The Silva Forest Foundation has written two books and a booklet that provide details about ecosystem-based conservation planning. 

Published in 2009, Maintaining Whole Systems on Earth’s Crown: Ecosystem-based Conservation Planning for the Boreal Forest, is by Herb Hammond. Written in an easily accessible handbook format, this book provides an introduction to understanding the complex, ecologically sensitive, circumpolar boreal forest, and explains the philosophy, principles, scientific background, and technical process of ecosystem-based conservation planning (EBCP). The approach to EBCP described in the book uses boreal forest-based examples, but may be applied in planning the protection and use of the spectrum of terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems, and in planning rural and urban land use. Whether you are just beginning or have years of experience; whether you are a scientist, planner, activist, or concerned citizen, this book will provide you with a framework for the development of plans to take care of Earth and put meaning into the word sustainability. Learn more

Our award-winning book, Seeing the Forest Among the Trees: the Case for Wholistic Forest Use, by Herb Hammond, was first published in 1991. Still as relevant today as when it was written, this book presents a wide ranging discussion of many aspects of forests and human use of forests―including ecology, human impacts, economics, politics, spiritual values, and wholistic forest use—the precursor to ecosystem-based conservation planning. These topics are examined in a format readily understandable to the lay reader.  Learn more

Our booklet, The Power of Community—Ecosystem-based Conservation Planning Across Canada, 2004, describes our planning work with communities. In summer 2003, the Silva Forest Foundation convened a “Community Summit” of representatives from the communities where we have completed ecosystem-based plans. In this booklet, Summit participants share their stories about the various ways they have used EBCP. Learn more

A third book, Inviting Nature Home: Nature-Based Planning for Cities, co-authored by Cam Brewer, Herb Hammond, and Sean Markey, explains the need for and application of ecosystem-based conservation planning/nature-based planning in urban areas. The book will be published by UBC Press in 2021.