Land Use Change and Trends
Bosques tropicales y cambio climático: Un manual temático para líderes religiosos y comunidades de feEspañolAntecedentesOpen access copy available |
Restauración ecológica en un clima cambiante: ¿Es imprescindible un cambio de modelo?EspañolAntecedentesOpen 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 |
Tropical forest restoration: Fast resilience of plant biomass contrasts with slow recovery of stable soil C stocksBackgroundThe study looks at three land-use types: 1) land left barren after a clear-cut in the 1950s, with only a sparse cover of shrubs, grasses, and vines, 2) a Eucalyptus exserta plantation established in the 1960s, and 3) a eucalyptus plantation that was clear-cut in 1974 and converted into a plantation of native tree species, now considered a secondary forest. The biomass and soil carbon (C) of these three land-use types were compared to a nearby natural old-growth forest. Open access copy available |
Mangrove recruitment after forest disturbance is facilitated by herbaceous species in the CaribbeanBackgroundAvailable with subscription or purchase |
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 |
Advances in remote sensing technology and implications for measuring and monitoring forest carbon stocks and changeBackgroundUsing satelite images to monitor forest cover has advanced significantly in the past few decades but it still requires time to move into operation readiness. This article contributes to this progress through discussing how new technologies (i.e. improved satelite images and Lidar) can be used to improve monitoring of above ground carbon estimates. It specifically focusses on using Lidar technology and how moving Lidar devices from moving planes to satelite equipment could improve Carbon stock estimates. Open access copy available |
How pervasive is biotic homogenization in human-modified tropical forest landscapes?BackgroundLand-cover change and ecosystem degradation often lead to biotic homogenization. Yet, there is knowledge gaps regarding this phenomena, which this study seeks to fill. Solar et al. (2015) monitor the change in biodiversity along a land use gradient ranging from primary forest to severely degraded and human dominated landscapes. Open access copy available |
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 |
