Landscape labelling: A concept for next-generation payment for ecosystem service schemes

Current payment for environmental service (PES) schemes face challenges in the form of evaluation of opportunity costs and ecosystem service delivery, high transaction costs, and difficulties in ensuring conditionality. Even when these conditions are met, PES may be undermined by a lack of inclusivity, leading to societal conflicts over land use. We propose a new PES-type approach that we call Landscape Labelling that seeks to overcome these problems by combining PES and product certification principles applied at a landscape scale with local benefits realized at the community level.     

Biofuels, biodiversity, and people: Understanding the conflicts and finding opportunities

The finitude of fossil fuels, concerns for energy security and the need to respond to climate change have led to growing worldwide interests in biofuels. Biofuels are viewed by many policy makers as a key to reducing reliance on foreign oil, lowering emissions of greenhouse gases and meeting rural development goals. However, political and public support for biofuels has recently been undermined due to environmental and food security concerns, and by reports questioning the rationale that biofuels substantially reduce carbon emissions. We discuss the promise of biofuels as a renewable energy source; critically evaluate the environmental and societal costs of biofuel use; and highlight on-going developments in biofuel feedstock selection and production technologies. We highlight net positive greenhouse gases emissions, threats to forests and biodiversity, food price increases, and competition for water resources as the key negative impacts of biofuel use. We also show that some of these environmental and societal costs may be ameliorated or reversed with the development and use of next generation biofuel feedstocks (e.g., waste biomass) and production technologies (e.g., pyrolysis). We conclude that certain types of biofuels do represent potential sources of alternative energy, but their use needs to be tempered with a comprehensive assessment of their environmental impacts. Together with increased energy conservation, efficiencies and technologies such as solar-power and wind turbines, biofuels should be included in a diverse portfolio of renewable energy sources to reduce our dependence on the planet’s finite supply of fossil fuels and to insure a sustainable future.     

Forest conversion and provision of ecosystem services in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

The importance of quantifying existing ecosystem services, assessing the impacts of various land use decisions and ultimately evaluating the overall costs and benefits of different land use patterns having internalized ecosystem services, is now widely recognized and such work is at the forefront of current landscape management planning. We aim to quantify ecosystem services derived from different land uses within the Atibainha Reservoir catchment in Brazil, determine the spatial distribution of ecosystem services and quantify the impacts of land use changes on the provision of ecosystem services. Four ecosystem services were considered: carbon sequestration, mitigation of sediment delivery into the reservoir, purification of water and maintenance of soil fertility. Results indicate strong increase in the provision of ecosystem services among the main land uses in the following order: urban area/bare soil; pastures; plantation of eucalyptus and native forests. The most important services provided by native forests, when compared with bare soil, were carbon sequestration and prevention of sedimentation, with an additional 864 569 tons of carbon stored in forest biomass in 30 years, and prevention of 244 511 tons of sediment delivery into the reservoir per year, respectively, from 7624 ha of lands around the reservoir. Spatial variation in the provision of ecosystem services were mapped to develop a tool to support decision making at the landscape scale. Results and maps from the decision support tool can support policies that ensure effective land‐use planning and can serve as the basis for the development of payment for ecosystem service schemes in the region. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sustainable harvesting of coco de mer, Lodoicea maldivica, in the Vallée de Mai,Seychelles

The coco de mer palm Lodoicea maldivica, endemic to the Seychelles, is a flagship species for tourism and conservation. It bears the world's largest seed for which it is currently heavily exploited across its limited range, and it is clear that harvesting at current levels cannot be maintained indefinitely. Biologically informed harvesting protocols are therefore required to move towards sustainable management that secures the long-term viability of the population and the revenue that it currently generates. Demographic modelling using population matrix models is a useful tool in these efforts as it identifies both the life stages with the strongest influence on population dynamics as well as the consequences of current use intensities. Here we provide an initial population model based on data currently available to assess the status of the largest L. maldivica population in the Vallée de Mai World Heritage Site. We estimated transition probabilities and constructed matrices to estimate the populations’ growth rate under current and alternative harvesting regimes, taking into account uncertainty regarding adult mortality and lifespan. Model projections of the population under current harvesting intensities forecast a marked decrease in the proportion of juveniles in the population and a gradually declining population over the next 200 years. Population growth rates were most sensitive to adult survival, reflecting the long generation time of this species and the remaining uncertainty in this respect. Based on this preliminary model we propose a precautionary sustainable harvesting limit for L. maldivica and discuss the challenges and opportunities of its management, including recommendations for future data collection.     

No farmer left behind in sustainable biofuel production

Societal concerns about the social and environmental impacts of biofuel production are driving producers to adopt better management practices. Existing certification schemes for sustainable biofuel production are, however, biased towards industrial-scale producers that have the financial capital and economies of scale to meet sustainability and certification objectives. Smallholder farmers in developing countries, by contrast, often lack the means and capacity to do so. Some of the challenges faced by smallholders include high certification costs, insufficient institutional capacity, inadequate financial and social incentives, poor group organization and lack of external support. Drawing lessons from existing certification programs, we argue that proponents of sustainable practices and standards must fully appreciate the complex realities of smallholder production systems. We provide policy recommendations for ensuring that no farmer is left behind in the quest to increase sustainable biofuel production.