Land Use Practices
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 |
Strategies and innovations for capacity building on ecological restorationBackgroundOpen access copy available |
Rainforestation Case Study: The Cienda-San Vicente Farmers Association ExperienceBackgroundOpen access copy available |
Leaders in Action: Achieving Forest Landscape Restoration Through Online LearningBackgroundBetween May 2016 and March 2017, the Environmental Leadership and Training Initiative and IUCN conducted six online courses titled “Forest Landscape Restoration in the Tropics.” These courses were in response to the emerging trend of countries committed to restoring millions of hectares of land via the forest landscape restoration approach, which aims to achieve ecological, economic, and social benefits simultaneously. This paper highlights numerous success stories of individuals who participated in these courses. Open access copy available |
Ecological Restoration and Sustainable Agricultural LandscapesBackgroundThis paper summarizes the talks of 2013 symposium held in Bogota, Colombia titled Ecological Restoration and Sustainable Agricultural Landscapes. The talks center around the pressing issue of balancing agricultural demands and the need to conserve biodiversity. They discuss current initiatives throughout Latin America that seek to both conserve and restore productive landscapes. Five talks in total are summarized touching on subjects ranging from agroforestry to silvopastoral systems to capacity building. Open access copy available |
The Contribution of Traditional Agroforestry to Climate Change Adaptation in the Ecuadorian Amazon: The Chakra SystemBackgroundThis article explores the amazonian-indigenous "chakra" agroforestry system, and its utility as a forest management practice that sequesters carbon, increases food security, grows valuable timber, and acts as a habitat connectivity. The size of these cultivated areas range from 0.4 - 4ha, and include species such as anioc (Manihot esculenta Crantz), banana (Musa paradisiaca L.), peach palm (Bactris gasipaes Kunth), fine-flavored cacao (Theobroma cacaoL.) and robusta coffee (Coffea canephora Pierre ex A. Froehner), and a variety of medicinals. Open access copy available |
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 |
Factors influencing community participation in mangroves restoration: A contingent valuation analysisBackgroundThis paper analyzes the willingness of a household to participate and pay for the benefits of a mangrove restoration program in the West Coast of India. In the second half of the twentieth century, this region has been threatened by shrimp cultivation, industrial development and hydroelectric projects, which overall made mangroves recede substantially. Available with subscription or purchase |
Does tree planting change minds? Assessing the use of community participation in reforestation to address illegal logging in West KalimantanBackgroundIn this study, Pohnan et al. evaluated the social impacts of the local NGO Alam Sehat Lestari (ASRI) restoration program that took place in Gunung Palung National Park in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, an area that host numerous endangered species and that has been degraded by illegal logging for the past several decades. Open access copy available |
Social Capital in Biodiversity Conservation and ManagementBackgroundThe article begins with a description of the opposing views of the roles of smallholders in conservation strategies. On the one hand they directly use resources that external agencies attempt to protect, on the other hand these people have intimate knowledge of these systems. Thus leading to the question, “Could local people play a greater role in biodiversity conservation and management?” (Pretty, 2004). Open access copy available |
