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Tropical forest degradation emits carbon at a rate of ∼0.5 Pg·y⁻¹, reduces biodiversity, and facilitates forest clearance. Understanding degradation drivers and patterns is therefore crucial to managing forests to mitigate climate change and reduce biodiversity loss. Putative patterns of degradation affecting forest stocks, carbon, and biodiversity have variously been described previously, but these have not been quantitatively assessed together or tested systematically. Economic theory predicts a systematic allocation of land to its highest use value in response to distance from centers of demand. We tested this theory to see if forest exploitation would expand through time and space as concentric waves, with each wave targeting lower value products. We used forest data along a transect from 10 to 220 km from Dar es Salaam (DES), Tanzania, collected at two points in time (1991 and 2005). Our predictions were confirmed: high-value logging expanded 9 km·y⁻¹, and an inner wave of lower value charcoal production 2 km·y⁻¹. This resource utilization is shown to reduce the public goods of carbon storage and species richness, which significantly increased with each kilometer from DES [carbon, 0.2 Mg·ha⁻¹; 0.1 species per sample area (0.4 ha)]. Our study suggests that tropical forest degradation can be modeled and predicted, with its attendant loss of some public goods. In sub-Saharan Africa, an area experiencing the highest rate of urban migration worldwide, coupled with a high dependence on forest-based resources, predicting the spatiotemporal patterns of degradation can inform policies designed to extract resources without unsustainably reducing carbon storage and biodiversity.

Forests provide multiple benefits at local to global scales. These include the global public good of carbon sequestration and local and national level contributions to livelihoods for more than half a billion users. Forest commons are a particularly important class of forests generating these multiple benefits. Institutional arrangements to govern forest commons are believed to substantially influence carbon storage and livelihood contributions, especially when they incorporate local knowledge and decentralized decision making. However, hypothesized relationships between institutional factors and multiple benefits have never been tested on data from multiple countries. By using original data on 80 forest commons in 10 countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, we show that larger forest size and greater rule-making autonomy at the local level are associated with high carbon storage and livelihood benefits; differences in ownership of forest commons are associated with trade-offs between livelihood benefits and carbon storage. We argue that local communities restrict their consumption of forest products when they own forest commons, thereby increasing carbon storage. In showing rule-making autonomy and ownership as distinct and important institutional influences on forest outcomes, our results are directly relevant to international climate change mitigation initiatives such as Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) and avoided deforestation. Transfer of ownership over larger forest commons patches to local communities, coupled with payments for improved carbon storage can contribute to climate change mitigation without adversely affecting local livelihoods.

In the context of the climate and biodiversity crisis facing our planet, tropical forests playing a key role in global carbon flux and containing over half of Earth’s species are important to preserve. They are today threatened by deforestation but also by forest degradation, which is more difficult to study. Here, we performed a systematic review of studies on moist tropical forest degradation using remote sensing and fitting indicators of forest resilience to perturbations. Geographical repartition, spatial extent and temporal evolution were analyzed. Indicators of compositional, structural and regeneration criteria were noted as well as remote sensing indices and metrics used. Tropical moist forest degradation is not extensively studied especially in the Congo basin and in southeast Asia. Forest structure (i.e., canopy gaps, fragmentation and biomass) is the most widely and easily measured criteria with remote sensing, while composition and regeneration are more difficult to characterize. Mixing LiDAR/Radar and optical data shows good potential as well as very high-resolution satellite data. The awaited GEDI and BIOMASS satellites data will fill the actual gap to a large extent and provide accurate structural information. LiDAR and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) form a good bridge between field and satellite data. While the performance of the LiDAR is no longer to be demonstrated, particular attention should be brought to the UAV that shows great potential and could be more easily used by local communities and stakeholders.

The interaction between droughts and land-use fires threaten the carbon stocks, climate regulatory functions, and biodiversity of Amazon forests, particularly in the southeast, where deforestation and land-use ignitions are high. Repeated, severe, or combined fires and droughts result in tropical forest degradation via nonlinear dynamics and may lead to an alternate vegetation state. Here, we discuss the major insights from the longest (more than 10 years) and largest (150-hectare) experimental burn in Amazon forests. Despite initial forest resistance to low-intensity fires, repeated fire during drought killed the majority of trees, reduced canopy cover by half, and favored invasive grasses—but the persistence of this novel vegetation state is unknown. Forest edges, where drying, fire intensity and grass invasion are greatest, were most vulnerable. Crucial to advancing fire ecology in tropical forests, we need to scale these results to understand how flammability and resilience postfire varies across Amazon forest types.

Protected areas (PAs) now shelter 54% of the remaining forests of the Brazilian Amazon and contain 56% of its forest carbon. However, the role of these PAs in reducing carbon fluxes to the atmosphere from deforestation and their associated costs are still uncertain. To fill this gap, we analyzed the effect of each of 595 Brazilian Amazon PAs on deforestation using a metric that accounts for differences in probability of deforestation in areas of pairwise comparison. We found that the three major categories of PA (indigenous land, strictly protected, and sustainable use) showed an inhibitory effect, on average, between 1997 and 2008. Of 206 PAs created after the year 1999, 115 showed increased effectiveness after their designation as protected. The recent expansion of PAs in the Brazilian Amazon was responsible for 37% of the region's total reduction in deforestation between 2004 and 2006 without provoking leakage. All PAs, if fully implemented, have the potential to avoid 8.0 ± 2.8 Pg of carbon emissions by 2050. Effectively implementing PAs in zones under high current or future anthropogenic threat offers high payoffs for reducing carbon emissions, and as a result should receive special attention in planning investments for regional conservation. Nevertheless, this strategy demands prompt and predictable resource streams. The Amazon PA network represents a cost of US$147 ± 53 billion (net present value) for Brazil in terms of forgone profits and investments needed for their consolidation. These costs could be partially compensated by an international climate accord that includes economic incentives for tropical countries that reduce their carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

The Congo Basin represents 70 percent of the African continent's forest cover and constitutes a large portion of Africa's biodiversity. The objective of the two-year exercise was to analyze and get a better grasp of the deforestation dynamics in the Basin. The primary goal of the exercise was to give stakeholders (and particularly policy makers) a thorough understanding of how economic activities (agriculture, transport, mining, energy, and logging) could impact the region's forest cover through an in-depth analysis of the connections between economic developments and forest loss. Historically, the Congo Basin forest has been under comparatively little pressure, but there are signs that this situation is likely to change as pressure on the forest and other ecosystems increases. Until very recently, low population density, unrest and war, and low levels of development hampered conversion of forests into other land uses; however, satellite-based monitoring data now show that the annual rates of gross deforestation in the Basin have doubled since 1990. There is indeed some evidence that the Basin forests may be at a turning point of heading to higher deforestation and forest degradation rates. The forest ecosystems have not yet suffered the damage observed in other tropical regions (Amazonia, Southeast Asia) and are quite well preserved. The low deforestation rates mainly result from a combination of such factors as poor infrastructure, low population densities, and political instability that have led to the so-called passive protection. However, signs that the Congo Basin forests could be under increasing pressure from a variety of forces-both internal and external range from mineral extraction, road development, agribusiness, and biofuels to agriculture expansion for subsistence and population growth. All of these factors could drastically amplify the pressure on natural forests in the coming decades and trigger the transition from the 'high forest/low deforestation' profile into a more intense pace of deforestation.

In some countries across the globe, tropical forest cover is increasing. The national-scale reforestation of Vietnam since 1992 is assumed to contribute to this recovery. It is achieved, however, by the displacement of forest extraction to other countries on the order of 49 (34-70) M m³, or [almost equal to]39% of the regrowth of Vietnam's forests from 1987 to 2006. Approximately half of wood imports to Vietnam during this period were illegal. Leakage due to policies restricting forest exploitation and displacement due to growing domestic consumption and exports contributed respectively to an estimated 58% and 42% of total displacement. Exports of wood products from Vietnam also grew rapidly, amounting to 84% of the displacement, which is a remarkable feature of the forest transition in Vietnam. Attribution of the displacement and corresponding forest extraction to Vietnam, the source countries or the final consumers is thus debatable. Sixty-one percent of the regrowth in Vietnam was, thus, not associated with displacement abroad. Policies allocating credits to countries for reducing deforestation and forest degradation should monitor illegal timber trade and take into account the policy-induced leakage of wood extraction to other countries.

Discussion on reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries began at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties in 2005, and the agenda for “reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+)” was introduced under the UNFCCC. The REDD+ framework was developed with the expectation that it would significantly contribute to climate change mitigation at a relatively low cost and produce benefits for both developed and developing countries. Finance is a key element of REDD+ implementation, and many financial sources, approaches, and mechanisms have supported REDD+-related activities in various developing countries. However, the comprehensive challenges and lessons learned for REDD+ finance and its governance have not been fully explored. This paper reviews the relevant literature to understand the challenges for REDD+ finance and its governance in two areas—(1) REDD+ finance aligned with the UNFCCC and (2) REDD+-related finance outside the UNFCCC—which have developed differently and have different implications. This paper first identifies the six key elements of REDD+ finance and its governance across the two fields, and then reviews the related challenges and lessons learned with respect to public and private finance. The challenges for REDD+ finance and its governance aligned with the UNFCCC include enhancing the performance of REDD+ finance using mainly public finance, such as results-based finance and the jurisdictional approach. In contrast, the challenges regarding REDD+-related finance outside the UNFCCC include enhancing the engagement of the private sector in REDD+ finance, mainly targeting the project level, and the relationship between voluntary carbon markets and other investment and finance mechanisms. This paper also identifies the common challenges across REDD+ finance and its governance in the two fields. These challenges include the need to enhance linkages between REDD+ and other objectives, such as carbon neutrality/net-zero, deforestation-free supply chains, and nature-based solutions, as well as the need to develop learning systems for REDD+ finance.

With increasing threats to forest resources, there is a growing demand for accurate, timely, and quantitative information on their status, trends, and sustainability. Satellite remote sensing provides an effective means of consistently monitoring large forest areas. Vegetation Indices (VIs) are commonly used to assess forest conditions, but their effectiveness remains a key question. This study aimed to assess and map forest degradation status and trends in Lagawa locality, West Kordofan State, Sudan using the soil adjusted and atmospheric resistant vegetation index (SARVI) to quantify the relationship between SARVI and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and compare the efficiency of both indices in detecting and monitoring changes in forest conditions. The study utilized four free cloud images (TM 1988, TM 1998, TM 2008, and OLI 2018), which were processed using Google Earth Engine (GEE) to derive the indices. The study found significant forest degradation over time, with 63% of the area categorized as moderately to severely degraded. A strong, positive relationship between SARVI and NDVI (R2 = 0.9085, p < 0.001) was identified, indicating that both are effective in detecting forest changes. Both indices proved efficacy, cost-effectiveness, and applicable for monitoring forest changes across Sudan’s drylands. The study recommends applying similar methods in other dryland forests in other regions.

For the Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests, the idea of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) has opened a window for advancing member groups’ claims to territory and community well-being, despite concerns that REDD+ could proceed as development-as-usual in practice. However, the claims underpinning the engagement of this Indigenous and forest peoples’ network in international climate finance processes reflect conceptualizations of climate justice that diverge from those that have dominated policy and popular discussions. This article assesses the multi-scalar efforts of the Mesoamerican Alliance to promote claims to climate finance around different concepts of justice. Using empirical justice analysis to assess the subjects, dimensions, and criteria explicit and implicit in Mesoamerican Indigenous and forest groups’ claims, and drawing on decolonial and Indigenous perspectives on environmental justice, the article presents evidence as to the possibilities and challenges of translating REDD+ into just outcomes in historically marginalized territories. Using participant observation, unstructured interviews, and document and social media review, it specifically assesses the Alliance-proposed Mesoamerican Territorial Fund, which aims to directly capture climate finance, bypassing problematic relations with national governments and traditional donors. The article finds that although Indigenous peoples and local communities have made significant advances in terms of representation, recognition, participation, and concrete funding, the constraints of “becoming fundable” may hinder more transformative and reparative pathways to just climate outcomes.