The increasing anthropogenic pressure on natural environments results in impacts that affect tropical forest areas and their biodiversity. Adverse impacts on terrestrial and oceanic environments often compound in the intertidal area, where mangrove forest ecosystems thrive. In tropical coastal areas of many developing countries where people depend on wood and other mangrove forest products and ...

Detecting and monitoring forest degradation in the tropics has implications for various fields of interest (biodiversity, emission calculations, self-sustenance of indigenous communities, timber exploitation). However, remote-sensing-based detection of forest degradation is difficult, as these subtle degradation signals are not easy to detect in the first place and quickly lost over time due to...

Assessment of forest degradation has been emphasized as an important issue for emission calculations, but remote sensing based detecting of forest degradation is still in an early phase of development. The use of optical imagery for degradation assessment in the tropics is limited due to frequent cloud cover. Recent studies based on radar data often focus on classification approaches of 2D back...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impacts of forest-based activities on the conditions of the Ganaveh woodland in the southern Zagros, Iran, and to suggest strategies for improving the implementation of forest resource management plans. Woodland inventory data was gathered in 2003, accompanied with data from interviews in 2008, were used in this study. The results show that there...

1 Policies for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) under development through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will financially reward developing countries that reduce forest-based carbon emissions through initiatives to decrease deforestation and forest degradation, conserve and enhance forest-carbon stocks and promote sustainab...

Avian species persistence in a forest patch is strongly related to the degree of isolation and size of a forest patch and the vegetation structure within a patch and its matrix are important predictors of bird habitat suitability. A combination of space-borne optical (Landsat), ALOS-PALSAR (radar), and airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data was used for assessing variation in forest ...

Large-scale carbon mapping is needed to support the UNFCCC program to reduce deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). Managers of forested land can potentially increase their carbon credits via detailed monitoring of forest cover, loss and gain (hectares), and periodic estimates of changes in forest carbon density (tons ha−1). Satellites provide an opportunity to monitor changes in forest c...

Co-management of forest resources is a process of governance that enables all relevant stakeholders to participate in the decision-making processes. Illegal logging and forest degradation are currently increasing, and logging bans are ineffective in reducing forest degradation. At the same time interest in forest plantations and concern about poverty problems of neighboring people whose livelih...

Reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation in developing countries is of central importance in efforts to combat climate change. Key scientific challenges must be addressed to prevent any policy roadblocks. Foremost among the challenges is quantifying nations’ carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, which requires information on forest clearing and carbon s...

Assessments of forest cover, forest carbon stocks and carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation are increasingly important components of sustainable resource management, for combating biodiversity loss and in climate mitigation policies. Satellite remote sensing provides the only means for mapping global forest cover regularly. However, forest classification with optical data is limit...