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The countries of the global south are characterized by high levels of biodiversity. In addition, these countries have suffered -and will suffer- even more ecological pressures due to agricultural production, mainly monocultures. When considering areas of high biodiversity with highly intensive agricultural systems, the scientific literature highlights the role provided by Ecosystem Services (ES) both to monocultures and from monocultures to their contexts. In this sense, the objective of this paper is to provide a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) to understand the relationship between monocultures and ES in the global south. Furthermore, in this research we provide a context analysis to broaden the understanding of the implications of monocultures in this region. We provide correlations between trends in monocultures harvested areas and forest cover in the countries identified through the SLR. Our SLR identified information from 15 countries and 11 monocultures. We found several negative correlations between harvested area and forest cover, mainly in megadiverse countries. In addition, we depicted trade-offs and synergies related to monocultures. We conclude that more research is needed in this regard, especially since there is great interest in monocultures for economic development in the global south, and this area will support world food production in the future. • We review eleven crops in fifteen countries. • Most of the fifteen countries have high levels of national biodiversity index. • Deforestation is correlated to crops growing in the period 2005–2019. • Regulating ecosystem services are the most affected by the monocrops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The management of forests to store carbon and mitigate climate change has received significant international attention during the last decade. Using in situ data from a 2008–2009 forest inventory field campaign in Sri Lanka, this study describes the structural characteristics and carbon stocks of six natural forest types. This paper has a dual scope: i) to highlight the variation in carbon stored in aboveground biomass within and between forest types and ii) to determine the implications of the allometric equations chosen to calculate biomass carbon stocks. This study concerns work related to climate change interventions, such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) and other forest-related, performance-based initiatives that require proper monitoring, reporting, and verification of carbon stocks, sinks and emissions. The results revealed that forests are heterogeneous in terms of tree density and height–diameter relationships, both between and within the six forest types investigated. The mean aboveground carbon stock in the different forest types ranged from 22 to 181 Mg C ha −1 , and there were statistically significant differences in the carbon stocks of the six forest types in 7 of 15 cases. The estimated carbon stock depended heavily on the allometric equation used for the calculations, the variables, and its application to the specific life zone. Due to the diversity of forest structures, these results suggest that caution should be taken when applying default values to estimate forest carbon stocks and emission values in reporting and accounting schemes. The results also indicated the need for allometric equations that are context-specific for different forest types. Therefore, new field investigations and measurements are needed to determine these specific allometric equations, as well as the potential variation in forest carbon stocks in tropical natural forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a causal analysis framework to increase understanding of land-use change (LUC) and the reliability of LUC models. This health-sciences-inspired framework can be applied to determine probable causes of LUC in the context of bioenergy. Calculations of net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for LUC associated with biofuel production are critical in determining whether a fuel qualifies as a biofuel or advanced biofuel category under regional (EU), national (US, UK), and state (California) regulations. Biofuel policymakers and scientists continue to discuss to what extent presumed indirect land-use change (ILUC) estimates should be included in GHG accounting for biofuel pathways. Current estimates of ILUC for bioenergy rely largely on economic simulation models that focus on causal pathways involving global commodity trade and use coarse land-cover data with simple land classification systems. This paper challenges the application of such models to estimate global areas of LUC in the absence of causal analysis. The proposed causal analysis framework begins with a definition of the change that has occurred and proceeds to a strength-of-evidence approach that includes plausibility of relationship, completeness of causal pathway, spatial co-occurrence, time order, analogous agents, simulation model results, and quantitative agent–response relationships. We discuss how LUC may be allocated among probable causes for policy purposes and how the application of the framework has the potential to increase the validity of LUC models and resolve controversies about ILUC, such as deforestation, and biofuels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shortcut fusion is a well-known optimization technique for functional programs. Its aim is to transform multi-pass algorithms into single pass ones, achieving deforestation of the intermediate structures that multi-pass algorithms need to construct. Shortcut fusion has already been extended in several ways. It can be applied to monadic programs, maintaining the global effects, and also to obtain circular and higher-order programs. The techniques proposed so far, however, only consider programs defined as the composition of a single producer with a single consumer. In this paper, we analyse shortcut fusion laws to deal with programs consisting of an arbitrary number of function compositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Timber is a widely used composite material in structural load-bearing applications because of its good mechanical properties. However, with global forest loss occurring at a high rate, mainly due to the timber trade, and deforestation accounting for about 12% of global CO 2 emissions, there is an increasing demand for alternative structural materials with a lower carbon footprint to mitigate climate change. This has led to an increased interest in the use of recycled materials for the development of novel structural composites. This paper describes an investigation of the structural load-deformation behaviour of a typical post and rail type fence fabricated from timber sections – the target application for replacement with alternative novel and lower carbon footprint composite materials/components. The post and rail fence is a two-bay frame comprised of three posts and two rails. Prior to testing the frame, three-point bending tests were carried out on the ungraded timber posts and rails to determine their longitudinal elastic flexural moduli. Tip-loaded cantilever bending tests were also carried out to determine the semi-rigid rotational stiffness of the bolted joint at the base of the posts. Using the geometry, moduli and stiffness results, Finite Element (FE) analyses were carried out using ANSYS software to investigate the structural behaviour of the timber post and rail fence. The FE results were compared with the experimental results and shown to be in good agreement. As there are no structural load-bearing standards for agricultural fencing, the experimental and FE timber fencing results provide useful benchmarks for assessing the structural stiffness of novel recycled composite materials and components presently under development for fencing applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demand for forestland for non-forest uses, mostly oil palm, has increased dramatically in the past few years and has become a chief driver of deforestation in Central Kalimantan. In this paper, we aim to shed light on how multiple levels of government create a facilitating environment for oil palm expansion. In our research, we employed three different methods: content analysis of key policy documents, participant observations, and expert interviews. We found that the technical complexities of formal procedures for the conversion of forest to oil palm are relatively easy to bypass. Contradicting laws and regulations have created a situation where the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) and local governments have relatively equal legal mandates and authority over land-use and allocation. This is further complicated by the ambiguity of the decentralization policy. Enabled by the spatial planning law and the decentralization laws, local governments have aggressively issued plantation licenses for forest areas without the formal release of the forest from the Ministry of Forestry. The issuance of plantation permits has also been legitimized by other policies within central government, which have made oil palm a national priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main causes of tropical forest loss is conversion to agriculture, which is constantly increasing as a dominant land cover in the tropics. The loss of forests greatly affects biodiversity and ecosystem services. This paper assesses the economic return from increasing tree cover in agricultural landscapes in two tropical locations, West Java, Indonesia and eastern Bangladesh. Agroforestry systems are compared with subsistence seasonal food-crop-based agricultural systems. Data were collected through rapid rural appraisal, field observation, focus groups and semi-structured interviews of farm households. The inclusion of agroforestry tree crops in seasonal agriculture improved the systems’ overall economic performance (net present value), even when it reduced understorey crop production. However, seasonal agriculture has higher income per unit of land area used for crop cultivation compared with the tree establishment and development phase of agroforestry farms. Thus, there is a trade-off between short-term loss of agricultural income and longer-term economic gain from planting trees in farmland. For resource-poor farmers to implement this change, institutional support is needed to improve their knowledge and skills with this unfamiliar form of land management, sufficient capital for the initial investment, and an increase in the security of land tenure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses new, high resolution satellite-derived data to explore recent cross-national differences in expanding tree cover. Increases in tree cover have concentrated in nations with recent histories of extensive deforestation, humid climates, high crop yields, and small numbers of farm workers. The associations of expanded tree cover with high yields for cereal crops and small populations of cultivators suggests a dynamic, sometimes referred to as a forest transition, in which urbanization and industrialization promote a long-term expansion in tree cover on certain types of land. The association of tree cover gains with tree cover losses and humid climates suggests a second dynamic, a churning, treadmill-like production of wood products from lands subjected to recurring harvests of wood products followed by tree cover gains in the recently harvested areas. The forest transition dynamic suggests that many smallholders would allow tree cover to expand on their lands if payments for environmental services were available. The salience of the treadmill dynamic of tree cover losses followed by tree cover gains underscores the importance of questions about the implications of commercial tree monocultures for biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efforts aimed at sparing forests on tropical forest frontiers through REDD+, PES or conservation initiatives currently rely on a limited understanding of the operation of land markets and their effects on the opportunity cost of forests as frontiers develop. In this paper, we draw on a unique dataset of landholder-reported land transactions that includes post-1991 land sales-in three sub-montane frontier forest areas on the eastern slopes of the Peruvian Andes. We analyze reported land sales that took place between 1979 and 2013 among Amazonian frontier farmers and find highly active land markets in all three areas, often in the absence of formal land tenure. As frontiers developed, parcel size fell, as did the portion of remaining forest cover, and land prices rose, reflecting both forest clearing and general land price inflation as the areas became more populated and developed. Across three study districts in 2013, each additional hectare of forest cleared raised the expected price of a parcel of land by US $1371–$2587. Importantly, we estimate the opportunity cost per hectare of frontier forest rose markedly over time: by $124–$226 per year between 2003 and 2013, a rate of increase over that period of 9–27% per year. Forest conservation programs that rely on estimates of landholders' willingness to accept compensation for sparing forest need to take into account that these values change rapidly as frontiers develop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Illegal deforestation is a worldwide problem which may be alleviated through technological means of deforestation monitoring, e.g. wireless sensor networks capable of identifying chain-saw noise, performing sound source localization (SSL), and alerting the authorities to the location of the illegal deforestation activity. In this paper we evaluate the feasibility of performing SSL on low-power, energy-constrained, microphone-array-equipped sensor nodes (SNs) with the Delay-and-Sum (DS) beam-forming algorithm. Our work is the first application of this technique for chain-saw noise. We evaluate array configurations of 4, 8, and 16 microphones, and a multitude of DS algorithm configurations, utilizing chain-saw recordings from the ESC dataset, which is available online. We implement the DS algorithm as a digital circuit in a Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA and analyze its energy consumption. Our analysis indicates that accurate chain-saw localization can be achieved with much simpler microphone arrays and DS configurations compared to previous work. Furthermore, adding FPGA-based SSL capability to the SN increases the energy consumption by less than 10%, compared to a baseline SN capable only of chain-saw identification through spectral analysis executed in software on the SN microcontroller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides the first analysis at the sub-municipality scale of the relationships between population densities and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon between 2000 and 2010. We use the database on deforestation published by the Brazilian space research center (INPE) and the population census data released by the federal geographical and statistical agency IBGE at their finest scale: the census tract level. By crossing the population density and deforestation variables, we identify ten human settlement patterns in the Amazon. There are low-low and high-high classes of population density and deforestation, but also low-high and high-low classes. This analysis helps understand the low overall relations in the Amazon for population and deforestation. We emphasize the expansion of large-scale agriculture and cattle ranching as causing the depopulation of rural areas while in many regions of the Amazon quite strong population densities coexist with relatively low extents of deforestation. Such findings stress the need to implement case-specific public policies in these regions in order to encourage human presence compatible with the conservation of forest cover and biodiversity. We also confirm the importance of the Amazon urbanization process, including the ‘discrete urbanization’ of rural areas, and the need to better recognize the distinct social and environmental problems of urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world's forests have historically been managed as systems in which environmental health is compromised for the sake of economic efficiency and growth. China's forest policy framework has generally followed this paradigm as large-scale deforestation over the 20th century led to landscapes that, while economically productive, were made vulnerable to natural disturbances. However, in recent decades China has experienced substantial forest reforms that aim to protect important forested lands while simultaneously increasing timber outputs from plantations. Multiple green growth oriented programs have been in place to attain these objectives with the anticipation that rural poverty can be alleviated and the vulnerability towards natural disasters can be avoided. A growing body of research demonstrates the success of these reforms for improving the lives of landowners while also increasing the country's forest cover. However, these reforms have brought upon substantial change to the relationship within and between social, economic and ecological properties of the nation's forest system, and consequentially its ability to respond and adapt to change in the future. The objective of this paper is to describe the relationship between forest policy and environmental change in China during the last century using a complex adaptive systems framework. This approach demonstrates the coupled nature of policies and forest dynamics that need to be considered in future policy development. China's green growth directed policies and practices must embrace a perspective of constant change and the inevitability of perturbations and disturbances. In this way, China can begin to consider how to build resilience into its policies and management strategies so that the overall system maintains a level of flexibility that allows it to adapt to unforeseen economic and ecological change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Land governance is a factor of Brazilian Amazon deforestation control. • Lack of an integrated land cadaster paves the way for land speculation and land grabs. • Recent political shift has generated uncertainties about the future of Brazilian environmental policies. This paper's aim is to show that improvements in land governance in Brazil, and particularly in the Amazon region, have been the main pre-condition enabling reductions in deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. Deforestation occurs primarily where property rights are not clearly established, and occurs mostly on land directly or indirectly under state responsibility. This paper also shows that land speculation plays an important role in deforestation. Based on these findings, it is evident that Brazil must improve its land governance in order to decrease rates of deforestation. The Brazilian government has adopted important new efforts to improve land administration, including improvements in the registration process and the Terra Legal program, which are addressing public land problems across large areas of the Amazon. The concluding section highlights how efforts to reduce deforestation will only be possible through more efficient land governance, especially in the Amazon region, and discusses the important role that participatory land governance may play in improving land use and land ownership through application of land taxes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity in Latin America is at risk today due to habitat loss, land conversion to agriculture and urbanization. To grow their economies the developing countries of Latin America have begun to invest heavily in new road construction. An assessment of research on the impacts of roads on wildlife in Latin America will help define science-based conservation strategies aimed at mitigating road expansion. The aim of this review was to qualitatively and quantitatively assess scientific research papers addressing road impacts on vertebrate species in Latin America. We searched for scientific papers published as early as 1990 to 2017. We reviewed a total of 197 papers. Published research showed an increasing trend in the last decade with a strong geographic bias with a majority of papers from Brazil. Mammals were the most studied taxa followed by birds, reptiles and amphibians. The majority of studies focused on road mortality and at the individual species level. Studies documented an increase in deforestation rates, in land conversion to agriculture, illegal activities (hunting, logging) and the establishment of human settlements. The effects of roads on species richness and populations abundance varied among taxa with no apparent pattern within taxa. Forest-dependent species tended to avoid crossing roads. Amphibians had the highest median road-kill rate, followed by reptiles, mammals and birds. Our results suggest that there is an urgent need for more research, particularly in Central America and to employ predictive tools for difficult-to-sample or understudied species and critical conservation areas. We recommend a two-speed approach to guide future research: one focusing on quantifying individual species responses towards roads and their implications on population viability; a second consisting of regional or continental-scale analyses and modelling of road risks to species and populations to inform road planning immediately. • Planned roads in Latin America are a threat to biodiversity conservation. • Published research has grown in the last decade with a geographic bias for Brazil. • Studies are focused on road mortality, especially on medium-large mammals. • There is a need for more research, particularly on the impacts of roads at level of genes and populations. • Quantifying individual species responses towards roads and predictive analyses are needed to inform road mitigation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The Atlantic Forest is the biome with the highest number of papers on ecological restoration. • Pantanal, Pampa and Caatinga are the least studied in terms of ecological restoration. • In all biomes, most of the studies are related to monitoring. • The number of species used in restored areas is limited. • It is necessary to include different life forms, restoration techniques and studies using reference areas to measure success. The Bonn challenge aims at the restoration of 350 million hectares of degraded ladscapes by 2030. In Brazil, the restoration goal for 2030 is 12 million hectares. Despite the great demand for ecological restoration across the whole of Brazil, there have been no analyses of the studies carried out in different biomes. In addition, conservation efforts must cover all biomes, so that different regions can take advantage of the many benefits of restoration. Our aim was to identify advances and gaps in current restoration knowledge in order to guide future efforts in Brazil. Our bibliometric survey in the Web of Science using 23 keywords related to restoration generated a total of 530 papers, of which 291 were included in the analysis. The papers were published in 121 scientific journals between 1988 and 2018, with the largest number of papers in 2016. The Atlantic Forest was the biome with the highest number of studies, as it is one of the most threatened tropical forest regions in the world and maintains the largest number of research institutions and receives the highest level of funding support in the country. Regarding the types of studies, temporal monitoring was more frequent in the Amazon, Cerrado, Caatinga, and Pampa, while the monitoring at one point in time was more frequent in the Atlantic Forest. From the studies examined, 31% used a reference area for comparing restoration success. The most studied organisms were plants (81%), and among them, trees were the most frequent, followed by fungi, birds, invertebrates, mammals, and reptiles. The pre-restoration degradation differed among biomes, with deforestation for logging the most cited in the Amazon, agriculture, and livestock in the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado, logging and cattle ranching in Caatinga, and livestock in the Pampa and Pantanal. In general, active/assisted natural succession was the most frequent restoration process: planting seedlings more readily occurred in the Amazon, Atlantic Forest, and Caatinga, whereas natural regeneration in the Cerrado and Pantanal and sowing in Pampa. The studies varied among the age of restoration (>1 to 67 years for active restoration and >1 to 120 years for passive/unassisted natural succession), and the number of species planted (1 to 121 species). We identified an important regional knowledge gap for the Pantanal, Caatinga, and Pampa, as well as the need to include reference areas, evaluate different restoration techniques (besides planting seedlings), and the inclusion of other taxa and life forms in biodiversity studies apart from trees. We also identified the need to expand research to assess landscape metrics, prioritization, legislation, and public policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Brazilian Amazon is suffering from serious deforestation that may lead to catastrophic consequences for the world's climate and biodiversity. Preventing illegal deforestation activities is an emergent and crucial mission for the world. Recently, automated monitoring systems using Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) appear as a promising solution to combat deforestation. However, the quality design of such systems considering the deforestation prevention impacts remains under-explored. In this paper, we propose a socio-ICT (Information Communication Technology) model that enables to analyze the deforestation prevention impacts of a UAV-based monitoring system quantitatively. The socio-ICT model uses a causal loop diagram to formulate the relations among system quality measures and key performance indicators (KPIs) associated with deforestation prevention. Through the numerical study, we estimate the effectiveness of the UAV monitoring system by annual deforestation rate and CO 2 gas emissions. Our analysis shows important design trade-offs need to be considered when planning UAV-based monitoring systems. • Impacts of UAV-based deforestation monitoring are quantitatively analyzed. • Socio-ICT model combines a system-level quality model with a social impact model. • A large monitoring area by many drone flights causes a decreased visiting frequency. • The maintenance period and the activity exposure time are significant factors. • A design tradeoff between drone autonomy and detection accuracy is identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deforestation is depletion of the forest cover and degradation in forest quality mainly through repeated fires, over-exploitation, and diseases. In a forest ecosystem, occurrence of wildfires is a natural phenomena. The curse of global warming and man-made interventions have made the wildfires increasingly extreme and widespread. Though, extremely challenging due to rapidly changing climate, accurate prediction of these fire events can significantly improve forestation worldwide. In this paper, we have addressed this issue by proposing a deep learning (DL) framework using long short term memory (LSTM) model. The proposed mechanism accurately forecasts weekly fire alerts and associated burnt area (ha) utilizing historical fire data provided by GLOBAL FOREST WATCH. Pakistan is taken as a case study since its deforestation rate is among the highest in the world while having one of the lowest forest covers. Number of epochs, dense layers, hidden layers and hidden layer units are varied to optimize the model for high estimation accuracy and low root mean square error (RMSE). Simulation results show that the proposed method can predict the forest fire occurrences with 95% accuracy by employing a suitable hyperparameter tuning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The way vegetation is officially named, classified, and identified has critical implications for ecosystems and biodiversity conservation. Yet little attention is given to how such issues hinder the efficacy of laws mandating environmental conservation on private land. In the Brazilian Amazon where half of the land is now already under private tenure or is available for future land-uses, differences in vegetation mapping and interpretation directly affect the level of protection in private rural properties, especially in transition areas where forest and savanna areas intermingle. Since Brazil's Native Vegetation Protection Law (NVPL) attaches a higher percentage of protection to forest-located properties, landowners may be tempted to use conflicting mappings and different vegetation classifications to claim their properties are located in areas other than forests to reduce their conservation requirements. In this paper, we compare three official vegetation databases and examine different law interpretation scenarios to assess the extent to which the level of private conservation may fluctuate. We found a difference of up to 430,000 km2 of protected vegetation (an area the size of Iraq) according to the database and vegetation characteristics chosen. This technical ambiguity may lead to make additional deforestation legal or reduce sharply the amount of vegetation to be restored for these areas, if left unaddressed. Clarifying the database and criteria used to define forest is critical, especially as Brazilian states may make different choices in that regard, and cases in which loopholes are exploited occurred in the recent past. Given the importance of this region for global biodiversity conservation and climate, we highlight the urgent need to: (1) support additional research to clarify vegetation characteristics and location; (2) agree on a harmonized methodology to determine forests for NVPL implementation, and (3) explore alternative criteria for defining forests when databases conflict. • Accurate native vegetation mapping is key to private forest conservation. • Uncertain vegetation classification weakens compliance with Brazil's forest law. • Study provides scenarios exploring the implications of multiple vegetation databases. • 430,000 square kilometers of the Brazilian Amazon are at risk of reduced protection. • Both deforestation and native vegetation restoration are affected by this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Easter Island (Rapa Nui) is a remote Pacific island known for its megalithic statues, the moai , built by an ancient culture which disappearance is still debated. Theories claiming for either self-destruction (ecocide) of this ancient culture or an eventual genocide after the European contact have been the most popular. Anthropogenic drivers have been traditionally preferred as causes of this major cultural shift, whereas climatic changes have been dismissed or underrated. However, the latest findings suggest that the topic is more complex than formerly thought and demand a more holistic perspective. This paper reviews the main paleoclimatic, paleoecological, archaeological and historical evidence of the major Rapanui cultural shift leading to the end of the moai -building civilization and uses an integrated approach to analyze its timing and potential causes. The disappearance of the ancient Eastern Island culture that erected the moai was a dramatic cultural shift with significant changes in lifestyle, socio-political organization, religious performance, art and also in the geographical settlement of the cultural core of the Rapanui society. The ancient society, represented by the so called Ancient Cult (or moai cult) was centered on the Rano Raraku crater, to the east of the island, whose soft volcanic rocks (tuff) where suitable for moai carving. This society was replaced by the Birdman-Cult society, based on Rano Kao, to the westernmost end of the island. The assumed date for such shift is uncertain ranging between mid-16th and late-18th centuries. It is suggested that such geographical change, as well as the associated societal transformations, may have been the result of a combination of climatic, ecological and cultural drivers and events. The latest paleoecological reconstructions show that the Rano Raraku catchment was deforested by AD 1450 and the lake inside dried out by AD 1550 owing to an intense climatic drought. This would have caused a landscape deterioration transforming the Raraku catchment into a wasteland devoid of freshwater and unsuitable for human life and the cultural flourishment that characterized the Ancient-Cult society. The drought lasted for about a century and a half and would have forced the Rapanuis to look for alternative freshwater sources. The only feasible option was the freshwater lake inside the then forested Rano Kao crater, where the ceremonial village of Orongo, the center of the Birdman Cult, was funded by AD 1600. The Kao crater is made of hard volcanic rocks (basalts) unsuitable for moai carving by the Neolithic Rapanui culture, unaware of metals, which would have contributed to the end of the moai -building phase. Deforestation and drought would have led to a general demographic decline. The shift from the rigid socio-political organization of the Ancient Cult to the more flexible system characteristic of the Birdman Cult could be viewed as a cultural adaptation to changing environmental conditions. The occurrence of a further, rather catastrophic, genocide caused by slave trading and epidemic diseases, occurred shortly after the European contact (AD 1722), has been documented historically. Therefore, the Rapanui civilization has undergone at least two cultural crises caused by natural and anthropogenic drivers. A complex synergistic scenario like that proposed here can conciliate multidisciplinary lines of evidence formerly used to defend more simplistic and apparently contradictory hypotheses of cultural change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation-plus as an important measure to mitigate climate change can effectively reduce the emissions caused by deforestation and degradation in tropical countries. It is particularly important in the projects of reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation-plus that carbon emission monitoring and reference emission levels are tied to the revenues of a country. However, how do the reference emission levels and information of emissions influence project performance is still uncertain. Within a theoretical analysis framework, this paper considers the confliction among landholder behaviors, goals of policymakers, as well as the distortion caused by the existence of asymmetric information. The theoretical framework reveals two hypotheses through comparing optimal decisions under different scenarios: (i) an increase in reference emission levels can lead to a decrease in landholders' efforts and an increase in actual emissions; (ii) information asymmetry caused by the increase of landholder's forest area results in an increase in emissions. The empirical study uses panel data for 75 developing countries to test these hypotheses. The results show that a monitoring, reporting and verification system can help achieve the social optimum level for emissions and the efforts by landholders. An increase in the forest areas owned by landholders and in REL will lead to an increase in emissions. The empirical results also confirm this point at a global scale, as well as regionally in Africa, Latin America & the Caribbean, and Asia &Oceania. As solutions for these problems, an effective monitoring, reporting and verification system is crucial in successful implementation of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation-plus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the main direct and underlying causes of deforestation in Brazil's Legal Amazon region by considering spatial differences. The computation of localized parameters is based on geographically weighted regression (GWR). The novelty of this paper lies in its incorporation of economic, rather than Euclidean, distances into the GWR. Economic distances are measured by travel time, sourced from Google Inc. A global approach revealed several important factors that affect deforestation, including: rural population, GDP (suggesting a U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve), forest stock, cattle ranching, timber value, and road networks (both official and unofficial). Local analysis uncovered patterns not seen under global models, especially in the state of Pará. Most notably, crop cultivation was found to accelerate deforestation in southeastern Pará and northeastern Mato Grosso, while in some regions (especially in the northeastern corner of Pará), the area covered by crop plantations was negatively associated with deforestation. For Pará, rural credit constraints, larger territories designated as sustainable use areas and indigenous lands, and higher levels of precipitation inhibit deforestation. Further, rural population has a very heterogeneous impact on deforestation across Legal Amazon: it is not a significant factor of deforestation in northern Pará and Amapá, but it has a relatively strong effect in the western parts of Mato Grosso and Rondônia. Also, official and illegal roads create significantly more pressure on forests in remote regions compared to developed areas. Finally, the use of economic distances, as opposed to Euclidean distances, leads to notably different GWR results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil was the first country to submit a reference level (RL) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) aiming to claim results-based payments for reduced emissions from deforestation in the REDD+ mechanism. This voluntary RL submission has passed an official technical assessment process by the UNFCCC on the accordance of the data and method applied, which was finalised in December 2014. After years of international negotiations this has become possible by the REDD+ framework finally agreed. Although never formally adopted, the rules of procedure of the UNFCCC foresee consensus among the 196 parties to the convention. Due to the wide heterogeneity in national circumstances and capacities between these parties, the decided REDD+ framework represents a compromise, and in some points space for interpretation remains due to a lack of clear definitions. E.g., no internationally standardised method exists for the design of RLs under UNFCCC; rather each country has the possibility to apply its own approach within a given range of requirements. We argue that these nationally designed RLs involve the danger of raising a ‘cherry-picking’ mentality, which would reduce cost-efficiency of the payments. Especially in the light of the ongoing pressure to fight anthropogenic global climate change, the overall objective of REDD+ should be climate effectiveness. Therefore, apparently contradictory objectives—of integrating as many developing countries as possible, by keeping the barriers low, and of effective emission reductions by persisting on strict rules for national carbon accounting—had to be balanced. According to the technical assessment by the UNFCCC, the submitted Brazilian RL fulfils all formal requirements. However, as implication of the negotiated framework, there remain some questions on the climate effectiveness and the cost-efficiency of the submitted approach, which this viewpoint paper aims to critically reflect. Brazil chose for its present RL design the eligible options of a subnational coverage, with consideration of the activity of deforestation only. But only comprehensive accounting of all activities on national scale can ensure that all potential emissions are accounted for. By the present accounting gap, doubts on climate effectiveness arise. Furthermore, Brazil chose a fixed starting year for historic emissions and did not consider national circumstances, which results in reference emissions of about 1100 Mt CO 2 /a between 2006 and 2010. This potentially profitable RL setting for Brazil raises doubt on the cost-efficiency of the implied REDD+ payment. Whether these problems arising from the four eligible but critical RL options applied by Brazil emerge in other RLs as well, was checked for further five RL proposals submitted up to now. None of these country submissions has passed the technical assessment yet. The submitted approaches for RL design differ among the considered countries but one can see a tendency towards profitable individual RL definitions, similar to the Brazilian RL. From our findings we conclude that individually determined RLs without standardised methods bear the risk of national ‘cherry-picking’ which can compromise climate effectiveness and cost-efficiency of the whole REDD+ mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major increases in food production are needed to feed the rapidly growing population of sub-Saharan Africa. Increased application of irrigation has often been identified as one of the main pathways to agricultural intensification. However, water flows, in particular during the dry season, often depend upon the water regulation services provided by forests and woodlands which are increasingly subject to land conversion as well as degradation from the overexploitation of wood resources. Insight in the trade-off between land conversion in sub-Saharan African uplands and sustaining water flows is, therefore, urgently needed. In this paper, we develop a general modelling approach for analysing the effects of deforestation on the availability of water for irrigation at the watershed level, and we apply the approach to the Upper Ouémé watershed in Benin. We use controlled modelling experiments based on the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) in addition to copula functions to quantify surface water availability and irrigation potential under prevailing forest and woodland cover as well as varying forest and woodland extents. We undertake these comparative analyses for two irrigation development scenarios that are defined based on different levels of sustained water flows in the Upper Ouémé river network. Our analyses show that conservation of prevailing forests and woodlands in the Upper Ouémé watershed is needed to allow the development of 80% (15,000 ha) or 71% (20,000 ha) of the irrigation potential in the dry season depending on the scenario. At the prevailing forest and woodland extent, the loss of around 40 ha of forest and woodland area reduces the irrigation potential by 1 ha depending on the scenario. Our irrigation potential calculations are based on the water requirements of rice which is the most water intensive crop grown in the study area. For other crops, the ratio will be lower (i.e. less forest and woodland area is required to sustain 1 ha of irrigated crop production). The relation between forest and woodland extent and irrigation potential is, however, not linear, and more hectares of forest and woodland are needed to support 1 ha of irrigated crop production with increasing deforestation. This is relevant for trade-off analysis, where it needs to be noted that the forests and woodlands not only generate water regulation services but also provide other ecosystem services including fuelwood, timber, opportunities for livestock grazing and carbon sequestration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

REDD+ reference levels directly impact the benefits which a country may receive. However, the existing “Compensation Reduction” (CR) and “Compensated Successful Efforts” (CSE) are only considered from a unilateral perspective of outputs or inputs. The combination of these two approaches is considered to estimate the REDD+ reference levels through the Zero-Sum-Gains Data Envelopment Analysis in this paper. The agricultural labor force and agricultural land area are used as input variables, and the gross agricultural production and carbon emissions from deforestation are considered as output variables. The REDD+ reference levels of 89 countries are calculated and classified through the Zero-Sum-Gains DEA model. The results demonstrate that the REDD+ reference levels are estimated efficiently through the Zero-Sum-Gains DEA model, and all countries with deforestation are in the Zero-Sum-Gains DEA frontier, indicating the overall Pareto optimality has been achieved. The empirical results also indicate that the use of Zero-Sum-Gains DEA model is more beneficial for Latin American and the Caribbean, while the countries that may see a revenue drop in REDD+ are in Africa, Asia and Oceania. Consequently, the final REDD+ reference levels should take into account both efficiency and fairness by selecting the appropriate fairness-efficiency weighting factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the positive and negative (or intended and unintended) impacts of anti-drug policies such as the aerial spraying of coca crops in Colombia. It provides spatial analysis of coca cultivation and crop eradication at a fine scale of resolution using the latest UNODC data. The findings suggest that anti-drug policy in Colombia between 2001 and 2012 has had some success with a significant decrease in overall levels of coca cultivation, but that it has also led to the displacement of coca cultivation, notably to areas within the Colombian Pacific region. Negative impacts include continued deforestation and damage to ecosystems, and the further marginalization of Afro-Colombian communities whose collective territories have been subject to increased coca cultivation between 2001 and 2012. Alternative development programs have not been well aligned with such areas where other illegal activities such as mining as well as coca cultivation now occur. Hence the importance of designing anti-drug policy that comprehensively integrates the local nuances of those peoples and places affected by coca cultivation and crop eradication according to their particular contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest loss and fragmentation, which generate various negative environmental and ecological consequences, have become widespread phenomena across the globe. Motivation to investigate the underlying drivers is essential for land use planning and policy decision making. This paper characterizes forest loss and fragmentation from 1979 to 2014 in the Ningbo region (China) using multitemporal satellite imageries and a set of landscape metrics (area-weighted mean patch area, edge density, area-weighted shape index, Euclidean nearest neighbor distance, effective mesh size and total area); and then quantifies the responsible socioeconomic drivers (economy, social activities, science and technology, culture and policy, demography) under different land use planning schemes (urban and non-urban) using multivariate linear regression. Results show that the two zones present identical trend of intensifying forest loss and fragmentation but differ in changing magnitude and speed. More specifically, forest loss and fragmentation in the non-urban planning zone occurs at a significantly higher pace and magnitude. For the urban planning zone, population pressure, economic growth and fruit consumption are the primary drivers of forest loss, while forest fragmentation is mainly driven by economic openness, cash crop consumption and environmental protection consciousness. For the non-urban planning zone, income increases, fruit consumption and infrastructure development are the primary drivers of forest loss, while infrastructure and tourism development are the major drivers of forest fragmentation. Besides, forest loss and fragmentation in the two zones are both heavily subjected to land use policy. The variance partitioning analysis highlights that the policy driver is the most influential one and economic driver also has strong effect on forest loss and fragmentation in the urban planning zone. For the non-urban planning zone, the influence of policy driver is the strongest and social activity is also very powerful. These results provide compelling evidence that land use planning fails to play an efficient role in protecting forest resources in the Ningbo region. The failure should be attributed to several issues associated with land use planning and forestry governance that widely exist in China. We finally propose some pertinent implications and suggestions for China’s land use planning and forest policy. This study is believed to advance the understanding of the socioeconomic drivers of forest loss and fragmentation. It therefore provides some new insights in land use policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers are increasingly interested in understanding the impact of contentious social processes on land change. In the Brazilian Amazon, there are often contentious interactions between landholders defending private property rights and squatters who have the right to occupy land that is deemed unproductive. Previous studies suggest that the contentious social processes inherent in the Brazilian land tenure and land reform system cause a significant amount of deforestation. An environment of insecure land title, and policies that value deforested land over forested land, among other factors, encourage both landholders and squatters to deforest more land than is necessary for pasture or crop production. This paper examines the impact that land occupations have on deforestation at the municipal scale across the Brazilian Legal Amazon, from 2000 to 2009. We show that land occupations have a direct influence on deforestation. We use spatial analysis as well to show that land occupations have a spatial component in the effect on deforestation: occupations in one municipality affect deforestation in adjacent areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of agricultural and livestock activities on tropical forests often results in long-lasting damage to soil and vegetation. In undisturbed tropical forests, nutrient stocks tend to be larger in the aboveground biomass than in the soil profile; therefore, deforested sites may remain bare for decades due to nutrient limitation. In such circumstance, amelioration of edaphic conditions and planting of tree species adapted to open canopy conditions (pioneers) could help restore ecosystem functions while providing a sustainable source of timber and prompting natural succession. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of biochar as a soil amendment that could accelerate the reforestation of degraded lands. We used a randomized block design with five treatments and four replications, comparing the performance of exotic eucalyptus ( Eucalyptus urophylla × Eucalyptus grandis ) and native Tachigali vulgaris trees. We monitored reforested plots for 49 months, evaluating tree survival and growth rates, litter production, canopy cover and density of invasive grasses. The addition of biochar in the soil did not result in significant differences in tree survival or productivity when compared to controls. Comparing the two species, native trees ( T. vulgaris ) performed better by all metrics, showing 52% survival and producing 241.7 Mg ha −1 of aboveground biomass after four years of growth. During that same period the survival rate of eucalyptus was 38% and the aboveground productivity was only 82.4 Mg ha −1 . In contrast with eucalyptus plantations, T. vulgaris showed rapid canopy cover and completely suppressed invasive grasses, generating up to 11.7 Mg ha −1 more litter than eucalyptus trees. Although eucalyptus is one of the most commonly used species in reforestation for timber, charcoal, and pulp and paper production in Brazil, our results demonstrate that T. vulgaris has the potential to replace eucalyptus in commercial plantations with the added benefit of being a native species that can promote the establishment of a stable forest cover in degraded sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1870's the concern about deforestation, desertification and fuel wood shortage leading to the introduction of the Prosopis juliflora in India. The pro-line content in Prosopis is high under stress conditions, which helped the plant to thrive under extreme draught. Since Prosopis juliflora is abundantly available in rural areas, Indian rural households mainly depends on firewood for cooking and other thermal application using combustion route. The conversion efficiency of such system is very low and also degrade the environment. This paper analysis the combustion Vs autogasification route of converting Prosopis juliflora strikes into thermal as well as power application due to its high calorific value and ash properties. A novel gasification approach called autogasification has been employed converting solid combustible to gaseous fuel without supplying of oxygen to enrich specific calorific value of producer gas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South American biomes are increasingly affected by land use/land cover change. However, the climatic impacts of this phenomenon are still not well understood. In this paper, we model vegetation–climate interactions with a focus on four main biomes distributed in four key regions: The Atlantic Forest, the Cerrado, the Dry Chaco, and the Chilean Matorral ecosystems. We applied a three member ensemble climate model simulation for the period 1981–2010 (30 years) at 25 km resolution over the focus regions to quantify the changes in the regional climate resulting from historical deforestation. The results of computed modelling experiments show significant changes in surface fluxes, temperature and moisture in all regions. For instance, simulated temperature changes were stronger in the Cerrado and the Chilean Matorral with an increase of between 0.7 and 1.4 °C. Changes in the hydrological cycle revealed high regional variability. The results showed consistent significant decreases in relative humidity and soil moisture, and increases in potential evapotranspiration across biomes, yet without conclusive changes in precipitation. These impacts were more significant during the dry season, which resulted to be drier and warmer after deforestation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over 400 million hectares of tropical forests are managed for timber production, comprising more than half of the remaining global permanent tropical forest estate. A growing proportion of tropical production forests are managed under Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) principles. The objective of SFM is to achieve multiple benefits, including forest protection, biodiversity conservation and income enhancement. However, the outcomes resulting from the implementation of SFM in tropical forest ecosystems have seldom been examined rigorously. In this paper, we present a methodological approach to assess broad-scale impacts of SFM policy in tropical forest ecosystems. As a case study, we investigated deforestation and timber production in logging concessions in the Republic of Congo after the implementation of its SFM-based forestry law in 2000. Compliance with the forestry law was incomplete, allowing a unique opportunity to compare deforestation and legal timber production outcomes in concessions that implemented SFM-based policy compared to those that did not. Quasi-experimental matching analysis indicated that deforestation in matched parcels in compliant concessions was up to 2-times higher than matched parcels in non-compliant concessions, equivalent to 67 km 2 of forest loss for the period 2005–2010. Annual deforestation data demonstrated that deforestation was stable or increased in all six concessions following the respective date of compliance in each concession. Legal timber production increased (by 5%, from 0.18 to 0.19 CBM/ha/yr) and became more stable, in compliant compared to non-compliant concessions. Our results suggest that the presence of SFM in a concession does not immediately lead to less deforestation. Rather, SFM policy may be associated with higher deforestation, because SFM is also associated with higher legal timber production, foreign capital, and international timber demand. Our findings measure short-term associations between SFM and deforestation in the Congo, and underscore the need for empirical evaluation of long-term impacts of SFM in tropical forest ecosystems worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Protected areas are a cornerstone of forest conservation in developing countries. Yet little is known about their effects on forest cover change or the socioeconomic status of local communities. This paper assesses whether “win–win” scenarios are possible—that is, whether protected areas can both stem forest cover change and alleviate poverty. We examine protected areas in the Peruvian Amazon during the early 2000s. We find that protected areas reduce deforestation. We do not find a robust effect on poverty. Protected areas that allow sustainable extractive activities are more effective in reducing deforestation but less effective in reducing poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of changes in government spending level and composition on deforestation due to agricultural land expansion and related carbon dioxide emissions. Our theoretical model shows an unintended consequence from increased government spending and widening social safety nets in developing countries where agricultural land expansion significantly affects forest cover: there is an increase in deforestation and carbon dioxide emissions from land use change. Our empirical tests show that an increase in total government spending significantly increases forest land clearing for agricultural production in the short run leading to more carbon dioxide emissions. However, there is no long-run statistically significant effect on the steady-state forest cover and carbon dioxide emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of assessing drivers of deforestation and forest degradation (DD), for effective implementation of REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) this study interviewed 50 experts and analyzed current political strategies in the forest related sectors of Cameroon and the Republic of Congo. The main research questions addressed in this study include: What do experts at the national level think of the drivers of DD and their evolution? What should, and must, be done at the national level to curb deforestation? How and where should governments focus their limited resources and capacity to address DD? Our analysis shows that institutional and policy factors are more important than any other types of underlying causes in both countries and, thus, are indispensable to effectively combat DD in the long term. Expansion of agro-industrial plantation, subsistence agriculture and wood extraction continue as the most pressing threats to forest cover in these countries. Land use policy should, therefore, give high priority to selecting degraded and low carbon lands and to improving their productivity. Policy decision space and main challenges to effectively address forest conversion in these countries are also discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the objectives of this paper is to investigate how international trade has affected the dynamics of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon at the level of the municipality. This analysis focuses on the expansion of crop and cattle activities, and other determinants of deforestation such as GDP per capita, conservation areas and property rights. We combine standard econometrics with spatial econometrics to capture the socioeconomic interactions among the agents in their interrelated economic system. The data used in this study correspond to a balanced panel of 732 municipalities from 2000 to 2010. The main findings suggest that as openness to trade in the Amazon increases, deforestation also increases. We also find that it is the production of soybeans and beef cattle that drives deforestation in the region. The property rights indicator also has a significant impact in deforestation. Moreover, as the GDP per capita goes up, deforestation increases. The conservation areas have a negative impact on deforestation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deforestation and degradation are threatening forests and woodlands globally. The deciduous miombo woodlands of sub-Saharan Africa are no exception, yet little is known about the flora and fauna they contain and the implications of their loss. Butterflies are recognised as indicators of environmental change; however the responses of butterflies in miombo woodlands have received little attention. This paper describes butterfly assemblages and their response to woodland utilisation in an understudied area of miombo woodland in south-west Tanzania. This is an area representative of miombo woodlands throughout sub-Saharan Africa, where woodland is utilised by local communities for a range of products, and is being rapidly converted to agriculture. Baited canopy traps and sweep nets were used to sample frugivorous and nectarivorous butterfly communities at different vertical stratifications in nine different study sites. 104 species were recorded, of which 16 are miombo specialists that have been recorded in Tanzania to the west of the country only. Indicator species were identified for three different levels of utilisation, with species from the sub-family Satyrinae indicating moderate utilisation. Generalised linear mixed effects models showed that butterfly species richness, diversity and abundance all decreased in response to increasing agriculture and anthropogenic utilisation. The loss of miombo woodlands is likely to result in declines in butterfly diversity. However, there was evidence of an intermediate disturbance effect for butterfly species richness, diversity and abundance with one utilisation variable, suggesting that a miombo woodland management plan that allows moderate sustainable utilisation in a heterogeneous landscape of mature miombo woodland and agriculture will simultaneously maintain butterfly communities and enable agricultural production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and related forest activities) is a climate change mitigation mechanism currently being negotiated under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It calls for developed countries to financially support developing countries for their actions to reduce forest-sector carbon emissions. In this paper, we undertake a meta-analysis of the links, if any, between multiple and diverse drivers of deforestation operating at different levels and the benefits accruing from and being shared through REDD+ projects. We do so by assessing the nature of this link in (a) scholarly analysis, through an in-depth analysis of the posited relationship between drivers and REDD+ benefit-sharing, as examined in the peer-reviewed literature; and (b) in policy practice, through analysing how this link is being conceptualised and operationalised, if at all, in REDD+ project design documents. Our meta-analysis suggests that while some local, direct drivers and a few regional indirect drivers of deforestation and forest degradation are being targeted by specific REDD+ interventions and associated benefit-sharing mechanisms at the project-level, most national and international indirect drivers are not. We conclude that the growing academic analyses of REDD+ projects do not (as yet) advance viable theories of change, i.e. there is currently little focus on how REDD+ benefits could play a transformative role in catalysing action on drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil is one of the first major developing countries to commit to a national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions target that requires a reduction of between 36.1% and 38.9% relative to baseline emissions by 2020. The country intends to submit agricultural emissions reductions as part of this target, with livestock production identified as offering significant abatement potential. Focusing on the Cerrado core (central Brazilian savannah), this paper investigates the cost-effectiveness of this potential, which involves some consideration of both the private and social costs and benefits (e.g. including avoided deforestation) arising from specific mitigation measures that may form part of Brazil's definition of Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Measures (NAMAs). The analysis used an optimisation model to define abatement costs. A baseline projection suggests that beef production in the region will emit 2.6 Gt CO 2 e (CO 2 equivalent) from 2010 to 2030, corresponding to 9% of national emissions (including energy, transport, waste, livestock and agriculture). By implementing negative-cost measures identified in a marginal abatement cost curve (MACC) by 2030, the 2.6 Gt CO 2 e could be reduced by around 24%. Pasture restoration, involving avoided deforestation, offers the largest contribution to these results. As the Brazilian Cerrado is seen as a model for transforming other global savannahs, the results offer a significant contribution by identifying alternatives for increasing productivity while minimizing national and global external costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deforestation is a major environmental issue in developing countries, and agricultural land expansion is its main cause. The objective of this paper is twofold:(1) to identify the macroeconomic determinants of ending deforestation; and (2) to explain cumulative deforestation and other land uses. To do this, we first study the probability of a turning point for deforestation (i.e., the switch from decreasing to expanding forest areas), based on the Forest Transition hypothesis. Second, we adapt a land-use model to explain the trade-off between forest and agriculture during development. To take the link between both phenomena into account, we estimate a dynamic panel seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) model along with a switching regression model, applied to a dataset of 57 developing countries observed over four time periods. The estimation results reveal that economic development and institutions play a significant role in long-term deforestation. Our results also suggest that after the first development stage, agriculture and forest are not always competing land uses. These results provide new insights into public policies such as REDD +. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural expansion remains the most important proximate cause of tropical deforestation, while interactions between socio-economic, technological and institutional factors represent the fundamental drivers. Projected population increases could further raise the pressure on the remaining forests, unless agricultural intensification allows raising agricultural output without expanding agricultural areas. The purpose of this article is to understand the role of institutional factors in governing the intensification process towards the goal of preserving forests from agricultural pressures, with a focus on Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ rights to forests (as embedded in the various tenure regimes). In this paper we adopt an international dimension and analyse the process of agricultural expansion across eleven Latin American countries over the period 1990–2010 to assess whether, in a context of agricultural intensification, different land tenure regimes impact differently on the realization of land-sparing or Jevons paradox. The results, based on a number of multivariate statistical models that controls for socio-economic factors, strongly suggest that the formal recognition of Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ forest rights has played an important role in promoting land sparing or attenuating Jevons paradox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropical deforestation is a serious environmental and economic problem that has become a global issue due to climate change and biodiversity loss. Reducing tropical deforestation is seen as national and international priority, given its impacts on carbon emissions, biodiversity and rural livelihoods. Some developing countries have achieved a forest transition: a shift from net deforestation to net reforestation, whereby a few generic pathways have been identified. Such pathways usually depend on the social, economic, ecological and political contexts of a country. A better understanding of trends related to the pathways at the country level is necessary to identify which factors drive forest transition. This paper analyzes forest resources development trends in Ghana by focusing on forest transition pathways and discussing the implications for a forest transition in the country. The analysis indicates that there is currently no strong force toward a forest transition through any of the generic pathways. Existing trends are either too small-scale or too ineffective. To accelerate a forest transition in Ghana, policy and management options should target measures that reduce current degradation of closed natural forests, increase the area and productivity of commercial forest plantations, promote sustainable forest management, and support and encourage forest conservation and integration of trees into farming systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are diverse lessons that subnational projects designed to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) should learn from integrated conservation and development projects (ICDPs) working in developing country settings. This paper develops and applies a lesson learning framework to identify and analyse lessons that the Kasigau REDD+ project learns from a governmental ICDP (national park) and a nongovernmental ICDP (World Vision) that have been implemented in Taita-Taveta county, Kenya. Fieldwork and document reviews revealed 24 lessons drawn from both positive and negative ICDP experiences. At the design level, the REDD+ project maintained the commonly critiqued top-down intervening approach as used by the ICDPs by excluding community input into its globally-linked design. At the implementation level, the REDD+ project promoted better community representation in project decisions and benefit sharing when compared to the ICDPs. A landscape approach, democratic institutional choices and pro-poor benefit sharing were the key interventions that enabled the REDD+ project to improve on the ICDP experiences. The usefulness of the ICDP experiences was however weakened by a lack of direct consultative platform between the projectsl. The REDD+ project relied mainly on the local community to learn fromICDP experiences, but this led to partial implementation deficits by promoting local participation interests over global mitigation goals. Further, community-driven lesson learning appeared to disconnect the project from State institutions that the community perceived negatively due to past resource centralization regimes. These State institutions are however the legal custodians of most assets (such as land) required for REDD+ implementation. ICDP lessons are therefore necessary for effective REDD+ implementation but can only be useful if the process of adopting lessons is cognizant of relevant stakeholders such as the State. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the policy changes occurring in the forest and palm oil sectors of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, through the lens of the transformational change concept. The aim is to first examine whether Sabah is transforming and, if so, to identify the determinants enabling or hindering the change. To determine if Sabah is transforming, we used two criteria: - (i) an ambitious change in the policy framework, that promotes forest conservation and sustainable use, and is moving away from business-as-usual activities; and (ii) the level of implementation of the policies that we identified as supporting transformational change. We found that Sabah very likely did intend to transform. We made this conclusion based on comparing changes in policies occurring in Sabah, and we decided if it is ambitious by primarily comparing Sabah's policies with other Malaysian states, the federal government, and internationally. We showed that: (i) Sabah decided to use voluntary international certification standards (private market instruments) like FSC and RSPO, while the other Malaysian states did not; (ii) they decided to protect more forest compared to national and international targets; and (iii) Sabah is an early mover as the state is one of the first in the world to adopt the RSPO Jurisdictional Approach. But intention needs to be followed by implementation, and this is where the state falls short. The policies in Sabah were not fully implemented because of the patronage system where the more powerful actors used their power to continue with business-as-usual activities, there is frequent political turnover in Sabah, and the state faced difficulty in meeting international standards. Our research shows that local leadership and a local transformational change coalition (civil society actively working in Sabah) mainly prompted the transformational change, although the promises of economic gains and better reputation also played a role. We conclude by emphasising the change must be made more compelling for political leaders, as part of a broader institutional structure, not only through the narrow focus on reducing deforestation but through the development of a more sustainable and equitable national economy, and that consumer countries should play a role in reducing pressures on forest by providing incentives to a state that manages its natural resources sustainably. • Sabah adopted a series of ambitious policy measures to move away from unsustainable exploitation of its forest resources. • One ambitious policy was the RSPO jurisdictional approach which if implemented, is transformational. • Sabah's implementation of transformational policies fell short because of the patronage system in the state. • Local leadership and civil society prompted the transformational change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The end-Triassic mass extinction (ETE), one of the five largest mass extinctions, occurred at 201.6 Ma. It was characterized by dramatic declines in marine and terrestrial ecosystems and was approximately synchronous with the eruption of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP). Loss of marine biodiversity is linked to extreme global warming while the cause of floral destruction in terrestrial ecosystems remains open to debate. In this paper, biomarker records of higher plants are reported from terrestrial facies in the Haojiagou section of the high palaeolatitude Junggar Basin, northwest China. Strata around the ETE interval are marked by sharp increases in the abundances of cadalene, retene, pimanthrene and furans, which are synchronous with "fern spikes". These results are interpreted as indicating the demise of land vegetation and the enhanced burial of higher plants, consistent with palynological evidence for the loss of floral diversity. The fluctuations in the abundance of n -alkanes series and conversion of n -alkanes peak patterns coincide with wildfires indicated by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Based on integrated stratigraphic correlation, the increased burial of higher plants, wildfires and CAMP volcanism are synchronous both in the Haojiagou section and other classic Triassic-Jurassic boundary sections globally. We propose that widespread deforestation may be due to CAMP-derived acid rain and the rapid and large-scale demise of vegetation may have provided moisture-free fuels for wildfires. • Higher plant biomarkers are first reported in a high palaeolatitude terrestrial basin across the Triassic-Jurassic transition. • Similar biomarker features are witnessed at worldwide marine and terrestrial sections, suggesting a global deforestation. • Extensive deforestation and wildfires during the ETE period could be initially caused by the CAMP-originated acid rainfalls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, discussions regarding scenarios methods for the Brazilian Amazon have been mostly explored from the sole perspective of deforestation concerns. This paper proposes an original approach using participatory scenarios as a method that may be able to put in perspective, at different levels of decision-making, a specific action of territorial planning in Pará State, Brazil. The method allows the dialogue between stakeholder representatives, government organizations and communities involved in that territorial process. The scenarios produced substantial and sometimes contradictory data: while they can be considered as a way of empowerment for the local communities, participatory scenarios also have their limits and may reveal structural forms of authority or domination within the project-promoting institutions and local communities. The information collected allows scientists of various areas (Modeling, Social Sciences), community leaders and managers to elaborate a reflection upon the levers that may condition the implementation of effective actions and public policies in territorial units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, international agreements, treaties, and conventions address tropical deforestation and specific causes of rainforest transformation. Such international regimes may aim to conserve natural forests or to support the exploitation of lands for a particular purpose, e.g. agricultural commodities. This paper’s goal is to map the international regime complex for rainforest transformation by identifying those global and regional regimes that are relevant for tropical rainforest transformation systems in Indonesia. The relevance of international regimes for rainforest transformation is assessed based on a novel methodology using two criteria: First, international regimes may be relevant in Indonesia because the core problem they address exists in Indonesia (problem dimension). Second, specific international regimes may be made relevant by the actions of specific actors and their coalitions in pursuit of their interests (actor dimension). To achieve the study’s goals we used (1) content analysis of international policy documents and treaty texts, (2) expert interviews with key informants in Indonesia, and (3) own field observations in current Indonesian land use politics. The results indicate that regimes dealing with biological diversity, climate change, trade in endangered species, wetland management, international tropical trade, illegal logging, Southeast Asian (ASEAN) forest and environment, the Asia Pacific free trade, and the southeast Asian rubber trade regime are relevant in both the problem and actor dimensions. The regimes concerned with desertification and international forestry research are relevant only in the actor dimension. In contrast, the following regimes are relevant only in the problem dimension: indigenous rights, forest certification, palm oil certification, agroforestry certification, and international rubber trade. We discuss our results considering global and regional regimes relevant to Indonesian rainforest transformation systems. We conclude that regimes relevant solely due to the engagement of domestic actors and not in respect of the problem dimension are unlikely to maintain their relevance in the long term. In the short term, however, they have the potential for creating substantial political benefits for the actors using them. In contrast, regimes with high problem relevance but low actor backing are unlikely to even enter the political agenda, and therefore will have only limited impact. This suggests that future research should consider that, whilst relevance in the problem dimension is necessary to establish regime influence, it alone does not suffice. We can expect global and regional regimes to have an influence only when powerful actors back them in their agenda setting, domestic policy formulation and actual implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Avian insectivores of the tropical rainforest understory (“understory insectivores”) are common, diverse, and often sensitive to disturbance of tropical forest, making them useful as sentinels of rainforest ecosystem change. At the 2013 joint American Ornithologists’ Union and Cooper Ornithological Society meeting in Chicago, USA, researchers convened a symposium to address the ecology and conservation of understory insectivores. This Special Issue of Biological Conservation is the result of that symposium: a collection of articles that unites our efforts to further understand and conserve understory insectivores. In this introductory paper, we review the diversity and ecology of understory insectivores, identify threats to the guild, discuss hypotheses on drivers of population declines, and make suggestions for future research. Deforestation and forest degradation are the immediate threats to this guild, with agricultural expansion (particularly oil palm plantations), urbanization, road expansion and logging leading the list. Although vulnerabilities of this guild are most evident in the Neotropics, there are few studies from Asia and fewer still from Africa—we recommend increased geographic coverage. If we are to understand the vulnerabilities of understory insectivores from a pantropical perspective, researchers should prioritize understanding the most serious threats (e.g., edge effects, deforestation, fragmentation, etc.) and standardize efforts to gauge understory insectivores’ response to these threats (e.g., via species richness, abundance, demographic metrics). A coordinated approach by researchers working in tropical rainforests across the globe can help us understand the ecology of understory insectivores and meaningfully apply conservation and management actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil seeks to rapidly increase its agricultural production to meet future demands, especially for sugarcane, which is an agricultural commodity and a biofuel source. In this paper, we explore how to achieve this increase without compromising existing forestlands. We propose that it is possible to substantially expand sugarcane production in Brazil while avoiding further environmental losses and the indirect land use changes often associated with them, such as deforestation. This task could be accomplished by converting existing pasturelands with agricultural potential into cropland. A great deal of pastureland exists in Brazil. Thus, we addressed the following questions in this study: (1) where are the most suitable pasturelands for sugarcane located geographically and (2) what potential do these pasturelands have for sugarcane production regarding their physical suitability and other significant factors, such as infrastructure availability and socioeconomic factors. We conducted a land suitability analysis using a spatial location model based on multicriteria decision-making and geographic information systems (GIS) to identify the cultivated pasturelands most suitable for conversion to sugarcane production in Brazil. “What if” scenarios were built to determine how changes in the subjectively derived weights of the priority criteria would modify the spatial distribution of the suitability classes relative to the MCDA model and demonstrate the robustness of the crop suitability assessment. The most suitable pastureland areas for conversion to sugarcane production were predominantly located in Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Paraná, Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso and Pará. These zones have large contiguous areas of pasture with moderate and high agricultural potentials for sugarcane production. The total estimated area of cultivated pasturelands with moderate or high suitability for sugarcane production was 50 million hectares, which is much larger than the area currently used for sugarcane production in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazilian merchant pig iron (MPI) mills, even those relying exclusively on charcoal, are at least as harmful to the global climate as the coal-based competitors they confront in international trade. However, when timber from deforestation is replaced by sustainably managed forest plantations, a carbon neutral process emerges. Yet the cost of growing trees can be large enough to discourage mills from pursuing such a climate change mitigation route. The paper shows that the impasse can be overcome by the improvement of pyrolysis kilns coupled with a multilateral agreement in which (1) Brazil supplies attested carbon-neutral MPI and (2) importers of Brazilian MPI take environmental concerns to the field of MPI trade, paying a premium of 19% of MPI price or of US$3 per ton of avoided emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Around 9% of global CO 2 emissions originate from land use changes. Often, these emissions are not appropriately addressed in Life Cycle Assessment. The link between demand for crops in one region and impacts in other regions is referred to here as indirect land use change (iLUC) and includes deforestation, intensification and reduced consumption. Existing models for iLUC tend to ignore intensification and reduced consumption, they most often operate with arbitrary amortisation periods to allocate deforestation emissions over time, and the causal link between land occupation and deforestation is generally weakly established. This paper presents the conceptual framework required for a consistent modelling of iLUC in Life Cycle Assessment. It reports on a novel and biophysical iLUC model, in which amortisation is avoided by using discounted Global Warming Potentials (GWPs). The causal link between demand for land and land use changes is established through markets for land's production capacity. The iLUC model presented is generally applicable to all land use types, crops and regions of the world in typical LCA decision-making contexts focusing on the long-term effects of small-scale changes. The model's strengths and weaknesses are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]