Preface

Silviculture refers to the sustainable management of forest ecosystems, taking into consideration the product and service needs of society. It also focuses on forest stands, using several methods and techniques to ensure their conservation and productivity. Due to stand structure diversity, from even-aged monospecific to uneven-aged multi-specific stands, and to the wide assortment of forest products and services, the characterization and modeling of forest stands are made with a large suite of approaches related to the objectives, productions and services, and yields of forests.

Among other determinant practices, afforestation and reforestation are of primordial importance to forest sustainability. They are the primary drivers for the perpetuity and sustainability of forest stands as well as their related products and services.

This book focuses on silviculture as well as forestation. It contains the following seven chapters:


**Ana Cristina Gonçalves** Department of Rural Engineering, School of Sciences and Technology, MED - Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development, Institute of Research and Advanced Information (IIFA), University of Évora, Évora, Portugal

**1**

**Chapter 1**

Management

*Emilio Vilanova*

mitigation and adaptation.

tropical forests, Venezuela

**1. Introduction**

**Abstract**

Silvicultural Practices in

Venezuelan Natural Forests:

An Historical Perspective and

Prospects of Sustainable Forest

More than four decades of cumulative silvicultural experience in Venezuelan forests represents a significant progress towards sustainable forest management in the tropics. Here, based on an extensive literature review, expert opinions and discussions with forestry stakeholders in the country, we offer a broad overview of the history and current state of silvicultural practices in Venezuela's natural production forests. Despite important research advances, several factors including institutional and policy limitations, along with the lack of sound technical guidelines have hampered a more positive influence of silvicultural research for sustainable forest management across the country's managed forests. On an industrial scale, after an often poorly planned selective logging, and despite increasing evidences against for, a strong prominence of assisted natural regeneration (i.e., enrichment planting) characterized the post-logging management compared to other approaches. With very few exceptions, using artificial regeneration did not produced the expected outcomes in terms of tree growth, expected timber yield and survival. Finally, amidst the current political and economic upheaval in Venezuela, a broad range of lessons and policy recommendations is proposed including the strengthening of research on silvicultural options for multiple use of forests and for climate change

**Keywords:** enrichment planting, forest policy, minimum harvest diameter, research,

Forests in their multiple forms and types are the dominant terrestrial ecosystems on Earth, covering about one third of the globe's land area [1]. Forests represent a fundamental component of world's carbon cycle, are the habitat for biodiversity and are important for the provision of a myriad of services from which people depends for their livelihoods. Distributed over different

#### **Chapter 1**
