No description available.

In the first essay of this dissertation, I argue that much of the observed variation in national climate change mitigation levels can be explained by a combination of national interests and the strategic constraints of the collective action problem. Specifically, the interactions between state costs and benefits and state size, a proxy for invulnerability to free-riding, strongly predict observed variation in national yearly emissions. I derive this hypothesis and connect it to extant literature with a theoretical framework that interrelates state climate change mitigation interests, preferences, behaviors, and outcomes. I test the hypothesis by predicting the difference between real emissions changes and a novel estimate for counterfactual emissions changes. The theoretical framework and the counterfactual estimation methodology developed in this paper will facilitate future work on climate mitigation politics, from both international and domestic politics approaches. In the second essay, I analyze the design of major climate change mitigation treaties, and outline how reliance on collective reciprocity undermines their ability to enforce participation and compliance. Collective reciprocity is limited in its ability to induce high cost actions among large numbers of states. I demonstrate this challenge with an empirical approach that first estimates treaty participation and then estimates compliance by comparing signatory emissions to a synthetic control that weights for both treatment propensity and pre-treatment trends. I find no evidence of success in climate treaties thus far, underlining the tensions in collective reciprocity designs and indicating the need for an alternative approach. In the third essay, I develop a novel institutional theory of long-term environmental good provision, particularly forest conservation. Long-term goods, or those for which payoffs are delayed or spread over time, are more likely to be provided by states with long-term institutions, or those with low discount rates and inter-temporal commitment mechanisms. Leveraging recent institutional theories, I argue that party institutionalization lengthens institutional time horizons while constraints on the executive allows inter-temporal commitment. Both features therefore predict long-term environmental good provision. Environmental goods are frequently long term because feedback from ecological systems creates tipping points or vicious cycles, meaning that current actions may be costless today but contribute to significant damage in future periods. Understanding the implications of the inter-temporal nature of many environmental goods is especially important because a large share of environmental goods, such as forest conservation, are not explained by traditional approaches which focus on public goods models for symmetric and non-excludable goods. I test my theory with cross-national time-series data on forest coverage, demonstrating that forest protection is not predicted by public goods theory but is well predicted by long-term institutions.

Thesis (PhD (Forest and Wood Science))—University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Developing sustainable mechanisms for use-management of forest products by user communities has been suggested as a possible solution to the often-observed conflict between forest use and the conservation of protected forests. In Zimbabwe, the use of forest products in protected forests by local communities has a long history, but few studies have explored both the socio-economic and ecological aspects of this use. This study was conducted in the Baikiaea plurijuga forests and woodlands in and around Fuller Forest in western Zimbabwe, protected since 1943. It explored the characteristics and dynamics of forest products use by communities surrounding this protected forest. Further, the demography and dynamics of commonly harvested woody species was examined in order to establish the present status of populations of these species. This examination, focusing on diameter class distributions, was aimed at informing whether species populations were expanding, stable or declining in view of their capacity to continue providing required goods and services. Results indicated that all households, rich and poor, were harvesting at least some forest resources from the protected forest, with the most frequently harvested resources being firewood, wood for curios, thatch grass, wild fruits, timber for construction and fencing and those who owned livestock used the forest for livestock grazing. The extraction and use of 23 different products was recorded across the villages. The top five harvested forest products in terms of the mean proportion of households using them were fuelwood, building poles, thatch grass, wild fruits and broom grass. Forest products were harvested both for own consumption and for sale. At present Baikiaea plurijuga, Colophospermum mopane, Brachystegia spiciformis, Diplorhynchus condylocarpon, Commiphora mocambicensis and Bauhinia petersiana out of 14 commonly harvested species appear to have relatively stable populations as indicated by their inverse J-shaped diameter class distribution profiles. Preliminary indications from this baseline information point towards the successful integration of local use of forest products and conservation objectives noting that there is need for caution until further studies as recommended in this study are taken.

Thesis (PhD (Forest and Wood Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / This study aims at examining technical and institutional capacity in local organisations to manage decentralised forest resources in Uganda. Specifically the study assessed the roles, responsibilities, powers and legal instruments, incentives, facilities and human and fiscal resources of local organisations to undertake decentralised forest governance. Semistructured and key informant interviews were conducted in local organisations and legal and policy documents reviewed to ascertain strategies for implementing decentralised forestry. An inventory of selected forests was conducted to assess effect of decentralisation policy on the condition of forests in Uganda. Chi-square tests were used to show the factors that motivate local organisations to participate in decentralised forest governance. Tree species diversity and richness, density, diameter at breast height and basal area and sings of human disturbance were used to compare the condition of forests under local government and those under private and central government ownership. Similarity between the forests was assessed using a Two Way INdicator SPecies Analysis, while the differences in the composition and structural characteristics of trees among forest ownership categories were compared by oneway analysis of variance. Multiple regression analysis was used to show the influence of household pressure, forest size, the distance of the forest from roads and forest administrative office, and the market demand of the forest produce on the capacity of forest agencies to regulate timber harvesting. The findings reveals that local organisations supported devolved forest management functions such as forest monitoring, tree planting, environmental education, networking, collaborative and integrated planning, resource mobilisation and formulation of byelaws. The role of forestry in the livelihoods of the people, the desire to control forest degradation and access to forest revenue, donor and central government fiscal support were the most important incentives in decentralised forest management. However, limited capacity in terms of qualified staff, funds, facilities and equipment and inadequate decision-making powers over fiscal resources from forestry, inequitable distribution of forest revenue and unclear forest and tree tenure hindered decentralised forest management. The diversity and richness indices, density, diameter at breast height and basal area of trees were significantly higher in central forest reserves, intermediate in private and lower in local forest reserves. The frequency of human disturbances was significantly higher in local forest reserves than in private and central forest reserves. The variation in composition and structure of the local forest reserves is partly attributed to human disturbances. The capacity of the forest agencies to regulate forest resources use in the Mpigi forests was significantly affected by the size of forest, and its location in relation to the well-maintained roads, forest administrative office and the number of households in close proximity and the market demand of the forest produce. Large forests in close proximity to densely populated areas and far a way from roads and the forest administrative office were more affected by timber harvesting. The results demonstrated that local governments are not yet efficient in monitoring and regulating forest use and maintaining the condition of forests in Uganda. Local organisations need to play an increased role in the implementation of the Forest Policy, the National Forestry and Tree Planting and the Local Government Acts for successful decentralisation of forest management and to recruit more technical staff, strengthen internal sources of revenue and develop integrated forestry work plans. There is also a need for the central government to integrate and co-ordinate local and central interests, and facilitate a working relationship with local governments, civil society and the private sector involved in forestry. Forest owners and managers in the Mpigi forests and Ugandaâ s tropical forests in general need to manage human impacts so as to balance utilisation and conservation forest resources. There is need for longterm studies to fully understand the real significance of ownership on the composition and structure of the Mpigi forests and forests in other districts of Uganda.

Tropical forests are under continual threat due to deforestation and forest fragmentation processes which are driven by the economic activities growth, mainly agriculture. Replacing forest with other land uses can cause severe impacts on river water quality, altering its physical, chemical and biological characteristics. The Atlantic Forest, in particular, had its original vegetation cover reduced to about 11%, wherein the crop lands expansion and urban sprawl still threatening this important ecosystem and the ecosystem services that it provides. In this sense, the main objective of this study was to investigate the relation between forest cover and water quality of tropical agricultural watersheds. For that, six experimental watersheds with different percentage of forest cover were selected in the Sarapuí River watershed, State of São Paulo, Brazil. Water samples were collected during a hydrologic year to obtain water quality parameters that represent impacts induced by anthropic activities. According to the percentage of forest cover, the watersheds were denominated as \"forested\", when they presented more than 55% of forest cover, and \"degraded\", with less than 35%. Multivariate statistical models were applied to identify differences between these two groups. In a second moment, the relation of land use/land cover within the watershed and within its respective riparian zone, represented in this study by the Permanent Preservation Areas (PPA), with water quality was compared through mixed models and redundancy analysis to identify the main factors that influenced water quality variability. Lastly, a watershed simulation modeling was applied to verify the impact of riparian forest restoration on water quality of the Sarapuí River watershed, wherein each experimental watershed was represented by a sub-watershed in the model. The results showed that the degraded watersheds presented higher values of solids, turbidity, nutrients and coliforms, besides presenting greater temporal data variability compared to forested watersheds. This variation is associated with the stream flow changes during the year. In general, forest cover was related to good water quality, while agriculture and urban areas were responsible for the water quality degradation. Pasture presented mixed impacts, but it was not generally correlated with poor water quality. The water quality parameters responded differently to the influence of land-use/land-cover patterns in the watershed and riparian zone, but the overall water quality is better explained by the landscape composition within the watershed. Nevertheless, the watershed simulation indicated that PPA restoration reduces the sediment and nutrients loading into the river. Thus, it is possible to conclude that tropical forest plays a fundamental role in the water resources conservation, reducing impacts of human activities in watersheds and the watershed management with forest restoration strategies for the entire watershed is critical for the maintenance of water quality to water supply, despite the importance of the riparian zone. / As florestas tropicais estão sob constante ameaça devido ao processo de desmatamento e fragmentação florestal impulsionado pelo crescimento das atividades econômicas, em especial, a agricultura. A substituição de áreas florestadas por outros usos do solo pode causar impactos severos na qualidade da água de rios, alterando suas características físicas, químicas e biológicas. A Mata Atlântica, em especial, teve sua cobertura original reduzida a cerca de 11%, sendo que a expansão de terras cultiváveis e urbanização ainda ameaçam esse importante ecossistema e os serviços ecossistêmicos prestados por ele. Nesse sentido, este estudo propôs investigar a relação da cobertura florestal com a qualidade da água de microbacias agrícolas tropicais. Para tanto, foram selecionadas seis microbacias experimentais com diferentes porcentagens de cobertura florestal na bacia do rio Sarapuí, Estado de São Paulo, Brasil, onde foram feitas coletas de amostras de água por um ano hidrológico para a obtenção de parâmetros que representassem alterações na água induzidas por atividades antrópicas. Inicialmente as microbacias foram classificadas em \"florestadas\" e \"degradadas\", e modelos estatísticos multivariados foram aplicados para identificar diferenças entre os grupos. Em um segundo momento comparou-se a relação do uso e cobertura do solo na microbacia e na Área de Preservação Permanente (APP) com a qualidade da água utilizando-se modelos mistos e análise de redundância para identificar os principais fatores que influenciam a variabilidade da qualidade da água. Por último foi gerado um modelo hidrológico para simular o impacto da restauração da floresta ripária na qualidade da água da bacia do rio Sarapuí onde cada microbacia experimental desse estudo foi representada por uma sub-bacia do modelo. Os resultados mostram que as microbacias degradadas apresentam valores maiores de sólidos, turbidez, nutrientes e coliformes. Além disso, apresentam maior variabilidade temporal dos dados em relação às microbacias florestadas associada às alterações da vazão do rio. Em geral, a cobertura florestal foi relacionada à boa qualidade da água, enquanto que agricultura e ocupação urbana foram os usos do solo responsáveis pela degradação da qualidade da água. O uso pastagem apresentou impactos mistos, porém no geral não foi correlacionado à qualidade da água ruim. Os parâmetros de qualidade da água responderam de forma diferente quanto à influência dos padrões de uso e cobertura do solo na microbacia e na APP, porém, considerando-se todos parâmetros em conjunto, a qualidade da água é melhor explicada pela composição da paisagem da microbacia. Ainda assim, a simulação do modelo indicou que a restauração das APPs reduz a carga de sedimentos e nutrientes para o rio. Com isso, conclui-se que a floresta tropical tem papel fundamental na conservação dos recursos hídricos, reduzindo impactos das atividades humanas exercidas nas microbacias e que, apesar da importância das APPs na redução de poluentes para o rio, o manejo de bacias com estratégias de restauração florestal para toda a microbacia é extremamente importante para a manutenção da qualidade da água para abastecimento.

<p>U&nbsp; radu&nbsp; je&nbsp; analizirano&nbsp; gazdovanje&nbsp; &scaron;umama&nbsp; u&nbsp; za&scaron;tićenim&nbsp; područjima&nbsp; u&nbsp; Srbiji,<br />posmatrajući:&nbsp; 1)&nbsp; ekolo&scaron;ke&nbsp; efekte&nbsp; gazdovanja,&nbsp; i&nbsp; 2)&nbsp; procese&nbsp; prilagođavanja&nbsp; gazdovanja&nbsp; konzervacionim&nbsp; potrebama.&nbsp; Povr&scaron;ina&nbsp; za&scaron;tićenih&nbsp; područja&nbsp; je&nbsp; značajno&nbsp; porasla,&nbsp; ali&nbsp; ima malo&nbsp; informacija o njihovom doprinosu u realizaciji konzervacionih&nbsp; ciljeva. Po&scaron;to se u većini za&scaron;tićenih &scaron;umskih područja u Evropi aktivno gazduje, i dozvoljeno je kori&scaron;ćenje drvne&nbsp; biomase,&nbsp; informacije&nbsp; o&nbsp; efektima&nbsp; gazdovanja&nbsp; su&nbsp; neophodne.&nbsp; Glavna&nbsp; barijera&nbsp; u ekolo&scaron;kim&nbsp; evaluacijama&nbsp; gazdovanja&nbsp; je&nbsp; nepostojanje&nbsp; indikatora&nbsp; kojima&nbsp; bi&nbsp; se&nbsp; mogle izmeriti promene u ekosistemu, a&nbsp; koje&nbsp; nastaju kao rezultat primenjenih mera&nbsp; gazdovanja. Poslednjih&nbsp; godina&nbsp; se&nbsp; sve&nbsp; vi&scaron;e&nbsp; ističe&nbsp; potencijal&nbsp; primene&nbsp; funkcionalnih&nbsp; indikatora,&nbsp; tj. indikatora&nbsp; koji&nbsp; se&nbsp; oslanjaju&nbsp; na&nbsp; informacije&nbsp; o&nbsp; funkcionalnim&nbsp; karakteristikama&nbsp; vrsta.&nbsp; U radu je stoga primenjen funkcionalni pristup za analizu ekolo&scaron;kog efekta gazdovanja. U te&nbsp; svrhe&nbsp; su&nbsp; odabrane&nbsp; karakteristike&nbsp; koje&nbsp; se&nbsp; povezuju&nbsp; sa&nbsp; sposobno&scaron;ću&nbsp; vrsta&nbsp; za&nbsp; brzo<br />usvajanje&nbsp; ili konzervisanje resursa, tj.&nbsp; određuju odgovor vrsta na promene u dostupnim resursima, a koje, na primer,&nbsp; nastaju usled uklanjanja drvne biomase: visina, specifična povr&scaron;ina lista, sadržaj suve materije lista, sadržaj ukupnog azota i ukupnog fosfora. Iste se&nbsp; dovode&nbsp; i&nbsp; u&nbsp; vezu&nbsp; sa&nbsp; primarnom&nbsp; produktivno&scaron;ću&nbsp; i&nbsp; dekompozicijom,&nbsp; procesima&nbsp; od značaja&nbsp; za&nbsp; očuvanje&nbsp; integriteta&nbsp; ekosistema.&nbsp; Po&scaron;to&nbsp; analiza&nbsp; odgovora&nbsp; funkcionalnih indikatora&nbsp; zahteva&nbsp; duži&nbsp; vremenski&nbsp; period&nbsp; posmatranja,&nbsp; u&nbsp; radu&nbsp; je&nbsp; osmi&scaron;ljen&nbsp; drugačiji pristup za izvođenje eksperimenta. U te svrhe su iskori&scaron;ćeni Landsat satelitski snimci, tj. tri snimka sa vremenskim razmakom od 10 godina: 1994.,&nbsp; 2005. i 2015. godina. Izvr&scaron;ena je&nbsp; digitalna&nbsp; klasifikacija&nbsp; snimaka&nbsp; prema&nbsp; sastavu&nbsp; &scaron;uma,&nbsp; nakon&nbsp; čega&nbsp; su&nbsp; detektovane promene&nbsp; u&nbsp; sastavu&nbsp; &scaron;uma&nbsp; za&nbsp; period&nbsp; od&nbsp; ukupno&nbsp; 20&nbsp; godina.&nbsp; Ovi&nbsp; podaci&nbsp; su&nbsp; spojeni&nbsp; sa podacima&nbsp; o&nbsp;&nbsp; funkcionalnim&nbsp; karakteristikama&nbsp; vrsta,&nbsp; kako&nbsp; bi&nbsp; se&nbsp; utvrdile&nbsp; promene&nbsp; u funkcionalnoj kompoziciji. Poslednji korak je bio formiranje modela &scaron;umske krune, kroz koji&nbsp; je&nbsp; određen&nbsp; intenzitet&nbsp; seče.&nbsp; Koristeći&nbsp; podatke&nbsp; o&nbsp; promenama&nbsp; u&nbsp; gustini&nbsp; krune&nbsp; i<br />promenama&nbsp; u&nbsp; funkcionalnoj&nbsp; kompoziciji,&nbsp; sproveden&nbsp; je&nbsp; eksperiment,&nbsp; tj.&nbsp; analiza&nbsp; efekta različitih&nbsp; nivoa&nbsp; intenziteta&nbsp; seče&nbsp; na&nbsp; promene&nbsp; u&nbsp; funkcionisanju&nbsp; &scaron;umskog&nbsp; ekosistema.&nbsp; Za sprovođenje ovog eksperimenta je odabran samo jedan deo Fru&scaron;ke gore, jer je cilj bio da se osmisli&nbsp; pristup za evaluaciju, prilagođen trenutnom konceptu gazdovan ja za&scaron;tićenim &scaron;umskim&nbsp; područjima,&nbsp; i&nbsp; ispita&nbsp; njegova&nbsp; praktičnost.&nbsp; Kao&nbsp; propratni&nbsp; podatak&nbsp; ovoj&nbsp; analizi, sprovedena&nbsp; je&nbsp; i&nbsp; komparativna&nbsp; analiza&nbsp; upravljača&nbsp; za&scaron;tićenih&nbsp; &scaron;umskih&nbsp; područja&nbsp; u&nbsp; Srbiji, kako&nbsp; bi&nbsp; se&nbsp; ispitao&nbsp; nivo&nbsp; ulaganja&nbsp; u&nbsp; konzervacione&nbsp; sposobnosti,&nbsp; kao&nbsp; ključnog&nbsp; procesa&nbsp; u implementaciji&nbsp;&nbsp; konzervacionih&nbsp; ciljeva.&nbsp; U&nbsp; digitalnoj&nbsp; klasifikaciji&nbsp; je&nbsp; postignuta&nbsp; visokapreciznost,&nbsp; sa&nbsp; ukupnom&nbsp; precizno&scaron;ću&nbsp; 94,5%&nbsp; i&nbsp; Kapa&nbsp; koeficijentom&nbsp; 0,93.&nbsp; Potpuno spektralno razdvajanje je postignuto samo za&nbsp; <em>Q. petraea&nbsp;</em> od<em> Tilia tomentosa</em>, i&nbsp; sastojina u<br />kojima se kao dominantne pojavljuju <em>F. silvatica i Tilia tomentosa</em>. Utvđeno je prodiranje<em> F.&nbsp; moesiaca&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </em>u&nbsp; &scaron;ume&nbsp; <em>Q.&nbsp; petraea,&nbsp;</em> i&nbsp; apsolutno&nbsp; &scaron;irenje&nbsp; vrste&nbsp; <em>Tilia&nbsp; tomentosa,</em>&nbsp; posebno&nbsp; u periodu&nbsp; nakon&nbsp; 2005.&nbsp; godine,&nbsp; a&nbsp; koja&nbsp; prema&nbsp; podacima&nbsp; o&nbsp; karakteristikama&nbsp; vrsta&nbsp; ima najveću&nbsp; kompetetivnu&nbsp; sposobnost&nbsp; u&nbsp; odnosu&nbsp; na&nbsp; druge&nbsp; ispitivane&nbsp; vrste&nbsp; drveća.&nbsp; Rezultati modela gustine krune ukazuju na postepeno proređivanje &scaron;ume od 1994. ka 2015. godini, sa&nbsp; potpunim&nbsp; nestankom&nbsp; &scaron;uma&nbsp; guste&nbsp; krune&nbsp; na&nbsp; prelazu&nbsp; između&nbsp; 1994.&nbsp; i&nbsp; 2005.&nbsp; godine. Utvrđen je značajan efekat proređivanja &scaron;ume na promene u funkcionalnoj kompoziciji. Sa&nbsp; vi&scaron;im&nbsp; intenzitetom&nbsp; proređivanja,&nbsp; CWM&nbsp; indikator&nbsp; se&nbsp; pomerio&nbsp; od&nbsp; konzervativnih karakteristika ka onima koje ukazuju na dominaciju vrsta sklonih brzom sticanju resursa. Prelaz&nbsp; koji&nbsp; je&nbsp; imao&nbsp; značajnog&nbsp; efekta&nbsp; na&nbsp; promene&nbsp; je&nbsp; prelaz&nbsp; iz&nbsp; &scaron;ume&nbsp; sa&nbsp; gustinom&nbsp; krune većom&nbsp; od&nbsp; 65%&nbsp; u&nbsp; &scaron;umu&nbsp; gustine&nbsp; krune&nbsp; između&nbsp; 50-65%,&nbsp; a&nbsp; &scaron;to&nbsp; bi&nbsp; moglo&nbsp; ukazivati&nbsp; i&nbsp; na prelaz u drugi režim funkcionisanja&nbsp; ekosistema.&nbsp; Konzervacioni ciljevi su jo&scaron; uvek slabo integrisani u gazdovanje &scaron;umama u za&scaron;tićenim područjima.</p> / <p>In&nbsp; this&nbsp; work,&nbsp; the&nbsp; forest&nbsp; management&nbsp;&nbsp; in&nbsp; protected&nbsp; areas&nbsp; of&nbsp; Serbia&nbsp; was&nbsp; analysed, following:&nbsp; 1)&nbsp; ecologic&nbsp; effects&nbsp; of&nbsp; management&nbsp; and&nbsp; 2)&nbsp; investments&nbsp; in&nbsp; capabilities essential&nbsp; for&nbsp; integration&nbsp; of&nbsp; conservation&nbsp; objectives.&nbsp; The&nbsp; size&nbsp; of&nbsp; protected&nbsp; areas&nbsp; has significantly&nbsp; grown,&nbsp; but&nbsp; there&nbsp; is&nbsp; a&nbsp; little&nbsp; information&nbsp; on&nbsp; their&nbsp; contribution&nbsp; to&nbsp; real conservation&nbsp; goals.&nbsp; Since&nbsp; in&nbsp; most&nbsp; of&nbsp; European&nbsp; protected&nbsp; forest&nbsp; areas&nbsp; is&nbsp; employed active management, the information on ecological&nbsp; effects of management&nbsp; is necessary. The&nbsp; main&nbsp; barrier&nbsp; in&nbsp; ecologic&nbsp; evaluations&nbsp; of&nbsp; managing&nbsp; is&nbsp; the&nbsp; absence&nbsp; of&nbsp; indicators, which&nbsp; could&nbsp; measure&nbsp; the&nbsp; changes&nbsp; in&nbsp; ecosystem,&nbsp; resulting&nbsp; from&nbsp; applied&nbsp; measures. Recently, the potentiality of&nbsp; functional indicators is more&nbsp; emphasized, i.e. indicators, which lean on information about functional traits of species. So, in this work functional approach&nbsp; was&nbsp; taken&nbsp; to&nbsp; analyse&nbsp; ecologic&nbsp; effects&nbsp; of&nbsp; forest&nbsp; management.&nbsp; For&nbsp; this&nbsp; sake were chosen characteristics, which are connected to capabilities of specie s to acquire or&nbsp; conserve&nbsp; resources,&nbsp; i.e.&nbsp; define&nbsp; the&nbsp; answer&nbsp; of&nbsp; the&nbsp; species&nbsp; on&nbsp; changes&nbsp; in&nbsp; available resources,&nbsp; caused&nbsp; by&nbsp; elimination&nbsp; of&nbsp; wooden&nbsp; mass,&nbsp; i.e.&nbsp; logging:&nbsp; height,&nbsp; specific&nbsp; leaf area, leaf dry matter cont ent, nitrogen content and&nbsp; phosphorus&nbsp; content. The same are connected to the processes of significance for conservation of ecosystem integrity&nbsp; (net primary&nbsp; productivity&nbsp; and&nbsp; decomposition).&nbsp; Since&nbsp; the&nbsp; analysis&nbsp; of&nbsp; functional&nbsp; indicators response&nbsp; demands&nbsp; a&nbsp; longer&nbsp; period&nbsp; of&nbsp; observation,&nbsp; another&nbsp; attitude of&nbsp; performing&nbsp; the experiment was conceptualized. For that purpose Landsat&nbsp; satellite&nbsp; image was&nbsp; used,&nbsp; i.e. three&nbsp; images&nbsp; in&nbsp; interval&nbsp; of&nbsp; ten&nbsp; years:&nbsp; 1994,&nbsp; 2005,&nbsp; and&nbsp; 2015.&nbsp; A&nbsp; digital&nbsp; image classification of&nbsp; forest composition was&nbsp; performed, after which the&nbsp; changes&nbsp; in&nbsp; forest composition&nbsp; were&nbsp; detected&nbsp; over&nbsp; the&nbsp; period&nbsp; of&nbsp; 20&nbsp; years.&nbsp; These&nbsp; data&nbsp; were&nbsp; then connected with the data on functional characteristics of species to determine changes in functional composition.&nbsp;&nbsp; The last step&nbsp; was forming of forest canopy&nbsp; density model, through&nbsp; which&nbsp; was&nbsp; determined&nbsp; the&nbsp; intensity&nbsp; of&nbsp; logging.&nbsp; Using&nbsp; data&nbsp; on&nbsp; changes&nbsp; of forest&nbsp; canopy&nbsp; density&nbsp; model&nbsp; and&nbsp; changes&nbsp; in&nbsp; functional&nbsp; composition,&nbsp; an&nbsp; experiment was&nbsp; performed,&nbsp; i.e.&nbsp; analysis&nbsp; of&nbsp; effects&nbsp; of&nbsp; different&nbsp; levels&nbsp; of&nbsp; logging&nbsp; intensity&nbsp; on changes&nbsp; in&nbsp; forest&nbsp; ecosystem&nbsp; function.&nbsp; For&nbsp; the&nbsp; performing&nbsp; of&nbsp; this&nbsp; experiment&nbsp; was chosen&nbsp; just&nbsp; a&nbsp; part&nbsp; of&nbsp; Fruska&nbsp; gora,&nbsp; as&nbsp; the&nbsp; goal&nbsp; was&nbsp; to&nbsp;&nbsp; try&nbsp; to&nbsp; construct the&nbsp; evaluation approach,&nbsp; adapted to&nbsp; momentary&nbsp; concept of&nbsp; managing&nbsp; in&nbsp; protected&nbsp; forest&nbsp; areas&nbsp; and inspect&nbsp; its&nbsp; feasibility.&nbsp; As&nbsp; an&nbsp;&nbsp; accompanying&nbsp; data&nbsp; with&nbsp; this&nbsp; analysis&nbsp; was&nbsp; performed&nbsp; a comparative&nbsp; analysis&nbsp; of protected forest area managers&nbsp; in Serbia, to&nbsp; examine&nbsp; the level of&nbsp; investments&nbsp; in&nbsp; conservation&nbsp; capabilities,&nbsp; as&nbsp; the&nbsp; key&nbsp; process&nbsp; in&nbsp; implementing conservation goals.</p>

No description available.

The forests of the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, famous for their extent in antiquity, were described as severely damaged by misuse over the preceding centuries at the time of the British arrival on the island in 1878. The British colonial authorities sought to remedy this "degradation", and their success in doing so before their departure in 1960 has seldom been questioned. This dissertation examines this accepted history of the colonial period by utilizing archival, ethnographic, and physical data and focusing upon the British impact on the landscape as well as the relationship between the British authorities and the Cypriot people. This reappraisal suggests several points. The British approached the Cypriot forests with certain misunderstandings and misconceptions in 1878. They believed that the majority of the forested areas on the island were unregulated commons, which they were not. They further misread the landscape by assuming that its appearance, quite different from that of a humid and temperate biome, indicated degradation. Within these concerns of degradation, they misinterpreted the Cypriot rural economy by holding that shepherds and agriculturalists did not and could not mix. These misunderstandings of Mediterranean ecology, combined with prevailing ideas for good forest management and agricultural intensification, and hampered by inadequate budgets, resulted in policies that did not initially "return" the forests to any imagined state of past verdure, and may instead have been harmful in certain aspects. Yet the British officials did not behave according to traditional stereotypes of colonial rulers either. The actions of many of the colonial foresters were not solely driven by a desire for instant profit; instead the majority consistently attempted to maintain and ameliorate the forests both for indirect ecosystem benefits (which they recognized would be remunerative to the island as a whole, even if not immediately to the department) and direct benefits of timber production. The meticulous records in the archives display a concern with doing what was best for the forests and for the people, which inevitably led to conflicts as to what was "fair" for the forest and "fair" for the inhabitants, however defined. / text

Recent research has emphasized the importance of understanding the consequences of species loss, not just for biodiversity per se, but also for ecosystem resilience and functioning. Firstly, a baseline analysis of the effects of a naturally patchy landscape on avian community composition and resilience in a high altitude Afrotemperate forest landscape in South Africa is presented. Bird data from a point count survey of 706 counts at 31 forest sites was used to test whether taxonomic species diversity, functional species richness and density of birds provide insight into community resilience in this historically patchy ecosystem. Bird species richness of forest patches ranged from 17 to 38, with a total species richness of 50. Density was slightly but negatively related to both area and species richness. That density compensation is occurring in these Afrotemperate forests suggests a level of resilience in this system. Following on from this, cumulative species-area and function-area graphs were derived to quantify the loss of forest area or taxonomic bird species richness that this landscape may potentially sustain before ecosystem functioning is negatively affected. The concept that species’ patterns of distribution, abundance and coexistence are the result of local ecological processes has recently been challenged by evidence that regionalscale processes are equally instrumental in shaping local community composition. The historically and naturally fragmented Afrotemperate forests of the uKhahlamba– Drakensberg Park, South Africa, offer an interesting test case. In this study the relative effects of local and regional-scale processes on species assemblages in a naturally patchy forest system were investigated. By employing species-area and species-isolation relationships, and nested subset analyses, we showed that isolation (regional-scale process) had a greater effect on bird species richness and composition than area (local-scale process), though the species-area relationship was significant. Using generalized linear models and an information-theoretic approach to model selection, patch area, the size of the regional species pool as well as the distance to the nearest Eastern Mistbelt forest were all influential in determining local bird species richness in these montane forests. Thus, localities are regionally enriched within the constraints on species occupancy provided by the available habitat. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.

This thesis addresses the situation of First Nations people in forestry of British Columbia. Aboriginal people in British Columbia have been involved in the forest industry as laborers since the 1850s when the commercial logging operations began in the province, but have been politically and economically marginalized in the industry. The institutional and economic factors not only have restricted aboriginal people to control over forest resources on their traditional lands but have affected their forest management practices. For aboriginal communities, it is a critical issue that protecting old growth forests, with which they are culturally associated, without giving up economic benefit generated from harvesting these forests. In order to suggest possible changes and approaches for shaping native forest management in the existing institutional and economic frameworks, I examined the issues of provincial forestry and analyzed how these issues effect and interact with aboriginal people. It is important but difficult for First Nations to obtain forest tenure because their resource management is related to their land rights. However, the issues of aboriginal people in forestry overlap with those of the province. Thus, perspectives and participation of aboriginal people is critical for the government and the industry. Forestry of British Columbia is in transition and has begun to consider the potential contribution of aboriginal people to sustainable forestry. Therefore, aboriginal people have a significant role to play in the future of forestry.