Forest-based Ecosystem Services Research Articles

Local Perceptions of Forest-Based Ecosystem Services in Benin, West Africa

Ecosystem services are closely linked to the daily lives of local communities, particularly those living near forests. The study of the local perceptions of these services is relevant because they vary depending on the community, the study period, and the environment. So beyond the inventorying of ecosystem services, understanding the perceptions of local communities regarding these services remains a necessity. Our study aims to analyze how local communities perceive the ecosystem services provided by forests and the factors that determine these perceptions. We collected data from 232 heads of households across 23 villages bordering the forest and analyzed them using descriptive statistics and ordered Probit analysis. The results showed that provisioning services (such as plant-derived medicines, rafters and planks, livestock feed, crops, and firewood) were the most important, followed by regulating and supporting services (including soil formation, erosion control, and climate regulation) are the most important. Finally, cultural services (encompassing cultural practices, heritage, and spirituality) were perceived as important. However, communities did not perceive the value of ecotourism. Factors influencing these perceptions included gender (male), age (young individuals), occupation in farming, household size, level of education, Bariba ethnicity and income. To ensure the sustainable utilization of forest resources in the region, it is necessary to encourage young people to adopt environmentally friendly agricultural practices, to use improved stoves that require less wood and promote cultural services to diversify their sources of income.

Using mental model approach for ascertaining socio-cultural perceptions of forest-based ecosystem services among female forest landowners in Georgia, United States

ABSTRACT In the southern United States (US), female forest landowners (FeFLs) constitute 27% of family forest landowners, owning approximately 12.1 million ha of forestland. With changing demographic trends, FeFLs will likely own more forestlands in the foreseeable future. Understanding FeFLs’ perceptions of ecosystem services (ESs) is vital as their management decisions will impact the flow of forest-based ESs. Our study used a mental model approach to comprehensively understand FeFLs’ socio-cultural perceptions of ESs. Interviews with 39 FeFLs in Georgia, US, highlighted diverse perceptions of forest-based ESs encompassing cultural, provisioning, regulating, and supporting services. The FeFLs’ mental model revealed five thematic areas on ESs perceptions: economics, personal enjoyment, family and heritage, forestland as a place for social activity, and environmental benefits. The economics theme emerged distinctly regardless of their ownership type or forestland proximity, whereas personal enjoyment, family and heritage, and forestland as a place for social activity demonstrated place attachment. Co-owners linked forest management more closely to economics than sole-owners. Residential FeFLs valued social benefits, while non-residential landowners emphasized biodiversity significance. Our findings provide crucial insights for shaping inclusive strategies and policies, enhancing forest management among FeFLs, fostering a sense of community, and ensuring the sustainability of forestlands in the region.

The Forest Sector in EU Member States' National Recovery and Resilience Plans: a preliminary analysis

The role of forests in reaching the environmental policies targets of the European Union (EU) is being increasingly recognised. Consequently, investing in the forest sector takes on a fundamental role. Different funding opportunities are already in place in the EU, but there are some limitations in accessing them. New funding opportunities arose more recently. To support the recovery process of Member States (MS) after the Covid-19 pandemic, the EU is making significant efforts through NextGenerationEU, funding MS after the European Commission (EC) approval of the National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs). No specific guidelines are present to finance the forest sector. The aim of this paper is to investigate how the forest sector has been taken into account in the NRRPs through an analysis of the contents of 26 NRRPs. Financial investments in the sector by action types have also been analysed. Finally, commonalities and differences between MS have been extracted by means of a cluster analysis.Results show that the majority of MS dedicate a portion of their funds to the forest sector and there were no investments in the sector in only four countries. One-third of MS have foreseen a dedicated portion of the funds to the sector. The forest-related themes most represented in the NRRPs are: biodiversity protection, climate adaptation, forest-based ecosystem services management, climate mitigation, rural development and innovation. The cluster analysis identifies three MS clusters, giving evidence about the MS behaviour in a non-ordinary funding situation. The first one is characterised by more traditional countries, while in the other two clusters innovation plays an important role. The second cluster orients innovation towards wood-related products, while innovation in the third cluster is addressed to support forest multifunctionality.Results can support national and European decision-makers to plan national strategies, funds allocation, or to act at European level knowing which are the priorities given by the different MS.

PERSEPSI MASYARAKAT TERHADAP REHABILITASI HUTAN; STUDI KASUS DI HULU DAERAH ALIRAN SUNGAI BENGAWAN SOLO, INDONESIA

PERSEPSI MASYARAKAT TERHADAP REHABILITASI HUTAN; STUDI KASUS DI HULU DAERAH ALIRAN SUNGAI BENGAWAN SOLO, INDONESIA

The role of learning sources in familiarity with conservation programs: the gendered case of family forest landowners in Georgia, United States

ABSTRACT Voluntary incentive programs exist to encourage the conservation and sustainable management of privately owned forests. This study of Georgia family forest landowners used a gender-focussed approach to examine: the extent to which learning sources predict landowners’ familiarity with forest conservation programs; the association between familiarity with and participation in conservation programs; and landowners’ familiarity with forest-based ecosystem services (ESs). We analysed data (N = 223) from a mail survey using Ordinary Least Squares models to predict landowners’ familiarity with conservation programs, tested the association between familiarity with and participation in conservation programs, and evaluated landowners’ familiarity with ESs using qualitative content analysis. Professional forest-management advice and training were associated with familiarity with conservation programs, but gender (being female) was a negative predictor. There was a slight association between familiarity with and participation in conservation programs. In comparison to women, men were more familiar with ESs, and this familiarity is linked to the effectiveness of learning sources. We conclude that learning sources are crucial for information dissemination. We recommend improving professional advice giving to boost participation in conservation programs and raise landowners’ awareness of ESs. Particular attention should be given to women, who are a growing segment of forest landowners’ population in the United States.

Light effects on seedling growth in simulated forest canopy gaps vary across species from different successional stages

Tropical forests continue to suffer from various kinds of disturbances in the Anthropocene. An immediate impact of disturbances on forest ecosystems is the creation of numerous large and small canopy gaps, which dramatically affect forest structure and function. Yet, we know little about the effect of canopy gaps on forest successional trajectory. More specifically, the responses of seedlings from different successional stages to increased light intensity under large and small canopy gaps in understory remain unclear. In this study, dominant tree seedlings from early-, mid-, and late-successional stages were selected, respectively from a tropical montane forest in Hainan Island, China to study their growth rate, biomass and traits. Our results showed that the light condition under small canopy gaps (SG, 10–15% of full sunlight) and large canopy gaps (LG, 40–50% of full sunlight) induced greater increment of relative growth rates for seedlings from early- and mid-successional stages relative to that in late-successional stage. Both SG and LG also significantly increased photosynthesis rate, leaf area (LA), light saturation point (LSP), root mass ratio (RMR) and root: shoot ratio, but decreased specific leaf area (SLA) of seedlings across successional stages. Tree seedlings from the early-successional stage displayed the greatest decrease in leaf mass ratio, increase in LA, LSP, and RMR, in comparison to those from mid- and late- successional stages. Light condition and SLA were the most important factors for seedlings’ relative growth rate across successional stages. SLA connected the interaction between the light condition and successional stage on seedlings’ growth, thereby jointly explaining the 93% variation of seedlings’ growth, combining with area-based light saturated rate of CO2 assimilation. Our study highlights the distinct effect of disturbance-induced canopy gaps on seedling regeneration in the understory in tropical forest due to the variation of light intensity. We suspect that the seedlings from late-successional stage will recover relatively slow after disturbances causing canopy losses, which can have detrimental impacts on structure feature and successional trajectory in tropical forest, as well as forest-based ecosystem services.

Payments for forest-based ecosystem services in the United States: Magnitudes and trends

This manuscript reports on an effort to account, estimate, and document, to the fullest extent possible, direct payments for ecosystem services to private forest landowners in the United States. This includes payments derived from markets, subsidies, and hybrid approaches, from both governmental and non-governmental sources. Data were compiled from government agencies, public registries, and surveys of market participants. In some cases full reporting of program/market payments and forest area enrolled was possible. In other cases estimation was necessary, including averaging and interpolation by state and year, to create a conservative and comprehensive understanding of the nature, magnitude, and trends of programs and markets that provide payments for forest-based ecosystem services (PFES). Programs and markets were classified by categories of ecosystem services supported (carbon sequestration and storage, water quality and watershed protection, wildlife habitat, and bundled services), as well as payment mechanism (public payments, compliance transactions, and voluntary transactions). Findings show that estimated total PFES averaged $3.3 billion per year (2015 dollars), or about $17.69 per hectare of private forest per year over the decade 2010–19. This includes an average of $176 million per year for carbon, $889 million per year for water, $1529 million per year for wildlife habitat, and $754 million per year for bundled services. Hunting leases in particular are the largest payment source for private forest landowners, and have grown substantially up to $1.6 billion in 2016. At the same time, compliance and voluntary markets for carbon and water have also grown. In particular, the establishment of a market for carbon offsets within California’s cap-and-trade program has increased the size of forest carbon offset markets by two orders of magnitude from $3 million in 2010 to $326 million in 2019. However, public programs connected to PFES have steadily decreased in real dollar terms over time, as has participating land area. Various states and regions in the U.S. have higher or lower level of PFES connected to different service categories, for various apparent reasons. Results suggest that some small, highly-urban states received high levels of payments for conservation easements. Other states with a large agricultural land base relative to forestry received relatively high levels of public conservation program payments. Some states with both large private forest area and large urban centers had high values of payments for recreational access, such as hunting and wildlife viewing.

Expanding Family Forest Owner Options to Keep Their Land in Forest Use

AbstractFamily forest owners (FFOs) own the majority of US forests and 47% of forests in the Northeast. Over 90% of northeastern FFOs want their land to stay wooded. Maintaining forest-based ecosystem services necessitates finding ways to help FFOs achieve goals for keeping their land undeveloped. Conservation easements (CEs) prohibit residential and commercial development, typically in perpetuity, but are currently underused. Understanding what drives CE interest may help maximize their potential as a conservation tool. We explored northeastern FFOs’ likelihood of CE adoption through contingent behavior responses to permanent and temporary CE scenarios. For each commitment length, we tested a range of financial compensation amounts and FFO characteristics. Increased financial compensation did not increase CE adoption likelihood for either commitment length, whereas attitudinal variables strongly influenced intention for both. Respondents did not appear to prefer temporary to permanent easements but were equally likely to consider adoption, suggesting that providing both tools may be in order. Providing FFOs with more options to keep their land in forest use, especially when there is currently high interest in this goal but low participation, has the potential to attract new and different segments of FFOs, thereby sustaining the essential ecosystem services derived from forests.

Analyzing how forest-based amenity values and carbon storage benefits affect spatial targeting for conservation investment

We analyze how two different ecosystem services: forest-based amenity values and carbon storage benefits, affect spatial targeting for conservation investment for protected area acquisition using selected forest clusters in Knox County, Tennessee in the United States. We determine return-on-investment (ROI) for these two different forest-based ecosystem services by estimating amenity values and carbon storage amounts using hedonic price model and dynamic Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (TEM), respectively, and corresponding acquisition costs at the forest cluster level. Our findings of the optimal protected area acquisition in the form of forest clusters serve as an empirically informed knowledge base to help both the conservation and planning agencies in prioritizing acquisition of potential protected areas depending on their preferences. By using carbon and amenity ROIs in spatial targeting of forest clusters within the multi-objective optimization set up, we not only addressed the spatial heterogeneity in the carbon storage benefits and amenity values but also the spatial heterogeneity in cluster acquisition costs. We also found that selection decisions were dictated by the weakly negative correlation (−0.16) between the carbon and amenity ROIs instead of weakly positive correlation (0.14) between carbon storage benefits and amenity values. Since the spatial distribution of carbon and amenity ROIs were weakly negatively correlated, there were apparent conflicts between the objectives of maximizing forest carbon storage and amenity value. This resulted in concave frontiers with tradeoffs between the objectives implying variation in spatial distribution of the selected forest clusters letting the conservation and planning agencies decide combination of strategies which best fit their preferences.

The Role of Regional Ecological Assessment in Quantifying Ecosystem Services for Forest Management

Regional ecological assessments evaluate sustainability as an interaction among ecosystem services and stressors across changing landscapes. Using ecological assessments to inform ecosystem management activities relies on assessing functional linkages between ecosystem processes and ecosystem services, because ecosystem processes are the primary targets of ecosystem management. We undertook a review of regional ecological assessments in the Appalachian region of the United States to examine how forest-based ecosystem services, forest ecosystem processes, and their linkages are quantified. To provide context, we first give an overview of common ecological assessment frameworks, including risk, vulnerability, resilience, and indicator-based approaches. Assessments tended to target either ecosystem-level properties thought to be important for ecosystem service sustainability, or else to target specific ecosystem services or stressors. Forest ecosystem-level assessment most often relied on specific indicators for system properties such as integrity or health, but how those properties or their indicators were related to ecosystem services was typically not quantified. Individual ecosystem services were frequently assessed in terms of risk and vulnerability to specific external stressors, but linkages to ecosystem processes, and potential tradeoffs among ecosystem services, were infrequently quantified. Integrated system-level assessment and ecosystem service assessment can improve support for ecosystem management by advancing our understanding of dependencies on the ecosystem processes that are modified through management. Models that evaluate ecosystem services and underlying processes in a systems context offer one approach to do so.

Ecosystem Service Provision by Secondary Forests in Shifting Cultivation Areas Remains Poorly Understood

It is often asserted that secondary forests (SF) provide inferior forest-based ecosystem services (ES), but there is limited research to generalize this claim. Here, we review comparisons between ES provision in SFs and other land uses in shifting cultivation landscapes. We searched the peer-reviewed literature and selected only studies that compare ES from SF with ES from other land uses. In total, 212 ES and 347 comparisons of different land use systems were recorded. Comparisons were mainly made for carbon storage, biodiversity, and soil variables. Very few provisioning ES were compared in the literature and no cultural services were recorded. SF were in most cases inferior to old-growth forest in terms of carbon storage and biodiversity, whereas soil quality comparisons varied. ES provision in SF was superior to agricultural systems, whereas comparisons with plantation crops varied. We conclude that the narrow focus on specific ES categories strongly limits understanding of SF in shifting cultivation areas and that it is more relevant to compare SFs with other agricultural systems rather than with old-growth forests.

State Cost-Share Programs for Forest Landowners in the Southern United States: A Review

Abstract The largest concentration of state-level forest cost-share programs in the United States can be found in the southern states. Since the inception of the first programs in the 1970s, the state-level forest cost-share programs in the US South have acted as models for the rest of the country. Cost-share programs compensate landowners through direct reimbursements to address barriers such as limited owner capital and cash flow in the initial years of investment. Through a review of the literature and progress reports from southern state forestry agencies, we qualitatively assessed state-level cost-share programs and their status in the southern states. We identified the common themes in the literature related to cost-share programs: market, nonmarket, and landowners’ perceptions and knowledge. Many of the programs enacted between the 1970s and 1980s aimed to ensure a sustainable timber supply, a market good, from private forestlands. A few of the programs enacted more recently compensate landowners for nonmarket benefits such as forest health or soil and water conservation. Two of the nine available programs are practically inactive in recent years because of a lack of funding. We discuss current prospects regarding funding, partnerships, and broadening the focus of incentives to cover forest-based ecosystem services. Study Implications Regionally, cost-share programs in the US South differ in eligibility criteria, funding source and status, and resource management objectives. The majority of state-level cost-share programs in the US South were enacted 30 to 50 years ago. The first cost-share programs were designed to support a continued timber supply from private forestlands, but a few recent programs have expanded their objectives to protect forest health and soil and water quality. Forest-based ecosystem service markets, specifically reforestation to capture atmospheric carbon dioxide and provide clean air and water, have become more prevalent in recent years. Funding for forest commodity incentive programs is a continual challenge. New funding sources and new programs are crucial to meet demands for incentives for landowners to provide both timber and ecosystem services outputs.

Perceived Forest-based Ecosystem Services and Attitudes Toward Forest Rehabilitation: A Case Study in the Upstream of Central Java, Indonesia

Forest rehabilitation is essential in restoring forest-based ecosystemservices (ES) provided by forest area. However, the critical issue on how locals perceived importance of forest rehabilitation, and how forest rehabilitation generates, both direct and indirect, benefits for the adjacent communities has remained contentious. A questionnaire survey was employed to examine locals' perceived importance, perceived ES, and attitudes toward forest rehabilitation in a village adjacent to Perhutani's forest area in the upstream of a catchment in Central Java, Indonesia. In total, 90 usable questionnaires were collected. The findings indicate that their perceived pine-sap production, conserving forest area, and water availability are the importance of forest rehabilitation programs. Locals recognized various ES benefits, including provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural services, though the adverse impacts emerged. Spearman rank correlation analysis revealed that local's satisfaction with forest rehabilitation positively and significantly correlated with their positive perceptions and subsequently increase their willingness to be actively involved in forest conservation efforts. The findings also imply that forest managers should not only focus on delivering benefits but also be aware of the adverse impacts of forest rehabilitation and management practices, which are crucial for ensuring forest sustainability. Jasa Ekosistem Berbasis Hutan yang Diterima dan Sikap terhadap Rehabilitasi Hutan: Studi Kasus di Hulu Daerah Aliran Sungai di Jawa Tengah, IndonesiaIntisariRehabilitasi hutan penting untuk memulihkan jasa ekosistem berbasis hutan yang disediakan oleh kawasan hutan. Sementara rehabilitasi hutan sangat penting dalam memulihkan jasa lingkungan, pertanyaan mengenai bagaimana penduduk setempat memandang pentingnya rehabilitasi hutan, dan bagaimana rehabilitasi hutan menghasilkan manfaat, baik langsung maupun tidak langsung, bagi masyarakat sekitar masih diperdebatkan. Kuesioner survey dilaksanakan untuk menggali persepsi masyarakat tentang tingkat kepentingan, persepsi terhadap jasa lingkungan, dan sikap mereka terhadap rehabilitasi hutan di desa berdekatan kawasan hutan Perhutani, di hulu daerah alisan sungai, Jawa Tengah, Indonesia. Secara total, 90 kuesioner yang lengkap berhasil dikumpulkan. Temuan menunjukkan bahwa persepsi masyarakat terhadap pentingnya rehabilitasi hutan yaitu untuk produksi getah pinus, melestarikan kawasan hutan, dan ketersediaan air. Masyarakat desa merasakan berbagai jasa lingkungan yang diperoleh dari kawasan hutan meliputi manfaat penyediaan, pengaturan, dukungan, budaya, meskipun dampak negatif juga teramati. Analisis korelasi Spearman menunjukkan bahwa kepuasan masyarakat terhadap rehabilitasi hutan berkorelasi positif dan signifikan terhadap persepsi positif mereka, dan selanjutnya akan meningkatkan kesediaan mereka untuk terlibat aktif dalam upaya konservasi kawasan hutan. Temuan ini juga menyiratkan bahwa pengelola hutan tidak hanya fokus memberikan manfaat, tetapi harus juga menyadari dampak buruk dari praktik rehabilitasi dan pengelolaan hutan yang muncul untuk memastikan kelestarian hutan.

Changing forest stakeholders’ perception of ecosystem services with linguistic nudging

This paper explores whether the perceptions of forest owners and professionals could be nudged towards more sustainable management practices by adjusting a policy text’s metaphorical content. Recent research has demonstrated a link between information interventions and preference change, but there is a need to further explore individuals’ reactions to information on forest-based ecosystem services and to link these to the design of policy instruments. We contribute to narrowing this gap by nudging the content of a policy text comparing rotation forest management (RFM) and continuous cover forestry (CCF), and exposing it to forest stakeholders. The research is carried out in Finland, the so-called ‘forest nation’ of Europe, whose economy and culture is closely tied to forests. The results highlight a deep-rooted opinion divide between Finnish forest owners and professionals: the professionals reacted significantly more negatively towards policy text emphasising continuous cover practice than forest owners. Our results support the use of linguistic nudging as a complement to other policy instruments, but they also highlight the challenges of using one-fits-all approaches to make policies more palatable. In our study, the stakeholders’ different reaction to nudge was also explained by their age, and type and degree of prior knowledge on forest management.

Local Users and Other Stakeholders’ Perceptions of the Identification and Prioritization of Ecosystem Services in Fragile Mountains: A Case Study of Chure Region of Nepal

Forest-based ecosystem services (ES) play a vital role in improving people’s livelihoods, the environment, and the economy. Prior studies have focused on technical aspects of economic valuation such as biophysical quantification through modeling and mapping, or monetary valuation, while little attention has been paid to the social dimensions. Taking case studies of two dominant community-based forest management systems (community forestry—CF and collaborative forestry—CFM) in the Chure region of Nepal, we investigate how local users and other stakeholders perceive the valuation of forest-based ecosystem services based on proximity (nearby vs. distant users), socio-economic class (rich vs. poor users), and forest management modalities (CF vs. CFM). We found that local users and other stakeholders in the Chure region identified a total of 42 forest-based ecosystem services: 16 provisioning, 15 regulating, and 11 cultural services. While all local users prioritised firewood, water quality improvement, and bequest values as the top three services, genetic resources, hazard protection, and hunting services were valued as having the lowest priority. The priorities placed on other services varied in many respects. For instance, rich users living near a CF showed a strong preference for fodder, grasses, and soil conservation services whereas users living far from forests prioritised timber, fresh water, and flood control services. In the case of CFM, rich users adjacent to forests preferred timber, soil conservation, and carbon sequestration services but those living far from forests chose timber, poles, and flood control as their top priorities. Differences in rankings also occurred among the regional managers, national experts, and forest users. The reasons for these differences and their policy implications are discussed, and ways of reaching consensus between the users are suggested.

Incentive Systems for Forest-Based Ecosystem Services with Missing Financial Service Markets

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) is a popular paradigm to address underprovision of ecosystem services in developing economies. Potential PES recipients often experience other market imperfections, which can influence PES uptake and environmental performance. These include poorly functioning financial services markets. We develop a model of nonindustrial timber production with poorly functioning financial service markets and PES. We calibrate the model to the Panama Canal Watershed and solve the dynamic allocation decision using dynamic programming. The results of our model show that improving financial services markets, including improved access to borrowing and savings, can reduce the costs of acquiring ecosystem services. Nonenvironmental market frictions can influence the incentive properties of PES payment vehicles. Our model predicts that wealthier individuals are likely to provide the desired land uses at least cost if incentivized land uses involve production. In these cases cost-effective PES is unlikely to advance development objectives.

The hidden role of woody debris stocks as a woodfuel source: why cutting down trees if woodfuel can be gathered from forest floor?

SUMMARY: Recently, the key role played by woody debris within the ecological dynamics of forest ecosystems has been acknowledged; however, its contribution as a source of woodfuel has barely been studied, despite being the most important energy resource for one-third of world population. Over decades, the widely held belief that woodfuel exclusively comes from woody living biomass has labelled woodfuel collection as a driver of tropical deforestation. The poor understanding about gathering ways of this resource in the rural developing world has hidden the fact that it is mainly sourced from woody necromass, of which their stocks and productivity may be estimated at 35 Pg and 6.5 Pg year-1 in tropical forests, respectively. Whether necromass productivity of both geographically accessible tropical forest for rural communities and other types of woody vegetation is taken into account together, a potential supply of 2.19 Pg year-1 could be estimated, which would meet by far, the projected global rural woodfuel demand. It concludes that household-oriented woodfuel collection is far from being a driver of deforestation; instead, this latter might jeopardize access to this energy source. This paper tries to provide a new insight about the relationship between rural energy security and forest-based ecosystem services and their repercussions on climate change.

Unearthing the hidden world of roots: Root biomass and architecture differ among species within the same guild.

The potential benefits of planting trees have generated significant interest with respect to sequestering carbon and restoring other forest based ecosystem services. Reliable estimates of carbon stocks are pivotal for understanding the global carbon balance and for promoting initiatives to mitigate CO2 emissions through forest management. There are numerous studies employing allometric regression models that convert inventory into aboveground biomass (AGB) and carbon (C). Yet the majority of allometric regression models do not consider the root system nor do these equations provide detail on the architecture and shape of different species. The root system is a vital piece toward understanding the hidden form and function roots play in carbon accumulation, nutrient and plant water uptake, and groundwater infiltration. Work that estimates C in forests as well as models that are used to better understand the hydrologic function of trees need better characterization of tree roots. We harvested 40 trees of six different species, including their roots down to 2 mm in diameter and created species-specific and multi-species models to calculate aboveground (AGB), coarse root belowground biomass (BGB), and total biomass (TB). We also explore the relationship between crown structure and root structure. We found that BGB contributes ~27.6% of a tree’s TB, lateral roots extend over 1.25 times the distance of crown extent, root allocation patterns varied among species, and that AGB is a strong predictor of TB. These findings highlight the potential importance of including the root system in C estimates and lend important insights into the function roots play in water cycling.

Challenges for tree officers to enhance the provision of regulating ecosystem services from urban forests

Urbanisation and a changing climate are leading to more frequent and severe flood, heat and air pollution episodes in Britain's cities. Interest in nature-based solutions to these urban problems is growing, with urban forests potentially able to provide a range of regulating ecosystem services such as stormwater attenuation, heat amelioration and air purification. The extent to which these benefits are realized is largely dependent on urban forest management objectives, the availability of funding, and the understanding of ecosystem service concepts within local governments, the primary delivery agents of urban forests.This study aims to establish the extent to which British local authorities actively manage their urban forests for regulating ecosystem services, and identify which resources local authorities most need in order to enhance provision of ecosystem services by Britain's urban forests.Interviews were carried out with staff responsible for tree management decisions in fifteen major local authorities from across Britain, selected on the basis of their urban nature and high population density. Local authorities have a reactive approach to urban forest management, driven by human health and safety concerns and complaints about tree disservices. There is relatively little focus on ensuring provision of regulating ecosystem services, despite awareness by tree officers of the key role that urban forests can play in alleviating chronic air pollution, flood risk and urban heat anomalies. However, this is expected to become a greater focus in future provided that existing constraints – lack of understanding of ecosystem services amongst key stakeholders, limited political support, funding constraints – can be overcome.Our findings suggest that the adoption of a proactive urban forest strategy, underpinned by quantified and valued urban forest-based ecosystem services provision data, and innovative private sector funding mechanisms, can facilitate a change to a proactive, ecosystem services approach to urban forest management.

Plant diversity and determinant factors across smallholder agricultural management units in Central Ethiopia

Forests in the highlands of Ethiopia have declined considerably, and the supply of forest-based ecosystem services is eroding. Managing agricultural landscapes as well as enhancing plant biodiversity in agro-ecosystems is and will continue to be one possible strategy to preserve biodiversity, ensure an ecosystem service supply and sustain agricultural productivity. This study investigated the current status and prospects of plant diversity and its determinants in an agricultural landscape dominated by smallholder farmers in Southern Ethiopia. Specifically, the study investigated effects of land use, altitudinal gradient, wealth status and household attributes on plant diversity in agricultural landscapes. A complete count, Y-frame transect sampling method and household interviews were used for the study involving 39 households and 115 sample plots. A total of 166 plant species belonging to 134 genera and 56 families were recorded in all land use types. Of these, 101 were woody plant species (51 trees and 50 shrubs), while 65 were cultivated herbs and grasses. Land use, altitude and household wealth status significantly influenced tree and shrub species richness. Among land uses, home gardens hosted the highest number of tree and shrub species. Upper altitudes and rich households also had the highest tree and shrub species richness compared to others. Plant diversity indices (Shannon, Simpson and Margalef) were affected by altitude, wealth status and land use types. Household location, wealth status, the household attributes of landholding and family size had strong and positive influences on the tree species diversity and woody stem density of households, while educational background and off-farm income were negatively related with household-owned tree stem density. Species preference ranking, seedling demand and importance value index computations indicated the dominance of exotic tree species, which may suggest their economic importance over indigenous tree species. In the long term, this might lead to dominance of exotic tree species in the landscapes, which could cause a potential future threat to the remnant indigenous plant diversity that is currently finding refuge in the agricultural landscapes.