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This week in review … Communities can monitor forests as well as experts, research shows

Posted: 30 Oct 2013 05:04 AM PDT

Communities can monitor forests 'as well as experts'
BBC News, 29 October 2013

LONDON, UK: Research published in Ecology and Society shows that local communities are able to monitor forest biomass up to the highest standards of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The study, coordinated by the World Agroforestry Centre, identified 289 plots in nine forest types located in four countries in South-East Asia and compared the carbon stock estimates collected by local communities with the results gathered by professional foresters. The results were the same both in terms of accuracy and precision. The research team hopes its findings will show that forest communities are an under-used resource when it comes to the monitoring aspects of REDD projects. Read the article … Download the article on "Community Monitoring for REDD+: international policies and field realities" [pdf] …


This week in review … Aboriginal hunting practice increases animal populations

Posted: 30 Oct 2013 05:02 AM PDT

Aboriginal Hunting Practice Increases Animal Populations
Science Daily, 25 October 2013

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA: In Australia's Western Desert, Aboriginal hunters use a unique method that actually increases populations of the animals they hunt, according to a study co-authored by Stanford Woods Institute-affiliated researchers Rebecca and Doug Bird. The study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, offers new insights into maintaining animal communities through ecosystem engineering and co-evolution of animals and humans. It finds that populations of monitor lizards nearly double in areas where they are heavily hunted. The hunting method – using fire to clear patches of land to improve the search for game – also creates a mosaic of regrowth that enhances habitat. Where there are no hunters, lightning fires spread over vast distances, landscapes are more homogenous and monitor lizards are more rare. Read the article …


 

 

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