"The loss of large areas of tropical forests has become a major concern of the world community. Although there are many causes of tropical deforestation and forest degradation, an important cause appears to be an undervaluation of forests by markets and governments. One reason for this undervaluation is that many forest products, such as food and medicinal products, are traded in informal markets for which there are little data. Another reason is that many services provided by forests, such as carbon storage, biodiversity protection, recreation, and watershed protection, are not traded in markets; hence, their economic values are often ignored. Even where environmental values are recognized, they may not be measured or used to promote efficient resource management. This volume examines some causes of tropical deforestation and explores forest valuation issues in context of a protected area project. The study sets out the context of tropical deforestation and loss of biodiversity and provides a framework for examining the economic value of forests. It also presents a detailed case study of Madagascar that illustrates the practical application of the techniques of analysis to the valuation of forests." -- Website.

This book presents a technical review of ecological and life history information on a range of Bornean wildlife species, aimed at identifying what makes these species sensitive to timber harvesting practices and associated impacts. It addresses three audiences: 1) those involved in assessing and regulating timber harvesting activities in Southeast Asia, 2) those involved in trying to achieve conservation goals in the region, and 3) those undertaking research to improve multipurpose forest management. This book shows that forest management can be improved in many simple ways to allow timber extraction and wildlife conservation to be more compatible than under current practices. The recommendations can also be valuable to the many governmental and non-governmental organisations promoting sustainable forest management and eco-labelling. Finally, it identifies a number of shortcomings and gaps in knowledge, which the hope can interest the scientific community and promote further research. This review is, an important scientific step toward understanding and improving sustainable forestry practices for long-term biodiversity conservation. Even in the short term, however, significant improvements can be made to improve both conservation and the efficiency of forest management, and there is no need to delay action due to a perceived lack of information. In the longer term it is expected that the recommendations from this review will be implemented, and that further research will continue to help foster an acceptable balance among the choices needed to maintain healthy wildlife populations and biodiversity in a productive forest estate.

Madagascar is one of the most biologically diverse places on the planet, the result of 160 million years of isolation from the African mainland. More than 80% of its species are not found anywhere else on Earth. However, this highly diverse flora and fauna is threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, and the island has been classified as one of the world’s highest conservation priorities. Drawing on insights from geography, anthropology, sustainable development, political science and ecology, this book provides a comprehensive assessment of the status of conservation and environmental management in Madagascar. It describes how conservation organisations have been experimenting with new forms of protected areas, community-based resource management, ecotourism, and payments for ecosystem services. But the country must also deal with pressing human needs. The problems of poverty, development, environmental justice, natural resource use and biodiversity conservation are shown to be interlinked in complex ways. Authors address key questions, such as who are the winners and losers in attempts to conserve biodiversity? And what are the implications of new forms of conservation for rural livelihoods and environmental justice?

A study of the demands of economic development and ecological conservation on the African island country. Protecting the unique plants and animals that live on Madagascar while fueling economic growth has been a priority for the Malagasy state, international donors, and conservation NGOs since the late 1980s. Forest and Labor in Madagascar shows how poor rural workers who must make a living from the forest balance their needs with the desire of the state to earn foreign revenue from ecotourism and forest-based enterprises. Genese Marie Sodikoff examines how the appreciation and protection of Madagascar’s biodiversity depend on manual labor. She exposes the moral dilemmas workers face as both conservation representatives and peasant farmers by pointing to the hidden costs of ecological conservation. “Sodikoff takes us deep into the underbelly of conservation in one of the world’s biodiversity “hot-spots.” It is a world of timber barons, logging gangs, corrupt state functionaries, international conservation experts, worker-peasants, and poachers. She paints eastern Madagascar as a frontier of dispossession, exploitation, and violence. The plundering of the Mananara protected area is seen, in a brilliantly original way, from the subaltern vantage point of forest workers and conservation labor. Forest and Labor places present day conservation on the larger canvas of a century of forest-based social relations of labor that have entered into the making of what Sodikoff calls neoliberal conservation. It is a magnificently rich historical and ethnographic accounting of what passes as the making of global biosphere reserves. A tour de force.” —Michael Watts, UC Berkeley “An important and lively contribution to the study of “green neoliberalism.” An obvious choice for undergraduate teaching on ecology, rights, international political economy, development, and a host of other topics.” —David Graeber, University of London “Brings a whole new angle and nuance to the crucial debates over conservation and development. Applicable not just to lush, humid eastern Madagascar, but all around the globe.” —Christian Kull, Monash University “Those interested in conservation, tropical rainforest ecology, international political economy, and sustainable development will find Forest and Labor in Madagascar an insightful case study.” —Choice

A miniature continent long isolated from the African mainland, the island of Madagascar evolved a biota that remains one of the most varied of any environment in the world. Bringing together the work of the most innovative conservation and evolutionary biologists, geologists, and anthropologists currently working in Madagascar, this book provides the first overview in more than twenty years of how natural and human-induced changes have molded the island's modern ecosystems. Natural Change and Human Impact in Madagascar reflects new methods for understanding biotic and environmental change worldwide.