Futures of tropical forests (sensu lato)
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Biodiversity, Biosphere Interactions, Conservation Biology, Environmental Sciences, Natural Resource Management
- Keywords
- REDD+, selective logging, natural forest management, plantation forestry, silviculture
- Copyright
- © 2014 Putz et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2014. Futures of tropical forests (sensu lato) PeerJ PrePrints 2:e362v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.362v1
Abstract
When net deforestation declines in the tropics, attention will be drawn to the composition and structure of the retained, restored, invaded, and created forests. At that point the seemingly inexorable trends towards increased intensities of exploitation and management will be recognized as having taken their tolls of biodiversity and other forest values. Celebrations when a country passes the “forest transition” (i.e., suffers no net deforestation) will then be tempered by realization that what has been accepted as “forest” spans the gamut from short-rotation mono-clonal stands of genetically engineered trees to fully protected old growth natural forest. With management intensification, climate change, species introductions, landscape fragmentation, fire, and shifts in economics and governance, forests will vary along gradients of biodiversity, novelty of composition, stature, permanence, and the relative roles of natural and anthropogenic forces. Management intensity will increase with the increased availability of financial capital associated with economic globalization, scarcity of wood and other forest products, demand for biofuels, improved governance (e.g., security of property rights), improved accessibility, and technological innovations that lead to new markets for forest products. In a few places the trend towards land-use intensification will be counterbalanced by recognition of the many benefits of natural and semi-natural forests, especially where forest-fate determiners are compensated for revenues foregone from not intensifying management. Land-use practices informed by research will help minimize the tradeoffs between the financial profits from forest management and the benefits of retention of biodiversity and the full range of environmental services.
Author Comment
This manuscript will be considered for publication in Biotropica.