Dynamics of pollutant emissions from wildfires in Mainland China.

We analyzed the dynamics of pollutant emissions from wildfires in mainland China from 2001 to 2019 using MODIS fire products combined with the measurements of emission factors of different vegetation types. The biomass distribution in Mainland China has heterogeneous temporal and spatial pattern, with inter-year variations and a decreasing trend from east to west. Overall, from 2001 to 2019, biomass combustion in Mainland China reached 479.59 Tg (25.24 Tg·a-1), in which northeast, north, east, south, central, northwest, and southwest regions accounted for 20.95%, 31.14%, 8.89%, 9.06%, 3.98%, 0.33% and 25.64% of total biomass combustion, respectively. The emissions of CO, CO2, CxHy, NOx, PM2.5, TC, OC and EC were 47.30, 288.05, 12.90, 0.40, 1.43, 0.83, 0.70, and 0.12 Tg (1 Tg = 1012g), respectively. PM2.5, TC and OC emissions increased in the southwest, while all pollutant emissions declined significantly in the southern region. For particulate matter from wildfires, both the ratio of its emissions to total dust and the ratio of its concentration to atmospheric PM2.5 showed an increasing trend, implying that the relative environmental impacts of particulate emissions from wildfires may be rising. In addition, our results show that the current Chinese wildfire management has successfully reduced on average more than 80% of pollutant emissions from wildfire from 2001 to 2019 compared to the natural wildfire regime (no strict wildfire management). This research on the temporal-spatial changes of pollutant emissions from wildfires in Mainland China provides support for further exploration of wildfire impacts on regional environments, and indicates the effectiveness of Chinese current wildfire policy on the pollutant emission mitigation.

[Forests and trees: A public health perspective]. / La forêt et les arbres : une perspective de santé publique.

Forests have historically supplied humans with timber, fuel, and forage. They have also provided goods and services associated with human physical, mental, social, and spiritual health. Given competing priorities for funding in healthcare, research on forests and health is important from a health economics perspective. Engagement with forests (including wilderness areas, managed production forests, and urban forests) for enhanced human health and wellbeing, and perhaps for illness prevention at a fraction of the cost of medical interventions, is a major opportunity for forest management in the 21st century. Despite this general recognition, there is a lack of information regarding public health policies and approaches that exist in relation to forests and trees. The available literature suggests that the majority in the field of public health view the natural environment with ambivalence. However, a paradigm shift is underway and there is an emerging field working with the positive impacts that trees and forests have on human health and wellbeing. While the value of forests has been noted by many health practitioners in Europe and Japan, health practitioners and the associated health industry in North America remain largely focused on treatment rather than preventative approaches. Largely as a result of advocacy from forestry and recreational organizations, this view is beginning to change, but the focus in the healthcare industry on treatment rather than prevention remains deeply entrenched.

Public awareness of aesthetic and other forest values associated with sustainable forest management: a cross-cultural comparison among the public in four countries.

Korea, China, Japan and Canada are all members of the Montreal Process (MP). However, there has been little comparative research on the public awareness of forest values within the framework of Sustainable Forest Management, not only between Asia and Canada, but also among these three Asian countries. This is true of aesthetic values, especially as the MP framework has no indicator for aesthetic values. We conducted surveys to identify similarities and differences in the perceptions of various forest values, including aesthetic values, between residents of the four countries: university student groups in Korea, China, Japan and Canada, as well as a more detailed assessment of the attitudes of Koreans by including two additional groups, Korean office workers, and Koreans living in Canada. A multivariate analysis of variance test across the four university student groups revealed significant differences in the rating of six forest functions out of 31. However the same test across the three Korean groups indicated no significant differences indicating higher confidence in the generalizability of our university student comparisons. For the forest aesthetic values, an analysis of variance test showed no significant differences across all groups. The forest aesthetic value was rated 6.95 to 7.98 (out of 10.0) depending on the group and rated relatively highly among ten social values across all the groups. Thurstone scale rankings and relative distances of six major forest values indicated that climate change control was ranked as the highest priority and scenic beauty was ranked the lowest by all the groups. Comparison tests of the frequencies of preferred major forest values revealed no significant differences across the groups with the exception of the Japanese group. These results suggest that public awareness of aesthetic and other forest values are not clearly correlated with the cultural backgrounds of the individuals, and the Korean university students' awareness could potentially be representative of the Koreans general public's opinion. We expect this research to contribute to the development of aesthetic and social indicators, and to the enhancement of balancing social with environmental and economic values within the SFM framework.

Survive, revive, and thrive: The impact of COVID-19 on global park visitation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had detrimental effects on both the physical and psychological well-being of individuals. Throughout the pandemic and in response to various policies, such as lockdowns, movement restrictions and social distancing measures, parks and greenspaces received renewed attention as people used them to help cope with the adverse effects of the pandemic. This study explored the factors influencing park and greenspace visitation at different stages of the pandemic in 2020, 2021, and 2022, from both global and regional perspectives. Data were collected primarily from Our World in Data, Google's Community Mobility Reports and the Oxford Coronavirus Government Response Tracker, and a total of 125,422 park visits were processed. Stay-at-home mandates, vaccination availability, and school closures were the most influential factors globally affecting park and greenspace visitation in 2020, 2021, and 2022, respectively. Post-2021, vaccination-related policies began to play a significantly positive role in the increase in park and greenspace visits. Following a global analysis, countries were categorized into five clusters based on social, economic, and cultural indices. The analysis revealed varying patterns of factors influencing park visitation across these clusters. Notably, income support policies were positively correlated with higher park visitation, particularly in low-income countries. Recognizing the significance of parks and green spaces as essential green infrastructure, this study suggests how the use of parks might have better coped with the COVID-19 pandemic and how future health crises might be addressed. At the same time, it considers different social, economic, and cultural contexts. Additionally, this work provides insights and suggestions as to how parks and greenspaces might be used to reduce the social inequalities exacerbated during the pandemic, especially in low-income developing countries.

The implications of new forest tenure reforms and forestry property markets for sustainable forest management and forest certification in China.

This study examines issues existing in the southern collective forests in China, particularly prior to the implementation of new forest tenure reforms, such as continued illegal logging and timber theft, inadequate availability of finance and inconsistent forest-related policies. Such problems are believed to be hindering the adoption of sustainable forest management (SFM) and forest certification by forest farmers in China. Two strategies were introduced by the Chinese government with the purpose of addressing these issues, namely forest tenure reforms and their associated supporting mechanism, forestry property markets. Through two case studies in southern China, we investigated the effectiveness of the two strategies as well as their implications for the adoption of SFM and forest certification. The two cases were Yong'an in Fujian province and Tonggu in Jiangxi province. Personal interviews with open-ended questions were conducted with small-scale forest farmers who had already benefited from the two strategies as well as market officers working for the two selected forestry property markets. The study identified eight issues constraining the potential adoption of SFM and certification in China, including limited finance, poorly developed infrastructure and transport systems, insecure forest tenures, inconsistent forest policies, low levels of awareness, illegal forest management practices, lack of local cooperative organizations, and inadequate knowledge and technical transfer. We found that the new forest tenure reforms and forestry property markets had generally fulfilled their original objectives and had the capacity to assist in addressing many of the issues facing forests prior to the reforms.

Evaluating alternative forest management strategies for the Champagne and Aishihik Traditional Territory, southwest Yukon.

Sustainable forest management (SFM) requires the balancing of diverse values and conflicting management objectives. Climate change adds a further degree of uncertainty to this complex issue. In this study we analysed a Strategic Forest Management Plan (SFMP) from the southwest Yukon, Canada. The SFMP was developed to enable the salvage harvesting of beetle-killed white spruce stands and encourage fuel-abatement treatments to reduce fire risk to local communities. It did not, however, provide a long-term strategy to achieve SFM in the region. In this study, the SFMP served as the basis to develop and evaluate alternative forest management strategies in the context of climate change. Working group discussions with local stakeholders enabled the structuring of a ratings table that helped practitioners and experts to characterize five alternative strategies stemming from the SFMP, based on its main goals and objectives. An Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was then used to balance competing values and objectives and test the alternatives against each other. The strategy 'Manage for multiple values and use' had the highest AHP-score when compared to the four other alternatives (timber, wildlife, fire risk reduction and carbon), which were narrower in scope. It may represent the best balance for the ecological and socio-economic values listed in the SFMP. Although the multiple values (MV) alternative is closest to the current SFMP in terms of scope, this study highlights that there are viable alternatives such as 'manage for wildlife' that achieved similar scores to the MV approach. The current SFMP has great potential to serve as a basis and starting point for a continuous and adaptive planning process for forest management. Exploring the different/alternative strategic directions will help to better address uncertain futures, thereby leading to more sustainable approaches.

National park development in China: conservation or commercialization?

The rapid development of parks and ecotourism in China has attracted worldwide attention, not only for the beauty of the landscape that the parks are protecting but also for their abundant and often unique biodiversity. However, in some areas, the development of ecotourism has actually led to the degradation of local ecological, economic, and social systems. Using National Forest Parks for demonstration, this article analyzes the current political, institutional, legal, environmental, and economic issues concerning National Parks in China, and examines their potential future development. Although the intention of National Park systems in China is to raise environmental quality, and to protect biodiversity and social livelihoods, their success has varied. Future success will be measured by their capacity to reduce poverty, to promote long-term rehabilitation of wildlife habitats, and to simultaneously protect Chinese culture and biodiversity.

An exploratory assessment of the attitudes of Chinese wood products manufacturers towards forest certification.

Interviews with Chinese forest products manufacturers were conducted to explore their attitudes towards forest certification and related issues. Participants comprised owners, CEOs, and managers in 20 Chinese wood products companies, including producers of furniture, doors, flooring, and various engineered wood products. The interviews were used to analyze the extent to which participants were considering adopting forest certification and what might motivate such a decision. This was done by assessing their awareness and knowledge of certification. The results indicated that participants' understanding of forest certification was extremely low, despite major efforts in China to raise awareness of the issue. Potential economic benefits were the most frequently cited reason to adopt certification, including gaining or maintaining competitive advantage over their industry counterparts, improved access to both domestic and export markets, better customer recognition, and enhanced corporate responsibility practices. Some interviewees (3 out of 20) considered that certification would become a mandatory requirement or industry standard, and that this would be the only viable motivation for certification given that the financial benefits were potentially limited. According to the participants, the main differences between certified and uncertified wood products operations related to improved market access and public image. Interviewees felt that cooperation between and support from governments and the forest industry would enable the enhanced awareness of certification amongst manufacturers and the general public. This, in turn, could serve to stimulate demand for certified products.

Framing community forestry challenges with a broader lens: case studies from the Brazilian Amazon.

Community forestry initiatives have been shown to reduce rural poverty while promoting the conservation and sustainable use of forests. However, a number of challenges face communities wanting to initiate or maintain formal, community-based forest management. Through a grounded theory approach, this paper uses three case studies of community forest management models in the eastern Amazon to create a framework showing challenges faced by communities at different phases of formal management. The framework shows that, in the development phase, four root problems (land ownership, knowledge acquisition, community organization, and adequate capital) need to be addressed to obtain legal management permission. With this permission in hand, further challenges to operationalization are presented (deterring illegal loggers, maintaining infrastructure, obtaining necessary managerial skills and accessing markets). The interrelatedness of these challenges emphasizes that all challenges need to be addressed in a holistic manner for communities to maintain a profitable and self-sufficient operation. This contradicts current development approaches that only address part of this framework. The framework proposed here can be used as a starting point for community forestry initiatives in other regions.

Back to the basics - estimating the sensitivity of freshwater to acidification using traditional approaches.

This study examines the effects of acidifying sulphur emissions on freshwater ecosystems in the traditional territory of Treaty 8 First Nations in British Columbia (BC). Due to the absence of detailed water chemistry data for most lakes in the region, revised empirical methods for estimating freshwater sensitivity to acidification are formulated using linear regression relationships between individual chemical measurements, and critical loads of acidity calculated using the Steady State Water Chemistry (SSWC) model. Lake alkalinity is the most effective chemical indicator of acidification sensitivity in northeast BC. Critical loads of acidity (CL(A)) estimated using alkalinity range from 0.0827 to 9.48 keq ha(-1) yr(-1). Sulphur deposition estimates range from 0.0113 to 0.303 keq ha(-1) yr(-1) and do not exceed the estimated CL(A) at any of the study lakes. The spatial situation of both the lakes and the emission sources is responsible for the lack of exceedances, and expanded/continued monitoring is recommended to account for geological variability and source proliferation. Measurements of lake conductivity and alkalinity provide a means of community monitoring for freshwater acidification sensitivity as part of cumulative effects management strategies.

Monitoring and information reporting for sustainable forest management: a regional comparison of forestry stakeholder perceptions.

Since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) [1992, Agenda 21: programme of action for sustainable development. United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), 3-14 June 1992. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 294pp.], the management of information has become central to the management of forest resources. In the cases of North America and Europe, similar issues have been challenging policy makers as they determine the information suitable for monitoring progress towards sustainable forest management (SFM). Using an 'online' survey, this research explored multiple stakeholder perspectives on monitoring and information reporting for SFM in different jurisdictions. The research was based on the premise that an analysis of the variation in stakeholder observations across a range of SFM 'issue areas' could provide valuable insight into the perceived need for SFM-related monitoring and information reporting in the regions of Europe, Canada and the USA. Despite the traditional limitations associated with exploratory survey research, the results indicate a demand for more information on SFM-related issues. The results also highlight the degree to which the perceptions of a sample of stakeholders can differ between Europe, USA and Canada. While these results cannot be generalized beyond the present study, they do suggest that further studies are needed to understand stakeholder perspectives on forestry-related monitoring and information reporting in different jurisdictions.

Monitoring sustainable forest management in different jurisdictions.

The concept of sustainable forest management (SFM) requires forest resource managers to monitor and collect information pertaining to their environmental, economic and social impact. There are increasing expectations from a variety of publics (government, customers, and other stakeholders) that forests be demonstrably well-managed, creating incentives for forest managers to design credible systems for assessing their management performance. It is against this background that local, national and international approaches to regulating forest practices have been evolving. This article reviews the different dimensions of governance as they relate to monitoring and information reporting in the forest sector. Specifically, it discusses the changing role of sovereignty, the effects of globalization and the emergence of civil society stakeholders in forestry-related decision-making. Concepts such as sovereignty and globalization have important implications for monitoring forest practices and for defining SFM. Whether SFM standard creation and enforcement involves a sovereign, shared-sovereignty or civil society approach will affect the level and nature of SFM monitoring. As a result, we need to better consider the concept of monitoring appropriate to the scale and intensity of operations, how monitoring and information reporting standards differ between jurisdictions, and what this means for independently verifying SFM at an inter-jurisdictional level.

Identification, measurement and interpretation of tree rings in woody species from mediterranean climates.

We review the literature dealing with mediterranean climate, vegetation, phenology and ecophysiology relevant to the understanding of tree-ring formation in mediterranean regions. Tree rings have been used extensively in temperate regions to reconstruct responses of forests to past environmental changes. In mediterranean regions, studies of tree rings are scarce, despite their potential for understanding and predicting the effects of global change on important ecological processes such as desertification. In mediterranean regions, due to the great spatio-temporal variability of mediterranean environmental conditions, tree rings are sometimes not formed. Often, clear seasonality is lacking, and vegetation activity is not always associated with regular dormancy periods. We present examples of tree-ring morphology of five species (Arbutus unedo, Fraxinus ornus, Quercus cerris, Q. ilex, Q. pubescens) sampled in Tuscany, Italy, focusing on the difficulties we encountered during the dating. We present an interpretation of anomalies found in the wood structure and, more generally, of cambial activity in such environments. Furthermore, we propose a classification of tree-ring formation in mediterranean environments. Mediterranean tree rings can be dated and used for dendrochronological purposes, but great care should be taken in selecting sampling sites, species and sample trees.