Browsing by Author "Clark, Connie"

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    An estimate of the number of tropical tree species.
    (Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2015-06-16) Slik, JW Ferry; Arroyo-Rodríguez, Víctor; Aiba, Shin-Ichiro; Alvarez-Loayza, Patricia; Alves, Luciana F; Ashton, Peter; Balvanera, Patricia; Bastian, Meredith L; Bellingham, Peter J; van den Berg, Eduardo; Bernacci, Luis; da Conceição Bispo, Polyanna; Blanc, Lilian; Böhning-Gaese, Katrin; Boeckx, Pascal; Bongers, Frans; Boyle, Brad; Bradford, Matt; Brearley, Francis Q; Breuer-Ndoundou Hockemba, Mireille; Bunyavejchewin, Sarayudh; Calderado Leal Matos, Darley; Castillo-Santiago, Miguel; Catharino, Eduardo LM; Chai, Shauna-Lee; Chen, Yukai; Colwell, Robert K; Chazdon, Robin L; Clark, Connie; Clark, David B; Clark, Deborah A; Culmsee, Heike; Damas, Kipiro; Dattaraja, Handanakere S; Dauby, Gilles; Davidar, Priya; DeWalt, Saara J; Doucet, Jean-Louis; Duque, Alvaro; Durigan, Giselda; Eichhorn, Karl AO; Eisenlohr, Pedro V; Eler, Eduardo; Ewango, Corneille; Farwig, Nina; Feeley, Kenneth J; Ferreira, Leandro; Field, Richard; de Oliveira Filho, Ary T; Fletcher, Christine; Forshed, Olle; Franco, Geraldo; Fredriksson, Gabriella; Gillespie, Thomas; Gillet, Jean-François; Amarnath, Giriraj; Griffith, Daniel M; Grogan, James; Gunatilleke, Nimal; Harris, David; Harrison, Rhett; Hector, Andy; Homeier, Jürgen; Imai, Nobuo; Itoh, Akira; Jansen, Patrick A; Joly, Carlos A; de Jong, Bernardus HJ; Kartawinata, Kuswata; Kearsley, Elizabeth; Kelly, Daniel L; Kenfack, David; Kessler, Michael; Kitayama, Kanehiro; Kooyman, Robert; Larney, Eileen; Laumonier, Yves; Laurance, Susan; Laurance, William F; Lawes, Michael J; Amaral, Ieda Leao do; Letcher, Susan G; Lindsell, Jeremy; Lu, Xinghui; Mansor, Asyraf; Marjokorpi, Antti; Martin, Emanuel H; Meilby, Henrik; Melo, Felipe PL; Metcalfe, Daniel J; Medjibe, Vincent P; Metzger, Jean Paul; Millet, Jerome; Mohandass, D; Montero, Juan C; de Morisson Valeriano, Márcio; Mugerwa, Badru; Nagamasu, Hidetoshi; Nilus, Reuben; Ochoa-Gaona, Susana; Onrizal; Page, Navendu; Parolin, Pia; Parren, Marc; Parthasarathy, Narayanaswamy; Paudel, Ekananda; Permana, Andrea; Piedade, Maria TF; Pitman, Nigel CA; Poorter, Lourens; Poulsen, Axel D; Poulsen, John; Powers, Jennifer; Prasad, Rama C; Puyravaud, Jean-Philippe; Razafimahaimodison, Jean-Claude; Reitsma, Jan; Dos Santos, João Roberto; Roberto Spironello, Wilson; Romero-Saltos, Hugo; Rovero, Francesco; Rozak, Andes Hamuraby; Ruokolainen, Kalle; Rutishauser, Ervan; Saiter, Felipe; Saner, Philippe; Santos, Braulio A; Santos, Fernanda; Sarker, Swapan K; Satdichanh, Manichanh; Schmitt, Christine B; Schöngart, Jochen; Schulze, Mark; Suganuma, Marcio S; Sheil, Douglas; da Silva Pinheiro, Eduardo; Sist, Plinio; Stevart, Tariq; Sukumar, Raman; Sun, I-Fang; Sunderland, Terry; Suresh, HS; Suzuki, Eizi; Tabarelli, Marcelo; Tang, Jangwei; Targhetta, Natália; Theilade, Ida; Thomas, Duncan W; Tchouto, Peguy; Hurtado, Johanna; Valencia, Renato; van Valkenburg, Johan LCH; Van Do, Tran; Vasquez, Rodolfo; Verbeeck, Hans; Adekunle, Victor; Vieira, Simone A; Webb, Campbell O; Whitfeld, Timothy; Wich, Serge A; Williams, John; Wittmann, Florian; Wöll, Hannsjoerg; Yang, Xiaobo; Adou Yao, C Yves; Yap, Sandra L; Yoneda, Tsuyoshi; Zahawi, Rakan A; Zakaria, Rahmad; Zang, Runguo; de Assis, Rafael L; Garcia Luize, Bruno; Venticinque, Eduardo M
    The high species richness of tropical forests has long been recognized, yet there remains substantial uncertainty regarding the actual number of tropical tree species. Using a pantropical tree inventory database from closed canopy forests, consisting of 657,630 trees belonging to 11,371 species, we use a fitted value of Fisher's alpha and an approximate pantropical stem total to estimate the minimum number of tropical forest tree species to fall between ∼ 40,000 and ∼ 53,000, i.e., at the high end of previous estimates. Contrary to common assumption, the Indo-Pacific region was found to be as species-rich as the Neotropics, with both regions having a minimum of ∼ 19,000-25,000 tree species. Continental Africa is relatively depauperate with a minimum of ∼ 4,500-6,000 tree species. Very few species are shared among the African, American, and the Indo-Pacific regions. We provide a methodological framework for estimating species richness in trees that may help refine species richness estimates of tree-dependent taxa.
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    Effects of National Development and Conservation Strategies on Rural Livelihoods Around Makokou, Gabon
    (2017-04-28) Kovach, Alexis
    Balancing development and conservation is a struggle that all countries face, but is especially difficult in tropical, developing nations. Development activities in these nations often rely on extractive industries to diversify the economies and increase employment, while conservation activities aim to curb deforestation and protect biodiversity. Both activities can positively and negatively affect rural communities that depend upon forest resources to sustain their livelihoods. As extractive industries grow throughout the tropics, development and conservation increasingly collide. It is important, therefore, to identify the approaches that most effectively secure the objectives of each, while respecting and benefitting rural, forest-dependent communities. This study seeks to compare and contrast the effects of development and conservation activities on the livelihoods of rural communities in Gabon, a tropical nation committed to balancing development with conservation, and to help guide decision-makers in the development of socially just and effective approaches. The primary development activities in Gabon consist of logging and industrial agriculture, while conservation efforts are focused around national parks. To determine the effect of these activities on rural communities, I conducted a household level livelihood and perception survey in 135 households in 15 villages around the city of Makokou, Gabon. I collected information on demography, health, social capital, natural resource use and consumption, asset wealth, and income as well as perceptions towards each development and conservation activity. Overall, I found that park households had few employment opportunities and were not able to supplement their income with hunting because hunting pressure from Makokou depleted the resource base and because of small hunting territories limited in size by their proximity to park borders. I found that logging concessions positively affected local livelihoods because they provide both direct employment and the opportunity to supplement income through the commercialization of bushmeat. I also found that industrial agriculture provided significant employment opportunities and seemed to be limiting household level natural resource exploitation. All activities, however, are not making significant strides towards meeting conservation goals. These results highlight the importance of integrating development and conservation activities to secure the livelihoods of rural communities and the viability of species and ecosystems.
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    Local Community Values and Perceptions of Natural Resource Management in Northeast Gabon
    (2017-04-28) Hamilton, Nina
    Conservation and development activities could positively or negatively affect communities dependent upon natural resources to sustain their livelihoods. Yet, community values and priorities are often not considered in landscape-level management decisions. This study pilots the use of value mapping as a means of documenting the importance of forest resources for rural communities living in multi-use forests in northeastern Gabon. Community mapping with a resource prioritization activity, in which participants distribute tokens across the map to score resources by their importance to local livelihoods, was conducted in 10 villages to assess local values and perceived threats to natural resources, and identify potential solutions to address local concerns. Perceptions of forest access and community forests as a community-based environmental management approach were also investigated through surveys and key informant interviews. Findings suggest that crops are the most highly valued resource and communities value a wide range of forest resources. There are significant differences in how men and women value natural resources, closely linked to the traditional roles that each gender plays in natural resource use. Community members identified forests elephants and logging operations as the greatest threats to resources, but put the onus of designing and implementing solutions on the State. Despite an overall positive perception of forest access, satisfaction with forest access increased with distance to the national park. There was widespread awareness among village chiefs about the benefits of community forests for forest protection and community development. However, there remain significant barriers to the establishment of community forests, including the lack of village scale community organizing and technical assistance. To integrate local communities into the decision-making process regarding access rights to natural resources, I recommend prioritizing: (1) mitigation of crop raiding with transition to intensified agriculture, (2) work with forestry operators and NGOs to improve local perceptions of industrial logging operations and promote community forestry, and (3) implement a decentralized approach for communities to access information on and participate in regional land-use decisions. These steps would likely mitigate tension that could derail national conservation and development goals, while promoting strategies that are compatible with both local and national interests.
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    Timber Best Practice Guidelines for Protected Areas Management in Gabon
    (2013-04-23) Winchester, Caroline
    Located in Central Africa, Gabon contains large swaths of tropical forest that are a reserve for an incredible level of plant and animal biodiversity. In order to protect this biodiversity, in 2002 thirteen national parks were created along with buffer zones surrounding these parks. Since 2007 Gabon’s national park agency, L’Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux (ANPN), has been the regulatory body governing both the parks and their associated buffer zones. In recent years, Gabon’s rapidly expanding timber industry has threatened the integrity of these parks. Within buffer zones, timber operators are required to submit environmental impact assessments to ANPN and the Ministry of Environment to demonstrate that timber operations will not negatively impact neighboring parks. However, as of 2012 ANPN lacked guidelines for how timber operations should be conducted in park buffer zones, and thus lacked a mechanism by which to enforce or monitor timber operators for environmental compliance. To help resolve this challenge, I spent a total of thirteen weeks in Gabon as an intern with ANPN. I was assigned the task of developing best practice guideline recommendations for how timber operations should be conducted in national park buffer zones. I also incorporated a way to score companies for their compliance with these best practices. In order to create the timber best practice guidelines I assembled twelve international guidelines into one document, incorporated the priorities of ANPN, obtained feedback from forestry experts, and ensured the guidelines were realistic and context specific by working for five weeks with Olam Timber Gabon. I then created an associated compliance scoring template (CST) utilizing the theory of decision analysis and the method of swing weighting. With the timber best practice guidelines and associated CST, ANPN is closer to being able to enforce good practices adjacent to national parks. They now have the ability to clearly state what they expect of timber operators in buffer zones, and they have a method to monitor operators for compliance. Given the negative impacts timber operations can have on ecosystems, the implementation of the guidelines will help ensure that Gabon’s national parks remain intact for years to come.