President Moh'd Nor Salleh planting a tree for IUFRO. Photo: Michael Kleine

Experts from 15 African countries are today starting their training to use a cutting-edge satellite data collection tool developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to help countries assess and monitor the state of their forests. The Collect Earth tool has been designed to make it easy for people without prior remote-sensing experience to track land-use patterns and their changes over time, and leverages the free geospatial data archives of partner Google Earth.

Experts are meeting in Accra, Ghana, today to discuss how to boost private sector involvement in the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) process to address illegal logging and strengthen the legal timber trade in the country. Around a third of Ghana’s timber exports are sent to the European Union (EU), and Ghana is one of six countries worldwide implementing a legally binding trade agreement known as a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with the EU.

NASHIK: The forest department has begun preparations to generate seedlings for the massive tree plantation drive to be conduced over the next three years. The forest department will have to generate

Nagpur: The forest department is undertaking the first ever carbon stock assessment to gauge the benefits from the record-breaking 2.81 crore tree plantations done in July. It will also assess the survival

New Publication

Urban forests can make cities healthier, safer, and wealthier, but their potential is not being fully realized, according to a new FAO publication launched today on the sidelines of Habitat III in Quito, Ecuador. Guidelines on Urban and Peri-urban Forestry explains how cities can maximize the contribution of urban forests to addressing local and global sustainable development challenges, including climate change mitigation and adaptation, food security, and human health and well-being.

Extensive vegetation restoration projects have been widely implemented on the Loess Plateau, China, since 1998. In addition, increasing attention has been paid to the influence of revegetation on soil

The state government has started the work to axe 1,763 trees after acquiring land of the Forest Department along the Western Yamuna Canal for the Western bypass project and near Assandh for the Assandh

Through the Forest Rights Act, Adivasi village councils, known as Gram Sabhas, were given legal recognition as the bodies which govern their respective community forests.

Presently, the lack of data on soil organic carbon (SOC) in relation to land-use types and biophysical characteristics prevents reliable estimates of carbon stocks in montane landscapes of mainland

This is the third in a series of four interviews with the keynote speakers at the IUFRO-AO2016 Congress.

In this interview Don Koo Lee, Professor Emeritus, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea, speaks about the contribution of forests towards achieving sustainable development. He points out that the important role of forests for life, hope and future has been further strengthened internationally by collaborative partnership activities in the past few years.

Professor Lee also emphasizes the importance of forest education in general and especially in the context of Asia and Oceania. Forest education must always take a holistic approach including basic sciences, social sciences and forest resources management, he says.

A third thematic focus of the interview lies on forest rehabilitation activities especially in Asian countries and the need for further forest landscape restoration. Awareness of how much land is of priceless importance to all living organisms including humans must be raised!


Visit:

the IUFRO-AO2016 Congress website at http://www.iufro-ao2016.org/en/ 
the IUFRO blog to read the complete interview at:


Download PDF:

FAO and the French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM) will work together in a new partnership to improve the state of natural resources in the wetlands of Africa's Sahel region, in particular the sustainable management of migratory water birds which are crucial for food security for the local populations.

The trend of globalization causes many species to be moved around the world and into areas in which they have never before existed. The impacts on the ecological, economic and sociological aspects of affected ecosystems are often severe, widespread and long-term. Forests around the world, for example, are increasingly being altered by invasions of alien plants, insects, tree pathogens (such as fungi) and other types of organisms. The IUFRO Task Force on Forests and Biological Invasions has been established to gain new insight into this issue by synthesizing information across a range of scientific disciplines. The Task Force is expected to provide opportunities to minimize the number of new invasions. In part, it is hoped this will be accomplished through information sharing.
Find out more about the Task Force at: http://www.iufro.org/science/task-forces/biological-invasions/ Further reading:

• View all IUFRO Spotlights at http://www.iufro.org/media/iufro-spotlights/

Download PDF from:

The South Asian economic integration has remained afflicted with a narrative that is more often than not a negative one. As a part of this, the arguments put forth include the assertion that the region lacks in trade complementarities due to similarities in production structures. Therefore, the region can only compete inproducts and there is limited scope for intra-regional trade. The effect of such an argument is enormous. It has apparently led to a tendency to neglect trade integration in South Asia let alone adopting a comprehensive approach towards it, whereby trade in goods, trade in services and investment are sought to be regionally integrated simultaneously. Pakistan’s consistent postponement of Most Favoured Nations (MFN) status to India and Sri Lanka’s ever evasive approach towards Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) are but two glaring examples. The examples of Pakistan and Sri Lanka are deliberate as they both are the only two non-LDCs (Least Developed Countries) apart from India in the region.