Priority contribution. The rediscovery of Gurney's Pitta Pitta gurneyi in Myanmar and an estimate of its population size based on remaining forest cover

A preliminary survey for Gurney's Pitta Pitta gurneyi was undertaken at five sites within the species' historical range in the Tanintharyi (Tenasserim) Division of Myanmar from 14 to 24 May 2003. During the surveys, Gurney's Pittas were heard and/or observed at four sites with a maximum of 10–12 pairs recorded at one site. Birds were encountered in logged primary and secondary forest below 100 m on flat ground, sometimes less than 10 m from forest edge. All encounters were within 2 km of the main trans-Tanintharyi highway. Landsat satellite imagery was used to map remaining lowland forests and Gurney's Pitta habitat in the Tanintharyi Division. Our analysis demonstrated that only 4,705 km2 of lowland forest remain with about 3,496 km2 in flat areas with slopes < 10°. On the basis of previously reported population densities, these habitats may support a population of 5,152–8,586 pairs. Much of the remaining habitat is restricted to small and fragmented patches < 1 km2 in area. The five largest patches have a total area of 1,431 km2 and range in size from 137 to 467 km2. This survey demonstrated that Gurney's Pitta still occurs within its historical range in Myanmar, although probably not at any of the historical collecting localities visited. The global population of Gurney's Pitta is at least 100% greater than the latest published estimate. This survey has also shown that the Gurney's Pitta population in southern Tanintharyi Division is under pressure from forest conversion to oil palm. Contrary to the situation in neighbouring Thailand, sufficient forest remains to establish landscape level protected areas covering a broad ecological continuum. Securing populations of Gurney's Pitta within either expanded or entirely new protected areas must be the best chance for the species and the Sundaic flora and fauna of which it is part.

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Deforestation and apparent extinctions of endemic forest beetles in Madagascar

Biology Letters ◽

10.1098/rsbl.2007.0043 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 3 (3) ◽

pp. 344-347 ◽

Cited By ~ 48

Author(s):

Ilkka Hanski ◽

Helena Koivulehto ◽

Alison Cameron ◽

Pierre Rahagalala

Keyword(s):

Regional Variation ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Dung Beetles ◽

Insect Species ◽

Forest Loss ◽

Focal Species ◽

Species Area ◽

Lowland Forests ◽

Historical Range ◽

Locality Information

Madagascar has lost about half of its forest cover since 1953 with much regional variation, for instance most of the coastal lowland forests have been cleared. We sampled the endemic forest-dwelling Helictopleurini dung beetles across Madagascar during 2002–2006. Our samples include 29 of the 51 previously known species for which locality information is available. The most significant factor explaining apparent extinctions (species not collected by us) is forest loss within the historical range of the focal species, suggesting that deforestation has already caused the extinction, or effective extinction, of a large number of insect species with small geographical ranges, typical for many endemic taxa in Madagascar. Currently, roughly 10% of the original forest cover remains. Species–area considerations suggest that this will allow roughly half of the species to persist. Our results are consistent with this prediction.

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Keragaman Burung Pemakan Buah (Avian Frugivora) di Hutan Dataran Rendah Jayapura, Papua

JURNAL BIOLOGI PAPUA ◽

10.31957/jbp.529 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 1-7

Author(s):

Margaretha Z. Pangau ◽

Supeni Sufaati

Keyword(s):

Nature Reserve ◽

Secondary Forest ◽

Forest Disturbance ◽

Forest Edge ◽

Primary Forest ◽

Lowland Forest ◽

Frugivorous Birds ◽

Forest Garden ◽

Avian Frugivores ◽

High Diversity

Frugivorous birds or avian frugivores play important role in seed dispersal cycle and forest regeneration in forest ecosystem of Papua. Despite the high diversity of avian frugivores dwelling in Papuan rainforest, and the fact that this region faces alarming rate of forest disturbance, little is known of their current presence in the lowland forest habitat. We surveyed the variety of frugivorous birds in three different habitats of lowland forest in Cyclop Mountains Nature Reserve and Nimbokrang District. The methods used were line and point transects and identification was done during the survey. A total of 36 frugivorous birds from eight families was found in both sites. There were 33 species of 8 families in Nimbokrang forest and 16 species of 7 families were encountered in the Nature Reserve. The primary forest has high diversity of frugivorous birds compared to that in secondary forest and forest garden. It was found that several species of Family Columbidae such as Macropygia amboinensis, Ducula pinon dan Reindwaedtoena reinwardtii moved and foraged along the forest edge and also visited degraded areas that still provided vegetation trees and perches. These findings might have importance for forest management and reforestation programmes in Papuan lowland forest.Key words: Frugivorous birds, diversity, lowland forest, Mountain Cyclops Nature Reserve, Nimbokrang.

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Forest cover outside protected areas plays an important role in the conservation of the Vulnerable guiña Leopardus guigna

Oryx ◽

10.1017/s0030605312000099 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 47 (2) ◽

pp. 251-258 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

Nicolás Gálvez ◽

Felipe Hernández ◽

Jerry Laker ◽

Horacio Gilabert ◽

Robert Petitpas ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Temperate Forest ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Secondary Forest ◽

Habitat Type ◽

Native Forest ◽

Forest Fragments ◽

Southern Chile ◽

Remnant Forest ◽

Leopardus Guigna

AbstractHabitat loss and fragmentation are affecting populations of forest dwelling mammalian carnivores worldwide. In southern Chile, a biodiversity hotspot, anthropogenic activities have resulted in high loss of native forest cover. The guiña, or kodkod cat, Leopardus guigna is a small forest-dwelling felid with a narrow range in the temperate forest of southern Chile. The few existing studies of the species have suggested that it is almost exclusively restricted to large tracts of native forest. This paper reports a study in the temperate forest within a fragmented Andean piedmont landscape which demonstrates that smaller forest fragments in the farmland matrix are playing a key role in the persistence of the guiña. We estimated occupancy in both continuous native forest and remnant forest fragments and, with single-species/single-season models, evaluated the extent to which forest cover, habitat type and proximity to protected areas have a modulating effect on occupancy. A continuous survey during 2008–2009, in three seasons of 90–100 days each, accumulated 6,200 camera trap days and returned 47 photographs of guiña. Total detection in fragments was higher than in continuous forests, with detection confirmed in almost 70% of studied fragments. We found that probability of a site being occupied significantly increased with forest cover (adult/secondary forest, scrubland) and probability was low (< 0.2) in sites with < 50% of surrounding forest cover. Our study highlights the importance of remnant forest fragments in the mosaic of extensive agriculture for the spatial dynamics of a guiña population and hence for the future conservation of the species.

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Challenging the State: Devolutionary Tenure Transitions for Saving and Expanding Forests

Human Ecology ◽

10.1007/s10745-021-00231-2 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Liz Alden Wily

Keyword(s):

Rural Communities ◽

Property Rights ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Biological Diversity ◽

Convention On Biological Diversity ◽

Property Relations ◽

The Will ◽

Customary Land

AbstractI address a contentious element in forest property relations to illustrate the role of ownership in protecting and expanding of forest cover by examining the extent to which rural communities may legally own forests. The premise is that whilst state-owned protected areas have contributed enormously to forest survival, this has been insufficiently successful to justify the mass dispossession of customary land-owning communities this has entailed. Further, I argue that state co-option of community lands is unwarranted. Rural communities on all continents ably demonstrate the will and capacity to conserve forests – provided their customary ownership is legally recognized. I explore the property rights reforms now enabling this. The replication potential of community protected forestlands is great enough to deserve flagship status in global commitments to expand forest including in the upcoming new Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

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The Role of Recent (1985–2014) Patterns of Land Abandonment and Environmental Factors in the Establishment and Growth of Secondary Forests in the Iberian Peninsula

Land ◽

10.3390/land10080817 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (8) ◽

pp. 817

Author(s):

Marina Palmero-Iniesta ◽

Josep Maria Espelta ◽

Mario Padial-Iglesias ◽

Òscar Gonzàlez-Guerrero ◽

Lluís Pesquer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Environmental Factors ◽

Iberian Peninsula ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Secondary Forest ◽

Forest Growth ◽

Deciduous Forests ◽

Secondary Forests ◽

Study Region ◽

Leaf Habit ◽

Forest Establishment

Farmland abandonment has been a widespread land-use change in the Iberian Peninsula since the second half of the 20th century, leading to the establishment of secondary forests across the region. In this study, we aimed to address changes in the recent (1985–2014) emergence patterns of these forests and examine how environmental factors affected their growth by considering differences in leaf-habit types. We used a combination of Landsat-derived land-cover maps and aboveground biomass (AGB) maps from the European Space Agency to assess the secondary forest establishment and growth, respectively, in the study region. We also obtained a set of topographic, climatic and landscape variables from diverse GIS layers and used them for determining changes over time in the environmental drivers of forest establishment and AGB using general linear models. The results highlight that secondary forest cover was still increasing in the Iberian Peninsula at a rate above the European average. Yet, they also indicate a directional change in the emergence of secondary forests towards lower and less steep regions with higher water availability (mean rainfall and SPEI) and less forest cover but are subjected to greater drought events. In addition, these environmental factors differentially affect the growth of forests with different leaf-habit types: i.e., needleleaf secondary forests being less favoured by high temperature and precipitation, and broadleaf deciduous forests being most negatively affected by drought. Finally, these spatial patterns of forest emergence and the contrasting responses of forest leaf-habits to environmental factors explained the major development of broadleaf evergreen compared to broadleaf deciduous forests and, especially, needleleaf secondary forests. These results will improve the knowledge of forest dynamics that have occurred in the Iberian Peninsula in recent decades and provide an essential tool for understanding the potential effects of climate warming on secondary forest growth.

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Effectiveness of Protected Areas in the Pan-Tropics and International Aid for Conservation

Geomatics ◽

10.3390/geomatics1030019 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1 (3) ◽

pp. 335-346

Author(s):

Do-Hyung Kim ◽

Anupam Anand

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Forest Conservation ◽

Forest Cover ◽

International Aid ◽

Asian Countries ◽

Forest Cover Change ◽

Average Effect ◽

Tropical Countries ◽

Conservation Policies ◽

The Tropics

Evaluation of the effectiveness of protected areas is critical for forest conservation policies and priorities. We used 30 m resolution forest cover change data from 1990 to 2010 for ~4000 protected areas to evaluate their effectiveness. Our results show that protected areas in the tropics avoided 83,500 ± 21,200 km2 of deforestation during the 2000s. Brazil’s protected areas have the largest amount of avoided deforestation at 50,000 km2. We also show the amount of international aid received by tropical countries compared to the effectiveness of protected areas. Thirty-four tropical countries received USD 42 billion during the 1990s and USD 62 billion during the 2000s in international aid for biodiversity conservation. The effectiveness of international aid was highest in Latin America, with 4.3 m2/USD, led by Brazil, while tropical Asian countries showed the lowest average effect of international aid, reaching only 0.17 m2/USD.

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Flora of Espírito Santo: Psidium (Myrtaceae)

Rodriguésia ◽

10.1590/2175-7860201768515 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 68 (5) ◽

pp. 1791-1805 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Amélia C. Tuler ◽

Tatiana T. Carrijo ◽

Márcia F.S. Ferreria ◽

Ariane L. Peixoto

Keyword(s):

Species Richness ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Sea Level ◽

The State ◽

Agricultural Expansion ◽

Herbarium Specimens ◽

Espírito Santo ◽

Lowland Forests ◽

Atlantic Rainforest Biome ◽

Espirito Santo

Abstract This study presents a floristic-taxonomic treatment of Psidium in the state of Espírito Santo, and is a result of fieldwork combined with analyses of herbarium specimens. Fourteen species of the genus were recognized in Espírito Santo state (P. brownianum, P. cattleianum, P. cauliflorum, P. guajava, P. guineense, P. longipetiolatum, P. myrtoides, P. oblongatum, P. oligospermum, P. ovale, P. rhombeum, P. rufum P. sartorianum, and Psidium sp.), accounting for about 34% of the species richness estimated for the genus in the Atlantic Rainforest biome. The species occur predominantly in lowland forests up to 700 meters above sea level. These areas are highly threatened due to urbanization of coastal areas and agricultural expansion in the state Espírito Santo. Therefore, the conservation of Psidium species in this state requires the creation of more lowland protected areas.

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Estimating change in the geographical range and population size of Hinde's Babbler Turdoides hindei

Bird Conservation International ◽

10.1017/s0959270903003010 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 1-12 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Philip Shaw ◽

John Musina ◽

Patrick Gichuki

Keyword(s):

Protected Areas ◽

Population Size ◽

Geographical Range ◽

Population Estimates ◽

Extent Of Occurrence ◽

Area Of Occupancy ◽

Species Area ◽

Gains And Losses ◽

Global Population

Hinde's Babbler Turdoides hindei is a globally threatened Kenyan endemic, which during the 1990s, was known from just seven localities. Based mainly on surveys undertaken in 2000–2001, we estimate the species's global population size and compare recent changes in its “extent of occurrence” and “area of occupancy”. Historically, Hinde's Babbler has been recorded from c. 40 10 × 10 km squares; 27 pre-1980 and 19 subsequently, suggesting that its area of occupancy has declined by about 30%. In contrast, its extent of occurrence has declined by only 8%, this measure being less sensitive to the balance of gains and losses occurring near the centre of its range. During surveys in 1994 and 2000–2001, 157 groups were located, containing 665 birds, 75% of which were found at two intensively cultivated sites. Some 97% of birds were located in, or adjacent to, five Important Bird Areas, but only 8% were found within legally protected areas. Two extrapolated population estimates are presented, based on the number of birds likely to have been missed at survey sites, and the species' area of occupancy. These suggest that the global population of Hinde's Babbler is likely to fall within the range of 1,500–5,600 birds.

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Bewirtschaftung von tropischen Sekundärwäldern

Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsgeographie ◽

10.1515/zfw.2002.0005 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 46 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Dietrich Schmidt-Vogt

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Stand Structure ◽

Secondary Forest ◽

Secondary Forests ◽

Tropical Asia ◽

Land Use Systems ◽

The Future ◽

The Tropics ◽

Primary Forests

AbstractManagement of secondary tropical forests: a new perspective for sustainable use of forests in Asia. The decline of primary forests in the tropics is leading to a reassessment of the role secondary forests might play within the context of tropical forest management. Recent research has shown that secondary forests in the tropics can be both rich in species and complex in terms of stand structure. There is, moreover, a growing recognition of the importance of secondary forests for traditional subsistence economies in the tropics and of their economic potential for land use systems in the future. Management of secondary forests in Asia as an alternative to the extraction of timber from primary forests but also as one among other options to intensify traditional land use systems has a potential for the future especially because of the existence of vast tracts of valuable secondary forest cover, and because of the store of traditional knowledge that can still be found in tropical Asia.

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Evaluating the environmental impact of payments for ecosystem services in Coatepec (Mexico) using remote sensing and on-site interviews

Environmental Conservation ◽

10.1017/s037689291100052x ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 38 (4) ◽

pp. 426-434 ◽

Cited By ~ 53

Author(s):

JASON SCULLION ◽

CRAIG W. THOMAS ◽

KRISTINA A. VOGT ◽

OCTAVIO PÉREZ-MAQUEO ◽

MILES G. LOGSDON

Keyword(s):

Remote Sensing ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Forest Cover ◽

Remote Sensing Data ◽

Environmental Benefits ◽

Payments For Ecosystem Services ◽

Programme Implementation ◽

Before And After ◽

Monitoring And Enforcement ◽

Landsat Satellite

SUMMARYOver the last decade, hundreds of payments for ecosystem services (PES) programmes have been initiated around the world, but evidence of their environmental benefits remains limited. In this study, two PES programmes operating in the municipality of Coatepec (Mexico) were evaluated to assess their effectiveness in protecting the region's endangered upland forests. Landsat satellite data were analysed to assess changes in forest cover before and after programme implementation using a difference-in-differences estimator. Additionally, surveys and interviews were conducted with local residents and a subset of PES programme participants to evaluate the programmes’ social and environmental impacts, particularly the effect of the programmes on landowner behaviour. The remote-sensing data show that deforestation was substantially lower on properties receiving PES payments compared to properties not enrolled in the programmes, but the programmes did not prevent the net loss of forests within Coatepec. Moreover, the on-site interviews suggest that the payments may have had little impact on deforestation rates, and that other factors contributed to the conservation of forests in PES properties. These findings suggest that risk-targeted payments, robust monitoring and enforcement programmes, and additional conservation initiatives should be included in all PES schemes to ensure environmental effectiveness.

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