Miombo forest occurs in a swathe across central and southern Africa, including parts of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Zaire, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is rich in tree life, and has enormous value as a wildlife habitat. Traditionally shifting cultivators have farmed in miombo, and allowed it to regenerate, but increasingly the demands for fuelwood have resulted in deforestation.;This text provides comprehensive details of the climate, environment, ecology and species characteristics of miombo, and describes methods for assessing the timber and other resources, through inventories, in order to use the forest sustainably. Management guidelines give practical advice on propagation and harvesting techniques, as well as discussing how to design plans to conserve biodiversity and to protect water catchments.

Woody plants belong to various taxonomic groups, which are heterogeneous in morphology, physiology, and geographic distribution. OtheJWise, they have neither strong evolutionruy relationships nor share a conunon habitat. They are a primaIy source of fiber and timber, and also include many edible fruit species. Their unique phenotypic behavior includes a perennial habit associated with extensive secondary growth. Additional characteristics of woody plants include: developmental juvenility and maturity with respect to growth habit, flowering time, and morphogenetic response in tissue cultures; environmental control of bud dormancy and flowering cycles; variable tolerance to abiotic stresses, wounding and pathogens; and long distance transport of water and IRltrients. Woody plants, particularly tree species, have been the focus of numerous physiological studies to understand their specialized functions, however, only recently they have become the target of molecular studies. Recent advances in our understanding of signal transduction pathways for environmental responses in herbaceous plants, including the identification and cloning of genes for proteins involved in signal transduction. should provide useful leads to undertake parallel studies with woody plants. Molecular mapping techniques, coupled with the availability of cloned genes from herbaceous plants, should provide shortcuts to cloning relevant genes from woody plants. The unique phenotypes of these plants can then be targeted for improvement through genetic engineering.

Bringing together a wealth of knowledge, the Handbook of Environmental Management, Second Edition, gives a comprehensive overview of environmental problems, their sources, their assessment, and their solutions. Through in-depth entries, and a topical table of contents, readers will quickly find answers to questions about pollution and management issues. This six-volume set is a reimagining of the award-winning Encyclopedia of Environmental Management, published in 2013, and features insights from more than 500 contributors, all experts in their fields. The experience, evidence, methods, and models used in studying environmental management is presented here in six stand-alone volumes, arranged along the major environmental systems. Features of the new edition: The first handbook that demonstrates the key processes and provisions for enhancing environmental management. Addresses new and cutting -edge topics on ecosystem services, resilience, sustainability, food-energy-water nexus, socio-ecological systems and more. Provides an excellent basic knowledge on environmental systems, explains how these systems function and offers strategies on how to best manage them. Includes the most important problems and solutions facing environmental management today.

Agroforestry is recognized as a sustainable land-use management in the tropics, as it provides environmental-friendly ecosystems; it also provides people with their every day need for food and cash. Since the recognition of agroforestry as a science, curricula have been developed for agroforestry programs for undergraduate and graduate trainings in Universities. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop and make available educational material. This textbook strives to provide up-to-date information on tropical agroforestry to serve as educational material in the tropical context. The authoritative textbook of Nair (1993) on agroforestry was published 18 years ago, and before the advent of tree domestication, an important agroforestry practice today. In addition, many other research activities, such as carbon sequestration and integrated pest management, have been included in the agroforestry agenda. This textbook is intended for agroforestry students, teachers, and practitioners.

Many countries around the world are engaged in decentralization processes, and most African countries face serious problems with forest governance, from benefits sharing to illegality and sustainable forest management. This book summarizes experiences to date on the extent and nature of decentralization and its outcomes - most of which suggest an underperformance of governance reforms - and explores the viability of different governance instruments in the context of weak governance and expanding commercial pressures over forests. Findings are grouped into two thematic areas: decentralization, livelihoods and sustainable forest management; and international trade, finance and forest sector governance reforms. The authors examine diverse forces shaping the forest sector, including the theory and practice of decentralization, usurpation of authority, corruption and illegality, inequitable patterns of benefits capture and expansion of international trade in timber and carbon credits, and discuss related outcomes on livelihoods, forest condition and equity. The book builds on earlier volumes exploring different dimensions of decentralization and perspectives from other world regions, and distills dimensions of forest governance that are both unique to Africa and representative of broader global patterns. The authors ground their analysis in relevant theory while drawing out implications of their findings for policy and practice.

This volume is a handbook that encompasses all aspects of urban forestry. Chapters cover topics from legal, financial, and managerial matters to the fundamentals of planting, maintaining, and recycling trees and green areas in cities and towns in the Northeast and Middle-Atlantic regions. There is currently no other book that treats this region so comprehensively. The book will be a resource for professionals in forestry, conservation, urban planning, and landscape architecture.

This book describes the changing landscape of European forest ownership and explores the impact a new, often urban, generation of forest owners may have on the future of one of our most basic resources - forests. Forests have not played a major role in rural studies thus far, however they constitute an important part of many rural areas. Drawing on Swedish cases and comparison cases from various other areas of Europe, the authors present these 'new forest owners' as a pivotal factor in the changing relationships between urban and rural life. The chapters explore how forest production, the relationship to the environment, urban-rural relations and local communities have already changed as well as discussing what might be expected for the future. A result of work in the Swedish research programme PLURAL and related projects, such as the EU Cost Action FACESMAP, this volume will be of interest to scholars of forestry and rural studies, as well as to researchers in environmental, population and globalization studies more broadly.

This book focuses on the integration of spatial statistics, GIS-technology, ecosystem studies, and scenario modelling. Its main aim is to extend the information gained at the stand level to larger spatial scales, i.e. to forest districts, forest landscapes or to the total area of Lower Saxony. The studies demonstrate the potential and limitations of regionalization approaches for forest ecological variables. The results provide valuable spatial information for forest managers and landscape planners as well as for policy-makers. Some spatial models outlined in this book have been implemented as useful tools in present forest management. With current improvements of data quality, e.g. from remote sensing and refined ground-based inventories, methods are now available to develop large-scale approaches to forest ecology and management. This book is an indispensable tool for scientists and those involved in forest management.

Over the last two decades, the topic of forest ecosystem services has attracted the attention of researchers, land managers, and policy makers around the globe. The services rendered by forest ecosystems range from intrinsic to anthropocentric benefits that are typically grouped as provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural. The research efforts, assessments, and attempts to manage forest ecosystems for their sustained services are now widely published in scientific literature. This volume focuses on broad-scale aspects of forest ecosystem services, beyond individual stands to large landscapes. In doing so, it illustrates the conceptual and practical opportunities as well as challenges involved with planning for forest ecosystem services across landscapes, regions, and nations. The goal here is to broaden the scope of land use planning through the adoption of a landscape-scale approach. Even though this approach is complex and involves multiple ecological, social, cultural, economic, and political dimensions, the landscape perspective appears to offer the best opportunity for a sustained provision of forest ecosystem services.

Plantation forests often have a negative image. They are typically assumed to be poor substitutes for natural forests, particularly in terms of biodiversity conservation, carbon storage, provision of clean drinking water and other non-timber goods and services. Often they are monocultures that do not appear to invite people for recreation and other direct uses. Yet as this book clearly shows, they can play a vital role in the provision of ecosystem services, when compared to agriculture and other forms of land use or when natural forests have been degraded. This is the first book to examine explicitly the non-timber goods and services provided by plantation forests, including soil, water and biodiversity conservation, as well as carbon sequestration and the provision of local livelihoods. The authors show that, if we require a higher provision of ecosystem goods and services from both temperate and tropical plantations, new approaches to their management are required. These include policies, methods for valuing the services, the practices of small landholders, landscape approaches to optimise delivery of goods and services, and technical issues about how to achieve suitable solutions at the scale of forest stands. While providing original theoretical insights, the book also gives guidance for plantation managers, policy-makers, conservation practitioners and community advocates, who seek to promote or strengthen the multiple-use of forest plantations for improved benefits for society. Published with CIFOR

Central Amazonian floodplain forests are an unique and endangered ecosystem. The forests grow in areas that are annually flooded by large rivers during mean periods of up to 8 months and at depths of up to 10 m. Despite this severe stress, these forests consist of over 1,000 species and are by far the most species-rich floodplain forests worldwide. The trees show a broad range of morphological, anatomical, physiological, and phenological adaptations that enable them not only to survive the adverse environmental conditions, but also to produce large amounts of biomass when the nutrient levels in water and soils are sufficiently high. This is the case in the floodplains of white-water rivers, which are used for fisheries, agriculture, and cattle-ranching but which also have a high potential for the production of timber and non-timber products, when adequately managed. Latest research on ecophysiology gives insight how tree species adapt to the oscillating flood-pulse focusing on their photosynthesis, respiration, sap flow, biochemistry, phenology, wood and leave anatomy, root morphology and functioning, fruit chemistry, seed germination, seedling establishment, nitrogen fixation and genetic variability. Based on tree ages, lifetime growth rates and net primary production, new concepts are developed to improve the sustainability of traditional forest managements in the background of an integrated natural resource management. This is the first integrative book on the functioning and ecologically oriented use of floodplain forests in the tropics and sub-tropics.It provides fundamental knowledge for scientist, students, foresters and other professionals on their distribution, evolution and phytogeography. "This book is an excellent testimony to the interdisciplinary collaboration of a group of very dedicated scientists to unravel the functioning of the Amazonian Floodplain forests. They have brought together a highly valuable contribution on the distribution, ecology, primary production, ecophysiology, typology, biodiversity, and human use of these forests offering recommendations for sustainable management and future projects in science and development of these unique wetland ecosystems. It lays a solid scientific foundation for wetland ecologists, foresters, environmentalists, wetland managers, and all those interested in sustainable management in the tropics and subtropics." Brij Gopal, Executive Vice President International Society for Limnology (SIL).

During the 1970s and 1980s, Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis, Bong. Carr. ) was planted extensively on northern Vancouver Island (B. C. , Canada) to regenerate slashburned clearcuts previously occupied by old-growth Thuja p1icata, Donn, Tsuga heterophy11a, Raf. Sarg. , and an ericaceous unders tory shrub salal (Gaul ther ia sha11on, Pursh [CH sites 1 ) . The planted Sitka spruce grew well initially on these sites, but experienced nutritional stress and reduced growth 8 to 14 yr after planting (Germain, 1985; Weetman et a1. , 1990a,b). Accompanying the onset of the nutritional stress was the reestablishment of a complete ground cover of salal, and it has been suggested that there is a causal connection between these two temporally synchronous events (Weetman et al. , 1990a,b). Other ericaceous species have been implicated in nutritional stress in conifer plantations (Mallik, 1987; Robinson, 1972; Handley, 1963; Rose et a1. , 1983). Three hypotheses to explain this nutritional stress were tested in the study reported in this paper: (1) that salal competition for N can provide an adequate explanation for the observed nutritional stress; (2) that salal inhibits the availability of nutrients to seedlings by interfering with their mycorrhizae; and (3) that the fertility of these CH sites declines after 8 yr following clearcutting and slashburning due to the termination of the flush of nutrients (or "assart effect") associated with this disturbance. A series of pot and field experiments was carried out to test these hypotheses. 1 2.

Forensic Forestry: A Guidebook for Foresters on the Witness Stand is a one-of-a-kind, hands-on resource for those forestry and land use professionals called upon to work on legal cases and testify in court. Land use and forestry issues in the United States, in particular-and likewise around the world-have become increasingly contentious, scrutinized, and debated. There is little to suggest that conflicts over forestlands will cease in the near future, in fact, quite the opposite. There are already a number of informative books available on land use and forestry, and related issues under the broader heading of environmental science. As such, while this book will not go into these concepts in detail, if someone is already an expert in land use and forestry, this book will tell them the ins and outs of the legal system and how they can best serve to make a case, using evidence, in a court of law. Coverage addresses the necessary background, and legwork involved, in providing technical expertise for such cases to be adjudicated. Since professionals' expertise is often focused on ecological issues, chapters look at the economic factors and how money, policy, and corporate interests come into play-the crux of where the professional forester's ability to present evidence and expertise becomes critical. The author provides an overall understanding of the courts, and the legal process. Coverage includes recommendations to professionals working on cases-and in the courtroom-in how to present evidence and testify in cases over land use and forestland rights, forestry management and safety, criminal and civil cases in liability in forest fires-among myriad others. Key Features: A book by a professional for professionals in the field of forestry and those called to testify in cases of forest and wildfires, eminent domain, land disputes, tort, and liability cases Written in easy-to-read, non-technical jargon to provide tools to best serve as an expert witness and consultant to support attorneys in civil and criminal cases Details unique, real-world cases study examples, detailing how they were adjudicated based on evidence and testimony provided Presents a legal background into the court system, courtroom procedure, the types of legal cases as they relate to forensic forestry As such, Forensic Forestry is a welcome addition to those professionals called upon to consult on, and testify in, such cases including land use professionals, foresters and forestry managers, ecologists, environmentalists, environmental policy advocates, and those in related fields.

The economic value of forest. has long been recognized, but the ways in which that value is calculated and the management policies adopted in consequence have all too often resulted in overuse and irreversible destruction. This is spectacularly obvious around the Mediterranean basin, but it is also true in northern Europe. These five case studies, commissioned by the OECD, examine failures of forest management in Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany and Sweden. They look at both market and intervention policies and show how each can further the destruction of the forests, and they set out ways in which future policies can evade the mistakes of the past. Originally published in 1992

The book deals with all practical issues in connection with practical tree seed procurement and supply in tropical countries, with necessary background information and documentation of applied methods. It starts with seed collection and follows the processes of the standard fates of seeds. The text covers simple hands-on methods and more advanced methods. A synthesis and discussion of recent findings in seed research is given.

Large numbers of tropical trees from natural forests or plantation forest are available for human consumption and management. This book focuses on the prospects and utilization of tropical plantation trees in context of economic and business, planting, managing stocks, and uses of trees converted to various wood-based products. It provides information on key areas of tropical plantation trees including growth performance, nursery practices, soil properties, planting stock production, raw material cellulose, anatomy, pulping and papermaking, fiber modification, and properties of wood composites. Features: Comprehensive information on prospects and utilization of tropical plantation tree species. Features information on potential products derived from tropical plantation trees including cellulose-based wood products, particleboard with bioplastic binder, and laminated veneer lumber. Discusses species usage of economic importance other than wood production. Presents information on nursery practices, growth performance, and soil properties of tropical trees. Illustrates methodologies for repeating investigations on work that has been done previously in tropical tree research. This book introduces information for entrepreneurs or researchers before undertaking work with these tree species illustrating technical methodologies allowing for repetition or previous successful works. This information proves valuable to researchers if further work is needed for improvement on these plant-derived products.

Harvest of Fish and Wildlife: New Paradigms for Sustainable Management unites experts in wildlife and fishery sciences for an interdisciplinary overview of harvest management. This book presents unique insights for embracing the complete social-ecological system to ensure a sustainable future. It educates users on evolutionary and population dynamics; social and political influences; hunter and angler behavior; decision processes; impacts of regulations; and stakeholder involvement. Features: Written by twenty-four teams of leading scientists and managers. Promotes transparent justification for fishing and hunting regulations. Provides examples for integrating decision making into management. Emphasizes creativity in management by integrating art and science. This book appeals to population biologists, evolutionary biologists and social scientists. It is a key resource for on-the-ground managers and research scientists developing harvesting applications. As the book's contributors explain: "Making decisions that are robust to uncertainty...is a paradigm shift with a lot of potential to improve outcomes for fish and wildlife populations." -Andrew Tyre and Brigitte Tenhumberg "Temporal shifts in system states...must somehow be anticipated and dealt with to derive harvest policies that remain optimal in the long term." -Michael Conroy "Proactive, effective management of sportspersons...will be essential in the new paradigm of harvest management." -Matthew Gruntorad and Christopher Chizinski

This open access book presents and analyzes the results of more than 30 years of long-term ecological research in riparian forest ecosystems with the aim of casting light on changes in the dynamics of riparian forests over time. The research, focusing on the Ooyamazawa riparian forest, one of the remaining old-growth forests in Japan, has yielded a number of interesting outcomes. First, it shows that large-scale disturbances afford various trees opportunities for regeneration and are thus the driving force for the coexistence of canopy trees in riparian forests. Second, it identifies changes in reproductive patterns, highlighting that seed production has in fact quantitatively increased over the past two decades. Third, it describes the decline in forest floor vegetation caused by deer grazing and reveals how this decline has affected bird and insect populations. The book illustrates the interconnectedness of phenomena within an ecosystem and the resultant potential for cascade effects and also stresses the need for long-term ecological studies of climate change impacts on forests. It will be of interest to both professionals and academics in the field of forest science.

Addresses One of the Supreme Threats to Biodiversity

As the worldwide human population explodes and trade becomes increasingly globalized, the transboundary movement of plant species from their place of origin to foreign regions is escalating and expected to experience continued growth in the coming decades. Invasive Plants and Forest Ecosystems takes an informed and integrated approach to the current onslaught of invasive species, spotlighting the tremendous challenges they pose for natural resource managers charged with the maintenance of biological diversity and the sustainable production of forest wealth. It addresses the havoc these alien invaders are wrecking on native forest ecosystems and the staggering $300 billion annually in damage and control costs they incur.

An Up-to-Date Synthesis of Invasive Plants, Their Impact, and Control Strategies

Examining invasion ecology through both synthesis and original research chapters, this compilation gives a bird's eye view of the ecological impact alien invaders have both in temperate and tropical climates. With internationally recognized contributors, this text explores the socioeconomic and policy aspects of adaptive collaborative management strategies that are crucial to controlling alien invasive plants. This book successfully captures the current state of knowledge surrounding this fast-growing ecological issue, making it an indispensable resource for those committed to the protection of global forestry and natural resources.

The chemicals from plant sources, generally termed as phytochemicals, play an important role in acceptance or rejection of the plant by the pests as they could be distasteful or toxic on one hand or on the other hand specialist herbivores have the capability to feed on many such chemicals, as they are able to process these natural products in a manner that is beneficial to them. In the wake of increasing environmental degradation due to burgeoning synthetic chemicals, there has been a process going on to rediscover the usefulness of plants and herbs and a continued effort for more than 2 decades has been to study the green products for cures for several ailments and pest management. In fact, according to Indian Medicinal Plants: A Sectoral Study, the global trade for medicinal plants amounts to about US $ 60 billion and the world demand continues to grow at the rate of 7 per cent per annum. Although many such plants are known in literature, neem has been one of trees with mani-fold virtues. Indian neem tree, Azadirachta indica A. Juss, which is a large evergreen tree, is an outstanding example among plants that has been subject matter of numerous scientific studies concerning its utilization in medicine, industry and agriculture. So far neem preparations have been evaluated against more than 500 species of insects and more than 400 hundred are reported to be susceptible at different concentrations.

Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) - the conversion of molecular nitrogen into ammonia - is one of the most important reactions in ecology and agriculture. It is performed exclusively by microbes (prokaryotes) that live in symbiosis with plants. This book summarizes the latest research on this reaction, the participating microbes and the genetics of how their relevant genes could be transferred into the plants. In the light of a more sustainable and less ecologically damaging agriculture, this is becoming an increasingly pressing issue.

This is a handbook on the subject of crop pests. Including 288 colour photographs, the book contains information which has been edited and updated from the series of advisory leaflets issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) which have been a widely acknowledged source of valuable information for many years. Much of the information, which has been revised by entomologists of the Agricultural Development Advisory Service (ADAS), should be of interest in other countries of Northern Europe and throughout temperate regions of the world. The book contains descriptions of the pests, their life histories, the damage they cause, their natural enemies and the strategies for control. The demand for the continued availability of the wealth of knowledge and practical experience originally incorporated into the MAFF leaflets has prompted the publication of this book. This publication should be a useful handbook for all those involved with applied entomology and crop protection, particularly agricultural and horticultural students, crop consultants and advisers, those working in the agrochemical industry and proficient farmers, growers and entomologists.

Ecology of Fire-Dependent Ecosystems is brimming with intriguing ecological stories of how life has evolved with and diversified within the varied fire regimes that are experienced on earth. Moreover, the book places itself as a communication between students, fire scientists, and fire fighters, and each of these groups will find some familiar ground, and some challenging aspects in this text: something which ultimately will help to bring us closer together and enrich our different approaches to understanding and managing our changing planet. -- Sally Archibald, Professor, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa Most textbooks are as dry as kindling and about as much fun to sink your teeth into. This is not that kind of textbook. Devan Allen McGranahan and Carissa L. Wonkka have taken a complex topic and somehow managed to synthesize it into a comprehensive, yet digestible form. This is a book you can read cover to cover - I know, I did it. As a result, I took an enlightening journey through the history and fundamentals of fire and its role in the natural and human world, ending with a thoughtful review of the evolving relationship between humans and wildland fire. -- Chris Helzer, Nebraska Director of Science, The Nature Conservancy, and author of The Prairie Ecologist blog Ecology of Fire-Dependent Ecosystems: Wildland Fire Science, Policy, and Management is intended for use in upper-level courses in fire ecology and wildland fire management and as a reference for researchers, managers, and other professionals involved with wildland fire science, practice, and policy. The book helps guide students and scientists to design and conduct robust wildland fire research projects and critically interpret and apply fire science in any management, education, or policy situation. It emphasizes variability in wildland fire as an ecological regime and provides tools for students, researchers, and managers to assess and connect fire environment and fire behaviour to fire effects. Fire has not only shaped social and ecological communities but pushed ecosystems beyond previous boundaries, yet understanding the nature and effects of fire as an ecological disturbance has been slow, hampered by the complexity of the dynamic interactions between vegetation and climate and the fear of the destruction fire can bring. This book will help those who study, manage, and use wildland fire to develop new answers and novel solutions, based on an understanding of how fire functions in natural and social environments. It reviews literature, synthesizes concepts, and identifies research gaps and policy needs. The text also explores the interaction of fire and human culture, demonstrating how fire policy can be made adaptable to cultural and socio-ecological objectives.

Remote sensing and GIS are increasingly used as tools for monitoring and managing forests. Remotely sensed and GIS data are now the data sources of choice for capturing, documenting, and understanding forest disturbance and landscape pattern. Sitting astride the fields of ecology, forestry, and remote sensing/GIS, Understanding Forest Disturbance and Spatial Pattern: Remote Sensing and GIS Approaches takes you through the general biological or landscape ecological context of forest disturbance to remote sensing and GIS technological approaches and pattern description and analysis, with compelling applied examples of integration and synthesis. Written by experts, peer-reviewed to adhere to the strictest standards and highest quality criteria, these chapters discuss natural and human-caused forest change and consider factors such as biological setting, monitoring approaches, scale issues, and pattern analysis. The book explores forest disturbance and spatial pattern from an ecological point-of-view within the context of structure, function, pattern, and change. It concludes with a summary of the issues related to detection and mapping of forest disturbances with remotely sensed and GIS data. The authors elucidate how the elements presented, from ecological underpinnings, data considerations, change detection method, and pattern analysis, combine into a problem solving, information generating approach. You may find this subject covered briefly in a small sub-section in remote sensing forestry texts, or in limited technical detail in the ecology literature. The in-depth, detailed information provided in this book allows you to develop an understanding of the application of BOTH remote sensing and GIS technologies to forest change and the impacts of fire, insect infestation, forest harvesting, and other potential change influences - such as extreme weather events. This book provides guidance on how to master the challenges of capturing and characterizing forest disturbance and spatial patterns.

Timber sourcing is shifting from extraction from natural forests to forms of cultivation that are increasingly agricultural in nature. This book takes a multidisciplinary approach to examine the socio-political, biophysical and discursive dimensions of this divergence of wood production from forests. This analysis challenges the historical integration of wood production and forest ecosystem management exemplified by the institutions of forestry with their inherent wood/forest connection. This has significant implications for how wood and forest socio-ecological systems confront change and challenge ideas about how to achieve sustainability. Historically, the institutions of stewardship forestry were founded on ideals of sustainable systems in long-term equilibrium. However, these occur within rapidly evolving social and technological contexts that constantly challenge the maintenance of any equilibrium. This creates considerable tension within wood and forest socio-ecological systems and their institutions and governance. Moving beyond adaptation to transformation, however, requires a willingness to consider post-forestry conditions, such as integration of emerging wood cultivation systems into agricultural and landscape approaches, and increasing management of extensive forest ecosystems for non-wood values in the absence of wood production. This book includes four case studies: a global modelling of shifts in wood production and three national case studies (Australia, Indonesia and New Zealand), each analysing shifts in resilience in wood and forest socio-ecological systems using a different disciplinary approach. This book will be of interest to advanced students, researchers and professionals in forestry, land use, conservation, rural studies and geography.