Balancing act

2019-07-30

Sustainably managing forests, creating sustainable supply chains and ensuring that local resource owners and managers obtain fair remuneration for their efforts requires a balancing act. The margins are always likely to be slim in sustainable forest management—even the fastest-growing forests take years to reach harvestable age, and the world still seems a considerable distance away from fully paying for the essential ecosystem services that forests provide. Yet the need for sustainable forest management is growing increasingly urgent—articles in this edition show that organizations and local people are finding smarter ways to get the balance right.