Increasing tree cover while losing diverse natural forests in tropical Hainan, ChinaSpringer Science and Business Media LLC - Tập 14 - Trang 611-621 - 2013
De-Li Zhai, Jian-Chu Xu, Zhi-Cong Dai, Charles H. Cannon, R. E. Grumbine
To protect biodiversity and improve environmental conditions, China has invested billions of dollars in reforestation and payments for ecosystem service programs. Here, we examine the Sloping Land Conversion Program, the largest such program in the world and found that after 13 years of implementation at our study site, it has had negative impacts on natural tropical forests. GIS and remote sensing techniques revealed that both natural forests and natural shrub and grasslands were replaced by non-native monocultural plantations on Hainan Island, China, a key tropical biodiversity hotspot. Under current Chinese policy, these plantations are classified simply as “forests”, with the assumption that they are equivalent to natural forests. This lack of a distinction in forest quality has led to substantial deforestation and plantation expansion, including encroachment into protected areas on Hainan. Additional social and economic drivers of these changes were identified by examining the participants in this program and their actions. Without a new ecologically based definition of forests and new goals for reforestation, such programs designed to improve ecosystem services, and forest quality may actually threaten remaining natural forests and other vegetation types in Hainan and in other areas of mainland China.
Forest Landscape Restoration and Its Impact on Social Cohesion, Ecosystems, and Rural Livelihoods: Lessons Learned from PakistanSpringer Science and Business Media LLC - - 2024
Ayat Ullah
AbstractThis paper explores community perspectives on forest landscape restoration (FLR) initiatives and their impacts on ecosystems, livelihoods and social cohesion. The study is based on data collected from 08 focus group discussions (FGDs) conducted in local communities involved in FLR activities. A coding process was used to identify key themes and patterns that shed light on the impacts of FLR. The results show that FLR initiatives have led to social cohesion and conflict resolution, including the establishment of community-based organizations (CBOs), the involvement of community volunteers in various FLR tasks, a cooperative/collaborative approach to forest management, conflict resolution, and the empowerment of local communities. In addition, the results of the study showed that FLRs have successfully regenerated and restored the forest ecosystem, including restoration of biodiversity, plant diversity, improvement of animal populations and livestock health, soil health, and water quality. Ecosystem restoration has improved community livelihoods, including increased crop productivity, access to education, affordable health care, improved economic conditions, and food security. Based on the findings, policy recommendations include strengthening support for community FLR initiatives, promoting stakeholder collaboration, and promoting social equity.
Predicted changes in distribution and richness of wild edible plants under climate change scenarios in northwestern KenyaSpringer Science and Business Media LLC - - 2024
Wyclife Agumba Oluoch, Christian Borgemeister, João de Deus Vidal, Tobias Fremout, Hannes Gaisberger, Cory Whitney, Christine B. Schmitt
AbstractWild edible plants (WEPs) can provide diverse and nutrient-rich food sources that contribute to the health and well-being of communities worldwide. In northwestern Kenya, WEPs are vital dietary components for nomadic pastoral communities with limited access to diverse cultivated food crops. However, the increasing impact of climate change poses a threat to these valuable food resources, and their sustainable utilization remains precarious. Here, we assessed the potentially suitable habitats and richness of 23 selected WEPs in the region using a species distribution modeling (SDM) approach. We used species occurrence points from global databases, a national herbarium, and field surveys and made predictions spanning two future time intervals, 2041–2070 and 2071–2100, across three shared socioeconomic pathways (126, 370, and 585) using bioclimatic variables from five global circulation models. We also included soil and topographic variables in our models. We calibrated maximum entropy models using individually tuned parameters. Our future predictions showed a predominant decline in habitat suitability for half the studied WEPs. The richness of the selected WEPs are predicted to remain rather stable under projected future climates concentrating in southern parts of Turkana County. Conservation and management measures need to consider the changing availability of these valuable resources in order to underpin the dietary diversification of local communities.
Climate change adaptation in European river basinsSpringer Science and Business Media LLC - Tập 10 - Trang 263-284 - 2010
Patrick Huntjens, Claudia Pahl-Wostl, John Grin
This paper contains an assessment and standardized comparative analysis of the current water management regimes in four case-studies in three European river basins: the Hungarian part of the Upper Tisza, the Ukrainian part of the Upper Tisza (also called Zacarpathian Tisza), Alentejo Region (including the Alqueva Reservoir) in the Lower Guadiana in Portugal, and Rivierenland in the Netherlands. The analysis comprises several regime elements considered to be important in adaptive and integrated water management: agency, awareness raising and education, type of governance and cooperation structures, information management and—exchange, policy development and—implementation, risk management, and finances and cost recovery. This comparative analysis has an explorative character intended to identify general patterns in adaptive and integrated water management and to determine its role in coping with the impacts of climate change on floods and droughts. The results show that there is a strong interdependence of the elements within a water management regime, and as such this interdependence is a stabilizing factor in current management regimes. For example, this research provides evidence that a lack of joint/participative knowledge is an important obstacle for cooperation, or vice versa. We argue that there is a two-way relationship between information management and collaboration. Moreover, this research suggests that bottom-up governance is not a straightforward solution to water management problems in large-scale, complex, multiple-use systems, such as river basins. Instead, all the regimes being analyzed are in a process of finding a balance between bottom-up and top–down governance. Finally, this research shows that in a basin where one type of extreme is dominant—like droughts in the Alentejo (Portugal) and floods in Rivierenland (Netherlands)—the potential impacts of other extremes are somehow ignored or not perceived with the urgency they might deserve.
1.5°, 2°, and 3° global warming: visualizing European regions affected by multiple changesSpringer Science and Business Media LLC - Tập 19 - Trang 1777-1786 - 2019
Susanne Pfeifer, Diana Rechid, Maximilian Reuter, Elisabeth Viktor, Daniela Jacob
Assessing multiple climatic and non-climatic variables affecting one region at the same time is a crucial aspect to support climate adaptation action. This publication presents a method to display relevant measures of any three adaptation relevant parameters (or optionally their projected future changes) at once on a map by allocating them to multiple transparency levels of the three primary colors of additive color mixing (red, green, and blue). The overlay of information allows the combined assessment of the regional exposures. The method is demonstrated by two examples based on an ensemble of regional climate projections analyzed for 1.5 °C, 2 °C, and 3 °C global warming periods. The first example shows the increasing number of people at risk for summer climate extremes under 1.5 °C, 2 °C, and 3 °C global warming by combining projected increases in tropical nights and summer intense precipitation days with today’s population density. Under 3 °C global warming, many heavily populated areas across Europe are affected by both heat stress and summer precipitation extremes, whereas under 1.5 °C global warming, heat stress regions are restricted to southern Europe and the large settlements along the Eastern Mediterranean coast. A second example combines daily mean and minimum and maximum summer temperatures and highlights the regional expansion and the increasing robustness of projected mean summer warming with rising global warming levels, as well as the regional day to night differences of the warming signal.
Characteristics of deforestation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) between the 1980s and 2000sSpringer Science and Business Media LLC - Tập 17 - Trang 379-388 - 2016
Woonsup Choi, Sangjun Kang, Jinmu Choi, Joseph James Larsen, ChungWeon Oh, Yu-gyung Na
There has been a significant lack of land cover change studies in relation to deforestation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea). The purpose of this study is to characterize deforestation in North Korea through land cover change trajectory and spatial analysis. We used three 30-m gridded land cover data sets for North Korea representing the conditions of the late 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, respectively, as well as a digital elevation model. We examined the land cover trajectories during the two decades, i.e., which land cover became which at the pixel level. In addition, we calculated topographic characteristics of deforested pixels. Major findings from the study are summarized as follows: (1) net forest loss in North Korea was negligible in the latter decade compared to the former (>5000 km2), whereas other land cover changes were still active; (2) as a result of deforestation, forest land cover became mostly agricultural, particularly in the latter decade (95 %); (3) expansion of agricultural land cover continued during the time, increasing by >42 %; and (4) elevation and slope of deforested areas decreased slightly in the latter decade. The key contribution of the study is that it has demonstrated which land cover became which at the 30-m pixel level, complementing existing studies that examined overall forest stock in North Korea.
Sensitivity of Portuguese forest fires to climatic, human, and landscape variables: subnational differences between fire drivers in extreme fire years and decadal averagesSpringer Science and Business Media LLC - Tập 11 - Trang 543-551 - 2010
Luís Costa, Kirsten Thonicke, Benjamin Poulter, Franz-W. Badeck
Within the changing fire regimes of Portugal, the relative importance of humans and climatic variability for regional fire statistics remains poorly understood. This work investigates the statistical relationship between temporal dynamics of fire events in Portugal and a set of socioeconomic, landscape, and climatic variables for the time periods of 1980–1990, 1991–2000, and extreme fires years. For 10 of 15 districts, it was possible to observe moderate shifts in the significance of fire drivers for the first two decadal periods. For others, pronounced changes of the significance of fire drivers were found across time. Results point toward a dynamic (perhaps highly non-linear) behavior of socioeconomic and landscape fire drivers, especially during the occurrence of extreme fire years of 2003 and 2005. At country level, population density alone explained 42% of the inter-annual and inter-district deviance in number of fires. At the same temporal and spatial scale, the explanatory power of temperature anomalies proved to explain 43% of area burnt. We highlight the necessity of including a broad set of socioeconomic and landscape fire drivers in order to account for potential significance shifts. In addition, although climate does trigger broad favorable fire conditions across Portugal mainland, socioeconomic and landscape factors proved to determine much of the complex fire patterns at a subnational scale.
Socio-hydrology of “artificial glaciers” in Ladakh, India: assessing adaptive strategies in a changing cryosphereSpringer Science and Business Media LLC - Tập 19 - Trang 1327-1337 - 2018
Marcus Nüsser, Juliane Dame, Benjamin Kraus, Ravi Baghel, Susanne Schmidt
The consequences of even small glacier decrease and changes of seasonal snow cover are critical for the functioning of meltwater-dependent mountain agriculture. In order to deal with recurrent water scarcity, different types of ice reservoirs, commonly called “artificial glaciers,” have been introduced in Ladakh and promoted as appropriate adaptive strategies to cope with changes in the cryosphere. The resulting seasonal ice reservoirs increase meltwater availability during the critical period of water scarcity in spring. We examine the efficacy of 14 ice reservoirs through a long-term analysis of their functioning within the environmental and socioeconomic context of Ladakh. Using multi-temporal satellite data (1969–2017), close range photogrammetry, and repeat field measurements (2014 and 2015), we provide an inventory and typology of these ice reservoirs and estimate storage volume of one selected structure, which ranges from 1010 to 3220 m3 of water. We extrapolate this volume to all ice reservoirs and estimate potential irrigation cycles of cropped areas, which vary between less than 0.1 in unfavorable cases and almost 3 in optimal cases and years. Based on interviews and field surveys (2007–2017), we discuss the benefits perceived by local smallholders, such as the reduction of seasonal water scarcity and resulting crop failure risks together with the possibility of growing cash crops. We argue that “artificial glaciers” are remarkably suited to the physical environment. However, their usefulness as a climate change adaptation strategy is questionable because climatic variability, natural hazards, and an incomplete integration into the local socioeconomic setting significantly reduce their efficacy.
