This course is a pivotal contribution to FAO’s vision of fostering a Better Environment, particularly focusing on Biodiversity for food and agriculture. Aligned with FAO’s strategic initiatives, the course is fortified by the approval of the FAO Strategy on Mainstreaming Biodiversity Across Agricultural Sectors and the 2021-23 Action Plan, emphasizing the importance of targeted policies and practices for sustainable use, conservation, and restoration of ecosystems.
Tag: biodiversity
Learning pathway: Course flows & blueprint
This course is a pivotal contribution to FAO’s vision of fostering a Better Environment, particularly focusing on Biodiversity for food and agriculture. Aligned with FAO’s strategic initiatives, the course is fortified by the approval of the FAO Strategy on Mainstreaming Biodiversity Across Agricultural Sectors and the 2021-23 Action Plan, emphasizing the importance of targeted policies and practices for sustainable use, conservation, and restoration of ecosystems.
Learning pathway: Course flows & blueprint
This course is a pivotal contribution to FAO’s vision of fostering a Better Environment, particularly focusing on Biodiversity for food and agriculture. Aligned with FAO’s strategic initiatives, the course is fortified by the approval of the FAO Strategy on Mainstreaming Biodiversity Across Agricultural Sectors and the 2021-23 Action Plan, emphasizing the importance of targeted policies and practices for sustainable use, conservation, and restoration of ecosystems.
Learning pathway: Course flows & blueprint
This course is a pivotal contribution to FAO’s vision of fostering a Better Environment, particularly focusing on Biodiversity for food and agriculture. Aligned with FAO’s strategic initiatives, the course is fortified by the approval of the FAO Strategy on Mainstreaming Biodiversity Across Agricultural Sectors and the 2021-23 Action Plan, emphasizing the importance of targeted policies and practices for sustainable use, conservation, and restoration of ecosystems.
Replication data for: Developing indicators of economic value and biodiversity loss for rubber plantations in Xishuangbanna, southwest China: A case study from Menglun township.
Xishuangbanna has been largely transformed from biodiverse natural forests and mixed-use farms into monoculture rubber plantations in just twenty years. This conversion has expanded into forests previously protected by the community and onto marginal sites at high-elevation. Market-based ecosystem payments especially carbon financing are potential tools to prevent further forest loss in China. Here we compare rubber net present value (NPV) carbon sequestration and seed-plant species diversity for Xishuangbanna given three land-use scenarios: Business-As-Usual (BAU) Economic Oriented Scenario (EOS) and Conservation Oriented Scenario (COS) using a previously published spatial map of rubber profitabilit y. The EOS achieved the greatest rubber profit but caused substantial reductions in natural forest area biodiversity and carbon stocks. The EOS also requires substantial immigration of workers into a remote and ecologically important region with little social infrastructure for basic security food security health-care and education causing frequently ignored costs. As expected the COS will maintain the highest levels of natural forest area sequester 57% more carbon and 71% more biodiversity than EOS. Given the conservation value of the carbon stores and rich biodiversity residing in Xishuangbanna’s natural forests reducing rubber NPV only marginally would probably cost less than attempting to recover these resources. We recommend that rubber plantations be limited to established productive lowland areas whilst protecting intact high-elevation forest and reforesting low-productivity plantations. These actions will enhance carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation. Management policies focused solely on profits like the EOS scenario will fail to sustain the entire range of natural resources and ecosystem services. The prices in the carbon market would have to be considerably larger than they are currently to compete with the profitability of rubber. (2013-01-01)
Distribution of forest types and changes in their classification
The second largest block of dense moist forest after the Amazon, Central Africa’s forests are an exceptional reservoir of carbon and biodiversity for the countries they cover and the planet as a whole. These forests provide a livelihood to 60 million people and help to feed 40 million more in nearby towns and cities. They play an essential social and cultural role in the lives of indigenous peoples and local communities. The ecological, economic, social and cultural importance of Central Africa’s forests places them at the heart of international discussions aimed at preserving these unique ecosystems, which are vital to the health of the planet.
State of the Forests of The Congo Basin 2021. Facts and figures
The State of the Forests of the Congo Basin (SOF) report is a flagship publication of the Observatory of Forests of Central Africa (OFAC) which provides up-to-date information on the forest ecosystems of Central Africa.
The Forests of the Congo Basin: State of the Forests 2021
The “State of the Forests of the Congo Basin” report is published periodically to present the state of the forest ecosystems of Central Africa and how they are managed. Following the 2015 edition devoted entirely to climate change, the 2021 report takes up several themes and is presented in four parts.
The report begins by examining the state of the resource, which is increasingly recognized across the world as a forest area crucial for carbon sequestration and for the conservation of biological diversity. The Congo Basin forest ecosystems are then put into perspective within the global context of discussions that can guide the management and governance of the entire world’s tropical forests for decades to come. The report then addresses topical issues such as peatland management and the relationship between the biodiversity management and the emergence or re-emergence of zoonotic diseases. And COVID-19 features notably in the chapter on this topic. Finally, the report identifies the main challenges that need to be addressed to achieve sustainable management of forest ecosystems in the Congo Basin, with the goal of ensuring that management contributes to improving the livelihoods and living environment of local communities and indigenous peoples.
Table of contents
Part 1: Central African forests: The state of forest resources and their management
- Distribution of forest types and changes in their classification
- The evolution of the wood subsector in the Congo Basin
- Forest Plantations in Central Africa
- Aligning international financial flows and the COMIFAC Convergence Plan
- Implementation of REDD+ Activities in Central African Countries
Part 2: Congo Basin forests in international discourse
- Mainstreaming the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into Forest Management in Central Africa: current status, challenges and improvement options
- Central African countries’ international commitments on climate changei
- Addressing imported deforestation and zero deforestation commitments
Part 3: Emerging issues for Central African forests
- Peatlands of the Central Congo Basin, current realities and perspectives
- Emergence/Re-emergence of Infectious Agents and Epidemic Risks in Central African Forests
Part 4: Congo Basin forests: Issues and challenges
- Land Use Planning and Impacts on the Sustainable Management of Forest Ecosystems in Central Africa
- Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) in Central Africa
- The rights of local and indigenous peoples in the light of forest and conservation policies
State of the Congo Basin Forests in 2021: Overall conclusions
State of the Congo Basin Forests in 2021: Overall conclusions
This is why the forest ecosystems of the Congo Basin should be subject to equitable and fair agreements between, on the one hand, the States and stakeholders of Central Africa (the direct managers of these resources) and, on the other, the international community (including multinational private sector and philanthropic organizations), which provides the financial means and capacities for the protection and sustainable management of those forest ecosystems.
Communities at the Crossroads: Forest or large-scale monoculture in Kalimantan, Indonesia
The forests of Indonesia are home to globally important biodiversity, perform many ecosystem services on the regional scale and are a source of livelihoods for thousands of local communities, and at the heart of culture and traditional knowledge systems. The forest has also become a battleground where powerful actors of land use change meet with communities who struggle to restore traditional communal rights over natural resources and land. By and large in this process, the forest is disappearing, mostly replaced by large scale agro-development projects. Inspired by the desire to contribute to better protection of forest, local culture and traditional knowledge systems, this thesis is aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of what happens when powerful corporations lay claim to natural resources inhabited by indigenous people, which is a worldwide phenomenon.