Payment for environmental services (PES) projects can potentially improve environmental and livelihood outcomes. While pilot projects offer valuable lessons, these are often lost especially if the project fails. Here we assess how and why a forest-for-carbon linked charcoal production project, developed in Central Uganda under the Clean Development Mechanism, failed to achieve its goals (e.g. collaborative establishment of a charcoal production plantation using indigenous species and improved forest protection). We draw upon interviews and focus group discussions with project participants, non-participants and forest authorities. Findings suggest that inadequate project benefits, conflicts over project goals, distrust, poor communication and weak institutional capacity undermined the likelihood of project success. Most shortcomings were evident before the project started. Our conclusion is that projects must invest in recognising and addressing challenges in advance. In addition, good pre-implementation assessments, as well as transparent and accountable decision procedures would improve project outcomes.

Forest certification is an important mechanism for the legitimation of environmental practices in the sustainable forest management. Its basis are the forest management standards, which represent the guidelines for defining sustainable forest management through a hierarchical structure (principles, criteria and indicators), which includes social, environmental and economic issues. The main certification systems in the world, FSC and PEFC, have adopted this structure in their forest management standards. This work aims to evaluate the perception of experts in Brazil, Spain and Portugal regarding the level of difficulty to implement forest certification applying the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The principal results indicated that, in general, the principles related to environmental aspects are considered the most complicated to comply, the social aspects are much more difficult to achieve in the case of Brazil, and the economic aspects are not considered as an important problem in any of the three countries.

Economic valuation of environmental services has emerged as a new and more direct argument and incentive for protection of trees and sustenance of environmental quality. This study's aim was to estimate the monetary value for conservation of urban trees and environmental services in Benin City, Nigeria. A Contingent Valuation Method involving a survey of 350 residents was adopted for the study. Flooding and erosion control, scenic beauty, provision of shade and regulation of local temperature received positive rankings and high scores. Thus, an average of US$1.20/month, which yielded an aggregate value of US$1 200 000 to US$1 860 00, was the amount Benin City residents were willing to contribute towards the conservation of trees. This study identified profession, years of residency and indigenous knowledge of ES as significant predictors that can influence willingness-to-pay. The findings provided quantitative data to demonstrate the importance of conserving trees to town planners, forest managers, policy makers and the urban community.

Nepal's forest legislation requires community forest user groups to prepare inventory based management plans. Several studies have observed positive changes in forest cover after the establishment of community forestry; however, the role of management plans in bringing about such change is less examined. Based on a case study of nine community forests in the mid-hills of Nepal, this paper discusses the role of plans in changing the forest conditions. The study assessed changes in forest conditions, observed forest management activities, conducted household surveys, and interviewed forest bureaucrats. Image analysis showed improvement in forest conditions after the introduction of inventory based planning; however, improvements cannot be attributed to the plans, as the prescriptions in these were not used in practice. Instead, it emerged that a culture emphasizing forest conservation, changes in demography and increased remittance incomes together with increasing bureaucratic requirements contributed to the improved forest conditions. The role of the plan remains contested since it largely serves as a basis for controlling communities and, hence, preparation of such plans appears as an empty ritual with little connection with actual forest management.

The objective of this study was to analyze the application of an artificial neural networks model and an ARIMA model to predict the consumption of sawnwood of pine. For this, we use real and secondary data collected and obtained from a historical data source, corresponding to the period from 1997 to 2016, which were later tested to generate the forecast models. Based on economic and statistical criteria, six explanatory variables were used to fit the best model. The choice of the model was made based on Mean Squared Error, Mean Absolute Error, Theil U metric, Percentage Error of Forecast and Akaike value information criterion. The results indicated that the models generated through the ARIMA model presented better performance when compared to the artificial neural network. The best adjusted model estimated a reduction of 1.33% in consumption of sawnwood of pine in Brazil for the period between 2017 and 2020.

To mitigate climate change through forestry and land use, countries are expected to shift away from policies and practices that drive deforestation to ones that reduce forest loss. This paper draws on political economy concepts to assess the evolution in the enabling measures for transformational change in forestry and land use policy processes in Cameroon. The findings indicate that actors have diverse stances on the capacity of existing policy measures to guarantee transformational change. The policy environment has evolved with proposals on institutional arrangements and policy reforms that are far from concrete reforms as expected. There is significant room for fine-tuning proposed policy and institutional reforms to enable Cameroon respond to its international emission reduction commitments. For example, putting forward clear-cut incentive and regulatory mechanisms; enhance and create new anti-deforestation coalitions; generate concrete specific/tailored sector ideas and information; and enhance negotiations between sectoral interests. However, these can only be achieved in the long-term with continuous support.

Sustainable forest management has reached a common understanding between scientific and technical definitions. A series of criteria and indicators have been implemented for monitoring the effectiveness of the management in functional and structural terms, and to evaluate its effects on ecosystem services of forests. Currently, Sicily has no forest areas with certification of sustainable forest management and in order to evaluate the diffusion of knowledge of certification schemes and their importance in SFM, a questionnaire survey was carried out during a foresters' workshop on the island. The possibility of applying the criteria and indicators of PEFC certification of sustainable forest management is analyzed in two case studies, representative of Sicilian forest ecosystems. This analysis highlights the main weaknesses related to current management practices and inadequate consultation with stakeholders. Some critical aspects of the certification process are discussed, highlighting possibilities and difficulties.

Growing stock, increment, realised felling and potential wood supply are important indicators for strategic policy decision-making in wood-based industry sectors. The aim of the article is to analyse two different data sources, the Forest Management Plans and Guidelines (FMPG) and the National Forest Inventory (NFI), used for the evaluation and prediction of these indicators in the Czech Republic. The differences between the two sources were analysed in terms of their credibility and suitability to support policy decision-making at the state, regional and local levels. Although the FMPG play an important role in policy decision-making, they are not able to determine indicators such as damage inflicted by game, forest regeneration or changes in soil conditions. The NFI, on the other hand, should provide up-to-date results every five years. Unlike the FMPG, where the collected information is reduced, the NFI is a flexible tool for the incorporation of new requirements in measurements.

Traditional, forest resource-dependent livelihoods face multiple challenges. In Gabon, bushmeat provides food and income for rural communities. This study investigates how villagers believe livelihood practices and dependence on bushmeat changed over the last decade and if alternative income and food generating strategies can be sustainable. Our results show that remote villages near Moukalaba Doudou National Park hardly changed practices. Less remote villages near Tchibanga experienced declining hunting revenues and are switching to alternatives. Villages near Libreville almost completely changed strategies, and are no longer dependent on forest resources. Changes in livelihood practices were driven either by resource depletion or urbanization. The ability to change depended on proximity to facilities and infrastructure. Although most respondents were able to change, not all alternative strategies are sustainable. The results highlight the need to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of alternative poverty reduction and nature conservation strategies in a context of urbanization and food security. There is a need to reduce bushmeat demand, making supply more sustainable through effective resource governance and creating a conducive institutional and policy environment.