Gold mining alters tropical forests, but its association with medicinal tree assemblages remains poorly documented in the Peruvian Amazon. We compared taxonomic diversity, floristic composition, and forest structure between three gold-mining-disturbed plots and their corresponding reference forests in San Juan, Huacamayo-Pacal, and Boca Amigo, Manu Province. Six permanent 1 ha plots contained 1878 non-palm medicinal trees representing 182 species and 46 families. Diversity was assessed using Hill numbers, rarefaction and extrapolation, sample coverage, beta diversity, NMDS, PERMANOVA, and structural attributes. Species richness and effective diversity were consistently lower in disturbed plots. Relative to their paired reference forests, species richness was lower by 52.3%, 18.5%, and 22.5%; q = 1 diversity was lower by 69.3%, 35.7%, and 25.2%, and q = 2 diversity was lower by 77.5%, 59.6%, and 26.6%. Basal area was also lower by 43.0%, 33.2%, and 31.2%, respectively. Floristic differentiation was strongest in San Juan, while multivariate composition differed among the six sampled plots (PERMANOVA: pseudo-F = 4.156, R2 = 0.278). These results show consistent differences in medicinal tree diversity between disturbed and reference plots, although the magnitude of floristic and structural contrasts varied among communities.
Cagüey (Leptocereus paniculatus) is a tree-form cactus endemic to Hispaniola and one of the main species historically used for furniture and handicraft production in the southwestern Dominican Republic. Due to its restricted distribution, slow growth, and long history of harvesting, concerns have emerged about the sustainability of its use and the conservation status of its remaining populations. This study characterized the ecosystem service of wood and fiber provision associated with traditional handicraft production in La Lista by identifying provisioning areas, target species, beneficiaries, and potential drivers of change through interviews with local artisans, and by assessing the status of L. paniculatus populations under harvesting pressure. Semi-structured interviews with 26 local artisans (16 men working with wood and 10 women engaged in fiber weaving) documented that provisioning areas include dry forest both inside and outside the Wildlife Refuge, as well as semi-deciduous forest. A total of 20 species are used for wood, while Sabal domingensis is the only fiber source. This provisioning service provides income for 180 people. Interviews revealed declining availability of harvestable individuals, expansion of extraction areas, diversification of plant resources, and reduced profitability. Field surveys in six localities assessed potential harvesting impacts by measuring 133 adult individuals and harvested stumps, while UAV-derived orthomosaics and a GeoAI (version 0.43.0) workflow based on Mask Region-based Convolutional Neural Network (Mask R-CNN) were used to analyze population distribution.
Grassland restoration is important for addressing ecosystem degradation and improving ecosystem services; however, the ultimate goal of grassland restoration, namely restoring degraded grasslands to a “healthy state”, lacks systematic and unified technical indicators. Focusing on the degraded alpine grasslands of the Tibetan Plateau, we critically examine the conceptual and operational dilemmas of the “healthy grassland” standard and argue that, when applied as universal standards, neither fixed-threshold criteria (e.g., vegetation cover, biomass, and diversity) nor reference systems based on pristine meadows can provide scientifically sound and practically operable restoration targets. Drawing on alternative stable state theory and the novel ecosystems concept, we propose a shift from reference-based to goal-oriented restoration, with restoration targets stratified and classified by degradation degree, site conditions, and stakeholder demands. Synthesizing published meta-analyses and representative cases from the Tibetan Plateau, we show that restoration outcomes differ markedly with measures, recovery time, and regional conditions, and we outline a tentative tiered goal system of ecological security, functional recovery, structural optimization, and sustainable management as a testable framework, combined with adaptive management to reconcile multi-objective trade-offs. We conclude that goal-oriented, classified restoration provides more realistic and operable indicators of the ecosystem services that restored grasslands can be expected to deliver.
Understanding local community perspectives on natural resource values is critical for reconciling biodiversity conservation with livelihood strategies, particularly in shared landscapes where protected areas overlap with resident human populations. To address this gap, this study explored community perspectives on natural resource values in Liuwa Plain National Park, western Zambia, employing participatory non-market valuation methods through a mixed-methods approach comprising semi-structured household surveys (n = 309) and focus group discussions conducted in November 2024. Data were analysed using frequentist approaches, Chi-square, and Friedman tests. Results revealed that local communities highly valued and prioritised wildlife and fisheries, particularly Bubble fish (Tetraodontidae), for economic roles, and forest products, i.e., Mubula (Parinari curatellifolia), for cultural and ecological roles, followed by water and agricultural land. The findings showed that socio-demographic factors, such as length of residency and ethnic affiliation, particularly among the Lozi-speaking people, were the strongest predictors of conservation awareness and sustainable natural resource management attitudes, while significant environmental challenges and pressures, such as climate change, poaching, deforestation, decline in fish stocks, such as Tiger fish (Hydrocynus vittatus), and changes in water availability over time, were also identified. These findings underscore the urgency of integrating local perspectives into protected area management contributing to global sustainable development goals and adding to the discourses on inclusiveness and ecological integrity in balancing biodiversity conservation and livelihood strategies.
Having reliable information on the main influences on the conservation behaviour of individuals is crucial to the evaluation of policy measures intended to promote sustainability. Knowing the potential for survey respondents to overstate the frequency with which they engage in behaviours that are thought desirable and understate the frequency with which they engage in behaviours that are thought undesirable is a matter of practical importance. This potential depends in part on the importance to them of appearing to be socially responsible with respect to conservation behaviours. We used crosswise questioning to investigate the influence of social desirability bias on self-reporting of conservation behaviour by members of the public in New Zealand. We also investigated the extent to which the importance of conservation influences the extent of apparent bias in respondents’ reporting of their behaviour. We found that the effect of social desirability bias on self-reports of conservation behaviour by members of the public in New Zealand may be substantial, being of the order of 20%, but also, counter-intuitively, that this bias may lead to under-reporting of conservation behaviours as well as over-reporting. We also found that the incidence of social desirability bias was associated with the personal importance of conservation to respondents.
