This week we discussed a very interesting meta-analysis of deforestation in protected areas versus community managed forests. The authors found that deforestation rates were lower in community managed areas compared to protected areas and also that the variation was smaller in community managed forests. We discussed the generality of these results and also how representative the sample can be considered since most of the case studies came from Latin America (11/16) and only a few from Africa or Asia. This might be of relevance since the threats and pressures are different in different regions. Continue reading
Tag Archives: deforestation
Bird et al. (2011): Integrating spatially explicit habitat projections into extinction risk assessments: a reassessment of Amazonia avifauna incorporating projected deforestation
We discussed this paper in our journal club in late September 2011. In short, the paper looks at potential deforestation scenarios projected for the Amazon basin, evaluates how the projected deforestation rates drive future population declines of birds and then re-estimates the threat categories of species based on IUCN Red List criteria. Species richness of the “soon to be threatened” species are then put on map and compared with the projected spatial patterns of deforestation and current reserve networks. This way the authors identify i) currently important areas that have high number of species that are going to become threatened by future forest loss, ii) “crisis areas”, i.e. areas that are going to be deforested and have high richness of future threatened species, iii) “refugia”, i.e. areas with high species richness that will remain intact also in the future, and iv) irreplaceable sites of future threatened species. The authors then report gaps in the current reserve network and point out recommendations for future conservation actions.