title: When is a forest a forest? Forest concepts and definitions in the era of forest and landscape restoration.
abstract: We present a historical overview of forest concepts and definitions, linking these changes with distinct perspectives and management objectives. Policies dealing with a broad range of forest issues are often based on definitions created for the purpose of assessing global forest stocks, which do not distinguish between natural and planted forests or reforests, and which have not proved useful in assessing national and global rates of forest regrowth and restoration. Implementing and monitoring forest and landscape restoration requires additional approaches to defining and assessing forests that reveal the qualities and trajectories of forest patches in a spatially and temporally dynamic landscape matrix. New technologies and participatory assessment of forest states and trajectories offer the potential to operationalize such definitions. Purpose-built and contextualized definitions are needed to support policies that successfully protect, sustain, and regrow forests at national and global scales. We provide a framework to illustrate how different management objectives drive the relative importance of different aspects of forest state, dynamics, and landscape context.
authors.affiliation: University of Connecticut, 75 North Eagleville Road, Unit 3043, Storrs, CT, 06269-3042, USA. robin.chazdon@uconn.edu.
authors.forename: Robin L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Chazdon
authors.affiliation: Universidade de São Paulo/ESALQ, Av. Pádua Dias 11, Piracicaba, SP, 13418-900, Brazil.
authors.forename: Pedro H S
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Brancalion
authors.affiliation: World Resources Institute, 10G Street NE, Washington, DC, 20002, USA.|, 11407 Symphony Woods Lane, Silver Spring, MD, 20901, USA.
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Laestadius
authors.affiliation: School of Geography and the Environment, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QY, UK.|CIFOR, Bogor, Indonesia.
authors.forename: Aoife
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bennett-Curry
authors.affiliation: World Resources Institute, 10G Street NE, Washington, DC, 20002, USA.
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Buckingham
authors.affiliation: International Union for the Conservation of Nature, 1630 Connecticut Ave. N.W., Washington, DC, 20009, USA.
authors.forename: Chetan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: University of Connecticut, 75 North Eagleville Road, Unit 3043, Storrs, CT, 06269-3042, USA.|, 3298 Greenwood Heights Drive, Kneeland, CA, 95549, USA.
authors.forename: Julian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Moll-Rocek
authors.affiliation: Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, CP 399, Belém, PA, CEP 66060-310, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ima Célia Guimarães
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Vieira
authors.affiliation: IFRI, University of Michigan, 440 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI, 48105, USA.
authors.forename: Sarah Jane
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Wilson
mesh_terms: D057486:Carbon Cycle; D057231:Climate Change; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D052918:Environmental Restoration and Remediation / Q000379:methods*; D016468:Forestry / Q000145:classification / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D065928:Forests; D014197:Trees / Q000254:growth & development
keywords: Deforestation; Forest assessment; Forest management; Landscape; Plantation; Reforestation; Restoration