Four Bad Ags

This is a self-diagnosis of the teams growth and performance during the Team Build ing class. They use a metaphor of making bread to describe the stages of team development

Le foncier en commun(s), Coord. : Rémy Seillier et Sébastien Shulz, Livret de la Société des communs, n°4 (en ligne)

Livret en ligne : https://societedescommuns.com/livrets/Ce livret a été réalisé par le Collectif pour une Société des communs. Il fait partie d'une série de livrets formulant des propositions concrètes pour faire atterrir une société structurée autour de communs. Il a vocation à être consulté par tous les élus, agents publics, entrepreneurs et acteurs sociaux qui s'engagent en faveur d’une société plus démocratique, écologique et sociale. Coord. : Rémy Seillier et Sébastien Shulz Contributeurs et contributrices : Claire Annereau, Olivier Hymas, Jean-François Joye, Gretchen Walter

Deciphering African tropical forest dynamics in the Anthropocene: How social and historical sciences can elucidate forest research and management

Forests bear the historical legacies of human activities over thousands of years, including agriculture, trade, disease and resource extraction. Many of these activities may represent indices of the proposed geological epoch of the Anthropocene. Modifications to soil, topography and vegetation evidence anthropogenic influences. Yet studies of vegetation change throughout the humid tropics tend to occlude these influences by focussing on forest dynamics, timber, and biodiversity through permanent sample plots or forestry inventory plots. We highlight how history and social science can be combined with ecology to help better understand human signatures in forest dynamics. We (1) critically review ecological methods in the light of the environmental and social history of the Afrotropics; (2) map current plot networks for West and Central Africa in relation to the Human Footprint Index; (3) using two case-studies, demonstrate how history and social science bring new insights and inferences to plot-based studies; all leading to (4) novel forms of interdisciplinary collaboration for sustainable forest conservation, management and restoration.</p

COVID-19, Indigenous peoples, local communities and natural resource governance

We report on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs), especially those who govern, manage and conserve their lands and waters. We explore the themes of access and use of natural resources, solidarity, decision-making, the role of governments and IPLCs in managing COVID-19, and the uptake of traditional medicine. These themes are explored through a global online survey in English, Spanish and French. We collected and analysed 133 surveys from 40 countries, using SenseMaker®, a software that enables analysis of micronarratives based on how respondents classify their own stories. We explore the themes further through case studies from Benin, Fiji, France, Gabon, Guyana, Guatemala, India and Madagascar, highlighting challenges and opportunities in how IPLCs responded to COVID-19. Our study underscores the importance of selfempowerment and recognition of IPLC rights, which allows them to use traditional medicines, meet subsistence requirements during lockdowns, help community members and neighbours to sustain livelihoods, and to govern, defend and conserve their territories. We propose key actions to support IPLCs navigate future pandemics while protecting their lands and waters

A molecular diagnostic for identifying central Africa forest artiodactyls from faecal pellets.

International audienceSmall to medium-sized central African forest artiodactyls constitute a diverse yet heavily hunted group composed primarily of species within the genera Cephalophus, Neotragus, Tragelaphus and Hyemoschus. Of these genera, Cephalophus is the richest with as many as seven sympatric species known to occur in central African forests. However, differentiating species from their faeces or from tissue where the whole carcass is unavailable is very difficult. In order to develop a robust molecular diagnostic for species identification, a database of mitochondrial cytochrome b (553 bp) and control region (675 bp) sequences was compiled from all forest Cephalophus species and other similarly sized, sympatric Tragelaphus, Neotragus and Hyemoschus species. Reference phylogenies from each marker were then used to recover the identity of sequences obtained from unknown faecal samples collected in the field. Results were then compared to determine which region best recovered species identity with the highest statistical support. Restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) were also assessed as an alternative method for rapid species identification. Of themethods examined, tree-based analyses built on a geographically comprehensive database of control region sequences was the best means of reliably recovering species identity from central African duikers. However, three sister taxa appear indistinguishable (Cephalophus callipygus, Cephalophus ogilbyi and Cephalophus weynsi) and not all species were monophyletic. This lack of monophyly may be due to incomplete lineage sorting commonly observed in recently derived taxa, hybridization or the presence of nuclear translocated copies of mitochondrial DNA. The high level of intra-specific variation and lack of robust species-specific diagnostic sites made an RFLP-based approach to duiker species identification difficult to implement. The tree-based control region diagnostic presented here has many important applications including fine-scale mapping of species distributions, identification of confiscated tissue and environmental impact assessments