Looking for solutions to forest loss

America¹s Private Forests by Constance Best and Laurie A. Wayburn; Island Press, 2001. ISBN 1-5593-901-6

³More people want more out of forests: wood for the booming building market, beautiful settings for new (often second) homes, recreational opportunities for greater leisure time, habitat for threatened creatures, increased carbon stores to reduce global warming gases, and clean water for all uses.²

Forest use is intensifying; forest health is deteriorating. Yet we depend on the forest for many of our most basic needs. What can be done to protect the integrity of our forests and all the vital functions they provide?

The authors, Constance Best and Laurie Wayburn, approach this challenge in several steps. First, they look at forest ownership: who owns the forest and why. Second, they discuss the importance and functions of forestlands and the threats and barriers that exist to conservation. Next, they present a conservation toolbox of programs and markets that are available (or have the potential) to help finance conservation of forests. Finally, they present an action plan to accelerate conservation.

The action plan has as its objectives:

1. turn the tide on private forest loss;
2. dramatically reduce the fragmentation of larger forests;
3. create ways to functionally reassemble the landscape;
4. fuel the restoration of ecosystem wealth; and
5. build a culture that values forests.

At issue is the need to make the returns from good stewardship and conservation competitive with those from development and degradation. To this end the authors recommend:

1. Provide new conservation capital for intervention during the turnover in ownership of significant forest properties.
2. Expand the public market for conservation through improved and expanded funding programs.
3. Catalyze the development of new sources of funding for ongoing conservation through markets for forest ecosystem services, in particular for forest-based carbon sequestration and watershed services.
4. Improve returns from long-term forest stewardship through changes in key areas of taxation.
5. Increase access to liquidity and traditional sources of capital for small landowners.
6. Increase returns for managing forests with high native biodiversity values.

This book is surprisingly enjoyable to read despite its being filled with facts and figures and somewhat technical ideas. The descriptions of forest threats and the very practical solutions presented will give the reader much food for thought. Anyone interested in forests at any level will benefit from the ideas in this book.

—L.L.