Uphill Battle: Forest Rights and Restoration on Podu Landscapes in Keonjhar, Odisha

2022 ◽  
pp. 097317412110573
Author(s):  
Laura M. Valencia

In response to the global climate emergency and biodiversity loss, environmental advocates promote ecological restoration of millions of hectares of the world’s degraded forest lands. Lands of high value to restoration are home to nearly 300 million people, including 12% of low- and middle-income country populations. In this article, I respond to calls for greater empirical investigation into the social impacts of forest landscape restoration. Through spatial and ethnographic analysis of forest restoration in Keonjhar, Odisha (India), I show that state-led afforestation efforts contradict a decade of forest tenure reform which sought to decentralize and decolonize forest governance. I explore how state-led efforts ignore (and inhibit) the continued protagonism of forest-dwelling communities in forest regeneration on their customary lands. Weaving accounts from 1992 onwards across six villages and 22 plantations, I characterize state strategies as an ‘uphill battle’: by systematically selecting shifting cultivation (podu) uplands for enclosure and tree plantation, forest agencies contribute to a lose-lose situation where neither forest restoration nor forest rights are realized. Investigating this process from colonial forest policy to the present, I leverage a critical political ecology perspective that supports calls for rights-based restoration.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas W. Crowther ◽  
Henry Glick ◽  
Daniel Maynard ◽  
Will Ashley-Cantello ◽  
Tom Evans ◽  
...  

Executive SummaryForests are important determinants of the carbon cycle, and they provide countless ecosystem services to support billions of people worldwide. Global-scale forest restoration is one of our most effective weapons in the fight against biodiversity loss, rural poverty and climate change. In this report, we generate a spatial map of tree density within the potential forest restoration areas delineated by the IUCN/WRI’s “Atlas of Forest Landscape Restoration Opportunities” to estimate the potential number of trees that could be restored at a global scale. We also estimate the number of trees that might be saved by avoiding deforestation in currently forested areas.We show that the restoration areas have the capacity to support a total of 1.33 trillion trees. However, given that a considerable proportion of these areas already contain forests, we estimate that 589 billion new trees (larger than 10 cm diameter) could be restored within these areas, which would have the potential to store 65–91 Gigatonnes of carbon after reaching forest maturation. These values will increase marginally over time, as deforestation is responsible for the removal of living trees within the restoration areas. However, if only 50% or 25% of the mosaic areas (the largest of the designated restoration types) are available for reforestation, this total number will fall to approximately 360, or 246 billion trees, respectively, with corresponding decreases in potential carbon storage. Given that anthropogenic carbon emissions are currently in the order of 9–12 Gigatonnes per year, effective global-scale restoration might potentially have a valuable impact on global-scale climate mitigation over the rest of this century.This report was produced with funding from WWF-UK as part of the Trillion Trees programme with the Wildlife Conservation Society and BirdLife International


Author(s):  
Christer Brönmark ◽  
Lars-Anders Hansson

The Biology of Lakes and Ponds focuses on the interactions between the abiotic frame, such as turbulence, temperature, pH and nutrients, and the organisms, including interactions with and among organisms at the individual, population and community level. The book fills this niche between traditional limnology and evolutionary ecology by focusing on physiological, morphological and behavioural adaptations among organisms to abiotic and biotic factors and how interactions between biotic processes and abiotic constraints determine the structure and dynamics of lake and pond systems. In addition, the book describes and analyses the causes and consequences of human activities on freshwater organisms and ecosystems and covers longstanding environmental threats, such as eutrophication and acidification, as well as novel threats, such as biodiversity loss, use of everyday chemicals and global climate change. However, also signs of improvement and the possibilities to restore degraded ecosystems are discussed and provide hope for future generations.


2021 ◽  
pp. 251484862110249
Author(s):  
Siddharth Sareen

Increasing recognition of the irrefutable urgency to address the global climate challenge is driving mitigation efforts to decarbonise. Countries are setting targets, technological innovation is making renewable energy sources competitive and fossil fuel actors are leveraging their incumbent privilege and political reach to modulate energy transitions. As techno-economic competitiveness is rapidly reconfigured in favour of sources such as solar energy, governance puzzles dominate the research frontier. Who makes key decisions about decarbonisation based on what metrics, and how are consequent benefits and burdens allocated? This article takes its point of departure in ambitious sustainability metrics for solar rollout that Portugal embraced in the late 2010s. This southwestern European country leads on hydro and wind power, and recently emerged from austerity politics after the 2008–2015 recession. Despite Europe’s best solar irradiation, its big solar push only kicked off in late 2018. In explaining how this arose and unfolded until mid-2020 and why, the article investigates what key issues ambitious rapid decarbonisation plans must address to enhance social equity. It combines attention to accountability and legitimacy to offer an analytical framework geared at generating actionable knowledge to advance an accountable energy transition. Drawing on empirical study of the contingencies that determine the implementation of sustainability metrics, the article traces how discrete acts legitimate specific trajectories of territorialisation by solar photovoltaics through discursive, bureaucratic, technocratic and financial practices. Combining empirics and perspectives from political ecology and energy geographies, it probes the politics of just energy transitions to more low-carbon and equitable societal futures.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3211
Author(s):  
Takuya Takahashi ◽  
Yukiko Uchida ◽  
Hiroyuki Ishibashi ◽  
Noboru Okuda

The enhancement of human well-being is one of the ultimate goals of resource management; however, it is not explicitly considered by forest policy indicators. Our previous studies examined how Japanese citizens in the Yasu River watershed of the Shiga Prefecture perceived subjective well-being related to forests (forest SWB). We found a negative correlation between forest SWB and forest ownership, suggesting dissatisfaction with the low profitability of forest ownership. Based on this result, in this paper, we argue that forest SWB can be an important indicator for policymaking in the context of urbanization and forest restoration and can complement existing forest indicators focusing mainly on physical and objective properties. First, we propose that a direct measurement of well-being (e.g., forest SWB) is preferable over an indirect measurement (e.g., GDP), for policymaking processes related to forests. Second, forest SWB can reflect the quality of our interactions with forests, which is important in urbanized societies which tend to have reduced experiences with nature. Third, forest SWB could identify inequalities between the users of forest ecosystem services and forest managers. Overall, forest SWB can be a holistic indicator to capture a variety of perspectives held by citizens.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 10676
Author(s):  
Yih-Ren Lin ◽  
Pagung Tomi ◽  
Hsinya Huang ◽  
Chia-Hua Lin ◽  
Ysanne Chen

Whereas indigenous people are on the frontlines of global environmental challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and numerous other forms of critical planetary deterioration, the indigenous experiences, responses, and cultural practices have been underestimated in the mainstream frameworks of environmental studies. This paper aims to articulate a meaningful response to recent calls to indigenous and local knowledge on food as a source of resilience in the face of global climate change. By retrieving the values and practices indigenous people of Taiwan, specifically Tayal women, associate with human and non-human ecologies, our collaborative work with the indigenous community explores indigenous resilience and its relevance to indigenous cultural knowledge and global environmental concerns. Pivoting on the “Millet Ark” action, a Tayal conservation initiative of the bio-cultural diversity of millets, this study revolves around issues of how Tayal communities adapt to the climate change, how to reclaim their voice, heritage, knowledge, place, and land through food, and how to narrate indigenous “counter-stories” of resilience and sustainability. The cultural narrative of “Millet Ark” investigates indigenous way of preserving millet bio-cultural diversity and restoring the land and community heritage, inquiring into how Tayal people are adaptive and resilient to change and therefore sustainable through the cultural and social life of millets.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauro Rodrigues Nogueira Júnior ◽  
Vera Lex Engel ◽  
John A. Parrotta ◽  
Antonio Carlos Galvão de Melo ◽  
Danilo Scorzoni Ré

Restoration of Atlantic Forests is receiving increasing attention because of its role in both biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration for global climate change mitigation. This study was carried out in an Atlantic Forest restoration project in the south-central region of São Paulo State - Brazil to develop allometric equations to estimate tree biomass of indigenous tree species in mixed plantations. Above and below-ground biomass (AGB and BGB, respectively), stem diameter (DBH: diameter at 1.3 m height), tree height (H: total height) and specific wood density (WD) were measured for 60 trees of 19 species. Different biomass equations (linear and nonlinear-transformed) were adjusted to estimate AGB and BGB as a function of DBH, H and WD. For estimating AGB and BGB, the linear biomass equation models were the least accurate. The transformed nonlinear biomass equation that used log DBH2, log H and log WD as predictor variables were the most accurate for AGB and the transformed nonlinear biomass equations that used log DBH2*WD as predictor variables were the most accurate for BGB. It is concluded that these adjusted equations can be used to estimate the AGB and BGB in areas of the studied project. The adjusted equations can be recommended for use elsewhere in the region for forest stands of similar age, tree size ranges, species composition and site characteristics.


Author(s):  
R. B. Andrade ◽  
G. A. O. P. Costa ◽  
G. L. A. Mota ◽  
M. X. Ortega ◽  
R. Q. Feitosa ◽  
...  

Abstract. Deforestation is a wide-reaching problem, responsible for serious environmental issues, such as biodiversity loss and global climate change. Containing approximately ten percent of all biomass on the planet and home to one tenth of the known species, the Amazon biome has faced important deforestation pressure in the last decades. Devising efficient deforestation detection methods is, therefore, key to combat illegal deforestation and to aid in the conception of public policies directed to promote sustainable development in the Amazon. In this work, we implement and evaluate a deforestation detection approach which is based on a Fully Convolutional, Deep Learning (DL) model: the DeepLabv3+. We compare the results obtained with the devised approach to those obtained with previously proposed DL-based methods (Early Fusion and Siamese Convolutional Network) using Landsat OLI-8 images acquired at different dates, covering a region of the Amazon forest. In order to evaluate the sensitivity of the methods to the amount of training data, we also evaluate them using varying training sample set sizes. The results show that all tested variants of the proposed method significantly outperform the other DL-based methods in terms of overall accuracy and F1-score. The gains in performance were even more substantial when limited amounts of samples were used in training the evaluated methods.


2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary Hajian-Forooshani ◽  
David Gonthier ◽  
Linda Marín ◽  
Aaron L Iverson ◽  
Ivette Perfecto

Agricultural intensification is implicated as a major driver of global biodiversity loss. Local management and landscape scale factors both influence biodiversity in agricultural systems, but there are relatively few studies to date looking at how local and landscape scales influence biodiversity in tropical agroecosystems. Understanding what drives the diversity of groups of organisms such as spiders is important from a pragmatic point of view because of the important biocontrol services they offer to agriculture. Spiders in coffee are somewhat enigmatic because of their positive or lack of response to agricultural intensification. In this study, we provide the first analysis, to our knowledge, of the arboreal spiders in the shade trees of coffee plantations. In the Soconusco region of Chiapas, Mexico we sampled across 38 sites on 9 coffee plantations. Tree and canopy connectedness were found to positively influence overall arboreal spider richness and abundance. We found that different functional groups of spiders are responding to different local and landscape factors, but overall elevation was most important variable influencing arboreal spider diversity. Our study has practical management applications that suggest having shade grown coffee offers more suitable habitat for arboreal spiders due to a variety of the characteristics of the shade trees. Our results which show consistently more diverse arboreal spider communities in lower elevations are important in light of looming global climate change. As the range of suitable elevations for coffee cultivation shrinks promoting arboreal spider diversity will be important in sustaining the viability of coffee.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 3288-3301
Author(s):  
Cypatly Rojas Miranda ◽  
Yolanda Cortés Alvarez ◽  
Rafael Estrella Velázquez

Se ha escrito mucho en relación al tema ambiental y hemos escuchado innumerables discursos políticos en los que se dice demasiado y poco se lleva a la práctica. En nuestro país, la legislación ambiental se transgrede, la gente permanece indiferente ante la destrucción de su entorno, contribuyendo  a empeorar la situación; por ello, urge un cambio de actitud a través de la educación, brindando la oportunidad de informar y desarrollar acciones ambientales concretas en donde la participación sea de manera inmediata, activa y asertiva. El Plan de Estudios del Bachillerato de la Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro incluye la asignatura de Formación Ambiental impartida en el sexto semestre, cuyo  contenido programático permite desarrollar habilidades, actitudes y valores que contribuyen al desarrollo sustentable de manera crítica, con acciones responsables en la identificación y análisis de los problemas reales del entorno, con el enfoque de formar  profesionistas capacitados en la solución de problemas ambientales. Actualmente se confronta la amenaza ambiental más crítica de la historia: deterioro del suelo, del agua y de los recursos marinos, esenciales para la producción alimentaria, contaminación atmosférica, pérdida de biodiversidad, daño a la capa de ozono y al cambio climático global. La  sustentabilidad ambiental se refiere a la administración racional de los recursos naturales, de manera que sea posible mejorar el bienestar de la población actual sin comprometer la calidad de vida  de las generaciones futuras[1]; permitiendo que desde el interior del plantel educativo se generen acciones  a través del  trabajo colaborativo  para lograr un ambiente integral, limpio, sano y armónico.   En los últimos tres años el abordaje de los contenidos de la asignatura de Formación Ambiental se realiza conformando brigadas de trabajo que permiten ejecutar acciones inmediatas, en colaboración del personal administrativo, alumnos, maestros y padres de familia, en el cuidado de las áreas verdes, recolección de PET, ahorro de energía eléctrica y agua, contaminación visual y auditiva, reciclaje de papel, elaboración de composta, cultivo hidropónico, divulgación ecológica y supresión del tabaquismo; con el objetivo de formar individuos competentes en la toma  de decisiones  a problemas urgentes como es el Desarrollo Sustentable.   [1] Méndez, J., (2008) Problemas Económicos de México,Mc. Graw Hill, Ed. 6ª. México.  p. 48    Much has been written in relation to environmental issues and has heard countless political speeches in which he says too little is put into practice. In our country, environmental regulations are violated and people are indifferent to the destruction of their environment and contribute to worsening the situation. Faced with this problem it is necessary to achieve a change in attitudes through education, to give our students the opportunity to develop specific environmental actions in which they participate in immediate, active and assertive, with this, in the Baccalaureate curriculum at the Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro includes Environmental Training course that is taught in the sixth semester, containing program that allows the development of skills, attitudes and values ​​that contribute to sustainable development in a critical way, with responsible actions enabling the identification and analysis of the real problems of environment, so as to obtain the foundation for a future that integrates the student as a professional in solving many environmental problems. Currently facing the most critical environmental threat in history, ground deterioration , water and marine resources essential to food production rising, air pollution, biodiversity loss, but not less important damage to the ozone layer and global climate change. Talk of environmental sustainability refers to the efficient and rational management of natural resources, so it is possible to improve the welfare of the people today without compromising the quality of life of future generations, allowing it from inside the campus generate strategies through the collaborative work environment that may lead to a comprehensive, clean, healthy and harmonious. In our institution we have done in the past three years' experience in dealing with the contents of the Environmental Training course, forming work teams that can implement immediate actions with the participation of administrative staff, students, teachers and parents, in the care of green areas, collection of PET, saving electricity and water pollution, visual and auditory, paper recycling, composting, hydroponics, organic outreach, collection of batteries and elimination of smoking, with the aim of contribute to the formation of competent individuals in making decisions to urgent problems such as Sustainable Development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 201218
Author(s):  
John A. Stanturf ◽  
Stephanie Mansourian

Tree planting has been widely touted as an inexpensive way to meet multiple international environmental goals for mitigating climate change, reversing landscape degradation and restoring biodiversity restoration. The Bonn Challenge and New York Declaration on Forests, motivated by widespread deforestation and forest degradation, call for restoring 350 million ha by 2030 by relying on forest landscape restoration (FLR) processes. Because the 173 million ha commitments made by 63 nations, regions and companies are not legally binding, expectations of what FLR means lacks consensus. The frequent disconnect between top-level aspirations and on-the-ground implementation results in limited data on FLR activities. Additionally, some countries have made landscape-scale restoration outside of the Bonn Challenge. We compared and contrasted the theory and practice of FLR and compiled information from databases of projects and initiatives and case studies. We present the main FLR initiatives happening across regional groups; in many regions, the potential need/opportunity for forest restoration exceeds the FLR activities underway. Multiple objectives can be met by manipulating vegetation (increasing structural complexity, changing species composition and restoring natural disturbances). Livelihood interventions are context-specific but include collecting or raising non-timber forest products, employment and community forests; other interventions address tenure and governance.


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