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The biennial Visual Resource Stewardship conferences of 2017, 2019, and 2021 were designed to catalyze new ideas and innovation between academia, practice, NGOs, and government agencies who work to address the analysis, planning, valuation, design, and management of visual resources. This Special Issue is a compilation of articles from these conferences that represent a broad perspective of research and project works focused on visual, scenic, and landscape resource assessment and management. With the foundation set for a new conference, a conference planning committee was formalized with a vision to expand the reach and dissemination of activities within the subject area. [Extracted from the article]

The agro-industrial grain industry generates a large amount of waste, which is often discarded, leading to environmental problems and the potential loss of valuable resources. However, in recent years an innovative approach has emerged that aims to use this waste to obtain cellulose, a compound with several industrial applications. The process of extracting cellulose from agroindustrial by-products of the food industry involves stages such as harvesting and milling, followed by a chemical and/or enzymatic treatment to obtain pure cellulose. Dependence on primary sources of pulp such as wood is reduced, thus contributing to the conservation of forests and natural ecosystems. In addition, the use of agro-industrial waste for pulp production reduces the amount of waste burned or poorly discarded, thus minimizing the environmental impacts associated with its disposal. Inadequate, in addition to the environmental benefits, the use of agro-industrial waste to obtain cellulose can also generate economic opportunities for many families who can use this medium to grow economically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research described in this paper focuses on the development of an innovative unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) tailored for a specific mission: detecting the acoustic signature emitted by chainsaws, identifying deforestation, and reporting its location for legality assessment. Various calculations were conducted to determine the optimal solution, resulting in the choice of a fixed-wing UAV. A comparative analysis between tri-rotor and quadcopter systems was performed, leading to the selection of the tri-rotor configuration. The primary objective of this study is to design an innovative hybrid UAV concept with key features including a fixed-wing design and integrated VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) capability in the experimental model. The aircraft has been constructed using advanced materials such as fiber-reinforced polymer composites, manufactured using both conventional and advanced techniques like continuous fiber additive manufacturing and the use of a polymer matrix. Additionally, the aerodynamic configuration is optimized to achieve a cruise speed of approximately 50 km/h and a flight autonomy exceeding 3 h. The UAV has been equipped with payloads for mounting sensors to collect meteorological data, and crucially, the VTOL system has been optimized to vectorize thrust for improved performance during the transition from hover to cruise flight. This paper details the entire manufacturing and assembly process of the drone, covering both the structural framework and associated electrical installations. A dedicated sound detection system is incorporated into the drone to identify chainsaw noise, with the aim of preventing deforestation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detecting and localizing standing dead trees (SDTs) is crucial for effective forest management and conservation. Due to challenges posed by mountainous terrain and road conditions, conducting a swift and comprehensive survey of SDTs through traditional manual inventory methods is considerably difficult. In recent years, advancements in deep learning and remote sensing technology have facilitated real-time and efficient detection of dead trees. Nevertheless, challenges persist in identifying individual dead trees in airborne remote sensing images, attributed to factors such as small target size, mutual occlusion and complex backgrounds. These aspects collectively contribute to the increased difficulty of detecting dead trees at a single-tree scale. To address this issue, the paper introduces an improved You Only Look Once version 7 (YOLOv7) model that incorporates the Simple Parameter-Free Attention Module (SimAM), an unparameterized attention mechanism. This improvement aims to enhance the network's feature extraction capabilities and increase the model's sensitivity to small target dead trees. To validate the superiority of SimAM_YOLOv7, we compared it with four widely adopted attention mechanisms. Additionally, a method to enhance model robustness is presented, involving the replacement of the Complete Intersection over Union (CIoU) loss in the original YOLOv7 model with the Wise-IoU (WIoU) loss function. Following these, we evaluated detection accuracy using a self-developed dataset of SDTs in forests. The results indicate that the improved YOLOv7 model can effectively identify dead trees in airborne remote sensing images, achieving precision, recall and mAP@0.5 values of 94.31%, 93.13% and 98.03%, respectively. These values are 3.67%, 2.28% and 1.56% higher than those of the original YOLOv7 model. This improvement model provides a convenient solution for forest management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest discourses help identify forest-related issues. They aim to aid policy and decision-makers in understanding forest-related challenges and opportunities better so that they may initiate possible strategies and tactics to tackle them. Ideally, information requirements for the forest discourses would be translated into measurable variables, being the basis for collecting, analysing, and reporting data and information. Our study examined the connection between major international forest reporting processes and forest discourses. We analysed summaries and key findings for policy makers of five recent major forest reports. We compared their focus with forest discourses on climate change, forest conservation, deforestation, forest decline, illegal logging, industrial forestry/bioeconomy, traditional knowledge, woody biomass production, and innovative wood-based biofuels. The paper explores how the forest discourses are reflected in the surveyed documents and closely examines the specific focus areas in the summaries for policy makers. The results show that most forest discourses are generally well-represented, albeit with different foci. The discourse on illegal logging could not be identified in any investigated documents, even though it remains a significant concern for international forest policy. Keywords related to traditional knowledge and woody biomass production could not be found in two of the analysed findings. All analysed summaries and key findings mention issues related to the climate change discourse topic. However, they lack information on emissions from deforestation, carbon dioxide emissions and carbon budgets, which are high in political discussions. The paper highlights how discourse issues have gained in complexity both topic-wise and regarding the reporting obligations, as policy and decisionmakers require more timely and comprehensive information about the status' and trends of forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on deforestation, a key aspect of the current environmental decline linked to worldwide economic development and increasing populations. It examines how renewable energy consumption (RENC), GDP per capita, urbanization (URB) and foreign direct investments (FDI) have influenced the expansion of forest areas (FAG) in Romania from 1990 to 2022, utilizing an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model and the Bayer–Hanck cointegration approach. The main results of the paper are the following: GDP has a positive and statistically significant long-term influence on FAG; URB and FDI have a long-term negative impact on FAG; and RENC is not a significant determinant of FAG. In the short term, a 1% increase in URB leads to an 809.88% decrease in FAG, while a 1% increase in the first and second lag of URB leads to a 323.06%, and 216.26% increase in FAG. This suggests that as more land is developed for urban use (like building homes, businesses, and infrastructure), the immediate consequence is a significant reduction in the area available for forests. This effect indicates a strong inverse relationship between urbanization and the availability of land for forests in the short term. Our results underscore the importance of sustainable development strategies, including green urban planning and robust forest conservation, to offset the adverse effects of increased FDI on Romania's environmental conservation, emphasizing the need for careful strategic planning and strong environmental policies to balance economic growth with forest protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the failure to account for the value of standing tropical forests, and of ecosystem services in general, in economic decision-making. This blindness to the values of nature has led to overexploitation, degradation and destruction of tropical forests, which, in turn, has also significantly contributed to greenhouse gas emissions. Forest conservation and restoration has a critical role to play in the fight against climate change and brings a vast array of additional benefits, from security in water, energy, food, health and livelihoods to maintaining biodiversity itself as a core component of our living planet. As first Minister of Environment and Energy under President Oscar Arias (1986–1990), I brought these views into societal decision-making in Costa Rica and here I briefly describe how. This article is part of the theme issue 'Bringing nature into decision-making'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international initiative to combat deforestation and forest degradation, known as REDD+, was put on the DRC agenda following actors' policy discourse aimed at convincing policy‐makers of its effectiveness. This paper uses discursive institutionalism (DI) as a theoretical and analytical framework to analyse a set of selected policy documents on REDD+ issue and to assess the effects of policy discourse on deforestation reduction governance in DRC. From an empirical standpoint, interviews with key actors involved in the DRC REDD+ processes and field observations show that four main types of discourse accompanied the adoption of REDD+ in the DRC: a discourse promoting REDD+ through its forest conservation component, as a policy instrument that would bring in significant financial resources to the DRC forest‐related state bureaucracies, a discourse that considers REDD+ as an efficient mean of reducing poverty while promoting sustainability through "green development", a discourse presenting REDD+ as a way of reducing marginalisation of local communities and indigenous peoples by recognising their customary rights, and finally, a discourse promoting REDD+ as a tool for territorial planning and governance. In addition, the paper points out strong links between DRC REDD+ policy discourse and three types of governance approaches: organisational and fiduciary governance, territorial governance, local development and benefit sharing governance. Our analysis also shows that political discourse has played a significant role in the adoption of substantial policies aimed at reducing deforestation in DRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The English colonial plan of converting Jamaica into a settler colony was challenged by the Maroons who established communities in the interior of the island. Living in the forests at the edge of the expanding plantation system, Maroons were feared by aspiring white settlercolonists. The zone where the plantation and white settlements met the Maroon de-facto territory became a frontier zone, where race, belonging, and freedom were contested. The Maroons inspired Black revolt and dreams of freedom, but after signing treaties ending their war against the English in the mid-18th century, the Maroons became dreaded by non-Maroon Blacks in Jamaica. Fear of the Maroons had productive and protective effects on the physical environment; the conservation of much of Jamaica's interior was one of these effects. The paper uses colonial era admissions of this fear as openings for showing how Jamaican conservation was shaped by the Maroons as spatial actors. The paper proposes conceptualizing the afforesting outcomes of marronage as arboreal side-effects, geographical and ecological consequences that are denied in foremost accounts of colonial forest conservation. The paper illustrates the importance of considering Black spatial thought, race and the geographic imaginary (Black Geographies) alongside the connections between antiblackness, the exploitation of nature, and the imperatives of ecological justice (Black ecologies). Reading Maroon practices and histories through and as Black geographies, the paper argues for a subaltern environmental history of Jamaica that affirms Black spatial agency and epistemologies. Consequently, the paper helps clarify marronage as a material-ecological as well as social-political process that is always shaped by the morphology of power and the landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the implications of climate crisis governance for rural communities in the Amazon of Peru. It draws the attention to the shared political economy behind the resistance of diverse rural populations particularly, Indigenous and Colono communities. Based on an analysis of two local conservation interventions in the region of San Martín—one involving indigenous communities and the other peasant settlers—this study argues that narrow authorized knowledge obscures the wider historical and agrarian macro context of uneven institutional and ecological arrangements that lead to the reproduction of injustices related to the land, the underlying causes of deforestation, and the authoritarian relationships of these local communities with the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present thirty-one percent of overall forest cover is not enough to conserve biological diversity globally and so the need to conserve the last global forests (Powlen et al., 2021). Kenya has experienced significant degradation of forest resources in the last 40 years. In 2005, the government passed a forest legislation that allows communities adjacent to forests to co-manage forests. This paper evaluated the driving force of community involvement in participatory forest management. The paper adopted a descriptive research design targeting forest-adjacent communities. A questionnaire and interview schedule were used for data collection. A pilot study was conducted, and research tools were carefully revised to ensure the validity and reliability of the content. The paper used Taro Yamane's sampling formula to extract 255 respondents from a total of 671 households surrounding the forest. Quantitative data were evaluated using inferential statistics. The results were presented in tables and discussed appropriately. The results showed that 45.90% of the respondents are affiliated with one of the conservation user groups, while 54.1% of respondents were not affiliated with any Kodera Forest conservation groups. Based on Pearson's chi-square test statistic (43.449 with p-value = 0.000), it was clear that there was a significant association between education level and perception of forest user group importance. Similarly, the chi-square results suggested that there is a statistically significant association between participation in conservation activities and respondents' monthly expenditure at the conventional level of significance (α = 0.05). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forests are subject to a huge variety of often competing socio-economic demands and environmental change. This paper assesses the related conflicts that occur along what we label to be a "Global Forest Environmental Frontier". Assessing 11 contributions to a special issue on the same topic, it summarizes the main contents of these papers and concludes with an assessment of major trends. The contributions to the special issue take both a regional and topic-related approach, assessing forest environmental conflicts on all five forested continents and investigating issues such as forest biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation and mitigation, environmental justice and equity, development, and forest management and conservation discourses. Taken together, they provide an overview on the multiple facets of the Global Forest Environmental Frontier, but also identify some shared patterns and trajectories, which are outlined at the end of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To gain a thorough grasp of the soil quality conditions in the preservation forests along the Tarim Desert Highway, a detailed assessment of the research area's soil quality is necessary, along with the identification of any potential obstacles. This evaluation should identify any potential obstacles and provide a theoretical basis for the sustainable utilization and precise management of protection forest soils. This paper examines the protection forest along the Tarim Desert Highway as the study area. To characterize the features of the soil quality, thirteen indicators of the chemical, physical, and biological composition of the soil were examined. The principal component analysis method was used to construct the minimum dataset (MDS) for soil quality evaluation. The diagnostic model for obstacle factors was combined with the MDS to explore the soil quality characteristics and obstacle factors in the study region. The findings indicated that (1) the constructed indexes of the MDS of protection forest soil in the study area included soil ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N); quick-acting phosphorus (AvP); organic carbon (SOC); alkaline phosphatase (AP); and total salt (SS); (2) soil quality based on the MDS and the total dataset (TDS) showed a significant positive correlation (R2 = 0.748; p < 0.05), and the research region's soil quality were all in the medium and below level (100% of SQI ≤ 0.6), showing the status quo of high soil quality in the two ends of the shelterbelt forest and the tower center area, while the other areas were relatively low; (3) according to the findings of the soil barrier analysis, the two main obstacles influencing the soil quality of the shelterbelt forest at this time are NH4+-N and SOC, and that the soil quality of the shelterbelt forest could be improved by artificially increasing the inputs of nutrients and precise conservation measures, promoting the overall function of artificial protective forests on desert highways. In addition to providing a solid scientific foundation for the sustainable use and maintenance of shelterbelt forests along the Tarim Desert Highway, this study is also an invaluable resource for researching the soil quality of artificial shelterbelt forests in arid regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The policy of resettling the Batin Sembilan people, from living in the forest and finding food in the forest to living in housing, has created complex socio-cultural dynamics related to community food security. This article explains the various socio-cultural implications of the Batin Sembilan people in food security and diversification. Orang Batin Sembilan in this paper is a community group that lives in the Bahar River area in Jambi, and is settled in Kelumpang village in the Hutan Harapan area, under the guidance of PT. REKI, a non-profit company engaged in ecosystem conservation by managing forest areas in Jambi. The purpose of this research is to understand how the Orang Batin Sembilan have come from a nomadic way of life to living in a settlement by utilizing limited forest products and starting to plant and have their own fish ponds in the neighborhood. A deep understanding of the process of changing ways of life and changing food culture in various dimensions provides a model for problem solving and lessons learned for the preparation of community food security plans. Using qualitative methods, and an ethnographic approach, the results showed that the long process of changing the nomadic way of life in the forest to the settlement area made Orang Batin Sembilan independent in food and created diversification of food sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At less than one percent of Malaysia's total population, the Orang Asli (Peninsular Malaysia's Indigenous Peoples) lack political clout; state nonrecognition of their land rights constitutes a fundamental reason for the economic and social ills faced by their communities. This article examines the protection of Semai Orang Asli customary territories from a cultural heritage perspective. Drawing on a study of traditional place-names and oral history, it describes how forests, other than existing as the Semai ancestral domain, continue to be the lifeblood of Semai culture and economic production. The paper examines state-owned forest reserves and the role these play in Semai cultural continuity, including traditional livelihoods such as agroforestry and swidden agriculture. Forest reserves are on the frontier of resource extraction and forest conservation in Malaysia; however, because these comprise the customary territories of Orang Asli, they also signify the frontier of forest-dependent Indigeneity. The paper weaves a narrative of Semai forest dependence, and concludes with a discussion of the prospects for a World Heritage Cultural Landscape (WHCL) designation as a possible avenue for protecting Semai customary territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forests are an essential part of the ecosystem and play an irreplaceable role in maintaining the balance of the ecosystem and protecting biodiversity. The monitoring of forest distribution plays an important role in the conservation and management of forests. This paper analyzes and compares the performance of imagery from GF-1 WFV, Landsat 8, and Sentinel-2 satellites with respect to forest/non-forest classification tasks using the random forest algorithm (RF). The results show that in the classification task of this paper, although the differences in classification accuracy among the three satellite datasets are not remarkable, the Sentinel-2 data have the highest accuracy, GF-1 WFV the second highest, and Landsat 8 the lowest. In addition, it was found that remotely sensed data of different processing levels show little influence on the classification accuracy with respect to the forest/non-forest classification task. However, the classification accuracy of the top of the atmosphere reflectance product was the most stable, and the vegetation index has a marginal effect on the distinction between forest and non-forest areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As it is known that "reconnecting to nature" is essential for sustainability, there are few studies on why reconnecting humans to nature is essential and how it can be accomplished. This study is aimed at finding innovative, yet sustainable ways to reconnect people with nature. The objective of the paper is to enhance the biodiversity knowledge of local residents through conservation of non-timber forest products (NTFPs). In the study, urban respondents' knowledge about biodiversity with particular reference to non-timber forest products (NTFPs) was analysed for the first time. To achieve the objective of this study, participatory appraisal, one-on-one interviews, dual moderator focus groups, ethnographic field research, and semi-structured questionnaire were used. Plant name boards with local names and their NTFP values for the selected species were also installed. Results suggest that NTFP-producing species played a vital role in making people interested in biodiversity. It can be considered as one of the innovative ways to improve surrounding biodiversity, for further enhancing biodiversity knowledge, based on archival study and local community's knowledge about NTFP producing species, NTFPs plantation also done across the study area like parks, roadside, open space. This paper also explored how this study could contribute to the formulation of policies in terms of creating various urban green covers in Indian cities, following the strategies of joint forest management, social forestry, and agroforestry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Litter raking was a traditional forest use representing an interface between forestry and agriculture. In forest history, it has usually been presented as the harmful removal by peasants of biomass, which was gradually eliminated by foresters, leading to better forest preservation. Based on the example of an exceptionally well-documented case of illegal litter raking in Moravia in 1845, in this paper I argue that juxtaposing foresters and peasants in connection with litter raking masks a much more complicated reality. Neither foresters nor peasants can be interpreted as homogeneous groups because there were significant differences in the opinions and agendas of various representatives within these groups. In addition, opinions were not static on either side but could change in a discursive pattern. In a wider context, the environmental historical analysis of the Horka litter raking incident facilitates the understanding of larger societal processes that influenced past woodland management in Central Europe, and therefore current ecosystems too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comprehensive forest mapping system using a customized drone payload equipped with Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), cameras, a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), and Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensors. The goal is to develop an efficient solution for collecting accurate forest data in dynamic environments and to highlight potential wildfire regions of interest to support precise forest management and conservation on the ground. Our paper provides a detailed description of the hardware and software components of the system, covering sensor synchronization, data acquisition, and processing. The overall system implements simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) techniques, particularly Fast LiDAR Inertial Odometry with Scan Context (FASTLIO-SC), and LiDAR Inertial Odometry Smoothing and Mapping (LIOSAM), for accurate odometry estimation and map generation. We also integrate a fuel mapping representation based on one of the models, used by the United States Secretary of Agriculture (USDA) to classify fire behavior, into the system using semantic segmentation, LiDAR camera registration, and odometry as inputs. Real-time representation of fuel properties is achieved through a lightweight map data structure at 4 Hz. The research results demonstrate the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed system and show that it can provide accurate forest data collection, accurate pose estimation, and comprehensive fuel mapping with precision values for the main segmented classes above 85%. Qualitative evaluations suggest the system's capabilities and highlight its potential to improve forest management and conservation efforts. In summary, this study presents a versatile forest mapping system that provides accurate forest data for effective management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Aerospace Research in Bulgaria is the property of Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Space Research & Technology Institute (SRTI-BAS) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper describes how the data shows the readiness of Kalimantan candidates for capital city before the establishment of East Kalimantan as a new capital. This type of research is descriptive qualitative using interview and documentation methods. The findings of the research from the three regions studied are the municipalities of Palangka Raya, Katingan Regency and Gunung Mas Regency that the three regions have made some preparations in responding to the discourse of moving the capital as did the city of Palangka Raya in the form of building road expansion, expansion and renovation of city parks and expansion Airport area. While the Katingan district, is preparing candidates for airports, ports and areas of forest conservation, production forests, agriculture and offices. The same thing is also done by Gunung Mas who has poured in the regional spatial plan for 2014 - 2034, it can be said that the availability of land for the construction of office infrastructure and other development areas has shown adequate readiness and can meet the expectations of the community in service development, so that the availability of the land meets the expectations and discourse of moving the capital of the Republic of Indonesia to Gunung Mas Regency, Central Kalimantan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do firms address complex collective action problems effectively? Institutional and stakeholder research suggests that firms may avoid the tragedy of the commons by aligning the interests of critical proximate stakeholders in ways that governments cannot accomplish. This phenomenological paper investigates this possibility by analyzing Amazon rainforest preservation by Natura, a Brazilian cosmetics company. The results indicate that Natura internalized environmental externalities by linking ecologically conscious consumers with rural Amazonian communities. A differences-in-differences analysis compares forest preservation and fire activity in the municipalities that Natura entered with those in which it did not enter. Natura's impact is identified through an instrumental variable analysis using missing satellite images, which Natura relied upon to decide which municipalities to enter. Quantitative results tie Natura's entry into municipalities with forest preservation. Analysis of three mechanisms associates Natura's involvement with stakeholder decisions to cultivate diverse forest-generated crops instead of clearing the land for conventional agriculture. This study contributes to the management literature by suggesting how firms can address important global challenges, such as rainforest preservation, by investing in stakeholder capability development and by creating institutional arrangements in line with those envisioned elsewhere. This paper was accepted by George Serafeim, Special Section of Management Science on Business and Climate Change. Funding: This work was supported by the Clarkson Centre for Business Ethics [CAD 7,500.00] and Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Supplemental Material: The data files and online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4884. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Forestry Review is the property of Commonwealth Forestry Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

1 Forested landscapes as multidisciplinary spaces contributing to all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (modified from Mansourian [12]) However, forest landscapes are under pressure with the loss of forest areas by conversion to other land uses and degradation of existing forests, and reduced biodiversity. The paper of Jandl et al. ([11]) considers the strategy of non-management and of the reliance solely on natural forest dynamics as an optimal approach for adapting forests to climate change. Forests and forest landscapes, characterised by dominant forest areas with other embedded land uses, fulfil multiple essential ecosystem services (ES). With this, forests and forest landscapes may lose their characteristic structural and ecological features, and societies worldwide face diminishing levels of ecosystem services provided by forest landscapes. [Extracted from the article]

The problem of forest degradation and loss has become the concern of many countries. To address this challenge, some collaborate in sustainable forest management. The most successful outcomes, however, are observed where local participation is an essential part of conservation efforts. In Ghana, forests have experienced various degrees of exploitation over the years, resulting in their ecological decline. Despite its designation as a protected area for biodiversity and ecosystem services, the Atewa Range Forest Reserve in Ghana has been significantly impacted by deforestation, illegal mining, and other destructive activities. The purpose of this paper is to examine ecologically based management approaches that could be adopted to generate beneficial outcomes for all forest stakeholders and actors in Ghana. The study sampled forest stakeholders in Kwabeng, the administrative capital of the Atewa West District, to understand forest governance challenges and outline strategies for overcoming them. The study revealed that a bottom‐up all‐inclusive approach to managing forest resources is necessary. This paper, therefore, proposes an integrated forest governance that prioritizes the UN Sustainable Development Goal 15—Life on Land‐related to forest preservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Applied Ecology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Amazon Forest, the largest contiguous tropical forest in the world, stores a significant fraction of the carbon on land. Changes in climate and land use affect total carbon stocks, making it critical to continuously update and revise the best estimates for the region, particularly considering changes in forest dynamics. Forest inventory data cover only a tiny fraction of the Amazon region, and the coverage is not sufficient to ensure reliable data interpolation and validation. This paper presents a new forest above-ground biomass map for the Brazilian Amazon and the associated uncertainty both with a resolution of 250 meters and baseline for the satellite dataset the year of 2016 (i.e., the year of the satellite observation). A significant increase in data availability from forest inventories and remote sensing has enabled progress towards high-resolution biomass estimates. This work uses the largest airborne LiDAR database ever collected in the Amazon, mapping 360,000 km2 through transects distributed in all vegetation categories in the region. The map uses airborne laser scanning (ALS) data calibrated by field forest inventories that are extrapolated to the region using a machine learning approach with inputs from Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR), vegetation indices obtained from the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite, and precipitation information from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). A total of 174 field inventories geolocated using a Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) were used to validate the biomass estimations. The experimental design allowed for a comprehensive representation of several vegetation types, producing an above-ground biomass map varying from a maximum value of 518 Mg ha−1, a mean of 174 Mg ha−1, and a standard deviation of 102 Mg ha−1. This unique dataset enabled a better representation of the regional distribution of the forest biomass and structure, providing further studies and critical information for decision-making concerning forest conservation, planning, carbon emissions estimate, and mechanisms for supporting carbon emissions reductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and land use change are two global and interacting forces of change that have wide‐reaching effects on socio‐ecological systems. Despite their interconnectedness, the two are mostly considered separately in investment programs. Therefore, without an integrated systemic approach that considers these interactions, we will fail to achieve the ambitions to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals. By integrating the Driver‐Pressure‐State‐Impact‐Response framework and the System of Environmental‐Economic Accounts Ecosystem Accounting, this paper assesses how the interlinkages between climate change and land use change can be jointly considered in the design of climate adaptation and ecosystem conservation investments. The analysis points to the following priorities for interventions in an integrated approach: forest conservation, protection of peatlands, climate‐smart agriculture, and restoration of degraded lands. The paper furthermore suggests a set of systemic investment principles that can contribute to capital allocation for climate adaptation and conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Qinghai–Tibet Plateau is a unique global natural geographical unit with a high altitude and fragile ecology, where land cover change has been affecting its regional ecological security and sustainable development. The plateau covers nine countries with different variations in climate change and human activities, which cause significant spatial variations in its land cover change. This paper uses land cover data to reveal the spatiotemporal characteristics and multi-country differences in land cover change on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau from 1992 to 2020 by applying spatiotemporal characteristic analysis and mapping methods. The results show that grassland (65.70%), bare land (15.56%), and woodland (10.25%) are the main types of land cover on the plateau, accounting for 91.51% of the total area. The interconversion of bare land and grassland was dominant in 1992–2020, with an area share of 67.83%. The turning point year of grassland change occurred in 2015. The grassland area increased by 6312 km2 in 1992–2015, while it decreased by 14,646 km2 in the plateau in 2015–2020. The areas of woodland, cropland, and water increased by 2.77%, 5.85%, and 7.57%, respectively, and the area of built-up land increased from 299.17 km2 to 1206.29 km2. Overall, a warming and wetting trend of the climate in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau has driven the expansion of natural vegetation and water in the central plateau within China, with its natural vegetation area increasing by 0.11%. However, the development of regional warming and drying caused local grassland degradation, where Kyrgyzstan and India within the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau experienced the most prominent vegetation degradation. Human activities are relatively frequent in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau within China and India, causing higher growth rates of built-up land and cropland than in other countries. The establishment of reserves and effective forest management policies have led to significant increases in woodland areas in China and Nepal within the plateau, while weak forest management and limited investment in forest conservation have led to high rates of deforestation in India and Myanmar. Accelerated temperature rises and regional differences in precipitation are the main drivers of large-scale land cover change on the plateau and differences in human activities and land use policies are responsible for the dramatic and diverse localized land cover change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mendoza city (Argentina) hosted the VIII Latin American Forestry Congress (CONFLAT) and the V Forestry Congress of Argentina (CFA) in 2023, where relevant issues were addressed, such as climate change, degradation, reforestation, management and forest industry, monitoring, environmental services, social issues, and governance, among others. The objective of this Special Issue was to present the main advances in Forestry Science for Latin-America in the context of changing governance and forest livelihoods for people. The fifteen articles emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of the forest management and conservation, and that multiple variables must be considered to achieve sustainability. The articles come from studies across Southern South-America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay), and the collaboration of researchers of other countries (México, Canada, and Spain). Articles include research in tropical, Mediterranean and temperate Sub-Antarctic forests. Together, these articles provide a snapshot of new forestry research carried out locally and internationally to bring about beneficial ecological and environmental outcomes in a world facing the challenges of sustainable management and conservation amongst the threats and uncertainty of climate change and environmental degradation responsible for extensive loss of biodiversity and environmental services. We believe that this Special Issue will encourage more inter-disciplinary research focusing on management and conservation of forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Logging is essential to provide society with fuel, building materials, furniture and myriad other needs. At the same time, the ecosystem must be conserved so that the resources are sustainable. This paper considers the impact of forestry activities on forest vegetation and soil indicators: mean height, mean diameter, mean age, tree stock, plant density, soil density, thickness and porosity. The authors analyse the effect of five types of forest machinery operating three extraction (skidding) procedures: butt-first, top-end first, and untrimmed trees. Butt-first skidding using the Amkodor 2242B wheeled tractor was found to have a minimal effect on plant valuation indices; the least damage to soil attributes was inflicted by crawler tractors skidding untrimmed trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, shifting cultivation is known to be an important driver of tropical deforestation. However, in this paper, we argue that it can be sustainably managed if the environmental boundary conditions, laid by the traditional customs and practices, are fully respected. We narrate an empirical study from the Zunheboto district of Nagaland, India, where we deployed a mixed research method to explore the Indigenous and Local Knowledge and Practices (ILKPs) associated with shifting cultivation (aka Jhum), particularly concerning farm-level practices, forest and biodiversity conservation, and disaster risk reduction measures. The research method included analysis of primary data obtained through Focus Group discussions (FGDs), key informant interviews (n = 21), and a questionnaire survey (n = 153) with Jhum farmers from two different age groups, i.e., below 50 years (middle-aged farmers) and above 50 years (older farmers). From the qualitative inquiry, we identified 15 ILKPs, which were then validated from survey responses. We used the Mann–Whitney U test to examine differences in agreement between two groups of framers. Based on this analysis, we conclude that upholding of the ILKPs holds strong potential for the local implementation of several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly, SDG-1(No poverty), SDG-2 (Zero hunger), and SDG-15 (Life on land). However, eight of the identified ILKPs showed a statistically significant difference between older and middle-aged farmers, underlining a declining trend. Finally, we suggest suitable policy measures to mainstream ILKPs to balance the trade-offs in food production and biodiversity conservation, and to ensure the future sustainability of Jhum cultivation in the region and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Costa Rica is widely regarded as a global leader in conservation practices. In the Maquenque National Wildlife Refuge (MNWLR), within Costa Rica's Northern Zone, a strong commitment to conservation has led to protecting highly biodiverse mature forests. However, a significant opportunity to strengthen conservation in this region is being overlooked at a great cost to the local community and environment: the protection of regenerating secondary forests. Secondary forests account for over 50% of global tropical forests and serve vital ecological and cultural functions. Within the MNWLR, many species in the secondary forests provide medicinal value to the rural communities where western medical care is difficult to access. Recent research, however, has shown that secondary forests in Costa Rica are re-cleared within 20 years, before they have accumulated the previously lost biomass and biodiversity. In this paper, we call for conservation and management strategies to incorporate community held knowledge about culturally significant species, and for there to be economic incentives for keeping secondary forests intact and for determining which forests are designated as Protected Areas. We discuss previous research with two trees that are common in secondary forests in the MNWLR (Vismia macrophylla and Pentaclethra macroloba), recognizing that these are some of the many species that have great potential to both the ecological and social communities. While our focus area is in the Northern Zone of Costa Rica, the integration of community use and local knowledge into conservation should be a global priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a leading cause of forest health degradation, non‐native invasive plant species are a key focus for many forest management and conservation efforts. These efforts come at a high price for resource‐limited agencies and organizations making cost‐effectiveness an important objective of invasion response plans. In this paper, we present an approach to guide the prioritization of locations for invasion management using species distribution models that account for the non‐equilibrium of invasive species distributions and use readily available land use data as the primary explanatory variables. This approach takes advantage of the relatively high spatial resolution, as well as the broad, continuous geographic coverage, of land use data to provide results at a landscape scale relevant to practitioners responsible for invasive species management. In our example from northern Virginia, we simultaneously modeled a suite of invasive plant species to identify common indicators of invasion. We found that the proportions of surrounding non‐forested land use types (grasses, crops, and development) were the most common and strongest indicators of invasion risk. These outcomes can guide managers of large protected areas to focus on major divides between forest and non‐forest land over linear disturbances. We also found useful species‐specific traits that can inform specific management actions. Additionally, we demonstrate through a case study how organizations that manage multiple smaller properties can take advantage of the projected distribution maps when considering acquiring or administering properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past few decades have seen significant changes in the governance of forests in India. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights on Forest) Act (FRA), 2006, was a landmark act passed in the Indian Parliament to assign individual property rights over forest resources that have been de facto used by local communities. This paper examines whether the assignment of individual property rights results in positive outcomes for forest conservation using village-level forest patta (forest land title) and census data from Bankura district in West Bengal. Vegetation Continuous Fields data has been used to measure the change in forest cover from 2006 to 2012. The results show that the percentage of forest patta land in the village, distance to markets, the existence of pucca roads, and the presence of forest protection committees (FPCs) are negatively and significantly related to forest degradation, implying improvement in forest conservation outcomes. The presence of tribal people, a larger population, and higher literacy rate are positively associated with forest degradation, meaning that they have an undesirable impact on forest conservation outcomes. The findings of this study strongly suggest that the assignment of individual property rights to both the Scheduled Tribes (STs) living in the forest and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFDs) under the FRA, 2006, tends to improve forest conservation outcomes. Hence, it is suggested that the distribution of individual forest rights (IFRs) under the FRA may further improve forest conservation outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis is made of the ecological and economic relationships between the development of the forest sector of the economy and ways to achieve the desired quality of the forest environment based on assessing the assimilation service of forests to self-restoration after logging, fires, and other negative influences. The relevance of this study is determined by the fact that the issues of assessing the assimilation service of forest capital have not been adequately studied. At the same time, such research is complicated by the need to analyze the relationship between the environmental and economic consequences of logging and forest conservation measures that reduce their negative impact on the forest environment. The methodological approach to assessing these relationships as proposed in this paper implies the category of "external costs" in forest management and its value assessment as a set of environmental costs and damage prevented thanks to forest conservation measures. The results of calculations carried out for the model territories of the Far Eastern border regions have shown that the use of environment-saving selective logging methods increases the cost of logging, which is compensated by lower costs of reforestation and the preservation of the forest environment, thus allowing forests to fully perform socioregulatory services. The study also made it possible to assess the impact of regional forest management systems on the provision and quality of assimilation potential of the model territories. This analysis is necessary for elaborating mechanisms to coordinate the development of the forest complex and conservation activities in the forest regions of the Russian Federation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing the supply of forest ecosystem services in the tropics is on the agenda of most developing countries' forest policies and most importantly in Kenya which is a low forest cover country. Evidence from past empirical impact assessments show numerous limitations in these assessments such as complexities within local forest communities and challenges in accessing relevant ecosystem services and household income data for impact assessments. This paper attempts to address some of these limitations by estimating joint ecosystem services and household livelihood outcomes at the same time. A survey protocol was designed, pre-tested and implemented with 370 households in two (2) out of the ten (10) forest ecological conservancies in Kenya and with secondary data on selected ecosystem services outcomes. Propensity score matching estimates of the treatment effects of the treated from participation in conservation association show a significant income loss (−57600.11) for households participating in a conservation association with a positive effect on erosion control (3.49) and biodiversity conservation outcomes (0.071) in the Nzoia catchment area. The paper concludes recommending the introduction of a payment scheme with CBCAs household members in reforestation and afforestation programs in the Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Venezuelan economic crisis, combined with the creation of the Orinoco Mining Arc (OMA), has pushed thousands of people to work in wildcat mines in the Venezuelan Guayana. Even though attempts have been made to control illegal mining in the past, the absence of planning and lack of concrete economic alternatives have made these efforts unsuccessful. Spatial planning could play an important role in developing a rural regional strategy aimed at making other livelihood options available. This is a challenging endeavour, however, because the Venezuelan Guayana is the largest and least populated region of the country, with most of its surface covered by fragile forests rich in ecological and cultural diversity. Moreover, data to inform decision-making are unavailable or severely limited. This paper presents an approach that attempts to overcome those obstacles and seeks to identify which are the peripheral remote areas where resource extraction and its negative externalities are most present, conflicting with the preservation of the forest, its biodiversity and the livelihoods of Indigenous populations. The conclusions presented here might assist spatial planners and policymakers who seek to explore territorial approaches for rural development and inform decision-making in peripheral regions where data are scarce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Camera traps became the main observational method of a myriad of species over large areas. Data sets from camera traps can be used to describe the patterns and monitor the occupancy, abundance, and richness of wildlife, essential information for conservation in times of rapid climate and land‐cover changes. Habitat loss and poaching are responsible for historical population losses of mammals in the Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot, especially for medium to large‐sized species. Here we present a data set from camera trap surveys of medium to large‐sized native mammals (>1 kg) across the Atlantic Forest. We compiled data from 5380 ground‐level camera trap deployments in 3046 locations, from 2004 to 2020, resulting in 43,068 records of 58 species. These data add to existing data sets of mammals in the Atlantic Forest by including dates of camera operation needed for analyses dealing with imperfect detection. We also included, when available, information on important predictors of detection, namely the camera brand and model, use of bait, and obstruction of camera viewshed that can be measured from example pictures at each camera location. Besides its application in studies on the patterns and mechanisms behind occupancy, relative abundance, richness, and detection, the data set presented here can be used to study species' daily activity patterns, activity levels, and spatiotemporal interactions between species. Moreover, data can be used combined with other data sources in the multiple and expanding uses of integrated population modeling. An R script is available to view summaries of the data set. We expect that this data set will be used to advance the knowledge of mammal assemblages and to inform evidence‐based solutions for the conservation of the Atlantic Forest. The data are not copyright restricted; please cite this paper when using the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's world, as ecological challenges continue to rise, the importance of environmental monitoring and conservation cannot be overstated. These efforts play a vital role in countering the adverse impacts of human activities on our planet. The development of predictive models that can accurately predict the results of different conservation measures is essential for the success of these conservation efforts. This paper's objective is to create a Machine Learning (ML) model that predicts how environmental changes can unfold. This prediction helps in proactive monitoring and conservation planning, considering factors like deforestation, air pollution, sea level rise, temperature shifts, and forest preservation. The model relies on machine learning techniques, including AdaBoost, ETS, Prophet, SARIMA, LightGBM, and TL-BLSTM models, to analyze data, uncover trends, and inform decision-making. By offering a thorough assessment of the effects of conservation approaches, this model aids in shaping well-informed decisions regarding the distribution of resources. As a result, this process strengthens initiatives designed to protect biodiversity and the Earth's natural resources. Predicting changes in environmental variables is the main goal of this research, which will improve effective environmental management. In order to draw conclusions that are meaningful, this study compares several models for each of the four crucial factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across Southeast Asia's extractive frontier, Indigenous people increasingly negotiate an influx of nonstate actors pushing partnerships and projects to steer livelihoods away from extractivism and toward forest conservation. Yet, NGOs and their donors often struggle to grasp Indigenous peoples' changing needs and expectations that may prioritize sustaining an income, often via the promises extractive industries propose, over preserving fragmented forests for posterity. This paper examines three interventions by conservation NGOs in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, which leveraged custom (adat) and "alternative" livelihoods through territorial practices to dissuade a Dayak Modang community from releasing ancestral lands for palm oil plantations and coal mines. Drawing on the state's definition of adat to demarcate Modang territory, NGOs and some Modang engaged in counter-mapping and livelihood initiatives as hopeful expressions of indigeneity and making a living through acts of territorialization. We explore how NGO territorial practices unfolded as simplified spatial expressions that leveraged adat identity, enclosures, and livelihoods, neglecting the contemporary realities of living in a fragmented forest frontier. Although NGO-Modang strategies temporarily slowed dispossession and deforestation, their misaligned livelihood and conservation programs may have reinforced social differentiation between and across Dayak and migrant groups to ultimately facilitate extraction's expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses Costa Rica's policies and institutions created by the state to redistribute land during the 1960s and 1970s, when Latin American was implementing agrarian reforms. The paper also addresses the creation of the national parks system and forest conservation state policy supported by different scientific organisations during the same period. Within this context, this research seeks to explore the interface between the agrarian question (surrounding land and agrarian reform) and the ecological question (related to forest, national parks and conservation policies). The study examines how the transformations in land tenure and forest conservation have led to the structuring of a 'new agrarian question', which encompasses the concentration of land as well as the concentration of payments for environmental services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1.In many tropical areas, forests have almost undergone complete decline. In this context, agroforestry has often been acknowledged as fostering compromises between crop production, local income diversification and the preservation of forest ecosystem services. 2.Cocoa agroforestry capacity to provide ecosystem services has mainly been studied through a management intensification gradient summed up as a shade rate. This paper proposes an alternative reading grid based on different trees origins that agroforests often combine: (i) Remnants,left-alive during deforestation, (ii) Recruits that have colonized the agroforest and (iii) Planted trees. This grid has been applied to 137 cocoa fields in the south of Ivory Coast to assess the impact of farmers management on provisioning trees ecosystem services (i.e.: carbon storage, diversity, food, medicine, timber and agronomic services to cocoa trees). 3. (i) Little environmental effect was found to explain ecosystem services provisioning. (ii) However, with regard to their origins, trees provide different services: remnants stock most above-ground carbon, recruits are the most diverse and provide medicinal resources and planted trees bring food resources. (iii) According to their origin, trees belong to different species or are at different stages of maturity so that trees from different origins play a complementary role in providing ecosystem services. Our results suggest that Ivorian cocoa agrosystems are so shaped by human management of associated trees that ecosystem services are weakly linked to environmental variables. Two neighboring fields in similar environmental conditions will provide very different services according to farmers' management. 4. Synthesis and applications Preserving remnants while clearing forest is irreplaceable for large-scale climate mitigation while providing farmers with trees seedlings may have only little impact on carbon stocks. To strengthen complementarities between human-brought and human-selected trees, private companies providing trees to farmers should supply them with different valued trees from the ones they already plant or easily find in recruits. At landscape scale, policy should encourage remnants preservation to ensure that those remnants can feed the cohort of recruits with propagules thus allowing the survival of the species throughout several cycles of perennial crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]