Setting Conservation Targets for Managed Forest Landscapes

Forests host a disproportionate share of the world's biodiversity. They are increasingly being seen as a refuge for genetic diversity, native species, natural structures, and ecological processes. Yet, intensive forestry threatens their value for biodiversity. The authors present concepts, approaches and case studies illustrating how biodiversity conservation can be integrated into forest management planning. They address ecological patterns and processes taking place at the scale of landscapes, or forest mosaics. This book is intended for students and researchers in conservation biology and natural resource management, as well as forest land managers and policy makers. It presents examples from many forest regions and a variety of organisms. With contributions from researchers that are familiar with forest management and forest managers working in partnership with researchers, this book provides insight and concrete tools to help shape the future of forest landscapes worldwide.

1. A plea for quantitative targets in biodiversity conservation Marc-André Villard and Bengt Gunnar Jonsson; 2. Setting conservation targets: past and present approaches Bengt Gunnar Jonsson and Marc-André Villard; 3. Designing studies to develop conservation targets: a review of the challenges Marc-André Villard; 4. Testing the efficiency of global-scale conservation planning using data on Andean amphibians Don Church, Claude Gascon, Megan Van Fossen, Grisel Velasquez and Luis A. Solorzano; 5. Selecting biodiversity indiators to set conservation targets: species, structures, or processes? Sven G. Nilsson; 6. Selecting species to be used as tools in the development of forest conservation targets Jean-Michel Roberge and Per Angelstam; 7. Bridging ecosystem and multiple-species approaches for setting conservation targets in managed boreal landscapes Pierre Drapeau, Alain Leduc and Yves Bergeron; 8. Thresholds, incidence functions and species-specific cues: responses of woodland birds to landscape structure in south eastern Australia Andrew F. Bennett and James Q. Radford; 9. Landscape thresholds in species occurrence as quantitative targets in forest management: generality in space and time? Matthew G. Betts and Marc-André Villard; 10. The temporal and spatial challenges of target setting for dynamic habitats: the case of dead wood and saproxylic species in boreal forests Bengt Gunnar Jonsson and Thomas Ranius; 11. Opportunities and constraints of using understorey plants to set forest restoration and conservation priorities Olivier Honnay, Bruno Hérault and Beatrijs Bossuyt; 12. Setting conservation targets for freshwater ecosystems in forested catchments John S. Richardson and Ross M. Thompson; 13. Setting quantitative targets for recovery of threatened species Doug P. Armstrong and Heiko U. Wittmer; 14. Allocation of conservation efforts over the landscape: the TRIAD approach David A. Maclean, Robert S. Seymour, Michael K. Montigny and Christian Messier; 15. Forest landscape modelling as a tool to develop conservation targets Emin Zeki Baskent; 16. Setting targets: trade-offs between ecology and economy Mikko Mönkkonen, Artti Juutinen and Eija Hurme; 17. Setting implementing, and monitoring targets as a basis for adaptive management: a Canadian forestry case study Elston Dzus, Brigette Grover, Simon Dyer, Dave Cheyne, Don Pope and Jim Schieck; 18. Putting conservation target science to work Marc-André Villard and Bengt Gunnar Jonsson.

Using examples from a broad range of forest regions and organisms - from a variety of perspectives - the authors present concepts, approaches and case studies to illustrate how biodiversity conservation can be integrated into forest management planning. They provide insight and tools to help shape the future of forest landscapes worldwide.

Marc-André Villard is a Professor of Biology at Université de Moncton, where he holds a Canada Research Chair in Landscape Conservation. He is a Fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union and co-editor of the journal Avian Conservation and Ecology.
Bengt Gunnar Jonsson is a Professor of Plant Ecology at Mid Sweden University. He has been an active part of several national conservation projects initiated by the Swedish Forest Agency and the Swedish EPA, and acted as scientific advisor within the Convention on Biological Diversity.