Forest conservation effectiveness of community forests may decline in the future: Evidence from Cambodia

Community forests (CFs) have been widely established in tropical countries as a tool to achieve forest conservation. Many studies have shown that CFs can contribute to the reduction of deforestation, yet studies that evaluate the contribution of CFs to reducing forest degradation and facilitating forest recovery remain scarce. We investigated the ability of CFs to prevent deforestation and forest degradation and to facilitate forest recovery by using a country-scale longitudinal tree canopy cover and forest cover data set in Cambodia. We found that CFs can prevent both forest degradation and deforestation, but we did not observe a forest recovery effect. We also found that recently established CFs are not effective for forest conservation compared with older CFs. We conclude that, to date, CFs are an effective forest conservation tool; however, this does not necessarily mean that new CFs will be as effective as established ones.

Forest restoration in a time of fire: perspectives from tall, wet eucalypt forests subject to stand-replacing wildfires

Wildfires have the potential to add considerably to the already significant challenge of achieving effective forest restoration in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. While fire can sometimes promote forest restoration (e.g. by creating otherwise rare, early successional habitats), it can thwart it in others (e.g. by depleting key patch types and stand structures). Here we outline key considerations in facilitating restoration of some tall wet temperate forest ecosystems and some boreal forest ecosystems where the typical fire regime is rare high-severity stand-replacing fire. Some of these ecosystems are experiencing altered fire regimes such as increased fire extent, severity and/or frequency. Achieving good restoration outcomes in such ecosystems demands understanding fire regimes and their impacts on vegetation and other elements of biodiversity and then selecting ecosystem-appropriate management interventions. Potential actions range from doing nothing (as the ecosystem already maintains full post-fire regenerative capacity) to interventions prior to a conflagration like prescribed burning to limit the risks of high-severity fire, excluding activities that impair post-fire recovery (e.g. post-fire logging), and artificial seeding where natural regeneration fails. The most ecologically effective actions will be ecosystem-specific and context-specific and informed by knowledge of the ecosystem in question (such as plant life-history attributes) and inter-relationships with attributes like vegetation condition at the time it is burnt (e.g. young versus old forest). This article is part of the theme issue 'Understanding forest landscape restoration: reinforcing scientific foundations for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration'.

Madagascar's fire regimes challenge global assumptions about landscape degradation

Narratives of landscape degradation are often linked to unsustainable fire use by local communities. Madagascar is a case in point: the island is considered globally exceptional, with its remarkable endemic biodiversity viewed as threatened by unsustainable anthropogenic fire. Yet, fire regimes on Madagascar have not been empirically characterised or globally contextualised. Here, we contribute a comparative approach to determining relationships between regional fire regimes and global patterns and trends, applied to Madagascar using MODIS remote sensing data (2003-2019). Rather than a global exception, we show that Madagascar's fire regimes are similar to 88% of tropical burned area with shared climate and vegetation characteristics, and can be considered a microcosm of most tropical fire regimes. From 2003-2019, landscape-scale fire declined across tropical grassy biomes (17%-44% excluding Madagascar), and on Madagascar at a relatively fast rate (36%-46%). Thus, high tree loss anomalies on the island (1.25-4.77× the tropical average) were not explained by any general expansion of landscape-scale fire in grassy biomes. Rather, tree loss anomalies centred in forests, and could not be explained by landscape-scale fire escaping from savannas into forests. Unexpectedly, the highest tree loss anomalies on Madagascar (4.77×) occurred in environments without landscape-scale fire, where the role of small-scale fires (<21 h [0.21 km² ]) is unknown. While landscape-scale fire declined across tropical grassy biomes, trends in tropical forests reflected important differences among regions, indicating a need to better understand regional variation in the anthropogenic drivers of forest loss and fire risk. Our new understanding of Madagascar's fire regimes offers two lessons with global implications: first, landscape-scale fire is declining across tropical grassy biomes and does not explain high tree loss anomalies on Madagascar. Second, landscape-scale fire is not uniformly associated with tropical forest loss, indicating a need for socio-ecological context in framing new narratives of fire and ecosystem degradation.

Improved household living standards can restore dry tropical forests

Despite multiple approaches over the last several decades to harmonize conservation and development goals in the tropics, forest-dependent households remain the poorest in the world. Durable housing and alternatives to fuelwood for cooking are critical needs to reduce multi-dimensional poverty. These improvements also potentially reduce pressure on forests and alleviate forest degradation. We test this possibility in dry tropical forests of the Central Indian Highlands where tribal and other marginalized populations rely on forests for energy, construction materials, and other livelihood needs. Based on a remotely sensed measure of forest degradation and a 5000 household survey of forest use, we use machine learning (causal forests) and other statistical methods to quantify treatment effects of two improved living standards-alternatives to fuelwood for cooking and non-forest-based housing material-on forest degradation in 1, 2, and 5 km buffers around 500 villages. Both improved living standards had significant treatment effects (-0.030 ± 0.078, -0.030 ± 0.023, 95% CI), respectively, with negative values indicating less forest degradation, within 1 km buffers around villages. Treatment effects were lower with increasing distance from villages. Results suggest that improved living standards can both reduce forest degradation and alleviate poverty. Forest restoration efforts can target improved living standards for local communities without conflicts over land tenure or taking land out of production to plant trees.

Using land-use history and multiple baselines to determine bird responses to cocoa agroforestry

Agroforests can play an important role in biodiversity conservation in complex landscapes. A key factor distinguishing among agroforests is land-use history - whether agroforests are established inside forests or on historically forested but currently open lands. The disparity between land-use histories means the appropriate biodiversity baselines may differ, which should be accounted for when assessing the conservation value of agroforests. Specifically, comparisons between multiple baselines in forest and open land could enrich understanding of species' responses by contextualizing them. We made such comparisons based on data from a recently published meta-analysis of the effects of cocoa (Theobroma cacao) agroforestry on bird diversity. We regrouped rustic, mixed shade cocoa, and low shade cocoa agroforests, based on land-use history, into forest-derived and open-land-derived agroforests and compared bird species diversity (species richness, abundance, and Shannon's index values) between forest and open land, which represented the 2 alternative baselines. Bird diversity was similar in forest-derived agroforests and forests (Hedges' g* estimate [SE] = -0.3144 [0.3416], p = 0.36). Open-land-derived agroforests were significantly less diverse than forests (g* = 1.4312 [0.6308], p = 0.023) and comparable to open lands (g* = -0.1529 [0.5035], p = 0.76). Our results highlight how land-use history determined the conservation value of cocoa agroforests. Forest-derived cocoa agroforests were comparable to the available - usually already degraded - forest baselines, but entail future degradation risks. In contrast, open-land-derived cocoa agroforestry may offer restoration opportunities. Our results showed that comparisons among multiple baselines may inform relative contributions of agroforestry systems to bird conservation on a landscape scale.

Impact of Plantation Induced Forest Degradation on the Outbreak of Emerging Infectious Diseases-Wayanad District, Kerala, India

The world has been facing a pandemic owing to COVID-19. We have also seen the geographic expansion and outbreaks of other emerging infectious diseases (EID) in recent years. This paper investigates the direct and indirect effects of land use land cover change (LULCC) on EID outbreaks in the context of Wayanad District of Kerala, India. Wayanad is in the vulnerable tropical forested region, and it is named as one of the four environmental change hotspots. The focus of this project is mainly three EIDs prevalent in this region: Kyasanur forest disease (KFD), Dengue and Leptospirosis. Our results, based on topographical map, remote sensing and extensive field work, show that the natural forest in Wayanad was replaced with agriculture and forest plantation during 1950-2018. This paper further suggests that encroachment of forest by forest plantation causes the human-animal conflict resulting in the outbreak of KFD cases. Our analysis reveals that a high number of Dengue cases is found in the forested regions of the district and over the adjacent human-made agriculture plantation areas. High and medium number of Leptospirosis cases contain a high portion of land area devoted to paddy cultivation and agricultural plantation. In summary, the results clearly show the linkage between the outbreak of above mentioned EIDs and LULCC in the context of Wayanad district, Kerala. We also discuss in detail the causal pathway involving human-environmental dynamics through which plantation leads to the outbreak of KFD. Replacing forests with plantations poses an alarming threat of disease outbreak in the community.

Forest degradation limits the complementarity and quality of animal seed dispersal

Forest degradation changes the structural heterogeneity of forests and species communities, with potential consequences for ecosystem functions including seed dispersal by frugivorous animals. While the quantity of seed dispersal may be robust towards forest degradation, changes in the effectiveness of seed dispersal through qualitative changes are poorly understood. Here, we carried out extensive field sampling on the structure of forest microhabitats, seed deposition sites and plant recruitment along three characteristics of forest microhabitats (canopy cover, ground vegetation and deadwood) in Europe's last lowland primeval forest (Białowieża, Poland). We then applied niche modelling to study forest degradation effects on multi-dimensional seed deposition by frugivores and recruitment of fleshy-fruited plants. Forest degradation was shown to (i) reduce the niche volume of forest microhabitat characteristics by half, (ii) homogenize the spatial seed deposition within and among frugivore species, and (iii) limit the regeneration of plants via changes in seed deposition and recruitment. Our study shows that the loss of frugivores in degraded forests is accompanied by a reduction in the complementarity and quality of seed dispersal by remaining frugivores. By contrast, structure-rich habitats, such as old-growth forests, safeguard the diversity of species interactions, forming the basis for high-quality ecosystem functions.

Ecological Effect of Ecological Engineering Projects on Low-Temperature Forest Cover in Great Khingan Mountain, China

The evaluation of ecological restoration projects can provide support for further strengthening the efforts of ecological restoration work and implementing the strategic objectives of the ecological region. Considering the current problem of the single evaluation index, this study evaluated the implementation effect of ecological projects from different temporal and spatial dimensions. Based on the MODIS vegetation index time series data, this study first computed the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator 15.3.1 of Great Khingan Mountain (GKM) to evaluate the impact of ecological engineering on land use change and land productivity. As a common indicator, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values showed a trend of a decrease and then gradual increase after the start of the Natural Forest Protection Project (NFPP) II, which was related to the land use changes from the forest to the grassland during the implementation of the NFPP. However, land productivity maintained a steady trend because of the transition between the forest and grassland. Meanwhile, to detect changes in vegetation at a smaller scale, the LandTrendr algorithm was used to identify the magnitude of forest disturbance, the years when it occurred, and the year of restoration. After implementing the ecological project, the forests in the GKM region were only partially disturbed, and most of the forests in most areas maintained a stable trend. Our study highlighted the varying effectiveness of different indexes for NFPP and evaluated the ecological impact of ecological projects from multiple perspectives.

Drought-driven wildfire impacts on structure and dynamics in a wet Central Amazonian forest

While the climate and human-induced forest degradation is increasing in the Amazon, fire impacts on forest dynamics remain understudied in the wetter regions of the basin, which are susceptible to large wildfires only during extreme droughts. To address this gap, we installed burned and unburned plots immediately after a wildfire in the northern Purus-Madeira (Central Amazon) during the 2015 El-Niño. We measured all individuals with diameter of 10 cm or more at breast height and conducted recensuses to track the demographic drivers of biomass change over 3 years. We also assessed how stem-level growth and mortality were influenced by fire intensity (proxied by char height) and tree morphological traits (size and wood density). Overall, the burned forest lost 27.3% of stem density and 12.8% of biomass, concentrated in small and medium trees. Mortality drove these losses in the first 2 years and recruitment decreased in the third year. The fire increased growth in lower wood density and larger sized trees, while char height had transitory strong effects increasing tree mortality. Our findings suggest that fire impacts are weaker in the wetter Amazon. Here, trees of greater sizes and higher wood densities may confer a margin of fire resistance; however, this may not extend to higher intensity fires arising from climate change.

Assessing invertebrate herbivory in human-modified tropical forest canopies

Studies on the effects of human-driven forest disturbance usually focus on either biodiversity or carbon dynamics but much less is known about ecosystem processes that span different trophic levels. Herbivory is a fundamental ecological process for ecosystem functioning, but it remains poorly quantified in human-modified tropical rainforests.Here, we present the results of the largest study to date on the impacts of human disturbances on herbivory. We quantified the incidence (percentage of leaves affected) and severity (the percentage of leaf area lost) of canopy insect herbivory caused by chewers, miners, and gall makers in leaves from 1,076 trees distributed across 20 undisturbed and human-modified forest plots in the Amazon.We found that chewers dominated herbivory incidence, yet were not a good predictor of the other forms of herbivory at either the stem or plot level. Chewing severity was higher in both logged and logged-and-burned primary forests when compared to undisturbed forests. We found no difference in herbivory severity between undisturbed primary forests and secondary forests. Despite evidence at the stem level, neither plot-level incidence nor severity of the three forms of herbivory responded to disturbance. Synthesis. Our large-scale study of canopy herbivory confirms that chewers dominate the herbivory signal in tropical forests, but that their influence on leaf area lost cannot predict the incidence or severity of other forms. We found only limited evidence suggesting that human disturbance affects the severity of leaf herbivory, with higher values in logged and logged-and-burned forests than undisturbed and secondary forests. Additionally, we found no effect of human disturbance on the incidence of leaf herbivory.

Key Roles of Dipterocarpaceae, Bark Type Diversity and Tree Size in Lowland Rainforests of Northeast Borneo-Using Functional Traits of Lichens to Distinguish Plots of Old Growth and Regenerating Logged Forests

Many lowland rainforests in Southeast Asia are severely altered by selective logging and there is a need for rapid assessment methods to identify characteristic communities of old growth forests and to monitor restoration success in regenerating forests. We have studied the effect of logging on the diversity and composition of lichen communities on trunks of trees in lowland rainforests of northeast Borneo dominated by Dipterocarpaceae. Using data from field observations and vouchers collected from plots in disturbed and undisturbed forests, we compared a taxonomy-based and a taxon-free method. Vouchers were identified to genus or genus group and assigned to functional groups based on sets of functional traits. Both datasets allowed the detection of significant differences in lichen communities between disturbed and undisturbed forest plots. Bark type diversity and the proportion of large trees, particularly those belonging to the family Dipterocarpaceae, were the main drivers of lichen community structure. Our results confirm the usefulness of a functional groups approach for the rapid assessment of tropical lowland rainforests in Southeast Asia. A high proportion of Dipterocarpaceae trees is revealed as an essential element for the restoration of near natural lichen communities in lowland rainforests of Southeast Asia.

Maximizing the value of forest restoration for tropical mammals by detecting three-dimensional habitat associations

Tropical forest ecosystems are facing unprecedented levels of degradation, severely compromising habitat suitability for wildlife. Despite the fundamental role biodiversity plays in forest regeneration, identifying and prioritizing degraded forests for restoration or conservation, based on their wildlife value, remains a significant challenge. Efforts to characterize habitat selection are also weakened by simple classifications of human-modified tropical forests as intact vs. degraded, which ignore the influence that three-dimensional (3D) forest structure may have on species distributions. Here, we develop a framework to identify conservation and restoration opportunities across logged forests in Borneo. We couple high-resolution airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and camera trap data to characterize the response of a tropical mammal community to changes in 3D forest structure across a degradation gradient. Mammals were most responsive to covariates that accounted explicitly for the vertical and horizontal characteristics of the forest and actively selected structurally complex environments comprising tall canopies, increased plant area index throughout the vertical column, and the availability of a greater diversity of niches. We show that mammals are sensitive to structural simplification through disturbance, emphasizing the importance of maintaining and enhancing structurally intact forests. By calculating occurrence thresholds of species in response to forest structural change, we identify areas of degraded forest that would provide maximum benefit for multiple high-conservation value species if restored. The study demonstrates the advantages of using LiDAR to map forest structure, rather than relying on overly simplistic classifications of human-modified tropical forests, for prioritizing regions for restoration.

Impacts of Degradation on Water, Energy, and Carbon Cycling of the Amazon Tropical Forests

Selective logging, fragmentation, and understory fires directly degrade forest structure and composition. However, studies addressing the effects of forest degradation on carbon, water, and energy cycles are scarce. Here, we integrate field observations and high-resolution remote sensing from airborne lidar to provide realistic initial conditions to the Ecosystem Demography Model (ED-2.2) and investigate how disturbances from forest degradation affect gross primary production (GPP), evapotranspiration (ET), and sensible heat flux (H). We used forest structural information retrieved from airborne lidar samples (13,500 ha) and calibrated with 817 inventory plots (0.25 ha) across precipitation and degradation gradients in the eastern Amazon as initial conditions to ED-2.2 model. Our results show that the magnitude and seasonality of fluxes were modulated by changes in forest structure caused by degradation. During the dry season and under typical conditions, severely degraded forests (biomass loss ≥66%) experienced water stress with declines in ET (up to 34%) and GPP (up to 35%) and increases of H (up to 43%) and daily mean ground temperatures (up to 6.5°C) relative to intact forests. In contrast, the relative impact of forest degradation on energy, water, and carbon cycles markedly diminishes under extreme, multiyear droughts, as a consequence of severe stress experienced by intact forests. Our results highlight that the water and energy cycles in the Amazon are driven by not only climate and deforestation but also the past disturbance and changes of forest structure from degradation, suggesting a much broader influence of human land use activities on the tropical ecosystems.

Impacts of selective logging on the oxidative status of tropical understorey birds

Selective logging is the dominant form of human disturbance in tropical forests, driving changes in the abundance of vertebrate and invertebrate populations relative to undisturbed old-growth forests. A key unresolved question is understanding which physiological mechanisms underlie different responses of species and functional groups to selective logging. Regulation of oxidative status is thought to be one major physiological mechanism underlying the capability of species to cope with environmental changes. Using a correlational cross-sectional approach, we compared a number of oxidative status markers among 15 understorey bird species in unlogged and selectively logged forest in Borneo in relation to their feeding guild. We then tested how variation of markers between forest types was associated with that in population abundance. Birds living in logged forests had a higher activity of the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase and a different regulation of the glutathione cycle compared to conspecific birds in unlogged forest. However, neither oxidative damage nor oxidized glutathione differed between forest types. We also found that omnivores and insectivores differed significantly in all markers related to the key cellular antioxidant glutathione irrespective of the forest type. Species with higher levels of certain antioxidant markers in a given type of forest were less abundant in that forest type compared to the other. Our results suggest that there was little long-term effect of logging (last logging rotation occurred ~15 years prior to the study) on the oxidative status of understorey bird species. However, it is unclear if this was owing to plasticity or evolutionary change. Our correlative results also point to a potential negative association between some antioxidants and population abundance irrespective of the forest type.

Satellite-based estimates reveal widespread forest degradation in the Amazon

Anthropogenic and natural forest disturbance cause ecological damage and carbon emissions. Forest disturbance in the Amazon occurs in the form of deforestation (conversion of forest to non-forest land covers), degradation from the extraction of forest resources, and destruction from natural events. The crucial role of the Amazon rainforest in the hydrologic cycle has even led to the speculation of a disturbance "tipping point" leading to a collapse of the tropical ecosystem. Here we use time series analysis of Landsat data to map deforestation, degradation, and natural disturbance in the Amazon Ecoregion from 1995 to 2017. The map was used to stratify the study area for selection of sample units that were assigned reference labels based on their land cover and disturbance history. An unbiased statistical estimator was applied to the sample of reference observations to obtain estimates of area and uncertainty at biennial time intervals. We show that degradation and natural disturbance, largely during periods of severe drought, have affected as much of the forest area in the Amazon Ecoregion as deforestation from 1995 to 2017. Consequently, an estimated 17% (1,036,800 ± 24,800 km² , 95% confidence interval) of the original forest area has been disturbed as of 2017. Our results suggest that the area of disturbed forest in the Amazon is 44%-60% more than previously realized, indicating an unaccounted for source of carbon emissions and pervasive damage to forest ecosystems.

The role of forest conversion, degradation, and disturbance in the carbon dynamics of Amazon indigenous territories and protected areas

For decades, Amazon indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) have impeded deforestation and associated greenhouse gas emissions. While emissions inside indigenous territories (ITs) and protected natural areas (PNAs) remain well below levels outside, unsustainable forest clearing is on the rise across the nine-nation region. In addition, Amazon ITs and PNAs are increasingly vulnerable to the less conspicuous (and often-neglected) processes of forest degradation and disturbance, which diminish carbon storage and ecological integrity. The trend toward weakening of environmental protections, indigenous land rights, and the rule of law thus poses an existential threat to IPLCs and their territories. Reversing this trend is critical for the future of climate-buffering Amazon forests and the success of the Paris Agreement.

Maintaining the abundance of carbon stored aboveground in Amazon forests is central to any comprehensive climate stabilization strategy. Growing evidence points to indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) as buffers against large-scale carbon emissions across a nine-nation network of indigenous territories (ITs) and protected natural areas (PNAs). Previous studies have demonstrated a link between indigenous land management and avoided deforestation, yet few have accounted for forest degradation and natural disturbances—processes that occur without forest clearing but are increasingly important drivers of biomass loss. Here we provide a comprehensive accounting of aboveground carbon dynamics inside and outside Amazon protected lands. Using published data on changes in aboveground carbon density and forest cover, we track gains and losses in carbon density from forest conversion and degradation/disturbance. We find that ITs and PNAs stored more than one-half (58%; 41,991 MtC) of the region’s carbon in 2016 but were responsible for just 10% (−130 MtC) of the net change (−1,290 MtC). Nevertheless, nearly one-half billion tons of carbon were lost from both ITs and PNAs (−434 MtC and −423 MtC, respectively), with degradation/disturbance accounting for >75% of the losses in 7 countries. With deforestation increasing, and degradation/disturbance a neglected but significant source of region-wide emissions (47%), our results suggest that sustained support for IPLC stewardship of Amazon forests is critical. IPLCs provide a global environmental service that merits increased political protection and financial support, particularly if Amazon Basin countries are to achieve their commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement.

Determining a Threshold to Delimit the Amazonian Forests from the Tree Canopy Cover 2000 GFC Data

Open global forest cover data can be a critical component for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) policies. In this work, we determine the best threshold, compatible with the official Brazilian dataset, for establishing a forest mask cover within the Amazon basin for the year 2000 using the Tree Canopy Cover 2000 GFC product. We compared forest cover maps produced using several thresholds (10%, 30%, 50%, 80%, 85%, 90%, and 95%) with a forest cover map for the same year from the Brazilian Amazon Deforestation Monitoring Project (PRODES) data, produced by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE). We also compared the forest cover classifications indicated by each of these maps to 2550 independently assessed Landsat pixels for the year 2000, providing an accuracy assessment for each of these map products. We found that thresholds of 80% and 85% best matched with the PRODES data. Consequently, we recommend using an 80% threshold for the Tree Canopy Cover 2000 data for assessing forest cover in the Amazon basin.

The Structure and Species Co-Occurrence Networks of Soil Denitrifying Bacterial Communities Differ Between A Coniferous and A Broadleaved Forests

Acacia mangium (AM) and Pinus massoniana (PM) are widely planted in tropical regions, whereas their effects on soil microbial communities remain unclear. We did a comprehensive investigation of soil denitrifying bacterial communities in AM and PM monoculture plantations in Southern China based on the high throughput sequencing data of their functional genes: nirK, nirS, and nosZ. The average abundance of nosZ (1.3 × 10⁷) was significantly higher than nirS (5.6 × 10⁶) and nirK (4.9 × 10⁵). Shannon estimator revealed a markedly higher α-diversity of nirS and nosZ communities in PM than in AM plantations. The AM and PM plantations were dominated by different nirS and nosZ taxa belonging to proteobacteria, actinobacteria, thermoleophilia, chloroflexia, and acidobacteria, while the dominant nirK taxa were mainly categorized into proteobacteria in both types of plantations. The structure of nirS and nosZ communities shifted substantially from AM to PM plantations with changes in soil moisture, NH₄⁺, and microbial biomass nitrogen content. The species co-occurrence network of nirK community was better organized in a more modular manner compared to nirS and nosZ communities, and the network keystone species mostly occurred in PM plantations. These results indicated a highly species corporation of nirK community in response to environmental changes, especially in PM plantations. AM and PM plantations can form different soil denitrifying microbial communities via altering soil physicochemical properties, which may further affect soil N transformations.

Persistent effects of fragmentation on tropical rainforest canopy structure after 20 yr of isolation

Assessing the persistent impacts of fragmentation on aboveground structure of tropical forests is essential to understanding the consequences of land use change for carbon storage and other ecosystem functions. We investigated the influence of edge distance and fragment size on canopy structure, aboveground woody biomass (AGB), and AGB turnover in the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP) in central Amazon, Brazil, after 22+ yr of fragment isolation, by combining canopy variables collected with portable canopy profiling lidar and airborne laser scanning surveys with long-term forest inventories. Forest height decreased by 30% at edges of large fragments (>10 ha) and interiors of small fragments (<3 ha). In larger fragments, canopy height was reduced up to 40 m from edges. Leaf area density profiles differed near edges: the density of understory vegetation was higher and midstory vegetation lower, consistent with canopy reorganization via increased regeneration of pioneers following post-fragmentation mortality of large trees. However, canopy openness and leaf area index remained similar to control plots throughout fragments, while canopy spatial heterogeneity was generally lower at edges. AGB stocks and fluxes were positively related to canopy height and negatively related to spatial heterogeneity. Other forest structure variables typically used to assess the ecological impacts of fragmentation (basal area, density of individuals, and density of pioneer trees) were also related to lidar-derived canopy surface variables. Canopy reorganization through the replacement of edge-sensitive species by disturbance-tolerant ones may have mitigated the biomass loss effects due to fragmentation observed in the earlier years of BDFFP. Lidar technology offered novel insights and observational scales for analysis of the ecological impacts of fragmentation on forest structure and function, specifically aboveground biomass storage.

Effects of climate and land-use change scenarios on fire probability during the 21st century in the Brazilian Amazon

The joint and relative effects of future land-use and climate change on fire occurrence in the Amazon, as well its seasonal variation, are still poorly understood, despite its recognized importance. Using the maximum entropy method (MaxEnt), we combined regional land-use projections and climatic data from the CMIP5 multimodel ensemble to investigate the monthly probability of fire occurrence in the mid (2041-2070) and late (2071-2100) 21st century in the Brazilian Amazon. We found striking spatial variation in the fire relative probability (FRP) change along the months, with October showing the highest overall change. Considering climate only, the area with FRP ≥ 0.3 (a threshold chosen based on the literature) in October increases 6.9% by 2071-2100 compared to the baseline period under the representative concentration pathway (RCP) 4.5 and 27.7% under the RCP 8.5. The best-case land-use scenario ("Sustainability") alone causes a 10.6% increase in the area with FRP ≥ 0.3, while the worse-case land-use scenario ("Fragmentation") causes a 73.2% increase. The optimistic climate-land-use projection (Sustainability and RCP 4.5) causes a 21.3% increase in the area with FRP ≥ 0.3 in October by 2071-2100 compared to the baseline period. In contrast, the most pessimistic climate-land-use projection (Fragmentation and RCP 8.5) causes a widespread increase in FRP (113.5% increase in the area with FRP ≥ 0.3), and prolongs the fire season, displacing its peak. Combining the Sustainability land-use and RCP 8.5 scenarios causes a 39.1% increase in the area with FRP ≥ 0.3. We conclude that avoiding the regress on land-use governance in the Brazilian Amazon (i.e., decrease in the extension and level of conservation of the protected areas, reduced environmental laws enforcement, extensive road paving, and increased deforestation) would substantially mitigate the effects of climate change on fire probability, even under the most pessimistic RCP 8.5 scenario.

Quantifying immediate carbon emissions from El Niño-mediated wildfires in humid tropical forests

Wildfires produce substantial CO₂ emissions in the humid tropics during El Niño-mediated extreme droughts, and these emissions are expected to increase in coming decades. Immediate carbon emissions from uncontrolled wildfires in human-modified tropical forests can be considerable owing to high necromass fuel loads. Yet, data on necromass combustion during wildfires are severely lacking. Here, we evaluated necromass carbon stocks before and after the 2015-2016 El Niño in Amazonian forests distributed along a gradient of prior human disturbance. We then used Landsat-derived burn scars to extrapolate regional immediate wildfire CO₂ emissions during the 2015-2016 El Niño. Before the El Niño, necromass stocks varied significantly with respect to prior disturbance and were largest in undisturbed primary forests (30.2 ± 2.1 Mg ha^-1, mean ± s.e.) and smallest in secondary forests (15.6 ± 3.0 Mg ha^-1). However, neither prior disturbance nor our proxy of fire intensity (median char height) explained necromass losses due to wildfires. In our 6.5 million hectare (6.5 Mha) study region, almost 1 Mha of primary (disturbed and undisturbed) and 20 000 ha of secondary forest burned during the 2015-2016 El Niño. Covering less than 0.2% of Brazilian Amazonia, these wildfires resulted in expected immediate CO₂ emissions of approximately 30 Tg, three to four times greater than comparable estimates from global fire emissions databases. Uncontrolled understorey wildfires in humid tropical forests during extreme droughts are a large and poorly quantified source of CO₂ emissions.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'The impact of the 2015/2016 El Niño on the terrestrial tropical carbon cycle: patterns, mechanisms and implications'.

Trade-offs between carbon stocks and timber recovery in tropical forests are mediated by logging intensity

Forest degradation accounts for ~70% of total carbon losses from tropical forests. Substantial emissions are from selective logging, a land-use activity that decreases forest carbon density. To maintain carbon values in selectively logged forests, climate change mitigation policies and government agencies promote the adoption of reduced-impact logging (RIL) practices. However, whether RIL will maintain both carbon and timber values in managed tropical forests over time remains uncertain. In this study, we quantify the recovery of timber stocks and aboveground carbon at an experimental site where forests were subjected to different intensities of RIL (4, 8, and 16 trees/ha). Our census data span 20 years postlogging and 17 years after the liberation of future crop trees from competition in a tropical forest on the Guiana Shield, a globally important forest carbon reservoir. We model recovery of timber and carbon with a breakpoint regression that allowed us to capture elevated tree mortality immediately after logging. Recovery rates of timber and carbon were governed by the presence of residual trees (i.e., trees that persisted through the first harvest). The liberation treatment stimulated faster recovery of timber albeit at a carbon cost. Model results suggest a threshold logging intensity beyond which forests managed for timber and carbon derive few benefits from RIL, with recruitment and residual growth not sufficient to offset losses. Inclusion of the breakpoint at which carbon and timber gains outpaced postlogging mortality led to high predictive accuracy, including out-of-sample R² values >90%, and enabled inference on demographic changes postlogging. Our modeling framework is broadly applicable to studies that aim to quantify impacts of logging on forest recovery. Overall, we demonstrate that initial mortality drives variation in recovery rates, that the second harvest depends on old growth wood, and that timber intensification lowers carbon stocks.

Using soundscapes to detect variable degrees of human influence on tropical forests in Papua New Guinea

There is global concern about tropical forest degradation, in part, because of the associated loss of biodiversity. Communities and indigenous people play a fundamental role in tropical forest management and are often efficient at preventing forest degradation. However, monitoring changes in biodiversity due to degradation, especially at a scale appropriate to local tropical forest management, is plagued by difficulties, including the need for expert training, inconsistencies across observers, and lack of baseline or reference data. We used a new biodiversity remote-sensing technology, the recording of soundscapes, to test whether the acoustic saturation of a tropical forest in Papua New Guinea decreases as land-use intensity by the communities that manage the forest increases. We sampled soundscapes continuously for 24 hours at 34 sites in different land-use zones of 3 communities. Land-use zones where forest cover was fully retained had significantly higher soundscape saturation during peak acoustic activity times (i.e., dawn and dusk chorus) compared with land-use types with fragmented forest cover. We conclude that, in Papua New Guinea, the relatively simple measure of soundscape saturation may provide a cheap, objective, reproducible, and effective tool for monitoring tropical forest deviation from an intact state, particularly if it is used to detect the presence of intact dawn and dusk choruses.

Landscape-level effects on aboveground biomass of tropical forests: A conceptual framework

Despite the general recognition that fragmentation can reduce forest biomass through edge effects, a systematic review of the literature does not reveal a clear role of edges in modulating biomass loss. Additionally, the edge effects appear to be constrained by matrix type, suggesting that landscape composition has an influence on biomass stocks. The lack of empirical evidence of pervasive edge-related biomass losses across tropical forests highlights the necessity for a general framework linking landscape structure with aboveground biomass. Here, we propose a conceptual model in which landscape composition and configuration mediate the magnitude of edge effects and seed-flux among forest patches, which ultimately has an influence on biomass. Our model hypothesizes that a rapid reduction of biomass can occur below a threshold of forest cover loss. Just below this threshold, we predict that changes in landscape configuration can strongly influence the patch's isolation, thus enhancing biomass loss. Moreover, we expect a synergism between landscape composition and patch attributes, where matrix type mediates the effects of edges on species decline, particularly for shade-tolerant species. To test our conceptual framework, we propose a sampling protocol where the effects of edges, forest amount, forest isolation, fragment size, and matrix type on biomass stocks can be assessed both collectively and individually. The proposed model unifies the combined effects of landscape and patch structure on biomass into a single framework, providing a new set of main drivers of biomass loss in human-modified landscapes. We argue that carbon trading agendas (e.g., REDD+) and carbon-conservation initiatives must go beyond the effects of forest loss and edges on biomass, considering the whole set of effects on biomass related to changes in landscape composition and configuration.

The impact of charcoal production on forest degradation: a case study in Tete, Mozambique

Charcoal production for urban energy consumption is a main driver of forest degradation in sub Saharan Africa. Urban growth projections for the continent suggest that the relevance of this process will increase in the coming decades. Forest degradation associated to charcoal production is difficult to monitor and commonly overlooked and underrepresented in forest cover change and carbon emission estimates. We use a multitemporal dataset of very high-resolution remote sensing images to map kiln locations in a representative study area of tropical woodlands in central Mozambique. The resulting maps provided a characterization of the spatial extent and temporal dynamics of charcoal production. Using an indirect approach we combine kiln maps and field information on charcoal making to describe the magnitude and intensity of forest degradation linked to charcoal production, including aboveground biomass and carbon emissions. Our findings reveal that forest degradation associated to charcoal production in the study area is largely independent from deforestation driven by agricultural expansion and that its impact on forest cover change is in the same order of magnitude as deforestation. Our work illustrates the feasibility of using estimates of urban charcoal consumption to establish a link between urban energy demands and forest degradation. This kind of approach has potential to reduce uncertainties in forest cover change and carbon emission assessments in sub-Saharan Africa.

Effects of experimental fuel additions on fire intensity and severity: unexpected carbon resilience of a neotropical forest

Global changes and associated droughts, heat waves, logging activities, and forest fragmentation may intensify fires in Amazonia by altering forest microclimate and fuel dynamics. To isolate the effects of fuel loads on fire behavior and fire-induced changes in forest carbon cycling, we manipulated fine fuel loads in a fire experiment located in southeast Amazonia. We predicted that a 50% increase in fine fuel loads would disproportionally increase fire intensity and severity (i.e., tree mortality and losses in carbon stocks) due to multiplicative effects of fine fuel loads on the rate of fire spread, fuel consumption, and burned area. The experiment followed a fully replicated randomized block design (N = 6) comprised of unburned control plots and burned plots that were treated with and without fine fuel additions. The fuel addition treatment significantly increased burned area (+22%) and consequently canopy openness (+10%), fine fuel combustion (+5%), and mortality of individuals ≥5 cm in diameter at breast height (dbh; +37%). Surprisingly, we observed nonsignificant effects of the fuel addition treatment on fireline intensity, and no significant differences among the three treatments for (i) mortality of large trees (≥30 cm dbh), (ii) aboveground forest carbon stocks, and (iii) soil respiration. It was also surprising that postfire tree growth and wood increment were higher in the burned plots treated with fuels than in the unburned control. These results suggest that (i) fine fuel load accumulation increases the likelihood of larger understory fires and (ii) single, low-intensity fires weakly influence carbon cycling of this primary neotropical forest, although delayed postfire mortality of large trees may lower carbon stocks over the long term. Overall, our findings indicate that increased fine fuel loads alone are unlikely to create threshold conditions for high-intensity, catastrophic fires during nondrought years.

Land use change emission scenarios: anticipating a forest transition process in the Brazilian Amazon

Following an intense occupation process that was initiated in the 1960s, deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon have decreased significantly since 2004, stabilizing around 6000 km(2) yr(-1) in the last 5 years. A convergence of conditions contributed to this, including the creation of protected areas, the use of effective monitoring systems, and credit restriction mechanisms. Nevertheless, other threats remain, including the rapidly expanding global markets for agricultural commodities, large-scale transportation and energy infrastructure projects, and weak institutions. We propose three updated qualitative and quantitative land-use scenarios for the Brazilian Amazon, including a normative 'Sustainability' scenario in which we envision major socio-economic, institutional, and environmental achievements in the region. We developed an innovative spatially explicit modelling approach capable of representing alternative pathways of the clear-cut deforestation, secondary vegetation dynamics, and the old-growth forest degradation. We use the computational models to estimate net deforestation-driven carbon emissions for the different scenarios. The region would become a sink of carbon after 2020 in a scenario of residual deforestation (~1000 km(2) yr(-1)) and a change in the current dynamics of the secondary vegetation - in a forest transition scenario. However, our results also show that the continuation of the current situation of relatively low deforestation rates and short life cycle of the secondary vegetation would maintain the region as a source of CO2 - even if a large portion of the deforested area is covered by secondary vegetation. In relation to the old-growth forest degradation process, we estimated average gross emission corresponding to 47% of the clear-cut deforestation from 2007 to 2013 (using the DEGRAD system data), although the aggregate effects of the postdisturbance regeneration can partially offset these emissions. Both processes (secondary vegetation and forest degradation) need to be better understood as they potentially will play a decisive role in the future regional carbon balance.

Spatial patterns of carbon, biodiversity, deforestation threat, and REDD+ projects in Indonesia

There are concerns that Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) may fail to deliver potential biodiversity cobenefits if it is focused on high carbon areas. We explored the spatial overlaps between carbon stocks, biodiversity, projected deforestation threats, and the location of REDD+ projects in Indonesia, a tropical country at the forefront of REDD+ development. For biodiversity, we assembled data on the distribution of terrestrial vertebrates (ranges of amphibians, mammals, birds, reptiles) and plants (species distribution models for 8 families). We then investigated congruence between different measures of biodiversity richness and carbon stocks at the national and subnational scales. Finally, we mapped active REDD+ projects and investigated the carbon density and potential biodiversity richness and modeled deforestation pressures within these forests relative to protected areas and unprotected forests. There was little internal overlap among the different hotspots (richest 10% of cells) of species richness. There was also no consistent spatial congruence between carbon stocks and the biodiversity measures: a weak negative correlation at the national scale masked highly variable and nonlinear relationships island by island. Current REDD+ projects were preferentially located in areas with higher total species richness and threatened species richness but lower carbon densities than protected areas and unprotected forests. Although a quarter of the total area of these REDD+ projects is under relatively high deforestation pressure, the majority of the REDD+ area is not. In Indonesia at least, first-generation REDD+ projects are located where they are likely to deliver biodiversity benefits. However, if REDD+ is to deliver additional gains for climate and biodiversity, projects will need to focus on forests with the highest threat to deforestation, which will have cost implications for future REDD+ implementation.

Avian responses to selective logging shaped by species traits and logging practices

Selective logging is one of the most common forms of forest use in the tropics. Although the effects of selective logging on biodiversity have been widely studied, there is little agreement on the relationship between life-history traits and tolerance to logging. In this study, we assessed how species traits and logging practices combine to determine species responses to selective logging, based on over 4000 observations of the responses of nearly 1000 bird species to selective logging across the tropics. Our analysis shows that species traits, such as feeding group and body mass, and logging practices, such as time since logging and logging intensity, interact to influence a species' response to logging. Frugivores and insectivores were most adversely affected by logging and declined further with increasing logging intensity. Nectarivores and granivores responded positively to selective logging for the first two decades, after which their abundances decrease below pre-logging levels. Larger species of omnivores and granivores responded more positively to selective logging than smaller species from either feeding group, whereas this effect of body size was reversed for carnivores, herbivores, frugivores and insectivores. Most importantly, species most negatively impacted by selective logging had not recovered approximately 40 years after logging cessation. We conclude that selective timber harvest has the potential to cause large and long-lasting changes in avian biodiversity. However, our results suggest that the impacts can be mitigated to a certain extent through specific forest management strategies such as lengthening the rotation cycle and implementing reduced impact logging.

Temporal patterns in Saturnidae (silk moth) and Sphingidae (hawk moth) assemblages in protected forests of central Uganda

Forest-dependent biodiversity is threatened throughout the tropics by habitat loss and land-use intensification of the matrix habitats. We resampled historic data on two moth families, known to play central roles in many ecosystem processes, to evaluate temporal changes in species richness and community structure in three protected forests in central Uganda in a rapidly changing matrix. Our results show some significant declines in the moth species richness and the relative abundance and richness of forest-dependent species over the last 20-40 years. The observed changes in species richness and composition among different forests, ecological types, and moth groups highlight the need to repeatedly monitor biodiversity even within protected and relatively intact forests.

A large-scale field assessment of carbon stocks in human-modified tropical forests

Tropical rainforests store enormous amounts of carbon, the protection of which represents a vital component of efforts to mitigate global climate change. Currently, tropical forest conservation, science, policies, and climate mitigation actions focus predominantly on reducing carbon emissions from deforestation alone. However, every year vast areas of the humid tropics are disturbed by selective logging, understory fires, and habitat fragmentation. There is an urgent need to understand the effect of such disturbances on carbon stocks, and how stocks in disturbed forests compare to those found in undisturbed primary forests as well as in regenerating secondary forests. Here, we present the results of the largest field study to date on the impacts of human disturbances on above and belowground carbon stocks in tropical forests. Live vegetation, the largest carbon pool, was extremely sensitive to disturbance: forests that experienced both selective logging and understory fires stored, on average, 40% less aboveground carbon than undisturbed forests and were structurally similar to secondary forests. Edge effects also played an important role in explaining variability in aboveground carbon stocks of disturbed forests. Results indicate a potential rapid recovery of the dead wood and litter carbon pools, while soil stocks (0-30 cm) appeared to be resistant to the effects of logging and fire. Carbon loss and subsequent emissions due to human disturbances remain largely unaccounted for in greenhouse gas inventories, but by comparing our estimates of depleted carbon stocks in disturbed forests with Brazilian government assessments of the total forest area annually disturbed in the Amazon, we show that these emissions could represent up to 40% of the carbon loss from deforestation in the region. We conclude that conservation programs aiming to ensure the long-term permanence of forest carbon stocks, such as REDD+, will remain limited in their success unless they effectively avoid degradation as well as deforestation.

Targeted carbon conservation at national scales with high-resolution monitoring

Terrestrial carbon conservation can provide critical environmental, social, and climate benefits. Yet, the geographically complex mosaic of threats to, and opportunities for, conserving carbon in landscapes remain largely unresolved at national scales. Using a new high-resolution carbon mapping approach applied to Perú, a megadiverse country undergoing rapid land use change, we found that at least 0.8 Pg of aboveground carbon stocks are at imminent risk of emission from land use activities. Map-based information on the natural controls over carbon density, as well as current ecosystem threats and protections, revealed three biogeographically explicit strategies that fully offset forthcoming land-use emissions. High-resolution carbon mapping affords targeted interventions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in rapidly developing tropical nations.

Actor-specific contributions to the deforestation slowdown in the Brazilian Amazon

Annual deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 77% between 2004 and 2011, yet have stabilized since 2009 at 5,000-7,000 km(2). We provide the first submunicipality assessment, to our knowledge, of actor-specific contributions to the deforestation slowdown by linking agricultural census and remote-sensing data on deforestation and forest degradation. Almost half (36,158 km(2)) of the deforestation between 2004 and 2011 occurred in areas dominated by larger properties (>500 ha), whereas only 12% (9,720 km(2)) occurred in areas dominated by smallholder properties (<100 ha). In addition, forests in areas dominated by smallholders tend to be less fragmented and less degraded. However, although annual deforestation rates fell during this period by 68-85% for all actors, the contribution of the largest landholders (>2,500 ha) to annual deforestation decreased over time (63% decrease between 2005 and 2011), whereas that of smallholders went up by a similar amount (69%) during the same period. In addition, the deforestation share attributable to remote areas increased by 88% between 2009 and 2011. These observations are consistent across the Brazilian Amazon, regardless of geographical differences in actor dominance or socioenvironmental context. Our findings suggest that deforestation policies to date, which have been particularly focused on command and control measures on larger properties in deforestation hotspots, may be increasingly limited in their effectiveness and fail to address all actors equally. Further reductions in deforestation are likely to be increasingly costly and require actor-tailored approaches, including better monitoring to detect small-scale deforestation and a shift toward more incentive-based conservation policies.

Perturbations in the carbon budget of the tropics

The carbon budget of the tropics has been perturbed as a result of human influences. Here, we attempt to construct a 'bottom-up' analysis of the biological components of the budget as they are affected by human activities. There are major uncertainties in the extent and carbon content of different vegetation types, the rates of land-use change and forest degradation, but recent developments in satellite remote sensing have gone far towards reducing these uncertainties. Stocks of carbon as biomass in tropical forests and woodlands add up to 271 ± 16 Pg with an even greater quantity of carbon as soil organic matter. Carbon loss from deforestation, degradation, harvesting and peat fires is estimated as 2.01 ± 1.1 Pg annum(-1); while carbon gain from forest and woodland growth is 1.85 ± 0.09 Pg annum(-1). We conclude that tropical lands are on average a small carbon source to the atmosphere, a result that is consistent with the 'top-down' result from measurements in the atmosphere. If they were to be conserved, they would be a substantial carbon sink. Release of carbon as carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning in the tropics is 0.74 Pg annum(-1) or 0.57 MgC person(-1) annum(-1) , much lower than the corresponding figures from developed regions of the world.

Elevated rates of gold mining in the Amazon revealed through high-resolution monitoring

Gold mining has rapidly increased in western Amazonia, but the rates and ecological impacts of mining remain poorly known and potentially underestimated. We combined field surveys, airborne mapping, and high-resolution satellite imaging to assess road- and river-based gold mining in the Madre de Dios region of the Peruvian Amazon from 1999 to 2012. In this period, the geographic extent of gold mining increased 400%. The average annual rate of forest loss as a result of gold mining tripled in 2008 following the global economic recession, closely associated with increased gold prices. Small clandestine operations now comprise more than half of all gold mining activities throughout the region. These rates of gold mining are far higher than previous estimates that were based on traditional satellite mapping techniques. Our results prove that gold mining is growing more rapidly than previously thought, and that high-resolution monitoring approaches are required to accurately quantify human impacts on tropical forests.

High-fidelity national carbon mapping for resource management and REDD+

BACKGROUND

High fidelity carbon mapping has the potential to greatly advance national resource management and to encourage international action toward climate change mitigation. However, carbon inventories based on field plots alone cannot capture the heterogeneity of carbon stocks, and thus remote sensing-assisted approaches are critically important to carbon mapping at regional to global scales. We advanced a high-resolution, national-scale carbon mapping approach applied to the Republic of Panama - one of the first UN REDD + partner countries.

RESULTS

Integrating measurements of vegetation structure collected by airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) with field inventory plots, we report LiDAR-estimated aboveground carbon stock errors of ~10% on any 1-ha land parcel across a wide range of ecological conditions. Critically, this shows that LiDAR provides a highly reliable replacement for inventory plots in areas lacking field data, both in humid tropical forests and among drier tropical vegetation types. We then scale up a systematically aligned LiDAR sampling of Panama using satellite data on topography, rainfall, and vegetation cover to model carbon stocks at 1-ha resolution with estimated average pixel-level uncertainty of 20.5 Mg C ha-1 nationwide.

CONCLUSIONS

The national carbon map revealed strong abiotic and human controls over Panamanian carbon stocks, and the new level of detail with estimated uncertainties for every individual hectare in the country sets Panama at the forefront in high-resolution ecosystem management. With this repeatable approach, carbon resource decision-making can be made on a geospatially explicit basis, enhancing human welfare and environmental protection.

Diversity of Medicinal Plants among Different Forest-use Types of the Pakistani Himalaya

Diversity of Medicinal Plants among Different Forest-use Types of the Pakistani Himalaya Medicinal plants collected in Himalayan forests play a vital role in the livelihoods of regional rural societies and are also increasingly recognized at the international level. However, these forests are being heavily transformed by logging. Here we ask how forest transformation influences the diversity and composition of medicinal plants in northwestern Pakistan, where we studied old-growth forests, forests degraded by logging, and regrowth forests. First, an approximate map indicating these forest types was established and then 15 study plots per forest type were randomly selected. We found a total of 59 medicinal plant species consisting of herbs and ferns, most of which occurred in the old-growth forest. Species number was lowest in forest degraded by logging and intermediate in regrowth forest. The most valuable economic species, including six Himalayan endemics, occurred almost exclusively in old-growth forest. Species composition and abundance of forest degraded by logging differed markedly from that of old-growth forest, while regrowth forest was more similar to old-growth forest. The density of medicinal plants positively correlated with tree canopy cover in old-growth forest and negatively in degraded forest, which indicates that species adapted to open conditions dominate in logged forest. Thus, old-growth forests are important as refuge for vulnerable endemics. Forest degraded by logging has the lowest diversity of relatively common medicinal plants. Forest regrowth may foster the reappearance of certain medicinal species valuable to local livelihoods and as such promote acceptance of forest expansion and medicinal plants conservation in the region. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12231-012-9213-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.