OBJECTIVES Parks provide places for people to experience nature, engage in physical activity, and relax. We studied how residents in low-income, minority communities use public, urban neighborhood parks and how parks contribute to physical activity. METHODS In 8 public parks, we used direct observation to document the number, gender, race/ethnicity, age group, and activity level of park users...

The Caspian (Hyrcanian) lowland forest zone in northern Iran is characterized by small remnant alder forest communities, dominated or subdominated with an Euxino-Hyrcanian element, Alnus glutinosa ssp. barbata. The first floristic inventory of these alder forests in northern Iran is presented. The floristic catalogue is based on the data of 133 phytosociological releves in eight different alder...

1 Center for Tropical Forest Science – Arnold Arboretum Asia Program, Harvard University Herbaria, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; 2 Center for Tropical Forest Science, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, P.O. Box 0843-03092, Balboa, Panama, Panama; 3 Thai National Parks Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department, Research Office, Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900, Thailand; and 4 For...

Co-management frameworks are intended to facilitate sustainable resource management and more equitable power sharing between state agencies and Indigenous communities. However, there is significant debate about who benefits from co-management in practice. This article addresses two competing perspectives in the literature, which alternately portrays co-management as an instrument for co-optatio...

The transformation and degradation of tropical forest is thought to be the primary driving force in the loss of biodiversity worldwide. Developing countries are trying to counter act this massive lost of biodiversity by implementing national parks and biological reserves. Costa Rica is no exception to this rule. National development strategies in Costa Rica, since the early 1970s, have involved...

The temporal variability of interception losses was measured for contrasting forest communities in the southeastern United States. Throughfall was measured simultaneously at Fort Benning in western Georgia for the five forest communities that are characteristic of the region. The measured interception losses over the study period were 22.3, 18.6, 17.7, 17.6, and 17.4% of the total precipitation...

Resumen Spillovers can significantly reduce or enhance the effects of land-use policies, yet there exists little rigorous evidence concerning their magnitudes. We examine how national parks within Costa Rica affect the clearing of forest nearby. We find that average deforestation spillover impacts are not significant within 0-5km and 5-10km rings around parks. However, we argue that this averag...

Recently there have been reports of forest regrowth occurring in different regions across the world. There is also a growing recognition of the potential beneficial impact that secondary forests may have on the global environment: providing crucial ecosystem services such as soil conservation, stabilization of hydrological cycles, carbon sequestration, and support for forest dependent communiti...

In the lowland tropical rain forest of central Amazonia, I investigated the responses of understory bird communities to forest edges bordering a narrow (<40 m width), unpaved road. From 3681 mist-net captures, bird abundance and composition were examined at three distances (10, 70, and 130 m) from forest edge. The degree to which regrowth vegetation along forest borders reduced edge effects was...

Urban agriculture/community gardening in the Bronx has multiple roles, including health-promoting, economic, environmental, and cultural. These roles are particularly important in light of urban sustainability issues and environmental justice concerns, such as differential access to open space, recreation, and fresh produce in poorer communities and communities of color, as well as differential...