Settlement Design, Forest Fragmentation, and Landscape Change in Rondônia, Amazônia

Batistella, Mateus; Robeson, Scott M.; Moran, Emílio F.

doi:10.14358/pers.69.7.805

Cited by 87 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 20 publications

(19 reference statements)

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“…Although this set is substantially smaller than the original group of 17 variables, it is still too large to systematically examine for associations, given the sample size of 55 forests. Monitoring is another potentially very significant variable; a number of other studies using the IFRI database, as well as other large-N studies on the commons, have demonstrated the significance of this variable (2,26,32,(47)(48)(49)(50)(51). Effective monitoring has been shown to be associated with a host of other actions by user groups that indicate the forest is well patrolled and guarded against infractions, rule compliance is ensured, and infraction is dealt with by sanctioning offenders.…”

Section: Interrelationships and Independent Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drivers of reforestation in human-dominated forests

Nagendra

2007

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

171

105

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Tropical forest habitat continues to decline globally, with serious negative consequences for environmental sustainability. The small mountain country of Nepal provides an excellent context in which to examine trajectories of forest-cover change. Despite having experienced large-scale forest clearing in the past, significant reforestation has taken place in recent years. The range of biophysical and ecological environments and diversity of tenure arrangements provide us with a context with sufficient variation to be able to derive insight into the impact of a range of hypothesized drivers of forest change. This article draws on a dataset of 55 forests from the middle hills and Terai plains of Nepal to examine the factors associated with forest clearing or regeneration. Results affirm the central importance of tenure regimes and local monitoring for forest regrowth. In addition, user group size per unit of forest area is an important, independent explanator of forest change. These variables also can be associated with specific practices that further influence forest change such as the management of social conflict, adoption of new technologies to reduce pressure on the forest, and involvement of users in forest maintenance activities. Such large-N, comparative studies are essential if we are to derive more complex, nuanced, yet actionable frameworks that help us to plan better policies for the management of natural resources.community forestry ͉ group size ͉ institutions ͉ monitoring ͉ Nepal I n recent decades, humankind has witnessed unprecedented destruction of forest cover, with its accompanying fallout on global climate, health, biodiversity, air quality, soil fertility, water flow, and other environmental variables. Deforestation also impacts the lives and livelihoods of the many millions of forest-dependent inhabitants around the world. Awareness of the extent of forest clearing and the magnitude of the ensuing problems have led communities, governments, and international organizations to create an array of protection mechanisms that range from government-owned protected areas to private conservation parks and community reserves. These plans have had mixed success, and it is difficult to unambiguously attribute success or failure to a specific formal mechanism (1, 2). Yet, conservation organizations, indigenous communities, and policy makers continue to engage in often heated debates concerning the presumed single best approach to conserve forest biodiversity (3).The remarkable dearth of reliable large datasets on forest change only exacerbates the already heated deforestation debate. Until recently, estimates by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations were used for most global studies. These data are based on information provided by government agencies in Ͼ200 countries and have been strongly criticized for providing an inaccurate picture complicated by variations in methodology and frequently changing baseline definitions of forest (4). More reliable assessments of rates of tropical d...

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Section: Interrelationships and Independent Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drivers of reforestation in human-dominated forests

Nagendra

2007

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

171

105

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“…On the one hand, we have social science methods using in situ sensors such as comprehensive interviews, quantitative household surveys, participative or non-participative observation or interpretation of historical records (see e.g., Almeida 1992;Marquete 1998). On the other hand, we have modern methods of remote sensing and computer-based interpretation and modeling (see e.g., Skole and Tucker 1993;Metzger 2002;Batistella et al 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combining sensors in landscape ecology: imagery-based and farm-level analysis in the study of human-driven forest fragmentation

Cabral¹,

Freitas²,

Fiszon

2007

Soc. nat.

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“…After recording the total number of patches of forest (NP), we focused on the other three class landscape metrics, which had been previously reported as ecologically meaningful [22,63] and have been proven to be useful in describing patch spatial structure in a forested landscape context [64][65][66][67][68][69]: largest forest patch index (LFP), area weighted mean shape index (AWMSI) and patch cohesion index (COHESION). NP and LFP were selected, because they are related to forest fragmentation [33,66,67,70], defined as the breaking up of one large forest area into many smaller patches [71]. The largest forest patch index (LFP) quantifies the percentage of total landscape area comprised by the largest forest patch.…”

Section: Lpi Calculationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying Landscape-Scale Patterns of Temperate Forests over Time by Means of Neutral Simulation Models

Frate

Carranza

2013

IJGI

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Several studies attempt to describe changes in the spatial patterns of forests over time, resorting to the comparison of landscape pattern indices (LPI), but new methods for quantifying landscape differences in a statistical context are necessary. In this paper, we quantified and assessed the statistical significance of the forests pattern changes, which have occurred since the end of WWII in Central Italy (Isernia). To do this; based on the proportion of forest cover (pi) and contagion (H) of three land cover maps (1954-1981-2006); we generated 100 forest maps with predictable results through the midpoint displacement algorithm. Then, for both observed and simulated maps, we computed a set of LPI (number of patches, cohesion, largest forest patch index and area weighted mean shape index) and we derived their empirical distributions; finally, we compared the empirical distributions using the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test. Our results show significant changes in the spatial pattern of forests and underline the process of natural forest re-growth, which, in the area, is constrained by -remnants‖ of traditional activities. The adopted approach could be extended to a large ensemble of landscapes and spatial scales and could become a standard procedure when comparing patterns in time.

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Settlement Design, Forest Fragmentation, and Landscape Change in Rondônia, Amazônia

Cited by 87 publications

References 20 publications

Drivers of reforestation in human-dominated forests

Drivers of reforestation in human-dominated forests

Combining sensors in landscape ecology: imagery-based and farm-level analysis in the study of human-driven forest fragmentation

Quantifying Landscape-Scale Patterns of Temperate Forests over Time by Means of Neutral Simulation Models

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