Forests are critical habitats for biodiversity and they are also essential for the provision of a wide range of ecosystem services that are important to human well-being. There is increasing evidence that biodiversity contributes to forest ecosystem functioning and the provision of ecosystem services. Here we provide a review of forest ecosystem services including biomass production, habitat provisioning services, pollination, seed dispersal, resistance to wind storms, fire regulation and mitigation, pest regulation of native and invading insects, carbon sequestration, and cultural ecosystem services, in relation to forest type, structure and diversity. We also consider relationships between forest biodiversity and multifunctionality, and trade-offs among ecosystem services. We compare the concepts of ecosystem processes, functions and services to clarify their definitions. Our review of published studies indicates a lack of empirical studies that establish quantitative and causal relationships between forest biodiversity and many important ecosystem services. The literature is highly skewed; studies on provisioning of nutrition and energy, and on cultural services, delivered by mixed-species forests are under-represented. Planted forests offer ample opportunity for optimising their composition and diversity because replanting after harvesting is a recurring process. Planting mixed-species forests should be given more consideration as they are likely to provide a wider range of ecosystem services within the forest and for adjacent land uses. This review also serves as the introduction to this special issue of Biodiversity and Conservation on various aspects of forest biodiversity and ecosystem services.

/pdf/forest-biodiversity-ecosystem-functioning-and-the-provision-3rfqurxtxb.pdf

Forest biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and the provision of ecosystem services

This publication includes a CD-ROM containing the main report, 8 theme commentaries, 10 integrative commentaries on major environmental issues that affect more than one State of the Environment theme, and 33 short papers on current and emerging issues. These commentaries and short papers were produced by independent writers and, although they support this main report, they are not a formal part of this document.

Australia: State of the environment 2006

This paper explores spiritual and aesthetic cultural values associated with ecosystems. We argue that these values are not best captured by instrumental or consequentialist thinking, and they are grounded in conceptions of nature that differ from the ecosystem services conceptual framework. To support our case, we engage with theories of the aesthetic and the spiritual, sample the discourse of ‘wilderness’, and provide empirical evidence from the recent UK National Ecosystem Assessment Follow-on Phase. We observe that accounts of spiritual and aesthetic value in Western culture are diverse and expressed through different media. We recognise that humans do benefit from their aesthetic and spiritual experiences of nature. However, aesthetic and spiritual understandings of the value of nature lead people to develop moral responsibilities towards nature and these are more significant than aesthetic and spiritual benefits from nature. We conclude that aesthetic and spiritual values challenge economic conceptions of ecosystems and of value (including existence value), and that an analysis of cultural productions and a plural-values approach are needed to evidence them appropriately for decision-making.

https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/28250032/26703645._Accepted_in_Press..pdf

Aesthetic and spiritual values of ecosystems: recognising the ontological and axiological plurality of cultural ecosystem 'services'.

Although the last 200 years of colonisation has brought radical changes in economic and governance structures for thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders living in remote areas of northern Australia, many of these Indigenous people still rely upon, and live closely connected to, their natural environment. Over millennia, living ‘on country’, many of these communities have developed a sophisticated appreciation of their local ecosystems and the climatic patterns associated with the changes in them. Some of this knowledge is recorded in their oral history passed down through generations, documented in seasonal weather calendars in local languages and, to a limited degree, transcribed and translated into English. This knowledge is still highly valued by these communities today, as it is used to direct hunting, fishing and planting as well as to inform many seasonally dependant cultural events. In recent years, local observations have been recognised by non-Indigenous scientists as a vital source of environmental data where few historic records exist. Similar to the way that phenological observations in the UK and US provide baseline information on past climates, this paper suggests that Indigenous observations of seasonal change have the potential to fill gaps in climate data for tropical northern Australia, and could also serve to inform culturally appropriate adaptation strategies. One method of recording recent direct and indirect climate and weather observations for the Torres Strait Islands is documented in this paper to demonstrate the currency of local observations of climate and its variability. The paper concludes that a comprehensive, participatory programme to record Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge of past climate patterns, and recent observations of change, would be timely and valuable for the communities themselves, as well as contributing to a greater understanding of regional climate change that would be useful for the wider Australian population.

Indigenous Australians’ knowledge of weather and climate

Indigenous biocultural knowledge in ecosystem science and management : review and insight from Australia

Australian humid tropical forests have been recognised as globally significant natural landscapes through world heritage listing since 1988. Aboriginal people have occupied these forests and shaped the biodiversity for at least 8000 years. The Wet Tropics Regional Agreement in 2005 committed governments and the region’s Rainforest Aboriginal peoples to work together for recognition of the Aboriginal cultural heritage associated with these forests. The resultant heritage nomination process empowered community efforts to reverse the loss of biocultural diversity. The conditions that enabled this empowerment included: Rainforest Aboriginal peoples’ governance of the process; their shaping of the heritage discourse to incorporate biocultural diversity; and their control of interaction with their knowledge systems to identify the links that have created the region’s biocultural diversity. We recommend further investigation of theory and practice in Indigenous governance of international heritage designations as a means to empower community efforts to reverse global biocultural diversity loss.

/pdf/empowering-indigenous-peoples-biocultural-diversity-through-3gy9yzp1oy.pdf

Empowering Indigenous peoples’ biocultural diversity through World Heritage cultural landscapes: a case study from the Australian humid tropical forests

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) include the aesthetic, artistic, educational, spiritual and/or scientific values of ecosystems and have been described as ‘intangible’ and complex, reflecting diverse people-nature interactions that are embedded in dynamic linked social-ecological systems. CES have proved difficult to value, therefore mapping CES has largely concentrated on more tangible aspects, such as tourism and recreation—presenting the risk that highly significant cultural relationships, such as those between Indigenous peoples and their traditional land, will be rendered invisible in ecosystem assessments. We present our results from co-research with a group of ‘Rainforest Aboriginal peoples׳ from the Wet Tropics, Australia that illustrates a method to address this gap through mapping their perceptions of the health of Indigenous CES. We found that categories associated with biocultural diversity and governance matched their perceptions better than the usual framework that recognizes aesthetic, spiritual and other categories. Co-produced maps presented demonstrate spatial patterns of CES that are related primarily to variations in social attributes (such as adherence to cultural protocols), rather than the ecological attributes (such as biodiversity patterns). Further application of these concepts of biocultural diversity governance, and variation in social attributes when mapping CES, particularly in partnerships with Indigenous peoples is recommended.

Mapping cultural ecosystem services with rainforest aboriginal peoples: Integrating biocultural diversity, governance and social variation

The tropical rainforest, beaches, reefs, and mountain ranges stretching along the coast between Mossman and the Annan River are the homelands of Eastern Yalanji people (bama). We have been here since the beginning in the dreaming. Stories of the lives of past generations of Eastern Yalanji bama are held in every mangrove inlet, in the roaring torrents and giant mountain boulders, and in the silent sliding streams. We Yalanji bama are still here today and hold strongly to our Law, culture and language in building for the future.

"Kulu-Yanlanji" literally means speakers of Yalanji language. There are several dialects within this language.

Yalanji bama are related to each other and to different parts of out lands through out customary law. Only those people with the right connections to a particular place can speak for that country, for that place. The tract of country belonging to our particular family group is known as our "clan estate".

To know your role and your place in Yalanji society, you must know your country, your clan estate and your kin.

Leah Talbot

Papers

Empowering Indigenous peoples’ biocultural diversity through World Heritage cultural landscapes: a case study from the Australian humid tropical forests

Mapping cultural ecosystem services with rainforest aboriginal peoples: Integrating biocultural diversity, governance and social variation

Yalanji-Warranga Kaban: Yalanji people of the rainforest fire management book

Mapping cultural ecosystem services in the Wet Tropics

Integration science for impact: Fostering transformations towards sustainability