Foreign trade belongs among the main sources of economic growth as classical theories of international trade affirm. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the impact of trade balance flows on sectors generating different value-added in the wood-based industries (WBI) of the Czech and Slovak Republics. The multivariate regression method (MLR) was applied to identify the relationship between foreign trade and economic indicators and also specific indicators assessing impacts of foreign trade on the economy of wood-based industries. By Andrea Janáková Sujová and Katarína Marcineková, Technical University in Zvolen, Václav Kupčák, Mendel University in Brno
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Small wooden furniture businesses in East Indonesia feel pressure from the furniture businesses of the West Indonesia, in particular from Jepara, due to a fierce international rivalry. The study found that market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, and innovation contributed to leveraging the competitiveness of small furniture producers. With this model, the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and innovativeness shows a positive, significant, and the most dominant of all structural causal relationships in the model, with a small-high effect. By Dr Jusni Jsuni, Dr Andi Aswan and Riandha Ridho Hafizh Thaha, Hasanuddin University, Dr Muhammad Hakimi Mohd Shafiai, Universiti Kebangsaan, and Dr Gunawan Baharuddin, Pancasila University
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The overall reduction in the environmental impacts of the construction industry is a complex process that requires methodological and applicative studies on the evaluation of the sustainability of the life cycle, related to both individual product and of the building system as a whole. This research aimed to develop a methodology, applied to timber building systems, to mitigate CO2e emissions during the decommissioning and disposal of the building, and then demonstrated the possibility of making the wood construction process circular through a zero-emission approach. By Giacomo Di Ruocco, Roberta Melella and Laura Sabatano, University of Salerno
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There has been an upsurge concerning the concept and application of ‘co-management’ in the governance of natural resources in Bangladesh in recent years. However, the overall approach to implementation has been overtly technical in nature; and there has been limited attention to sustainability dynamics. This article aims to explore aspects policy and practice within co-management in the coastal forest zones of Bangladesh. By Niaz Ahmed Khan, University of Dhaka, Junaid Kabir Choudhury, Bangladesh Forest Department, AZM Manzoor Rashid, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Mohammad Raqibul Hasan Siddique, Khulna University, and Karishma Sinha, Independent University Bangladesh
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Forests in the US provide important carbon sequestration services that could be leveraged for climate change mitigation. There is increased interest among decision makers and investors to extend forest carbon payment programs to family forest owners (FFOs). A comprehensive review of the research literature suggests the need for diverse types of contracts and payment levels in order to have widespread participation in carbon programs by forest owners. By Sadikshya Sharma and Melissa M. Kreye, Pennsylvania State University
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Dead wood is an important microsite for seedling regeneration in forest ecosystems. In the present study, pot experiments were conducted with the seedlings of two ectomycorrhizal tree species and two arbuscular mycorrhizal tree species to evaluate their growth using three substrates, which results demonstrated the importance of the biological mechanisms affecting seedlings’ preferences for a variety of regeneration microsites and illustrated the need for future experiments to include larger sets of seedling species. By Yu Fukasawa and Hiroyuki Kitabatake, Tohoku University in Japan
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Natural forests have many ecological, economic and other values, and sustaining them is a challenge for policy makers and forest managers. This article will describe the failure of a highly regulated approach to forest management focused on intensive wood production in the mountain ash forests of Victoria, Australia, and then propose ecologically and economically viable option and outline general lessons for diversifying land management from the case study. By David Lindenmayer and Chris Taylor, Australian National University
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Fast-growing poplar trees from plantations are the source of inexpensive wood. Their potential as raw material for biofuel manufacturing is widely discussed as well. The detailed chemical composition of this raw material is therefore an important question. The aim of the study was the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the composition of extractives in wood of various poplar species from the viewpoint of the potential impact on the rate and efficiency of enzymatic hydrolysis of polysaccharides contained in wood. By Dominika Szadkowska, Janusz Zawadzki, Paweł Kozakiewicz, and Andrzej Radomski, Warsaw University of Life Sciences in Poland
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Miombo is one of the most widely distributed ecosystems in Angola, with a great social and environmental value. Thus, the rural population uses the biomass as fuel and miombo provides important ecosystem services. The objectives of this work were to assess deforestation in miombo forest, evaluate carbon storage capacity of miombo and calculate the charcoal productive capacity of the forests. By Luis M. Miapia and Virgínia Lacerda-Quartín, José Eduardo dos Santos University, David Ariza-Mateos and Guillermo Palacios-Rodríguez, University of Cordoba
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The environmental, social and economic potential of Dinaric uneven-aged forests along with the complex stand dynamics influenced by different long-term management approaches and environmental factors require comprehensive forest monitoring. This study aimed to explore differences in the current status and recent past dynamics of stand structures between unmanaged and managed mixed fir-beech forests in the Croatian part of the Dinaric Alps using large-scale data from an established monitoring system. By Jura Čavlović, Marijana Andabaka, Mario Božić, Krunoslav Teslak and Karlo Beljan, University of Zagreb
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