Understanding the negative and positive effects of agricultural land use for the conservation of biodiversity, and its relation to ecosystem services, needs a landscape perspective. Agriculture can contribute to the conservation of high-diversity systems, which may provide important ecosystem services such as pollination and biological control via complementarity and sampling effects. Land-use management is often focused on few species and local processes, but in dynamic, agricultural landscapes, only a diversity of insurance species may guarantee resilience (the capacity to reorganize after disturbance). Interacting species experience their surrounding landscape at different spatial scales, which influences trophic interactions. Structurally complex landscapes enhance local diversity in agroecosystems, which may compensate for local high-intensity management. Organisms with high-dispersal abilities appear to drive these biodiversity patterns and ecosystem services, because of their recolonization ability and larger resources experienced. Agri-environment schemes (incentives for farmers to benefit the environment) need to broaden their perspective and to take the different responses to schemes in simple (high impact) and complex (low impact) agricultural landscapes into account. In simple landscapes, local allocation of habitat is more important than in complex landscapes, which are in total at risk. However, little knowledge of the relative importance of local and landscape management for biodiversity and its relation to ecosystem services make reliable recommendations difficult.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2005.00782.x

Landscape perspectives on agricultural intensification and biodiversity – ecosystem service management

Linear infrastructure such as roads, highways, power lines and gas lines are omnipresent features of human activity and are rapidly expanding in the tropics. Tropical species are especially vulnerable to such infrastructure because they include many ecological specialists that avoid even narrow (<30-m wide) clearings and forest edges, as well as other species that are susceptible to road kill, predation or hunting by humans near roads. In addition, roads have a major role in opening up forested tropical regions to destructive colonization and exploitation. Here, we synthesize existing research on the impacts of roads and other linear clearings on tropical rainforests, and assert that such impacts are often qualitatively and quantitatively different in tropical forests than in other ecosystems. We also highlight practical measures to reduce the negative impacts of roads and other linear infrastructure on tropical species.

Impacts of roads and linear clearings on tropical forests.

Amazon deforestation has been measured by remote sensing for three decades. In comparison, selective logging has been mostly invisible to satellites. We developed a large-scale, high-resolution, automated remote-sensing analysis of selective logging in the top five timber-producing states of the Brazilian Amazon. Logged areas ranged from 12,075 to 19,823 square kilometers per year (±14%) between 1999 and 2002, equivalent to 60 to 123% of previously reported deforestation area. Up to 1200 square kilometers per year of logging were observed on conservation lands. Each year, 27 million to 50 million cubic meters of wood were extracted, and a gross flux of ∼0.1 billion metric tons of carbon was destined for release to the atmosphere by logging.

https://www.fs.fed.us/global/iitf/pubs/ja_iitf_2005_asner001.pdf

Selective logging in the Brazilian Amazon.

Most tropical forests outside protected areas have been or will be selectively logged so it is essential to maximize the conservation values of partially harvested areas. Here we examine the extent to which these forests sustain timber production, retain species, and conserve carbon stocks. We then describe some improvements in tropical forestry and how their implementation can be promoted. A simple meta-analysis based on >100 publications revealed substantial variability but that: timber yields decline by about 46% after the first harvest but are subsequently sustained at that level; 76% of carbon is retained in once-logged forests; and, 85‐100% of species of mammals, birds, invertebrates, and plants remain after logging. Timber stocks will not regain primary-forest levels within current harvest cycles, but yields increase if collateral damage is reduced and silvicultural treatments are applied. Given that selectively logged forests retain substantial biodiversity, carbon, and timber stocks, this “middle way” between deforestation and total protection deserves more attention from researchers, conservation organizations, and policy-makers. Improvements in forest management are now likely if synergies are enhanced among initiatives to retain forest carbon stocks (REDD+), assure the legality of forest products, certify responsible management, and devolve control over forests to empowered local communities.

/pdf/sustaining-conservation-values-in-selectively-logged-1olkbzv6lh.pdf

Sustaining conservation values in selectively logged tropical forests: the attained and the attainable

Causal pathways to achieve social and ecological benefits from forests are unclear, because there are few systematic multicountry empirical analyses that identify important factors and their complex relationships with social and ecological outcomes. This study examines biodiversity conservation and forest-based livelihood outcomes using a data set on 84 sites from six countries in East Africa and South Asia. We find both positive and negative relationships, leading to joint wins, losses, and trade-offs depending on specific contextual factors; participation in forest governance institutions by local forest users is strongly associated with jointly positive outcomes for forests in our study.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/331/6024/1606.full.pdf

Social and Ecological Synergy: Local Rulemaking, Forest Livelihoods, and Biodiversity Conservation

Conservation Biology, Pages 7–20 Volume 15, No. 1, February 2001 This paper is a much abridged version of World Bank Environment Department Paper 75, “Biodiversity Conservation in the Context of Tropical Forest Management,” by the same authors. It is the first paper in the bank’s Impact Studies Series, which addresses the broader questions of the positive and negative effects of human activities on biodiversity. A more complete set of data supporting the arguments herein are in the appendices and text of the World Bank paper, which can be accessed from http://www.worldbank.org/biodiversity.

Tropical forest management and conservation of biodiversity: an overview

Conservation and Civil Strife: Two Perspectives from Central Africa

8. Tropical Forestry and the Conservation of Neotropical Birds

30. Logging and Wildlife in the Tropics: Impacts and Options for Conservation

29. Rain Forest Logging and Wildlife Use in Bolivia: Management and Conservation in Transition

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