Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairingforests andwoodlands for associated resources for human andenvironmental benefits.[1] Forestry is practiced inplantations and naturalstands.[2] The science of forestry has elements that belong to the biological, physical, social, political and managerial sciences.[3]Forest management plays an essential role in the creation and modification of habitats and affectsecosystem services provisioning.[4] A practitioner of forestry is known as aforester.
Forest ecosystems have come to be seen as the most important component of thebiosphere,[5] and forestry has emerged as a vitalapplied science,craft, andtechnology. The control of forests for timber production is known assilviculture, as practiced bysilviculturists. Although forestry is a broader concept, the two terms are often used synonymously.
All people depend upon forests and their biodiversity, some more than others.[6] Forestry is an important economic segment in various industrial countries,[7] as forests provide more than 86 million green jobs and support the livelihoods of many more people.[6] For example, in Germany, forests cover nearly a third of the land area,[8] wood is the most importantrenewable resource, and forestry supports more than a million jobs and about €181 billion of value to the German economy each year.[9]
Worldwide, an estimated 880 million people spend part of their time collecting fuelwood or producing charcoal, many of them women.[6] Human populations tend to be low in areas of low-income countries with highforest cover and high forest biodiversity, but poverty rates in these areas tend to be high.[6] Some 252 million people living in forests and savannahs have incomes of less than US$1.25 per day.[6]
Over the past centuries,forestry was regarded as a separate science. With the rise ofecology andenvironmental science, there has been a reordering in the applied sciences. In line with this view, forestry is a primary land-use science comparable withagriculture.[10] Under these headings, the fundamentals behind the management of natural forests comes by way of natural ecology. Forests or tree plantations, those whose primary purpose is the extraction of forest products, are planned and managed to utilize a mix of ecological andagroecological principles.[11] In many regions of the world there is considerable conflict between forest practices and other societal priorities such as water quality, watershed preservation, sustainable fishing, conservation, and species preservation.[12]
Dendrology is a subset ofbotany; it is the scientific discipline that studieswoody plants (trees,shrubs, andlianas), specifically, their taxonomic classifications.[13]Silviculture on the other hand is the commercial practice of forest management , primarily for the production of timber.[14]
Theprovenance offorest reproductive material used to plant forests has a great influence on how the trees develop, hence why it is important to use forest reproductive material of good quality and of highgenetic diversity.[15]Genetic diversity is the differences inDNA sequence between individuals as distinct from variation caused by environmental influences. The unique genetic composition of an individual (itsgenotype) will determine its performance (itsphenotype) at a particular site.[16]Genetic diversity is needed to maintain the vitality of forests and to provideresilience topests anddiseases. Genetic diversity also ensures that forest trees can survive, adapt and evolve under changing environmental conditions. Furthermore, genetic diversity is the foundation of biological diversity at species andecosystem levels.Forest genetic resources are therefore important in forest management.[15]
Genetic diversity inforests is threatened byforest fires, pests and diseases,habitat fragmentation, poor silvicultural practices and inappropriate use of forest reproductive material.[citation needed] About 98 million hectares of forest were affected by fire in 2015; this was mainly in the tropical domain, where fire burned about 4 percent of the total forest area in that year. More than two-thirds of the total forest area affected was in Africa and South America. Insects, diseases and severe weather events damaged about 40 million hectares of forests in 2015, mainly in the temperate and boreal domains.[17] The marginal populations of many tree species are facing new threats due to theeffects of climate change.[15] Most countries in Europe have recommendations or guidelines for selecting species and provenances that can be used in a given site or zone.[16]
Urban forestry is the care and management of singletrees and treepopulations inurban settings for the purpose of improving theurban environment. Urban forestry involves both planning and management, including the programming of care and maintenance operations of the urban forest.[19]
The first major works about forestry in the English language includedRoger Taverner'sBooke of Survey (1565),John Manwood'sA Brefe Collection of the Lawes of the Forrest (1592) andJohn Evelyn'sSylva (1662).[24]
^Wojtkowski, Paul A. (2002) Agroecological Perspectives in Agronomy, Forestry and Agroforestry. Science Publishers Inc., Enfield, NH, 356p.
^Wojtkowski, Paul A. (2006) Undoing the Damage: Silviculture for Ecologists and Environmental Scientists. Science Publishers Inc., Enfield, NH, 313p.
^Fishes and forestry : worldwide watershed interactions and management. Northcote, T. G., Hartman, G. F. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Science. 2004.ISBN978-0-470-99524-2.OCLC184983506.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^"SAF Accredited and Candidate Forestry Degree Programs"(PDF) (Press release). Society of American Foresters. 2008-05-19. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2009-02-26.The Society of American Foresters grants accreditation only to specific educational curricula that lead to a first professional degree in forestry at the bachelor's or master's level.
^N.D.G. James (1996), "A History of Forestry and Monographic Forestry Literature in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom",The Literature of Forestry and Agroforestry, Cornell University Press, pp. 34–35,ISBN9780801431814
