Sustainable development in timberline
forests covered in a single publication
Latest knowledge on northern timberline forests published
in book form
The results of the international Northern Timberline Forests Workshop
held in Rovaniemi, Finland, in May, have now been compiled into a single
publication. The participants of the meeting, representing the Arctic
region and its people, contributed scientific articles and formulated
recommendations in working groups to meet the needs of research and sustainable
development on the Arctic timberline areas. These articles and recommendations
have been collected to compile a book. The book was published and pre-sented
to the Arctic Council at the Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs held
in Saariselkä, Inari, northernmost Finland, on October 7, 2002.
The book is a compilation of the latest knowledge on timberline forests
and it is aimed at everybody interested in the matter. The publication
is in both English and Russian, and it bears the title: Northern Timberline
Forests - Environmental and Socio-economic Issues and Concerns/ Северная
Граница Леса
— Вопросы по
Окружающей
Среде и Социально-економические
Вопросы.
Among the observations made in the book is the one sustainable development
needing as its support the development of a permanent circumpolar monitoring
network for charting the living conditions of the region's peoples and
the sustainable management of its natural resources. This network, based
on inter-connecting scientific and local knowledge, would serve in complementing
existing monitoring pro-grammes with their greater emphasis on the natural
sciences, e.g. AMAP (Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme) and CAFF(Conservation
of Arctic Flora and Fauna).
In addition, the book sets out recommendations on the four aspects of
sustainable development:
1) Interaction between humankind and the forest: the socio-economic and
cultural dimension
2) Management of natural resources within the northern timberline forest
zone
3) Forestry and reindeer herding in the northern timberline forest zone
4) Conservation of biodiversity within the northern timberline forest
zone
The meeting held in May in Rovaniemi was part of the research project
entitled "Sustainable Development in Northern Timberline Forests" conducted
under the auspices of the Arctic Council. The project, implemented in
2000-2002, examined sustainable use and development timberline forests
from the viewpoints of ecology, society, economics and culture, with special
emphasis on the region's aboriginal peoples. The Finnish government has
been the initiator and leader of the project.
Further information:
Project leader Marja-Liisa Sutinen, Finnish Forest Research Institute
(Metla)
Phone: +358 40 5186702
email: marja-liisa.sutinen@metla.fi
Links concerning the topic:
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