As technological advancements in forest monitoring – such as remote sensing and commodity supply chain tracking – allow for the generation and analysis of increasingly large datasets, forest policy makers and practitioners are looking for innovative yet practical ways for information transparency to transform forest governance. Especially in tropical forest countries looking to address the continuing deforestation and forest degradation through climate finance commitments and timber trade agreements, the access to information agenda has been placed at the fore of both the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) process and the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan. This paper explores whether and how the proposed transparency agenda is having an impact (or not) in the Southwest Region of Cameroon. Using semi-structured interviews with civil society organizations, this paper examines how information is currently disclosed in the forest sector and the status of REDD+ and FLEGT transparency agendas at the local level.

The Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act, 2006, marked a momentous change in the institutional contour of forest management in India. The change suggested better tenure security along with a strong community resource regime. However, policy implementation was marked by weak enforcement of community forest resource rights. Intrigued by variable performance of the Act, this study explains the process of rights negotiation, and analyzes the determinants of institutional and resource sustainability in the post-rights scenario.

The study, based on successful cases from Maharashtra, uses a comprehensive set of institutional and resource indicators, developed to suit the cultural and ecological context. The strongest factors that emerged from the two case studies were of community association with the resource, resource centrality and visionary leadership. However, these factors manifested differently in the two villages. The success was also mediated by a range of intermediate variables in both villages. The findings offer a counter-narrative to the claim that granting forest rights will lead to forest fragmentation and loss of forest cover. Both the villages had rich forest and robust institutions normatively fuelled by idea of self-governance, inclusion, and equity. Such normative foundations of equity and sustainability steered these institutions to successful collective outcomes.

The prospects and challenges for non-native tree species (NNTS) in Southeast Europe (SEE) were analyzed using a combination of SWOT Analysis and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Preference data from three groups of opinion leaders with extensive knowledge of the silviculture, ecology and impact of climate change on NNTS in SEE (researchers, practitioners and decision-makers) were used. Results revealed that strengths and opportunities for all three analyzed elements outweigh their weaknesses and threats. In the review of silviculture, key strengths and opportunities were identified as high productivity, adaptation to afforestation of degraded lands, gap filling in forest ecosystems after the loss of native tree species, and higher volume growth of NNTS compared to native tree species. Strength-Opportunity (SO) elements related to climate change were found to be adaptive management responsiveness to climate change and increased length of growing period, possibility of better-adapted mixtures with NNTS under climate change, and replacement of tree species that are sensitive to pests and outbreaks resulting from climate change. These results provide important insights into different segments of strategy approach of sustainable management of NNTS in relation to management, silviculture and climate change practices in SEE.

The Southern Cone countries of Chile, Argentina and Uruguay have a common background regarding land use and land cover with a total of 46 million ha of forests whose benefits are prospering for the regional framework of the Southern Cone. The three countries do not articulate or interchange on their forest policies beyond circumstantial agreements. In this regard, and as our first research focus, we examined experiences while participating in the international Montréal Process on Criteria and Indicators for the Conservation and Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests. Secondly, we focused on the progress these processes have afforded regarding respective national implementation of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management (C&I for SFM) and uptake in forest policy. Thirdly, we examined also the obstacles experienced during participation and implementation. We based our findings on content analysis of key documents and author observations. Albeit the institutional and political frameworks between the countries differ, we found common constraints on budgeting, limited human resources and institutional capacity. Communication to society and policy makers' commitment are also important weaknesses. The engagement of the three countries in the Montréal Process and the application of related national sets of C&I for SFM have provided solutions to recent land use conflicts. This also strengthened the quality and effectiveness of recently approved laws and regimes for a sustainable forest management. In conclusion, the forest dialogues of these countries, within and between each other, were reinforced by participation in C&I for SFM processes, helping to bridge the gap between decision-makers, national forest agencies, academia and other forest-related stakeholders. Common indicators and related national reports facilitated the identification of affinities for regional integration on a common basis and helped to raise the level of national forest policies increasing its strength and commitment to global forest challenges. The lessons learned should be considered to reach progress towards sustainability.

While community forestry (CF) is increasingly promoted as a climate change adaptation strategy, few analyses have examined the contribution of CF to adaptive capacity. We used a sustainable livelihood approach and Ostrom's design principles for managing commons, to assess how CF confers climate change adaptive capacity in two communities in Myanmar. Our findings indicate that CF provides tangible contributions to human and social capital, by increasing landless and female forest users' knowledge of forest management. However, CF has yet to enhance the physical, financial, and natural capital within these communities. The major challenges preventing the enhancement of socioeconomic benefits include limited community participation and weak institutional systems for monitoring and conflict resolution. We argue that CF increases community engagement in natural resource management, but in the absence of effective monitoring and decision-making, socioeconomic benefits to communities from CF programs may be limited. Our results elucidate important factors limiting the uptake and progress of CF as a viable climate change adaptation strategy in Southeast Asia, and indicate that comparative research is needed to better understand the factors that influence CF efficacy in forest- and natural resource-dependent communities globally.

This study aims to understand, through the example of Cameroon, why industrial logging companies adopt or avoid sustainable certification or labelling systems of their forest operations in the Congo Basin region. From a methodological standpoint, the research is based on a sample of three empirical case studies of logging companies operating in Cameroon: an ‘anti-certification’ company (the model, due to the majority trend of non-certified logging companies in this region), a company in the process of certification (the intermediate case), and a certified company (the marginal case, due to the scarcity of certified companies in the study area). While focusing on these three cases, we chose to avoid reifying the dominant case of anti-certification companies. Hence the choice of highlighting this majority trend by carrying out a comparative study with an intermediate and a marginal case. The analysis of these three case studies reveals that the high cost of long term certification, the risks of patronage and cronyism in Patron-Client (customer-provider/boss) relationships that feature sustainable labelling processes are the main reasons for the low level of commitment of logging companies to forest certification in Cameroon. At the end of the research, we recommend that other complementary and more specific research should focus on the flaws in patron-client relationships that characterize forest certification processes on the one hand, and on the necessary conditions to avoid patronage and cronyisms risks or excesses in these relations on the other hand, especially in a poor governance context like Cameroon. Similarly, we encourage that new research be carried out to better understand whether and how transaction and opportunity costs influence the decisions of industrial logging companies in favour of or against forest certification.

This paper identifies and explores megatrends with major implications for smallholder-based commercial forestry in Indonesia to the year 2030. A megatrend is a cluster of trends that represent a significant shift in the condition of the environment, economy or society, with major implications over the longer term. Megatrend analysis is one example of foresighting, an approach which complements traditional forestry sector outlook studies. The eight megatrends explore the dynamics of Indonesia's urbanising population; their rising incomes and education rates, manifest in an expanding middle class and changing demands; the imperative to provide for the needs of the still-many poor; the tension between market-based opportunities and the Indonesian bureaucracy, inadequate physical infrastructure and vested interests; Indonesia's place as a global hotspot of forest and biodiversity loss; the consequences of climate change; the emerging digital and technology-driven economy and society; and the possible impacts of both natural and man-made crises. These megatrends and their component subtrends have various implications for smallholder forestry; we identify best, worst and more likely case scenarios as starting points for further research.

To reconstruct the history of forest loss in Cambodia, the literature and national/provincial statistics of landuse patterns and the socio-economic situation were investigated. Forest cover in the 1960s was 73.3 % (13.3 Mha). However, this drastically decreased to 47.3% (8.6 Mha) in 2016. In the 1960s, the forest was less-disturbed. From 1970 to 1993, the forest was lost gradually owing to the political instability caused by the Cambodian Civil War. In the post-war reconstruction period from 1993 to around 2002, the need for reconstruction, international demand for timber, and forest logging concessions led to a significant increase in timber production. In the rapid economic growth period from 2002 until present, while several political actions were taken to combat rapid deforestation, economic land concessions, which promoted agro-industrial plantations, as well as small-scale agriculture has been leading to the rapid expansion of arable land and deforestation since 2009.

Prolific illegal timber trade between Russia and China cannot be stemmed by present certification schemes and Russian governmental strategies. Blockchain could present a new technological opportunity, simultaneously addressing illegal logging, regulating timber trade and meeting the needs of environmentally-sensitive markets. SWOT analysis of blockchain applicability in Russian-Chinese timber trade is presented. Decentralisation based on smart contracts could ensure timber supply chain transparency through each log cryptographic encryption. However, it is considered complicated as cryptocurrency (on which trade depends) is beyond the legislative sphere of both countries and energy demands are enormous. Beyond cryptocurrency prohibition, huge businesses and governments cannot accept blockchain for international trade because of transparency and cost risks. Digitalisation through blockchain implementation could provide a highly transparent, non-editable system to handle decentralised big data characteristic of the forestry economy, realise Industry 4.0 and develop the “China-Mongolia-Russia” economic corridor. Fundamentally, a workable Russian-Chinese Government-Science-Business model must be cultivated for effective blockchain implementation.