scholarly journals Protected Areas in Forest Conservation: Challenges and Opportunities

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 488
Author(s):  
Panayiotis G. Dimitrakopoulos ◽  
Nikoleta Jones

Forest ecosystems are important habitats for a vast number of species worldwide[...]

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 384
Author(s):  
Javier Martínez-López ◽  
Bastian Bertzky ◽  
Simon Willcock ◽  
Marine Robuchon ◽  
María Almagro ◽  
...  

Protected areas (PAs) are a key strategy to reverse global biodiversity declines, but they are under increasing pressure from anthropogenic activities and concomitant effects. Thus, the heterogeneous landscapes within PAs, containing a number of different habitats and ecosystem types, are in various degrees of disturbance. Characterizing habitats and ecosystems within the global protected area network requires large-scale monitoring over long time scales. This study reviews methods for the biophysical characterization of terrestrial PAs at a global scale by means of remote sensing (RS) and provides further recommendations. To this end, we first discuss the importance of taking into account the structural and functional attributes, as well as integrating a broad spectrum of variables, to account for the different ecosystem and habitat types within PAs, considering examples at local and regional scales. We then discuss potential variables, challenges and limitations of existing global environmental stratifications, as well as the biophysical characterization of PAs, and finally offer some recommendations. Computational and interoperability issues are also discussed, as well as the potential of cloud-based platforms linked to earth observations to support large-scale characterization of PAs. Using RS to characterize PAs globally is a crucial approach to help ensure sustainable development, but it requires further work before such studies are able to inform large-scale conservation actions. This study proposes 14 recommendations in order to improve existing initiatives to biophysically characterize PAs at a global scale.


Geomatics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 335-346
Author(s):  
Do-Hyung Kim ◽  
Anupam Anand

Evaluation of the effectiveness of protected areas is critical for forest conservation policies and priorities. We used 30 m resolution forest cover change data from 1990 to 2010 for ~4000 protected areas to evaluate their effectiveness. Our results show that protected areas in the tropics avoided 83,500 ± 21,200 km2 of deforestation during the 2000s. Brazil’s protected areas have the largest amount of avoided deforestation at 50,000 km2. We also show the amount of international aid received by tropical countries compared to the effectiveness of protected areas. Thirty-four tropical countries received USD 42 billion during the 1990s and USD 62 billion during the 2000s in international aid for biodiversity conservation. The effectiveness of international aid was highest in Latin America, with 4.3 m2/USD, led by Brazil, while tropical Asian countries showed the lowest average effect of international aid, reaching only 0.17 m2/USD.


2022 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 938
Author(s):  
Olubodun Michael Lateef ◽  
Michael Olawale Akintubosun ◽  
Olamide Tosin Olaoba ◽  
Sunday Ocholi Samson ◽  
Malgorzata Adamczyk

The evolutional development of the RNA translation process that leads to protein synthesis based on naturally occurring amino acids has its continuation via synthetic biology, the so-called rational bioengineering. Genetic code expansion (GCE) explores beyond the natural translational processes to further enhance the structural properties and augment the functionality of a wide range of proteins. Prokaryotic and eukaryotic ribosomal machinery have been proven to accept engineered tRNAs from orthogonal organisms to efficiently incorporate noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) with rationally designed side chains. These side chains can be reactive or functional groups, which can be extensively utilized in biochemical, biophysical, and cellular studies. Genetic code extension offers the contingency of introducing more than one ncAA into protein through frameshift suppression, multi-site-specific incorporation of ncAAs, thereby increasing the vast number of possible applications. However, different mediating factors reduce the yield and efficiency of ncAA incorporation into synthetic proteins. In this review, we comment on the recent advancements in genetic code expansion to signify the relevance of systems biology in improving ncAA incorporation efficiency. We discuss the emerging impact of tRNA modifications and metabolism in protein design. We also provide examples of the latest successful accomplishments in synthetic protein therapeutics and show how codon expansion has been employed in various scientific and biotechnological applications.


Web Ecology ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Mikoláš ◽  
M. Svoboda ◽  
V. Pouska ◽  
R. C. Morrissey ◽  
D. C. Donato ◽  
...  


Author(s):  
Darryl Jones

The importance and influence of food in the lives of animals has been studied is great detail in a vast number of species. This chapter outlines the many findings of this critical research that are directly relevant to understanding how the provisioning of food for garden birds may be affecting their lives.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Torku ◽  
Albert Ping Chuen Chan ◽  
Esther Hiu Kwan Yung

Abstract The unprecedented increase in the ageing population, coupled with urbanisation, has led to a vast number of research publications on age-friendly cities and communities (AFCC). However, the existing reviews on AFCC studies are not sufficiently up-to-date for AFCC researchers. This paper presents a thorough analysis of the annual publication trend, the contributions of authors and institutions from different countries, and the trending research themes in the AFCC research corpus through a systematic review of 98 publications. A contribution assessment formula and thematic analysis were used for the review. The results indicated a growing AFCC research interest in recent times. Researchers and institutions from the United States of America, Canada, United Kingdom and Hong Kong made the highest contribution to the AFCC research corpus. The thematic analysis classified the AFCC research corpus into four main themes: conceptualisation; implementation and development; assessment; and challenges and opportunities. The themes indicate the current and future research patterns and issues to be considered in the development of AFCC and for interested researchers to make proposals for future research. Future directions are proposed, including suggestions on adopting new assessment methods and instruments, collaboration and cross-nation comparative research, considering older adults as place-makers and conducting a prior participatory analysis to maximise the participation of older adults.


2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-27
Author(s):  
Ryszard F. Sadowski

Declared by the United Nations as the International Year of the Forest, 2011 demonstrated the signi#cance of forest ecosystems to all humans and the entire Earth. Religions had already become important allies in preventing damage to forests. Different religious traditions offer various proposals for forest conservation and afforestation. Since 1970 and especially after the jubilee year of 2000, people of faith established many ecological organizations to engage in environmental conservation because of their religious beliefs. All major religious traditions have a lot to offer. This article examines the way organized religions and faith-based ecological organizations are engaged in many environmental projects concerning forest ecosystems. It looks at the ecological activity of faith-based organizations such as the Chipko Movement, Appiko movement, Swadhyaya community, and the Ecological Movement of St. Francis of Assisi. The article shows that the actualization of religious potential in protecting forests is accomplished through active prevention of deforestation and climate change, afforestation, and the implementation of environmentally friendly technology.  


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