Disentangling the Roles of Topography, Patch, and Land Use on Conservation Trait Status of Specialist Birds in Marginal Forest Land Use Types

One of the main questions in ecology and conservation is how organisms are governed and affected by their traits within the context of abiotic gradients. The main question of our study addresses how patch, topography, and land use influence conservation trait status (rarity and red-list index) of birds generally, and of farmland and woodland specialists specifically, in marginal forest landscape types. We sampled birds from 68 traditional fruit orchards existing as remnants of agroforestry within the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic during two consecutive years. We recorded 57 bird species, of which 31 species were forest dwellers and 16 farmland dwellers. Topographical predictors played the most significant role in influencing traits of the bird community as a whole. Farmland bird traits indicated the most balanced values, as they were significantly influenced by all studied predictor sets. Their responses nevertheless differed among the studied traits and also showed a more complex pattern because the values of interaction between some predictor categories were relatively high. Traits of woodland birds were most influenced by the patch configuration. We found that a structurally diversified marginal habitat type of traditional fruit orchards is able to promote a number of specialist species and also reveals important relationships between bird conservation traits and different predictor sets. Researchers should pay more attention to the conservation traits of birds and their interactions with environmental predictors. Furthermore, conservationists should be more attentive to the biodiversity value and sustainable management of traditional fruit orchards.

Can REDD+ Bring Equitable Benefit to the Marginalized Communities? Insights from Bangladesh

Despite promising win-win outcomes of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) program, how and to what extent it can bring real opportunities to forest communities remains debatable. Focusing on inequality and land tenure insecurity in Bangladesh, this study aims to find out whether and to what extent REDD+ can ensure equitable benefits and opportunities for the forest communities in an ethnic conflict area. Based on qualitative case studies on two types of community forest management (CFM) experiences in Bangladesh, the study finds that the distribution of various costs, benefits, and access to forest participation remain highly unequal among different groups within the communities. The existing institutional settings were not able to bring adequate opportunities for the marginal forest people to face the dominant power relation and bring equitable share for them. This study argues that without ensuring the decision-making space for marginalized groups, and without substantial changes towards the tenure complexity, the emerging REDD+ initiatives in Bangladesh can strengthen the dominant power and subsequently intensify the vulnerability of the marginalized people. A careful analysis of how weak institutions are helping to perpetuate inequality can thus help us to understand future risks of CFM–REDD+ relations.

Mediterranean Islands Hosting Marginal and Peripheral Forest Tree Populations: The Case of Pinus brutia Ten. in Cyprus

Mediterranean islands have served as important Tertiary and glacial refuges, hosting important peripheral and ecologically marginal forest tree populations. These populations, presumably harboring unique gene complexes, are particularly interesting in the context of climate change. Pinus brutia Ten. is widespread in the eastern Mediterranean Basin and in Cyprus in particular it is the most common tree species. This study evaluated genetic patterns and morphoanatomical local adaptation along the species geographical distribution and altitudinal range in Cyprus. Analysis showed that the Cyprus population of P. brutia is a peripheral population with high genetic diversity, comprised of different subpopulations. Evidence suggests the presence of ongoing dynamic evolutionary processes among the different subpopulations, while the most relic and isolated subpopulations exhibited a decreased genetic diversity compared to the most compact subpopulations in the central area of the island. These results could be the consequence of the small size and prolonged isolation of the former. Comparing populations along an altitude gradient, higher genetic diversity was detected at the middle level. The phenotypic plasticity observed is particularly important for the adaptive potential of P. brutia in an island environment, since it allows rapid change in local environmental conditions.

Recent porcupine expansion at tree line: a dendroecological analysis

The northernmost porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum L.) populations in the western part of northern Quebec are found at tree line along the Hudson Bay coast. A dendrochronological analysis of feeding scars produced during the dormant period indicates that this species expanded significantly during the 20th century, particularly during the last 25 years. Confined to small, marginal forest sites during the 19th century, porcupine range increased afterwards and climaxed during the 1960's and 1970's with the occupance of remote altitudinal tundra sites. This change in porcupine range coincides with the area where white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) expanded during the last 100 years because of climatic warming. It is hypothesized that porcupine populations responded to climate change with a time lag of several decades associated with forest-niche building.

Radiocarbon Dates from Bosumpra Cave, Abetifi, Ghana

In 1940 Professor Thurstan Shaw excavated a trench in the cave known as Bosumpra at Abetifi (6° 41′N:0° 44′W) on the borderline between the moist forest and the northern marginal forest (fig. 1). Bosumpra is one of the four main ‘abosom’ (lesser) gods of the Guan pantheon (Brokenshaw 1966, 156). The report (Shaw, 1944) showed that the cave was formerly inhabited by a people with a pottery-using microlithic culture and provided the first analytical description of the microlithic industries from the forest regions of West Africa. As the site was the first of its kind to be excavated, and the excavation was carried out before the advent of radiocarbon dating, there was no way of knowing what age this industry was, or how long the cave had been occupied, beyond placing it within the rubric of the so-called “Guinea Neolithic”.To attempt to clarify this problem a group of students from the Department of Archaeology at the University of Ghana and myself conducted the excavation of a small witness section (fig. 2) in the cave over New Year 1973/74 with the specific aim of collecting organic material for dating. We were fortunate in finding adequate amounts of charcoal at all levels. Two of these samples were submitted to Rikagaku Kenkyusho, Japan, for dating.

A forest classification based on management and treatment

The following forest types are used as basic units for classification: 1. The natural forest 2. The semi-natural forest 3. The intermediary forest 4. The artificial forest 5. The naturalized forest 6. The marginal forest forms The proposed classification of forests tries to establish a systematic order, based partly on morphological aspects of the forest stand, but principally on the degree and the characteristics of human interference as expressed by use, treatment and the aims of management. Its application belongs essentially to the domain of forest policy. The number of types it covers is not to be considered limitative: practical use of the classification will give the opportunity to find out its weaker points and eventually lead to necessary modifications. It can be used simultaneously with other classifications based on floristic, ecological, phytosoeiological and phytogeographical characteristics. Neither is it intended as a substitute for usual stand description, needed for planning management and silvicultural treatment, because it does not take into consideration the particularities of the local situation.