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Carbon-based payments for ecosystem services solely consider afforestation and reforestation to assess sequestration. However, political ecology researchers demonstrate that tropical forests are complex socioecological systems where humans and institutions play an integral role in shaping landscapes. The current framing overlooks the net effect of traditional subsistence agriculturalists leaving behind low emission lifestyles, despite the likelihood of a significant increase in per capita emissions over time. In this case study, we use the history of forest use in the Pueblos Mancomunados—a commonwealth of indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Mexico—to explore sequestration through a socioecological systems lens. As negative emissions programs consider afforestation, we triangulated semistructured interviews, an unsupervised GIS classification of land cover, and a review of carbon dioxide emissions to consider out-migration, abandonment, and lifestyle change. We find that communities are struggling to maintain livelihoods as migration to urban centers and the United States continues. Meanwhile, spatial analysis revealed 800 ha of afforestation. Our analysis of out-migration scenarios and per capita emissions changes identified a tipping point in which no net-sequestration would occur from afforestation due to the changing lifestyles of the migrants and recommend improved local development to avoid this form of "leakage" when assessing global carbon stocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change impacts can negatively affect tourism demand and, subsequently, local economies by disrupting access and altering physical conditions, including those from adaptation and recovery efforts. Research is needed that helps destinations become more climate ready, including studies of decision factors that influence trip-taking behaviors. This paper presents findings from a discrete choice experiment to determine how physical and economic changes could affect visitation behaviors to a vulnerable coastal destination, the Outer Banks region of North Carolina, USA. We embedded our experiment within an on-site visitor survey to reveal thresholds of negative changes to coastal attributes that tourists are willing to tolerate, and also examined tourists' willingness to substitute their future trips to the region. Transportation-related changes had the highest relative importance among the four selected attributes. The likelihood of three types of spatial substitution, spurred by not being able to access the destination, were consistently related to residency but less consistently related to place meanings, visitation history, and other demographic variables. Study results can inform climate change planning within coastal zones to minimize negative impacts to tourism demand, such as the need to develop creative revenue streams to maintain resilience in communities that rely on occupancy taxes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This study considers organic coffee certification and deforestation in the El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve of Chiapas, Mexico. Land reform, dating back to the revolution, has created a complex context for measuring land use change. The locally improved price of organic production, maintained yield, and plantation growth rate—twice that of conventional producers—raise questions about potential deforestation. While consumers believe organic does not deforest, no measurements are taken during inspection. As communal land privatizes without an established baseline for land use change, improved organic certification inspections are needed to verify good practices and advance forest conservation in the coffee sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]