Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity in a Rapidly Transforming Landscape in Northern Borneo

Abstract

Because industrial agriculture keeps expanding in Southeast Asia at the expense of natural forests and traditional swidden systems, comparing biodiversity and ecosystem services in the traditional forest–swidden agriculture system vs. monocultures is needed to guide decision making on land-use planning. Focusing on tree diversity, soil erosion control, and climate change mitigation through carbon storage, we surveyed vegetation and monitored soil loss in various land-use areas in a northern Bornean agricultural landscape shaped by swidden agriculture, rubber tapping, and logging, where various levels and types of disturbance have created a fine mosaic of vegetation from food crop fields to natural forest. Tree species diversity and ecosystem service production were highest in natural forests. Logged-over forests produced services similar to those of natural forests. Land uses related to the swidden agriculture system largely outperformed oil palm or rubber monocultures in terms of tree species diversity and service production. Natural and logged-over forests should be maintained or managed as integral parts of the swidden system, and landscape multifunctionality should be sustained. Because natural forests host a unique diversity of trees and produce high levels of ecosystem services, targeting carbon stock protection, e.g. through financial mechanisms such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), will synergistically provide benefits for biodiversity and a wide range of other services. However, the way such mechanisms could benefit communities must be carefully evaluated to counter the high opportunity cost of conversion to monocultures that might generate greater income, but would be detrimental to the production of multiple ecosystem services.

Reducing risks by transforming landscapes: Cross-scale effects of land-use changes on ecosystem services

“…Conversely, restoration of regulating services for water by reforesting cropland or protecting forest patches led to a decrease in local benefits from provisioning services). Similar trade-offs or synergies between provisioning and regulating services have been reported [ 12 , 15 ], as well as among regulating services [ 50 , 51 ].…”

The genome and phenome of the green alga Chloroidium sp. UTEX 3007 reveal adaptive traits for desert acclimatization

“…However, cultivation of trees for palm oil production has led to extensive destruction of high-biodiversity rainforests and wetlands that threatens to expand around the globe ( Abrams et al, 2016 ). In addition to the loss of unique and diverse flora and fauna ( Labrière et al, 2015 ; Wich et al, 2014 ), clear-cutting these regions for palm oil plantations has devastated major carbon sinks ( Yue et al, 2015 ) and caused intensive production of smoke pollution that affects millions of people in densely populated areas ( Bhardwaj et al, 2016 ; Vadrevu et al, 2014 ). Thus, an alternative source of palmitic acid could be valuable in terms of elevated product output, environmental preservation and a reduction of smoke pollution.…”

The last natural seasonal forests of Indonesia: Implications for forest management and conservation

“…The overall species diversity of the Tanimbar SEF is lower than that reported for seasonal forest in northern Thailand (Bunyavejchewin, Baker, LaFrankie, & Ashton, ; α = 21.3), in contrast to humid rain forests of Africa, Guyana and Southeast Asia (Parmentier et al., ; ter Steege & Hammond, ; Lü, Yin, & Tang, 2010; Labrière, Laumonier, Locatelli, Vieilledent, & Comptour, ; with Fisher α from 25 to 44). In both MDF and DDF we did not find signs of natural fire occurrences influencing the undergrowth, as found for similar vegetation types in other regions of the world (Blasco, ; Gillison, ; Marod et al., ; Saravanan, Santhi, Kumar, Balasubramanian, & Damodaran, ).…”