The Ecological Foundations of Biodiversity Protection

Last Stand ◽  
1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy MacKinnon
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Forests ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
In Situ Conservation ◽  
Rain Forests ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Tropical Asia ◽  
Indonesian Archipelago ◽  
Habitat Conversion ◽  
Resources Conservation

Two thirds of all known species occur in tropical regions, and probably half of all species are confined to tropical rain forests—yet these rain forests are among the most threatened of all natural habitats. Throughout the tropics, rain forests are being destroyed at an alarming rate. It has been estimated that, worldwide, approximately 170,000 square kilometers of rain forests—an area almost as great as Cambodia—are being lost every year (FAO, 1990). Few tropical countries retain more than half of their natural forest cover, and even those that do are witnessing rapid habitat conversion. Figure 3-1 illustrates the decline of primary forest cover on Sumatra during the past 60 years, a picture that is duplicated over much of tropical Asia. The Indonesian archipelago, as a whole, loses at least 9,000 square kilometers of forest each year to logging, land conversion, and shifting agriculture (MoF/FAO, 1991). In some years, the figure is even higher. In 1982 and 1983, for example, severe drought and fires (often deliberately started) damaged 36,000 square kilometers of forest—an area the size of Belgium—in East Kalimantan in Indonesian Borneo (Lennertz and Panzer, 1983) and another 10,000 square kilometers in Sabah (Malingreau et al., 1985). Destruction of tropical habitats leads to the irreversible loss of biological diversity and genetic resources. Conservation of biodiversity will require a concerted effort to provide adequate and effective protection of tropical forests and their native species. The best, easiest, and least expensive way to achieve this goal is to establish networks of protected rain forest areas for in situ conservation of gene pools, species, and ecosystems. Forest destruction is proceeding so fast that this decade is probably the last chance to protect extensive areas of tropical forests; indeed, for some countries it is already too late. While this chapter focuses primarily on tropical Asia, many of the lessons and recommendations apply equally well to the rain forests of Africa and Central and South America. The question of how much protected habitat is enough has long been debated by conservationists and other scientists.

scholarly journals Evaluating Forest Cover and Fragmentation in Costa Rica with a Corrected Global Tree Cover Map

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 3226
Author(s):  
Daniel Cunningham ◽  
Paul Cunningham ◽  
Matthew E. Fagan
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Forest Area ◽  
Tree Cover ◽  
Agricultural Crop ◽  
Forest Change ◽  
Alos Palsar ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
The Impact

Global tree cover products face challenges in accurately predicting tree cover across biophysical gradients, such as precipitation or agricultural cover. To generate a natural forest cover map for Costa Rica, biases in tree cover estimation in the most widely used tree cover product (the Global Forest Change product (GFC) were quantified and corrected, and the impact of map biases on estimates of forest cover and fragmentation was examined. First, a forest reference dataset was developed to examine how the difference between reference and GFC-predicted tree cover estimates varied along gradients of precipitation and elevation, and nonlinear statistical models were fit to predict the bias. Next, an agricultural land cover map was generated by classifying Landsat and ALOS PalSAR imagery (overall accuracy of 97%) to allow removing six common agricultural crops from estimates of tree cover. Finally, the GFC product was corrected through an integrated process using the nonlinear predictions of precipitation and elevation biases and the agricultural crop map as inputs. The accuracy of tree cover prediction increased by ≈29% over the original global forest change product (the R2 rose from 0.416 to 0.538). Using an optimized 89% tree cover threshold to create a forest/nonforest map, we found that fragmentation declined and core forest area and connectivity increased in the corrected forest cover map, especially in dry tropical forests, protected areas, and designated habitat corridors. By contrast, the core forest area decreased locally where agricultural fields were removed from estimates of natural tree cover. This research demonstrates a simple, transferable methodology to correct for observed biases in the Global Forest Change product. The use of uncorrected tree cover products may markedly over- or underestimate forest cover and fragmentation, especially in tropical regions with low precipitation, significant topography, and/or perennial agricultural production.

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

Human Ecology ◽  
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).

Bewirtschaftung von tropischen Sekundärwäldern

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.

scholarly journals Haiti’s biodiversity threatened by nearly complete loss of primary forest

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (46) ◽  
pp. 11850-11855 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Blair Hedges ◽  
Warren B. Cohen ◽  
Joel Timyan ◽  
Zhiqiang Yang
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Forests ◽  
National Parks ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Secondary Growth ◽  
Complete Loss ◽  
Primary Forest ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Primary Forests ◽  
Agricultural Organization

Tropical forests hold most of Earth’s biodiversity. Their continued loss through deforestation and agriculture is the main threat to species globally, more than disease, invasive species, and climate change. However, not all tropical forests have the same ability to sustain biodiversity. Those that have been disturbed by humans, including forests previously cleared and regrown (secondary growth), have lower levels of species richness compared with undisturbed (primary) forests. The difference is even greater considering extinctions that will later emanate from the disturbance (extinction debt). Here, we find that Haiti has less than 1% of its original primary forest and is therefore among the most deforested countries. Primary forest has declined over three decades inside national parks, and 42 of the 50 highest and largest mountains have lost all primary forest. Our surveys of vertebrate diversity (especially amphibians and reptiles) on mountaintops indicates that endemic species have been lost along with the loss of forest. At the current rate, Haiti will lose essentially all of its primary forest during the next two decades and is already undergoing a mass extinction of its biodiversity because of deforestation. These findings point to the need, in general, for better reporting of forest cover data of relevance to biodiversity, instead of “total forest” as defined by the United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Organization. Expanded detection and monitoring of primary forest globally will improve the efficiency of conservation measures, inside and outside of protected areas.

scholarly journals Extraction of non-timber forest products from tropical rain forests. Does diversity come at a price?

1997 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.G.A. Boot
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Forest Products ◽  
Forest Composition ◽  
Forest Species ◽  
Tropical Rain Forests ◽  
Rain Forests ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
Non Timber Forest Products ◽  
The Impact

Tropical rain forests are rich in plant and animal species. The sustainable extraction of non-timber forest products has been advocated as a strategy to best conserve this diversity. However, the development and implementation of such exploitation systems, which aim to reconcile conservation and economic development, are still hampered by the lack of information on the biological sustainability of these systems, the impact of these exploitation systems on the biological diversity and the insufficient knowledge of the role of forest products in the household economy of forest dependent people and hence their prospects for economic development. Whether the exploitation of non-timber forest products from tropical rain forests is sustainable or not is still open to question, but data presently available on the biological, social and economic aspects of these extraction systems point at an interesting question: does diversity come at a price? Namely, low density of conspecifics, and thus products, and hence low productivity for those involved in the collection of forest resources. The paper will further discuss whether domestication of forest species provides an alternative for some of these species. Species are part of a complex ecosystem and their functioning is partly depended on the presence of other species in the system. The attributes of the species which have to be taken into account in order to make domestication of forest species successful are considered. Finally, the paper returns to the question of how to reconcile conservation and use of tropical rain forests. It will present a case for domesticating the forest instead of the species or, in other words, changing the forest composition without changing its structure and functioning, and maintaining acceptable levels of biodiversity.

scholarly journals Structure, Diversity, and Carbon Stocks of the Tree Community of Kumasi, Ghana

Forests ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bertrand Nero ◽  
Daniel Callo-Concha ◽  
Manfred Denich
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Species Richness ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Urban Forestry ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Total Carbon ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Structure Diversity

Urban forestry has the potential to address many urban environmental and sustainability challenges. Yet in Africa, urban forest characterization and its potential to contribute to human wellbeing are often neglected or restrained. This paper describes the structure, diversity, and composition of an urban forest and its potential to store carbon as a means of climate change mitigation and adaptation in Kumasi. The vegetation inventory included a survey of 470,100-m2 plots based on a stratified random sampling technique and six streets ranging from 50 m to 1 km. A total of 3757 trees, comprising 176 species and 46 families, were enumerated. Tree abundance and species richness were left skewed and unimodally distributed based on diameter at breast height (DBH). Trees in the diameter classes >60 cm together had the lowest species richness (17%) and abundance (9%), yet contributed more than 50% of the total carbon stored in trees within the city. Overall, about 1.2 million tonnes of carbon is captured in aboveground components of trees in Kumasi, with a mean of 228 t C ha−1. Tree density, DBH, height, basal area, aboveground carbon storage, and species richness were significantly different among green spaces (p < 0.05). The diversity was also significantly different among urban zones (p < 0.0005). The DBH distribution of trees followed a modified reverse J-shaped model. The urban forest structure and composition is quite unique. The practice of urban forestry has the potential to conserve biological diversity and combat climate change. The introduction of policies and actions to support the expansion of urban forest cover and diversity is widely encouraged.

No Evidence of Low Genetic Diversity Despite High Levels of Inbreeding and Poor Genetic Connectivity Among Tetrastigma loheri (Vitaceae) Populations in Remaining Forest Areas in Cebu, Philippines

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 951-961
Author(s):  
Jasper John A. Obico ◽  
Hemres Alburo ◽  
Julie F. Barcelona ◽  
Marie Hale ◽  
Lisa Paguntalan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Habitat Fragmentation ◽  
Tropical Forests ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Genetic Connectivity ◽  
Philippine Island ◽  
Low Genetic Diversity ◽  
History Of ◽  
Gap Data ◽  
The Impact

Abstract— Little is known about the effects of habitat fragmentation on the patterns of genetic diversity and genetic connectivity of species in the remaining tropical forests of Southeast Asia. This is particularly evident in Cebu, a Philippine island that has a long history of deforestation and has lost nearly all of its forest cover. To begin filling this gap, data from 13 microsatellite loci developed for Tetrastigma loheri (Vitaceae), a common vine species in Philippine forests, were used to study patterns of genetic diversity and genetic connectivity for the four largest of the remaining forest areas in Cebu. Evidence of relatively high levels of inbreeding was found in all four areas, despite no evidence of low genetic diversity. The four areas are genetically differentiated, suggesting low genetic connectivity. The presence of inbreeding and low genetic connectivity in a commonly encountered species such as T. loheri in Cebu suggests that the impact of habitat fragmentation is likely greater on rare plant species with more restricted distributions in Cebu. Conservation recommendations for the remaining forest areas in Cebu include the establishment of steppingstone corridors between nearby areas to improve the movement of pollinators and seed dispersers among them.

‘Ruins’ of the Forest Social Complexity and Tropical Cities

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Forest ◽  
Tropical Forests ◽  
Social Complexity ◽  
Population Pressure ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Urban Forms ◽  
Lost City ◽  
Hollywood Film ◽  
European Thought

The above quote from a recent Hollywood film presentation of Colonel Percival Fawcett’s obsessive early twentieth-century search for the remains of the Lost City of Z (Gray, 2016) highlights the effort that it has taken to convince the academic world and the public alike that large urban forms can be developed in tropical forest settings. While the film, and the book by David Grann (2009) upon which it was based, grossly overplay the exploration credentials, respect for Indigenous peoples, and scientific abilities of Colonel Fawcett (Hemming, 2017), this quote encapsulates the difficult working conditions and environmental determinism in western thought that have led to perceptions of ‘impossibility’ of extensive settlements and social complexity in tropical forests. Beyond searches for debated ‘lost’ cities, even where the clear ruins of ancient urban sites have been found in tropical forests, as with the Classic Maya in North and Central America and the Khmer Empire in Southeast Asia, their collapse has been seen as almost inevitable given necessary forest clearance, soil erosion, and population pressure on these delicate environments (Webster, 2002; Diamond, 2005; Chen et al., 2014; Lentz et al., 2014). In particular, the intensive agriculture seen as necessary to fuel the ‘urban revolution’ (Childe, 1950) and the development of cities and elite structures familiar to most archaeological definitions of cities (Adams, 1981; Postgate, 1992), has been considered impossible on the fragile, low nutrient soils of tropical forest habitats (Meggers, 1954, 1971, 1977, 1987). Other, less-discussed threats include natural disasters, such as mudslides and mass-flooding, that continue to trouble tropical regions prone to high annual or seasonal rainfall (Larsen, 2017). Nevertheless, new methodologies and theoretical shifts are highlighting the clear emergence of social complexity and extensive human populations prior to the arrival of European settlers in many of the world’s tropical forest settings. Here, I review the growing dataset of past ‘urban’ forms in tropical forests. As with ‘the origins of agriculture’ in Chapter 5, tropical forests have been crucial in demonstrating that traditional ideas of ‘urbanism’ in archaeology–namely ‘compact’, bounded, and dense populations documented in early Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean, and that dominate European thought—do not capture the whole wealth of ‘urban’ diversity and settlement networks that began to develop from the Middle Holocene.

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