Tag: biodiversity conservation
Hunting territories and land use overlap in sedentarised Baka Pygmy communities in southeastern Cameroon
A significant number of Baka Pygmies in Cameroon have been sedentarised in roadside villages, in contrast to their nomadic hunter-gatherer existence of the past. Although this change in lifestyle has had important consequences on health, most Baka villages still supplement their diets from forest products, especially wild meat. We used a combination of participatory methods and monitoring of individual hunters to map hunting territories in 10 Baka villages in southeastern Cameroon. From these, we determined whether wild meat extraction levels per village were related to the size of hunting territories, measured habitat use by hunters and finally defined the overlap between hunting territories and extractive industries in the region. Mapped village hunting areas averaged 205.2 ± 108.7 km2 (range 76.8–352.0 km2); all villages used a total of 2052 km2. From 295 tracks of 51 hunters, we showed that hunters travelled an average of 16.5 ± 13.5 km (range 0.9–89.8 km) from each village. Home ranges, derived from kernel utilization distributions, were correlated with village offtake levels, but hunter offtake and distance travelled were not significantly related, suggesting that enough prey was available even close to the villages. Hunters in all village areas exhibited a clear bias towards certain habitats, as indicated by positive Ivlev’s index of selectivity values. We also showed that all village hunting territories and hunter home ranges fall within mining and logging concessions. Our results are important for local understanding of forest land uses and to reconcile these with the other land uses in the region to better inform decisions concerning land use policy and planning.
How many bird and mammal extinctions has recent conservation action prevented?
Aichi Target 12 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) contains the aim to ‘prevent extinctions of known threatened species’. To measure the degree to which this was achieved, we used expert elicitation to estimate the number of bird and mammal species whose extinctions were prevented by conservation action in 1993–2020 (the lifetime of the CBD) and 2010–2020 (the timing of Aichi Target 12). We found that conservation action prevented 21–32 bird and 7–16 mammal extinctions since 1993, and 9–18 bird and two to seven mammal extinctions since 2010. Many remain highly threatened and may still become extinct. Considering that 10 bird and five mammal species did go extinct (or are strongly suspected to) since 1993, extinction rates would have been 2.9–4.2 times greater without conservation action. While policy commitments have fostered significant conservation achievements, future biodiversity action needs to be scaled up to avert additional extinctions. © 2020 The Authors. Conservation Letters published by Wiley Periodicals LLC
Non-timber forest product utilization under community forest management in northern Thailand
Forest resources are a salient and critical issue requiring ongoing attention by the Thai government. Community forest management (CFM) is a practice used to, among other things, resolve land use issues and regulate the extraction and use of non-timber forest product (NTFPs). Managing as a community forest can not only enhance the livelihoods of the local people but also improve their socio-economic condition. This research was conducted at the Ban Mae Chiang Rai Lum Community Forest located in Pa Mae Phrik National Forest Reserve in Thailand’s northern province of Lampang. We collected species biodiversity data of the forest’s total area of 3,925 ha using a systematic sampling method, and twenty-five 40 × 40 m (0.16 ha) survey plots were established in the community forest. Interviews of 159 household heads and/or other household representatives were conducted using a designed questionnaire. The questionnaire focused on information regarding the households’ NTFP utilization habits and engagement in CFM processes. A forest survey was conducted which found that there were 197 plant species, 144 genera, and 62 families in the community forest. Of these, 160 plant species were classified as having medicinal uses, 89 were used as food, 37 as extractives, 32 for firewood, and 12 for fibers. This study also revealed that unmonitored over-exploitation of NTFPs may negatively impact forest biodiversity. As surveyed, 68.55% of households depended on NTFPs. The value of the harvested NTFPs was 6.35% of the total community income. A positive correlation between NTFP income and CFM suggests that utilization of NTFPs combined with CFM can create income opportunities and promote participation in CFM. In addition, income earned from NTFPs and participation in CFM were directly related to the socio-economics of identifiable groups in this community. Laborers, merchants, and low-income families utilized NTFPs to a lesser degree. Single people, household heads, those with a bachelor’s degree, and low income families were less likely to participate in CFM while land owners were more likely to do so. This study implies that the harvesting of NTFPs should not go unchecked, especially of species that are threatened or likely to be threatened if over-harvested. Efforts to enhance lower income household utilization, to more equitably distribute the benefits, and to incentivize community involvement should be prioritized as doing so is crucial to maintaining a healthy supply of NTFPs and safeguarding the community forest biodiversity.
The role of diverse agricultural landscapes in biodiversity conservation and food-system resilience: Workshop report
Sharing Knowledge and Value for Nurturing Socioecological Production Landscapes: A Case of Payment for Ecosystem Services in Rejoso Watershed, Indonesia
Socioecological production landscapes (SEPLS) are multifunctional and substantially contribute to biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service provisions. Payment for ecosystem services (PES) is a policy tool that incentivizes landholders in production landscapes through voluntary and performance-based conservation contracts towards creating SEPLS that benefit all societies living within landscape. The design of PES covers explicitly defining ecological baselines of targeted landscape, calculating conservation opportunity costs, customizing contract agreement and payment modalities, and targeting agents with credible land claims and threats to ecosystem service degradation. Reverse auction represents a method to efficiently allocate contracts for the provision of ecosystem services in PES schemes. The PES gains allocative efficiency as contracts are allocated to the lowest-cost providers of ecosystem services through competitive bidding. In the context of developing countries, conservation contracts of PES scheme are mostly assigned to farming groups. Thus, a group-level auction was organized to accommodate collective decision-making in payment level for the scheme. This chapter is to discuss how group-level auctions enhance allocative efficiency due to sharing process during the auctions compared to the individual-level auction. A group auction allows exchanging and sharing knowledge, information and conservation values among farmer group members. The analysis shows that by allowing the group members to communicate with each other, sharing knowledge and value happened. This knowledge and value sharing encompasses how they understand the competitive bidding process, how their bids can influence the overall outcomes of winning or losing the conservation contracts, and the most importantly, how farmers share their conservation values as agricultural conservation efforts of PES not only benefit the external actors but also co-benefits themselves. This chapter presents the results from a PES pilot in Rejoso watershed, Indonesia, where smallholders in the up- and midstream are contributing to better watershed services, i.e. water infiltration and sedimentation reduction, to benefit downstream domestic and industrial water users.
Ethnobotanical survey of wild edible plants used by Baka people in southeastern Cameroon
Forest inhabitants worldwide, and indigenous people especially, have depended for generations on plants and animals harvested in these ecosystems. A number of Baka hunter-gatherer populations in south-eastern Cameroon became sedentarised in the 1950s, but still rely on hunting and gathering to meet their basic needs. The use of wild edible plants (WEP) by these communities remains largely undocumented. In this study, we record the diversity of WEP used by Baka people in dense rainforests in the Mintom region. The area still contains relatively undisturbed forest expanses, just south of the Dja Biosphere Reserve, one of the most important protected areas in the Congo Basin. We conducted two ethnobotanical surveys in 2019 in four villages on the Mintom road. In the first survey, we interviewed a total of 73 individuals to determine WEP usage. In our second survey, we specifically quantified WEP harvested and consumed daily in a number of households over a 2-week period during the major rainy season, when use of forest products is highest. Specimens of all recorded plants were collected and identified at the National Herbarium of Cameroon. We documented 88 plant species and 119 unique species/plant organ/recipes in 1519 different citations. A total of 61 genera and 43 families were noted. Excluding 14 unidentified wild yam species, 17 WEP species had not been reported in previous ethnobotanical surveys of the Baka. Our results showed that cultivated starchy plant foods make up a significant proportion of our study population’s daily nutritional intake. A high diversity of WEP is consumed by the studied Baka communities. The study area is likely to be significant in terms of WEP diversity since 18 out of the 30 “key” non-timber forest products, NTFP, in Cameroon were mentioned. Documentation of the use of WEP by indigenous communities is vital to ensure the continuity of traditional knowledge and future food security.
Land use management by smallholders’ households as a promising way for synergies between the Rio Conventions
Land use management by smallholders’ households in dry landscapes can be an important entry point for contending desertification, climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation. Strategies employed by these households to address land use problems can bring together efforts of the three Rio conventions. Identifying the typology of the current land use can lead to understand how biomass can be managed toward climate change mitigation efforts such as Clean Development Mechanism and Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation including conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks. From this perspective, a survey of 598 households in six divisions in the Far North Cameroon was conducted using a semi-structured questionnaire. This study reveals six main land uses, some of which overlap: cropped field (managed by 95% of local households), grassland (34%), settlements (28%) and forest lands (76%) that significantly contribute to local livelihoods. Non-timber forest products, fuelwoods, timbers and fodders are the main products provided by these land uses. Besides the products, some management practices including agroforestry, urban and peri-urban forestry and forest plantation have been identified to contribute to combat desertification and conserve biodiversity and climate change mitigation and adaptation in this semi-arid area of Cameroon.
Non-Wood Forest Products for Improved Nutrition, Livelihoods and Biodiversity
Nesting trends and predation risks among yellow-spotted river turtles in Essequibo River Basin
The yellow-spotted river turtle (Podocnemis unifilis), inhabiting Amazon, Orinoco, and Essequibo River basins, is classified as vulnerable due to historical exploitation and current threats. Efforts have been made throughout the Amazon basin to understand the ecology of yellow-spotted river turtles and implement conservation measures, but the Essequibo River basin located in Guyana, remains the least studied part of the geographical range of the species. In this study we present data collected over a three-year period from 2020 to 2023, as part of a community driven conservation program by Yupukari village, in the North Rupununi, Guyana. We describe the nesting behavior of P. unifilis,and assess predation of eggs in the wild. A total number of nests in 9 beaches ranging from 59 (in 2021) to 76 (in 2023) (in averge 6.68 nest/beach, and 14.2 nests per ha) with an average number of 20.45 eggs per nest. Nesting locations were found to be predominantly situated within 1–20 m from the river, in proximity to vegetation, and on fine sand, with temperatures consistently falling within the 27–29 degrees Celsius range. Importantly, this study unravels the critical issue of nest predation, with lizards, human, and the birds emerging as the primary culprits, impacting nests located closer to vegetation to a greater extent. All nests in sites which potentially would be flooded were moved for a hatchery in the community of Yupukari in which the hatching success reached 83%.