Sustainable forest management

A key theme of ecosystem management has been to attempt to maintain 'natural' processes and patterns. Due to recognition of the role of natural disturbances such as forest fires and insect outbreaks in population and ecosystem processes and patterns, these disturbances have been proposed as a model for sustainable forest management. However, in order to evaluate the usefulness of such a proposal, we require an adequate understanding of the specific role of these disturbances in determining and/or influencing population and metapopulation dynamics of the forest species and the silvicultural methods that may or may not mimic such effects. The speakers in this symposium discuss these issues as well as some more general topics of forest sustainability. Specific examples of attempts at both restoring and maintaining forest ecosystems are presented from a range of forest types around the world.