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Abstract: Attappady is a rural area in Kerala, South India, that has suffered from severe land degradation and which is inhabited by a poor and predominantly tribal population. The combination of severe land degradation, poverty and a tribal population make Attappady hydrologically and socially unique. Ecological degradation and deforestation followed the gradual building up of land pressure resulting from immigration by more wealthy outsiders. The hills of Attappady were once the forest land of Kerala. Recently it was on the verge of complete degradation. This paper explains how an ecorestoration project involving soil and water conservation interventions, the introduction of agro-forestry, nutritional diversification, income generation activities and training was implemented in a participatory manner. The project had positive impacts on both the environment and the livelihoods of the people living in the watershed, but it also suffered from drawbacks. This paper reports on the successes as well as the lessons learned from this unique ecorestoration project. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Amazonian state of Mato Grosso is the main production area for soybeans in Brazil and contains 31.3% of the national production as of 2009. The rapid evolution of the agricultural systems in this area shows that the region is experiencing a rapid agricultural transition. In this paper, we broke down this transition process into three steps: crop expansion, agricultural intensification and ecological intensification. We used remote sensing products to develop and compute satellite-derived indices describing the main agricultural dynamics during the cropping years from 2000–2001 to 2006–2007. Our results indicated that Mato Grosso is continuing to expand its agricultural sector, with a 43% increase in the net cropped area during the study period. Although this expansion mainly occurred in the cerrado ecoregion until the early 2000s, the forest ecoregion is experiencing expansion at this time. We observed that 65% of the crop expansion in Mato Grosso from 2000 to 2006 occurred in this ecoregion. However, we did not identify this crop expansion as the major driver of deforestation in Mato Grosso because only 12.6% of the cleared areas were directly converted into croplands. Agricultural intensification also evolved rapidly, as the proportion of the net cropped area cultivated with double cropping systems harvesting two successive commercial crops (i.e., soybean and corn or soybean and cotton) increased from 6% to 30% during the study period. Finally, we found that ecological intensification occurred because the region’s farmers planted a non-commercial crop (i.e., millet or sorghum) after the soybean harvest to prevent soil erosion, improve soil quality, break pest cycles, maintain soil moisture and set the conditions for high-quality no-tillage operations. In 2006–2007, 62% of the net cropped area was permanently covered by crops during the entire rainy season. This practice allowed the farmers to diversify their production, as shown by the positive evolution of the Area Diversity Index. Future scholars can use the method proposed in this paper to improve their understanding of the forces driving the agricultural dynamics in Mato Grosso. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD+) is regarded by its proponents as one of the more efficient and cost effective ways to mitigate climate change. There was further progress toward the implementation of this mechanism at the 16th Conference of Parties (COP) in Cancun in December 2010. Many countries in southern African, including South Africa, have not been integrated (do not participate) into the UN-REDD+ programme, probably due to their low forest cover and national rates of deforestation. This paper discusses the potential contribution of REDD+ activities to the South African Government''s pledge of reducing national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 34% below business as usual by 2020. A number of issues such as complex land tenure system, limited forest cover and other conflicting environmental issues present challenges for REDD+ in South Africa. Despite these genuine concerns, REDD+ remains a practical strategy to contribute to climate change mitigation for South Africa. The paper raises the need for development of a variety of emission reduction programmes – not only in the energy sector. The paper also assesses several national options and opportunities towards a working REDD+ mechanism. It concludes by identifying key mechanisms for moving forward to prepare for REDD+ actions in South Africa and raises the urgent need for national dialogue between stakeholders and institutions to evaluate the feasibility of making use of the mechanism in South Africa and the Southern African Development Cooperation (SADC) region. The paper further addresses possible synergies and conflicts between the national climate change and forestry policies towards REDD+ development. It suggests that REDD+ should be part of the national dialogue on policy to respond to climate change and should be integrated into the national flagship programmes that the national climate change white paper seeks to implement. A multiple-benefit REDD+ initiative for South Africa can benefit from these international financial initiatives. It is anticipated that this initiative will provide a platform to enhance policy, institutional and technical stakeholder capacities to access financial incentives that may lead to sound environmental practises. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper discusses the discourses on climate change adaptation and mitigation that are currently at the forefront in the Congo Basin. On mitigation, the forests have enormous opportunities to contribute to the reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) mechanism. But the forest itself and its multiple dependent societies and sectors need to adapt to potential climate risks. Hence, actors are debating the design of climate change policy in the forest sector. Theoretically, we combine the agency-focus of frame analysis and discourse theory to analyze how different agents hold frames on climate change adaptation and mitigation policies in the region. This paper draws upon interviews with 103 different actors from government, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, research institutions and private sector in three countries: Cameroon, Central African Republic (CAR) and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Three discourses were found on policy response to climate change in the forest sector: mitigation policy only, separated policy on adaptation and mitigation, and an integrated policy on adaptation and mitigation. The various frames articulated around each discourse by the coalitions include elements of: costs and benefits, scale of operation, effectiveness, financial resources and implementation mechanisms. Overall, the mitigation discourse, through its mix of actors, resources and interests seems to be stronger than the adaptation discourse. The paper finally outlines a number of implications of the discourses for policy design. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• We provide new evidence on the effectiveness of PAs and the role of institutions. • We use high-resolution satellite imagery and regression discontinuity methods. • PAs significantly reduce deforestation in both national PAs and collective lands. • National PAs are only effective near human settlements, in more developed regions. • In contrast, Collective lands avoid deforestation in remote, less developed regions. Protected areas (PAs) are a cornerstone of conservation policy. While evidence shows that, overall, PAs have contributed to preserving forests, their impact varies greatly depending on the institutional context. This paper provides new evidence on the mechanisms through which local institutions shape the effectiveness of PAs. We use high-resolution satellite imagery of deforestation and illicit activities in Colombia and spatial regression discontinuity methods to estimate the causal effect of PAs in different institutional contexts. Our main results indicate that PAs significantly reduce deforestation, with larger effects for collective lands than national (strict-use) PAs, and no impact for regional (multiple-use) PAs. However, national PAs are only effective near human settlements, in municipalities that provide more public goods and are less violent. In remote areas, national PAs are particularly vulnerable to the expansion of coca crops and gold mining. In contrast, collective lands reduce coca crops and avoid deforestation in remote, less developed regions. These results highlight the extent to which natural PAs rely on the institutional capacity of the national and local governments, while collective lands protect forests even when state presence is weak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review and analysis of the potential impacts of Small-scale Renewable Energy Technologies (SRETs) in reducing deforestation, forest degradation and carbon emissions in the Eastern African region. A systematic review approach was used to select, critically analyze and synthesize findings of various studies in the region. The review showed that SRETs, if efficiently and uninterruptedly used, could significantly reduce household consumptions of traditional biomass and fossil fuels, and hence, can reduce deforestation, forest degradation and carbon emissions from biomass energy use at household levels. The FAO charcoal to dry wood conversion rate and the IPCC conversion factor of fuelwood from dry weight to CO 2 equivalent were used to estimate potential wood fuel and CO 2 e emissions savings. Our conservative estimates based on the analysis of the evidence indicated that domestic biogas and improved cook stoves distributed up to now have a combined potential of saving 0.307–3.100 million tons of wood fuel and 0.562–5.673 million tons of CO 2 e emissions per country per year. However, when compared to the annual biomass energy consumptions of each country, the potential wood fuel savings from the biogas plants and improved cooks-stoves disseminated so far do not appear to offset more than 7.2% of the national demands of the respective countries. The review suggests that building on the household level positive results for scale and lasting impact at national and regional levels requires addressing key policy, technical, financial and sectoral integration barriers. • Utilization of small-scale renewable energy technologies is growing in East Africa. • Use of clean energy could reduce household carbon footprint and reducing wood consumption. • At local level the impact of domestic biogas and improved cook-stoves is promising. • At wider geographic level the impact of the technologies is limited and undeveloped. • Achieving greater environmental benefits entails addressing critical barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Soil organic carbon (SOC)-mediated ecosystem services (ES) had the highest sensitivity to SOC changes in Semiarid Chaco. • SOC-mediated ES had the lowest sensitivity to SOC changes in East Southern Pampa. • Semiarid Chaco sub-region have a highly fragile environment. • Agricultural production should be increased by increasing crop yields instead of planted surface. • It is fundamental to improve our knowledge regarding critical thresholds of SOC. The basis and essence of life on earth depends on soil health, and its main indicator is the soil organic carbon (SOC) content. Hence, SOC stock is a key component for the supply of many ecosystem services (SOC-mediated ES), such as erosion protection, nutrient cycling, water regulation, and climate regulation. Land use changes from natural ecosystems into agricultural systems generally deplete SOC stocks. Therefore, agricultural production usually involves trade-off relations with SOC-mediated ES supply. This paper assessed the trade-offs between agricultural production and SOC-mediated ES supply in six sub-regions of Argentina: East Southern Pampa, West Southern Pampa, Flooding Pampa, Central Pampa, Rolling Pampa and Semiarid Chaco. In the Semiarid Chaco, overall SOC-mediated ES supply had the highest sensitivity to SOC changes, and the lowest sensitivity to natural cover removal. In East Southern Pampa, overall SOC-mediated ES supply had the lowest sensitivity to SOC changes and the highest to natural cover removal. The differences in sensitivity of overall SOC-mediated ES supply to the changes in SOC could be explained by soil texture, which is finer at East Southern Pampa. The differences in sensitivity of overall SOC-mediated ES supply to natural cover removal could be associated with the initial SOC stocks, which is lower in the Semiarid Chaco. The high sensitivity of SOC-mediated ES to SOC change and the low levels of SOC-mediated ES supply found in the Semiarid Chaco sub-region suggests that it is a highly fragile environment. The agricultural expansion over natural areas led to trade-offs between production and SOC-mediated ES supply. However, increasing crop yields would lead to win-win situations, by positive effects on agricultural production and SOC-mediated ES supply. Hence, agricultural production should be increased by increasing crop yields rather than expanding cropland and/or pasture over natural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Deforestation/reforestation trends on family forests governed by multiple drivers. • Secure land tenure and agroforestry can reduce poverty and tropical deforestation. • Globally, parcelization and privatization create landscapes of many smallholders. • Bioenergy, plantations, and carbon markets increasingly available for family forests. • Multi-scale policies matching smallholder motivations and goals drive sustainability. Forested landscapes around the world are owned, governed, and managed by many small owners and collectives. The management decisions that these owners and collectives make aggregate into measurable impacts on forest cover, fragmentation, carbon storage, biodiversity, and on the ecosystem services these forests provide to owners and broader society. Conversely, large scale processes such as climate change, globalization of markets, changes to laws regarding land tenure and access, and labor migration and remittances dramatically affect individual forest owners and the activities they are able to do on their land. Using NVivo 11.0, I coded and analyzed 456 papers describing research in the intersection of private or communal owners, forests, and landscape-scale impacts or influences. This analysis identified several prominent themes. Forested landscapes are increasingly split into smaller managed segments among more owners, in some cases facilitating deforestation. Global-scale processes such as labor migration and globalized forest product systems influence management decisions of family forest owners in most countries, particularly the choice of growing exotic species plantations and converting forests to cash crops. Programs and policies aimed at family and communal forest owners can be better targeted to incentivize these owners to protect and enhance forest benefits for broader society, and to better support owners' adaptations to climate change, invasive species, biodiversity loss, and population demographics. Forest-based tourism and non-timber forest products are important but undervalued incentives for forest conservation. Given the large proportion of forests owned and managed by smallholders, landscape-scale planning and conservation goals cannot be met without engaging these forest owners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, sustainability on the cosmetics industry has received growing interest from consumers, cosmetics industries and organizations, as well as academics from various disciplinary fields. Increasing concerns about cosmetics safety, environmental impacts as deforestation and social impacts as those resulting from unfair trade have intensified attention given to such topic. While sustainability impacts occur through all phases of the cosmetic product life cycle, selection of raw materials is deserving of greater attention as information on this topic remains scattered and diffuse. Formulating with alternative ingredients considered more sustainable can be quite challenging due to possible lack of performance, instability and aesthetic limitations normally associated with their use. This paper discusses the relation between sustainability and the cosmetics industry, the factors stimulating the developments on this field, the need to assess those and the available tools, alongside with the sustainability impacts produced during all the product life cycle. The analysis reveals cosmetics sustainability as a complex and multifaceted issue that cannot be evaluated considering single aspects, but using an integrated assessment about the environmental, social and economical dimensions and about the final product quality and performance. Image 10188 • Sustainability integrates an environmental, a social and an economical dimension. • To make a critical approach, it is crucial to take into account the life cycle of cosmetic products. • Sustainability metrics are essential to measure, monitor and evaluate the sustainable standards. • Selection of raw materials: a balance between sustainability and technological performance must be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Peruvian Amazon is undergoing rapid and uneven economic growth, alongside alarming rates of deforestation, increasing land use change and food security concerns. Although it has been widely acknowledged that food insecurity is intrinsically linked with deforestation, the links have not been thoroughly documented. The aim of this paper is to analyse the trade-offs and synergies between food security and forest exploitation at household level in mestizo communities in Ucayali, one of the regions with the highest deforestation rates in the Peruvian Amazon. To this end, 24 farmers were interviewed, surveys were conducted with a sample of 58 households, and an ad-hoc simulation modelling tool was developed and applied. Four main types of mestizo farming households were identified based on their crop and livestock diversity. For all farm types, the forest mainly represented a set aside area to support a potential increase in agricultural production. However, simulations showed that the different types of households, with different decision rules, lead to different rates of deforestation. The results of this study showed that the most diversified farming households presented the smallest trade-offs between food security and forest conservation, as they are the ones most likely to preserve the forest while ensuring their food security. • Whole farm simulation tools allow assessing the links between food security and forest exploitation. • In the mestizo communities of Ucayali gathering of forest fruits is minimal. • Farm diversification can support synergies between forest conservation and food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract There are many controversies about the effect of forest cover on basin streamflows. The objective of this paper was to use the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to provide hydrological modeling of streamflows of a Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest watershed, simulating land use change scenarios with increasing and decreasing forest cover. Regarding the afforestation scenarios, the influence of the geographic location on the afforestation was also evaluated through two approaches: a) a "random" approach (RA), in which the location of reforested areas does not matter; and b) an "imposed" approach (IA), in which the geographical positions of the afforestation are precisely defined. The RA results showed little tendency of reduction in the simulated average and minimum flows with the afforestation. The IA approach showed that the geographic position of afforestation did not significantly interfere in the average flows, but interfered in the simulated minimum flows. Afforestation concentrated in areas close to streams caused a reduction in minimum flows, while its concentration in the upper parts of the basin managed to increase them. Highlights • SWAT was used to provide hydrological modeling of Atlantic Forest watershed. • Afforestation and deforestation scenarios were simulated. • Random and imposed approaches to afforestation scenarios were evaluated. • Afforestation concentrated close to streams reduced minimum flows. • Afforestation in the upper parts of the basin managed minimum flows to increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • In 2016, field hedges extend over 5.6 km per km2 of cropland in Dantiandou district, Niger. • On average there is one woody plant growing every 5 to 6 m along a field hedge. • No overall trend in woody plants of 12 sampled field hedges observed over 24 years. • The field hedge network expanded by 3.7% annually following land tenure splitting. • Woody plants of field hedges contribute to increase woody plants in croplands. Abstract Changing woody plant density across agricultural landscapes of the Sudano-Sahelian region is a debated issue. This paper reports the results of an investigation on the contribution of field hedges to overall woody plant density. Hedges separating individual cropped parcels were studied within village agropastoral territories in the Dantiandou district in western Niger. In 1992, field hedges were mapped over the study area using aerial photography and in 2016, using high resolution Google Earth imagery. In 1992, field hedge length was equal to 1006 km within 435 km2 of croplands, equivalent to 2.3 km km−2. In 2016, 17.5% of these hedges had disappeared, but 1591 km of new hedges were observed resulting in an increased density of hedges to 5.6 km km−2. In 24 years, hedges had increased at a mean annual rate of 3.7% likely associated with the splitting of crop fields by inheritance. The composition and productivity of hedges were also monitored in 1996, 2010 and 2015. All trees (maximum height ≥ 4 m), shrubs (<4 m) and tussock perennial grasses were recorded within twelve field hedge samples of 200 m each. Field measurements were used to estimate basal area, crown area, foliage mass and wood mass of each woody plant within the sampled hedges. No significant trends were found between 1996 and 2015 in woody plant density, basal area, crown cover, wood and foliage masses across all monitored hedges. However, overall means hide a slight decrease in tree contributions, while shrub contributions first increased and then decreased. They also mask contradictory trends among sites most likely related to different rates of shrub coppicing and tree cutting. The woody species composition of the hedges is poor with an increase of Combretum glutinosum to the detriment of Guiera senegalensis over the study period. Multiplying the hedge sample statistics by the changing lengths of field hedges in the study area provides estimates of the contribution of the hedge woody plants to the woody plant population at a landscape scale. Between 1992 and 2016, field hedges contributed to increases of woody plant density by 3.9%, basal areas by 5.4%, crown cover by 2.7%, leading to 6.1% annual increase in foliage mass and 8.8% increase in wood mass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The Energy-Water-Food Nexus is one of the most complex sustainability challenges faced by the world. This is particularly true in Brazil, where insufficiently understood interactions within the Nexus are contributing to large-scale deforestation and land-use change, water and energy scarcity, and increased vulnerability to climate change. The reason is a combination of global environmental change and global economic change, putting unprecedented pressures on the Brazilian environment and ecosystems. In this paper, we identify and discuss the main Nexus challenges faced by Brazil across sectors (e.g. energy, agriculture, water) and scales (e.g. federal, state, municipal). We use four case studies to explore all nodes of the Nexus. For each, we analyse data from economic and biophysical modelling sources in combination with an overview of the legislative and policy landscape, in order to identify governance shortcomings in the context of growing challenges. We analyse the complex interdependence of developments at the global and local (Brazilian) levels, highlighting the impact of global environmental and economic change on Brazil and, conversely, that of developments in Brazil for other countries and the world. We conclude that there is a need to adjust the scientific approach to these challenges as an enabling condition for stronger science-policy bridges for sustainability policy-making. Highlights • Overview of the Energy-Water-Food Nexus in Brazil for science, law and policy. • Review of the complex linkages in the Nexus for water, energy and food security. • Review of the law addressing the Nexus and its coordination deficiencies. • Recommendations for strengthening the Nexus science-policy bridge in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Tropical secondary vegetation is of particular interest as carbon sinks, potential lands for agriculture and livestock expansion, biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services. Until mid-2000s estimates of secondary vegetation in the Brazilian Amazon indicated a progressive increase of this cover, however after 2010, only 1197 km2 of additional secondary vegetation were generated, while 42,040 km2 were converted into other land-covers. Meanwhile, deforestation rates progressively decreased to be around 6000 km2 in contrast to the peak of 27,772 km2 in 2004, what suggests that changes in land-cover dynamics with respect to deforestation may be related to a reduction in secondary vegetation. Hence, in this paper, we work with the hypothesis that, in a context of decreasing deforestation rates, the historic pattern of progressive accumulation of secondary vegetation in the Brazilian Amazon changed as a consequence of the re-conversion of this cover, as well as other land-covers relevant in the process of regeneration, into different land-covers that expanded in this period. Our focus was then to investigate, on a regional scale, the spatiotemporal patterns of secondary vegetation with respect to different land-covers in Pará based on (i) a quantitative analysis of transitions between land-covers, and (ii) on clustering patterns of secondary vegetation cover and their relations with clustering patterns of pastures, small-scale and industrial agriculture. We found that more secondary vegetation was converted into land-covers that expanded in the period i.e. clean pasture, mechanized agriculture, and palm oil, with secondary vegetation and land-covers important for regeneration (i.e. small-scale agriculture and regeneration with pasture) experiencing an overall reduction and contributing less to the concentration of secondary vegetation after 2010. Clusters of high values (hotspots) of secondary vegetation prevailed in the north, while clusters of low values (cold spots) prevailed in the south of Pará, a pattern that is explained by different histories of occupation and deforestation dynamics, as well as distinct regional land dynamics in the past decade. As a first contribution to understanding the dynamics of secondary vegetation in a context of decreasing deforestation rates, our results show that the increased pressure to halt deforestation had effects over the dynamics of this land-cover, as well as over land-covers relevant to regeneration. Highlights • The dynamics of secondary vegetation and of land-covers related to regeneration were affected by pressure to halt deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. • In a context of decreasing deforestation rates, more secondary vegetation was converted into clean pasture, mechanized agriculture, and palm oil while secondary vegetation and land-covers relevant to regeneration had an overall reduction, contributing less to the concentration of secondary vegetation. • Clustering patterns of secondary vegetation are explained by the past decade distinct regional land dynamics and by different historical dynamics of occupation and deforestation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Deforestation in the Amazon with its vast consequences for the ecosystem and climate is largely related to subsequent land use for cattle ranching. In addition to conservation policies, proposals to reduce deforestation include measures to intensify cattle ranching. However, the effects of land-use intensification on deforestation are debated in the literature. This paper introduces the abacra model, a stylized agent-based model to study the interplay of deforestation and the intensification of cattle ranching in the Brazilian Amazon. The model combines social learning and ecological processes with market dynamics. In the model, agents adopt either an extensive or semi-intensive strategy of cattle ranching based on the success of their neighbors. They earn their income by selling cattle on a stylized market. We present a comprehensive analysis of the model with statistical methods and find that it produces highly non-linear transient outcomes in dependence on key parameters like the rate of social interaction and elasticity of the cattle price. We show that under many environmental and economic conditions, intensification does not reduce deforestation rates and sometimes even has a detrimental effect on deforestation. Anti-deforestation policies incentivizing fast intensification can only lower deforestation rates under conditions in which the local cattle market saturates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Does economic development result in tree cover loss for poor countries, but not so for already more developed countries? Using a new subnational dataset and employing a quasi-experimental method, this paper addresses this question using tree cover loss data for 14 contiguous countries. The analysis uses geographical regression discontinuity (using national borders as discontinuities) and our findings show that Sub-Saharan Africa and low-income countries in general have the highest development-deforestation elasticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • REDD+ activities are fairly recognized in Uganda's policies and laws. • Local government Act is not comprehensive for the implementation of sub-national REDD+ projects. • The policies are skewed mostly towards direct drivers of deforestation and forest degradation. • The laws of Uganda mainly provide for reducing deforestation and conservation of forest stocks. • The Agriculture policy is silent on all the REDD+ activities. Abstract A supportive policy and legal framework is critical for the implementation of interventions to mitigate climate change such as REDD+. This paper analyses Uganda's policies and laws, with the purpose of determining whether the policy issue, objectives of policies and laws provide for a supportive environment for REDD+ activities. The policies and laws analyzed include those indicated in Uganda's Readiness preparedness proposal and any other relevant public policies. The following questions guided the analysis: Are the REDD+ activities as prescribed in proceedings of the 16th COP to UNFCCC recognized in the policy issue and characterized? Are the REDD+ activities reflected in the object and subsequent provisions of the laws reviewed? From the analysis, it was found that deforestation and forest degradation, loss of protected areas, failure to sustainably utilize natural forests, and limited implementation of forest enhancement activities are recognized as a policy issue in some but not all policies. The characterization of deforestation and forest degradation is mostly linked to proximate drivers while barriers to conservation of forest carbon stocks, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks is linked to underlying drivers. Reducing deforestation and forest degradation are the most provided for activities in the policy issue and characterization, while enhancement of forest carbon stocks and sustainable management of forests are the least considered. Reducing forest degradation and conservation of forest stocks are the most provided for in the object and subsequent provisions of the Laws, while enhancement of forest carbon stocks is the least. Conservation of forest carbon stocks and reducing forest degradation are reflected in both policy issue and laws. The current policy and legal framework is suitable mainly for addressing the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation as well as addressing the barriers to conservation of forest stocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The arrival of Europeans in the New World, and the rapid deforestation for agriculture and settlement that shortly followed, resulted in large and rapid increases in soil erosion and sediment aggradation. In Australia, as in parts of North America and other New World sites, this event dates to the last several centuries of the Common Era, a period for which we have surprisingly little historical or scientific data capable of informing debates on the impact of European colonisation on soils and erosion. These research themes and debates were central to the work of Karl Butzer, who undertook field and archival research in Australia to test existing ideas of the timing and magnitude of landscape response to colonisation. In this paper, the work and impact of Butzer in Australia is reviewed as part of ongoing scholarship on the impact of colonisation on landscapes to which Butzer contributed (Butzer and Helgren, 2005). Geomorphic records of soil erosion and historical accounts of land use and impact from eastern Australia show that European settlement, land clearing, and agriculture resulted in rapid, and often severe, increases in erosion in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, mirroring the experience of anthropogenic soil loss experienced in other parts of the world. It is postulated that the geomorphic response to European settlement in Australia is more complex than researchers have previously noted that, in some contexts, continues to influence catchment processes decades and centuries after colonisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• HFIAS can be used to monitor for forest management vis-a-vis food security. • The least deforested zone was least affected by food insecurity. • Household FIS access deteriorates with increasing deforestation. • Ample food availability is necessary but does not guarantee household accessibility. In forest areas, reconciling strategies to halt deforestation and concerns to improve sustainable food supply and access is a great challenge to development planners and forest managers. This paper gathered evidence on the relationship between deforestation and food insecurity. The study was executed in Cameroon's forest areas which constitute 10% of the Congo basin forest - an area characterized by increasing deforestation and high levels of poverty and food insecurity (FIS). The objective was to understand the characteristics, prevalence and severity of household FIS as deforestation increases. The HFIAS 9-item questionnaire for measuring experience-based FIS was used for data collection and analysis. At least one-third of households at all levels of deforestation were severely food insecure and more than half of the population suffered from moderate to severe FIS. Most (97%) households reported experiencing food scarcity due to lack of resources. Households in the least deforested zone were better off than those in moderate and most deforested zones by most of the FIS indicators, while differences between the moderately and the most deforested zones were less distinct. Overall, considering a range of food insecurity indicators, households in the most deforested zone were the worst off. Household FIS deteriorates with increasing deforestation and despite the generally favourable environmental conditions for food production, FIS was still high. This finding has major implications for development practitioners, land use planning, food security and conservation initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Sweden's environmental policy aims to solve domestic environmental problems without increasing environmental and health impacts overseas. Realizing this aim requires an indicator system with a consumption-based (or "footprint") perspective that captures both local and global impacts and their development over time. In this paper, we present a set of novel footprint indicators to measure environmental pressures from Swedish food consumption. The indicators are calculated by combining data and statistics on agrochemicals and deforestation emissions with EXIOBASE3, a global Multi-Regional Input Output (MRIO) database with a unique and high level of product detail across countries. We estimate the use of pesticides and antimicrobial veterinary medicines associated with current Swedish food consumption and compare those footprint indicators with the EU-28. Carbon emissions from deforestation are calculated with a land balance model and included in the overall carbon footprint of food. We find that Sweden, with its large reliance of food imports, exert a significant agro-chemical and climate footprint overseas, mainly in the EU and Latin America. We point to a need for better data and statistics on the use of pesticides, veterinary medicines and agrochemicals residuals (especially in developing countries) as well as improved spatial data on agricultural activity to further reduce uncertainty in the environmental footprint of Swedish food consumption. Highlights • We present footprints for agrochemicals and climate from Swedish food consumption. • Due to large food imports, a significant share of Sweden's impact occur overseas. • Emissions from tropical deforestation represent roughly 10% of carbon footprint. • More than three quarters of Sweden's pesticide footprint is embedded in imports. • Data gaps on use of agrochemicals are significant, especially in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract By providing shade and through evapotranspiration, trees and forests moderate temperatures, and thus, can indirectly affect human health, an economic variable of interest. In this paper, we measure the temperature and temperature-induced health effects of quasi-random tree cover loss caused by an invasive species, the emerald ash borer (EAB). We use monthly temperature data on the near-universe of US counties containing the invasive over 1995–2014 to estimate a temperature dose-response relationship. Then, dose-response results are integrated into a bioeconomic-health model to study the mortality and morbidity consequences of temperature fluctuations. We find that highest and mean monthly temperatures are increased by 0.28 °F and 0.09 °F, respectively, after EAB detection. There is also a 2.1% higher probability of experiencing at least one ≥90 °F day per month after EAB. Bioeconomic model results suggest that an invasive-caused 10% loss of forest canopy leads to increases in mean temperature that result in a maximum of 0.12 per 100,000 additional annual deaths and a maximum of 10.0 per 100,000 additional annual emergency department visits. At peak impact, invasive-induced tree loss creates $1 million in annual mortality and morbidity temperature-related costs. Cumulative health costs of a 10% loss of tree canopy are $17.9 million over 25 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Financial and non-financial motivations influenced participation in PHS programs. • Participants in PHS programs recognized many non-financial benefits. • Impact evaluation methods found modest impacts on material benefits. • Impact evaluation methods found positive impacts on non-material benefits. • Future PHS program design should consider non-financial motivations and benefits. Abstract Payments for hydrological services (PHS) programs are expected to confer tangible benefits to households. Impact evaluations of PHS programs, however, find few to no changes in material indicators. One reason for this may be that non-financial motivations and benefits—including environmental or social—influence participation and are important outcomes for households participating in PHS programs. In this paper we test this hypothesis using 56 interviews and 181 surveys from households in Veracruz State, Mexico. Using logistic regression models we find that human, natural, physical and financial capital are important to the decision to participate in PHS, but so are pro-social and pro-environmental motivations. Using counterfactual impact evaluation methods we find few changes in material benefits but do find that PHS participants are more likely to report positive changes in their household and community quality of life over the last five years compared to households not participating in PHS programs. Qualitative information supports these findings. Our results contribute to the evolving theory on PHS that participation is driven by a mix of financial and non-financial motivations and that non-material benefits are an important outcome of these programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Assessed governance quality of Nepal, Bhutan, India and Myanmar at three levels. • Myanmar has the highest total score followed by Nepal, India and Bhutan. • "Resources" received the lowest score, whereas "Durability" received the highest. • CBFMS has the ability to solve problems and ensure its sustainability. • Apply the highest-ranked four or five indicators across the whole country. Abstract Community-based forest management systems (CBFMS) are becoming increasingly popular in developing countries where 31% of the total forest is either managed or owned by the community. This paper presents the results of a four-country study conducted in 2017 in Nepal, Bhutan, India and Myanmar concerning the governance quality of CBFMS. The introduction outlines the global threat to forests, the contribution that forest-based emissions make to climate change, and the policy response of the international and national communities including REDD +. The next section provides a snapshot of CBFMS in the four case study countries, and is followed by an account of the methodology, approach, framework of analysis and sampling surveys undertaken during the course of, and informing, the research. The results of the surveys revealed that perceptions of governance quality, as well as governance priorities, varied between the countries, and also at the three levels of government (national, sub-national and local) within a country. For example, Myanmar and Bhutan had very high governance ratings from local levels compared to other levels, whereas, Nepal and India had similar ratings for all levels. Further, regarding the prioritisation of different indicators, Myanmar gave highest priority to "inclusiveness" at the local level but "democracy" at the national level. The reasons for the similarities and differences between and within these countries and the possible implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Results denotes high extent of competition with respect to land use between mitigation options. • The net effect of transaction costs is small and may not represent a critical impediment. • The simulated REDD+ incentive shows how it might positively affect land use in developing countries. Abstract This paper develops an econometric model to estimate the economic determinants of forest land conversion in Esmeraldas, Ecuador and evaluates the effect that transaction costs have on incentive-based climate change mitigation activities. Using a logistic share model, the results show a high extent of competition for the use of land between agricultural production for palm oil processing and land-based carbon mitigation through avoided emissions from deforestation. Our results show that the current policy of introducing conservation payments in Ecuador is not sufficient to significantly reduce deforestation, but that payment levels based on a plausible international carbon price would make an appreciable difference in the net sequestration contribution of forests in northern Ecuador. Knowledge generated from this research can inform site-specific land use policy design aimed at addressing the opportunity costs of tropical forest conservation as an important component of climate mitigation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Land reform settlements (LRS) in the Brazilian Amazon have been suggested to hold promise for the successful implementation of incipient efforts to reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD). However, differences in forest cover, deforestation behaviour and settler welfare plus the inevitable overlap of upcoming REDD efforts with existing conservation policies, mean that scope and impact of REDD in LRS will not be uniform across settlements. Based on evidence from a case study of four LRS and a Brazilian Amazon regional analysis of opportunity costs, this paper explores the actual scope for targeting initial Brazilian REDD efforts to LRS and discusses potential welfare and equity implications based on scenario analysis. While our findings confirm considerable economic scope for compensation-based schemes for avoided degradation and deforestation, the pre-existence of legal use right limitations in combination with the distribution of forest cover among LRS means that less than half of settlements – poorer – will be able to derive economic gains. Exploring a mix between incentives and disincentives seems to offer the most promising future regarding efficiency and equity successful results. The paper concludes with the implications of the results in the international debate on the constraints ahead to implement the REDD principles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper describes the design and implementation of an Agent-Based Model (ABM) used to simulate land use change on household farms in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon (NEA). The ABM simulates decision-making processes at the household level that is examined through a longitudinal, socio-economic and demographic survey that was conducted in 1990 and 1999. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are used to establish spatial relationships between farms and their environment, while classified Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery is used to set initial land-use/land-cover conditions for the spatial simulation, assess from-to land-use/land-cover change patterns, and describe trajectories of land use change at the farm and landscape levels. Results from prior studies in the NEA provide insights into the key social and ecological variables, describe human behavioral functions, and examine population–environment interactions that are linked to deforestation and agricultural extensification, population migration, and demographic change. Within the architecture of the model, agents are classified as active or passive. The model comprises four modules, i.e., initialization, demography, agriculture, and migration that operate individually, but are linked through key household processes. The main outputs of the model include a spatially-explicit representation of the land use/land cover on survey and non-survey farms and at the landscape level for each annual time-step, as well as simulated socio-economic and demographic characteristics of households and communities. The work describes the design and implementation of the model and how population–environment interactions can be addressed in a frontier setting. The paper contributes to land change science by examining important pattern–process relations, advocating a spatial modeling approach that is capable of synthesizing fundamental relationships at the farm level, and links people and environment in complex ways. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights • We examine the power constellations of wood furniture actors under FLEGT. • FLEGT entrenches pre-existing inequalities and produces new modes of elite capture. • Legality verification drives new practices of renting out FLEGT licenses by larger producers. • Legality verification produces new opportunities for financial gain for larger firms. • Renting legality creates a new form of control over the market for large firms. Abstract Over the past few decades, transnational and supranational market-based forest governance systems have been developed to address the complex problems associated with deforestation, by improving the legality and sustainability of timber traded in global markets. This is catalysed by the increasing global production and consumption of timber products and increasing sensitivity of interest groups to how timber products are produced. A broad range of actors is involved in global production networks. This paper discusses how hierarchies and networks of power across the timber production network are encountered and negotiated. More specifically, it investigates the power constellations of wood furniture actors in Indonesia, nested within global production networks: who holds the power, how power is gained and maintained, and who wins and loses over time. Using the case of the timber legality assurance system in the context of the European Union Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) initiative, we demonstrate that legality verification in Indonesia is both entrenching pre-existing inequitable power relations while producing new modes of elite capture. Legality verification requires new knowledge and additional costs that are sometimes beyond the capacity of certain (particularly smaller) furniture manufacturers operators. This has driven a new practice of renting out FLEGT licenses by larger producers/manufacturers to smaller ones in the country. Although the practice implies potential risks (e.g. fines), large companies in Indonesia manage risk by drawing from pre-existing patronage relations. They also appear to find the risk worthwhile, as it produces financial gain but moreover, a new form of control over the market. Meanwhile, small operators and artisanal producers that still aspire to global markets face disproportionate challenges to engage in legality and are becoming more vulnerable as a result of new legality measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new approach of change detection that reduces seasonality in time series by using Photosynthetic Vegetation Time Series (PVTS) from satellite images. With this approach, each pixel value represents at the subpixel level a fraction of the photosynthetic forest’s activity. Our hypothesis is based on an assumption that photosynthetic vegetation fractions will remain constant until a disturbing agent (natural or anthropic) occurs. Using Landsat data, we compared our approach with the Carnegie Landsat Systems Analysis-Lite (CLASlite) approach and with the national reports of the Ministry of the Environment of Perú (MINAM). After reducing seasonal variations in Landsat data, we detected deforestation events with a new detection method. Our approach (which was called PVts-β) of detection is a simple method that does not model the seasonality and it only requires as inputs: i) the average and standard deviation of the time series of a pixel and ii) a threshold magnitude (β) that was calibrated to detect deforestation events in tropical forests. For the PVts-β approach, the results of calibration show that deforestation was optimally detected for β = (5,6), higher or lower than this range, the biases favor to false detections and favor the omission of deforestation too. On the other hand, the overall accuracy for the PVts-β approach was 91.1%, with an omission and commission of 8.3% and 0.5% respectively, while for CLASlite the overall accuracy was 79.2%, with an omission and commission of 20.8% and 0.0% respectively. The differences in the overall accuracy between the PVts-β and CLASlite approach were significant, being atmospheric noise a main problem which CLASlite usually does not work optimally. The strength of our PVts-β approach is the early detection at the subpixel level of deforestation events that, added to our new method of change detection explain the little omission obtained in the results. Therefore, the PVts-β approach -that we propose here- provides the opportunity to monitoring deforestation events in tropical forests at sub-annual scales using Landsat data, and it can be used for near-real-time change detection monitoring without a doubt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The recent decoupling of agricultural production and deforestation in the southern Amazon has been made possible thanks to (1) the adoption of intensive agricultural practices, including irrigation, and (2) the diversification of economic activities, including fish farming. Whereas this new agricultural model has brought out positive results to contain deforestation, it also implied new pressures on the environment, and especially on water resources. Many small artificial water reservoirs have been built with different uses, e.g. crop irrigation, energy generation, fish farming or livestock watering. In this paper, we introduce a method to automatically map small water bodies based on time series of Landsat images. The method was tested in the municipality of Sorriso (state of Mato Grosso, Brazil). The statistical results (Overall Accuracy = 0.872; Kappa index = 0.745) validated the efficiency of the methodology although the spatial resolution of Landsat images limited the detection of very small and linear reservoirs. In Sorriso, we estimated that the cumulated area and the number of small water reservoirs increased more than tenfold (from 153 to 1707 ha) and fivefold (86 to 522), respectively, between 1985 and 2015. We discuss the numerous socio-environmental implications raised by the cumulated impacts of these proliferating small reservoirs. We conclude that integrated whole-landscape approaches are necessary to assess how anthropized hydrosystems can counteract or exacerbate the socio-environmental impacts of deforestation and intensive agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The quality of governance is known to have effects on deforestation, together with other social and economic factors. However, assessing the impact of governance quality is a challenging task due to the complex and diverse mechanisms of deforestation as well as limited data availability. In this paper, interrelations between governance quality and deforestation rates are analysed on a global scale, using national data on governance quality and deforestation. Results indicate an increase in governance quality tends to be associated with a decrease in deforestation rates (i.e., a lower level of deforestation). The paper then discusses the limitations of the quantitative assessment, including data issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This is a review of the latest developments in different fields of remote sensing for forest biomass mapping. The main fields of research within the last decade have focused on the use of small footprint airborne laser scanning systems, polarimetric synthetic radar interferometry and hyperspectral data. Parallel developments in the field of digital airborne camera systems, digital photogrammetry and very high resolution multispectral data have taken place and have also proven themselves suitable for forest mapping issues. Forest mapping is a wide field and a variety of forest parameters can be mapped or modelled based on remote sensing information alone or combined with field data. The most common information required about a forest is related to its wood production and environmental aspects. In this paper, we will focus on the potential of advanced remote sensing techniques to assess forest biomass. This information is especially required by the REDD (reducing of emission from avoided deforestation and degradation) process. For this reason, new types of remote sensing data such as fullwave laser scanning data, polarimetric radar interferometry (polarimetric systhetic aperture interferometry, PolInSAR) and hyperspectral data are the focus of the research. In recent times, a few state-of-the-art articles in the field of airborne laser scanning for forest applications have been published. The current paper will provide a state-of-the-art review of remote sensing with a particular focus on biomass estimation, including new findings with fullwave airborne laser scanning, hyperspectral and polarimetric synthetic aperture radar interferometry. A synthesis of the actual findings and an outline of future developments will be presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The fate of much of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity is linked to the management of human-modified forest landscapes in the humid tropics. This Special Issue presents the first pan-tropical synthesis of research on the prospects for biodiversity in such systems, with eight individual regional summaries covering Mesoamerica, Amazonia, Atlantic forest of South America, West Africa, Madagascar, Western Ghats, Southeast Asia and Oceania. Two additional papers compare the state of conservation science in tropical forests with both temperate forests and savannah systems. This overview paper provides a comparative analysis of the threats and opportunities facing tropical forest biodiversity, thereby helping to identify the most pressing areas of future research and region-specific factors that contribute towards the effectiveness of individual conservation initiatives. While many of the threats facing tropical forest biodiversity are commonplace they vary markedly in their relative importance across different regions. There is a critical lack of comparable data to understand scale dependent processes, or the relative importance of varying geographic and historical contexts in determining present-day patterns. Conservation science has a key role to play in safeguarding the future of tropical forest biodiversity, but needs to become more effectively embedded in the context of real-world conservation challenges and opportunities. Significant progress can be achieved by improving the cost-effectiveness of research as well as the exchange of ideas and data amongst scientists working in different, often isolated parts of the world. We hope this special issue goes some way top achieving this exchange of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It had been assumed that the rise of multipartyism in sub-Saharan Africa in the late 1980s and 1990s would necessarily lead to better environmental management. Limited studies, mostly based on experiences in southern Africa, suggest that the relationship between the environment and democratization in sub-Saharan Africa still remains an open question. Furthermore, democratization in sub-Saharan Africa has coincided with the implementation of neoliberal-inspired economic adjustment programs. So far, most discussions of the environmental effects of democratization in the region reflect studies of democratization and neoliberalization which tend to treat the two processes separately, failing to recognize their complex interconnections, both in their material and discursive dimensions. This paper is, therefore, an effort to broaden the discussion of the interactions between democratization and the environment in sub-Saharan Africa. Accordingly, the paper investigates the change in the protection of Karura Forest, a key public forest reserve in Nairobi, Kenya, during a period of multi-party politics and election and neoliberal economic reforms in the country in the early 1990s. The paper uses the urban political ecology perspective to help tease out the interactions between democratization and the environment, and highlights how neoliberalism may complicate those interactions. Ultimately, this paper supports cautionary observations about the environmental effects of democratization in sub-Saharan Africa. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Deforestation captures most of the headlines, but there are also processes of forest expansion that are widespread in Latin America. This paper explores why this process is so invisible. Globalization plays an increasingly important role in structuring rural economies. This paper analyses how global integration of many types, ranging from remittances, state transfers, skilling and markets produced forest recovery in peasant landscapes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper seeks to understand how the Brazilian Amazon, which many thought unsuitable for agricultural development, has yielded to a dynamic cattle economy in only a few decades. It does so by embedding the Thunian model of location rents within the regime of capital accumulation that has driven the Brazilian economy since the mid-20th century. The paper addresses policies that have created location rents in Amazônia, the effect of these rents on land managers, and the spatial implications of their behavior on forests. Thus, the paper connects macro-processes and structures to agents on the ground, in providing a political ecological explanation relevant to land change science. The policy discussion focuses on reductions in transportation costs, improvements in animal health, and monetary and trade reforms. To illustrate the impact of policy, the paper presents data on the geography of Amazonian herd expansion, on the growth of Amazonian exports, and on the profitability of the region’s cattle economy. It follows the empirical presentation with more abstract consideration of the spatial relations between cattle ranching and soy farming, and implications for deforestation. The paper concludes on a speculative note by considering the likelihood of forest transition in the region, given the transformation of Amazônia into a global resource frontier. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper contributes to the debate on the links between poverty and forestry degradation; the view that due to poverty and the meeting of subsistence needs the poor use natural resources more intensively and hence cause them to degrade. Using the case of the forest rich Swat district, Pakistan, the paper addresses the issue empirically, historically, and institutionally. We do not find empirical support for the “poverty–environment nexus”, in that the poor and other income groups are equally resource dependent and also show that resource degradation is not associated with poverty. Our historical and institutional analyses provide alternative explanations for resource degradation. Selective and rotating ownership patterns, starting with the 17th century, provided limited incentive for resource conservation. It also created tension between de jure and de facto owners, that has persisted, and is one source of forest degradation. Ill-defined resource rights have also exacerbated the impacts of several other factors contributing to forest degradation which is compounded by poor management, corruption, and perverse incentives. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Road transport in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to rise in the coming years. Paradoxically, this expansion is occurring at a time when oil prices have reached new heights. Unstable oil prices do indeed increase the vulnerability of importers. However, it also presents them with a unique opportunity to explore promising technical options to help reduce their over-reliance on imported petroleum fuels. This paper takes a closer look at the potential for biodiesel, with an emphasis on fuels produced from oil palm, castor oil and jatropha in Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania, respectively. The paper provides an economic appraisal of biodiesels from these feedstocks, and sets the context for further discussions on biofuels in Africa. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In recent years, several proposals for the design of a mechanism to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) within the United Nations Convention on Climate Change have been advanced. The essence of these proposals is to provide financial benefits to developing countries proportionally to the amount of avoided emissions they achieve, i.e. output based. A paper published in Ecological Economics [Combes Motel, P., Pirard, R., Combes, J.L. 2008. A methodology to estimate impacts of domestic policies on deforestation: Compensated Successful Efforts for ¿avoided deforestation¿ (REDD). Ecological Economics doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2008.06.001.] aims to provide an alternative termed Compensated Successful Efforts (CSE). It suggests that financial benefits should be provided on the basis of developing countries' successful ¿efforts¿ to reduce emissions from deforestation, i.e. input based. The CSE approach also differs from previous ones in relation to the definition of what should be counted as avoided deforestation and how to estimate avoided deforestation. The present paper discusses the CSE approach and points out several shortcomings. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Forest conversion for farming remains an issue of scientific and societal concern due to its growing impacts on biodiversity and climate change. Therefore, scientists and policymakers emphasise the urgent need to find a balance between forest conservation and agriculture. Meanwhile, across tropical Africa, subsistence farmers account for nearly two-thirds of forest conversion to farms annually. These farmers' perceptions and experiences about forest conversion may offer alternative perspectives about the problem and how to tackle it. However, such viewpoints remain scanty in the sustainable forestry literature. This paper employs narrative policy analysis to disentangle the stories that underpin farming by forest-fringe communities (FFCs) in protected forests. The FFCs' narratives were identified through fieldwork in 12 forest communities of Southwestern Ghana and juxtaposed with forest regulators and cocoa sector actors' narrativization of forest conversion in Ghana. The results indicate that a combination of factors incite FFCs to farm in protected forests, but the perceived need to respond to food insecurity is the most crucial factor. In the absence of strong grassroots organisations, FFCs cannot convey this crucial need to the forest policy arena, leaving it largely unaddressed in forest policy. Thus, forest encroachment has become a tool for FFCs to resist forest conservation, and generally, as a means for their survival. The paper proposes food security corridors (FSCs) as an integrated landscape management option that can enable FFCs and other policy actors to negotiate and institute food security and conservation goalswithin communities trapped in blocks of forest reserves. The potential FSCs hold to overcome forest conversion for subsistence farming can be unleashed when governments, development partners invest to refine and pilot the concept. Overall, the paper contributes to the land-use conflict literature, showing how context-specific food insecurity can accelerate deforestation. Forestry sector actors need to guard against oversimplifying their assumptions about forest conversion in order to find pragmatic and sustainable solutions to the problem. • Smallholder farmers account for about 65% of forest conversion to farmlands in tropical Africa. • The experiences of these farmers have often been neglected in forest policy formulation. • Disentangling the farmers' narratives show food insecurity is most crucial reason why they farm in protected forests. • Food security corridors offer an opportunity to produce food permanently in forest-fringe communities. • Governments and development agencies need to invest to refine and pilot FSCs in communites trapped by protected forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper analyzes the influence that both policies and markets have on driving forest conversion to agricultural land use focusing on the Bolivian case. It assesses the effects that two models of economic development have had on prompting agricultural expansion, and hence deforestation in lowland Bolivia. The first model, of economic diversification and import substitution, initiated in the early 1950s, stimulated the occupation of forestlands for agricultural expansion through colonization, and incentives to developing a medium and large-scale agriculture. The second model of development, initiated in the mid-1980s, prompted by structural adjustment policies, led to an intense process of agrarian change in the lowlands, mainly by connecting the agricultural frontier to the international market of commodities, particularly soybeans. The move from an import substitution industrialization model to another based on economic liberalization, even though it had positive implications on stimulating agricultural growth, has led to accelerate the pace of deforestation in lowland Bolivia, which has a larger contribution of medium and large-scale agriculture. This paper moves forward the debate about deforestation in Bolivia by making explicit connections between some analytical assessments on land-use/cover change and empirical evidences about forest removal in a five-decades period. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper advances an empirical model assessing how changing economic and ecological conditions at different spatial scales affect land conversion decisions. We apply a multilevel econometric model to explore the implications for parameter estimates and their standard errors of ignoring hierarchical groupings in the data. The paper draws on a panel of agricultural-household data collected from a survey of Mexican farmers. A comparison of results obtained from a standard single level model reveals several stark distinctions in the estimated effects, some of which have immediate relevance for conservation policy. We conclude that the multilevel specification is warranted for alleviating issues associated with error structures inherent to spatial data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Deforestation and forest degradation are the most important land use change processes in the Philippines. These processes are an important threat to the highly rated biodiversity of the country. Only a small fraction of the natural forest that once covered the country remains. In spite of different policies that aim to reduce logging recent commercial deforestation, illegal logging and agricultural expansion pose an important threat to the remaining forest areas. In this paper we discuss the role of (land use) modeling approaches for assessing the threats and trade-offs of protecting the designated nature areas. At the national level different scenarios of land use change and implementation of the protected area policy are evaluated and discussed based on a spatially explicit land use allocation model. For one of the main national parks, the Northern Sierra Madre Nature Park, a detailed analysis is presented based on in-depth knowledge of the region. The two modeling approaches discussed in this paper aim at different scales and provide complementary types of information to support the planning and management of nature conservation strategies. The combination of land use change analysis at different scales respects the hierarchical organization of the land use system and addresses different levels of protected area management. The results indicate that land use change models are useful tools to inform protected area management as long as the selection of the model approach is based on the research and policy questions at the appropriate scale. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper introduces the special issue, which deals with local rural people’s responses to external and internal pressures brought about by global change processes. The contributions are grouped in three categories: (1) Deforestation, land use change and local management systems, including papers on the spread of an alien wattle species in South Africa, large scale forest conservation and rehabilitation in China and consequences of government efforts to reverse deforestation in Indonesia; (2) Subsistence farming and cash crop interaction, addressed by two articles on swidden systems in Malaysia and Indonesia; and (3) Land use change and income diversification, which includes two contributions on changing livelihoods of farmers in Tanzania and Papua New Guinea and one paper developing a method for identifying and mapping the spatial distribution of farming systems in Vietnam. All articles were originally presented at an International Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2003, under the auspices of the Danish University Consortium on Environment and Development - Sustainable Land Use and Natural Resource Management (DUCED SLUSE). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Studies of forest fragmentation in the tropics have systematically paid more attention to understanding processes contributing to the formation of landscapes that are the product of deforestation, while little or no attention has been paid to forested landscapes that are the product of secondary growth processes. In this paper, using information of forest cover from 1960 to 2000 derived from aerial photography and remote sensing data, we examine the dynamics associated with deforestation and secondary growth processes at the Chorotega region, Costa Rica. Our analysis is conducted using a comprehensive land capability map developed for the country. Our results indicate the occurrence of two well-defined land cover change processes over time. Extensive/intensive cattle ranching practices that contribute to significant forest degradation and forest cover loss characterize the first of these processes, occurring between 1960 and 1980. The second period (1980–2000) is characterized by a dynamic process of secondary forest growth resulting from a combination of internal and international market forces and conservation initiatives. Conclusions from this paper indicate that more attention needs to be paid to tropical secondary landscapes that are recuperating from years of constant degradation. This natural recovery process could be beneficial for biodiversity recovery, biological corridors and environmental services. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Although small-scale mining provides a wealth of socioeconomic benefits to the rural inhabitants of developing countries, there is often total disregard for the environment industry-wide. This paper focuses upon some of the key environmental issues in the Indian small-scale mining industry. The geo-environmental factors constraining the mining of the Himalayan limestone, magnetite, phosphate, and polymetallic sulphur ore deposits are discussed, and the environmental impacts of small-scale operations working prospective deposits are detailed. The paper further examines the schematics of the Environmental Management Plan (EMP) adopted for small-scale mines in India. It is concluded, however, that widespread environmental improvement can only be achieved industry-wide if additional mining cooperatives are formed, and the Indian Government, through their Department of Environment, oversees the implementation of effective mitigation practices for small scale-mines, particularly at the university level. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Community managed forest concessions combined with certification performed as well as, and in some cases better than private industrial concessions in reducing forest loss in the Maya Biosphere Reserve. • Community forest management combined with forest certification can be an effective policy tool for reducing deforestation. • The extent to which deforestation is reduced varies based on group characteristics. This paper examines the role of community forest management coupled with mandatory forest certification in Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR). Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification aims to promote sustainable forest practices and increase economic returns for harvesting certified timber through price premiums gained through eco-labeling and specialized access to international markets. Guatemala established community and industrial forest concessions in the reserve as a way to stem rampant deforestation in the region in the 1990s. Concessions are required to obtain FSC certification to maintain their harvesting rights to the forest. The communities that manage the concessions vary across a number of cultural and socio-demographic characteristics, such as income, educational attainment, and previous forest experience. Some community concession members have lived in the region for multiple generations and have historically depended on the forest for their livelihoods, while other groups are comprised of more recent migrants that come primarily from agricultural backgrounds. The differences among the community forest groups, along with the private industrial concessions, allow for a robust examination of the impact of forest certification across different institutional approaches to forest management. Using Hansen's forest loss data from 2000 to 2017 for Guatemala, we employ a random effects model to compare the effectiveness of the community and industrial concessions in reducing deforestation compared to a matched control group. Additionally, we test whether the benefit of increased market access that comes with FSC certification further decreases deforestation. Our findings suggest that sustainable forest management practices have continued to reduce forest loss in the MBR, just as well, if not more so than the industrial concessions, but the impact varies based on community characteristics. The market access component of FSC certification also impacts deforestation, although the effect is small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we employ for the first time a Bayesian process-tracing approach to assess the role of different interventions designed to halt deforestation. We applied the methodology to six initiatives implemented between 2006 and 2019 in the municipality of São Felix do Xingu, namely: (i) institution of protected areas, (ii) environmental monitoring and enforcement, (iii) credit restrictions, (iv) commodity agreements, (v) multi-stakeholder processes, and (vi) value chain projects. Bayesian process tracing is an alternative to traditional counterfactual approaches that allows the gleaning of in-depth insights into 'causal chain' mechanisms and complex interrelationships in individual cases, rather than identifying common or cross-cutting features across different cases. Contrary to traditional process-tracing methodologies, the Bayesian approach provides analytical transparency and replicability through a formal and fine-grained assessment of the strength of the evidence. We assessed 31 individual pieces of evidence, developed using data collected through a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods. We grouped these into interventions spanning three periods of time and traced the causal mechanisms linked to their success or failure. In total, we developed nine theory components. Our results reveal that we are practically certain that four theory components are true. We are also reasonably certain or highly confident that four other theory components are true, and only cautiously confident that one component is true. Drawing on the nine components, we offer a composite theory explaining deforestation outcomes. Our findings provide four implications for global debates. Namely, they provide a strong case for the importance of conceptually distinguishing: the types of actors targeted (e.g., smallholder or medium-to-large landholders) and the frontier status (i.e., whether interventions take place in active frontiers or in consolidated areas). They also prove that interventions may be well implemented for a certain period but can lose effectiveness over time. Finally, our findings call attention to synergies among interventions, and in particular to the combination of regulatory interventions to halt frontier expansion with market-based approaches to incentivize non-deforestation behaviour. • Effectiveness of interventions to halt deforestation is not constant over time. • Effectiveness depends on whether interventions take place in active frontiers or in consolidated areas. • Effectiveness also depends on whether interventions target smallholder or medium-to-large landholders. • Greater effectiveness is achieved through the combination of regulatory interventions with market-based approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest certification, originally introduced to promote sustainable forest management and protect forests from threats such as deforestation, has become a large-scale market tool. There is no consensus in the literature on the impact of forest certification on exports. Few studies have analyzed the impact of forest management certification on exports, and none have analyzed this effect at the firm level, taking into account firm heterogeneity. The current paper aims to fill this gap by analyzing the impact of the difference in the level of forest management certification between an exporting country and importing or destination countries. In particular, we determine how this impact differs by firm size. Our study focuses on the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). We use a panel of exports of wood and wood products at the level of French firms. We find that when the level of forest management certification in the exporting country increases relative to that of the importing countries, exports increase; but this occurs to a lesser extent as firm size increases. This result is robust to the various additional analyses. For example, an increase in the difference in the share of PEFC-certified forests by 0.15 is associated with a 90% increase in the value of exports. We also find heterogeneity by product category, geographic area, and income level of destination countries. Our study highlights the role played by forest certification on exports and the need to develop forest certification in a market-driven manner. [Display omitted] • We analyze the impact of forest management certification on exports. • We use a panel of wood and wood product exports at the level of French firms. • We conduct an empirical analysis and find heterogeneous effects. • Exports are increasing with a higher share of certified forests. • Forest certification must be developed with market requirements in mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The side effect of the expansion of agricultural activities in the Brazilian Cerrado resulted in a loss of its native vegetation, biodiversity decline, and increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Recent expansion has mainly occurred in the northern Cerrado, a region known as MATOPIBA, which is the latest agricultural frontier in Brazil and is largely cultivated for agricultural commodities. In this paper, we investigate the spatiotemporal behaviour of Cerrado vegetation and agricultural areas in the Cerrado – MATOPIBA (CM) region between 1990 and 2017. Moreover, we analyse the planted area expansion of soybean and other important crops for the region and their productivity, and examine how pasturelands have changed over time. We also present a map of private rural lands and analyse whether they comply with the national Forest Code (FC) regarding in-farm areas of natural vegetation that ought to be preserved by law. Finally, we estimate how much of the current deforestation rates could be avoided in the CM region if the Soy Moratorium (SoyM) or the FC are implemented. Results show a loss of almost 8.4 Mha of the Cerrado vegetation in the study area and an expansion of 4.3 Mha of agricultural lands between 1990 and 2017. Our analysis indicates that soybean planted areas expanded by 326% between 2000 and 2017 and that soybean average productivity increased from 2483 kg/ha in 2000 to2906 kg/ha in 2017. In addition to soybean, other crops also contributed to the agribusiness economy in the CM region, with corn being the crop with the greatest expansion of planted areas over the same period (643,443 ha), and cotton the cultivation with the highest increase in productivity (from 2300 kg/ha to 3822 kg/ha) in these 17 analysed years. Pasturelands expanded from 6.4 Mha in 2000 9.8 Mha in 2017. In 2018, private rural properties consisted of only 7188 large properties and occupied 19.5 Mha, whereas small and medium properties accounted for 136,586 farms and covered a total of only 17.5 Mha. With respect to the national FC, the deficit of preservation areas in the CM region, in relation to the agricultural area of each municipality, totalled almost 1.4 Mha in 2017, with large properties responsible for 57% of this deficit. Looking at the policies and mechanisms to protect the native vegetation of the CM region, we have that 17,219,250 ha can still be deforested on the rural properties in this region; and, if the SoyM was expanded to the Cerrado – MATOPIBA region, almost 900,000 ha covered by native vegetation on the categories of farms selected would have been prevented to be converted to soybeans since 2010. The findings from this paper provide a comprehensive understanding of the land use and land cover changes and of the Cerrado deforestation patterns in the CM region for the last decades, and gather information on conservation policies in place to suggest improvements. Several datasets were combined, mainly focus on quantitative analysis, to investigate the geospatial dynamics of natural and agribusiness areas in the study region, and suggest the need to reinforce the preservation of Cerrado native vegetation areas, particularly those that are liable to be legally deforested. • There are 21.5 Mha of native vegetation covering private rural properties. • 17.2 Mha of these vegetation areas can be legally deforested. • Legal mechanisms are not strong enough in the study region, as 4.3 Mha of native vegetation is liable to be legally deforested. • Agricultural areas expanded by 645% in the CM region between 1990 and 2017. • In 2020, the CM region was responsible for 64% of the Cerrado's deforestation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an urgent need to increase agricultural production in order to meet increasing food demands driven in part by population growth and changing dietary preferences. Doing so by expanding area cultivated into forests has important environmental consequences, including engendering climate change. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is considered an important option to increase agricultural productivity and resilience, intensify agricultural production, and possibly reduce cropland expansion. This paper uses nationally representative survey data to assess the extent, intensity and drivers of cropland expansion, and applies an instrumental variable approach to determine the extent to which CSA reduced cropland expansion in Zambia. We find that one-fifth of the 7241 farm households surveyed in 2019 expanded cropland between the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 farming seasons, clearing on average 0.18 ha, but only 13% expanded their cropland into intact forests, clearing an average of 0.09 ha of forestland per household per year. In aggregate, cropland expansion by smallholder into forests represents about 60% of the estimated 250,000 ha of forests lost per year in Zambia. Most households expanded cropland because they needed to meet subsistence food requirements and a few others in response to market opportunities. We did not find statistically significant associations between adopting CSA and cropland expansion in our national sample. Thus, given the low extent and intensity of CSA adoption as defined in this paper, relying only on CSA as a means to spare forests may be risky. These findings have important implications on CSA practice definition, promotion, framing and adoption. • We use large household survey data to assess whether climate-smart agriculture (CSA) reduces cropland expansion in Zambia. • About 13% of the smallholders in Zambia expanded cropland into forests, clearing an average of 0.10ha of forestland. • Cropland expansion by smallholders account for 60% of the 250,000 ha of forests lost per year, on average. • We did not find significant correlations between adopting CSA and cropland expansion in our national sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]