Land Use Change and Trends
Impacts of payments for environmental services on local development in northern Costa Rica: A fuzzy multi-criteria analysisBackgroundThis paper evaluates the impacts of reforestation projects conducted through Costa Rica's Payment for Environmental Services (PSA) program, which pays landowners for different forest uses. The researchers developed an evaluaton framework that was first based on a set of prinicipals (economic, social, institutional, biological) that were in-term subdivided into different categories. These evaluation criteria were evaluated and weighted through the help of local experts, then used to guide a series of landowner interviews. Open access copy available |
From Target to Implementation: Perspectives for the International Governance of Forest Landscape RestorationBackgroundThis article describes the international landscape of governance structures and institutions focused on promoting restoration. It aims to understand how the activities of these institutions with overlapping objectives can align and complement each other in order to create a more effective governance approach. Open access copy available |
Agro-Successional Restoration as a Strategy to Facilitate Tropical Forest RecoveryBackgroundIn the review article, it compares the forestry restoration model with the agroforestry restoration model. Even though they both incorporate the same techniques for controlling weeds and preparing the site for restoration, they differ in other aspects. One of the two agroforestry methods for restoration is the taungya method, which is when mixed crops and trees are all planted together, while the other is the agro-successional restoration method. Open access copy available |
Birds of the Man Made Ecosystems: the PlantationsBackgroundThe authors compare bird diversity in Uttara Kannada, India, comparing intact evergreen and secondary moist deciduous forests to teak, eucaplypts and betelnut plantations with the intent of addressing two questions: what level of diversity can a plantation support and how to species compositions compare to nearby forests? Available with subscription or purchase |
Ecological Restoration of Coal Mine-Degraded Lands in Dry Tropical Climate: What has been done? And what needs to be done?BackgroundThis paper discusses known methodology for how to restore native forest to abandoned coal mines. The paper splits the process of reclaiming abandoned coal mines into two sections, 1.) physical, technical, or engineering restoration and 2.) Biological Restoration. It also stresses taking a landscape scale approach to restoration, which includes 1.) an initial survey of the area, 2.) determination of the ultimate landscape objectives, and after restoration landuse possibilities, 3.) preparation of working plans for each phase of the restoration operation. Available with subscription or purchase |
Dominant species' resprout biomass dynamics after cutting in the Sudanian savanna-woodlands of West Africa: long term effects of annual early fire and grazingBackgroundGiven widespread anthropogenic disturbance and land degradation across the Sudanian savanna-woodlands of West Africa, these researchers examined the impacts of early annual fire and grazing on 6 dominant plant species in terms of: shoot mortality, height and girth. Though rather unoriginally, they hypothesized that forest biomass reconstitution is affected by disturbances such as fire and grazing. Open access copy available |
Imitating Natural Ecosystems through Successional Agroforestry for the Regeneration of Degraded Lands - A Case Study of Smallholder Agriculture in Northeastern BrazilBackgroundAvailable with subscription or purchase |
When is a forest a forest? Forest concepts and definitions in the era of forest and landscape restorationBackgroundThis article highlights the importance of creating forest definitions--what is meant by forest, what is meant by forest loss, what is meant by forest restoration--in order to create a conceptual, institutional, legal and operational basis for forest policies and interventions. Open access copy available |
The Campesino-to-Campesino agroecology movement of ANAP in Cuba: social process methodology in the construction of sustainable peasant agriculture and food sovereigntyBackgroundThis article focuses on agroecology as a farming practice based upon principles rooted in the biology of a place and its organic matter. Agroecology has been promoted by community organizations and NGOs and is scaling up to national peasant organizations and social movements. This study looks at Cuba as a case study for La Via Campesina, a global peasant movement, and how agroecology has spread in Cuba from campesino-a-campesino, or peasant-to-peasant. Available with subscription or purchase |
Trade-offs in nature tourism: contrasting parcel-level decisions with landscape conservation planningBackgroundThis article discusses the trade-offs linked to nature tourism in Monteverde, Costa Rica. Nature tourism has been used for promoting conservation in Costa Rica since the 1970s when it was adopted into developmental policy. Tourism is now the largest industry in Costa Rica; but is nature tourism an effective way to preserve ecosystem services and promote economic benefits? The study area includes Monteverde (an ecotourism town near the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve), San Luis (a coffee and dairy farming community), and Guacimal (economy based on cattle ranching and dairy). Open access copy available |
