Potential of close to nature forest management approaches in tropical forest plantations.

Abstract

Tropical forests worldwide are facing major challenges from climate change, land conversion and the use of unsustainable timber harvesting practices. With greater understanding of the negative consequences associated with destructive exploitation as seen over past centuries, as well as an increasing awareness of the importance of managing forests for multiple objectives in a sustainable way, there has been a renewed interest in adopting Close to Nature (CTN) forestry practices in the tropics. However, CTN practices are rarely used in tropical plantation forestry today. This review examines the principles of CTN forestry and how they could be applied in tropical plantation forests. Additionally, CTN techniques that have been applied in temperate and boreal forests are evaluated for their usefulness in the tropics. While the silvics of many tropical species need to be further investigated to provide researchers with more concrete information regarding the likely effects of CTN forestry practices, the potential of these approaches is very high, specifically for meeting multiple forest management objectives concurrently.