Forest cover monitoring plays an important role in the implementation of climate change mitigation policies such as Kyoto protocol and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). In this study, we have monitored land cover using the PALSAR (Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar) full polarimetric data based on incoherent target decomposition.

Mapping land degradation and desertification (LDD) at the global scale still is a conceptual and operational challenge. The present study has been performed in the frame of the WAD (new World Atlas of Desertification) initiative. The objective of the paper is to test a structured procedure to identify relevant indicators for an effective representation of complex global LDD issues, based on available data sets (both geo-spatial and statistical), and conform to the UNCCD (United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification) requirements.

The originality of the REDD proposal is its incentives-based mechanism designed to reward the governments of developing countries for their performance in reducing deforestation as measured against a baseline. This mechanism is founded on the hypothesis that developing countries ‘pay’ an opportunity cost to conserve their forests and would prefer other choices and convert their wooden lands to other uses. The basic idea is, therefore, to pay rents to these countries to compensate for the anticipated foregone revenues.

The agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector is responsible for approximately 25% of anthropogenic GHG emissions mainly from deforestation and agricultural emissions from livestock, soil and nutrient management. Mitigation from the sector is thus extremely important in meeting emission reduction targets. The sector offers a variety of cost‐competitive mitigation options with most analyses indicating a decline in emissions largely due to decreasing deforestation rates.

Forest dynamics, such as deforestation, reforestation and afforestation, could be caused by the natural and human-induced disturbances. Traditional methods rarely quantify the history of such disturbances along a continuous temporal trajectory; yet, such disturbance history often determines system course and evolution. We adopted a retrospective perspective to study system history by implementing a newly proposed entropy index.

The impacts of deforestation and land cover change upon underlying soils were examined on one hillside in central Armenia. Soil characteristics in three land cover areas—forest, coppice, and pasture—were recorded and soil samples were analyzed. Deforestation and land cover change were found to increase erosion rates. From soil horizon and structural characteristics, it can be estimated that 40 cm of soil have been lost in the pasture and 20 cm have been lost in the coppice compared to the forest. Soil organic carbon was also affected by deforestation and land cover change.

Within the investigated river basins the deforestation ranged from 0-45.5%, dependent on the amount of windstorm damage. Our water temperature readings revealed that the canopy elimination above the streams in the areas damaged by the windstorm caused increase in daily and annual water temperature and also wider daily water temperature range, than those in the undisturbed reference stream, which caused the decline of cold stenotherm species abundance. The stream basins deforestation was collinear with FPOM and UFPOM concentrations, water temperature gradient and nitrate concentrations.

Detailed observations of natural and anthropogenic disturbance events that impact forest structure and the distribution of carbon are essential to estimate changes in terrestrial carbon pools and the associated emissions and removals of greenhouse gasses. Recent advances in remote sensing approaches have resulted in annual and decadal estimates of land-cover change derived from observations using broad-scale moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) 250 m–1 km imagery.

Forests play an important role in the livelihoods of ethnic communities living in the south-eastern region, the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs), of Bangladesh. Over decades, deforestation and land degradation have markedly affected ethnic peoples’ livelihoods in the CHTs. Although communities once managed extensive forest commons to support their livelihood needs, population explosion triggered fragmentation of common land leading to a gradual decline in livelihood opportunities.

Testate amoebae that inhabit peat are sensitive indicators of water table position. In this study, we used testate amoebae in sediments from a mire in the western Alps (Lac du Thyl) to: (1) reconstruct the hydrology of the site over the last 7,000 years, (2) determine how hydrological changes affected testate amoebae diversity and (3) infer past trophic state shifts. The study site is located in one of the driest valleys of the Alps and is thus very sensitive to hydrological changes.

Understanding pasture degradation processes is key for sustainable development in the Amazon region. Pasture degradation can be indexed by pasture nutritional status, which is impacted by environmental and human related factors. Most studies of the biogeochemistry of Amazonian pastures have been restricted to highly acidic soils with little focus on how management affects pasture biogeochemistry. We investigated soil physical and chemical properties and grass nutrients under different edaphic conditions and management practices in Rondônia state, in the southwestern Amazon region.

The importance of the role of local community forestry institutions towards forest conservation is exemplified through a comparison of two adjacent areas within the Central Yucatan Peninsular Region (CYPR) in which Land-Use Cover Change (LUCC) analyses were conducted. We also used logistic regression analyses to examine key environmental, socioeconomic and institutional drivers associated with deforestation.