Amazon ecosystem degradation profoundly impacts life supporting processes of global importance such as climate regulation, as well as local conditions for livelihoods. In Peru's highland jungle, an expanding deforestation front of forest conversion to agriculture has vastly transformed the landscape. Small–scale farming, the main driver of forest degradation, and consequently household natural resource management affect ecosystem functionality. To investigate farmers' attitudes and priorities to services provided by the ecosystems (ES) we interviewed 51 farmers, both local and colonists.

SUMMARYZambia has one of the largest forest resources in southern Africa with almost 66% of its land mass under forest cover. However, indiscriminate harvesting of valuable timber resources for commodity-type products such as sawn-timber, charcoal and fuel-wood are the main drivers of forest depletion. Challenges related to customary-lands, land-tenure, lack of information about forest resources as well as the weak institutions is contributing factors that have accelerated to steady reduction of forest cover in the country.

Geographic information systems and remote sensing technologies have become an important tool for visualizing conservation management and developing solutions to problems associated with conservation. When multiple organizations separately develop spatial data representations of protected areas, implicit error arises due to variation between data sets.

Land use and land cover change (LUCC) models frequently employ different accessibility measures as a proxy for human influence on land change processes. Here, we simulate deforestation in Peruvian Amazonia and evaluate different accessibility measures as LUCC model inputs. We demonstrate how the selection, and different combinations, of accessibility measures impact simulation results. Out of the individual measures, time distance to market center catches the essential aspects of accessibility in our study area.

Study was conducted in north-eastern Latvia (57° 38’ N, 22° 17’ E): in a part of Slitere National Park that was un-managed since year 1923 and affected by large storm in November of 1969. Supervised classification of Corona and Landsat 5 images of the area (in total 1646 ha) from years before and after the storm (1966–2010) were carried out and parameters characterizing the fragmentation calculated for 3 land-cover classes: forest, areas with low woody biomass and non-forest areas.

The real tool for achieving of sustainable development is an integrated landscape management. It was defined by Agenda21. It means an integrated approach to planning and to management of landscape resources. In the Slovak Republic the concept of integrated landscape management overcames development on the theoretical-methodological, conceptual and implementational sites. Current is the integrated landscape management defined in the legislation and desired and implemented by several spatial planning processes.

Decades of heavy-cutting and high-grading in the northeastern United States provide an opportunity for rehabilitation and increased carbon stores, yet few studies have examined the feasibility of using carbon markets to restore high-graded forests. We evaluated the effectiveness of rehabilitation on 391 ha of high-graded forest in Vermont, USA. Thirteen silvicultural scenarios were modeled over 100 years using the Forest Vegetation Simulator.

This paper is a critical synthesis of the causes, effects and challenges of the Sahelian droughts. The results show that the four main causes of the Sahelian droughts are as follows: sea surface temperature changes, vegetation and land degradation, dust feedbacks and human-induced climate change. However, human-induced climate change is seen as the major drought-determining factor because it controls sea surface temperatures, dust feedbacks and vegetation degradation.

• CONTEXT : An inequitable distribution of the costs and benefits of carbon forestry could undermine its role in tackling climate change, but safeguarding local livelihoods could undercut its effectiveness. • AIMS : We simulate a reforestation program in a densely populated locality in central Mexico to analyze indirect land-use change, or leakage, associated with the program and its implications for local livelihoods. • METHODS : An agent-based, general equilibrium model simulates scenarios that deconstruct the sources of leakage and livelihood outcomes.

Biogeocenosis study of the status and biological diversity of forest plantations (FP) of the eastern regions of Volga are held from 2010. The different FP types were allocated and described. Ravine and beam-type forest land are not used in agriculture. The age of FP on them ranges from 30-65 years. Scots pine and common birch mainly grow as I quality class (QC), English oak - like II QC. Ravine and beam-type forest plantations bond banks and protect the land from the water erosion. Oak stands are mainly of III-II, and linden ones - II, rarely I QC.

This paper examines the size and intensity of changes among five land categories during the two time intervals in a region of Indonesia that is pioneering negotiations concerning reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). Maps at 1973, 1993, and 2005 indicate that land-cover change is accelerating, while carbon loss is decelerating in Jambi Province, Sumatra. Land dynamics have shifted from Forest loss during 1973–1993 to Agroforest loss during 1993–2005.

North Korea used to have abundant forest stocks but underwent substantial deforestation and degradation of forest in recent decades. This study examined morphological changes of forest cover in North Korea between the 1980s and 2000s. Land cover data based on Landsat TM imagery were obtained as images from the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Environment. The images were processed and used for the morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) and network analysis. MSPA classified the forest cover into morphological classes such as core, islet, bridge, perforation, edge, loop, and branch.