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Pichancourt JB. Navigating the complexities of the forest land sharing vs sparing logging dilemma: analytical insights through the governance theory of social-ecological systems dynamics. PeerJ 2024; 12:e16809. [PMID: 38304187 PMCID: PMC10832625 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.16809] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2023] [Accepted: 12/29/2023] [Indexed: 02/03/2024] Open
Abstract
This study addresses the ongoing debate on forest land-sparing vs land-sharing, aiming to identify effective strategies for both species conservation and timber exploitation. Previous studies, guided by control theory, compared sharing and sparing by optimizing logging intensity along a presumed trade-off between timber yield and ecological outcomes. However, the realism of this trade-off assumption is questioned by ecological and governance theories. This article introduces a mathematical model of Social-Ecological System (SES) dynamics, distinguishing selective logging intensification between sharing and sparing, with associated governance requirements. The model assumes consistent rules for logging, replanting, conservation support, access regulation, socio-economic, soil and climate conditions. Actors, each specialized in sustainable logging and replanting of a single species, coexist with various tree species in the same space for land sharing, contrasting with separate actions on monospecific stands for sparing. In sharing scenarios, a gradient of intensification is created from 256 combinations of selective logging for a forest with eight coexisting tree species. This is compared with eight scenarios of monospecific stands adjacent to a spared eight-species forest area safeguarded from logging. Numerical projections over 100 years rank sparing and sharing options based on forest-level tree biodiversity, carbon storage, and timber yield. The findings underscore the context-specific nature of the problem but identify simple heuristics to optimize both sparing and sharing practices. Prioritizing the most productive tree species is effective when selecting sparing, especially when timber yield and biodiversity are benchmarks. Conversely, sharing consistently outperforms sparing when carbon storage and biodiversity are main criteria. Sharing excels across scenarios considering all three criteria, provided a greater diversity of actors access and coexist in the shared space under collective rules ensuring independence and sustainable logging and replanting. The present model addresses some limitations in existing sparing-sharing theory by aligning with established ecological theories exploring the intricate relationship between disturbance practices, productivity and ecological outcomes. The findings also support a governance hypothesis from the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics (E. Ostrom) regarding the positive impact on biodiversity and productivity of increasing polycentricity, i.e., expanding the number of independent species controllers' channels (loggers/replanters/supporters/regulators). This hypothesis, rooted in Ashby's law of requisite variety from control theory, suggests that resolving the sharing/sparing dilemma may depend on our ability to predict the yield-ecology performances of sparing (in heterogeneous landscapes) vs of sharing (in the same space) from their respective levels of "polycentric requisite variety".
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean-Baptiste Pichancourt
- Université Clermont-Auvergne (UCA), INRAE, Laboratoire d’Ingénieurie des Systèmes Complexes (UR LISC), Institut National de la Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Clermont-Ferrand, Aubière, France
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Fischer J, Bergsten A, Dorresteijn I, Hanspach J, Hylander K, Jiren TS, Manlosa AO, Rodrigues P, Schultner J, Senbeta F, Shumi G. A social-ecological assessment of food security and biodiversity conservation in Ethiopia. ECOSYSTEMS AND PEOPLE (ABINGDON, ENGLAND) 2021; 17:400-410. [PMID: 34396139 PMCID: PMC8352376 DOI: 10.1080/26395916.2021.1952306] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2020] [Accepted: 06/30/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
We studied food security and biodiversity conservation from a social-ecological perspective in southwestern Ethiopia. Specialist tree, bird, and mammal species required large, undisturbed forest, supporting the notion of 'land sparing' for conservation. However, our findings also suggest that forest areas should be embedded within a multifunctional landscape matrix (i.e. 'land sharing'), because farmland also supported many species and ecosystem services and was the basis of diversified livelihoods. Diversified livelihoods improved smallholder food security, while lack of access to capital assets and crop raiding by wild forest animals negatively influenced food security. Food and biodiversity governance lacked coordination and was strongly hierarchical, with relatively few stakeholders being highly powerful. Our study shows that issues of livelihoods, access to resources, governance and equity are central when resolving challenges around food security and biodiversity. A multi-facetted, social-ecological approach is better able to capture such complexity than the conventional, two-dimensional land sparing versus sharing framework.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joern Fischer
- Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University Lueneburg, Lueneburg, Germany
| | - Arvid Bergsten
- Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University Lueneburg, Lueneburg, Germany
| | - Ine Dorresteijn
- Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Jan Hanspach
- Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University Lueneburg, Lueneburg, Germany
| | - Kristoffer Hylander
- Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Tolera S. Jiren
- Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University Lueneburg, Lueneburg, Germany
| | - Aisa O. Manlosa
- Social Sciences Department, Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), Bremen, Germany
| | - Patricia Rodrigues
- Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University Lueneburg, Lueneburg, Germany
| | - Jannik Schultner
- Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Feyera Senbeta
- Center for Environment and Development Studies, College of Development Studies, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
| | - Girma Shumi
- Faculty of Sustainability, Leuphana University Lueneburg, Lueneburg, Germany
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Jin Y, Fan H. Land use/land cover change and its impacts on protected areas in Mengla County, Xishuangbanna, Southwest China. ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT 2018; 190:509. [PMID: 30094764 DOI: 10.1007/s10661-018-6891-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2018] [Accepted: 08/02/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Land use/land cover change (LUCC) in tropical areas threatens biodiversity and protected area integrity and then affects global ecosystem functions and services. In this study, the spatiotemporal patterns and processes of LUCC in Mengla County, Xishuangbanna, which is located on the northern edge of tropical Asia, were examined using a modified post-classification change detection technique based on random forest classifiers and Landsat images acquired at a 5-year time interval (e.g., 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2014) from 1994 to 2014, with a special focus on protected areas and their surroundings. The overall accuracies of land use/land cover classification reached 90.13-97.90%, with kappa coefficients of 0.84-0.96. Massive but decelerating conversion from forests to artificial plantations has occurred in recent decades. From 1994 to 2014, the area of plantations increased by 1833.85 km2, whereas that of forests decreased by 1942.67 km2. The expanded areas of artificial plantations decreased from 158.41 km2 per year in 1994-1999 to 59.70 km2 per year in 2009-2014. More considerable transformation from forests to artificial plantations occurred in lowland areas with elevations below 1000 m and at the edges of National Nature Reserves, which observed a forest loss rate of greater than 40% between 1994 and 2014. This poses serious challenges for sustaining both protected areas and surrounding human communities and to solve the increasingly escalating human-elephant conflicts. The complex food, biodiversity, and land use nexus in this region remain to be untangled in future study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuan Jin
- Asian International Rivers Center of Yunnan University, No. 2 North Cuihu Road, Kunming, 650091, Yunnan, China
- Yunnan Key Laboratory of International Rivers and Transboundary Eco-security, Kunming, 650091, China
| | - Hui Fan
- Asian International Rivers Center of Yunnan University, No. 2 North Cuihu Road, Kunming, 650091, Yunnan, China.
- Yunnan Key Laboratory of International Rivers and Transboundary Eco-security, Kunming, 650091, China.
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Malpass JS, Rodewald AD, Matthews SN, Kearns LJ. Nest predators, but not nest survival, differ between adjacent urban habitats. Urban Ecosyst 2018. [DOI: 10.1007/s11252-017-0725-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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Lammers PL, Richter T, Lux M, Ratsimbazafy J, Mantilla-Contreras J. The challenges of community-based conservation in developing countries—A case study from Lake Alaotra, Madagascar. J Nat Conserv 2017. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jnc.2017.08.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
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Ye X, Liu G, Li Z, Wang H, Zeng Y. Assessing Local and Surrounding Threats to the Protected Area Network in a Biodiversity Hotspot: The Hengduan Mountains of Southwest China. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0138533. [PMID: 26382763 PMCID: PMC4575193 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0138533] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2015] [Accepted: 09/01/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Protected areas (PAs) not only serve as refuges of biodiversity conservation but are also part of large ecosystems and are vulnerable to change caused by human activity from surrounding lands, especially in biodiversity hotspots. Assessing threats to PAs and surrounding areas is therefore a critical step in effective conservation planning. We apply a threat framework as a means of quantitatively assessing local and surrounding threats to different types of PAs with gradient buffers, and to main ecoregions in the Hengduan Mountain Hotspot of southwest China. Our findings show that national protected areas (NPAs) have lower and significantly lower threat values (p<0.05) than provincial protected areas (PPAs) and other protected areas (OPAs), respectively, which indicates that NPAs are lands with a lower threat level and higher levels of protection and management. PAs have clear edge effects, as the proportion of areas with low threat levels decline dramatically in the 5-kilometer buffers just outside the PAs. However, NPAs suffered greater declines (58.3%) than PPAs (34.8%) and OPAs (33.4%) in the 5-kilometer buffers. Moreover, a significant positive correlation was found between the size of PAs and the proportion of areas with low threat levels that they contained in both PAs and PA buffers (p<0.01). To control or mitigate current threats at the regional scale, PA managers often require quantitative information related to threat intensities and spatial distribution. The threat assessment in the Hengduan Mountain Hotspot will be useful to policy makers and managers in their efforts to establish effective plans and target-oriented management strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xin Ye
- State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Guohua Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Zongshan Li
- State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Hao Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yuan Zeng
- Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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Charpentier A. Insights from life history theory for an explicit treatment of trade-offs in conservation biology. CONSERVATION BIOLOGY : THE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR CONSERVATION BIOLOGY 2015; 29:738-747. [PMID: 25580848 DOI: 10.1111/cobi.12442] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2014] [Accepted: 08/31/2014] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
As economic and social contexts become more embedded within biodiversity conservation, it becomes obvious that resources are a limiting factor in conservation. This recognition is leading conservation scientists and practitioners to increasingly frame conservation decisions as trade-offs between conflicting societal objectives. However, this framing is all too often done in an intuitive way, rather than by addressing trade-offs explicitly. In contrast, the concept of trade-off is a keystone in evolutionary biology, where it has been investigated extensively. I argue that insights from evolutionary theory can provide methodological and theoretical support to evaluating and quantifying trade-offs in biodiversity conservation. I reviewed the diverse ways in which trade-offs have emerged within the context of conservation and how advances from evolutionary theory can help avoid the main pitfalls of an implicit approach. When studying both evolutionary trade-offs (e.g., reproduction vs. survival) and conservation trade-offs (e.g., biodiversity conservation vs. agriculture), it is crucial to correctly identify the limiting resource, hold constant the amount of this resource when comparing different scenarios, and choose appropriate metrics to quantify the extent to which the objectives have been achieved. Insights from studies in evolutionary theory also reveal how an inadequate selection of conservation solutions may result from considering suboptimal rather than optional solutions when examining whether a trade-off exits between 2 objectives. Furthermore, the shape of a trade-off curve (i.e., whether the relationship between 2 objectives follows a concave, convex, or linear form) is known to affect crucially the definition of optimal solutions in evolutionary biology and very likely affects decisions in biodiversity conservation planning too. This interface between evolutionary biology and biodiversity conservation can therefore provide methodological guidance to support decision makers in the difficult task of choosing among conservation solutions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne Charpentier
- CEFE UMR 5175, CNRS-Université de Montpellier-Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier-EPHE, 1919 route de Mende 34293 Montpellier cedex 5, France.
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Law EA, Wilson KA. Providing Context for the Land-Sharing and Land-Sparing Debate. Conserv Lett 2015. [DOI: 10.1111/conl.12168] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth A. Law
- The University of Queensland; School of Biological Sciences; Brisbane QLD 4072 Australia
| | - Kerrie A. Wilson
- The University of Queensland; School of Biological Sciences; Brisbane QLD 4072 Australia
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Fischer J, Abson DJ, Butsic V, Chappell MJ, Ekroos J, Hanspach J, Kuemmerle T, Smith HG, Wehrden H. Land Sparing Versus Land Sharing: Moving Forward. Conserv Lett 2014. [DOI: 10.1111/conl.12084] [Citation(s) in RCA: 332] [Impact Index Per Article: 33.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Joern Fischer
- Faculty of Sustainability Leuphana University Lueneburg Scharnhorststrasse 1 21335 Lueneburg Germany
| | - David J. Abson
- Futures Research Center Leuphana University Lueneburg Scharnhorststrasse 1 21335 Lueneburg Germany
| | - Van Butsic
- Geography Department Humboldt‐University Berlin Unter den Linden 6 10099 Berlin Germany
- Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern Europe (IAMO) Theodor‐Lieser‐Str.2 D‐06120 Halle (Saale) Germany
| | - M. Jahi Chappell
- School of the Environment Washington State University Vancouver 14204 NE Salmon Creek Avenue Vancouver WA 98686‐9600 USA
- Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy 2105 First Avenue South Minneapolis MN 55404 USA
| | - Johan Ekroos
- Centre for Environmental and Climate Research Lund University Ecology Building 22362 Lund Sweden
| | - Jan Hanspach
- Faculty of Sustainability Leuphana University Lueneburg Scharnhorststrasse 1 21335 Lueneburg Germany
| | - Tobias Kuemmerle
- Geography Department & Integrative Research Institute on Human‐Environment Systems (IRI THESys) Humboldt‐University Berlin Germany
| | - Henrik G. Smith
- Centre for Environmental and Climate Research Lund University Ecology Building 22362 Lund Sweden
- Department of Biology Lund University Ecology Building 22362 Lund Sweden
| | - Henrik Wehrden
- Faculty of Sustainability Leuphana University Lueneburg Scharnhorststrasse 1 21335 Lueneburg Germany
- Futures Research Center Leuphana University Lueneburg Scharnhorststrasse 1 21335 Lueneburg Germany
- Center for Methods Leuphana University Lueneburg Scharnhorststrasse 1 21335 Lueneburg Germany
- Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology Savoyen Strasse 1 Vienna 1160 Austria
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Carvalho JS, Marques TA, Vicente L. Population status of Pan troglodytes verus in Lagoas de Cufada Natural Park, Guinea-Bissau. PLoS One 2013; 8:e71527. [PMID: 23940766 PMCID: PMC3737107 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0071527] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2013] [Accepted: 06/28/2013] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The western chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes verus, has been classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1988. Intensive agriculture, commercial plantations, logging, and mining have eliminated or degraded the habitats suitable for P. t. verus over a large part of its range. In this study we assessed the effect of land-use change on the population size and density of chimpanzees at Lagoas de Cufada Natural Park (LCNP), Guinea-Bissau. We further explored chimpanzee distribution in relation to landscape-level proxies of human disturbance. Nest count and distance-sampling methods were employed along 11 systematically placed linear transects in 2010 and 2011. Estimated nest decay rate was 293.9 days (%CV = 58.8). Based on this estimate of decay time and using the Standing-Crop Nest Count Method, we obtained a habitat-weighted average chimpanzee density estimate for 2011 of 0.22 nest building chimpanzees/km(2) (95% CI 0.08-0.62), corresponding to 137 (95% CI 51.0-390.0) chimpanzees for LCNP. Human disturbance had a negative influence on chimpanzee distribution as nests were built farther away from human settlements, roads, and rivers than if they were randomly distributed, coinciding with the distribution of the remaining patches of dense canopy forest. We conclude that the continuous disappearance of suitable habitat (e.g. the replacement of LCNP's dense forests by monocultures of cashew plantations) may be compromising the future of one of the most threatened Guinean coastal chimpanzee populations. We discuss strategies to ensure long-term conservation in this important refuge for this chimpanzee subspecies at its westernmost margin of geographic distribution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joana S Carvalho
- Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, Department of Biology, Lisbon University, Campo Grande C2, Lisboa, Portugal.
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