Sven Günter

Thünen Institute | vTI · Institute of Forestry

Global deforestation and forest degradation threaten the sustainability of natural and human systems. Forest landscape restoration , through active approaches such as plantations, woodlots, boundary planting, and agroforestry, and passive approaches like exclosures, presents an opportunity to mitigate adverse effects, enhance ecosystem service reco...

This book takes a multidisciplinary perspective to analyze and discuss the various opportunities and challenges of restoring tree and forest cover to address regional and global environmental challenges that threaten human well-being and compromise sustainable development. It examines forest restoration commitments, policies and programs, and their...

The impacts of the Anthropocene on climate and biodiversity pose societal and ecological problems that may only be solved by ecosystem restoration. Local to regional actions are required, which need to consider the prevailing present and future conditions of a certain landscape extent. Modeling approaches can be of help to support management effort...

The European Union Biodiversity Strategy 2030 (EUBDS) aims to regain biodiversity through enhanced forest conservation and protection, which may lead to increased timber harvest in non‐EU countries. We aimed to identify the potential leakage of biodiversity risks as induced by the EUBDS. We created an indicator framework that allows one to quantify...

In response to the loss of forest cover and biodiversity, forest conservation policies have been increasingly pursued worldwide. Such policies are often criticized for limiting the access of locals to forest resources, raising the question if nature conservation and poverty alleviation goals are compatible. Few studies have attempted to examine the...

Forests in the humid tropics contribute to a wide range of globally demanded forest ecosystem services (FES) and are also beneficial to local communities, which are often highly dependent on natural resources. Approximately one-third of these forests are threatened by resource extraction, logging, and the expanding agricultural frontier. As a resul...

The proportion of damaged trees and the type caused by the selective thinning can have serious impacts on the ecological and economic sustainability of forests. So far, the damage caused by thinning operations in montane tropical forests is unknown. In this study, we try to quantify the damages caused by selective thinning in two types of humid mon...

Cross-scale studies combining information on policy instruments and on drivers of deforestation and forest degradation are key to design and implement effective forest protection measures. We investigated the scale and country dependency of stakeholder perceptions about future threats to tropical forests (e.g. agriculture, logging, woodfuel) and pr...

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Due to widespread over-exploitation, tropical forests became a priority issue on the political agenda in the 1990s. Policy frameworks incorporating forest aspects in different policy sectors and building on existing structures have been implemented in many tropical countries. This poses challenges to policy design, including the consistency of poli...

According to the new European Commission proposal for a regulation on deforestation-free products, six commodities - cattle, wood, palm oil, soy, cocoa, and coffee and their derivate products – grown or raised on land that was subject to deforestation or forest degradation will be banned from entering the EU market. In this commentary paper, we dis...

Secondary forests, i.e., those arising after the clearance and abandonment of previously forested land, dominate tropical forest landscapes, rapidly sequester carbon, provide essential ecosystem services and are prone to re-clearance. Secondary cloud forests (SCF) play a particularly critical role for biodiversity and hydrological regulation. To pr...

This study simulates the future impact of land use and land cover (LULC) change and the enforcement of policy bundles on the multi-functionality of tropical forest landscapes. It focusses on the Northern Ecuadorian Amazonas (NEA) which is characterised by high biodiversity and endemism but at the same time is threatened by deforestation and unsusta...

Presentation for ATBC2022, 58th Meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Cartagena, Colombia * Session: Socio-ecological Systems, Resilience, Sustainable Development * Date: 11 July 2022 * Complete title: Reconciling policy instruments with drivers of deforestation and forest degradation: Empirical analysis of stakeholder p...

An extraordinarily intensive ground verification effort allowed us to create highly accurate (92%) pantropical forest maps and to better estimate accuracies of seven relevant alternative datasets. • The compared maps showed large areas of disagreement (from 17% to 24% of the total 15 million ha analyzed), mostly related to recurrent overestimations...

Mittels einer intensiven Feldvalidierungskampagne konnten wir sehr genaue (92 %) pan-tropische Waldkarten erstellen und die Qualität von sieben alternativen Karten vergleichen. • Die untersuchten Waldkarten wiesen Uneinigkeiten von 17-24 % der analysierten 15 Mio. ha auf, die vor allem auf Überschätzungen der Waldfläche in den globalen Karten zurüc...

Tropical forests represent half of the Earth's remaining forest area, but they are shrinking at high rates, which poses a threat to their multiple ecosystem services. As a response, international environmental agreements and related programs require information about tropical forested landscapes. Despite the increasing quantity and quality of remot...

Voluntary paper. Sub-theme 5. Session 1. Towards open and transparent reporting and dissemination of forest data.

Both groups have low HWB indices and are not significantly different, apart from material and health. • Participation in FLR initiatives has no significant impact on household wellbeing when we account for self-selection. • There is a risk of FLR initiatives on communal lands negatively impacting the well-being of participants. • A balance is neede...

Within the framework established by international development agreements (e.g. Agenda 2030 or Paris Agreement), initiatives and programs for the protection, restoration and sustainable use of forests are being implemented worldwide (e.g. Forest Landscape Restoration, Bonn Challenge, REDD+). These programs require reliable and efficient forest cover...

Bracken (Pteridum arachnoideum) is an invasive fern species that slows or inhibits forest regeneration over vast areas worldwide, affecting biodiversity, ecosystem functions and productivity. To overcome arrested succession, effective restoration interventions are necessary. We examined the effects of planting pioneer shrubs on establishment succes...

Forest products have become scarce for local communities in the Philippines. After decades of severe deforestation, a net gain in forest area has only been observed in recent years for the first time. This paper seeks to broaden the understanding of forest livelihood relationships at the turning point of a forest transition trajectory. Based on 993...

Despite the projected sharpest decline in remittances in history due to the global economic crisis induced by the Covid-19 pandemic, remittances are expected to remain an important source of external financing for many developing countries. The Philippines is among the top five recipients of remittances worldwide, while outmigration is an important...

After state-centered and market-centered approaches have driven international development cooperation activities in previous decades, improved governance has now come into the focus as a means to help reversing global trends of tropical deforestation. Yet, “good governance” remains a normative, broad and often underspecified concept consisting of a...

Secondary cloud forests (SCFs), those that regenerate naturally following abandonment of human activities in previously deforested land, are of great value as refuges of high species diversity and for their critical role in hydrological regulation. This opinion paper analyzes the main environmental, socio-economic, and regulatory aspects that curre...

Regional forest transition stages are related to different household-level drivers of deforestation in the Miombo woodlands. • Depending on the context, crop productivity has a mixed impact on the probability of high deforestation, while higher non-farm income is linked to lower deforestation. • The findings suggest that regional-specific land use...

Tropentag2021 - Session: Trees for life

Tropentag 2021, Recorded presentation of Poster ID 18, Session Trees for life

Many people worldwide lack adequate access to clean water to meet basic needs, and many important economic activities, such as energy production and agriculture, also require water. Climate change is likely to aggravate water stress. As temperatures rise, ecosystems and the human, plant, and animal communities that depend on them will need more wat...

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Dry forests in tropical and subtropical areas continue to experience high deforestation rates that affect households' dependence on forest resources. Little remains understood about the relationship between household factors and deforestation patterns in Zambia. We integrate remotely sensed data with surveys of 1123 households collected in the Miom...

The need to protect forest resources from unsustainable, yet rational, human actions has attracted global attention. This is because smallholder dependence on forests can degrade forest resources and cause deforestation. While efforts to understand forest programmes and motivations to protect forests have increased in recent decades, there remains...

Planted forests contribute to maximizing timber production but their role as valuable habitat for diversity is of increasing concern, particularly in tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF) landscapes, which present extremely high diversity and endemism. We compared tree diversity, potential timber productivity and estimated net revenues in planted fo...

Tropical forests are characterized by a high diversity of tree species together with a low abundance of individual species. This has far-reaching implications on strate-gies for a sustainable management and conservation of their genetic resources.Reforestation with native species is considered a preferable option for sus-tainable development, overc...

Bracken (Pteridum arachnoideum) is an invasive fern species that slows or inhibits forest regeneration over vast areas worldwide, affecting biodiversity, ecosystem functions and productivity. To overcome arrested succession, effective restoration interventions are necessary. We examined the effects of planting pioneer shrubs on estab- lishment succ...

Forest plantations with exotic species in southern Ecuador have mostly been characterized as having negative externalities in both ecological and economic terms. After ten years of research in mountain forests in southern Ecuador on restoration and reforestation, several native tree species with good growth responses (e.g. Handroanthus chrysanthus,...

La Universidad Estatal Amazónica (UEA) de Puyo-Ecuador y el Instituto Johann Heinrich von Thünen (IT) de Alemania, suscribieron un convenio específico que rige el periodo desde el 27 de junio de 2016 hasta el 30 de junio del 2019 para la ejecución del proyecto: “Paisajes forestales en los trópicos” (LaForeT por sus siglas en inglés). Adicionalmente...

La Universidad Estatal Amazónica (UEA) de Puyo-Ecuador y el Instituto Johann Heinrich von Thünen (IT) de Alemania, suscribieron un convenio específico que rige el periodo desde el 27 de junio de 2016 hasta el 30 de junio del 2019 para la ejecución del proyecto: “Paisajes forestales en los trópicos” (LaForeT por sus siglas en inglés). Adicionalmente...

Este capítulo presenta los resultados de un estudio realizado en ocho paisajes forestales distribuidos en tres provincias de la Amazonia Ecuatoriana Napo (4), Pastaza (2) y Orellana (2). En estos sitios se analizaron diferentes componentes: cambio de uso del suelo, deforestación, aspectos sociales, culturales, económicos, ecológicos y ambientales....

Este capítulo presenta los resultados de un estudio a nivel de paisajes forestales realizado en el Noroccidente del Ecuador (provincia de Esmeraldas), donde se establecieron geográficamente cuatro paisajes, que se encuentran ubicados en los cantones Eloy Alfaro, Esmeraldas y Quinindé. En estos sitios se analizaron diferentes componentes: cambio de...

La gobernanza ha sido descrita como una herramienta prometedora para reducir la deforestación tropical. Es un enfoque con múltiples aspectos diferentes. Al mismo tiempo, la deforestación tropical es un proceso complejo que es impulsado por múltiples factores de interacción. El objetivo de este estudio es analizar las diferencias en la gobernanza fo...

Tropical dry forests covers 0.5 to 1.1 billion hectares which is about half of the tropical moist forest area. The forests fulfil many important ecological and economic functions and deliver manifold commodities for subsistence as well as for international demands. Despite their importance tropical dry forests seem to attain by far lesser attention...

Direct drivers have stronger effects on deforestation than governance and need to be specifically targeted in forest policy. There is need for improvement of weak governance above thresholds which allow to influence direct drivers. Tenure security alone does not necessarily reduce deforestation.

Tropical forests, and more concretely, the Amazon Basin and the Chocó-Darién, are highly affected by deforestation activities. Households are the main land-use decision-makers and are key agents for forest conservation and deforestation. Understanding the determinants of deforestation at the household level is critical for conservation policies and...

The balance between the supply of multiple ecosystem services (ES) and the fulfillment of society demands is a challenge, especially in the tropics where different land use transition phases emerge. These phases are characterized by either a decline (from intact old-growth to logged forests) or a recovery of ES (successional forests, plantations, a...

Weak forest governance is posited as a key underlying driver of deforestation and forest degradation, but empirical evidence of this linkage is scarce. Many related studies capture the de jure (legal) conditions and miss out the de facto (implementation practices on the ground), particularly when considering the proximate drivers and other factors...

Tropical montane forests in the Andes are subjected to deforestation and subsequent transformation into pastures. Abandoned pastures are frequently reforested by planting monoculture timber plantations, resulting in reduced aboveground diversity and changes in soil characteristics compared to primary forests. In this study, we evaluated differences...

Good forest governance is a prerequisite for sustainable forest management and the successful implementation of initiatives that aim to reduce deforestation and forest degradation. The necessity for good governance is high in Zambia´s Miombo ecoregion, which is characterised by persistent deforestation that also threatens forest-dependent livelihoo...

Background: The impact of selective thinning on forest diversity has been extensively studied in temperate and boreal regions. However, in the tropics, knowledge is still poor regarding the impacts of this silvicultural treatment on functional diversity, especially in tropical mountain forests, which are considered to be highly biodiverse ecosystem...

With only 7.01 million hectares of remaining forested areas in the Philippines, there is an urgency to protect these areas, while also implementing restoration strategies to increase forest cover and improve forest functionality. In this study, we assess how the so called “rainforestation” approach, attempts to implement close-to-nature restoration...

Information about nutrient dynamics is of upmost importance in order to contribute to the restoration of degraded forest environments in the Andes of southern Ecuador. This study aims to investigate the differences of nutrient dynamics between a native alder (Alnus acuminata) and an exotic pine (Pinus patula) tree species in this region. Based on l...

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Forest and agricultural activities are the main income source in tropical regions. Ecuadorian farmers at the forest frontiers also depend on natural resources as part of their livelihood strategies; consequently, factors like deforestation and conservation strategies might limit the availability and accessibility to natural resources with potential...

Forest landscapes in tropical and subtropical areas support the livelihoods of their inhabitants through subsistence use of products, and cash income obtained from the sale of products. Despite its contribution to livelihoods, it remains unclear how forest products play a role in forest use strategies and what affects different forest use strategie...

A better understanding of deforestation drivers across countries and spatial scales is a precondition for designing efficient international policies and coherent land use planning strategies such as REDD+. However, it is so far unclear if the well-studied drivers of tropical deforestation behave similarly across nested subnational jurisdictions, wh...

After years of multilateral deliberations on how to stop global deforestation, such as REDD+ under the UNFCCC, deforestation-free supply chain (DFSC) initiatives emerged from the private sector. Linking both concepts conceptually and in policy practice could provide for synergies and enable more effective approaches against global deforestation. To...

In view of a continuing global decrease of forest cover, many authors mention forest governance as a basic concept contributing to reduced deforestation, specifically in the tropics. There are numerous definitions for forest governance. The concept is commonly understood as a broad approach and assessment tools comprise dozens of indicators. Howeve...

With only 7.01 million hectares of remaining forested areas in the Philippines, there is an urgency to protect these areas, while also implementing restoration strategies to increase forest cover and improve forest functionality. In this study, we assess how the so called "rainforestation" approach, attempts to implement close-to-nature restoration...

Rainforestation" approach as a form of mixed-species plantation is being practiced in the Philippines and can restore multiple forest ecosystem services to address forest landscape restoration. • Growth from the mixed-species plantations is comparable with the remaining natural forests and can contribute to less pressure on remaining natural forest...

This working paper analyses instruments and measures to meet the targets set in the Germanys climate action plan 2050 for agriculture to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and for LULUCF to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or enhance sinks until 2030. In the focus are measures on the federal state level. For the different areas of actions and measures...