General
Beekeeping of Stingless Bees to Strengthen Community LivelihoodsBackgroundThis publication provides a summary of a training held Central Kalimantan, Indonesia in November 2019 concerning the keeping of stingless bees to enhance local livelihoods. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) requires companies to protect, conserve, and restore areas of high conservation value (HCV); one means of achieving this is through providing sustainable livelihoods like beekeeping. Thus this training aims at providing both plantation managers and local community members with the technical skills and knowledge to promote stingless beekeeping in order to preserve biodiversity and promote livelihoods. Open access copy available |
Experiences with capacity building for ecological restoration in Latin AmericaBackgroundLandscape scale restoration initiatives are experiencing an increasing popularity, specifically in Latin America. Yet, these initiatives not only require an ecological understanding but also a holistic focus on the socio-economic. To do so, it is critical to promote capacity building in conjunction with these initiatives. Capacity building both improves the technical skills of stakeholders while also increasing the institutional capacity and leadership of all parties. This paper highlights six organizations who are successfully strengthening capacity for ecological restoration in Latin America. Open access copy available |
Policy Options for the World's Primary Forests in Multilateral Environmental AgreementsBackgroundAround the world, primary forest continue to decline. The authors of this article recognize that international forest policies is one means to slow or turn around these trends and thus they identify four new actions that can provide a policy foundation for key international negotiations. Open access copy available |
Industrial Resource Extraction and Infrastructure Development in Tropical ForestsBackgroundThis publication summarizes the proceedings of a 2012 conference held in Panama City, Panama titled "Industrial Resource Extraction and Infrastructure Development in Tropical Forests" The conference sought to explore how the continued increase in economic interest in natural resource extraction can be beneficial connected to the protection of tropical forests. The conference gathered scientists, decision makers, academics, government officials, representatives from NGOs and the private sector, and community and indigenous leaders and involved opening and closing remarks along with four panels. Open access copy available |
Drug Policy as Conservation Policy: Narco-DeforestationBackgroundCentral America exploded into prominence as a drug trafficking corridor in the last decade. The authors documented that an unprecedented flow of cocaine into Central America “coincided with a period of extensive forest loss”. The authors discuss the evidence that supports the idea that "trafficking of drugs (principally cocaine) has become a crucial—and overlooked—accelerant of forest loss” in Central America. Open access copy available |
On the hope for biodiversity-friendly tropical landscapesBackgroundAs pristine tropical forests get harder to preserve, much expectation has been allocated to the conservation of ecosystem services and biodiversity into Human-modified landscales (HMLs). However, it has not been fully assessed to what degree HMLs are able to sustain ecosystem services and what management practices can enhance biodiversity conservatoin in them. Available with subscription or purchase |
Ecosystem Services Approach to Landscape Restoration and Sustainable LivelihoodsBackgroundOpen access copy available |
Leaders in Action: Success Stories from the TropicsBackgroundThe Environmental Leadership and Training Initiative (ELTI) seeks to seeks to train and support people to restore and conserve tropical forest landscapes. Since 2006, the organizations has engaged with thousands of people both through their in-person and online training platforms and through follow-up support and mentorship. This paper highlights select inspirational stories from ELTI alum. These stories come from the Neotropics, including Panama, Colombia, and Brazil, and Asia, including Indonesia, Singapore, and the Phillipines. Open access copy available |
Towards a Synthesized Critique of Neoliberal Biodiversity ConservationBackgroundThis paper seeks to review critiques concerning neoliberal biodiversity conservation. The author sees two reasons for this review. First off, the majority of focus has been on neoliberal natures and neoliberal environment instead of neoliberal conservation. Second, there has been recent papers that explore the latter but the lessons are disconnected. Thus, this review seeks to analyze and provide connections among an emerging field. Open access copy available |
Diversity enhances carbon storage in tropical forestsBackgroundTropical forests are extremely important due to the ability to sequester large amounts of carbon and provide habitat for high levels of biodiversity, particularly tree species. Still there is limited understanding of the relationship between biodiversity and carbon. This study seeks to study this relationship and examine the forest attributes and environmental drivers for ecosystem functioning. Open access copy available |
