Land Use
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 |
Development of the soil macrofauna community under silvopastoral and agrosilvicultural systems in AmazoniaBackgroundThe Brazilian Amazon has experienced extensive land conversion from forests to cattle pasture, many of which now lay abandoned. Agro-forestry serves as one potential solution to this problem and this study examines the re-establishment of a diversified soil macrofauna in order to inform this approach. 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 |
Regional and global concerns over wetlands and water qualityBackgroundThis paper examines the ecological role of wetlands in agricultural cachements and examines the dymamics of nutrient loading in wetlands at a local and watershed scale. Available with subscription or purchase |
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 |
Conserving Tropical Tree Diversity and Forest Structure: The Value of Small Rainforest Patches in Moderately-Managed LandscapesBackgroundDue to deforestation and degradation in rainforests, there has been an increase in small forest patches yet there is limited understanding of this structures contribution to biodiversity and ecosystem services. The authors of this study attempt to answer this question through studying a a moderately managed landscape in the tropics of Mexic Open access copy available |
