ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a global status and trends in forest resources discusses the ecological implications of biodiversity loss resulting from deforestation and reviews research on the causes of deforestation. It addresses the market and policy failures that encourage deforestation, proposes forest conservation efforts, and discusses policy options for improved forest conservation and management. In order to examine the problem of deforestation it is important to have a clear understanding of status of forest resources and rates of forest conversion. The geographic scale of the continental boreal forest biome covers groups of interactive ecosystems of coniferous and mixed forests, and of bogs, wetlands, rivers and lakes, across North America and Eurasia. The development of consistent and comprehensive approaches to begin tackling the challenges will go a long way towards reconciling forest management for human use and biodiversity conservation. Public policies have an important influence on the pattern of forest-based industrialization and its implications for long term economic development and deforestation.
