1 Plantation forests and biodiversity: Oxymoron or opportunity? Forests form the natural vegetation over much of the Earth’s land, and they are critical for the survival of innumerable organisms. The ongoing loss of natural forests, which in some regions may have taken many millennia to develop, is one of the main reasons for the decline of biodiversity. Preventing the further destruction of forests and protecting species and ecosystems within forests have become central issues for environmental agencies, forest managers, and gove- ments. In this di?cult task science has an important role in informing policy and management as to how to go about this. So how do industrial and other pl- tation forests ?t into this? Plantation forests, comprised of rows of planted trees that may be destined for pulp or sawmills after only a few years of growth, appear to have little to c- tribute to the conservation of biodiversity. Yet there is more to this than meets the eye (of the casual observer), and there are indeed numerous opportunities, and often untapped potential, for biodiversity conservation in plantation forestry. With plantation forests expanding at a rate of approximately three million hectares per year, it is crucial to understand how plantations can make a positive contribution to biodiversity conservation and how the potentially negative impacts of this land use can be minimised. That is the topic of this book.
Editors and Affiliations
Scion (New Zealand Forest Research Institute), Christchurch, New Zealand
Eckehard G. Brockerhoff
INRA, Cestas Cedex, France
Hervé Jactel
U.S. Forest Service Research & Development, Arlington, USA
John A. Parrotta
Forest Research Northern Research Station, Roslin, Midlothian, United Kingdom
Christopher P. Quine
IUCN The World Conservation Union Forest Conservation, Gland, Switzerland
Jeffrey Sayer
Dept. Biología Vegetal II, Universidad Complutense Fac. Farmacia, Madrid, Spain
David L. Hawksworth
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Plantation Forests and Biodiversity: Oxymoron or Opportunity?
Editors: Eckehard G. Brockerhoff, Hervé Jactel, John A. Parrotta, Christopher P. Quine, Jeffrey Sayer, David L. Hawksworth
