17 November 2015, IISD news - A paper published by the Center for International Forestry  Research (CIFOR), titled 'Futures of Tropical Production Forests,' concludes  that there is a critical need for interdisciplinary research at appropriate  scales to inform decisions about forests.

Authored by Francis Putz and Claudia Romero, the paper examines silvicultural  options for tropical forests, summarized in three general trajectories that  describe increasing silvicultural intensities and consequent increasing forest  domestication. They include: continued forest degradation by poor logging;  adoption of reduced-impact logging; and silvicultural intensification in natural  forests. The silvicultural approaches discussed include: changes in timber  harvesting regimes; treatments to increase growth of future crop trees;  treatments to promote natural regeneration; and artificial regeneration.

The authors argue that the environmental, social and economic benefits of  natural forest management will be maximized where these and other silvicultural  treatments are applied in appropriate landscapes, as determined through  functional zoning based on land-use capabilities and other factors. Research on  tropical silviculture, however, is currently insufficient to provide clear  insights about the many trade-offs associated with each possible  intervention.

The authors note that the diversity of forest states (e.g. secondary,  degraded, fragmented, invaded and managed) and the fact that none of these  states is permanent, gives reason for hope. Even deforestation need not be  permanent. It is argued that with so many forest values recognized to different  degrees by different people, the future of tropical production forests is likely  to represent an ever-changing mosaic of a gradient of forested-type landscapes.  To assure that this future is as environmentally, socioeconomically and  politically sound as possible, interdisciplinary research at appropriate scales  is needed with the best designs possible to capture the impacts of relevant  silvicultural treatments on the full range of response variables.

Source:  http://nr.iisd.org/news/cifor-paper-discusses-silvicultural-options-for-tropical-forests/