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The study sought to unearth the immediate causes and underlying factors that fuel cocoa-driven deforestation in Ghana through four pathways: interviews, participatory rural appraisal techniques, facilitated community workshops and field observations in five forest-fringe and two admitted communities of Ghana's Ashanti and Western North Regions. The study found agricultural expansion and infrastructure extension to be the proximate causes of deforestation. These are driven by population growth, low cocoa productivity, inadequate cultivable land for cash and subsistence farming, abrupt shifts in government policies, droughts, wildfires, pests and diseases, land insecurity, limited alternative livelihoods in rural areas and lack of maintenance of admitted farm boundaries. The magnitude of the surge in cocoa encroachment in protected forests requires collaboration among diverse stakeholders and interlocutory action to stem the challenge while more holistic solutions are sought.

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South Korea has focused on bilateral agreements to supply timber since the 1990s which requires cooperation with forest-related international organisations. This study analysed the relationship between South Korean and international forest regimes by identifying the issues these regimes face and analysing South Korea's contribution to these regimes. The study used data from an in-depth content analysis of key policy documents between South Korea and each of the regimes. The results confirm six forest-related international issues: Sustainable Forest Management, Sustainable Development Goals, forest land degradation and desertification, climate change, illegal logging, forest biodiversity, and species conservation. South Korea contributed to these regimes through cooperative initiatives and projects. This contribution, furthermore, directs other countries' participation to confront the issues. Most of the international forest-related issues in South Korea are derived from external elements such as international agreements or governances. South Korea also uses international regimes to encourage national goals.

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The forest science-based solutions for natural hazard management proposed by applied research projects are expected to develop practical relevance. In order to achieve this ambitious goal of knowledge transfer, the innovative Research-Integration-Utilization (RIU) model is applied in the GreenRisk4Alps Project¹. The two hypotheses on the integration of scientific information focus on (1) the bi-directional selection of scientific information by actors and (2) the selection of actors within integration forums. A review of literature and empirical evidence collected by the GreenRisk4Alps project in 2018–2020 show that only selected scientific information makes it into praxis and highlights that three different types of integration forums define the relevant actors who drive the integration into praxis. Based on that RIU model extension we recommend strengthening the practical relevance of projects by conducting a pre-analysis in order to identify already existing integration forums and to also trigger new integration forums.

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There is often a striking disconnect between communities that create biodiversity frameworks, set targets, and design monitoring system and those that actually implement them. This study aims to (i) develop an integrated (participatory) approach to contextualize available sets of biodiversity indicators to meet specific stakeholders' needs, and (ii) select high-performance and rewarding indicators for participatory forest biodiversity monitoring systems (PFBMS). We used a hierarchical characterization approach to biodiversity to create a global pool of indicators. Specialists then used a framework consisting of multi-tiered filters to select high performance and rewarding indicators from the pool applicable to PFBMS at province and forest management unit levels in Indonesia. Selected indicators are able to reflect changes taking place at various levels in the ecological hierarchy from landscape, habitat, to species level including complete ecosystem attributes, i.e., structural, functional, and compositional. The integrated approach combines the expert guidance and experience of professionals at province and local levels; ensures global-local connection; and follows the participatory approach.

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Direct and indirect use of values and non-use values from forest ecosystem services perform an invaluable set of functions that cater to the needs of both living and non-living things. The values include market services obtained from timber and non-timber forest products, and non-market services (recreation, watershed protection and conservation value) were identified as components of the Total Economic Value (TEV). However, it is difficult to assign a monetary value to all goods and services provided by the forest. Failure to conserve the national park will result in the degradation of the forest and a reduction in the contribution of the forest ecosystem services to the community. Based on the result of this study, the TEV value of forest ecosystem services was estimated at RM 13 billion, and the estimation provides policy-relevant information for forest management and conservation purposes in Malaysia.

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Ghana has participated in REDD+ negotiations since its inception and has been engaged in activities geared at implementing REDD+ in the country. In this paper, we examine initiatives that have been undertaken by relevant stakeholders to advance REDD+ readiness and implementation in Ghana. Results revealed that several aspects of planning and coordination were ranked high and some progress has been made in the arena of Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) and audit; benefit sharing; financing; as well as demonstrations and pilots. That said, some challenges still prevail in the area of policy, laws, and institutions; as well as implementation of an emission reduction program. Therefore, some specific recommendations for advancing REDD+ readiness and implementation in Ghana can be considered going forward including the development of strong institutions for REDD+ implementation; clarification of carbon and tenure rights; capacity building for data collection; and institutional collaboration. Implementing these recommendations are a fundamental prerequisite for an effective and efficient implementation of REDD+ in Ghana.

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Evaluation of successful outcomes in community-based natural resource management has long been debated in academic and policy literature. Scholarly assessments of success in Van Panchayats (VPs) of Uttarakhand, representing the oldest thriving institution of community-based forestry in India, are also under contestation. Predominantly, success has been identified with forest conditions (ecological) and the workings of VPs (institutional). Although these assessments have been useful, the perspectives of the community of users in defining successful outcomes have been less emphasized. Drawing upon two phases of field-work in Almora, Uttarakhand we first use an interpretive approach in exploring the success of VPs through the narrative framings of its three primary stakeholders. Through qualitative analysis, we show the prominence of three contextual issues: human-wildlife conflicts, constraints to women's participation, and subsistence livelihood needs, deemed crucial to the success of VPs by the user's community. Using the analysis of household survey data and secondary sources in the second phase of field work, we then show the validity of the community's concerns raised in the first phase. As a result, we argue that evaluations of successful outcomes should consider interpretive approaches, involving the community of users, to uncover the local contextual conditions crucial to the success of community-based forestry.

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Forest certification appeared in the 1990's as a way to deal with forest deterioration. Currently, however, public opposition can limit its effectiveness. Business policy makers should analyze how Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification can affect the value of companies. Yet, the relation between financial performance and forest certification systems is a subject which has not been explored to a great extent, and the measures used for evaluating financial performance in published studies are not based on business valuation. In this study, Spanish companies with FSC certification are valuated under the premises of implementation and non-implementation of FSC certification. Given the uncertainty inherent in the second option, the use of fuzzy mathematics has been considered a suitable tool. According to the results obtained, it can be concluded that regardless of size or business sector, FSC certification is effective in increasing the value of companies. The paper offers economic arguments for managers to become more environmentally responsible.

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The carbon market has been attracting attention as an additional source of revenue associated with growing planted forests. In addition to the economic importance, planted forests play an essential role in mitigating climate change due to their high potential to sequester carbon from the atmosphere and store it in soil, biomass or litter. Therefore, forest cultivation and the carbon market present win-win opportunities for both the economic and ecological systems. One question that arises for those who intend to invest in planted forests projects for carbon credits trading is: which species within Pinus or Eucalyptus, performs better in Carbon Sequestration and Storage (CSS)? Based on a systematic review of the scientific literature, we ranked the cultivated species of the genus Eucalyptus and Pinus based on their CSS performance. The findings suggest that Eucalyptus performs slightly better than Pinus, given that this supremacy was reported in 60% of the studies analyzed. However, paired analysis between species show that Pinus patula, P. halepensis, and P. radiata presented better performance than Eucalyptus saligna, E. occidentalis, and E. globulus, respectively. At the same time, Eucalyptus spp., E. cloenziana, E. grandis, and E. tereticornis performed better than Pinus spp., P. armandii, P. massoniana, P. taeda, P. caribaea, and P. roxburghii, respectively. However, species' effective performance in sequestering and storing carbon depends on other issues such as technical factors, management practices, and biophysical conditions. We identified that biophysical conditions, such as the site index, soil type, soil density, stand elevation, water deficit, soil clay, aluminum content, edaphoclimatic conditions and land use change were the most important. Thus, besides the species to be cultivated, the potential for generating carbon credits by planted forests also depends on local biophysical conditions and management practices adopted.