Search

Exotic plant invasions threaten biodiversity and are costly to farmers. Land use is a major pathway promoting the spread of exotic plant species; however, little is known about the processes underlying the success of exotic plants in tropical agricultural landscapes. Focussing on the heterogeneous smallholder landscapes of north‐eastern Madagascar, we studied exotic plants of understorey communities across a land‐use intensity gradient from unburned lands (old‐growth forests, forest fragments and forest‐derived vanilla agroforests) to burned ones (fallow‐derived vanilla agroforests, woody fallows and herbaceous fallows).We quantified the absolute species richness, abundance and cover of exotic plants across land‐use types and their proportional contribution to community richness, abundance and cover as indicators of exotic plant invasion. We tested for the effects of land‐use parameters, namely land‐use history, canopy closure and landscape‐level forest cover, on exotic plants. Additionally, we tested whether the phylogenetic relatedness between exotic and native species in the same plot affected invasion success, testing Darwin's naturalisation and pre‐adaptation hypotheses.All indicators of exotic plant invasion were lowest in old‐growth forests and forest fragments and highest in fallow‐derived vanilla agroforests, woody fallows and herbaceous fallows. Absolute and proportional exotic richness were negatively affected by canopy closure, and landscapes with high forest cover had lower proportions of exotic plant richness. High phylogenetic relatedness between exotics and natives was associated with lower proportional richness but higher proportions of exotics in abundance and cover. However, individual exotic species showed contrasting responses to land‐use parameters and relatedness to natives.Synthesis and applications: Our results indicate that maintaining unburned lands, land‐use types with dense canopies and landscapes with high forest cover prevents the spread of exotic plants within the agricultural landscapes of north‐eastern Madagascar. Supporting Darwin's pre‐adaptation hypothesis, exotic plants that are phylogenetically closely related to native plants are more likely to become successful invaders in terms of abundance and cover. Nevertheless, individual species show different responses to land‐use changes and phylogenetic relatedness. Therefore, land‐use decisions and management choices can be tailored to limit the spread of exotic species and to preserve native plants in this global biodiversity hotspot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This critical review accomplished two main tasks: first, the article provides scope for identifying the most common conceptions of moral competence in the scientific literature, as well as the different ways to measure this type of competence. Having moral judgment is the most popular element of moral competence, but the literature introduces many other elements. The review also shows there is a plethora of ways to measure moral competence, either in standardized tests providing scores or other non-standardized tests. As a second task, the article reflects critically on the general use of the idea of moral competence. Results suggest that this idea functions as what philosopher Bernard Williams would have called a thin ethical concept. Thin concepts are not problematic in and of themselves if they are used as linguistic shorthand, however, there may be shortcomings in the literature on moral competence because the idea is not rooted in more substantive views or theories in a way that is both clear and coherent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Franck Billé and Caroline Humphrey. On the edge: Life along the Russia-China border. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many places in the post-socialist world undergo emptying: a loss of their constitutive elements—people, infrastructure, services, and futures past. Some people see this emptying as a loss, others as an opportunity. We argue that the shift from loss to opportunity—or vice versa—is a site of the political, that is, a moment of decision about the place of the present in a framework of meaning that gives form and direction to life. Drawing on contributions to the theme section, as well as on literature on hegemony, the political, and Anthropocene, we identify a potential tension between re-politicization on the scale of geopolitics and de- politicization on the scale of the planetary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shifting cultivation remains an important land system in many tropical landscapes, but transitions away from shifting cultivation are increasingly common. So far, our knowledge on the social–economic and environmental drivers and consequences of such shifting cultivation transitions is incomplete, focusing on certain transitions, drivers, consequences or regions.Here, we use an archetype approach, validated through systematically identified literature, to describe eight archetypes encompassing the transitions from shifting cultivation to (1) perennial plantation crops, (2) permanent agroforestry, (3) regrown secondary forest, (4) permanent non‐perennial crops, (5) pasture, (6) wood plantation, (7) non‐cultivated non‐forested land and (8) restored secondary forest (ordered in decreasing prevalence).We then discuss social–economic and environmental factors favouring and disfavouring each archetype. This reveals that higher expected land rents, resulting from increased market access, crop price surges, secure land tenure and state interventions, are the main drivers of archetypical transitions to perennial plantation crops, permanent agroforestry, permanent non‐perennial crops and wood plantation. The prioritisation of other activities, both on‐ and off‐farm, favours transitions to regrown secondary forest and non‐cultivated non‐forested land, depending on plot‐level environmental conditions. Active forest restoration is typically implemented through state or NGO interventions.Turning to the consequences of archetypical transitions for biodiversity, the environment and livelihoods, we find that positive environmental outcomes prevail for transitions to permanent agroforestry, regrown secondary forest and restored secondary forest. Negative environmental outcomes dominate for four typically economically profitable transitions to perennial plantation crops, permanent non‐perennial crops, pasture and wood plantation. Non‐income‐related social–economic outcomes are heterogeneous within all archetypes and highly context‐dependent.Our archetype analysis shows that shifting cultivation transitions are diverse in themselves, in their drivers and their consequences. This calls for a critical and contextualised appraisal of the continuation of shifting cultivation, as well as the transition away from it, when designing land system policies that work for people and nature. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution examines recent developments in the activism of a Russian religious minority community in the United States. After fleeing persecution in Russia to Manchuria, Turkey, and Brazil, since the 1960s 10,000 Old Believers have settled in the Williamette Valley, Oregon. The contribution describes how and why this paradigmatically 'closed' religious group, which has eschewed active political engagement for centuries, made a sudden and effective entry into Oregon politics in 2019–20. Initial political mobilisation was provoked by Oregon State Legislature's attempt to pass a law to eliminate exemptions on religious or philosophical grounds for children's vaccinations. Following the theorising of Rawls, I argue that the Old Believers formed with other Americans opposed to mandatory vaccinations an 'overlapping consensus' of political liberalism. Their exclusive reliance on political arguments grounded in the secular American tradition of liberal rights and freedoms conflicts with the influential thesis of 'public religion', articulated prominently by Casanova and Habermas, who highlight the spiritual and theological character of interventions by religious groups into modern politics. Notwithstanding the secular tenor of their political intervention, I argue that it constitutes a form of 'religious activism' motivated by the pursuit of values at the heart of their centuries-old religious project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem restoration is an important means to address global sustainability challenges. However, scientific and policy discourse often overlooks the social processes that influence the equity and effectiveness of restoration interventions. In the present article, we outline how social processes that are critical to restoration equity and effectiveness can be better incorporated in restoration science and policy. Drawing from existing case studies, we show how projects that align with local people's preferences and are implemented through inclusive governance are more likely to lead to improved social, ecological, and environmental outcomes. To underscore the importance of social considerations in restoration, we overlay existing global restoration priority maps, population, and the Human Development Index (HDI) to show that approximately 1.4 billion people, disproportionately belonging to groups with low HDI, live in areas identified by previous studies as being of high restoration priority. We conclude with five action points for science and policy to promote equity-centered restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article, titled "Gleaning for Communism: The Soviet Socialist Household in Theory and Practice," explores the concept of the socialist household in the Soviet Union and its impact on property relations. The author, Xenia A. Cherkaev, argues that small-scale diversion of production resources, viewed skeptically by neoliberal critics, was widely regarded by Soviet society as an ethical stance of mutual aid. Cherkaev examines the history of individual property rights in the Soviet Union and how the concept of gleaning, the gathering of leftover remainders, shaped the socialist household. The article also discusses how Gorbachev's economic restructuring decoupled the gleaning function from the planning structure, leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Overall, the article provides a complex and convincing historical ethnography of the Soviet property regime. [Extracted from the article]

This article considers the ruined megalith of St Peter's, Cardross, an abandoned Catholic seminary. Widely regarded as an architectural masterpiece, it was erected in the mid‐1960s when the minority Catholic community of Scotland was staunch and optimistic. Its decline and eventual dereliction reflect the crisis of faith experienced by its congregation and the besmirching of the ideal of the Catholic priesthood by sexual scandal. The idealism and optimism that informed Scottish Catholic subjecthood in the past have recently seen their allegiance transferred to political nationalism. This article deploys the classic anthropological theory of ritual and some recent political and philosophical writing to distil insights into emptiness as a phenomenon of modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many social institutions function with rivalry, whether it is the legal adversarial system, the electoral system, competitive sports or the market. The literature on adversarial ethics (with authors such as Arthur Applbaum, David Luban and Joseph Heath) attempts to clarify what is a good behavior in these situations, but this work does not examine if institutionalized rivalry is desirable given its good and bad aspects. According to Monroe Freedman, for instance, the confrontation between lawyers in a trial may help discover important facts about a case. Most economists believe that competition in the market increases economic efficiency. But institutionalized rivalry can also lead to morally wrong acts such as violence, deception or coercion. The aim of this article is to identify the conditions under which rivalry may be more or less desirable in our social arrangements. First, it will be necessary to clarify what is institutionalized rivalry and what is an adversarial scheme. Then, this article will explain what are the generic advantages and problems of adversarial schemes. Finally, this analysis will be used to outline a series of minimal requirements to consider that an adversarial scheme is desirable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conversion of tropical forests into agriculture reduces biodiversity dramatically. However, species might differ in their responses, depending on their habitat specialisation and geographic origin. In this study, we assess how butterfly assemblages differ between old‐growth forests, forest fragments, forest‐derived vanilla agroforests, fallow‐derived vanilla agroforests, woody fallows, herbaceous fallows, and rice paddies in Madagascar.We recorded 88 butterfly species, of which 65 species are endemic to Madagascar. Land‐use types with woody vegetation sustained many endemic (mean: 6.8 species) and forest butterfly species (mean: 4.8 species). Rice paddies and herbaceous fallows were richer in open‐land species (mean: 7.6 species) and poorer in forest species (mean: 1.7 species) compared to other land‐use types. Compared to herbaceous fallows, fallow‐derived vanilla agroforests hosted more endemic (+164%) and forest (+239%) species. Richness of open‐land species in forest‐derived vanilla agroforests was six times higher than in forest fragments.Overall, 27% of species occurred exclusively in one land‐use type and 19% of all species when old‐growth forests were excluded. We found the highest number of exclusive species in forest‐derived vanilla agroforests.We conclude that all studied land‐use types contribute to butterfly conservation in our study region. Especially the woody vegetation in forest fragments, vanilla agroforests, and woody fallows supports a high butterfly diversity and is pivotal for maintaining a broad diversity of forest butterflies in the agricultural matrix. Our study highlights the importance of preserving the diversity of small‐scale land‐use types, including agroforestry, forests and fallow land in this tropical biodiversity hotspot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Such forests typically have lower bird diversity than less disturbed primary forests - which may themselves lose species (Stouffer et al., 2021) - suggesting shifting baseline syndrome and an overestimated value of forest-derived agroforests for bird diversity. Keywords: agroecology; cacao; conservation; review; meta-analysis; forest degradation; forest-derived agroforest; open-land-derived agroforest; ornithology; agrobosque derivado de bosque; agrobosque derivado de campo abierto; agroecología; conservación; degradación forestal; ornitología; ; ; ; ; ; ; EN agroecology cacao conservation review meta-analysis forest degradation forest-derived agroforest open-land-derived agroforest ornithology agrobosque derivado de bosque agrobosque derivado de campo abierto agroecología conservación degradación forestal ornitología 1 7 7 08/01/22 20220801 NES 220801 INTRODUCTION A careful baseline choice is pivotal for studies on the effect of land-system change on biodiversity. Thus, we built a linear mixed effect model to determine the difference between the 3 land systems (forest-derived agroforest, open-land-derived agroforest, and open land) and forests with the metareg function in the R package metafor 3.0.2 (Viechtbauer, 2010) with the study key as a random effect. Specifically, comparing forest-derived agroforests with old-growth forests as well as selectively logged or secondary forests could give a more nuanced picture of the value of agroforests for biodiversity, possibly showing that they are less diverse than old-growth forests but comparable to logged or secondary forests. [Extracted from the article]

Sustainable land-system transformations are necessary to avert biodiversity and climate collapse. However, it remains unclear where entry points for transformations exist in complex land systems. Here, we conceptualize land systems along land-use trajectories, which allows us to identify and evaluate leverage points, i.e., entry points on the trajectory where targeted interventions have particular leverage to influence land-use decisions. We apply this framework in the biodiversity hotspot Madagascar. In the northeast, smallholder agriculture results in a land-use trajectory originating in old-growth forests and spanning from forest fragments to shifting hill rice cultivation and vanilla agroforests. Integrating interdisciplinary empirical data on seven taxa, five ecosystem services, and three measures of agricultural productivity, we assess trade-offs and cobenefits of land-use decisions at three leverage points along the trajectory. These trade-offs and cobenefits differ between leverage points: Two leverage points are situated at the conversion of old-growth forests and forest fragments to shifting cultivation and agroforestry, resulting in considerable trade-offs, especially between endemic biodiversity and agricultural productivity. Here, interventions enabling smallholders to conserve forests are necessary. This is urgent since ongoing forest loss threatens to eliminate these leverage points due to path dependency. The third leverage point allows for the restoration of land under shifting cultivation through vanilla agroforests and offers cobenefits between restoration goals and agricultural productivity. The co-occurring leverage points highlight that conservation and restoration are simultaneously necessary to avert collapse of multifunctional mosaic landscapes. Methodologically, the framework highlights the importance of considering path dependency along trajectories to achieve sustainable land-system transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: North‐eastern Madagascar is a hotspot of plant diversity, but vanilla and rice farming are driving land‐use change, including slash‐and‐burn management. It still remains unknown how land‐use change and land‐use history affect richness and composition of endemic, native and exotic herbaceous plant species. Location: North‐eastern Madagascar. Methods: We assessed herbaceous plants along a land‐use intensification gradient ranging from unburned land‐use types (i.e. old‐growth forest, forest fragment and forest‐derived vanilla agroforest) to burned land‐use types (i.e. fallow‐derived vanilla agroforest, woody fallow and herbaceous fallow) and rice paddy. We compared land‐use types and analysed the effects of land‐use history, canopy closure and landscape forest cover on species richness. Additionally, we analysed species compositional changes across land‐use types. Results: Across 80 plots, we found 355 plant species (180 native non‐endemics, 57 exotics, 60 endemics and 58 species of unknown origin). Native and exotic species richness increased with increasing land‐use intensity, whereas endemics decreased. Unburned land‐use types had higher endemic species richness (4.28 ± 0.37 [mean ± SE]) than burned ones (2.4 ± 0.21). Exotic and native species richness, but not endemics, decreased with increasing canopy closure. Increasing landscape forest cover reduced exotic, but not native or endemic richness. Species composition of old‐growth forests was unique compared to all other land uses and forest‐derived, not fallow‐derived vanilla agroforests, had a similar endemic species composition to forest fragments. Main conclusions: Our results indicate that old‐growth forests and forest fragments are indispensable for maintaining endemic herbaceous plants. We further show that the land‐use history of agroforests should be considered in conservation policy. In forest‐derived vanilla agroforests, management incentives are needed to halt loss of canopy closure, thereby maintaining or even enhancing endemics. In conclusion, considering species origin (endemic, native and exotic) and composition is essential for the identification of suitable management practices to avoid irreversible species loss. [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.)

Predation can take unexpected turns. For instance, various invertebrate species—most commonly spiders—may prey on vertebrates. Here, we report one observation of a spider (Sparassidae, Damastes sp.) feeding on an amphibian (Hyperoliidae, Heterixalus andrakata) inside a retreat in northeastern Madagascar. To our knowledge, this is the second report of vertebrate predation by spiders in Madagascar. Three additional observations of retreats built by the same spider species show that the spiders built similar retreats and were hiding at the rear end of the retreat. The retreats were built by weaving two green leaves together which were still attached to the tree. We speculate from the observations, that the retreat serves as a targeted trap that deceives frogs seeking shelter during daytime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Question: In human‐modified tropical landscapes, agroforestry is considered a promising land use to reconcile biodiversity conservation with production goals. The role of agroforests regarding conservation may be strongly influenced by land‐use history; however, few studies have explicitly investigated this. We therefore tested the importance of land‐use history for habitat structure and tree diversity in vanilla agroforests situated in a human‐modified tropical landscape. Location: Smallholder mosaic landscape of northeastern Madagascar. Methods: We studied tree stand structure, diversity and composition in vanilla agroforests of contrasting land‐use history, old‐growth forests, forest fragments and woody fallows after slash‐and‐burn agriculture, which all contribute to the smallholder mosaic landscape of northeastern Madagascar. The vanilla agroforests were either derived directly from forest or otherwise from woody fallows after slash‐and‐burn agriculture. Results: Land‐use history strongly influenced tree species diversity and composition in vanilla agroforests and also affected stand structure. Forest‐derived agroforests maintained high levels of tree species diversity and differed in community composition from fallow‐derived agroforests, which had relatively low levels of tree diversity. Additionally, forest‐derived vanilla agroforests harboured a significantly higher percentage of endemic species than fallow‐derived agroforests, and forest‐derived agroforests also shared many species with old‐growth forests and forest fragments. Fallow‐derived vanilla agroforests harboured a lower percentage of endemic species than woody fallows. Conclusion: Considering the land‐use history of agroforests is important to unfold their full potential as elements in a multifunctional human‐modified landscape. Forest‐derived agroforests are an alternative to forest conversion through slash‐and‐burn agriculture and have the potential to sustain high levels of species diversity and important habitat structures. In contrast, fallow‐derived agroforests regain stand structure on degraded historically forested land and thereby have the potential to increase canopy cover and connectivity at the landscape scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land‐use change is the most important driver of biodiversity loss worldwide and particularly so in the tropics, where natural habitats are transformed into large‐scale monocultures or heterogeneous landscape mosaics of largely unknown conservation value. Using birds as an indicator taxon, we evaluated the conservation value of a landscape mosaic in northeastern Madagascar, a biodiversity hotspot and the center of global vanilla production. We assessed bird species richness and composition by conducting point counts across seven prevalent land‐use types (forest‐ and fallow‐derived vanilla agroforests, woody and herbaceous fallow that are part of a shifting cultivation system, rice paddy, forest fragment and contiguous old‐growth forest). We find that old‐growth forest had the highest species richness, driven by a high share of endemics. Species richness and community composition in forest‐derived vanilla agroforest were similar to forest fragment, whereas fallow‐derived vanilla agroforest was most comparable to woody fallow. The open land‐use types herbaceous fallow and rice paddy had fewest species. Across forest fragments, vanilla agroforests, and woody fallows, endemic bird species richness was positively correlated to landscape‐scale forest cover. We conclude that both fallow‐ and forest‐derived vanilla agroforests play an important but contrasting role for bird conservation: Fallow‐derived agroforests are less valuable but take fallow land out of the shifting cultivation cycle, possibly preventing further degradation. Conversely, forest‐derived agroforests contribute to forest degradation but may avoid total loss of tree cover from forest fragments. Considering the land‐use history of agroforests may thus be a promising avenue for future research beyond the case of vanilla. Abstract in Malagasay is available with online material [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioural traits are considered animal personality traits when individuals differ consistently in their expression across time and across context. Here, we test this idea on three metrics derived from social interaction networks (strength, betweenness and closeness). Using experimental data from house sparrows in captive populations, and observational data from house sparrows in a wild population, we show that all three metrics consistently exhibit repeatability across both study populations and two methods of recording interactions. The highest repeatability values were estimated in male‐only captive groups, whereas repeatabilities estimated in single‐sex networks subsetted from mixed‐sex groups showed no sex specificity. We also show that changes in social group composition led to a decrease in repeatability for up to six months. This work provides substantial and generalizable support for the notion that social network node‐based metrics can be considered animal personalities. Our work suggests that social network traits may be heritable and thus could be selected for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agroforestry is widely promoted as a potential solution to address multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals, including Zero Hunger, Responsible Consumption and Production, Climate Action, and Life on Land. Nonetheless, agroforests in the tropics often result from direct forest conversions, displacing rapidly vanishing and highly biodiverse forests with large carbon stocks, causing undesirable trade‐offs. Scientists thus debate whether the promotion of agroforestry in tropical landscapes is a sensible policy. So far, this debate typically fails to consider land‐use history, that is, whether an agroforest is derived from forest or from open land. Indeed, 57% of papers which we systematically reviewed did not describe the land‐use history of focal agroforestry systems. We further find that forest‐derived agroforestry supports higher biodiversity than open‐land‐derived agroforestry but essentially represents a degradation of forest, whereas open‐land‐derived agroforestry rehabilitates formerly forested open land. Based on a conceptual framework, we recommend to (a) promote agroforestry on suitable open land, (b) maintain tree cover in existing forest‐derived agroforests, and (c) conserve remaining forests. Land‐use history should be incorporated into land‐use policy to avoid incentivizing forest degradation and to harness the potential of agroforestry for ecosystem services and biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social Anthropology / Anthropologie Sociale is the property of Berghahn Books 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.)