The EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) are key instruments of the European Union’s green trade policy. This study employs the GTAP-E (Global Trade Analysis Project–Energy) model to assess their impacts on wood exports from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The results indicate that CBAM has a relatively moderate effect, operating mainly through indirect cost transmission channels. In contrast, EUDR significantly constrains exports, output, and welfare by increasing compliance costs and tightening market access requirements. Under the combined scenario, the two policies generate an amplification effect, further intensifying trade contraction. Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam are the most adversely affected, while countries such as Singapore exhibit a certain degree of resilience. Overall, green trade policies may exacerbate existing development imbalances. In response, it is recommended that the EU strengthen support for technology transfer and capacity building, while ASEAN countries should enhance forest governance and promote export market diversification.
While most research tracks forest area changes, a critical gap exists in understanding the qualitative pathways behind them and their ecological consequences. Current approaches, including Forest Transition Theory, often treat diverse forests and monoculture plantations as equivalent, masking the damaging ‘great forest swap.’ This study addresses this by analysing global data (1990–2025) to classify transition pathways and their impacts. It reveals that Intensive Degradation is the most common pathway (32% of countries), and that Active Substitution, where natural forests are replaced by plantations, is an ecologically damaging trend. The research’s novelty lies in linking pathway types to carbon and institutional drivers, showing stark differences in carbon storage and proving that strong governance and secure land tenure more than triple the odds of a restorative pathway. This evidence establishes that forest outcomes are political. Consequently, international climate and biodiversity policies should urgently shift from area-based to quality-based accounting and prioritize strengthening institutions in order to protect vital forest ecosystems.
Climate-smart forestry practices in Cameroon are promoted as integrated solutions for climate mitigation, adaptation, biodiversity conservation, and livelihood improvement, yet their implementation remains uneven across forest management systems. This review synthesizes evidence on key practices (reduced impact logging, forest certification, reforestation, and agroforestry), and identifies interconnected economic, social and environmental barriers limiting their adoption. Major constraints include high upfront costs, delayed financial returns, weak market incentives, limited access to climate finance, land and tree tenure insecurity, low stakeholder awareness, weak participation and environmental challenges such as forest degradation and climate variability. These barriers affect both adopters and non-adopters, undermining effectiveness and scalability. The study concludes that these challenges are structural rather than technical and argues for integrated approaches that align economic incentives, tenure security, inclusive governance, climate finance and landscape-level planning to enhance climate-smart forestry outcomes in Cameroon.
The growing demand for palm oil has driven oil palm plantation expansion and the associated environmental, economic and social impacts at the landscape level in the tropics. This research describes how a high-risk forested landscape in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, reacts to the deforestation-free palm oil trade policies implemented by the United Kingdom, the European Union and other countries using value chain and system dynamics methods. Our modelling shows that global green initiatives and palm oil certification have a detrimental relationship with local economic reduction but a beneficial relationship with environmental outcomes achieving zero deforestation. Although green deals impose costs, compensation methods such as carbon trading, ecological fiscal transfers, and payments for environmental services, exist. Premium prices for palm oil are critical to offset losses. These insights inform Indonesian deforestation reduction efforts and serve as benchmarks for agricultural commodities in differing contexts.
Forest governance rests on a stubborn paradox. Conceptual understanding has matured over recent decades, moving from sustained-yield forestry toward a reading of forests as complex adaptive socio-ecological systems, yet governance practice has not followed and remains lodged in fragmented sectoral structures that keep reproducing incoherent policy, unenforced law, misaligned economic incentives and poor social outcomes. The Integrated Synergy Model is presented to address that gap, a diagnostic framework that couples three bodies of theory not previously brought together: Meadows’ leverage-points hierarchy in the nine-point condensation which Abson et al . (2017) proposed, Ostrom’s eight design principles for common-pool resources, and qualitative causal loop diagrams, run across four governance axes of policy, law, economics and society. The design is conceptual and theory-building, drawing on an integrative narrative synthesis of peer-reviewed literature published between 2000 and 2025, mapping that literature onto Ostrom’s principles, and screening candidate variables through three criteria of structural centrality, leverage depth and cross-axis reach. Three feedback structures carry the argument. A virtuous reinforcing loop (R1) links secure tenure, community stewardship, ecosystem-service provision and political legitimacy, while a vicious reinforcing loop (R2) entrenches degradation as weak enforcement, illegal extraction and eroded fiscal capacity feed. A balancing loop of payments for ecosystem services and market signals (B1) operates, but only where tenure security is already in place. Of the nine candidate variables screened, three stand out as priority leverage points; namely, tenure security, independent monitoring, and intersectoral coordination, each of which acts on system design rather than on parameters. A three-step diagnostic roadmap of mapping, diagnosis and monitoring is presented, which lets national and sub-national forest authorities audit the leverage depth of their own governance portfolios.
Climate change presents urgent challenges for forests but also creates new opportunities through carbon markets. This systematic review, conducted according to PRISMA guidelines, synthesizes 60 studies across four themes: climate change impacts, forest management and technologies, carbon market dynamics, and jurisdictional REDD+ (J-REDD+). The findings indicate that climate impacts are already severe: rising temperatures have increased forest mortality, disturbance frequency, and carbon sink degradation. Advances in geospatial technologies including remote sensing, LiDAR, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and artificial intelligence (AI), now enable accurate, cost-effective, and near-real-time forest carbon monitoring, supporting jurisdictional accounting. Carbon markets are evolving rapidly, demand for high-integrity credits is projected to exceed supply in near future, creating significant opportunities for forest-rich developing countries. J-REDD+ under ART TREES marks a paradigm shift by addressing systematic leakage, permanence, and over-crediting. The study underscores the importance of early readiness, governance reform, technological capacity, and strategic investment to achieve resilient and equitable forest outcomes.
While REDD+ projects aim to improve community livelihoods and forest governance, implementation often overlooks entrenched socio-political dynamics shaping equity and effectiveness. A critical gap remains in understanding how power relations and gender inequalities influence outcomes. Gender inclusion is frequently treated as a procedural requirement rather than confronting structural exclusion. This study applies an ecofeminist analytical lens to the Chyulu Hills REDD+ project in Kenya, examining the linked subordination of women and nature. Findings from nine key informant interviews and six focus group discussion show that while 78% of women participants reported earning additional income through project activities, governance outcomes remain weak. Women’s voices are marginalised, with only 12% reporting their suggestions being taken seriously in committee meetings. Benefit-sharing is inequitable, and inconsistencies between policy and practice create loopholes. The study connects these governance failures to feminist political ecology, showing that structural power dynamics undermine equitable and effective REDD+. The research concludes that achieving climate and forest governance goals requires moving beyond tokenistic gender inclusion towards transformative approaches that dismantle inequalities and position women as central environmental decision-makers in practice.
Corruption in the timber industry remains a critical barrier to sustainable forest management, threatening biodiversity, weakening governance systems and hindering progress toward SDG 12, SDG 15 and SDG 16. Despite global initiatives to combat illegal logging, important research gaps persist regarding the underlying drivers, forms, and mitigation strategies of timber-sector corruption. This systematic literature review synthesizes 45 peer-reviewed studies published between 2020 and 2025 from Web of Science and Scopus using PRISMA 2020 guidelines. The findings reveal that corruption is sustained through collusive networks involving public officials, timber traders and other actors, driven by weak institutions, inadequate enforcement, livelihood and income poverty, and fragmented governance structures. Common practices include bribery in permit allocation, fraudulent documentation, timber laundering, and regulatory capture across supply chains. The review evaluates the effectiveness and limitations of timber traceability technologies, certification systems, transparency initiatives, and cross-border cooperation as key anti-corruption interventions.
Multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) have become a central mechanism for promoting inclusive and decentralised forest governance. While a substantial body of literature has examined their functioning and outcomes, far less attention has been paid to the political and historical processes through which MSPs have been institutionalised. This article provides empirical evidence of these processes by analysing the roles, interests and power relations among stakeholders, drawing on documentary research supported by semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal that the institutionalisation of MSPs is a co-constructed process involving governmental and non-governmental actors, both international and national. As a result of conflicting interests and unequal power relations, these stakeholders assume diverse roles throughout the reform trajectory. MSPs have also been shaped by both international and national contexts, influenced by economic neo-liberalism, environmental multilateralism, efforts towards national economic recovery, and the dynamism of national Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). Their functioning must therefore be analysed in light of these power dynamics and political contexts.
Africa’s forests are vital for biodiversity, livelihoods, and climate stability, yet they face increasing threats from anthropogenic activities and climate change. As the continent’s youth population grows, their role in sustainable forest management becomes more critical. A literature review of empirical studies published between 2000 and 2024 found that urbanisation and modernisation are eroding traditional forest knowledge, though many rural youths remain dependent on the forests. Barriers such as insecure land tenure, limited training, exclusion from decision-making, and lack of support hinder youth engagement. Despite these challenges, young people show strong interest in sustainable forest use and conservation, though urban youth perspectives are underrepresented. To enhance youth involvement, the review recommends inclusive policies, better education on forest management, and integrating indigenous and scientific knowledge. Empowering African youth as conservationists and sustainable forest managers is crucial for addressing environmental challenges; future research should prioritize women and male youth from rural as well as urban areas, as both these groups remain underrepresented in the existing literature.
The legal regulation of silvicultural interventions-science-based practices for establishing, tending, and regenerating forests-serves as a direct indicator of a nation's commitment to sustainable forest management (SFM). This study conducts a structured comparative legal analysis of legislative frameworks governing silviculture in five countries, each exemplifying a distinct governance model: T & uuml;rkiye (prescriptive state-centric), Sweden (liberal, goal-oriented), Germany (federal, incentive-based), Canada (provincial jurisdiction with Indigenous rights), and Brazil (private-land focused, implementation-challenged). Employing the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, the research systematically compares national legal regimes across six analytical variables: regulatory system, ownership-governance nexus, silvicultural standards specificity, enforcement architecture, adaptive capacity, and transnational norm integration. Primary legal texts were analyzed through directed content analysis, supplemented by secondary sources and recent jurisprudence. The analysis yields three principal findings. First, ownership structure operates as a constitutive element shaping regulatory architecture, resulting in five governance paradigms with functionally equivalent yet formally distinct silvicultural controls. Second, a cross-cutting 'implementation gap paradox' demonstrates that the two countries with the strongest constitutional protections, T & uuml;rkiye and Brazil, exhibit the greatest divergence between de jure protections and de facto outcomes. Third, since 2020, climate adaptation has supplanted sustainable yield as the primary driver of forest law reform in Europe, while recognition of Indigenous rights has become the dominant reform impetus in Canada. The study introduces a 'Regulatory-Institutional Alignment Framework' to account for the differential effects of governance on the interaction among legal design, institutional capacity, enforcement integrity, and political commitment. These findings provide practical guidance for policymakers and legal researchers, with several reform proposals supported by comparative evidence.
The prevailing gap in knowledge surrounding to the export-import performance of Nepal's forestry sector limits the ability to properly understand the sector in general, and particularly the competitive position of the wood sector. Adopting four assessment tools: RCA, RTA, TCI, and MSI, the export-import performance of six selected wood products were evaluated. Recognizing the uniqueness and non-substitutability features of carved wood products, the paper proposes targeting an international niche market and adopting a product differentiation strategy. The paper concludes by proposing recommendations for revisiting policies to enhance access to input products for domestic industries, support technology transfer, and create market demand for domestic timber, at least in public-financed construction works.
This paper examined regulators' institutional capacity in transforming Java's forest management through social forestry (SF) policy. Motivated by massive public resistance and lawsuits against the 2022 Forest Area with Special Management (KHDPK) policy, this study employed thematic content analysis of official documents (2014-2023). The research identified three transformative stages: initiation (Nawacita vision), institutionalization (PSKL Directorate establishment), and stabilization (Job Creation Law and KHDPK). Findings revealed that despite systematic legal structuring, transformation remains trapped in a state-centric paradigm, prioritizing internal bureaucratic consolidation over substantive community-based management. Failure to adapt to stakeholder needs has triggered policy stagnation. The study acknowledges the 2024 ministerial restructuring as a critical turning point for future research to evaluate whether the new institutional dichotomy can overcome previous bureaucratic failures.
This study aimed to analyze the importance of implementing Eucalyptus L'Heritier silviculture in the formation of energy forests in small rural properties in the semi-arid ecoregion of Brazil known as Caatinga. To this end, a bibliographic review was carried out based on the technical-scientific literature related to the topic, available in official databases, journals and research platforms. The energy matrix (the type of energy source available to commercial, industrial and domestic sectors) of the region still consumes a large volume of native wood in the Caatinga ecoregion, largely extracted illegally. Alternative sources are crucial for conserving this already impacted ecosystem. Due to eco-physiological characteristics, some eucalyptus species tolerate the soil and climatic conditions of the Brazilian semi-arid and have properties suitable for energy production. It is concluded that wood production from planted eucalyptus forests, implemented in already degraded areas on small rural properties in the semi-arid region of Brazil for energy purposes, is an important opportunity to establish a clean and renewable, socioeconomic development system within the broader context of environmental conservation.
Polycentric governance systems are considered to have higher capacity to respond to emerging socio-ecological challenges. However, it remains unclear how these systems improve institutions' ability to solve problems of social inequity for Indigenous Peoples (IPs). This critical appraisal identifies and critically engages with existing research on polycentric forest governance to understand how polycentric institutional arrangements and governance mechanisms influence social equity for IPs, and how objectives related to IPs social equity are presented in empirical studies on polycentric forest governance. A systematic review of literature reveals that studies examining polycentric forest governance vis-& agrave;-vis IPs social equity are extremely rare. The literature also exhibits inconsistency in examining complex polycentric governance interactions-such as shared autonomy, coordination, conflict resolution mechanism-in relation to IPs social equity, including distributive benefits, participatory rights and tenurial or cultural recognition in forest. Existing empirical studies show that polycentric interactions can negatively affect IPs' social equity through hierarchical institutional nestedness, lack of political decentralisation, and entrenched social heterogeneity. However, rich empirical insights are missing that critically delve into these connections in-depth across diverse contexts in polycentric forest governance. This review offers a research agenda to strengthen the theoretical and empirical scope of polycentric governance scholarship, particularly by building stronger bridges with the scholarship on environmental justice.
Globally, natural forests have declined since 1990, while planted and private forests have expanded by 123 million hectares. With careful species selection, private forests can offer significant environmental and financial benefits. This study collected and analyzed data from 28 private forests (PFs) across two distinct physiographic regions of Nepal, the Terai and Mid-Hills, assessing their ecological characteristics, carbon sequestration potential, and farmers' species preferences. Findings reveal contrasting ecological patterns: Mid-Hill Private Forests (MPF) exhibited higher species richness and more evenly distributed biomass, while Terai Private Forests (TPF) were dominated by a few high-biomass species such as Shorea borneensis and Tectona grandis, storing over three times more carbon per hectare than MPF. Farmers' preferences mirrored these contrasts, with multipurpose species favored in the Mid-Hills and high-value timber species in the Terai. Ecological dominance (IVI) strongly predicted aboveground biomass in MPF (rho = 0.78, p < 0.001) but showed a weak association in TPF (rho = 0.42, p = 0.08), highlighting divergent species roles in carbon storage. Our findings demonstrate that private forests hold untapped potential for carbon trading (REDD+), biodiversity conservation, and achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This study provides vital information for evidence-based policy change and sustainable private forest management by integrating carbon sequestration, biodiversity indices, and farmer preferences across Nepal's physiographic gradients.
China's forest product imports have surged over the past two decades, fueled by robust economic growth and an inadequate domestic timber supply. Many observers highlight the large and expanding trade volume as a significant driver of deforestation and forest degradation, especially in tropical regions. This research investigates the relationship between China's imports of wood-based forest product and tropical forest loss. A positive relationship between China's imports of wood-based forest products and the forest loss was found across all tropical countries, except those in Latin America. Additionally, land conversion to agricultural production and pasture for livestock are important drivers of the forest loss. The results provide insight into the complex policy, environmental and economic factors influencing tropical forest loss and the role of China's demand for tropical forest products. This research offers valuable guidance for the Chinese government in crafting balanced policies that protect domestic forests while addressing tropical forest loss.
