Integrating forest management across the landscape: a three pillar framework

Abstract

Forests are vital ecosystems on a global, regional and local scale, but are under threat from a variety of competing land uses. Integrated landscape approaches have been proposed as a way to create sustainable land use for forests and forest communities through a more integrated, holistic approach to governing resources. A variety of principles for managing landscapes have been proposed as a framework for implementation, but these landscape approaches suffer from a limited theoretical and conceptual basis. This paper seeks to address such shortcomings by identifying and integrating the theoretical components of landscape approaches into a common framework. The paper analyses landscape disciplines, practices and activities and the implementation of common landscape-level principles in the context of forest landscapes to identify the underlying key components. The paper argues that management across a forest landscape must be underpinned by three pillars: ecosystem integrity, strong governance systems and effective planning processes.

Keywords:

• forest management
• landscape planning
• governance
• ecosystem integrity
• ecosystem services

Acknowledgements

The research reported here was supported by a charitable organization which neither seeks nor permits publicity for its efforts. The trust has had no influence on the design, analysis, interpretation and documentation of this research. The authors would like to thank the three referees whose feedback greatly improved the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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