East Asia and Pacific

Nurse Plant Theory and its Application in Ecological Restoration in Lower Subtropics of China

background

This study examines the mechanisms of the nurse tree effect and ecological factors that influence tree nursing and its relationship to ecological restoration.

Research Goals & Methods

The authors list different pairs of nurse and target tree species, including the broad description of such pairs and research findings of case studies in several locations in lower subtropical China. They also examine the positive and negative feedback loops between nurse trees and target species and explain why the nursing effect occurs.

Open access copy available

Monitoring Forest Degradation in Tropical Regions by Remote Sensing: Some Methodological Issues

Background

This review examines different remote sensing techniques to monitor vegetation cover at a regional scale. The objective was to discuss implications related to monitoring of open forest degradation.

Research Goals & Methods

Techniques include methods to track both spatial and temporal changes in structure and function associated with land use change.

Open access copy available

Drought, Fire, and Tree Survival in a Borneo Rainforest, East Kalimantan, Indonesia

Background

While draughts and fires are seen as important components of tropical forests, large-scale assessments of the effects of these events are scarce. This paper compares the forest stand level impact between severe drought and a subsequent extensive fires on forest stand in a lowland rainforest in East Kalimantan.

Open access copy available

Degraded Lands Worth Protecting: the Biological Importance of Southeast Asia's Repeatedly Logged Forests.

Background

The study examines the impacts of second logging cycles on biodiversity by comparing species richness, species composition and population-level responses of birds and dung beetle species across unlogged forest, first rotation forest, and second rotation forest in Sabah, Malaysia.

Research Goals & Methods

The authors sample 18 sites, 6 for each forest type, over a two year period. They use point count and mist net censuses for bird species and pitfall traps to count dung beetles.

Open access copy available

The Use of Ants and Other Soil and Litter Arthropods as Bio-Indicators of the Impacts of Rainforest Clearing and Subsequent Land Use

Background

This study evaluates the impacts of rainforest clearing on soil and litter arthropods with a particular focus on ant species.

Open access copy available

Between Cash and Usufruct Rights: In Search of an Appropriate Policy Instrument for Sustained Local People's Participation

Background

This study examines a reforestation program that was launched in the Philippines funded by the Asian Development Bank in 1988. Contract restoration and incentive mechanisms were introduced to include the participation of civic and local community groups in reforestation. 

Open access copy available

Rehabilitation of Nickel Mining Sites in New Caledonia

background

New 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

Tropical rain forest fragmentation and its ecological and species diversity changes in Southern Yunnan

Background

Animal 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

Gmelina Boom, Farmers Doom: Tree growers risks, coping strategies and options

Background

The 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

Afforestation and Reforestation Projects in South and South-East Asia Under the Clean Development Mechanism: Trends and Development Opportunities

background

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was created as part of the 2007 Kyoto Protocol to assist countries in achieving both development and sustainability. Afforestation and reforestation (AR) projects are a part of the CDM protocal, but can be challenging to implement and measure.

research goals & methods

This study reports on survey results regarding CDM-AR projects. Surveys were conducted in South and South-east Asia of both (i) experts and (ii) developers, investors, and consultants.

Open access copy available
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