History and Environment of the Nordic Mountain Birch -- Soils and Nutrients in Northern Mountain Birch Forests: A Case Study from Finnmarksvidda, Northern Norway -- Vegetation of the Mountain Birch Forest in Northern Fennoscandia -- Biomass and Production on a Landscape Level in the Mountain Birch Forests -- Mountain Birch Growth in Relation to Climate and Herbivores -- Effects of Temperature Changes on Survival and Growth in Mountain Birch Populations -- Phenology and Performance of Mountain Birch Provenances in Transplant Gardens: Latitudinal, Altitudinal and Oceanity-Continentality Gradients -- Synthesis Section 1: A Dynamic Forest in a Changing Environment -- Forest Defoliation Risks in Birch Forest by Insects Under Different Climate and Land Use Scenarios in Northern Europe -- Birch Sapling Responses to Severity and Timing of Domestic Herbivore Browsing - Implications for Management -- Effects of Reindeer Grazing on Pastures - A Necessary Basis for Sustainable Reindeer Herding -- Long-Term Influence of Herbivores on Northern Birch Forests -- Synthesis Section 2: Herbivory in Northern Birch Forests -- Rates and Processes of Natural Regeneration in Disturbed Habitats -- Recreation at Tree Line and Interactions with Other Land-Use Activities -- Economic Limits and Possibilities for Sustainable Utilization of Northern Birch Forests -- The Vegetation Changes and Recent Impact on the Mountain Birch Forest During the Last 40 Years -- Sámi Approaches to Mountain Birch Utilization in Northern Sápmi (Finland and Norway) -- Sustainable Reindeer Herding in Mountain Birch Ecosystem -- Competition Over Nature, Space, Resources and Management in the Mountain Birch Forest Ecosystem in Northernmost Fennoscandia: A Synthesis -- Landscape-Scale Model Relating the Nordic Mountain Birch Forest Spatio-Temporal Dynamics to Various Anthropogenic Influences, Herbivory and Climate Change -- Scenarios for Future Development of the Mountain Birch Ecosystem -- Managing the Nordic Mountain Birch Ecosystem: Local Communities and the State in Finland's Forestry -- Policies and Developing Plans Towards Sustainability of Mountain Birch Ecosystems in Scandinavia -- The Nordic Mountain Birch Ecosystem - Challenges to Sustainable Management. In Fennoscandia and Iceland, large parts of particularly elevated areas are treeless. Below these areas there is often a belt of Nordic mountain birch trees, now often called Betula pubescens ssp. czerepanovii. In Fennoscandia, this plant is also common in a zone north of the coniferous trees and is found in small forests in the southwestern-most parts of Greenland and more locally in other parts of Europe. Before the begin of the International Biological Programme (IBP) in the late 1960s and early 1970s,only minor fractions of these ecosystems had been studied. Therefore, alpine and subalpine systems were chosen as the main areas of study in this first,larger interdisciplinary and integrated project in natural science across national borders and,in this way,they made an imp- tant contribution to such research in the Nordic countries. In addition to an interdisciplinary steering committee in each country,a Nordic administration was also established for the so-called IBP "Tundra Biome" studies in the region (although permafrost is not common in most of the region). At the end of the IBP,many results from this research in alpine,subalpine and northern Fennoscandian mountain birch forests were published in two early volumes of the Ecological Studies Series (Wielgolaski 1975a,b). As is common at the end of scientific projects, many questions were not really answered, and this was also the case after IBP. However, the project showed the good collaboration within the Nordic countries.