53rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation

08:30 - 09:30
Sully 1 (Level 2)

Rapid conversions and avoided deforestation: Examining four decades of industrial plantation expansion in Borneo

At symposium: Biodiversity and palm oil plantations

New plantations can either cause deforestation by replacing natural forests or avoid this by using previously cleared areas, but in contested tropical biodiversity hotspots, data are limited. Using satellites, we explored delays between deforestation and the establishment of industrial tree plantations in Borneo, and found steep increases in within-five-year conversion since 2005 in Indonesia. But, we note caveats in interpreting these results and highlight the need for greater accountability in plantation development. For abstract, click here.

Speaker:

08:30 - 09:30
Sully 3 (Level 1)

Forests, People, and the rest of the world: local participation in REDD+ Measuring, Reporting and Verification (PMRV)

At symposium: Capacity building for conservation and sustainable use: challenges and solutions to measuring impact

Community's participation has been promoted as a way to empower local communities in REDD+ programs. A particular goal is that they would monitor forest change and measure carbon stocks, and thus reduce the costs of such assessments. So far, little empirical evidence shows that participatory measurement, reporting and verification (PMRV) is feasible. We present the main findings from a series of multidisciplinary studies published in a collection of PLOS ONE, investigating the feasibility of local participation into MRV in Indonesia, Ethiopia, Mexico, and China.
For powerpoint, click here.

Speaker:

10:00 - 12:00
Antigone 1 (Level 2)

Agrarian Change in Tropical Landscapes – A Change for the Better?

At symposium: Human-nature interactions in tropical landscapes

Agricultural expansion has resulted in losses to habitats, forests, ecosystems and biological diversity. Socio-ecological research methods were used to assess the livelihood impacts of agrarian change across the forest transition in six tropical landscapes in Zambia, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Bangladesh. Early findings suggest the transition from a forested landscape to a more agrarian-dominated system does not immediately result in better livelihood outcomes, and there may be unintended consequences.
For powerpoint, click here. For abstract, click here.

Speaker:

16.00 - 17:30
Sully 1 (Level 1)

Using local level data to monitor REDD+ safeguards: Evidence from 6 countries

At symposium: A brave new world: Integrating wellbeing and justice in conservation

CIFOR’s Global Comparative Study on REDD+ evaluated social safeguard indicators at 22 subnational REDD+ initiative sites in Brazil, Peru, Cameroon, Tanzania, Indonesia and Vietnam, and found a dominance of positive incentives such as livelihood enhancements, but that participation was still lacking. Results reflect the persistent challenge of promoting full and effective participation of local people in conservation and development initiatives, with REDD+ being no different. They also underscore the need for ground-truthing REDD+ social impacts, particularly those related to local rights and participation, for which data may be limited in national and subnational surveys. For abstract, click here.

Speaker:

08:00 - 10:00
Einstein (Level 0)

Space for Hunting: Understanding Indigenous and other Hunters’ Impacts in the Congo Basin Forests

At symposium: Consumptive uses of wildlife in sub saharan africa: the janus bifrons syndrome

We compare and contrast, from the published literature and unpublished data, the nature and frequency of hunting by Pygmy and non-Pygmy hunters in the Congo Basin. We then use these data to determine whether there are significant differences in the faunal extraction rates, and model and map the hunting pressures. Finally, we reflect on whether sustainable hunting by indigenous peoples in tropical forests is possible, and whether wild meat extraction levels by indigenous people are compatible within conservation protected areas. For abstract, click here.

Speaker:

08:00 - 10:00
Einstein (Level 0)

Financial and economic values of bushmeat in rural and urban livelihoods in Cameroon: Inputs to the development of public policy

At symposium: Consumptive uses of wildlife in sub saharan africa: the janus bifrons syndrome

Traditional wildlife hunting has been described mainly from studies of local practices and from the monitoring of urban bushmeat markets. However, the overall value chain connecting hunters to end consumers remains largely unknown, thus preventing any estimate of theactual socio-economic importance of the bushmeat sector. On the basis of existing literature, this paper provides an order of magnitude for the financial and economic benefits of the bushmeat commodity chain in Cameroon.
For powerpoint, click here.
For abstract, click here.

Speakers:

10:30 - 12:00
Antigone 3 (Level 2)

Untangling the legal path for the sustainable use and trade of wildmeat by rural communities in Colombia

At symposium: Subsistence hunting in the tropics: A coupled human natural system perspective

Existing legal frameworks in many countries often fail to provide well-defined pathways for enabling the sustainable use of wildmeat for rural communities. This research looks at Columbia, which has taken the unprecedented step of providing technical recommendations to adapt the national legal framework on wildmeat trade to the realities of rural peoples. If translated into concrete policy changes, these recommendations will open up a variety of innovative pathways for the sustainable use of wildlife – a problem that exists in many tropical forest countries around the world. For abstract, click here.

Speaker:

10:30 - 12:00
Antigone 3 (Level 2)

Patterns of wild meat consumption in Central Africa

At symposium: Subsistence hunting in the tropics: A coupled human natural system perspective

The harvest of wild animals from land and sea is a major source of protein for more than a billion of the Earth’s poorest inhabitants. Simultaneously, the unsustainable harvest of wild animals is one of the major threats to terrestrial biodiversity. Here we present an analysis of wild meat consumption in Central Africa using the OFFTAKE database, looking at regional patterns of wild meat consumption, significant predictors of wild meat consumption and how wild meat consumption varies with alternative sources of protein. We discuss what these results might mean in terms of hunting sustainability, how these results might influence conservation and development policies in the region, and how the database can be used to support regional and global conservation and development policy decision-making. For abstract, click here.

Speaker:

14:30 - 17:00
Antigone 3 (Level 2)

Evaluating the impacts of REDD+ interventions on forests and people

This session highlights research findings from CIFOR’s GlobalComparative Study on REDD+ (GCS-REDD+) from 22 sub-national initiatives in six countries and synthesizes empirical findings on how REDD+ – the world’s largest forest-based climate change mitigation experiment – has impacted forests, biodiversity and people.

Chair: Moderator:Speakers: