Constructing alternative futures
This article is part of a larger document. View the larger document here.Abstract
The desired product of the Southern Forest Futures Project is a mechanism that will help southerners think about and prepare for future changes in their forests and the benefits they provide. Because any single projection of the world’s (or a region’s) biological, physical, and social systems has a high probability of being incorrect, the Futures Project instead examines a range of possibilities–also called scenarios or futures–that describe the forces influencing forests. Its scope is defined by an extensive public input process and insights of an expert panel and then narrowed into a practical number of futures through modeling and analysis.