Forests are the most widespread terrestrial ecosystem on Earth. In 2015, natural forests accounted for 93% (3.7 billion ha) of this global forest area (FAO 2016), albeit only 26% of these are primary forest (i.e. old-growth or ancient woodland). Since 1990, 31 million ha of primary forest have been modified or cleared, and a net loss of 129 million ha of natural forest has occurred (–0.13%/year) (FAO 2016). This deforestation has largely been in tropical South America and Africa, where forests have been cleared and converted for agricultural uses, resulting in habitat loss and carbon emissions.

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, the sustainable management of forests and the conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (‘REDD+’) aims to improve local livelihoods and conserve plant diversity while limiting carbon emissions. Yet trade-offs and synergies that exist between supporting livelihoods, protecting plant diversity and maintaining forest ecosystem services are poorly documented. We used forest inventory data and community-group records to assess trade-offs and synergies between carbon, plant diversity and forest products in 19 community forests managed under REDD+ in Nepal. Trade-offs were prevalent for carbon, whereby community forests with relatively high carbon values had relatively low values for plant diversity or forest products provision, and vice versa. Synergies occurred between plant diversity and forest products provision (fuelwood and fodder), suggesting that forests with relatively high plant diversity values were also important for providing critical forest products to local communities. This study shows that conserving forests for carbon should not impinge greatly on the flow of forest resources to at least some local communities; however, promoting carbon storage will not necessarily protect plant diversity. These findings should help guide future REDD+ policy for community forests.

Managing for multiple ecosystem services is a growing issue for forest managers. As trade-offs arise between conflicting management objectives, stakeholders must be informed of the possible outcomes of alternative choices in order to facilitate decision-making. We modelled stand dynamics under single-management and functional zoning multiple-management (TRIAD; i.e. three-zone) scenarios in different forest types typical of eastern North America with the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS). Timber production, carbon stocking and habitat quality ecosystem services were calculated with simulation outputs. Habitat quality was measured using a habitat suitability index that integrated stand structural indicators. A multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) was performed in order to rank scenarios. We show that the most intensive management yielded greater timber volumes but resulted in the weakest carbon and habitat quality scores. The TRIAD scenarios in sugar maple–beech stands offered the best compromise in services compared to single management. In shade-intolerant deciduous stands, there was a loss of timber production with TRIAD scenarios, but greater carbon stock and habitat quality were observed. Our study contrasts alternative management scenarios for ecosystem services in woodlots of different forest types. It confirms that multiple harvest systems better achieve multiple services. The coupling of simulation modelling with MCDA offers a simple and flexible method to help stakeholders and managers make sound decisions.

Through the commodification of nature, the framing of the environment as a ‘natural resource’ or ‘ecosystem service’ has become increasingly prominent in international environmental governance. The economic capture approach is promoted by international organizations such as the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) through Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD), Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) and The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB). This paper will inquire as to how forest protection is related to issues of social and ecological justice, exploring whether forest exploitation based on the top-down managerial model fosters an unequitable distribution of resources. Both top-down and community-based approaches to forest protection will be critically examined and a more inclusive ethical framework to forest protection will be offered. The findings of this examination indicate the need for a renewed focus on existing examples of good practice in addressing both social and ecological need, as well as the necessity to address the less comfortable problem of where compromise appears less possible. The conclusion argues for the need to consider ecological justice as an important aspect of more socially orientated environmental justice for forest protection.

There is an increasing consensus on the importance of understanding ecosystem service (ES) provision in order to facilitate decision making and the sustainable management of Neotropical dry forests (NTDFs), yet research on the ESs provided by NTDFs is limited. We identified the main existing gaps and trends in the quantification of provisioning, regulating and supporting ESs in NTDFs. Systematic web-based searches showed that research has been increasing in recent decades in NTDFs, supporting greater ES knowledge and assessment. Carbon storage and biodiversity are the main subjects under study, while ESs relating to water and soil lack investigation. The most common approaches for assessing ES were fauna and plant inventories, carbon dynamics and ecological processes.

International negotiations for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) were finally concluded in 2015. However, due to the complex design and implementation processes of REDD+ policies and measures, including benefit sharing at national and subnational levels, several challenges exist for sustainably reducing emissions while simultaneously managing the provision of social and environmental side-objectives. We review the realities of REDD+ implementation in 13 REDD+ candidate countries and the risks related to REDD+ policies and benefit sharing based upon a synthesis of the findings presented in ‘country profiles’ that were developed between 2009 and 2013 as part of the Center for International Forestry Research's (CIFOR) Global Comparative Study on REDD+. We find that REDD+ policies in all countries studied are at high risk of ineffectiveness, inequity and inefficiency. By classifying these risks and understanding not only their impacts on different stakeholder groups, but also the consequences for achieving specific objectives, countries can identify solutions in order to address these shortcomings in their implementation of REDD+.

Forest conservation incentives are a popular approach to combatting tropical deforestation. Here we consider a case where direct economic incentives for forest conservation were offered to newly titled smallholders in a buffer zone of a protected area in the northeastern Ecuadorian Amazon. We used quasi-experimental impact evaluation methods to estimate changes in forest cover for 63 smallholders enrolled in Ecuador's Socio Bosque program compared to similar households that did not enroll. Focus group interviews in 15 communities provided insight into why landowners enrolled in the program and how land use is changing. The conservation incentives program reduced average annual deforestation by 0.4–0.5% between 2011 and 2013 for those enrolled, representing as much as a 70% reduction in deforestation attributable to Socio Bosque. Focus group interviews suggested that some landowners chose to ‘invest’ in conservation because the agricultural capacity of their land was limited and economic incentives provided an alternative livelihood strategy. Interviews, however, indicated limits to increasing enrollment rates under current conditions, due to lack of trust and liquidity constraints. Overall, a hybrid public–private governance approach can lead to larger conservation outcomes than restrictions alone.

Miombo woodlands supply ecosystem services to support livelihoods in southern Africa, however, rapid deforestation has necessitated greater knowledge of tree growth and off-take rates to understand the sustainability of miombo exploitation. We established 48 tree inventory plots within four villages in southern Malawi, interviewed representatives in these same villages about tree management practices and investigated the impact of climate on vegetation dynamics in the region using the ecosystem modelling framework LPJ-GUESS. Combining our data with the forest yield model MYRLIN revealed considerable variation in growth rates across different land uses; forested lands showed the highest growth rates (1639 [95% confidence interval 1594–1684] kg ha–1 year–1), followed by settlement areas (1453 [95% confidence interval 1376–1530] kg ha–1 year–1). Based on the modelled MYRLIN results, we found that 50% of the villages had insufficient growth rates to meet estimated off-take. Furthermore, the results from LPJ-GUESS indicated that sustainable off-take approaches zero in drought years. Local people have recognized the unsustainable use of natural resources and have begun planting activities in order to ensure that ecosystem services derived from miombo woodlands are available for future generations. Future models should incorporate the impacts of human disturbance and climatic variation on vegetation dynamics; such models should be used to support the development and implementation of sustainable forest management.

A controversial issue in the debate on payments for ecosystem services (PESs) is whether distributional goals should be considered in the design of such schemes. We contribute to this debate by analysing the preferences of citizens of Antananarivo (Madagascar) as potential buyers of forest ecosystem services from a developing country. We conducted a choice experiment to investigate citizens’ willingness to pay to conserve the endemic spiny forests in southwest Madagascar and their preferences for including distributional goals in the design of a PES scheme aimed at spiny forest conservation. We found that respondents were willing to pay for forest conservation and preferred a PES scheme in which the poorest households in a community would receive the largest share of payments over a scheme in which every household would receive the same share, which, in turn, they preferred over a PES scheme in which they would have no information about its distributional impact. In comparing these results with those of a similar survey in a developed country (in Cottbus, Germany), we find that the preference ranking regarding distributional impacts is identical. However, citizens in Cottbus attach greater importance to the consideration of distributive goals in PESs than citizens in Antananarivo.

Deforestation is one of the most important conservation problems in tropical developing countries, even though cost–benefit analyses consistently show that forest conservation is economically beneficial. In Madagascar, deforestation continues at alarming rates despite numerous initiatives of international donors to increase incentives for local households to support forest conservation. In this literature review, we contrast cost–benefit analyses for forest conservation with: (1) the actual burdens and (2) the actual gains of forest conservation for rural households, generated mainly in the context of conservation projects. We show that approaches to generating direct benefits deliver less value than expected for rural communities; the benefit transfer mechanisms are insufficient as the majority of benefits are captured by other stakeholders, and increased benefit transfer is limited by structural and institutional limitations in local communities, valuation chains and in terms of governance failure at higher levels.