Challenges and Opportunities for the Northeastern Forest Bioindustry

Given the interest in renewable energy sources across the United States, it is likely that biomass harvested directly from the forest will play an important role in creating and sustaining the forest bioindustry. This article shows that the Northeastern Region\u27s strengths (abundant forest resources and an established forest sector) provide the framework for a sustainable and viable forest bioindustry. Careful consideration must also be given to existing infrastructure, resource conditions, forest operations, public policy, and the wide range of social values likely to emerge as the industry grows. Challenges that must be addressed include improvements to the overall condition of the forest operations community, integration of new technologies into existing facilities, and assessment of the impact social values may have on the supply of raw materials and processing

Developing a sustainable forest biomass industry: case of the US northeast

Heightened interest in renewable energy has produced a spate of new research into the feasibility of forest biomass as a feedstock. The US Northeast is one of the few regions worldwide that supports both a large forest resource and a relatively high population density and hence energy demand. This paper outlines economic, ecological, and social considerations that must be addressed in order to achieve a sustainable forest biomass industry. Issues include sustaining the forest resource, understanding forest landowner attitudes, ensuring adequate harvesting capacity and related forest industry infrastructure, devising recommended harvest practices, demand analysis, and the development of a range of technologies that will be vying for the forest biomass resource. Recent studies focusing on sustainable supply issues include consideration of species growth and harvesting rates, as well as development of best practices to insure long-term site productivity and stream water quality. The capacity of the existing forest industry must expand with the additional demand for increased production of forest biomass. Public policy, landowner attitudes, and consideration of other social values will all play important roles in how the forest biomass industry develops. Though the research, data, and examples presented focus on the US Northeast, many of these issues have broad application to other regions of the world given appropriate consideration for local differences

Protected Areas: Mixed Success in Conserving East Africa’s Evergreen Forests

In East Africa, human population growth and demands for natural resources cause forest loss contributing to increased carbon emissions and reduced biodiversity. Protected Areas (PAs) are intended to conserve habitats and species. Variability in PA effectiveness and ‘leakage’ (here defined as displacement of deforestation) may lead to different trends in forest loss within, and adjacent to, existing PAs. Here, we quantify spatial variation in trends of evergreen forest coverage in East Africa between 2001 and 2009, and test for correlations with forest accessibility and environmental drivers. We investigate PA effectiveness at local, landscape and national scales, comparing rates of deforestation within park boundaries with those detected in park buffer zones and in unprotected land more generally. Background forest loss (BFL) was estimated at −9.3% (17,167 km2), but varied between countries (range: −0.9% to −85.7%; note: no BFL in South Sudan). We document high variability in PA effectiveness within and between PA categories. The most successful PAs were National Parks, although only 26 out of 48 parks increased or maintained their forest area (i.e. Effective parks). Forest Reserves (Ineffective parks, i.e. parks that lose forest from within boundaries: 204 out of 337), Nature Reserves (six out of 12) and Game Parks (24 out of 26) were more likely to lose forest cover. Forest loss in buffer zones around PAs exceeded background forest loss, in some areas indicating leakage driven by Effective National Parks. Human pressure, forest accessibility, protection status, distance to fires and long-term annual rainfall were highly significant drivers of forest loss in East Africa. Some of these factors can be addressed by adjusting park management. However, addressing close links between livelihoods, natural capital and poverty remains a fundamental challenge in East Africa’s forest conservation efforts

Supporting conservation with biodiversity research in sub-Saharan Africa’s human-modified landscapes

Protected areas (PAs) cover 12 % of terrestrial sub-Saharan Africa. However, given the inherent inadequacies of these PAs to cater for all species in conjunction with the effects of climate change and human pressures on PAs, the future of biodiversity depends heavily on the 88 % of land that is unprotected. The study of biodiversity patterns and the processes that maintain them in human-modified landscapes can provide a valuable evidence base to support science-based policy-making that seeks to make land outside of PAs as amenable as possible for biodiversity persistence. We discuss the literature on biodiversity in sub-Saharan Africa’s human-modified landscapes as it relates to four broad ecosystem categorizations (i.e. rangelands, tropical forest, the Cape Floristic Region, and the urban and rural built environment) within which we expect similar patterns of biodiversity persistence in relation to specific human land uses and land management actions. Available research demonstrates the potential contribution of biodiversity conservation in human-modified landscapes within all four ecosystem types and goes some way towards providing general conclusions that could support policy-making. Nonetheless, conservation success in human-modified landscapes is hampered by constraints requiring further scientific investment, e.g. deficiencies in the available research, uncertainties regarding implementation strategies, and difficulties of coexisting with biodiversity. However, information currently available can and should support efforts at individual, community, provincial, national, and international levels to support biodiversity conservation in human-modified landscapes.National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.Chair in Conservation Ecology at CERU.http://link.springer.com/journal/105312015-08-31hb201