Forest condition in the Congo Basin for the assessment of ecosystem conservation status

Quantifying ecological condition, notably the extent of forest degradation is important for understanding and designing measures to protect biodiversity and enhancing the capacity of forests to deliver ecosystem services. Conservation planning, particularly the prioritization of management intervent...

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Published in:Ecological indicators 2021-03, Vol.122, p.107268, Article 107268
Main Authors: Shapiro, Aurélie C., Grantham, Hedley S., Aguilar-Amuchastegui, Naikoa, Murray, Nicholas J., Gond, Valery, Bonfils, Djoan, Rickenbach, Olivia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Condition
Conservation planning
Forest degradation
Monitoring
Prioritization
Red List
REDD
Stratification
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description Quantifying ecological condition, notably the extent of forest degradation is important for understanding and designing measures to protect biodiversity and enhancing the capacity of forests to deliver ecosystem services. Conservation planning, particularly the prioritization of management interventions for forests, is often lacking spatial data on forest degradation, and it is often overlooked within decision-making processes. We develop a continuous metric termed Forest Condition (FC) which aims to measure the degree of forest degradation on a scale from 0 to 100, incorporating the temporal history of forest change over any spatial extent. We parameterize this metric based on estimated changes in above ground biomass in the context of forest fragmentation over time to estimate a continuous measure of forest degradation for Congo Basin countries. We estimate that just
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subjects Condition
Conservation planning
Forest degradation
Monitoring
Prioritization
Red List
REDD
Stratification
title Forest condition in the Congo Basin for the assessment of ecosystem conservation status
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