To truly understand the current status of tropical diversity and to forecast future trends, we need to increase emphasis on the study of biodiversity in rural landscapes that are actively managed or modified by people. We present an integrated landscape approach to promote research in human-modified landscapes that includes the effects of landscape structure and dynamics on conservation of biodiversity, provision of ecosystem services, and sustainability of rural livelihoods. We propose research priorities encompassing three major areas: biodiversity, human-environment interactions, and restoration ecology. We highlight key areas where we lack knowledge and where additional understanding is most urgent for promoting conservation and sustaining rural livelihoods. Finally, we recommend participatory and multidisciplinary approaches in research and management. Lasting conservation efforts demand new alliances among conservation biologists, agroecologists, agronomists, farmers, indigenous peoples, rural social movements, foresters, social scientists, and land managers to collaborate in research, co-design conservation programs and policies, and manage human-modified landscapes in ways that enhance biodiversity conservation and promote sustainable livelihoods.

No abstract

Swidden is an agroforestry system in which woody vegetation is regenerated after a period of annual cropping. Associated with most forested areas of the tropical world, swidden is often blamed for deforestation but it also plays a role in forest conservation. Here, we examine the contemporary milpa, a type of swidden agriculture common to Latin America and historically used by the Maya people of the lowlands of southern Mexico and northern Central America; we focus on one group in particular, the Lakandon people of Chiapas. One element of milpa agriculture that receives a considerable amount of criticism is the burning of cut vegetation after clearing. Fire can have negative effects on ecosystems but swidden cultivators are often sophisticated managers of fire. Among the benefits of fire use in this setting is its contribution to nutrient flow and to long‐term soil fertility in the form of biochar, charcoal produced by low‐temperature pyrolysis in agriculture. When properly managed, the milpa cycle can result in long‐term carbon sequestration and an increasingly fertile anthrosol (soil that has been greatly modified by long‐term human activity) and enriched woodland vegetation.

BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

No abstract