Forest Conservation Strategy 2013-2020

An independent evaluation of the Tropical Forest Conservation Fund (TFCF) and Forest Conservation Botswana (FCB) in 2012, recommended the development of a Forest Conservation Strategy (FCS) to guide the FCB-Board in the award of project grants and other technical activities to support forest conservation. According to the evaluation, planning in the period 2008-2010 focused primarily on the internal working efficiencies of FCB and its Board and FCB’s operation did not have the desired impact on sustainable forest conservation and utilisation. This Forest Conservation Strategy (FCS) aims to provide technical guidance to FCB

Forest Conservation Knowledge-Community Perception Within Protected Areas: The Case of Karagöl-Sahara National Park

Commitment of local communities to protected areas is essential for conserving forest and biodiversity. However, in many developing countries like Turkey, former management strategies kept human from protected areas using coercion. Fortunately, more recent regimes attempt to give local populations more control on the management but little is known about local residents\u27 perceptions, beliefs and attitudes toward the management of these areas. This study, carried out around the Karagöl Sahara National Park, determined factors which support local communities\u27 positive perceptions towards forest conservation in the park, analysed their assessment of current park management activities compared to former management approaches and draw the implications for effective participatory management of protected areas. We collected socio-demographic data from 100 residents on their awareness of conservation methods. The findings indicated that the positive behavior of local communities towards conservation of forest within Karagöl Sahara National Park was highly correlated with the current management strategy that involved more effectively local communities, the educational level of participants. Participants\u27 perceptions of forest conservation were strongly related to locally perceived benefits. Although 91 % of participants were favorable to the concept of forest and biodiversity conservation within the park. Our results suggested that understanding local residents\u27 perceptions and using them as a starting point to improve the park–people relationship could help park management staff to involve more effectively local communities and improve their awareness about biodiversity conservation within the park

What Has to Change for Forests to be Saved? A Historical Example From the United States

This article looks at the conservation of American forests in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to cast light on the prospects for global forest conservation in the twenty-first. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Americans understood their forests as good only for cutting. By the end of the century a national scheme existed for comprehensive and permanent forest conservation. This new scheme became possible thanks to changes in scientific knowledge, the ideological self-image of the country, political institutions, and the imagination and moral commitments of citizens and social movements. A look at the changes that laid the foundations of national forest conservation might help to show what would have to happen for international forest conservation to emerge. Alternatively, it might highlight differences between those past developments and present circumstances, showing how past is not prologue. In this case, the upshot is some of both

California Carbon Offsets and Working Forest Conservation Easements

California’s cap-and-trade system is a vital laboratory for testing the effectiveness of this market-driven approach in meeting greenhouse gas emission reduction goals and the use of forestry-based carbon offsets within these systems generally. Based on this experience, this Article explores one of the primary challenges, layering offsets with working forest conservation easements, which currently limits opportunities to effectively use these tools in concert. Ultimately, this market may need to foster and rely on natural linkages with working forest conservation easements to develop these offsets and to better ensure that the critical societal objectives of these projects are being met

Opportunity costs of forest conservation in Wilberforce Island, Niger Delta, Nigeria

The objectives of this study is to assess the acceptability and opportunity cost of forest conservation program as well as the impact of alternative source of income on forest conservation in the Wilberforce Island. Data were obtained from five communities through self-administered questionnaires and analysed as Proportions and ranked. Results showed that only 40.8% of the population favoured forest conservation, while 51.2% rejected forest conservation. However, when asked if forest conservation program would be accepted if an alternative source of income, equivalent to the net present value of forest conservation was provided, 64.0% of the respondents accepted forest conservation. In spite of increased acceptance of forest conservation following the provision of an alternative source of income, only 46.4% of the respondents believed this would help in preventing further deforestation in the Wilberforce Island. An assessment of the income level of respondents showed an average monthly income of ₦33,640.00 (₦403,680.00/$1,122.00 @₦360.00/$ per annum). For farmers and loggers, average monthly income was ₦23,648.00 (₦283,776.00/$788.00 per annum) and ₦46,577.00 (₦558,924.00/$1,553.00 per annum). This income level was estimated to be the opportunity cost of forest conservation in the Wilberforce Island. It was concluded that additional measures and an alternative income higher than currently earned can make forest conservation possible in the area.Keywords: Forest Conservation, deforestation, opportunity cost, Wilberforce Islan

Damned if you do, Damned if you don't – Reduced Climate Impact vs. Sustainable Forests in Sweden

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the potential goal conflict between two of Sweden’s environmental objectives: Sustainable Forests and Reduced Climate Impact – or, more precisely, the conflict between forest conservation and the supply of wood fuel. To accomplish this, we use a forest sector model that includes the suppliers and major users of roundwood. The econometric results, based on a data set that spans 40 years, show that all the own price elasticities have the expected signs. Among the three forestry products, the supply and (long-term) demand of forest fuel seems to be most sensitive to a price change. In a second step, the estimated model is used to simulate the effect of increased forest conservation -- the Sustainable Forest objective -- on the supply of wood fuel. If oil is used as a substitute, Swedish emissions of greenhouse gases will increase by almost 0.92 percent, which indicates a clear conflict with the Reduced Climate Impact objective.Goal conflict; Wood fuels; Forest sector model; Roundwood markets; Forest conservation

Measuring and explaining the willingness to pay for forest conservation: evidence from a survey experiment in Brazil

Recent research suggests that there is substantial public support (including willingness to pay) for forest conservation. Based on a nationwide survey experiment in Brazil (N = 2500) the largest and richest of the world's tropical developing countries, we shed new light on this issue. To what extent does the public in fact support forest conservation and what factors are influencing support levels? Unlike previous studies, our results show that the willingness to pay for tropical forest conservation in Brazil is rather low. Moreover, framing forest conservation in terms of biodiversity protection, which tends to create more local benefits, does not induce more support than framing conservation in terms of mitigating global climate change. The results also show that low levels of trust in public institutions have a strong negative impact on the public's willingness to pay for forest conservation, individually and/or via government spending. What could other (richer) countries do, in this context, to encourage forest conservation in Brazil and other tropical developing countries? One key issue is whether prospects of foreign funding for forest conservation are likely to crowd out or, conversely, enhance the motivation for domestic level conservation efforts. We find that prospects of foreign funding have no significant effect on willingness to pay for forest conservation. These findings have at least three policy implications, namely, that the Brazilian public's willingness to pay for forest conservation is very limited, that large-scale international funding is probably needed, and that such funding is unlikely to encourage more domestic effort, but is also unlikely to crowd out domestic efforts. Restoring public trust in the Brazilian government is key to increasing public support for forest conservation in Brazil

Analysis of Extension Services in Forest Conservation in Ogun State, Nigeria.

The study to analyze extension services in forest conservation was carried out in Ogun State, Nigeria. The objectives were to identify extension services in forest conservation, examine perception of forest officers on effectiveness of extension services in forest conservation and identify constraints hindered extension services in forest conservation. Multistage sampling technique was undertaken following the state ministry of agriculture delineation of forest reserves across the state. A total of 68 forest officers were selected for the study. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Result shows that 83.8% of the forest officers were at their active age that fall between 31-45 years with high literacy level, 48.5% had between 11-15 years in service, 26.4% had between 5-10 years in service. Extension services rendered in forest conservation include education programme that emphasized forests officers knowledge related to forest conservation discipline with mean value of (2.73), create awareness through publication in relation to forest conservation with mean value of (2.60). Majority of the forest officer agree that extension services in forest conservation were effective, and major constraints to extension services in forest conservation were mentioned by forest officers. Therefore, the conservation of forests depends on how effective extension services are, for the forestry extension services to be effective the challenges facing the service must be seriously considered and funding of forestry extension programme should be such that has political will by given better materials and service as supportive provided for extension agents. Key words: Extension, Services, Forest, Conservation, Ogun State

Collective action for forest conservation: Does heterogeneity matter?

Community management of forests by Van Panchayats (forest councils) to meet local needs has a long history in the Indian Central Himalayas. This essay examines the effects of village-level heterogeneity in caste and land ownership, and of female membership in the Panchayats on collective action for forest conservation. There is no evidence that caste heterogeneity or female membership of the Panchayat have any effect. There is some evidence that greater equality in land ownership may enhance collective action and forest conservation in pine forests but not broadleaved forests. This is puzzling since villagers' interest in conservation is greater in broadleaved than in pine forests.

High overlap between traditional ecological knowledge and forest conservation found in the Bolivian Amazon

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552Altres ajuts: FBBVA research grant (BIOCON_06_106-07)It has been suggested that traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) may play a key role in forest conservation. However, empirical studies assessing to what extent TEK is associated with forest conservation compared with other variables are rare. Furthermore, to our knowledge, the spatial overlap of TEK and forest conservation has not been evaluated at fine scales. In this paper, we address both issues through a case study with Tsimane' Amerindians in the Bolivian Amazon. We sampled 624 households across 59 villages to estimate TEK and used remote sensing data to assess forest conservation. We ran statistical and spatial analyses to evaluate whether TEK was associated and spatially overlapped with forest conservation at the village level. We find that Tsimane' TEK is significantly and positively associated with forest conservation although acculturation variables bear stronger and negative associations with forest conservation. We also find a very significant spatial overlap between levels of Tsimane' TEK and forest conservation. We discuss the potential reasons underpinning our results, which provide insights that may be useful for informing policies in the realms of development, conservation, and climate. We posit that the protection of indigenous cultural systems is vital and urgent to create more effective policies in such realms