A photo essay on traditional practices and beliefs in landscape management in West Kalimantan
Traditional and local beliefs, taboos, norms and knowledge play such a critical role in conserving local biodiversity and landscapes that researchers are now considering whether these might be applied more widely and in a variety of locations that are under threat. Could informal “institutions” – including belief systems and practices – become more recognized as […]
Forests News coverage: Reflections on landscape challenges and opportunities in Kalomo
With our field work stalled by social unrest in Zambia and then the global COVID-19 pandemic, we decided to seize this opportunity to reflect on what we have accomplished in two years of work in Zambia’s Kalomo district with the initiative Collaborating to Operationalise Landscape Approaches for Nature, Development and Sustainability (COLANDS). Before the project’s […]
New paper on ‘Conceptual Links between Landscape Diversity and Diet Diversity’
Conceptual Links between Landscape Diversity and Diet Diversity: A Roadmap for Transdisciplinary Research Malnutrition linked to poor quality diets affects at least 2 billion people. Forests, as well as agricultural systems linked to trees, are key sources of dietary diversity in rural settings. In the present article, we develop conceptual links between diet diversity and […]
IUFRO Landscape Ecology Webinar featuring Terry Sunderland
Landscape ecology, both conceptually and methodologically, has the potential to play an active role in explaining, describing and forecasting the emergence and spread of zoonoses, to inform decision-making on sustainable measures to minimize their spread and to build spread safe landscapes. This is a research responsibility for landscape ecology but mostly it is an obligation for landscape […]
A case study from Indonesia featuring Terry Sunderland’s work
Palm oil industry leaves Indonesian village struggling with loss and regret In 2002, Rukam villagers sold their land to a palm oil company. Since then, they’ve seen their peatlands, forests and fish stocks vanish. Now they’re weighing up the environmental cost of their decision and future hopes. Free, prior, & informed consent is critical in […]
New article- ‘In their own words: COLANDS and landscape collaboration during COVID-19’
Family interruptions, poor Internet access, concern for contacts in the field and broad uncertainty — these are just a few of the challenges facing researchers working while under quarantine. Team members from the Collaborating to Operationalize Landscape Approaches for Nature, Development and Sustainability (COLANDS) project are confined to home by the highly contagious, fast-spreading COVID-19 […]
New paper on landscape approaches and the need to bridge knowledge-implementation gaps
Integrated landscape approaches in the tropics: A brief stock-take James Reed, Amy Ickowitz,Colas Chervier, Houria Djoudi, Kaala Moombe, Mirjam Ros-Tonen, Malaika Yanou, Linda Yuliani, TerrySunderland Continued overexploitation of natural resources and the associated impacts of climate change threaten the sustainability and biodiversity of our global social-ecological systems. ‘Integrated landscape approaches’ are governance strategies that […]
Forests Sustaining Agriculture: Terry Sunderland talks at Global Landscape Forum, Bonn, 2020
Terry Sunderland presented at Global Landscapes Forum, Bonn 2020 at the event themed ‘Contribution of Forests, Trees and Agroforestry to sustainable Food Security and Nutrition in a time of crisis’. The key highlights of the talk were- Diverse forest and tree-based production systems offer advantages over monocropping systems because of their adaptability and resilience. There […]
Intact forests can retain high levels of carbon in high temperatures: news coverage of a collaborative study from Sunderland lab
Projecting how the planet will react to environmental change as the atmosphere warms is no straightforward matter. In a new study, scientists detail the reaction of intact tropical forests, which host a vital 40 percent of carbon stored in vegetation, to climate variability in an effort to understand exactly how sensitive they are to temperature […]
Protected Areas and Food Security: Unravelling the Issues- New book chapter by Winy Vasquez and Terry Sunderland
Recent research has highlighted the contributions of forests and tree-based systems to both dietary diversity and nutrition as well as agricultural production in the form of tree-based ecosystem services. Wild foods provide a significant nutritional contribution to the diets of rural dwellers, the majority of whom would be classified as some of the world’s poorest. […]