Mangrove Conservation, Management and Rehabilitation Training

Yale School of Forestry & Environment Studies, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institut

Hindcasting the impacts of land-use changes on bird communities with species distribution models of Bird Atlas data

Habitat loss and degradation induced by human development are among the major threats to biodiversity worldwide. In this study, we tested our ability to predict the response of bird communities (128 species) to land-use changes in southern Quebec (~483,100 km2) over the last 30 yr (between 1984–1989 and 2010–2014) by using species distribution models (299,302 occurrences in 30,408 locations) from a hindcasting perspective. Results were grouped by functional guilds to infer potential impacts on ecosystem services, and to relate model transferability (i.e., ability of our models to be generalized to other times and scales) to specific functional and life-history traits. Overall, our models were able to accurately predict, both in space and time, habitat suitability for 69% of species, especially for granivorous, nonmigrant, tree-nesting species, and species that are tied to agricultural areas under intensive use. These findings indicate that model transferability depends upon specific functional and life-history traits, providing further evidence that species’ ecologies affect the ability of models to accurately predict bird distributions. Declining bird species were mostly short-distance migrants that were associated with open habitats (agricultural and nonproductive forest) with aerial insectivorous or granivorous diets, which may be related to agricultural intensification and land abandonment. Land-use changes were positive for some forest bird species that were mainly associated with mixed and deciduous forests, generalist diets and tree-nesting strategies. Yet cavity-nesting birds have suffered substantial reductions in their distributions, suggesting that cumulative effects of intensive logging and wildfires on mature forests pose a threat for forest-specialist species. Habitat suitability changes predicted by our coarse-scale species distribution models partially agreed with the long-term trends reported by the North American Breeding Bird Survey. Our findings confirm land-use change as a key driving force for shaping bird communities in southern Quebec, together with the need to explicitly incorporate it into global change scenarios that better inform decision-makers on conservation and management

Optimising Social Forestry for Reducing Social Conflict and Improving Forest Management

Indonesia’s Social Forestry (SF) programme is promoted on the premise that it can provide people with rights to land. This can prove attractive to those who want to claim legal rights over land access and resource use where they have carried out work or wish to manage. Uncertain land tenure can be clarified and social conflicts over land can thereby be eliminated or reduced. SF is also promoted on the premise that in return for such rights, the programme can induce people to manage the lands sustainably, thereby reducing deforestation and improving forest quality. However, certain gaps prevent successful implementation of the programme. These gaps are barriers to participation (such as communities lacking legal citizenship and a lack of knowledge of SF); limited coordination between different levels of government that prevents a seamless implementation of SF; insufficient assistance and monitoring of activities that prevent SF implementers from achieving goals set out in their forest management plans and the lack of resources at the community level to implement SF. Two elements are essential in overcoming these gaps. First, target communities must be able to access lands legally without fear of eviction. Second, activities on these lands must be sufficiently monitored by authorised government bodies and sustainably managed so that SF livelihoods do not come at the expense of forest conservation. Putting in place these two elements becomes even harder in remote forested areas, where a bulk of the population are unregistered migrants. There is little infrastructure and support for remote communities to learn about SF and there is less revenue potential for forest conservation than for clearing them. The governments should prioritize these areas for SF as they present the largest gains for reducing social conflict through land rights’ acquisition. Helping such communities develop beneficial sustainable land management plans can also shift livelihoods away from those that exploit or deforest land. KS has assisted three villages – Muara Medak, Lubuk Bintialo, and Karang Sari – in obtaining SF permits. KS found that obtaining the permits and ensuring success in implementing SF rest on these steps: 1) securing buy-in from stakeholders so that action taken is legitimate and aligned with the needs of all; 2) building capacity of local institutions to simultaneously improve livelihood opportunities and increase conservation efforts; 3) generating market access and/or multiple sector involvement to ensure continuity of SF activities. This brief details how governments, communities, civil society organisations, and companies can implement the steps successfully. The steps identify which stakeholders to be targeted; what capacities to be improved; and types of SF activities are most likely to generate long-term support. These elements produce a conducive environment for SF that enables communities to legally manage forest areas and to do so in a sustainable manner that reduces conflict and strengthens conservation efforts

Eksplorasi Potensi Nipah untuk Restorasi Ekosistem dan Mitigasi Perubahan Iklim, Penghidupan Masyarakat Berkelanjutan dan Energi Terbarukan

Nypa fruiticans, yang dikenal sebagai Nipah, adalah spesies asli pohon palem yang tumbuh di pesisir pantai dan muara di Samudera Hindia dan Pasifik. Luasan Nipah meliputi 700,000 hektar di Indonesia, sedangkan di Sumatera Selatan, Nipah merupakan komponen hutan bakau dan meliputi area besar di sepanjang pantai, muara dan riparian dari sungai. Setengah dari ekosistem alami nipah di Sumatera Selatan telah terganggu oleh kegiatan manusia dan membutuhkan upaya restorasi. Nipah dapat digunakan sebagai salah satu sumber penghasil gula. Hutan alami nipah memiliki potensi untuk menghasilkan penghidupan masyarakat yang berkelanjutan khususnya bagi yang tinggal di kawasan dataran rendah. Saat ini, nipah telah teridentifikasi sebagai sumber potensi dari energi terbarukan. Getah Nipah yang kaya akan gula dapat digunakan untuk memproduksi etanol sebagai biofuel. Potensi ini mendorong Proyek KELOLA Sendang untuk melakukan eksplorasi dari potensi nipah untuk restorasi ekosistem, mitigasi erubahan iklim, penghidupan masyarakat yang berkelanjutan dan energi terbarukan

Creating Win-Win Solutions for Sustainable Landscape Management and Green Growth in South Sumatra

KELOLA Sendang (KS), an integrated sustainable landscape development project in South Sumatra, implemented targeted interventions from 2015 to 2020. The interventions were aimed at overcoming major challenges that hampered the province’s ability to conserve biologically- and ecologically important areas and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The challenges were: 1) widespread land conversion that threatened the province’s critically endangered wildlife (such as the Sumatran tiger and elephant) and vast peatlands; 2) a lack of financially-viable livelihoods and best management practices that would entice stakeholders away from more environmentally destructive business-as-usual activities; and 3) a lack of infrastructure for monitoring/policing of illegal activities (such as poaching and illegal land clearing). KS’s interventions were targeted at three groups: governments, companies, and communities. With governments, KS interventions were aimed at strengthening landscape governance through supporting a hierarchy of vertically integrated institutions, facilitating the establishment of regulations that enable the institutions to manage landscapes sustainably, and devising a pathway for the institutions to integrate sustainable landscape management as part of South Sumatra’s Master Plan for developing the province in support of the Governors’ Green-Growth vision. With companies, KS interventions were aimed at improving current peatland management practices covering water level management in concession lands to prevent flooding or the drying out of peatlands making them susceptible to fires, fire control for hotspots on concessions, and habitat protection and restoration. With communities, KS interventions were aimed at overcoming economic, technical, and tenurial barriers to improve people’s livelihoods

Exploring the Potential of Nipa Palm for Ecosystem Restoration and Climate Change Mitigation, Sustainable Rural Livelihoods and Renewable Energy

Nypa fruiticans, commonly known as Nipa Palm, is a species of palm native to the coastlines and estuarine habitats of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. In Indonesia, nipa palm covers about 700,000 ha, while, in South Sumatra, the Nipa Palm is a natural component of mangrove forests and covers extensive areas along the coast, estuaries, and riparian zones of rivers. About half of the natural nipa palm ecosystem in South Sumatra has been disturbed by human activities and requires restoration. Since Nipa Palm can be used to produce nipa palm sugar, natural nipa palm forests have the potential to generate sustainable rural livelihoods for those living in the lowland zone. More recently, nipa palm has been identified as a potential source of renewable energy. The sugar rich sap can be used to produce ethanol, a biofuel. Because of this potential, the KELOLA Sendang Project is exploring the potential of nipa palm for ecosystem restoration and climate change mitigation, sustainable rural livelihoods and renewable energy

Spatial Planning Tools for Better Landscape Management and Conservation

Commercial and community expansion in South Sumatra have severely reduced the province’s biodiversity and degraded essential ecosystems. This weakened ecosystem, coupled with the impacts of climate change, such as changes in weather patterns, makes the province prone to natural disasters like floods and wildfires. Spatial planning and monitoring tools can help to better manage the diverse landscape of South Sumatra and the interactions among its users. These tools encourage the use of maps in cross-sectoral collaborations to locate, design and monitor conservation and land use activities within the landscape. They also help stakeholders to balance the social,economic, and environmental demands. However, prior to KELOLA Sendang (KS) involvement, stakeholders lacked access to and the capacity to use such tools in an efficient and inclusive way that responded accurately to local conditions and needs. By aiding stakeholders to create, enhance, and effectively use spatial planning and monitoring tools, KS aimed to increase the province’s technical capacity for using the tools to prioritize greener economic growth. This will result in more informed land allocation with greater attention paid to conservation areas, including protected areas and those existing area in concessions such those set aside as High Carbon Stock (HCS) and High Conservation Value (HCV) thereby reducing natural habitat fragmentation and protecting local endangered species. In order to prioritise greener growth and make land-use planning more environmentally conscious, inclusive, and responsive, there needs to be buy-in from various stakeholders within the landscape. This is greatly facilitated by KS being a sustainable landscape management project supporting the governments, the private sector, and local communities to work together. The steps taken to improve South Sumatra’s spatial planning and landscape monitoring tool can therefore provide a working model of how the public, private sector, and communities can collaborate to achieve improved economic, environmental, and social outcomes to encourage integrated landscape management in South Sumatra. This brief looks at three spatial planning and monitoring tools implemented by KS – 1) Spatial Planning Information System (SITARUNG); 2) Community Based Monitoring and Information Systems (CBMIS); 3) Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) – and details how the tools can support the collection of integrated landscape data and information that can improve conservation efforts in South Sumatra