Biodiversity Islands: Strategies for Conservation in Human-Dominated Environments

This book is intended to provide an overview for the identification and establishment of biodiversity islands. It presents examples and case studies where the biodiversity islands approach is being used in a variety of locations and contexts worldwide. It will contribute to design parameters on appropriate sizing and spatial distribution of biodiversity islands in order to be effective in conservation and regeneration across the landscape, using integrated landscape management approaches. This book is essential given the current worldwide trend of habitat destruction and the need to preserve biodiversity and its values.The chapters are organized in five sections. The first section provides the introduction. Section 2,3 and 4 discuss the challenges and alternatives of establishment and management, case studies across the globe, safeguarding of the environmental, economic, and social benefits, and the final section offers a conclusion. The contributing authors present views fromthe academic, the practitioner and the policymaker perspectives, offering alternatives and suggestions for promoting strategies that support biodiversity conservation through intentionally designed frameworks for sustainable forest landscapes.

Readers will discover suggestions and concrete examples that can be used by a variety of stakeholders in various settings throughout the world.

This book is useful to researchers, farmers, foresters, landowners, land managers, city planners, and policy makers alike.

Autorentext

Dr. Florencia Montagnini has over 30 years of experience researching and teaching in topics on sustainability of managed ecosystems in the tropics, such as forest, tree plantations and agroforestry systems, with a special emphasis on Latin America. Her work as a scientific advisor and consultant has also taken her to Africa and South East Asia. Her research encompasses sustainable land-use systems that integrate ecological principles with economic, social and political factors; the principles and applications of forest landscape restoration; the reforestation of degraded lands with native species; identification and quantification of ecological services (biodiversity, carbon sequestration and watershed protection); organic farming using indigenous resources; biodiversity conservation in human-dominated landscapes; biodiversity islands. She received her BS in Agronomy from the National University of Rosario, Argentina, her Masters in Ecology from the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research (IVIC), Caracas, Venezuela, and her Ph. D. in Ecology from the University of Georgia. Since 1989, has worked as a professor and researcher at the Yale School of the Environment, as well as the Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE). She has written 11 books and over 250 scientific articles about the ecology of tropical forests, agroforestry systems, native species reforestation and forest landscape restoration.

Inhalt

Preface; Florencia Montagnini.- Section 1. Biodiversity islands establishment and management: challenges and alternatives.- 1. Introduction. Biodiversity Islands: Establishing pockets of biodiversity in human dominated environments; Florencia Montagnini et al.- 2. How island biogeography theory is fooling us into conserving the wrong habitat fragments; William Laurance.- 3. The importance of small rainforest patches for biodiversity conservation: a multi-taxonomic assessment in the Lacandona region, Mexico; Víctor Arroyo-Rodríguez et al.- 4. Regenerative Agricultural Systems as Biodiversity Islands; Brett Levin.- 5. Functions of Agroforestry Systems as Biodiversity Islands in Productive Landscapes; Florencia Montagnini, Sara del Fierro.- 6. The role of native tree islands within silvopastoral systems in a Neotropical region; Rocio Santos-Gally et al.- 7. Applied nucleation as a strategy for the restoration and connectivity of Espinal and riparian forests in agroecosystems of Central Argentina; Natalia G. Fracassi, Sebastian Dardanelli.- 8. Riparian corridors: Longitudinal biodiversity islands in farming landscapes; Lina Paola Giraldo et al.- 9. Conservation, connectivity and registration of seed areas in remnants of natural reserves in the Province of Misiones, Argentina; B.I. Eibl et al.- Section 2. Biodiversity islands across the globe: case studies.- 10. Island forests among savannahs: conservation of biodiversity in rangelands of the Paraguayan Humid Chaco; R. Laino et al.- 11. Biodiversity islands and dominant species in agricultural landscapes of the Western South Amazon, Peru; Zoyla Mirella Clavo Peralta et al.- 12. The Monteverde Cloud Forest: Evolution of a Biodiversity Island in Costa Rica; Quint Newcomer et al.- 13. A highly productive biodiversity island: El Hatico Nature Reserve (Valle del Cauca, Colombia); D. Zoraida Calle et al.- 14. Hacienda Pinzacuá: an island of regenerative agriculture in the piedmont of the Colombian central Andes; Irene Montes-Londoño et al.- 15. The anthropization of the natural landscape in the Pampa region in Santa Fe province, Argentina. Resilience of the environment, opportunity for a change of the agri-food paradigm; Libertario Hugo González et al.- 16. Gardens as Biodiversity Islands in Urban Settings; Helen Coles de Negret et al.- 17. Biodiversity Islands at the world's southernmost city: plants, birds and insects conservation in urban forest and peatlands of Ushuaia, Argentina; María Vanessa Lencinas et al.- 18. Paradise lot: A temperate urban multistrata agroforestry island of biodiversity; Eric Toensmeier.- 19. Contribution to the domestication and conservation of the genetic diversity of two native multipurpose species in the Yaboti Biosphere Reserve, Misiones-Argentina; Fernando Niella et al.- Section 3. Safeguarding the environmental, economic, and social benefits of biodiversity islands.- 20. The Role of Community Led Action for the Creation of Biodiversity Islands; Brett Levin.- 21. Priorities, Perspectives and Use of a Community Forest by Surrounding Residents in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico: Protecting the Forest for its Services; Gabriela M. Morales Nieves.- 22. Sacred church forests in northern Ethiopia, cultural and biodiversity islands; Catherine L. Cardelús, C.L. Woods.- 23. Beyond the island: safeguarding biodiversity requires integrated approaches; B.A. Loiselle et al.- 24. The Case of the Jupará Agroecology Movement to Conserve Biodiversity Islands in Land Reform Communities of the Cacao Region, Bahia, Brazil; Robert Buschbacher et al.- 25. Financing for ecosystem services from a biodiversity Island at Quabbin Reservoir in Belchertown, Massachusetts, United States; Kjell E. Berg.- 26. Preserving Biodiversity in Appalachian Mixed Mesophytic Forest through Permit-Based Harvest of Ginseng and Other Forest Botanicals; Karam Sheban.- 27. Farmer perceptions of tropical dry forest restoration practices on the Azuero peninsula of Panama - Implications for increasing biodiversity in a human-dominated landscape; Vicente Vásquez et al.- 28. Safeguarding the benefits of biodiversity islands in Northern Ethiopia in the midst of political change; Emily Sigman.- 29. Conclusions: Lessons learned and pending challenges; Florencia Montagnini.