Conservation Biology in Asia: the Major Policy Challenges

Abstract:  With about half the world's human population and booming economies, Asia faces numerous challenges to its biodiversity. The Asia Section of the Society for Conservation Biology has identified some key policy issues in which significant progress can be made. These include developing new sources of funding for forest conservation; identifying potential impacts of energy alternatives on the conservation of biodiversity; curbing the trade in endangered species of plants and animals; a special focus on the conservation of mountain biodiversity; enhancing relevant research; ensuring that conservation biology contributes to major international conventions and funding mechanisms; using conservation biology to build a better understanding of zoonotic diseases; more effectively addressing human–animal conflicts; enhancing community-based conservation; and using conservation biology to help address the pervasive water-deficit problems in much of Asia. These challenges can be met through improved regional cooperation among the relevant stakeholders .     

A Multispecies Framework for Landscape Conservation Planning

Abstract: Rapidly changing landscapes have spurred the need for quantitative methods for conservation assessment and planning that encompass large spatial extents. We devised and tested a multispecies framework for conservation planning to complement single‐species assessments and ecosystem‐level approaches. Our framework consisted of 4 elements: sampling to effectively estimate population parameters, measuring how human activity affects landscapes at multiple scales, analyzing the relation between landscape characteristics and individual species occurrences, and evaluating and comparing the responses of multiple species to landscape modification. We applied the approach to a community of terrestrial birds across 25,000 km² with a range of intensities of human development. Human modification of land cover, road density, and other elements of the landscape, measured at multiple spatial extents, had large effects on occupancy of the 67 species studied. Forest composition within 1 km of points had a strong effect on occupancy of many species and a range of negative, intermediate, and positive associations. Road density within 1 km of points, percent evergreen forest within 300 m, and distance from patch edge were also strongly associated with occupancy for many species. We used the occupancy results to group species into 11 guilds that shared patterns of association with landscape characteristics. Our multispecies approach to conservation planning allowed us to quantify the trade‐offs of different scenarios of land‐cover change in terms of species occupancy.     

Historical perspectives on contemporary human–environment dynamics in southeast Africa

The human communities and ecosystems of island and coastal southeast Africa face significant and linked ecological threats. Socioecological conditions of concern to communities, governments, nongovernmental organizations, and researchers include declining agricultural productivity, deforestation, introductions of non-native flora and fauna, coastal erosion and sedimentation, damage to marine environments, illegal fishing, overfishing, waste pollution, salinization of freshwater supplies, and rising energy demands, among others. Human–environment challenges are connected to longer, often ignored, histories of social and ecological dynamics in the region. We argue that these challenges are more effectively understood and addressed within a longer-term historical ecology framework. We reviewed cases from Madagascar, coastal Kenya, and the Zanzibar Archipelago of fisheries, deforestation, and management of human waste to encourage increased engagement among historical ecologists, conservation scientists, and policy makers. These case studies demonstrate that by widening the types and time depths of data sets we used to investigate and address current socioecological challenges, our interpretations of their causes and strategies for their mitigation varied significantly.     

Effects of Forest Fragmentation on Seed Dispersal and Seedling Establishment in Ornithochorous Trees

Abstract: Habitat fragmentation increases seed dispersal limitation across the landscape and may also affect subsequent demographic stages such as seedling establishment. Thus, the development of adequate plans for forest restoration requires an understanding of mechanisms by which fragmentation hampers seed delivery to deforested areas and knowledge of how fragmentation affects the relationship between seed‐deposition patterns and seedling establishment. We evaluated the dispersal and recruitment of two bird‐dispersed, fleshy‐fruited tree species (Crataegus monogyna and Ilex aquifolium) in fragmented secondary forests of northern Spain. Forest fragmentation reduced the probability of seed deposition for both trees because of decreased availability of woody perches and fruit‐rich neighborhoods for seed dispersers, rather than because of reductions in tree cover by itself. The effects of fragmentation went beyond effects on the dispersal stage in Crataegus because seedling establishment was proportional to the quantities of bird‐dispersed seeds arriving at microsites. In contrast, postdispersal mortality in Ilex was so high that it obscured the seed‐to‐seedling transition. These results suggest that the effects of fragmentation are not necessarily consistent across stages of recruitment across species. Habitat management seeking to overcome barriers to forest recovery must include the preservation, and even the planting, of fleshy‐fruited trees in the unforested matrix as a measure to encourage frugivorous birds to enter into open and degraded areas. An integrative management strategy should also explicitly consider seed‐survival expectancies at microhabitats to preserve plant‐population dynamics and community structure in fragmented landscapes.     

Nitrogen to phosphorus ratios of two understory plant species in response to nitrogen and phosphorus addition in tropical forest of southern China北大核心CSCD

The secondary tropical forests in southern China have suffered from frequent human disturbance and increasing high N deposition. In order to explore the nutrient limitation status in secondary tropical forests of South China, this 3-year field experiment of nitrogen (+N) and phosphorus (+P) addition investigated nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations of the aboveground tissue (leaf and branch) of two widely distributed understory native species Clerodendrum cyrtophyllum and Uvaria microcarpa in a secondary tropical forest of South China. The results showed that: 1) the N and P concentrations of the two species were significantly different (P < 0.001); N and P concentrations of different tissues in the same species were different; N&P addition greatly affected N and P concentrations in branch rather than new leaf and older leaf. 2) +N treatment had no significant effect on N or P concentrations of either species, but significantly decreased N:P ratios (P = 0.001), at the level of 9% for C. cyrtophyllum and 50% for U. microcarpa, respectively. 3) +P treatment had no significant effect on tissue N concentrations, but significantly increased plant P concentrations (P < 0.001), at 54% for C. cyrtophyllum and 88% for U. microcarpa, respectively; +P treatment significantly decreased plant N:P ratios (P < 0.001), at 28% and 60%, respectively. 4) The alterations of P concentrations of two species had significantly negative correlations with N:P alterations under +N/+P treatment (P < 0.001), suggesting that the alteration of P concentrations in plant tissue was the major driver for N:P alteration. Our results show that N and P addition would affect tissue N and P concentrations of the two species, with +P treatment having relatively greater effect on nutrient concentrations than +N treatment; the branch is more sensitive than new or older leaf in response to nutrient addition. Therefore, P availability may be the limiting factor for plant growth in the tropical forests.     

Community Capacity for Implementing Clean Development Mechanism Projects Within Community Forests in Cameroon

There is a growing assumption that payments for environmental services including carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emission reduction provide an opportunity for poverty reduction and the enhancement of sustainable development within integrated natural resource management approaches. Yet in experiential terms, community-based natural resource management implementation falls short of expectations in many cases. In this paper, we investigate the asymmetry between community capacity and the Land Use Land Use Change Forestry (LULUCF) provisions of the Clean Development Mechanism within community forests in Cameroon. We use relevant aspects of the Clean Development Mechanism criteria and notions of “community capacity” to elucidate determinants of community capacity needed for CDM implementation within community forests. The main requirements are for community capacity to handle issues of additionality, acceptability, externalities, certification, and community organisation. These community capacity requirements are further used to interpret empirically derived insights on two community forestry cases in Cameroon. While local variations were observed for capacity requirements in each case, community capacity was generally found to be insufficient for meaningful uptake and implementation of Clean Development Mechanism projects. Implications for understanding factors that could inhibit or enhance community capacity for project development are discussed. We also include recommendations for the wider Clean Development Mechanism/Kyoto capacity building framework.     

Perspectives for sustainable management of cedar forests in Lebanon: situation analysis and guidelines

The signature and ratification of the convention on biological diversity by the Lebanese government has boosted the declaration of nature reserves. Cedar forests formed the pilot ecosystems, using international funds, for the implementation of a conservation programme and development of management plans. Although different in their attributes, all recent nature reserves have the same basic management objectives and goals but they ignore the idea of taking into account the difference in specific site features and assets that could boost the success of any management plans. Twelve cedar forests flourish in the Mount Lebanon chain. These forests are either protected by the forestry law or are declared as nature reserves by the Ministry of Environment. The results reveal, through Participatory Rural Appraisals and Rapid Rural Appraisals, that religion, geographical location and land ownership play, to a certain extent, a role in adopting successful management practices of cedar forests. The RRAs and PRAs spell out the origins of woodcraft, old stories memorized by elderly people and ethnobotanical knowledge. The 4Rs tools method adopted highlighted the need for more collaboration and synergy of effort between various institutions. The social, ecological and economic aspects of the regions play a major role in defining the backbone of management plans for cedar forests in Lebanon. The present paper proposes guidelines for the establishment of a network of cedar nature reserves in Lebanon adopting collaborative management and assigning a separate role for each reserve; the details rely on the site’s natural features, as well as socio-economic and cultural characteristics. Readers should send their comments on this paper to BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue     

Below-cost timber sales and the political marketplace

Political pressures exist to increase the economic efficiency of timber management and production on the national forests managed by the USDA Forest Service. There is growing belief both outside and within the Forest Service that current levels of timber production, and most particularly uneconomic timber production, should be reduced. Many argue that eliminating uneconomic timber management programs will both save money and reduce environmental degradation. This article traces the political evolution of the focus on economic efficiency in timber production and explores the political-institutional factors that are shaping the current policy debate. The below-cost issue is less about economic efficiency than it is about political advantage and alternative political visions of the societal role of the nation's national forests now and in the future.     

Pulpwood,pesticides, and people. Controlling spruce budworm in northeastern North America

The eastern spruce budworm is a major forest pest over the continental range of the spruce-fir forest ecosystem and its southern ecotonal fringes in Canada and the northeastern United States. The current budworm outbreak illustrates the difficulty of arriving at economically sound and publicly acceptable forest pest control policies. Policies ranging from no use of chemical control to annual widespread crop protection have been adopted. There is no single all-around best policy for spruce budworm control. Chemical spray programs have demonstrably slowed the normal progress of mortality due to budworm, but have not eradicated the pest. Where industry remains heavily dependent on a fully utilized spruce-fir forest, no easy, low-cost solutions to the budworm problem exist. Reliance on spraying will have to be reduced and plans made to utilize higher levels of tree mortality and to manage the forest for lower future vulnerability.     

THE EFFECTS OF MINE ACID ON THE POND RIVER WATERSHED IN WESTERN KENTUCKY1

ABSTRACT: H₂SO₄ (sulfuric acid) is formed by a chemical process that occurs in unreclaimed coal mines. The highly toxic acid then flows into the lower swamp areas where it causes considerable damage to the ecosystem. The major effect of the acid is the mass destruction of thousands of trees and various other phreatophytic plants. The contamination is so serious that most of the wildlife has migrated out of the affected area of the swamp in order to survive. Certain geological features such as coal bearing monadanocks make the area somewhat sensitive to mining activities and related geologic hazards. New methods of mine acid abatement make the concept of mass reclamation more realistic than at any time in the past. The constant annihilation of swamp life and processes emphasizes the urgent need for reclamation of the swamp.