Author Description

"... The idea to produce this book originated from discussions in the IUFRO-WFSE Steering Committee (SC) meetings in Vienna (2011) and Helsinki (2012). The SC concluded that, despite the considerable attention devoted to advancing sustainable forest management (SFM), increased understanding of the aspects that foster or hinder progress towards SFM is needed. The sustainable management of natural resources, especially forests, is of vital importance to global, regional, and national efforts to achieve sustainable development and should play a key role in efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change and further low-carbon development. The goal of this book, therefore, is to increase the understanding of the conditions and combinations of conditions that foster or hinder progress towards SFM and forest-related sustainable development. The book focuses on these conditions at the local level and also includes processes and influences originating at broader national and global scales. The book is divided into four parts: Part I introduces the rationale, overall structure, and analytical framework of the book; Part II consists of 27 local- and regionallevel case studies from different parts of the world; Part III presents a synthesis of the case studies and the main findings derived from an analysis across the cases; Part IV is forward-looking and discusses several of the issues and findings from Parts II and III in the context of future outlooks and scenarios. We hope that this publication provides invaluable insights that may help advance SFM and forest-related livelihoods in different parts of the world."--Preface.