[1] There were large interannual variations in burned area in the boreal region (ranging between 3.0 and 23.6 Â 10 6 ha yr À1) for the period of 1992 and 1995-2003 which resulted in corresponding variations in total carbon and carbon monoxide emissions. We estimated a range of carbon emissions based on different assumptions on the depth of burning because of uncertainties associated with the burning of surface-layer organic matter commonly found in boreal forest and peatlands, and average total carbon emissions were 106-209 Tg yr À1 and CO emissions were 33-77 Tg CO yr À1 . Burning of ground-layer organic matter contributed between 46 and 72% of all emissions in a given year. CO residuals calculated from surface mixing ratios in the high Northern Hemisphere (HNH) region were correlated to seasonal boreal fire emissions in 8 out of 10 years. On an interannual basis, variations in area burned explained 49% of the variations in HNH CO, while variations in boreal fire emissions explained 85%, supporting the hypotheses that variations in fuels and fire severity are important in estimating emissions. Average annual HNH CO increased by an average of 7.1 ppb yr À1 between 2000 and 2003 during a period when boreal fire emissions were 26 to 68 Tg CO À1 higher than during the early to mid-1990s, indicating that recent increases in boreal fires are influencing atmospheric CO in the Northern Hemisphere.

In an effort to increase conservation effectiveness through the use of Earth observation technologies, a group of remote sensing scientists affiliated with government and academic institutions and conservation organizations identified 10 questions in conservation for which the potential to be answered would be greatly increased by use of remotely sensed data and analyses of those data. Our goals were to increase conservation practitioners' use of remote sensing to support their work, increase collaboration between the conservation science and remote sensing communities, identify and develop new and innovative uses of remote sensing for advancing conservation science, provide guidance to space agencies on how future satellite missions can support conservation science, and generate support from the public and private sector in the use of remote sensing data to address the 10 conservation questions. We identified a broad initial list of questions on the basis of an email chain-referral survey. We then used a workshop-based iterative and collaborative approach to whittle the list down to these final questions (which represent 10 major themes in conservation): How can global Earth observation data be used to model species distributions and abundances? How can remote sensing improve the understanding of animal movements? How can remotely sensed ecosystem variables be used to understand, monitor, and predict ecosystem response and resilience to multiple stressors? How can remote sensing be used to monitor the effects of climate on ecosystems? How can near real-time ecosystem monitoring catalyze threat reduction, governance and regulation compliance, and resource management decisions? How can remote sensing inform configuration of protected area networks at spatial extents relevant to populations of target species and ecosystem services? How can remote sensing-derived products be used to value and monitor changes in ecosystem services? How can remote sensing be used to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of conservation efforts? How does the expansion and intensification of agriculture and aquaculture alter ecosystems and the services they provide? How can remote sensing be used to determine the degree to which ecosystems are being disturbed or degraded and the effects of these changes on species and ecosystem functions?

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We estimate and map the impacts that alternative national and subnational economic incentive structures for reducing emissions from deforestation (REDD+) in Indonesia would have had on greenhouse gas emissions and national and local revenue if they had been in place from 2000 to 2005. The impact of carbon payments on deforestation is calibrated econometrically from the pattern of observed deforestation and spatial variation in the benefits and costs of converting land to agriculture over that time period. We estimate that at an international carbon price of $10/ tCO 2 e, a "mandatory incentive structure," such as a cap-and-trade or symmetric tax-and-subsidy program, would have reduced emissions by 163-247 MtCO 2 e/y (20-31% below the without-REDD+ reference scenario), while generating a programmatic budget surplus. In contrast, a "basic voluntary incentive structure" modeled after a standard payment-for-environmental-services program would have reduced emissions nationally by only 45-76 MtCO 2 e/y (6-9%), while generating a programmatic budget shortfall. By making four policy improvements-paying for net emission reductions at the scale of an entire district rather than site-by-site; paying for reductions relative to reference levels that match business-as-usual levels; sharing a portion of district-level revenues with the national government; and sharing a portion of the national government's responsibility for costs with districts-an "improved voluntary incentive structure" would have been nearly as effective as a mandatory incentive structure, reducing emissions by 136-207 MtCO 2 e/y (17-26%) and generating a programmatic budget surplus.climate change | climate policy | land-use change | reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation A n emerging international climate policy mechanism called REDD+ would offer payments to developing countries that voluntarily reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation below internationally agreed reference levels (1). Individual forested countries would decide upon the specific set of policies and measures to implement to achieve nationwide emission reductions. Accounting for these net emission reductions would ultimately take place at the national level, making national governments responsible for any internal geographical shifts of emissions (leakage), and providing incentives for systemic policy actions. However, although governments would receive payments under REDD+, it is actors at the regional, provincial, local, or household (subnational) scales who are directly responsible for many land-use change decisions. Thus, the effectiveness of REDD+ in reducing emissions and generating revenue will depend upon how national governments structure economic incentives so that subnational actors will be encouraged to reduce emissions and discouraged from increasing emissions.Emission-reduction policy in the energy and industrial sectors of developed countries has commonly been approached through mandatory, market-based incentive structures, such as cap-andtrade...

[1] Satellite fire products have the potential to construct inter-annual time series of fire activity, but estimating area burned requires considering biases introduced by orbiting geometry, fire behavior, and the presence of clouds and smoke. Here we evaluated the performance of fire counts from the Advanced Thermal Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) for the boreal forest region using area burned information from other sources. We found ATSR detection rate varied between regions and different years, being higher during large fire years than during small fire years. The results show ATSR fire counts do not represent an unbiased sample of fire activity, and independent validation may be required prior to using this data set in studies of global emissions from biomass burning.

Quantitative measurements of changes in tropical biodiversity are sparse, despite wide agreement that maintaining biodiversity is a key conservation goal. Pan‐tropical networks to systematically measure plot‐level biodiversity are currently being developed to close this gap. We propose that a key component of such networks is the monitoring of human activities at broader scales around plots, to enable interpretation of biodiversity trends. This monitoring goal raises questions about the spatial extent and variables needed to capture interactions between human activities and biodiversity at multiple scales. We suggest a pragmatic approach to delineate and monitor a “zone of interaction” around biodiversity measurement sites to bridge across these scales. We identify the hydrologic, biological, and human interactions that connect local‐scale measurements with broader‐scale processes. We illustrate the concept with case studies in the Udzungwa Mountains in Tanzania and Ranomafana National Park in Madagascar; however, the framework applies to other biodiversity measurement sites and monitoring networks as well.

Case studies of land use change have suggested that deforestation across Southern Mexico is accelerating. However, forest transition theory predicts that trajectories of change can be modified by economic factors, leading to spatial and temporal heterogeneity in rates of change that may take the form of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). This study aimed to assess the evidence regarding potential forest transition in Southern Mexico by classifying regional forest cover change using Landsat imagery from 1990 through to 2006. Patterns of forest cover change were found to be complex and non-linear. When rates of forest loss were averaged over 342 municipalities using mixed-effects modelling the results showed a significant (p<0.001) overall reduction of the mean rate of forest loss from 0.85% per year in the 1990–2000 period to 0.67% in the 2000–2006 period. The overall regional annual rate of deforestation has fallen from 0.33% to 0.28% from the 1990s to 2000s. A high proportion of the spatial variability in forest cover change cannot be explained statistically. However analysis using spline based general additive models detected underlying relationships between forest cover and income or population density of a form consistent with the EKC. The incipient forest transition has not, as yet, resulted in widespread reforestation. Forest recovery remains below 0.20% per year. Reforestation is mostly the result of passive processes associated with reductions in the intensity of land use. Deforestation continues to occur at high rates in some focal areas. A transition could be accelerated if there were a broader recognition among policy makers that the regional rate of forest loss has now begun to fall. The changing trajectory provides an opportunity to actively restore forest cover through stimulating afforestation and stimulating more sustainable land use practices. The results have clear implications for policy aimed at carbon sequestration through reducing deforestation and enhancing forest growth.