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Scientific and public interest in acid deposition and its ecological impacts have increased throughout 1990s in East Asia (Northeast and Southeast Asia). After being established in 2001, the Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET) celebrates the 20th anniversary in 2021, and is now being expanded in scope reflecting the shifting social concern from acid deposition to broader air quality and climate change in recent years. This paper reviews the past 30 years of development of scientific research and policy related to acid deposition in East Asia. Since the onset of the twenty-first century, East Asia has had the highest SO2 and NOx emissions in the world by continents, with substantial economic developmental inequality among countries. An overview of studies on sulfur and nitrogen deposition, the acidification of inland water and forest soil, and forest decline reveal that although limited acidification of inland water and forest soils have been documented, no decline in the populations of fish and other aquatic biota has been reported in East Asia. After a review of policy-oriented modeling studies on source receptor relationships and the critical loads of sulfur and nitrogen in East Asia, the history of EANET and its success and challenges are discussed. Finally, the importance of epistemic communities as the interface between science and policy in the region is discussed. Regional governance and cooperation are essential for reducing the emission of greenhouse gases, especially short-lived climate pollutants and atmospheric pollutants to realize the co-benefits of global climate change mitigation and improved air quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I Ambio i will commemorate 50 years of publication all through 2021. Even more encouraging is that the researcher community increasingly finds it worthwhile to cite our articles (as shown in the average number of citations from articles published in I Ambio i in the past 2 years, i.e. journal impact factor, IF (Fig. Finally, and similar to the situation in many other journals, I Science i and I Nature i are cited most often in our articles apart from I Ambio i itself (can be seen from the large circles positioned close to I Ambio i in Fig. In 2016, I Ambio i became one of more than 1850 Springer Nature journals taking part in the I Read and Publish Agreement i where authors affiliated with eligible institutions could read and publish I Ambio i articles at no cost to the individual authors. [Extracted from the article]

In this sense, Gerschenkron's latecomer argument fits easily into a world systemic understanding of policymaking that features "relations" between nations. Ambio. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-021-01558-2 Introduction Our "Whither the Forest Transition' article (Rudel et al. [5]) reviews the usefulness of the forest transition concept in light of recent global changes in forest cover and forest policies. In their comment, Liebman and Gagliano ([3]) claim that our argument ignores the place of the forest transitioning nations in the world system. [Extracted from the article]

Forest decline in Ethiopia is highlighted by several authors but there is no consensus on its causes and consequences. The objective of this study is to investigate, from sociopolitical and geographical perspectives, the linkage between the trend of forest decline and changes in the social, economic, and political pattern in the Awassa watershed over a 100-year perspective. Field observations, satellite image and map analyses, interviews, and literature studies were employed, and natural indicators were analyzed. The findings indicate that the forest area declined from about 40% at the turn of the 19th century to less than 3% in the year 2000. Forest decline in the study area during the elected time period is the result of the combination of biophysical and social conditions. Important causes are geographic properties, sociopolitical changes, population growth, unstable land tenure principles, agricultural development, and the improvement of transport capacity. The main conclusions are as follows: Already in the early 20th century forest decline was in progress and forests were attributed an insignificant economic classification. Large areas of forest were cut down during periods of political transition when as a result of the political vacuum, interest in the protection of resources including forests was lacking. Long-term planning efforts to manage forests were obstructed by uncertainty resulting from land tenure principle change during each political period. The sparse area of forest land that remains is becoming increasingly attractive as potential land for arable agriculture because of improved road access between the study area and distant markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study provides an example of mapping tropical forest cover from SPOT-Vegetation satellite images of coarse spatial resolution (1 km) for the subregion of insular Southeast Asia. A satellite image mosaic has been generated from satellite images acquired for the period 1998 to 2000. Forest cover has been mapped by unsupervised digital classification. The mapping result has then been compared to selected forest maps from the subregion, demonstrating the potential to provide basic information on forest area extent and distribution, but also on massive forest cover change in the subregional context. Forest area estimates derived from the map for the subregion have been found comparable to those compiled by FAO. The results indicate that many of the remaining tropical forests in Southeast Asia, rich in timber resources and biodiversity, may be lost in the near future if deforestation continues at present or previous rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]