This book investigates radiocesium movement in all major components of forest ecosystems, e.g. the plants, animals, insects, microorganisms, and soils, during the initial stage of contamination after the incident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Most of the work was conducted at a common research site. More specifically, the book examines the contribution of surface uptake by trees in the dynamics of radiocesium during the initial contamination stage; the movement of radiocesium in the form of small organic fragments that are essential to the radiocesium dynamics in forest ecosystems; and the upward movement of radiocesium due to microorganism activity, which promotes the effective decontamination of the forest floor. Lastly, it explains why spiders could be a valuable indicator of the contamination level in forest ecosystems.

For a sustainable urban future to be possible, a new botanical discipline is needed to deepen our understanding of the relations between people and plants. This discipline will link environmental management concerns with those of human welfare and wellbeing in a specifically urban context to achieve both ecological restorations and social redress. The Durban Botanic Gardens Trust has published The Durban Forest as an early effort to establish a manifesto for this much-needed new discipline, and provides both historical and forward-looking perspectives on the changing relations between natural areas and urban dwellers. These relations urgently await our exploration if we are to face the challenges of the accelerating urbanism and environmental change that are now upon us. The Durban forest will appeal to all those interested in people and the environment, culture and community, our past and our future. Most of all, it will speak to the Durban of tomorrow and suggest a new kind of botany that will help to build a future for all Durban’s residents that is environmentally, socially and economically more just and more secure. The Durban forest is the first in a series of publications planned by the Durban Botanic Gardens Trust. The series is to be entitled umKhuhlu, the African name for Trichilia dregeana, the forest mahogany and an iconic Durban tree. The series will draw on the garden’s reputation as Durban’s oldest, and one of its most treasured public institutions in order to encourage a new model of plant use. This model aspires to a specific urban, humanitarian and restorative focus that will support a just and resilient urbanism.

The increasing awareness and concern of people, researchers and decision makers for the maintenance and enhancement of goods and services provided by forest ecosystems significantly widened the scope of information needs for sustainable forest management on the task-specific, integrative and strategic level. Forest resource assessments have to provide reliable, harmonized, politically relevant, cost-efficient and intuitively visible information on the multiple functions of forests in the form of statistics, georeferenced data and thematic cartography. In this perspective, the need of reviewing and discussing improvements of forest inventory and monitoring approaches is acknowledged to cope with assessment and analysis tools required for the full understanding of forest ecosystems, from local to global scales. Only a limited amount of information can be provided by adding a set of new attributes to the list of attributes commonly used in assessing the productive function of forests and utilizing traditional survey designs. The diversity of information needs that have to be satisfied by current forest resource assessments require the adoption of new survey approaches and the extension of assessment frames from forests to landscapes. This is deemed distinctively true for the issues related to sustainable forest management and biodiversity monitoring. Within this framework, the major purpose of this volume of Kluwers "Forestry Science Series" is to give readers hands-on experiences about inventory and monitoring problems and potential by reviewing a selection of approaches, methods and tools for multi-resource forest surveys, with special reference to remote sensing, statistical sampling and spatial analyses.

Canada and the United States share the world's longest international border. For those living in the immediate vicinity of the Canadian side of the border, the events of 9/11 were a turning point in their relationship with their communities, their American neighbours and government officials. Borderline Canadianness offers a unique ethnographic approach to Canadian border life. The accounts of local residents, taken from interviews and press reports in Ontario's Niagara region, demonstrate how borders and everyday nationalism are articulated in complex ways across region, class, race, and gender. Jane Helleiner's examination begins with a focus on the "de-bordering" initiated by NAFTA and concludes with the "re-bordering" as a result of the 9/11 attacks. Her accounts of border life reveals disconnects between elite border projects and the concerns of ordinary citizens as well as differing views on national belonging. Helleiner has produced a work that illuminates the complexities and inequalities of borders and nationalism in a globalized world.

Rain forests represent the world's richest repository of terrestrial biodiversity, and play a major role in regulating the global climate. They support the livelihoods of a substantial proportion of the world's population and are the source of many internationally traded commodities. They remain (despite decades of conservation attention) increasingly vulnerable to degradation and clearance, with profound though often uncertain future costs to global society. Understanding the ecology of these diverse biomes, and peoples' dependencies on them, is fundamental to their future management and conservation.
Tropical Rain Forest Ecology, Diversity, and Conservation introduces and explores what rain forests are, how they arose, what they contain, how they function, and how humans use and impact them. The book starts by introducing the variety of rain forest plants, fungi, microorganisms, and animals, emphasising the spectacular diversity that is the motivation for their conservation. The central chapters describe the origins of rain forest communities, the variety of rain forest formations, and their ecology and dynamics. The challenge of explaining the species richness of rain forest communities lies at the heart of ecological theory, and forms a common theme throughout. The book's final section considers historical and current interactions of humans and rain forests. It explores biodiversity conservation as well as livelihood security for the many communities that are dependent on rain forests - inextricable issues that represent urgent priorities for scientists, conservationists, and policy makers.

This comprehensive synthesis systematically covers the entire range of natural and managed oak forests in the highlands of tropical America. Originally, these forests were widely distributed, but largely through human impact large parts have disappeared and the remaining patches are under increasing threat.

For the first time, aspects as diverse as the paleo-ecology, biogeography, stand structure and composition, biodiversity, population dynamics, ecosystem dynamics, fragmentation and recovery, conservation and sustainable use of Neotropical montane oak forests are treated in a coherent manner. Providing a thorough understanding of ecological patterns and processes that determine the structure and functioning of these magnificent forests, this volume can serve as a sound basis for sustainable forest management and biodiversity conservation in general.

Organizing Nature explores how the environment is organized in Canada’s resource-dependent economy. The book examines how particular ecosystem components come to be understood as natural resources and how these resources in turn are used to organize life in Canada. In tracing transitions from "ecosystem component" to "resource," this book weaves together the roles that commodification, Indigenous dispossession, and especially a false nature-society binary play in facilitating the conceptual and material construction of resources. Alice Cohen and Andrew Biro present an alternative to this false nature-society binary: one that sees Canadians and their environments in a constant process of making and remaking each other. Through a series of case studies focused on specific resources – fish, forests, carbon, water, land, and life – the book explores six channels through which this remaking occurs: governments, communities, built environments, culture and ideas, economies, and bodies and identities. Ultimately, Organizing Nature encourages readers to think critically about what is at stake when Canadians (re)produce myths about the false separation between Canadian peoples and their environments.

Reforestation and avoiding deforestation are methods of harnessing nature to tackle global warming - the greatest challenge facing humankind. In this book, Colin Hunt deals comprehensively with the present and future role of forests in climate change policy and practice. The author provides signposts for the way ahead in climate change policy and offers practical examples of forestry's role in climate change mitigation in both developed and tropical developing countries. Chapters on measuring carbon in plantations, their biodiversity benefits and potential for biofuel production complement the analysis. He also discusses the potential for forestry in climate change policy in the United States and other countries where policies to limit greenhouse gas emissions have been foreshadowed. The author employs scientific and socio-economic analysis and lays bare the complexity of forestry markets. A review of the workings of carbon markets, based both on the Kyoto Protocol and voluntary participation, provides a foundation from which to explore forestry's role. Emphasis is placed on acknowledging how forests' idiosyncrasies affect the design of markets for sequestered carbon. The realization of forestry's potential in developed countries depends on the depth of cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, together with in-country rules on forestry. An increase in funding for carbon retention in tropical forests is an immediate imperative, but complexities dictate that the sources of finance will likely be dedicated funds rather than carbon markets. This timely and comprehensive book will be of great value to any reader interested in climate change. Policy-makers within international agencies and governments, academics and students in the fields of geography, economics, science policy, forestry, development studies as well as carbon market participants and forest developers in the private sector will find it especially useful.

This captivating book simply and engagingly captures the vital role forests play in combating the effects of climate change. The reasons for the current and historical demise of the forest are clearly outlined, followed by a fascinating insight into how a forest works to help the local and global environment. There is a solution to global warming which is realistic, attainable and beneficial to the Earth and her inhabitants. Bill Liao and WeForest's laudable goals of making the earth cooler, alleviating poverty and restoring eco-systems are enshrined in the case studies from around the world; vividly demonstrating reasons to be hopeful.

Organizing Nature explores how the environment is organized in Canada’s resource-dependent economy. The book examines how particular ecosystem components come to be understood as natural resources and how these resources in turn are used to organize life in Canada. In tracing transitions from "ecosystem component" to "resource," this book weaves together the roles that commodification, Indigenous dispossession, and especially a false nature-society binary play in facilitating the conceptual and material construction of resources. Alice Cohen and Andrew Biro present an alternative to this false nature-society binary: one that sees Canadians and their environments in a constant process of making and remaking each other. Through a series of case studies focused on specific resources – fish, forests, carbon, water, land, and life – the book explores six channels through which this remaking occurs: governments, communities, built environments, culture and ideas, economies, and bodies and identities. Ultimately, Organizing Nature encourages readers to think critically about what is at stake when Canadians (re)produce myths about the false separation between Canadian peoples and their environments.

This collection features five peer-reviewed reviews on ecosystem services delivered by forests. The first chapter summarises the current state of knowledge on the interactions between forest ecosystems and the climate system and the way in which forests influence the water cycle. The second chapter reviews the wealth of research on the range of species, functional groups and ecological processes which can develop as a result of the biodiversity in tropical forests. The chapter also considers the main threats to tropical forest biodiversity. The third chapter examines the importance of forest carbon content and the methods currently used to monitor it. The chapter also explores the mechanisms driving forest carbon storage and offers a considered discussion on whether forests should be considered sources or sinks of carbon. The fourth chapter highlights how sustainable forest management (SFM) can be used to maintain or enhance biodiversity in temperate and boreal forests. The chapter utilises two case studies to demonstrate successful implementation of SFM in Ireland and Canada. The final chapter considers the benefits of introducing agroforestry into agroecosystems, focussing on its influence on soil health. The chapter discusses the benefits of agroforestry systems on key soil physical, chemical and biological properties.

This highly topical study of tropical deforestation reports on the first phase of a large, integrated, multi-institutional, and team-based study. Based in Mexico, it is designed to understand and project land changes in a development frontier that pits the rapidly growing needs of smallholder farmers to cut down forests for cultivation against federally sponsored initiatives committed to various international programmes of forest preservation and complementary economic programmes.

This volume synthesizes and analyzes thirty years of hydrological research in the Danum Valley Conservation Area, a lowland dipterocarp rainforest in Sabah, Malaysia. Ian Douglas explores the role of water in the rainforest ecosystem, setting out the ecological, climatological and geological context of present-day hydrological processes, soil erosion and stream sedimentation. He emphasizes the role of extreme events and natural disturbances in sediment supplies and the evolution of drainage pathways and explains the pathways of rainfall and stream sediment. Douglas then explores the impacts caused by logging, the extreme pulses of sedimentation and the effects of log removal and logging road construction, examining the effects of major storms in the 20 years after tree harvesting. Methods of minimizing logging damage to soils and streams are discussed and the effects on flora and fauns are considered.

The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve has captured the worldwide attention of biologists, conservationists, and ecologists, and has been the setting for extensive investigation over the past 30 years. Currently, about 40,000 ecotourists per year visit the Cloud Forest, as perhaps the archetypal high-altitude rain forest. This book pulls together and synthesizes the information about this ecosystem and the biota contained therein.

This book provides a comprehensive environmental history of how Australia's rainforests developed, the influence of Aborigines and pioneers, farmers and loggers, and of efforts to protect rainforests, to help us better understand current issues and debates surrounding their conservation and use. While interest in rainforests and the movement for their conservation are often mistakenly portrayed as features of the last few decades, the debate over human usage of rainforests stretches well back into the nineteenth century. In the modern world, rainforests are generally considered the most attractive of the ecosystems, being seen as lush, vibrant, immense, mysterious, spiritual and romantic. Rainforests hold a special place; both providing a direct link to Gondwanaland and the dinosaurs and today being the home of endangered species and highly rich in biodiversity. They are also a critical part of Australia's heritage. Indeed, large areas of Australian rainforests are now covered by World Heritage Listing. However, they also represent a dissonant heritage. What exactly constitutes rainforest, how it should be managed and used, and how much should be protected are all issues which remain hotly contested. Debates around rainforests are particularly dominated by the contradiction of competing views and uses - seeing rainforests either as untapped resources for agriculture and forestry versus valuing and preserving them as attractive and sublime natural wonders. Australia fits into this global story as a prime example but is also of interest for its aspects that are exceptional, including the intensity of clearing at certain periods and for its place in the early development of national parks. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Environmental History, Australian History and Comparative History.

The inaction of nation states and international bodies has posed significant risks to the environment. By contrast, cities are sites of action and innovation. In Sustainability, Citizen Participation, and City Governance, contributors researching in the areas of law, urban planning, geography, and philosophy identify approaches for tackling many of the most challenging environmental problems facing cities today. Sustainability, Citizen Participation, and City Governance facilitates two strands of dialogue about climate change. First, it integrates legal perspectives into policy debates about urban sustainability and governance, from which law has typically stood apart. Second, it brings case studies from Quebec into a rare conversation with examples drawn from elsewhere in Canada. The collection proposes humane and inclusive processes for arriving at effective policy outcomes. Some chapters examine governance mechanisms that reconcile clashes of incommensurable values and resolve conflicts about collective interests. Other chapters provide platforms for social movements that have faced obstacles to communicating to a broad public. The collection's proposals respond to drastic changes in urban environments. Some changes are imminent. Others are upon us already. All threaten the present and future well-being of urban communities.

This book tells the story of Terania Creek - the world's first direct action blockade in defence of a forest, occurring in Australia in 1979. Contrary to claims that the Australian counterculture was a mere imitation of overseas models, the Australian movement, coalescing with a home-grown environment movement, came of age at Terania Creek. After five years of 'polite' campaigning failed to stop the logging of ancient Gondwanan rainforest, an organic and spontaneous blockade erupted that would see the forging of a number of ingenious blockading techniques and strategies. The activist repertoire developed at Terania Creek has since echoed across the country, and across the Earth. This book draws on extensive oral history interviews as well as photographs taken of the protest in 1979; such rich source material brings the story to life. Terania Creek and the Forging of Modern Environmental Activism will therefore appeal to both a scholarly audience as well as activists, practitioners, and counterculturalists.

There is no question that Africa is endowed with abundant natural resources of different magnitudes. However, more than a decade of high commodity prices and new hydrocarbon discoveries across the continent has led countless international organizations, donor agencies, and non-governmental organizations to devote considerable attention to the potential of natural resource-based development. Natural Resource-Based Development in Africa places a particular emphasis on the actors that help us understand the extent to which resources could be transformed into broader developmental outcomes. Based on a wide variety of primary sources and fieldwork, including in-person interviews and participant observations, this collection contributes to both scholarly and policy discussions around the governance and economic development roles of local entrepreneurs, transnational firms, civil society groups, local communities, and government agencies in Africa's natural resource sectors. Natural Resource-Based Development in Africa explores the impact that these actors have on regional trends such as resource nationalism and local procurement policies as well as grassroots-related issues such as poverty, livelihoods, gender equity, development, and human security.

Over the last century, the scale of Canada's domestic disaster response system has grown significantly due to the country's increased capacity for emergency management and the rise in natural hazards. However, there has been no systematic assessment of how effectively this multilevel system, which includes all levels of government and the military, has been integrated, and how efficient this system actually is at responding to high-level disasters. Using in-depth archival analysis and interviews with senior military and civilian officials on the inside, Boots on the Ground provides a detailed examination of Canada's disaster response system. Including policy recommendations focused on the expansion of emergency management networks, the maintenance of Canada's decentralized emergency management system, and disaster response resources for First Nations communities, Boots on the Ground aims to highlight opportunities to improve Canada's urgent disaster response. Boots on the Ground offers helpful lessons for students, policy makers, emergency management practitioners, and military officers, ensuring that readers gain concrete insights into the strategic and efficient implementation of disaster response initiatives.

A marvelously illustrated look at the world's diverse forests and their ecosystems The earth's forests are havens of nature supporting a diversity of life. Shaped by climate and geography, these vast and dynamic wooded spaces offer unique ecosystems that shelter complex and interdependent webs of flora, fungi, and animals. The World Atlas of Trees and Forests offers a beautiful introduction to what forests are, how they work, how they grow, and how we map, assess, and conserve them. Provides the most wide-ranging coverage of the world's forests available Takes readers beneath the breathtaking variety of wooded canopies that span the globe Profiles a wealth of tree species, with enlightening and entertaining natural-history highlights along the way Features stunning color photos, maps, and graphics Draws on the latest cutting-edge research and technology, including satellite imagery

Large ungulates in tropical forests are among the most threatened taxa of mammals. Excessive hunting, degradation of and encroachments on their natural habitats by humans have contributed to drastic reductions in wild ungulate populations in recent decades. As such, reliable assessments of ungulate-habitat relationships and the spatial dynamics of their populations are urgently needed to provide a scientific basis for conservation efforts. However, such rigorous assessments are methodologically complex and logistically difficult, and consequently many commonly used ungulate population survey methods do not address key problems. As a result of such deficiencies, key parameters related to population distribution, abundance, habitat ecology and management of tropical forest ungulates remain poorly understood. This book addresses this critical knowledge gap by examining how population abundance patterns in five threatened species of large ungulates vary across space in the tropical forests of the Nagarahole-Bandipur reserves in southwestern India. It also explains the development and application of an innovative methodology - spatially explicit line transect sampling - based on an advanced hierarchical modelling under the Bayesian inferential framework, which overcomes common methodological deficiencies in current ungulate surveys. The methods and results presented provide valuable reference material for researchers and professionals involved in studying and managing wild ungulate populations around the globe.

This book aims to provide a comprehensive analysis on social, economic, and political issues to understand why forests in the Demacratic People's Repblican of Korean have been so severely deforested. Deforestation and forest degradation issues in the DPRK has been highlighted as an important international political issue, which has been intervening with food security issues and energy issues, and it's hard to discover the way out. The DPRK provides a unique case to international community that illustrate why the forests issue is so complex, illuminating the issues of declining forest coverage that beset developing nations around the world. This book will interest political scientists, conservation ecologists, and journalists.

This book demonstrates the social, historical, and environmental framework within which humans have developed a relationship with the forest and its resources. Starting from the biological basis that permits the existence of forests to the use of forest resources in a modern human context, this book summarizes the interaction between humans and forest ecosystems. Designed for readers from a broad range of disciplines and interests including those from environmental sciences, environmental economics, sociology, anthropology, biology, forestry and human ecology and other related disciplines, the book evokes interest in the development of an integrated approach towards forest ecosystems and natural resources in the context of sustainability.