Urban forest biodiversity and cardiovascular disease: Potential health benefits from California’s street trees

Enhanced immune functioning in response to biodiversity may explain potential health benefits from exposure to green space. Using unique data on urban forest biodiversity at the zip code level for California measured from 2014 to 2019 we test whether greater diversity of street trees is associated with reduced death from cardiovascular disease. We find that urban forests with greater biodiversity measured via the Shannon Index at the genus level are associated with a lower mortality rate for heart disease and stroke. Our estimates imply that increasing the Shannon Index by one standard deviation (0.64) is associated with a decrease in the mortality rate of 21.4 per 100,000 individuals for heart disease or 13% and 7.7 per 100,000 individuals for stroke or 16%. Our estimates remain robust across several sensitivity checks. A policy simulation for tree planting in Los Angeles based on our estimates suggests that if these relationships were causal, investment in planting for a more biodiverse set of street trees would be a cost-effective way to reduce mortality related to cardiovascular disease in urban areas.

The potential, utilization and management of forest biodiversity for the livelihood of local communities in Ratah Watershed, East Kalimantan Province, Indonesia

Forest biodiversity is crucial for the survival of local communities in Mahakam Ulu District, East Kalimantan Province, Indonesia, especially for the Punan Dayak, Bahau Bateq Hwang Lung Gelawang, and Bakumpai Dayak tribes who live in the Ratah Watershed area. For generations, local communities in the Ratah Watershed have had local wisdom to protect the resources in the forest around them. Unfortunately, various problems threaten the existence of forest biodiversity in the Ratah Watershed. The purpose of this study is to show the identification results of the potential, utilization, and management of biodiversity according to local communities in Mahakam Ulu District, East Kalimantan Province, and the threats faced. The data was obtained through interviews with key informants, FGDs, participatory mapping, and field observations with the people of Nyari Bungan Village, Long Gelawang Village, Danum Paroy Village, and Muara Ratah Village. The result of the study indicated that local communities in the Ratah Watershed find it more inconvenient to utilize forest resources because of the diminishing potential for biodiversity. The low level of welfare, unclear village boundaries, overlapping village areas with private companies (timber companies, oil palm) are the main problems. Conservation of biodiversity from forests in the Ratah Watershed requires the cooperation of various parties, especially in increasing community capacity in managing forest resources for better environment.

Review: Utilization of interspecific Acacia hybrid for pulp/paper industry and increasing of forest biodiversity

Wood-based forestry industries are one of the strategic sectors in the development for providing a good impact in ecological and socio-economic in a country. Such an industry should have high productivity in order to ensure sustainable resources and an efficient manufacturing process. Based on this fact, tree breeding program is one of the good practices which could be done through the hybridization method to increase the uses from forest genetic resources. This paper presents a review on the basis of the utilization of inter-specific Acacia hybrids resulted from hybridization between two species of Acacia mangium and Acacia auriculiformis for supporting the pulp/paper industry and increasing the forest biodiversity in Indonesia. Improving some traits relevant to the industrial requirements is the main target in the development of Acacia hybrid. This involves fast growth, good wood properties, and tolerance to pests and diseases. The Acacia hybrids could provide some advantages in overcoming the current problems of the forest plantation and industry in which some of them could not be resolved by planting the pure species. In addition, the varies of the Acacia hybrid progenies could be used to increase forest biodiversity, which is important as a genetic base for further breeding purposes and challenges.

Natural disturbance impacts on trade-offs and co-benefits of forest biodiversity and carbon

With accelerating environmental change, understanding forest disturbance impacts on trade-offs between biodiversity and carbon dynamics is of high socio-economic importance. Most studies, however, have assessed immediate or short-term effects of disturbance, while long-term impacts remain poorly understood. Using a tree-ring-based approach, we analysed the effect of 250 years of disturbances on present-day biodiversity indicators and carbon dynamics in primary forests. Disturbance legacies spanning centuries shaped contemporary forest co-benefits and trade-offs, with contrasting, local-scale effects. Disturbances enhanced carbon sequestration, reaching maximum rates within a comparatively narrow post-disturbance window (up to 50 years). Concurrently, disturbance diminished aboveground carbon storage, which gradually returned to peak levels over centuries. Temporal patterns in biodiversity potential were bimodal; the first maximum coincided with the short-term post-disturbance carbon sequestration peak, and the second occurred during periods of maximum carbon storage in complex old-growth forest. Despite fluctuating local-scale trade-offs, forest biodiversity and carbon storage remained stable across the broader study region, and our data support a positive relationship between carbon stocks and biodiversity potential. These findings underscore the interdependencies of forest processes, and highlight the necessity of large-scale conservation programmes to effectively promote both biodiversity and long-term carbon storage, particularly given the accelerating global biodiversity and climate crises.