Markets
Industrial Resource Extraction and Infrastructure Development in Tropical ForestsBackgroundThis publication summarizes the proceedings of a 2012 conference held in Panama City, Panama titled "Industrial Resource Extraction and Infrastructure Development in Tropical Forests" The conference sought to explore how the continued increase in economic interest in natural resource extraction can be beneficial connected to the protection of tropical forests. The conference gathered scientists, decision makers, academics, government officials, representatives from NGOs and the private sector, and community and indigenous leaders and involved opening and closing remarks along with four panels. Open access copy available |
Drug Policy as Conservation Policy: Narco-DeforestationBackgroundCentral America exploded into prominence as a drug trafficking corridor in the last decade. The authors documented that an unprecedented flow of cocaine into Central America “coincided with a period of extensive forest loss”. The authors discuss the evidence that supports the idea that "trafficking of drugs (principally cocaine) has become a crucial—and overlooked—accelerant of forest loss” in Central America. Open access copy available |
Impact of Forest Management on Species Richness: Global Meta-Analysis and Economic Trade-offsBackgroundThis study is a meta-analysis of data from forests managed for timber harvest to assess the conservation value of these forests. From processing data from 287 published studies they rank the following forest management systems from best to worst in terms of conservation value: selection and retention systems, reduced impact logging, conventional selective logging, clear-cutting, agroforestry, timber plantations, fuelwood plantations. They also conducted analysis of net present value in these same systems and found unsurprisingly that the ranking for net present value was different. Open access copy available |
Abreha Weatsbeha Community Ethiopia: Equator Initiative Case Studies. Sustainable Development Solutions for people, nature and resilient communitiesBackgroundThis report from UNDP is intended to "the the full story ofhow (innovative sustainable developments solutions) evolve,the breadth of their impacts (and) how they change over time" through the case study of Abreha we Atsbeha in Ethiopia. Out of 800 contestants, the community in Abreha we Atsbeha was awarded the Equator Prize in along with US$20,000 in 2012 in recognition of their tremendous work on the restoration of degraded land and subsequent increases in food security, nutrition, and local livelihoods. Open access copy available |
Shade-grown coffee in Puerto Rico: Opportunities to preserve biodiversity while reinvigorating a struggling agricultural commodityBackgroundCoffee has been a traditional crop in Puerto Rico since the mid-1700s. As the global market became more competitive in the 20th century, the Puerto Rican government provided subsidies and policies to protect the sector as well as promoted the transition to shade grown coffee for higher yields in the 1980s. The researchers surveyed 100 farms and 5 agronomists to determine attitudes about this transition. Open access copy available |
Lattice-work corridors for climate change: a conceptual framework for biodiversity conservation and social-ecological resilience in a tropical elevational gradientBackgroundOpen access copy available |
Agro-Successional Restoration as a Strategy to Facilitate Tropical Forest RecoveryBackgroundAbandoned agricultural lands have been increasingly around the world, forcing a recent drive to restore and reforest these lands. Yet, in the tropics there is often limited funding to meet the needs of restoration and the activities conflict with the uses of natural resources that contribute to human livelihoods. This paper outlines agro-successional restoration as a solution to these issues. Open access copy available |
Mangrove rehabilitation: a review focusing on ecological and institutional issuesBackgroundThis article addresses the pressures and threats and the impetus for rehabilitation in mangroves around the world. It also examines rehabilitation techniques from the institutional and biophysical planning systems, including an overview of the rehabilitation process. Finally, it includes a discussion on what the authors consider a major issue for rehabilitation: failure and success in different projects and integrated approaches Open access copy available |
Case Study: Community Based Ecological Mangrove Rehabilitation (CBEMR) in IndonesiaBackgroundMangrove plantings in Indonesia have typically failed for a number of reasons including inappropriate site selection, inappropriate species selection, and/or conflict over land tenure. The authors discussed ecological mangrove rehabilitation (EMR) and its use in Indonesia, which required a more socio-cultural-political apprach as compared with EMR in the United States. 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 |
