Vietnam's forests remain dependent
on public resources, including international development
assistance, for the delivery of public and private services
that include timber production, state forest management,
forest protection and biodiversity conservation, and
extension and research. Public subsidies are also provided
to smallholder forest owners to stimulate investments into
the sector. For the Government it is important to

Poor governance is a major impediment to
achieving development outcomes of the forest sector. It
results in losses of income, employment, government
revenues, and local and global environmental services.
However, at present, no comprehensive guide to reforming
forest governance has been developed. Although usually it is
relatively easy to recognize that the forest sector in a
country is failing to deliver all its potential benefits,

An increasing body of evidence shows that forest governance and tenure reforms are central to mitigating a number of problems related to forests, and seriously affect forest-dependent people. On this backdrop, this assessment of South Asian forest tenure systems was initiated to provide a greater understanding of the tenure trends and status in the region that can potentially inform the policy process. This is the synthesis report of forest tenure assessments prepared by country consultants in six countries in South Asia: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, China and Pakistan.

The importance of forests in climate change, biodiversity and desertification/land degradation

Forests cover approximately 30 per cent of the Earth’s land surface and provide important ecosystem goods and services, including food, fodder, water, shelter, nutrient cycling, air purification, and cultural and recreational amenities. Forests also store carbon, provide habitat for a wide range of species and help alleviate land degradation and desertification.

La información obtenida a partir de los anillos de crecimiento fue utilizada para proveer los ritmos de crecimiento diamétrico de siete especies forestales de la provincia biogeográfica del Cerrado Boliviano. En este análisis dendrocronológico se emplearon 10 a 50 árboles por especies. La medición del ancho de los anillos de crecimiento brindó datos precisos, con los cuales se determinó la variabilidad del incremento entre especies y entre sitios para un periodo común de 100 años.

A fines del anterior siglo los impactos ambientales negativos de las actividades humanas sobre los bosques amazo?nicos se han vuelto un tema primordial en las agendas poli?ticas mundiales. La investigacio?n cienti?fica ha permitido desarrollar una variedad de alternativas para reducir los impactos por deforestacio?n y la degradacio?n de los bosques.

The Government of the UK and Norway have supported the production of an independent report to help inform the decision-making process on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) at the upcoming United Nations climate change negotiations in Doha in December 2012.

Trees and forests play important roles in reducing landslide risk through various mechanisms. Tree roots reinforce soil layers, anchor the soil to bedrock and form buttresses against soil movement. Trees also reduce landslide risk by lowering soil moisture levels – interception, evaporation and transpiration are the primary mechanisms. These mechanisms, and others, also make trees valuable in land reclamation following landslides.

This article explores the effects that gender composition of forest user groups has on property rights and forestry governance, based on data from 290 forest user groups in Kenya, Uganda, Bolivia, and Mexico. Findings indicate gender composition of user groups is important, but not always in the expected ways. Female-dominated groups tend to have more property rights to trees and bushes, and collect more fuelwood but less timber than do male-dominated or gender-balanced groups.

Tanzania's land, local government and forest laws mean that rural communities have well defined rights to own, manage and benefit from forest and woodland resources within their local areas through the establishment of village forests. This approach, known by practitioners as Community Based Forest Management (CBFM) results in the legal establishment of village land forest reserves, community forest reserves or private forests. By 2008, 1,460 villages on mainland Tanzania1 were involved in establishing or managing village forests covering a total of over 2.345 million hectares.