Stakeholders’ Perspectives of Species Diversity in Tree Plantations: a Global Review

Research output: Journal contributionsScientific review articlesResearch

Authors

  • Leticia Bulascoschi Cagnoni
  • Emanuela W.A. Weidlich
  • Joannès Guillemot
  • Carla Morselo
  • Martin Weih
  • Anneli Adler
  • Pedro H.S. Brancalion

Purpose of Review: Increasing the diversity of commercial tree plantations is a promising approach to adapt forests to climate change, but it may complicate management. Here, we evaluate stakeholders’ perspectives about tree-species diversity in plantations and explore policy alternatives to make mixed plantations a viable strategy for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Recent Findings: Current evidence shows that improving the diversity of tree species in plantations can be a viable, scalable, and economically accessible strategy for sustainable wood production and reconciling economic and environmental benefits. Tree diversity is particularly important in the context of global environmental changes and associated increases in abiotic and biotic stresses, such as severe droughts and pest outbreaks. Even though there is substantial scientific evidence supporting mixed-tree plantations, most forest plantations globally are still conventional monocultures. Summary: Our findings (i) describe the geographical distribution of publications investigating human perspectives about forest plantation diversity; (ii) build understanding of how political engagement and governance systems can support forest initiatives on forest conservation, management, and restoration; and (iii) demonstrate how these perspectives can create possibilities and opportunities for sustainable development in forestry. We conclude that new strategies will only be widely applied if there is political and institutional interest, particularly in strengthening land-governance systems.

Original languageEnglish
JournalCurrent Forestry Reports
Volume9
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)251-262
Number of pages12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 08.2023

Bibliographical note

This research was funded through the 2019–2020 BiodivERsA joint call for research proposals, under the BiodivClim ERA-Net COFUND program (MixForChange project), with funding from ANR (ANR-20-EBI5-0003), BELSPO, DFG, FAPESP (processes numbers: 2019/24318–6 and 2021/14062–4), FWF and the Swedish Research Council FORMAS (project number 2020–02339).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

    Research areas

  • Biodiversity, Climate change, Forestry, Mixed tree plantations
  • Ecosystems Research