Spatial and temporal modeling of community non-timber forest extraction

This paper examines the interaction of spatial and dynamic aspects of resource extraction from forests by local people. Highly cyclical and varied across space and time, the patterns of resource extraction resulting from the spatial–temporal model bear little resemblance to the patterns drawn from focusing either on spatial or temporal aspects of extraction alone. Ignoring this variability inaccurately depicts villagers’ dependence on different parts of the forest and could result in inappropriate policies. Similarly, the spatial links in extraction decisions imply that policies imposed in one area can have unintended consequences in other areas. Combining the spatial–temporal model with a measure of success in community forest management—the ability to avoid open-access resource degradation—characterizes the impact of incomplete property rights on patterns of resource extraction and stocks.

REDD+ and community-controlled forests in low-income countries: any hope for a linkage?

Deforestation and forest degradation are estimated to account for between 12% and 20% of annual greenhouse gas emissions and in the 1990s (largely in the developing world) released about 5.8 Gt per year, which was bigger than all forms of transport combined. The idea behind REDD + is that payments for sequestering carbon can tip the economic balance away from loss of forests and in the process yield climate benefits. Recent analysis has suggested that developing country carbon sequestration can effectively compete with other climate investments as part of a cost effective climate policy. This paper focuses on opportunities and complications associated with bringing community-controlled forests into REDD +. About 25% of developing country forests are community controlled and therefore it is difficult to envision a successful REDD + without coming to terms with community controlled forests. It is widely agreed that REDD + offers opportunities to bring value to developing country forests, but there are also concerns driven by worries related to insecure and poorly defined community forest tenure, informed by often long histories of government unwillingness to meaningfully devolve to communities. Further, communities are complicated systems and it is therefore also of concern that REDD + could destabilize existing well-functioning community forestry systems.

Understanding the Challenges of Expanding Community Forestry in Northwest Cameroon

The tropical afro-montane forest of the Northwest region is unique and under direct threat from the high population density of the region. Community-based forestry management is an opportunity to sustainably manage the remaining forest fragments. Community forestry was introduced to Cameroon with the legislation of the 1994 Forestry Law. Over two decades later little research has been conducted in the Northwest region of Cameroon. Twenty-four semi-structured interviews were conducted, and samples of forestry records were analyzed as exploratory research that would act as a base for further research. This research found that the tenure of the community over the community forest needed to be strengthened, marginalized populations needed to be empowered to participate, and governance needed to be improved both nationally, and locally. Further research will strengthen these conclusions and help Cameroon, and community forests around the world, be effectively established and managed.

Manejo florestal comunitário em unidades de conservação na Amazônia: uma avaliação de impactos na Resex Verde para Sempre - PA e na RDS Rio Negro - AM

Os planos de manejo florestal comunitário são importantes instrumentos de geração de renda e preservação ambiental para as populações tradicionais que vivem nas Unidades de Conservação da região amazônica. No entanto, poucas são as evidências de que esta atividade tenha trazido benefícios sociais a estas comunidades. Neste contexto, a presente pesquisa teve como principal objetivo identificar os impactos econômicos e sociais a partir da introdução do Projeto de Apoio ao Manejo Florestal Sustentável na Amazônia (ProManejo) na Reserva Extrativista (Resex) Verde para Sempre (Porto de Moz – PA) e do Programa Bolsa Floresta (PBF) na Reserva de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (RDS) Rio Negro (Novo Airão – AM). Para tanto, foi realizada uma pesquisa do tipo avaliação de efetividade, contemplando três dimensões: (i) objetiva, que exprime a alteração na renda e em sua composição entre os períodos ex-ante e ex-post à iniciativa; (ii) substantiva, que visa auferir as variações nas condições sociais, tais como, habitação, infraestrutura e acesso a bens de consumo, e; (iii) subjetiva, que busca descrever a percepção de melhoria das variáveis econômicas (renda e benefícios), sociais (atendimento dos serviços públicos) e ambientais (redução do desmatamento). O estudo também pode ser classificado como um quase experimento, o qual utilizou três tipos de estratégias de pesquisa: bibliográfica, documental e de campo. Este último contemplou a aplicação de um questionário estruturado por meio de entrevistas domiciliares com os/as chefes de família, e possibilitou conhecer 53% das famílias beneficiárias do projeto na Resex e 63% na RDS. As evidências apontam que ambas as iniciativas surtiram impactos positivos, principalmente, no incremento da renda das famílias e na redução do desmatamento. Em relação às condições de vida e à gestão do plano de manejo florestal, os resultados indicam uma situação mais favorável na RDS, devido à metodologia participativa e ao prazo indeterminado de término do Programa Bolsa Floresta (PBF).

Publicness and Taken-for-granted Knowledge: A Case Study of Communal Land Formation in Rural Thailand

The lack of public-mindedness can cause problems in the social order of people’s daily lives, such as the tragedy of the commons and the problem of free riders. Some scholars such as Habermas assert that communicative rationality is the solution, expecting that individuals will communicate with each other to reach a consensus without being bounded by aspects of social background. Other scholars advocate the revitalization of traditional community culture. These arguments, however, are not based on reality. By using the case of communal land formation in rural Thailand, the author shows that collective action is neither a revival of tradition nor a result of communication free from social constraints. Rather, cooperation emerges because the people rationally respond to their present needs and have built, through daily social interactions, taken-for-granted knowledge about how they should behave for cooperation.

Illinois Tree City USA conference/awards ceremony.

The goal of the Tree City USA Program and the IDNR Urban and Community Forestry Program is to encourage local communities to establish and uphold local community forestry programs for the purpose of citizen safety and community forest management.

Illinois Tree City USA conference/awards ceremony : trees count.

The goal of the Tree City USA Program and the IDNR Urban and Community Forestry Program is to encourage local communities to establish and uphold local community forestry programs for the purpose of citizen safety and community forest management.

Illinois Tree City USA conference/awards ceremony : emerald ash borer exclusive.

The goal of the Tree City USA Program and the IDNR Urban and Community Forestry Program is to encourage local communities to establish and uphold local community forestry programs for the purpose of citizen safety and community forest management.

Fauna community trends during early restoration of alluvial open forest/woodland ecosystems on former agricultural land

Vertebrate fauna was studied over 10 years following revegetation of a Eucalyptus tereticornis ecosystem on former agricultural land. We compared four vegetation types: remnant forest, plantings of a mix of native tree species on cleared land, natural regeneration of partially cleared land after livestock removal, and cleared pasture land with scattered paddock trees managed for livestock production. Pasture differed significantly from remnant in both bird and nonbird fauna. Although 10 years of ecosystem restoration is relatively short term in the restoration process, in this time bird assemblages in plantings and natural regeneration had diverged significantly from pasture, but still differed significantly from remnant. After 10 years, 70 and 66% of the total vertebrate species found in remnant had been recorded in plantings and natural regeneration, respectively. Although the fauna assemblages within plantings and natural regeneration were tracking toward those of remnant, significant differences in fauna between plantings and natural regeneration indicated community development along different restoration pathways. Because natural regeneration contained more mature trees (dbh > 30 cm), native shrub species, and coarse woody debris than plantings from the beginning of the study, these features possibly encouraged different fauna to the revegetation areas from the outset. The ability of plantings and natural regeneration to transition to the remnant state will be governed by a number of factors that were significant in the analyses, including shrub cover, herbaceous biomass, tree hollows, time since fire, and landscape condition. Both active and passive restoration produced significant change from the cleared state in the short term.

The Contribution of Rare Species to Community Phylogenetic Diversity across a Global Network of Forest Plots

Niche differentiation has been proposed as an explanation for rarity in species assemblages. To test this hypothesis requires quantifying the ecological similarity of species. This similarity can potentially be estimated by using phylogenetic relatedness. In this study, we predicted that if niche differentiation does explain the co-occurrence of rare and common species, then rare species should contribute greatly to the overall community phylogenetic diversity (PD), abundance will have phylogenetic signal, and common and rare species will be phylogenetically dissimilar. We tested these predictions by developing a novel method that integrates species rank abundance distributions with phylogenetic trees and trend analyses, to examine the relative contribution of individual species to the overall community PD. We then supplement this approach with analyses of phylogenetic signal in abundances and measures of phylogenetic similarity within and between rare and common species groups. We applied this analytical approach to 15 long-term temperate and tropical forest dynamics plots from around the world. We show that the niche differentiation hypothesis is supported in six of the nine gap-dominated forests but is rejected in the six disturbance-dominated and three gap-dominated forests. We also show that the three metrics utilized in this study each provide unique but corroborating information regarding the phylogenetic distribution of rarity in communities.