Maintaining forest biodiversity by combining protection, management and restoration of forest and woodland landscapes is a central component of sustainable development. Evidence that there are threshold levels for how much habitat loss may be tolerated for viable populations of specialised species to be maintained. Policy-makers, businesses and managers pose questions about how to balance use of renewable forest resources and conserve biodiversity. Examples are presented on how biodiversity assessments can be made. Proposes how the critical gaps in our knowledge identified throughout the book could be filled through macroecological research and international co-operation.

Maintaining forest biodiversity by combining protection, management and restoration of forest and woodland landscapes is a central component of sustainable development. Evidence that there are threshold levels for how much habitat loss may be tolerated for viable populations of specialised species to be maintained. Policy-makers, businesses and managers pose questions about how to balance use of renewable forest resources and conserve biodiversity. Examples are presented on how biodiversity assessments can be made. Proposes how the critical gaps in our knowledge identified throughout the book could be filled through macroecological research and international co-operation.

Maintaining forest biodiversity by combining protection, management and restoration of forest and woodland landscapes is a central component of sustainable development. Evidence that there are threshold levels for how much habitat loss may be tolerated for viable populations of specialised species to be maintained. Policy-makers, businesses and managers pose questions about how to balance use of renewable forest resources and conserve biodiversity. Examples are presented on how biodiversity assessments can be made. Proposes how the critical gaps in our knowledge identified throughout the book could be filled through macroecological research and international co-operation.

There have been significant changes to farming and forestry, and new strategies for agriculture, forestry and biodiversity have been launched. The influence of farming and forestry on Scotland's landscapes is seen as increasingly important, and new access rights have been put in place by the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. Although these changes bring uncertainty and challenges, they also bring a major opportunity to move decisively towards integrating landscape, biodiversity and recreational objectives in land management. This book takes stock of the changes taking places and considers a number of case studies, which together suggest that progress is being made, looks ahead at future research and advisory needs, and highlights some key challenges to achieving better integration in the future.

Landscape today is no longer just a cultural aspect, intended as an elitist phenomenon, but emerges as an essential element in the definition and the application of a modern approach in sustainable development. Historical locally adapted distinctive and ingenious combinations of management practices have contributed and continue to contribute tremendously to the biodiversity of the world, resulting not only in outstanding aesthetic beauty, but, in the sustained provision of multiple goods and services, food and livelihood security and quality of life. The development of policies to preserve and manage landscape resources, has to face both the degradation of cultural landscape due to socio-economic development and the need to develop appropriate methods and approaches. This book presents different methodologies developed to analyse, manage and plan landscape resources. It reports recent research findings and case studies from Europe and North America, suggesting also the revision of some orientations and views of the current policies concerning forestry, rural development and nature conservation, often contributing to degrade cultural landscapes.

The forests of Fennoscandia have been in human use for many purposes for centuries, and through the last decades industrialized and cultivated in a manner that can change their ecological function with respect to biodiversity at species and ecosystem levels. In Northwest Russia we can still find large, indigenous forests where human impact is low. They represent the last intact western taiga ecosystems of high value for biodiversity preservation in Russia and Fennoscandia as reservoirs and source habitats for future dispersal of taiga species. The Conference and Workshop in Steinkjer 2007 focused on these matters, but also the ecological importance of these forests for rural culture, socio-economic importance, industrial values and how protection and sustainable societies could go hand in hand. Many of the presentations given at the conference and workshop are here presented together with the Summary and Closing Statement worked out at the end of the sessions. The presentations cover many aspects from ecology, history and culture, conservation and management strategies, inventory tools for defining habitats of specific value to biodiversity, as well as implementation of environmental issues into the forestry laws and certification and educational tools for developing sustainable societies in a broad scale.

Forests have become the focus of intense conservation interest over the past two decades, reflecting widespread concern about high rates of deforestation and forest degradation, particularly in tropical countries. The aim of this book is to outline the main methods and techniques available to forest ecologists.