Policies to promote tree plantations in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic have been developed since independence to support national socio-economic and environmental goals, and in response to domestic and international markets. The effectiveness of these policies has been variable, and the resulting plantation wood value chains are poorly developed due to contradictory and confusing laws and regulations with inconsistent application and high transaction costs. Consequently, there has been limited tree plantation investment, and few investments have realized the anticipated benefits.

Plantation forests are perceived to be the supplementary source of wood material for the large wood products industry in Malaysia, amidst the steadily reducing supply from her natural forests. Despite the government’s initiated plantation forests scheme, the participation of smallholder farmers has been limited. Smallholder farmers constitute the largest proportion of private farmers involved in all sectors of agricultural and plantation tree crop cultivation, including commodities such as rubber and palm oil.

Vietnam’s Payment for Forest Ecosystem Services (PFES) scheme has the goal of protecting remaining natural forests by providing financial support to people involved in forest protection. However, studying the case of Dak Lak province in the Central Highlands region of Vietnam shows that even after eight years of PFES implementation, achieving this goal remains a challenge.

Conflicts are ubiquitous in forest management because of several overlapping temporal and spatial issues (see examples in tropical and temperate areas [...]

Indonesia has 14 million ha of degraded and marginal land, which provides very few benefits for human wellbeing or biodiversity. This degraded land may require restoration. The leguminous tree Pongamia pinnata syn. Milettia pinnata (pongamia) has potential for producing biofuel while simultaneously restoring degraded land. However, there is limited information on this potential for consideration. This paper aims to address the scientific knowledge gap on pongamia by exploring its potential as a biofuel and for restoring degraded land in Indonesia.

Previous research has shown that the Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) prefers larger trees, potentially making this a key factor influencing koala habitat quality. Generally, tree height is considered at regional scales which may overlook variation at patch or local scales. In this study, we aimed to derive a set of parameters to assist in classifying koala habitat in terms of tree height, which can then be used as an overlay for existing habitat maps.

Community orchards could play a valuable role as nature-based solutions to complex challenges we face today. In these unique plantings, a variety of nut- and fruit-producing trees and berry shrubs are often established together on public spaces to provide the community with healthy, fresh food. Interest in these plantings has been increasing in the United States, even more so since the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted vulnerabilities in our food systems. However, the roots of community orchards can be traced back to Indigenous foodways which have persisted for millennia.

Land use and land cover change (LULC) is an essential component for the monitoring environmental change and managing natural resources in areas of high natural and cultural biodiversity, such as the Amazon biome. This study was conducted in in the northern Amazon of Ecuador, specifically in the Diversity and Life Zone (DLZ) of the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve (YBR). The general aim was to investigate the territorial dynamics of land use/land cover changes to support policies for environmental and sociocultural protection in the DLZ.

Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) management can lead to various benefits for community livelihood and forest sustainability. However, such management has not been carried out optimally and sustainably in Indonesia, due to various limiting factors including ineffective policies, undeveloped cultivation technologies, and inadequate innovation in processing technologies. Further, the diversity of NTFPs species requires that policy-makers determine the priority species to be developed. Agarwood (Aquilaria spp.

Forest land is the carrier for growing forests. It is of great significance to evaluate the forest land quality scientifically and delineate forestland protection zones reasonably for realizing better forest land management, promoting ecological civilization construction, and coping with global climate change.

In this paper, we present a conceptual framework of human–elephant conflict (HEC) management embodying community aspects gleaned from the importance–performance analysis (IPA) for a National Park in Vietnam. Nine approaches were proposed to prevent and mitigate HEC (HEC indicators), of which six fell into different quadrants based on the respective estimations of farmer and non-farmer respondents. Both the levels of importance and performance (I-P) of the HEC indicators are evaluated between (I-P) among farmers and non-farmers.

Modern agricultural landscapes produce multiple ecosystem services. Ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes have social, economic, and environmental value—providing a wide array of benefits to society. Absence of scientifically based and practically tested methodologies of identification, mapping, and evaluation of ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes hamper integration of its values in the current system of land use planning.