Achieving Sustainable Management of Tropical Forests

This collection reviews the wealth of research on tropical forest management. Parts 1 and 2 explore key challenges facing tropical forests as well as the ecosystem services they deliver. Parts 3 and 4 review the management structures and techniques required for sustainable forest management (SFM). Part 6 includes case studies of SFM of different tropical forest types.

Dr Jürgen Blaser is Professor of International Forestry and Climate Change at Bern University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland. Professor Blaser is a former Chair of the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) and former Senior Forestry Advisor at the World Bank.

Pat Hardcastle is an internationally-respected Forestry Development Specialist with over 35 years' experience of forestry development and management. Pat has worked with organisations such as the ITTO, World Bank and the FAO.

Alice Muchugi has over 20 years of experience in research on sustainable utilisation and conservation of tropical tree genetic resources. Since 2014, she is the Manager of Genetic Resource Unit at World Agroforestry (ICRAF) in Nairobi where she coordinates the activities of the ICRAF seedbank in Nairobi and regional field genebanks to ensure that superior tree germplasm is available for ICRAF collaborative projects and other interested users. Formerly, Alice was a senior lecturer at the Kenyatta University where in addition to teaching Genetics, she mentored and supervised several graduate students. She has a PhD in Population Genetics from Kenyatta University, Kenya. She has published over 90 publications.

Beth A. Kaplin is a Professor of Conservation Science in the College of Science & Technology at University of Rwanda (UR) and a Research Professor in the School for the Environment at University of Massachusetts-Boston (UMB). She is also a Senior Fellow at the Center of Global Governance and Sustainability at UMB. In June 2016 she was appointed Director of the Center of Excellence in Biodiversity & Natural Resource Management at UR, a knowledge management research institute aimed at contributing science to policy in support of SDGs. She teaches and mentors BSc, MSc and PhD students at the UR and other institutions. Beth was in the Environmental Studies Dept at Antioch University New England, USA for 20 yrs (1998-2018) where she mentored MSc & PhD students, served as PhD program director, developed curriculum, and founded and directed the Center for Tropical Ecology & Conservation. She received her BSc in wildlife biology from Colorado State University, and MSc and PhD in Zoology from University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA with a focus on ecology and conservation science. From 2006 to 2015, Professor Kaplin raised over 1 million USD to develop BSc and MSc programs in biodiversity conservation at UR with funding from the MacArthur Foundation. She also created the Regional Network for Conservation Educators in the Albertine Rift to support and empower conservation scientists in Rwanda, Burundi, DRC, Tanzania, and Uganda. She is a member of the Society for Conservation Biology and the Association for Tropical Biology & Conservation, and formerly Associate Editor for the journal Biotropica. She offers capacity training workshops in active teaching, proposal writing and related topics, and maintains a research program with her students on forest ecology, seed dispersal, primates, protected areas conservation, and human-wildlife interactions that began in 1990 when she first came to Rwanda. Her current projects include buffer zones and biodiversity indicators, upgrading and digitizing the National Herbarium of Rwanda, documenting traditional knowledge associated with plant genetic resources, chimpanzee ecology and conservation, and developing a biodiversity information system for effective policy-making and climate change adaptation. She has focused her career on building capacity for biodiversity conservation, research and natural resource management in Africa.

Prof Godwin Kowero, the Executive Secretary of the African Forest Forum, is a Tanzanian professor of forest economics and policy analysis. He holds BSc (forestry), MSc (forestry) and MSc (Wildland Resources) degrees, in addition to a PhD degree with specialization in these areas. He also holds an Honorary Doctorate Degree (Doctor Honoris Causa) from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. He is a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences and also of the Tanzania Academy of Sciences.
He has 20 years of experience in teaching in several universities in Tanzania, Mozambique and Kenya in the areas of policy analysis, forest economics, forest management and administration.
He has had 10 years of international research in forestry with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), as a Senior Scientist and Regional Coordinator for Eastern and Southern Africa.
He has over 80 peer reviewed publications, including chapters in books and books.
He also has considerable administrative experience in academic institutions (as head of department in various universities and University Scientific Director at Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique); as well as in research institutions (specifically at CIFOR as Regional Coordinator for Eastern and Southern Africa), and currently as CEO of the African Forest Forum.
He also guided the establishment of the African Forest Forum in 2007, and has since been its Executive Secretary-CEO. The African Forest Forum is a pan-African forestry institution based in Nairobi, Kenya, and accredited to sessions and conferences of parties (COPs) of several United Nations Agencies including UNFF, UNFCCC, UNCCD and UN Environmental Assembly, as well as to key meetings of FAO like the Committee on Forestry (COFO) as well as the African Forestry and Wildlife Commission.

He guided the establishment of the African Forest Forum in 2007, and has since been its Executive Secretary-CEO. The African Forest Forum is a pan-African forestry institution based in Nairobi, Kenya, and the apex forestry institution in Africa.