Agriculture and fishing are the primary source of almost all our food, as well as of many other products, so remain vital activities even though their share in the economy is small and in continuous decline. Partly for this reason public policy in these areas is almost entirely integrated at European level in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Forestry policies are also heavily affected by EU-level decision-making. As agriculture dominates in terms of direct contribution to GDP and numbers of people engaged in it, as well as accounting for the largest amount of public support expenditure, it is agriculture that will receive the greatest attention here.

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

Aim Few studies have explicitly examined the influence of spatial attributes of forest fragments when examining the impacts of fragmentation on woody species. The aim of this study was to assess the diverse impacts of fragmentation on forest habitats by integrating landscape-level and species-level approaches.



Location  The investigation was undertaken in temperate rain forests located in southern Chile. This ecosystem is characterized by high endemism and by intensive recent changes in land use.



Method  Measures of diversity, richness, species composition, forest structure and anthropogenic disturbances were related to spatial attributes of the landscape (size, shape, connectivity, isolation and interior forest area) of forest fragments using generalized linear models. A total of 63 sampling plots distributed in 51 forest fragments with different spatial attributes were sampled.



Results  Patch size was the most important attribute influencing different measures of species composition, stand structure and anthropogenic disturbances. The abundance of tree and shrub species associated with interior and edge habitats was significantly related to variation in patch size. Basal area, a measure of forest structure, significantly declined with decreasing patch size, suggesting that fragmentation is affecting successional processes in the remaining forests. Small patches also displayed a greater number of stumps, animal trails and cow pats, and lower values of canopy cover as a result of selective logging and livestock grazing in relatively accessible fragments. However, tree richness and β-diversity of tree species were not significantly related to fragmentation.



Main conclusions  This study demonstrates that progressive fragmentation by logging and clearance is associated with dramatic changes in the structure and composition of the temperate forests in southern Chile. If this fragmentation process continues, the ability of the remnant forests to maintain their original biodiversity and ecological processes will be significantly reduced.

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Impacts of forest fragmentation on species composition and forest structure in the temperate landscape of southern Chile

Coastal areas are exposed to a variety of threats due to high population densities and rapid economic development. How will this affect human welfare and our dependence on nature's capacity to provide ecosystem goods and services? This paper is original in evaluating this concern for major habitats (macroalgae, seagrasses, blue mussel beds, and unvegetated soft bottoms) in a temperate coastal setting. More than 40 categories of goods and services are classified into provisional, regulating, and cultural services. A wide variety of Swedish examples is described for each category, including accounts of economic values and the relative importance of different habitats. For example, distinguishing characteristics would be the exceptional importance of blue mussels for mitigation of eutrophication, sandy soft bottoms for recreational uses, and seagrasses and macroalgae for fisheries production and control of wave and current energy. Net changes in the provision of goods and services are evaluated for three cases of observed coastal ecosystem shifts: i) seagrass beds into unvegetated substrate; ii) unvegetated shallow soft bottoms into filamentous algal mat dominance; and iii) macroalgae into mussel beds on hard substrate. The results are discussed in a management context including accounts of biodiversity, interconnectedness of ecosystems, and potential of economic valuation.

Ecosystem Goods and Services from Swedish Coastal Habitats: Identification, Valuation, and Implications of Ecosystem Shifts

Despite the wide variation in the structural characteristics in natural forests, tree size distribution show fundamental similarities that suggest general underlying principles. The metabolic ecology theory predicts the number of individual scales as the � 2 power of tree diameter. The demographic equilibrium theory predicts tree size distribution starting from the relationship of size distributions with growth and mortality at demographic equilibrium. Several analytic predictions for tree size distributions are derived from the demographic equilibrium theory, based on different growth and mortality functions. In addition, some purely phenomenological functions, such as polynomial function, have been used to describe the tree size distributions. In this paper, we use the metabolic ecology theory, the demographic equilibrium theory and the polynomial function to predict the tree size distribution for both the whole community and each species in an oldgrowth temperate forest in northeastern China. The results show that metabolic ecology theory predictions for the scaling of tree abundance with diameter were unequivocally rejected in the studied forest. Although these predictions of demographic theory are the best models for most of the species in the temperate forest, the best models for some species (Tilia amurensis, Quercus mongolica and Fraxinus mandshurica) are compound curves (i.e. rotated sigmoid curves), best predicted by the polynomial function. Hence, the size distributions of natural forests were unlikely to be invariant and the predictive ability of general models was limited. As a result, developing a more sophisticated theory to predict tree size distributions remains a complex, yet tantalizing, challenge.

Tree size distributions in an old-growth temperate forest.

Canopy structure, the vertical distribution of canopy material, is an important element of forest ecosystem dynamics and habitat preference. Although vertical stratification, or "canopy layering," is a basic characterization of canopy structure for research and forest management, it is difficult to quantify at landscape scales. In this paper we describe canopy structure and develop methodologies to map forest vertical stratification in a mixed temperate forest using full-waveform lidar. Two definitions-one categorical and one continuous-are used to map canopy layering over Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, New Hampshire with lidar data collected in 2009 by NASA's Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS). The two resulting canopy layering datasets describe variation of canopy layering throughout the forest and show that layering varies with terrain elevation and canopy height. This information should provide increased understanding of vertical structure variability and aid habitat characterization and other forest management activities.

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Characterization of Canopy Layering in Forested Ecosystems Using Full Waveform Lidar

Forest structure characteristics in disturbed and undisturbed sites of Mt. Elgon Moist Lower Montane Forest, western Kenya

Mount (Mt) Elgon forest in western Kenya is important for biodiversity, environmental protection and socio-economic development. Characterizing forest conditions is essential for evaluation of sustainable management and conservation activities. This paper covers findings of a study which determined and analysed indicators useful in monitoring disturbance levels in the Mt Elgon Forest. A systematic survey was carried out and covered 305 plots of 0.02 ha and 250 smaller nested regeneration plots along 10 belt transects that were distributed in five blocks within the moist lower montane forest type. Collected and analysed data include types of disturbance, tree species composition, abundance and logged species. Correlation breakdown among disturbance types revealed that, paths were indicators of the number of tree harvesting sites (rs =1.00, P < 0.01) and of de-vegetated areas through grass harvesting (rs = 0.90, P = 0.04). Solanum mauritianum Scop. was an indicator of old-charcoal production sites. Logging targeted 13 tree species and harvested trees with diameter at breast height above 20 cm. The most exploited species were Olea capensis L. and Deinbolia kilimandscharica Taub. All exploited species had low regeneration but tree regeneration was not an effective indicator of logging.

Resume

La foret du Mont Elgon, dans l’ouest du Kenya, est importante pour sa biodiversite, pour la protection de l’environnement et pour le developpement socioeconomique. Il est essentiel de bien definir les caracteristiques de ses conditions pour pouvoir evaluer les activites de gestion durable et de conservation. Cet article reprend les resultats d’une etude qui a determine et analyse des indicateurs interessants pour pouvoir suivre le niveau de perturbation dans la foret du Mont Elgon. Une etude systematique fut menee, qui a couvert 305 parcelles de 0,02 ha et 250 plus petites parcelles de regeneration incluses le long de 10 transects de ceinture, distribuees en cinq blocs dans la foret humide de basse montagne. Les donnees recoltees et analysees comprennent les types de perturbation, la composition des especes d’arbres, leur abondance et celles qui sont exploitees. Une rupture de correlation parmi les types de perturbation a revele que les sentiers etaient des indicateurs du nombre de sites ouetaient recoltes les arbres (rs = 1.00; P < 0.01) et de zones sans vegetation a cause de la recolte de l’herbe (rs = 0.90; P < 0.04). Solanum mauritianum Scop. etait un indicateur d’anciens sites de production de charbon de bois. Les coupes d’arbres concernaient 13 especes dont le diametre a hauteur de poitrine depassait 20 cm. Les especes les plus exploitees etaient Olea capensis L. et Deinbolia kilimandscharica Taub. Toutes les especes exploitees avaient une faible regeneration, mais une regeneration d’arbres n’etait pas un indicateur fiable d’anciennes coupes d’arbres.

Disturbance indicators and population decline of logged species in Mt. Elgon Forest, Kenya

1South Eastern Kenya University, School of Environment and Natural Resources Management, PO Box 170 Kitui-90200, Kenya; mutifestox@yahoo.com 2Kabiaga University, School of Natural Resource Management, PO Box 1 Kericho-20201, Kenya 3Ministry of Education, PO Box 30040-00100, Nairobi 4University of Eldoret, School of Natural Resource Management, PO Box 1125 Eldoret-30100, Kenya 5University of Nigeria, Department of Agricultural Economics, Nsukka

Recovery of kakamega tropical rainforest from anthropogenic disturbances

According to IUCN, UNEP and WWF, sustainability encompasses improving the quality of human life within the carrying capacity of supporting eco-systems (Figure 1). Rural communities around the Kirisia forest are mainly pastoralists whose livelihoods highly depend on livestock dominated by cattle. The forest is an important source of browse, grazing land and water particularly during drought. Forests as natural resources are associated with economic value, aesthetic value, legal value and ethical value. People have the moral duty to protect and conserve the resources for future generations. On the productive front, a natural resource value rests in the amount and extractability of the material available and the demand for it. The Kirisia Forest Reserve is a critical habitat for a rich wildlife and supports the livelihoods of adjacent communities to an extent that is not exhaustively documented. Both the wildlife and people can inflict negative impacts on the ecosystem if they are not checked and controlled. At the moment, most of the human activities within the Kirisia forest, as in all the natural forests in Kenya, are not planned, controlled nor coordinated. There is lack of management plans, scanty research findings and poor documentation of indigenous knowledge which all together are fundamental prerequisite to the sustainable management and conservation of natural forests. No forest management option can be sustainable unless the interests and needs of people and other living components linked to or dependent on the ecosystem are integrated into a management plan (Odhiambo, 2005). According to Eckersley (1992), conservation should be based on three principles: (i) the development of natural

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Challenges of Linking Socio-Economic Significance and Conservation Value of Forests in Drylands of Kenya: Case Study of Kirisia Forest-Samburu Pastoralists Coexistence

Forest measurements, especially in natural forests are cumbersome and complex. 100% enumeration is costly and inefficient. This study sought to find out reliable, efficient and cost-effective sampling schemes for use in tropical rain forest (TRF), moist montane forest (MMF) and dry woodland forest (DWF) in Kenya. Forty-eight sampling schemes (each combining sampling intensity (5, 10, 20, 30%), plot size (25, 50, 100, 400 m2) and sampling technique (simple random sampling, systematic sampling along North-South and along East-West orientations) were generated for testing estimates of forest attributes such as regeneration through simulation using R-software. Sampling error and effort were used to measure efficiency of each sampling scheme in relation to actual values. Though forest sites differed in biophysical characteristics, cost of sampling increased with decreasing plot size regardless of the forest type and attribute. Accuracy of inventory increased with decreasing plot size. Plot sizes that captured inherent variability were 5mx5m for regeneration and trees ha-1 across forest types but varied between forest types for basal area. Different sampling schemes were ranked for relative efficiency through simulation techniques, using regeneration as an example. In many instances systematic sampling-based sampling schemes were most effective. Sub-sampling in one-hectare forest unit gave reliable results in TRF (e.g. SSV-5mx5m-30%) and DWF (e.g. SSV-10mx10m-30%) but not in MMF (5mx5m-100%). One-hectare-complete-inventory method was found inevitable for regeneration assessment in montane forest.

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James Legilisho Ole Kiyiapi

Papers

Forest structure characteristics in disturbed and undisturbed sites of Mt. Elgon Moist Lower Montane Forest, western Kenya

Disturbance indicators and population decline of logged species in Mt. Elgon Forest, Kenya

Recovery of kakamega tropical rainforest from anthropogenic disturbances

Challenges of Linking Socio-Economic Significance and Conservation Value of Forests in Drylands of Kenya: Case Study of Kirisia Forest-Samburu Pastoralists Coexistence

Evaluating Efficiency of Sampling Schemes in Tropical Natural Forests: Review and Simulation Experience from Kenya