Land Use
Restoring tropical diversity: beating the time tax on species lossBackgroundRemnant tropical forests are being deforested at approximately the same rates as cleared lands revert to secondary forest, leading to a fragmented or patchwork landscape. Small patches of remnant forest may remain, but these inevitably lose species to local extinction. Despite forestation rates that may appear relatively stable on paper, vegetation matrices are rapidly changing from a diversity of old-growth species to a much smaller number of early-successional and non-native species that dominate natural-regeneration and reforestation sites. Open access copy available |
Globalization, Forest Resurgence, and Environmental Politics in El SalvadorBackgroundEl Salvador was seen as a classic case study of population growth, deforestation, and loss of biodiversity, yet contemporary studies have not supported these claims. Instead, it has been found that forest cover in El Salvador today is actually greater than previously estimated, including remnant forest, reforested areas, plantations, smallholder and NTFP plantations. This resource explores the potential drivers for this unsuspected reforestation. Open access copy available |
