Carbon sequestration and biodiversity following 18 years of active tropical forest restoration

Vast areas of degraded tropical forest, combined with increasing interest in mitigating climate change and conserving biodiversity, demonstrate the potential value of restoring tropical forest. However, there is a lack of long-term studies assessing active management for restoration. Here we investigate Above-Ground Biomass (AGB), forest structure, and biodiversity, before degradation (in old-growth forest), after degradation (in abandoned agricultural savanna grassland), and within a forest that is actively being restored in Kibale National Park, Uganda. In 1995 degraded land in Kibale was protected from fire and replanted with native seedlings (39 species) at a density of 400 seedlings ha-1. Sixty-five plots (50 m × 10 m) were established in restoration areas in 2005 and 50 of these were re-measured in 2013, allowing changes to be assessed over 18 years. Degraded plots have an Above Ground Biomass (AGB) of 5.1 Mg dry mass ha-1, of which 80% is grass. By 2005 AGB of trees ≥10 cm DBH was 9.5 Mg ha-1, increasing to 40.6 Mg ha-1 by 2013, accumulating at a rate of 3.9 Mg ha-1 year-1. A total of 153 planted individuals ha-1 (38%) remained by 2013, contributing 28.9 Mg ha-1 (70%) of total AGB. Eighteen years after restoration, AGB in the plots was 12% of old-growth (419 Mg ha-1). If current accumulation rates continue restoration forest would reach old-growth AGB in a further 96 years. Biodiversity of degraded plots prior to restoration was low with no tree species and 2 seedling species per sample plot (0.05 ha). By 2005 restoration areas had an average of 3 tree and 3 seedling species per sample plot, increasing to 5 tree and 9 seedling species per plot in 2013. However, biodiversity was still significantly lower than old-growth forest, at 8 tree and 16 seedling species in an equivalent area. The results suggest that forest restoration is beneficial for AGB accumulation with planted stems storing the majority of AGB. Changes in biodiversity appear slower; possibly due to low stem turnover. Overall this restoration treatment is an effective means of restoring degraded land in the area, as can be seen from the lack of regeneration in degraded plots, which remain low-AGB and diversity, largely due to the impacts of fire and competition with grasses

Primate responses to changing environments in the anthropocene

Most primates have slow life-histories and long generation times. Because environmental change is occurring at an unprecedented rate, gene-based adaptations are unlikely to evolve fast enough to offer successful responses to these changes. The paper reviews the most common types of habitat/landscape alterations, the extent of human-primate interactions, and the impact of climate change. It demonstrates how understanding behavioural flexibility as a response to environmental change will be crucial to optimize conservation efforts by constructing informed management plans. Comparisons across species, space, and time can be used to draw generalizations about primate responses to environmental change while considering their behavioural flexibility

Park isolation in anthropogenic landscapes: land change and livelihoods at park boundaries in the African Albertine Rift

Landscapes are changing rapidly in regions where rural people live adjacent to protected parks and reserves. This is the case in highland East Africa, where many parks are increasingly isolated in a matrix of small farms and settlements. In this review, we synthesize published findings and extant data sources to assess the processes and outcomes of park isolation, with a regional focus on people’s livelihoods at park boundaries in the Ugandan Albertine Rift. The region maintains exceptionally high rural population density and growth and is classified as a global biodiversity hotspot. In addition to the impacts of increasing numbers of people, our synthesis highlights compounding factors—changing climate, increasing land value and variable tenure, and declining farm yields—that accelerate effects of population growth on park isolation and widespread landscape change. Unpacking these processes at the regional scale identifies outcomes of isolation in the unprotected landscape—high frequency of human-wildlife conflict, potential for zoonotic disease transmission, land and resource competition, and declining wildlife populations in forest fragments. We recommend a strategy for the management of isolated parks that includes augmenting outreach by park authorities and supporting community needs in the human landscape, for example through healthcare services, while also maintaining hard park boundaries through traditional protectionism. Even in cases where conservation refers to biodiversity in isolated parks, landscape strategies must include an understanding of the local livelihood context in order to ensure long-term sustainable biodiversity protection