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This chapter reviews the application of Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) to conservation planning in a large forest landscape. A significant challenge faced by conservation planners is explicitly defining and mapping values of interest. EMDS is a powerful decision support application development tool that can be used to facilitate explicit and consistent definition of subjective conservation values, which can then be used in a variety of spatial assessments. We describe a case study for the Sierra Checkerboard Initiative where we used EMDS to assess and map three conservation values across a largely forested 4,856 km2 landscape in the northern Sierra Nevada of California: biodiversity, mature forest connectivity, and passive recreation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chapter 12 of the book "Forests Forever: Their Ecology, Restoration and Protection," by John J. Berger is presented. It explores the essential need for reforestation since more than 2.2 billion of acres of forest have been cut globally. It highlights on the ways on how to attain forest restoration including recreating naturalistic physical structures, reestablishment of forest processes and regaining a full range of forest life-forms.

Chapter 4 of the book "Forests Forever: Their Ecology, Restoration and Protection," by John J. Berger is presented. It highlights the forest conservation effort in the U.S. It cites several photographs which show several Americans who have fight for the conservation of U.S. forests including John Muir, Bernard Fernow and Aldo Leopold.

This article focuses on various activities to protect tropical rain forests. To find out more about tropical rain forests, one can write to Save the Rainforest, a network of about 8500 school groups. It publishes up-to-date information on rain forest issues, offers on-site rain forest courses for teachers and students in Costa Rica and Belize, raises money for rain forest projects worldwide, and coordinates activities with similar networks in Sweden, Japan, and other nations. It also supplies information about specific rain forest projects that school groups can help fund.

The given text is a hymn to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and desire. It is believed to be the oldest surviving long hymn, dating back to around 675 BC. The hymn tells the story of Aphrodite's love affair with the mortal Anchises and the birth of their son, Aeneas. Unlike other hymns that depict gods or goddesses exerting power over others, this hymn celebrates Aphrodite's power by showing her inability to resist love's passion. The hymn also explores the tension between mortality and immortality and the power dynamics between Zeus and Aphrodite. [Extracted from the article]

Since the mid-1960s, the Indonesian military has played an active role in the exploitation of the nation's forest resources. This role is best understood within the historical context of the military's pervasive and institutionalized involvement in the social, political, and economic affairs of the nation. The military's abuse of power and its direct involvement in the exploitation of the nation's forests were partly the result of the doctrine of dwi-fungsi (dual function) implemented under the regime of President Suharto (1966-98). Forest resources played an important role in the Suharto regime's plans for economic development and the extension of its political control across the nation. The military's involvement included: (1) direct investment in forest industries; (2) facilitation of contracts and concessions through influence peddling and the forceful repression of communities and other interests opposed to logging; and (3) participation in many aspects of the illegal timber economy. The post-Suharto era has been one marked by political upheaval, economic crisis, and efforts to decentralize political power. Since Suharto's fall and during the subsequent period of reformasi, greater attention has been paid to forest issues and the military's role in logging. However, the military's longstanding involvement in illegal logging and unsustainable forest practices will likely continue if the broader movements to reform civil society are stymied. Conservationists should link their efforts with a range of development and advocacy organizations to support the broader reform movement. If the country's unique and globally significant forest patrimony is to be conserved, the military's substantial role in deforestation must be acknowledged and promptly addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest remnants in the Colombian Amazon, Andes, and Chocó are the last repositories of a highly diverse and endemic biota. Historical changes in the Colombian landscape have been dramatic, but the magnitude and rate of change has increased over the last half century, while conflict has consumed the capacity of Colombian society to respond to environmental threats. Academic experts in the study of the Colombian conflict have explored the social, political, and economic implications of the war. However, the environmental consequences of conflict are documented only when groups in conflict target salient economic resources. This paper presents the first analysis of the geographic distribution of forest remnants in relation to armed conflict in Colombia. Results show that guerrillas and/or paramilitaries range throughout areas of human encroachment into remnant forests. The policies promoted by Colombia's irregular armed forces range from "gunpoint conservation" rarely applied by guerrillas, to the rapid conversion of forests and crops to cattle ranches and coca (Erythroxylum sp.) plantations, following paramilitary occupation. Because the rates and extent of fragmentation are linked to such land use practices, armed groups may play a crucial role in determining the fate of Colombia's forests and their endemic biota. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1980s, Nicaragua's Sandinista government faced armed mestizo and indigenous insurgencies in much of the nation's central and eastern regions. After the Sandinistas lost the 1990 elections, the in-coming government signed peace agreements with the insurgents and facilitated their return to civilian life. With the war over, the Nicaraguan army greatly reduced its troop strength, leaving tens of thousands of people unemployed. Within a few years, however, many former insurgents and soldiers took up arms again for multiple and complex reasons. This paper examines how three groups that rearmed influenced forest conservation in the buffer zone of Nicaragua's Bosawas Biosphere Reserve between 1991 and 1999. The three groups were the mestizo Northern Front 3-80 (FN3-80) and the Andrés Castro United Forces (FUAC), made up of former 'Nicaraguan Resistance' and Sandinista soldiers respectively, and the Miskito YATAMA movement. The presence of these armed groups impeded the government from taking coercive action to remove farmers from the reserve's nucleus. It also limited the advance of cattle ranching. At times, the groups favored logging, at times they did not. The armed conflicts have tended to keep out prudent foreign investors and encourage the presence of smaller companies willing to take greater risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The section discusses different issues on forest conservation and development. Concessional incremental financial resources need to be mobilized internationally. The livelihood and employment needs of the forest-dependent poor need to be addressed, especially where the incidence of poverty is large. Land needed for agricultural use, production forestry and that which is likely to be left protected due to natural protection from the lack of economic access to the land is of considerable interest.