Open access copy available
Gmelina Boom, Farmers Doom: Tree growers risks, coping strategies and optionsBackgroundThe widespread smallholder tree plantations of Gmelina arborea established in the South Philippines in the 1980s led to price boom and bust cycles rather than the expected economic returns for growers. This study evaluates grower responses to the timber price bubbles of the 1990s and recommends policy responses. Open access copy available |
Multiple-Use Forest Management in the Humid Tropics: Opportunities and Challenges for Sustainable Forest ManagementbackgroundThis report documents three regional assessments that were carried out between 2009 and 2012 to identify and draw lessons from on-the-ground initiatives in multiple-use forest management (MFM) in the Amazon Basin, the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia. Open access copy available |
Rehabilitation of Nickel Mining Sites in New CaledoniabackgroundNew Caledonia has the fourth largest Nickle deposits in the world, and major mining companies have frequently used open-pit nickle extraction. New Caledonia boasts around 1,137 endemic species, and distrubance from mining threatened many of them. The government came under pressure to regulate the mining sector and rehabilitate mined areas damaged from mining pollution. Both the waterways and New Caledonia's tourism sector suffered from the pollution. Open access copy available |
Ecological Restoration of Xingu Basin Headwaters: Motivations, Engagement, Challenges and PerspectivesBackgroundThis paper focuses on the Brazilian Amazon, specifically on the Xingu River Basin. It identifites deforestation as a threat to the Xingu River and a driver of environmental degradation. Open access copy available |
Finding the money for tropical forest restorationBackgroundForest in tropical countries have experienced significant changes due to human activity, shifting primarily to agricultural or urban lands. This change not only leads to loss of biodiversity but it also affects the supply of valubale forest products and ecosystem services. This study calls for a shift in rhetoric in forest restoration to go beyond a conservation agenda and to include economic benefits. The article discusses the economic dimensions of forest restoration to justify their claim, drawing heavily on experience in the Brazilian Atlantic forest. Open access copy available |
Biodiversity Persistence in Highly Human-modified Tropical Landscapes Depends on Ecological RestorationbackgroundThis paper shows how forest restoration can enhance biodiversity using case studies from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Open access copy available |
Tropical rain forest fragmentation and its ecological and species diversity changes in Southern YunnanBackgroundAnimal species richness is understood to decline with fragmentation of tropical forests. While the same is assumed of plant species richness, fewer studies have been undertaken on this subject. This study on sacred groves in southern Yunnan, southwestern China, evaluates the plant species richness of these tropical rainforest fragments. Open access copy available |
Reserva Encenillo, Fundacion Natura, ColombiaThis reserve is located in high montane forest of the Colombia Andes, designed to protect the locally important forest tree Weinmanniatomentosa (Encenillo in Spanish). The total size of the reserve is 135 ha of forest, and serves as a forest corridor in a matrix of pasture, potato, and remnant forest landscape. Approximately 2-3 ha of degraded pasture were planted with Alnus acuminata in 2007. Alnus is planted in rows with approximately 3 meter spacing. Trees average mean annual increment is 1.35 cm at breast height, which is an average growth for the region; however, many trees had multiple stems, so total biomass is even larger. Open access copy available |
Laguna Pedro Palo - Reserva Tenasuca, ColombiaThis project is located in a community reserve outside of Bogota, Colombia, in montane Andean oak forest. Plantings are performed by members of the reserve association, which includes a small NGO and local landowners. 2-3 hectares were planted around a lake in 1998, these plantings were predominantly Andean oak (Quercus humboltii), this forest area reached canopy closure in 2010-2013. Reserve managers believe that this oak buffer area helps to maintain a constant water level of the lake, by recharging a continuous supply of groundwater throughout the year. Open access copy available |
Restoration of the Cerros Orientales de Bogota - Jardin Botanico de BogotaThe Jose Celestino Mutis Botanic Garden of Bogota works with the Municipal government of Bogota in order to restore and rehabilitate various areas of forest habitat around the city of Bogota. The most extensive plantings are conducted in the Cerros Orientales, hills located on the outskirts of Bogota. This very steep mountain area had been cleared and was subject to severe erosion, and was planted with exotic pine and eucalyptus throughout the 19th and 20th century. Parts of this forest continue to be grazed for cattle, and many areas have also been invaded by the invasive European gorse (Ulex europaeus). Open access copy available |
