Drivers and sustainability of bird hunting in Madagascar

Bird conservation depends on robust data on the densities of and threats to each species, and an understanding of the choices and incentives of bird hunters. This first comprehensive study of bird hunting and its effects in Madagascar uses 8 years of data on 87 bird species to determine bird densities and hunting pressure, incentives, choices, methods, spatial variation, and sustainability on the Masoala Peninsula of Madagascar. We find that bird hunting is common, affecting human wellbeing and, for some species, long-term population viability. Hunters caught more abundant species of lower trophic levels and consumers preferred the flavor of abundant granivores and nectarivores, while they disliked carnivores, scavengers, and species with common cultural proscriptions. Wealth increased species selectivity among consumers, whereas food insecurity increased hunting pressure overall. Projected and documented declines in at least three species are concerning, qualifying at least two for increased IUCN threatened species categories. We provide novel, data-driven assessments of hunting's threat to Madagascar's birds, identify key species of concern, and suggest both species- and consumer-specific conservation actions

Provisioning Services Decline for Both People and Critically Endangered Wildlife in a Rainforest Transformation Landscape

The loss and degradation of forests and other ecosystems worldwide threaten both global biodiversity and the livelihoods of people who use natural resources. Understanding how natural resource use impacts landscape provisioning services for both people and wildlife is thus critical for designing comprehensive resource management strategies. We used data from community focus groups, botanical plots and an inventory of plant species consumed by the Critically Endangered red-ruffed lemur (Varecia rubra) to assess the availability of key provisioning services for people and endemic wildlife on the Masoala Peninsula, a rainforest transformation landscape, in northeastern Madagascar (Masoala National Park and 13 surrounding communities). We constructed Poisson regression mixed models to evaluate the impact of community factors (i.e. community population size, plot distance to community) and changes over time on the count and species richness of timber trees, medicinal plants and red-ruffed lemur food trees within botanical plots. Over three-quarters of all plant species could be used for at least one purpose by local communities (n = 238 species). Of the 59 V. rubra food tree species, only 15% had no reported human use. Timber and ruffed lemur food tree availability declined both with community population size and time and were predicted to be lower outside of Masoala National Park. In contrast, medicinal plant availability was not strongly predicted by any tested factors. Provisioning service availability also differed strongly across sites, suggesting that additional, untested proxies of human pressure likely also have an effect. Our results highlight the importance of evaluating natural resource availability from a community-based perspective and by resource purpose to inform forest landscape restoration efforts that can support both people and wildlife

Novel and emerging prebiotics: Advances and opportunities

Consumers are conscientiously changing their eating preferences toward healthier options, such as functional foods enriched with pre- and probiotics. Prebiotics are attractive bioactive compounds with multidimensional beneficial action on both human and animal health, namely on the gastrointestinal tract, cardiometabolism, bones or mental health. Conventionally, prebiotics are non-digestible carbohydrates which generally present favorable organoleptic properties, temperature and acidic stability, and are considered interesting food ingredients. However, according to the current definition of prebiotics, application categories other than food are accepted, as well as non-carbohydrate substrates and bioactivity at extra-intestinal sites. Regulatory issues are considered a major concern for prebiotics since a clear understanding and application of these compounds among the consumers, regulators, scientists, suppliers or manufacturers, health-care providers and standards or recommendation-setting organizations are of utmost importance. Prebiotics can be divided in several categories according to their development and regulatory status. Inulin, galactooligosaccharides, fructooligosaccharides and lactulose are generally classified as well established prebiotics. Xylooligosaccharides, isomaltooligosaccharides, chitooligosaccharides and lactosucrose are classified as “emerging” prebiotics, while raffinose, neoagaro-oligosaccharides and epilactose are “under development.” Other substances, such as human milk oligosaccharides, polyphenols, polyunsaturated fatty acids, proteins, protein hydrolysates and peptides are considered “new candidates.” This chapter will encompass actual information about the non-established prebiotics, mainly their physicochemical properties, market, legislation, biological activity and possible applications. Generally, there is a lack of clear demonstrations about the effective health benefits associated with all the non-established prebiotics. Overcoming this limitation willThe authors acknowledge the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UIDB/04469/2020 unit and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte; and the projects COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684), FoSynBio (POCI-01-0145-FEDER 029549) and NewFood (NORTE-01-0246-FEDER-000043). CA and BBC acknowledge their grants (UMINHO/BPD/4/2019 and SFRH/BD/132324/2017) from FCT