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Forest and landscape restoration can contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation by increasing productivity of landscapes, enhancing the resilience of forest ecosystems, and reducing the vulnerability of forest-dependent human communities. Actions to conserve, sustainably manage, and restore forests can contribute to economic growth, poverty alleviation, rule of law, food security, climate resilience, and biodiversity conservation. Restoring forest landscapes can help secure respect for the rights of forest dependent indigenous peoples, while promoting their participation and that of local communities in natural resources decision making. Drawing on state-of-the-art scientific knowledge through analysis of restoration case studies and review of scientific literature, IUFRO scientists developed a framework to demonstrate how FLR can contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation. One of the major results of this study was the identification and detailed description of the many different ways in which FLR contributes to both mitigating climate effects and helping ecosystems and society to adapt to adverse effects of a changing climate. In addition, this work contributed a stoplight tool aimed at better presenting complex restoration initiatives, and how they may contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation and vice-versa, in a specific local context.

This publication is the third volume produced by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations' Special Project World Forests, Society, and Environment (IUFRO-WFSE). The two previous volumes are: Forests and Society – Responding to Global Drivers of Change (Mery et al. 2010) and Forests in Global Balance: Changing Paradigms (Mery et al. 2005). This volume is divided into four parts. Within each part there are a number of chapters. Part I introduces the overall structure of this volume and provides an introduction to Part II, which consists of local- and regional-level case studies. Part III presents a synthesis of the case studies, drawing on their findings and important processes within individual cases. Part IV is forward-looking and discusses several of the issues and findings from Parts II and III in the context of future outlooks and scenarios. In many parts of the world, forests and forestry are undergoing far-reaching changes. Indeed forests are under pressures that threaten the sustainable provision of forest-based goods and services.

This volume contains the contributions of numerous participants at the IUFRO Landscape Ecology Working Group International Conference, which took place in Bragança, Portugal, from 21 to 24 of September 2010. The conference was dedicated to the theme Forest Landscapes and Global Change - New Frontiers in Management, Conservation and Restoration. The 128 papers included in this book follow the structure and topics of the conference. Sections 1 to 8 include papers relative to presentations in 18 thematic oral and two poster sessions. Section 9 is devoted to a wide-range of landscape ecology fields covered in the 12 symposia of the conference. The Proceedings of the IUFRO Landscape Ecology Working Group International Conference register the growth of scientific interest in forest landscape patterns and processes, and the recognition of the role of landscape ecology in the advancement of science and management, particularly within the context of emerging physical, social and political drivers of change, which influence forest systems and the services they provide. These papers, together with the presentations and debate which took place during the IUFRO Landscape Ecology Working Group International Conference – Bragança 2010, will definitively contribute to the advancement of landscape ecology and science in general.

The use of wood has the potential to reduce the environmental impact of construction, particularly in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the overall material use of construction. However, achieving significant reductions in the environmental impact of construction will also mean reducing the impact of the most common building materials (concrete and steel). There is a range of policies at EU and Member State level to enhance the sustainability and resource efficiency aspects of the building sector. These could directly or indirectly support the use of less environmentally burdensome materials, such as wood, in construction. However, the first step needs to be the creation of a level playing field for construction markets, by removing the unnecessary regulatory and cost burdens of wood construction in national construction regulations.