abstract
- In this chapter, we summarize current trends and challenges and future research directions in forest landscape ecology and in management related to global change. We discuss the available knowledge in forest landscape ecology and the possibilities of using this knowledge to support management under changing conditions. We also discuss the forest sector’s preparedness to deal with changes in management and how forest landscape ecology can guide this management. Forest landscape ecology has gathered substantial knowledge on patterns, processes, tools, and methods that can support forest and landscape management during changing scenarios. We recognize that existing knowledge is incomplete and that a substantial portion of our knowledge is uncertain, that variability in landscape conditions and various forms of error compound the problem, that we still lack considerable knowledge in some fields, and that there are likely to be knowledge gaps we are not aware of. We nonetheless face the challenge of responding to change based on the available knowledge.