In many developed countries, forest area has been increasing slowly since the nineteenth century, an increase that has been a clear reversal of forest cover trends in the previous period of dominant deforestation, referred to as the ‘forest transition’ (Mather 1992; Mather and Needle 1998). Agricultural land was abandoned or purposefully converted to forests, reflecting the economic and social development of societies, changing population pressures, and national policies attempting to overcome the scarcity of forest products (Mather 1992; Grainger 1995; Mather et al. 1999; Rudel et al. 2005; Chapters 2 and 3).