Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management

Tropical forests are disappearing at rates that threaten both global climate stability and the biological diversity that took millions of years to evolve, making the governance of these ecosystems one of the most consequential problems in environmental science. Researchers study what drives deforestation—agricultural expansion, weak tenure rights, commodity markets—and what can slow it, from protected areas and community-based stewardship to financial mechanisms like payments for ecosystem services that compensate landholders for keeping forests intact. A central open question is how effective these interventions actually are once you account for displacement effects, where protection in one area simply shifts pressure elsewhere. Equally unresolved is how to align the interests of local communities, national governments, and international funders in ways that are durable enough to outlast political cycles and commodity price swings.

Works

79,761

Total citations

1,400,511

Keywords

Tropical DeforestationEnvironmental ServicesProtected AreasCommunity-Based ConservationBiodiversity ConservationPayments for Ecosystem Services