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Firewood is a key energy source in developing countries, but its consideration for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) purposes suffers from both data and methodological issues. A specific literature review revealed considerable variability in the way these issues have been addressed in existing studies. To improve current practices, a framework for proper inclusion of all environmental impacts related to traditional firewood uses is proposed, and a configurable dataset for other studies was produced. The framework was then applied to a case study on shea butter production, where firewood accounting appeared to be one of the main sources of discrepancies in the results of existing studies. For each parameter related to firewood uses and their impacts, data and methodological choices that LCA practitioners may face were then investigated through uncertainty and sensitivity analyses. Firewood consumption volumes and emission factors from firewood combustion proved to be the most critical parameters for all environmental issues, and the options explored in this study to tackle these data collection issues can be adapted to other case studies. Beyond data matters, the main methodological challenge for firewood accounting lies in estimating the fraction of firewood from non-renewable sources. Use of the default values from the spatially explicit supply-demand WISDOM model is recommended here. For the shea butter value chain in Burkina Faso, one of the main solutions for mitigating environmental impacts would be to reduce firewood consumption by promoting improved cookstoves, improving boiling practices, or replacing firewood with other biomass sources, such as shea nutshells.

Human activities have affected the surrounding natural ecosystems, including belowground microorganisms, for millennia. Their short- and medium-term effects on the diversity and the composition of soil microbial communities are well-documented, but their lasting effects remain unknown. When unoccupied for centuries, archaeological sites are appropriate for studying the long-term effects of past human occupancy on natural ecosystems, including the soil compartment. In this work, the soil chemical and bacterial compositions were compared between the Roman fort of Hegra (Saudi Arabia) abandoned for 1500 years, and a preserved area located at 120 m of the southern wall of the Roman fort where no human occupancy was detected. We show that the four centuries of human occupancy have deeply and lastingly modified both the soil chemical and bacterial compositions inside the Roman fort. We also highlight different bacterial putative functions between the two areas, notably associated with human occupancy. Finally, this work shows that the use of soils from archaeological sites causes little disruption and can bring relevant information, at a large scale, during the initial surveys of archaeological sites.

Agricultural activities are a major contributor to prosperity and a key player in the maintenance of productive and resilient landscapes. However, ageing farmers, yields gaps and climate change are hampering the development of agriculture, and Southeast Asia is no exception to this trend. In this worrying context, the revitalisation of the sector through agricultural education is a key issue: academic curricula in Agriculture and Environmental Sciences must regain their attractiveness among students and their capacity to meet the present and future needs of agricultural chains. Gathering a group of universities in the region, we explored several ways of diversifying the existing academic curricula through the design of original tools aimed at reconnecting scholars with field-based approaches to agricultural challenges and concepts. The aim of the TALENT programme (TrAining on LandscapE maNagemenT) is to raise awareness among the present and future sustainability managers in charge of making informed decisions concerning tree-crop plantations, and of developing relevant policies on sustainable development issues. Here, we propose a renovated approach to analyse the landscape, assess ongoing agricultural practices, generate a simplified agrarian diagnostic tool and finally assess the sustainability of current agricultural practices.

Protected areas and their peripheries harbour biodiverse ecosystems which underpin ecosystem service provision to local communities. Understanding the relationship between the species contained within these ecosystems and the utilitarian services they provide is important. However, there is a shortage of quantitative methods for assessing species' utilitarian roles. We used a dendrogram-based method to quantify utilitarian diversity and an ordination method to determine co-occurrences in three sites at the periphery of Gonarezhou National Park, in Zimbabwe. The use categories for the plants were determined using household questionnaire surveys, and vegetation data was collected via standard plotless sampling techniques. There was higher plant diversity in the sites adjacent to the protected area, i.e. Malipati communal area (S = 45; Simpson's index = 0.7271) and Gonakudzingwa farms (S = 50; Simpson's index = 0.9351), with the lowest diversity recorded at the site far from the park, i.e. Chomupani communal area (S = 25; Simpson's index = 0.6305). Utilitarian diversity was also highest in the areas adjacent to the protected area, with Malipati and Gonakudzingwa having values of 22.2 and 21.4, respectively, while Chomupani attained 20.6. A principal component analysis ordination indicated which utilitarian species occurred in the same areas. Our results contribute to plant conservation by highlighting the utilitarian relationships of species at protected area peripheries. This allows planners and conservationists to set conservation priorities to avoid losing species that contribute the most to ecosystem service provision.

Understanding the effectiveness of conservation interventions during times of political instability is important given how much of the world's biodiversity is concentrated in politically fragile nations. Here, we investigate the effect of a political crisis on the relative performance of community managed forests versus protected areas in terms of reducing deforestation in Madagascar, a biodiversity hotspot. We use remotely sensed data and statistical matching within an event study design to isolate the effect of the crisis and post-crisis period on performance. Annual rates of deforestation accelerated at the end of the crisis and were higher in community forests than in protected areas. After controlling for differences in location and other confounding variables, we find no difference in performance during the crisis, but community-managed forests performed worse in post-crisis years. These findings suggest that, as a political crisis subsides and deforestation pressures intensify, community-based conservation may be less resilient than state protection.

Plant diversity effects on community productivity often increase over time. Whether the strengthening of diversity effects is caused by temporal shifts in species-level overyielding (i.e., higher species-level productivity in diverse communities compared with monocultures) remains unclear. Here, using data from 65 grassland and forest biodiversity experiments, we show that the temporal strength of diversity effects at the community scale is underpinned by temporal changes in the species that yield. These temporal trends of species-level overyielding are shaped by plant ecological strategies, which can be quantitatively delimited by functional traits. In grasslands, the temporal strengthening of biodiversity effects on community productivity was associated with increasing biomass overyielding of resource-conservative species increasing over time, and with overyielding of species characterized by fast resource acquisition either decreasing or increasing. In forests, temporal trends in species overyielding differ when considering above- versus belowground resource acquisition strategies. Overyielding in stem growth decreased for species with high light capture capacity but increased for those with high soil resource acquisition capacity. Our results imply that a diversity of species with different, and potentially complementary, ecological strategies is beneficial for maintaining community productivity over time in both grassland and forest ecosystems.

Due to the lack of studies about the sociocultural dimension of ecosystem services, we analyze in this work the perception of these benefits by family farmers who have agroforestry systems in the northeast of Pará, in the Amazon region. With this objective, we categorize forest restoration strategies based on primary data collection - interviews, semi structured questionnaire, illustrated questionnaire and Likert Scale. Through the relative perception based on the application of Likert scales, we observed that the farmers recognize the benefits provided by agroforest systems and natural landscapes, with high perception of ecosystem services in all the categories present in the Millennium ecosystem evaluation. Furthermore, the higher perceptions of ecosystem services are related to the group of farmers with a smaller area of forest reserve and bigger area of agroforest systems. The result suggests that loss of forest area, at the individual level, probably drives to a higher sense of the benefits of natural systems and thus, the increment in agroforestry systems constitutes an attempt to return to functions and benefits lost through environmental degradation over time. In general, support programs are necessary to strengthen the capacity of agroforestry systems to provide ecosystem services and increase biodiversity conservation.

On oceanic islands, strong human impacts on habitats, combined with introductions of exotic species, modify the composition of terrestrial bird assemblages and threaten their ecological functions. In La Réunion, an oceanic island located in the Madagascan region, a national park was established in 2007 to counter the ecosystem-level effects of three centuries of habitat conversion, native species destruction and exotic species introductions. Here, we investigated how bird assemblages were structured in these human-modified landscapes, 10 years before the national park set out its first conservation measures. We used a combination of multivariate statistics and generalized additive models to describe variations in the taxonomic and functional composition and diversity of 372 local bird assemblages, encompassing 20 species, along gradients of habitat composition and configuration. We found that native species were tied to native habitats while exotic species were associated with urban areas and man-modified landscape mosaics, with some overlap at mid-elevations. Species' trophic preferences were segregated along habitat gradients, but ecological traits had an overall weak role in explaining the composition of species assemblages. Hence, at the time of the survey, native and exotic species in La Réunion formed two spatially distinct species assemblages with contrasting ecological trait suites that benefited from antagonistic habitat compositions and dynamics. We conclude that our results support the analysis of historical data sets to establish reference points to monitor human impacts on insular ecosystems.

To document and halt biodiversity loss, monitoring, quantifying trends and assessing management and conservation strategies on wildlife populations and communities are crucial steps. With increasing technological innovations, more and more data are collected and new quantitative methods are constantly developed. These rapid developments come with an increasing need for analytical skills, which are hardly accessible to managers. On the other hand, researchers spend more and more time on research grant applications and administrative tasks, which leaves fewer opportunities for knowledge transfer. This situation tends to increase the gap between researchers and managers. Here, we illustrate how to fill this gap by presenting two long-term collaborations between a research unit—Centre for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology; CEFE—and a national agency—French Biodiversity Agency; OFB. The first example is a collaboration providing statistical support to national parks for the design and implementation of scientific monitoring protocols. It relies on the recruitment of a research engineer funded by OFB and physically based at CEFE, who works closely with OFB and managers. The second example is a collaboration on the management of large carnivores. For more than 10 years, it has involved several PhD students and post-doctoral fellows co-supervised by CEFE and OFB, and has recently resulted in the recruitment of a permanent OFB researcher who works half-time at CEFE and half-time at OFB. These case studies illustrate the modalities of collaborative work between public institutions acting at different levels of biodiversity conservation for the co-construction of research agendas and the exchange of knowledge. These collaborations also bring out some challenges. Inter-knowledge and mutual learning remain difficult at scales larger than that of the teams concerned. The staff working at this interface needs to possess good listening skills, respect all partners' needs and demo

Na Amazônia brasileira, o conceito de bioeconomia lança uma nova luz sobre sustentabilidade do processamento e comercialização de produtos da floresta associados aos territórios de povos e comunidades tradicionais. Este artigo se propõe a discutir as potencialidades do desenvolvimento de ingredientes naturais (bioinsumos) a partir do conhecimento de populações locais, de acordo com a demanda dos mercados internacionais. Primeiramente, vamos relembrar como surgiu o conceito de bioeconomia, vinculado à promoção da sociobiodiversidade. Em seguida, apresentaremos as principais tendências observadas no mercado internacional de cosméticos. Com base em nossas experiências de campo com as populações amazônicas e visitas realizadas em feiras e com profissionais da área cosmética, identificaremos os obstáculos a serem superados para uma comercialização mais ampla dos produtos amazônicos. Ao final avaliaremos o quanto a noção de sociobiodiversidade é compatível com a lógica de mercado.

Si les approches participatives et inclusives ont été reconnues nécessaires pour impliquer les populations dans la gestion des ressources et des territoires, leur impact reste souvent faible dans la durée, que ce soit à l'échelle locale ou pour des territoires plus vastes. C'est à partir de ce constat qu'une équipe du Cirad a mis au point à la fin des années 1990 une méthode s'appuyant sur un jeu sérieux, TerriStories®. Les effets de la première expérimentation au Sénégal en 1998-1999 perdurent encore aux échelles locale et nationale. Appliquée à la gestion de territoires locaux puis à la définition de règles nationales foncières et environnementales, la méthode a impulsé, dans tous les pays où elle a été déployée, des propositions collectives endogènes que les acteurs portent ensuite eux-mêmes et mettent en oeuvre selon leurs propres besoins.

Although participatory and inclusive approaches have been recognised as necessary for involving local people in the management of resources and territories, their impact often remains limited in the long term, whether at the local level or for broader territories. Based on this observation, a CIRAD team developed a method in the late 1990s using a serious game, TerriStories®. The effects of the first trial in Senegal in 1998-1999 are still seen today at the local and national levels. Applied to the management of local territories, then to the definition of national land and environmental regulations, the method has succeeded – in all of the countries in which it has been deployed – in driving collective endogenous proposals that the actors themselves then deliver and implement according to their own requirements.

Aunque se ha reconocido que los enfoques participativos e integradores son necesarios para implicar a la población local en la gestión de los recursos y los territorios, su impacto suele ser escaso con el paso del tiempo, tanto a nivel local como en territorios más extensos. Teniendo esto en cuenta, a finales de los 90 un equipo del Cirad desarrolló un método basado en un juego responsable: TerriStories®. Los efectos de la primera experiencia, realizada en Senegal en 1998-1999, siguen haciéndose sentir a nivel local y nacional. El método, aplicado a la gestión de los territorios locales y luego a la definición de las normas nacionales de tenencia de la tierra y del medio ambiente, ha impulsado en todos los países donde se ha desplegado, propuestas colectivas endógenas que los propios actores proponen y aplican después en función de sus propias necesidades.

Growing pressure from climate change and agricultural land use is destabilizing soil microbial community interactions. Yet little is known about microbial community resistance and adaptation to disturbances over time. This hampers our ability to determine the recovery latency of microbial interactions after disturbances, with fundamental implications for ecosystem functioning and conservation measures. Here we examined the response of bacterial and fungal community networks in the rhizosphere of Haloxylon salicornicum (Moq.) Bunge ex Boiss. over the course of soil disturbances resulting from a history of different hydric constraints involving flooding-drought successions. An anthropic disturbance related to past agricultural use, with frequent successions of flooding and drought, was compared to a natural disturbance, i.e., an evaporation basin, with yearly flooding-drought successions. The anthropic disturbance resulted in a specific microbial network topology characterized by lower modularity and stability, reflecting the legacy of past agricultural use on soil microbiome. In contrast, the natural disturbance resulted in a network topology and stability close to those of natural environments despite the lower alpha diversity, and a different community composition compared to that of the other sites. These results highlighted the temporality in the response of the microbial community structure to disturbance, where long-term adaptation to flooding-drought successions lead to a higher stability than disturbances occurring over a shorter timescale.

Embora as abordagens participativas e inclusivas tenham sido reconhecidas como necessárias para envolver as populações na gestão dos recursos e dos territórios, o seu impacto a longo prazo é muitas vezes reduzido, quer seja na escala local quer seja em territórios mais vastos. Foi a partir desta constatação que uma equipe do Cirad desenvolveu um método baseado num jogo sério no final dos anos 1990, TerriStories®. Os efeitos da primeira experiência no Senegal, em 1998-1999, ainda persistem em termos de escalas local e nacional. Aplicado à gestão dos territórios locais e depois à definição de regras nacionais fundiárias e ambientais, o método tem impulsionado, em todos os países onde foi implementado, propostas coletivas endógenas que os próprios atores levam adiante e implementam de acordo com as suas próprias necessidades.

Herbicides are the most applied pesticides in the world. Despite numerous laboratory studies demonstrating the toxic effect of herbicides on non-target organisms, the effect of herbicides on soil organisms in the field remains complex to understand and is still controversial. In order to understand how changes in agricultural practices aiming to reduce herbicide use could impact soil biodiversity, we studied the effect of the frequency of herbicide application on soil biodiversity in a tropical agroecosystem. Our study was conducted on banana farms in Martinique, an island with a humid tropical climate belonging to the Caribbean biodiversity hotspot. Thirteen banana plots from five different farms were selected, ranging from plots receiving no herbicides to plots receiving 4–5 applications per year. Soil macro-arthropods were sampled using pitfall traps resulting in the collection of over 6,200 individuals. Of the 100 taxa that were differentiated, 75 could be identified to species level which allowed to assign each taxon to a trophic group and when possible to classify them according to whether they were introduced or native. Macro-arthropod mean species richness was 21% lower in plots with the highest frequency of herbicide application. However, no conclusive effect of herbicides on macro-arthropod abundance was demonstrated. Mean species richness for different trophic groups also decreased with herbicide applications with decreases of 22% for predators, 17% for omnivores, 55% for herbivores, and 55% for decomposers in plots with 4–5 herbicide applications per year compared to plots with no herbicide use. Species composition of macro-arthropod communities varied significantly with herbicide applications. More specifically, we found that native species represented a higher proportion of individuals captured in plots where no herbicides were used; suggesting that agroecological practices implemented at the field level to reduce the frequency of herbicide use potenti

The Myotis nattereri species complex has been the focus of several recent morphological and molecular surveys to assess the species status of various named forms, including three informally referred to as Myotis sp. A, M. sp. B and M. sp. C. The first two forms have now been formally described as distinct biological species, and named M. crypticus and M. zenatius, respectively, both distinct from the nominotypical M. nattereri s. str. and M. escalerai. The latter form, Myotis sp. C is known only from Corsica. Here we demonstrate that this form has not only unique mitochondrial haplotypes but also several nuclear alleles that are divergent and not found anywhere else, which emphasizes its long independent evolution. We therefore confirm its specific status and describe it as a new species. Its ecology and rupicolous roosting habits resemble those of the Iberian M. escalerai, but it is otherwise morphologically most similar to M. crypticus. This new species is endemic to Corsica and is apparently very rare and essentially localised to mountain forests. Owing to its restricted distribution, its small population size, and limited population connectivity, it seems highly vulnerable to climate change and thus should be classified as endangered.

Human-wildlife interaction is a complex issue that has positive as well as negative implications for both humans and wildlife that share the same habitat. In this paper, we used the Wildlife Tolerance Model (WTM) as the theoretical framework to determine the factors that affect tolerance towards the African savannah elephant (Loxodonta africana), chacma baboon (Papio ursinus) and spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) among the Tonga indigenous people of Zimbabwe. We used structural equation modeling for the identification of causal pathways to see which variables – namely, exposure, positive and negative interactions, costs and benefits – affect tolerance. Our study finds that intangible benefits are the most significant determinants of tolerance across all three species. Contradictory to the expectations, tangible cost had no effect on the tolerance for any of the three species. We find that reducing exposure would also have a strong mediating effect on tangible and intangible costs from the three species. We discuss the roles that socio-economic and cultural factors play to help explain the differences in communities' attitudes towards the three species. We conclude that more emphasis should be given to increasing the awareness of the intangible benefits, such as the ecosystem services provided by the species. Finally, we recommend using the WTM to help establish a mitigation strategy for the targeted communities and then conducting a Before-After-Control-Impact (BACI) study to evaluate the true impact of those mitigation strategies on the communities' wildlife tolerance.

Determining the drivers of non-native plant invasions is critical for managing native ecosystems and limiting the spread of invasive species1,2. Tree invasions in particular have been relatively overlooked, even though they have the potential to transform ecosystems and economies3,4. Here, leveraging global tree databases5,6,7, we explore how the phylogenetic and functional diversity of native tree communities, human pressure and the environment influence the establishment of non-native tree species and the subsequent invasion severity. We find that anthropogenic factors are key to predicting whether a location is invaded, but that invasion severity is underpinned by native diversity, with higher diversity predicting lower invasion severity. Temperature and precipitation emerge as strong predictors of invasion strategy, with non-native species invading successfully when they are similar to the native community in cold or dry extremes. Yet, despite the influence of these ecological forces in determining invasion strategy, we find evidence that these patterns can be obscured by human activity, with lower ecological signal in areas with higher proximity to shipping ports. Our global perspective of non-native tree invasion highlights that human drivers influence non-native tree presence, and that native phylogenetic and functional diversity have a critical role in the establishment and spread of subsequent invasions.

Antecedentes. La agrobiodiversidad es uno de los principales pilares de la agricultura en México, por lo que su conservación es una prioridad para la sostenibilidad y resiliencia del sistema agroalimentario. Objetivo. Analizar el estado de la agrobiodiversidad en el sistema agrícola, alimentario y de conservación de recursos genéticos de México. Metodología. Metodológicamente se adaptó e implementó el Índice de Agrobiodiversidad, se midieron diez indicadores y 16 variables, enfocados en la medición de la diversidad de especies, diversidad varietal, especies subutilizadas y complejidad del paisaje. Resultados. El Índice Estado de Agrobiodiversidad para México fue moderado (56/100), el puntaje para el sistema alimentario fue alto (66.6/100), el sistema agrícola presentó puntajes altos (63.1/100) y el sistema de conservación presentó puntajes bajos (38.4/100). Implicaciones. El sistema de conservación se ha enfocado en especies de plantas comerciales, dejando un vacío en la conservación y uso sostenible de especies silvestres y no comerciales. En el sistema agrícola y de conservación se destaca la necesidad de plataformas con información biológica más específica (niveles intraespecíficos, variedades, razas, cultivares) que permita la estimación más precisa de la agrobiodiversidad en el país. Conclusión. Aunque el país cuenta con una alta diversidad de especies animales y vegetales que sirven como fuente de alimentación, estas opciones se encuentran subutilizadas en el sistema alimentario.

Habitat loss and degradation due to global agriculture land use is a major threat to biodiversity. Identifying agricultural management practices that mitigate these impacts is urgently needed. Thousands of experiments have been conducted worldwide in the last decades to compare the impacts of various agricultural management practices on biodiversity. The magnitudes of difference in biodiversity responses between pairs of agricultural practices, i.e. effect sizes, have now been synthesised in a growing number of meta-analyses. Yet, each meta-analysis generally focuses on a specific type of farming practice and on specific taxonomic groups, or a single region. Meta-analyses could furthermore yield different or sometimes opposite results for the similar research questions. Gathering all the effect sizes in one single dataset helps to critically assess and weigh the available evidence across all studied practices, taxonomic groups and geographical areas, and provide stakeholders a solid base to better inform their decisions. Here, we present a comprehensive dataset of 200 published meta-analyses gathering 1885 effect sizes based on more than 14 000 primary studies. We detail the effect of 8 main individual field practices (e.g. pest and disease management, amendment and fertilisation), 3 agricultural systems (e.g. organic farming, conservation agriculture) and 2 landscape level interventions (i.e. landscape complexity, land-use change). Our dataset covers numerous taxonomic groups over 14 phyla, including animals (e.g. birds, insects), microorganisms (e.g. fungi, bacteria), plants (e.g. trees, weeds). The dataset presented provides a resource to support decision-makers, farmers, and conservation ecologists alike for managing agricultural land for biodiversity.

Description du sujet. La faune mammalienne de la Réserve de Biosphère de Luki en République démocratique du Congo est soumise à de fortes pressions anthropiques menaçant son intégrité. Objectifs. Cette étude vise à caractériser la diversité et l'état de conservation de la communauté animale mammalienne de la réserve, non documentés à ce jour. Méthode. Pour y parvenir, une grille de 40 pièges photographiques a été déployée au coeur de la réserve durant 90 jours sur une surface de 32 km2. En parallèle, un suivi journalier de l'activité de chasse de 50 chasseurs, issus de cinq villages situés en périphérie de la réserve, a été entrepris durant 63 jours. Résultats. Les relevés des pièges photographiques ont permis de répertorier 14 taxons de mammifères, identifiés au moins au niveau du genre, parmi lesquels le chimpanzé (Pan troglotydes), espèce menacée d'extinction. Quant aux tableaux de chasse, 18 espèces ont été capturées sur la période suivie. Parmi les principaux groupes d'animaux recensés selon les deux approches, les rongeurs viennent en tête avec respectivement 86,4 % des détections par pièges photographiques et 66,9 % des prises par les chasseurs. Les espèces de taille moyenne, comme les céphalophes, sont peu détectées et peu capturées. Comparée à d'autres aires protégées d'Afrique centrale étudiées avec des dispositifs et des taux d'échantillonnages comparables, la réserve de Biosphère de Luki apparait bien pauvre en termes de diversité des espèces de mammifères. Conclusions. Ces résultats semblent indiquer une forte altération de la communauté mammalienne résidant dans la Réserve de Biosphère de Luki, malgré la présence d'une petite population relictuelle de chimpanzés. L'absence d'espèces de taille moyenne à grande dans les tableaux de chasse et leur très faible détection par pièges photographiques montrent l'urgence d'accroître l'effort de surveillance et questionnent la politique de gestion participative de la réserve mise en place depuis près de 20 années

L'iconographie oasienne est riche et ancienne, mais son usage dans la recherche reste peu explicité. Revenant sur nos terrains de thèse, à Tozeur et Gabès en Tunisie, il s'agit ici d'interroger le rôle de la photo dans la construction de l'imaginaire territorial oasien, et de la recherche sur ces espaces. Matériel de terrain original, la photo dans les oasis constitue une ressource porteuse de discours divers sur le territoire, entre promotion d'un rêve touristique, documentation d'un paysage, ou support de sensibilisation à la dégradation environnementale du milieu. Nous reviendrons notamment sur la réappropriation de l'abondant corpus colonial au service d'une idéalisation des systèmes anciens, puis le processus de constitution d'un corpus " témoin " des dégradations environnementales dans un contexte de dynamisme associatif, et enfin la manière dont la recherche peut mobiliser ce matériel de terrain pour analyser et illustrer la diversité des formes de mise en valeur des territoires.

Le développement de projets d'aménagement (routes, mines, etc.) participe à l'érosion mondiale de la biodiversité. Dans ce contexte, la compensation écologique est adoptée pour pallier ces impacts et concilier développement économique et préservation de la biodiversité. Cependant, elle peine à inclure les services écosystémiques, malgré leur importance pour le bien-être, voire la survie de certaines populations impactées. Leur intégration n'est pas toujours compatible avec les approches actuelles de la compensation pour la biodiversité. Ainsi, l'objectif de nos travaux de thèse est de développer un cadre méthodologique pour l'intégration appropriée des services écosystémiques dans la compensation écologique. A partir de la littérature existante, nous avons construit une méthodologie en quatre étapes. Nous l'avons testée dans une zone aride d'Asie Centrale, le district de Sozak au Kazakhstan, où l'entreprise minière uranifère française Orano est implantée, et où la compensation écologique est réalisée par plantations forestières d'Haloxylon ammodendron (C.A. Mey) Bunge et Haloxylon persicum (C.A Mey) Bunge. A travers ce cas d'étude, nous avons (i) identifié les services écosystémiques importants pour les acteurs locaux, selon une échelle paysagère. Ainsi, nous avons déterminé les services potentiellement impactés par les activités minière. Dès lors, nous avons élaboré des pratiques de compensation basées sur leur fourniture, et les avons (ii) évaluées sous le prisme de l'acceptabilité sociale. Nous avons notamment montré que les services écosystémiques attendus à travers la compensation différaient des services potentiellement impactés par les activités minières. Par la suite, nous avons (iii) évalué les relations entre la végétation naturelle du district et les services écosystémiques d'intérêt, à partir d'indicateurs biophysiques, afin de nous en inspirer pour la compensation des services écosystémiques. Nos résultats suggèrent que seule la strate arbustive affecte

Since the 1960s, droughts have caused significant degradation of Sahelian ecosystems, particularly resulting in a reduction in tree cover. Despite the challenges posed by climate change, the rural Sahelian population continues to depend on natural resources for pastoral livestock farming, which remains a critical source of livelihood. To address this issue of land degradation, Sahelian states and international coalitions are prioritizing efforts to restore pastoral land through reforestation programs. These initiatives aim to enhance ecosystem services, generate new income for the population, and safeguard biodiversity.In practice, however, reforestation has often led to a depletion of resources for communities due to enclosure policies. This paper explores various land management models for reforestation within a pastoral context through provisioning ecosystem services (PES) modeling.This study quantifies the economic potential of PES offered by reforestation programs in Senegal. It employs a quantitative methodology to assess the profitability of these operations from the perspective of pastoral economies. The analysis reveals that the PES benefits of reforestation can significantly enhance the economic potential of sylvo-pastoral productions if resource access is negotiated collaboratively between pastoralists and forestry extension services during reforestation activities and after. From an investment perspective, the economic viability of reforestation operations in drylands is questionable. The findings suggest that when evaluated solely in terms of PES profitability, these programs may not be financially sustainable. The sustainability of these investments would require taking into account supporting and regulating ecosystem services.

Hunting impacts tropical vertebrate populations, causing declines of species that function as seed dispersers and predators, or that browse seedlings and saplings. Whether and how the resulting reductions in seed dispersal, seed predation, and browsing translate to changes in the tree composition is poorly understood. Here, we assess the effect of defaunation on the functional composition of communities of tree recruits in tropical rainforests in French Guiana. We selected eight sites along a gradient of defaunation, caused by differences in hunting pressure, in otherwise intact old-growth forests in French Guiana. We measured shifts in functional composition by comparing leaf and fruit traits and wood density between tree recruits (up to 5 cm diameter at breast height) and adults, and tested whether and how these compositional shifts related to defaunation. We found a positive relationship with defaunation for shifts in specific leaf area, a negative relationship for shifts of leaf toughness and wood density, and a weak relationship for shifts in fruit traits. Our results suggest that the loss of vertebrates affects ecological processes such as seed dispersal and browsing, of which browsing remains understudied. Even though these changes sometimes seem minor, together they result in major shifts in forest composition. These changes have long-term ramifications that may alter forest dynamics for generations.

Résultat d'une journée thématique et de réflexions d'un groupe de travail sur la Restauration des Paysages Forestiers (GT-RPF), cette note vise à compléter les très nombreux travaux existants sur le sujet, en faisant notamment ressortir les points critiques en matière d'opérationnalisation de l'approche.

La notion de justice environnementale émerge face aux constats d'un accès différent aux ressources de l'environnement ainsi que d'une inégale distribution des risques environnementaux affectant certains groupes sociaux. Souvent abordée dans les travaux de recherche au Nord, l'analyse des critères de justice ou d'injustice associés à l'environnement tels que l'accès à l'eau, l'extraction de minerais ou la reconnaissance des communautés locales, n'a été que très peu étudiée en Afrique. Pourtant, de nombreux territoires africains font l'objet d'aménagements effrénés pour accompagner leur forte croissance et pour répondre aux enjeux de développement qui affectent l'environnement des populations riveraines. Les contributions théoriques, méthodologiques et empiriques présentées dans cet ouvrage permettent de cerner les questions de justice environnementale au-delà des perspectives classiques. Elles montrent ainsi comment l'historicité des rapports de domination entre différents types d'acteurs en Afrique est une variable déterminante dans l'appréhension de la notion de justice. Cet ouvrage s'adresse aux chercheurs intéressés par les enjeux de justice socio-environnementale dans les pays du Sud, aux ONG luttant contre ces injustices, aux étudiants en sciences sociales et en aménagement du territoire ainsi qu'aux bailleurs de fonds finançant des infrastructures et confrontés à l'opposition croissante d'acteurs locaux ou internationaux.

Biodiversity is an important component of natural ecosystems, with higher species richness often correlating with an increase in ecosystem productivity. Yet, this relationship varies substantially across environments, typically becoming less pronounced at high levels of species richness. However, species richness alone cannot reflect all important properties of a community, including community evenness, which may mediate the relationship between biodiversity and productivity. If the evenness of a community correlates negatively with richness across forests globally, then a greater number of species may not always increase overall diversity and productivity of the system. Theoretical work and local empirical studies have shown that the effect of evenness on ecosystem functioning may be especially strong at high richness levels, yet the consistency of this remains untested at a global scale. 2. Here, we used a dataset of forests from across the globe, which includes composition, biomass accumulation and net primary productivity, to explore whether productivity correlates with community evenness and richness in a way that evenness appears to buffer the effect of richness. Specifically, we evaluated whether low levels of evenness in speciose communities correlate with the attenuation of the richness–productivity relationship. 3. We found that tree species richness and evenness are negatively correlated across forests globally, with highly speciose forests typically comprising a few dominant and many rare species. Furthermore, we found that the correlation between diversity and productivity changes with evenness: at low richness, uneven communities are more productive, while at high richness, even communities are more productive. 4. Synthesis. Collectively, these results demonstrate that evenness is an integral component of the relationship between biodiversity and productivity, and that the attenuating effect of richness on forest productivity might be partly explained

Livestock production in the Colombian Amazonia is typically dual-purpose (meat and milk) based on silvopastoral systems. We aimed to assess how the ecological condition of these systems correspond to the ecosystem services they generate based on an assessment of farmers' knowledge of the tree species. We evaluated 159 paddocks. We recorded 143 tree species from 37 families, with 22 species being most common (relative occurrence frequency = 57%). Based on tree species composition, we characterized four states of silvopastoral condition (hereon 'paddock condition types') using clustering techniques: (i) High structural complexity and highest tree species richness (HSCR); (ii) High species diversity and tall trees (HDTT); (iii) High species diversity and medium-sized trees (HDMT); (iv) Structurally simple with lowest species richness (SSLR). Tree species richness was significantly higher in HSCR (11.70 ± 1.47 per paddock), than in SSLR (2.86 ± 0.80). HDTT and HDMT had similar richness, with intermediate values (5.55 ± 0.82 and 6.38 ± 0.51, respectively). Farmers appreciate a number of ecosystem services provided by the silvopastoral system, but a limited number of tree species are valued. This indicates the need for additional biodiversity conservation measures in these landscapes, including measures to improve knowledge about the value of tree species with few occurrences or low densities.

Duru et al. (Agron Sustain Dev 35:1259-1281, 2015) highlighted a missing tool for studying and improving the performance of cropping systems in the transition to highly diversified agriculture. In response, this paper proposes a concept for designing, modeling, monitoring, and auditing desired ecosystem services, in intercropping and agroforestry systems. We have labelled this concept ESSU (Ecosystem Services functional Spatial Unit). It delimits the smallest spatial unit encompassing all the interacting species and other functional components (e.g., crops, trees, livestock, spontaneous vegetation, semi-natural habitats such as hedges, ditches, forest patches, and animals) that together provide a specified set of ecosystem services. The novel ESSU concept allows representation of an entire diversified agroecosystem by the repetition of the spatial unit that provides the same sets of targeted ecosystem services as the agroecosystem it represents. It can then be used for various activities, such as the (i) design of more efficient agroecological systems according to the targeted ecosystem services; (ii) rapid audit of farming practices for biodiversity/resilience across large tracts of farmland as part of achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 targets of sustainable food systems; and (iii) modeling such diversified agroecosystems using a motif adapted to represent the targeted ecosystem services and the species spacing design. We demonstrate that the ESSU concept is highly flexible and applicable to a wide range of diversified agroecosystems, like arable intercropping, crop-tree intercropping, tree-tree agroforestry, and agro-pastoralism. We also show its relevance and suitability for representing temporal changes over 1 year, across several years, and over decades, indicating its generalizability and flexibility. We argue that ESSU could open new theoretical and practical research avenues for the study of diversified agroecosystems. Considered with all the knowledg

Anthropogenic activities profoundly impact soil organic carbon (SOC), affecting its contribution to ecosystem services such as climate regulation. Here, we conducted a thorough review of the impacts of land-use change, land management, and climate change on SOC. Using second-order meta-analysis, we synthesized findings from 230 first-order meta-analyses comprising over 25,000 primary studies. We show that (i) land conversion for crop production leads to high SOC loss, that can be partially restored through land management practices, particularly by introducing trees and incorporating exogenous carbon in the form of biochar or organic amendments, (ii) land management practices that are implemented in forests generally result in depletion of SOC, and (iii) indirect effects of climate change, such as through wildfires, have a greater impact on SOC than direct climate change effects (e.g., from rising temperatures). The findings of our study provide strong evidence to assist decision-makers in safeguarding SOC stocks and promoting land management practices for SOC restoration. Furthermore, they serve as a crucial research roadmap, identifying areas that require attention to fill the knowledge gaps concerning the factors driving changes in SOC.

Philippe Pelletier retrace la construction des idées liant le puritanisme (protestant) à l'écologie depuis le XIXe siècle, à travers leurs auteurs. Par le prisme choisi, l'accent est mis sur le puritanisme, ce qui amène l'auteur à éclipser d'autres sources possibles de l'écologie, comme le rapport Meadows et al. (1972, Les limites à la croissance), ou le mouvement de retour à la terre aux États-Unis accompagné par le Whole Earth Catalog (1968) et décrit par Fred Turner (2006, Aux sources de l'utopie numérique). Si cela n'enlève rien à l'immense travail de P. Pelletier, cela peut nuancer le propos.

High Nature Value (HNV) farmlands currently retain most of the biodiversity associated with agricultural landscapes in Europe. In a time of globalized food systems, the social-ecological conditions to maintain these low-intensity and thus less productive HNV farming systems are difficult to meet. Halting the loss of HNV farmland requires fostering the socioeconomic viability of HNV farming systems that is compatible with social, cultural, and ecological values. Pursuing such viability calls for tailored actions to steer the development of HNV farming systems based on the strength of their local assets. Such a transformational learning process involves changing the territorial dynamic towards better integration of biodiversity at several levels of management (from farm to territorial level). Based on the description and analysis of ten HNV territories distributed across Europe, we explore how HNV innovation brokers can strategically engage with local actors to preserve the environmental characteristics of HNV farmland areas while improving their socioeconomic viability. The aim of this research is to improve the understanding of the range of approaches and strategies of innovation brokers to meet the challenges of HNV farmland conservation. The study analyzes the different innovation processes that took place in each area, concentrating on the engagement phase. Our results demonstrate that HNV farming situations across Europe are quite diverse from an agroecological and socioeconomic point of view. There are distinct conservation challenges and associated risks for each HNV farming context. The need for a strategic approach to HNV conservation at landscape–territory level is discussed. The key role of innovation brokers is highlighted, together with the need for a strategic approach to innovation brokerage, which is explicit in relation to territorial needs and the changes required. We demonstrate the importance of the landscape–territorial vision as an entry point f

Payments for environmental services (PES) have been widely studied as one possible way to counter deforestation and support livelihoods. Given the high rates of deforestation in the Amazon region, it is important to study under which conditions PES have positive environmental and social outcomes. We contribute to this debate through a systematic review based on the Realist Evaluation framework. First, we review case studies to identify configurations of social-ecological factors (context), PES design and implementation (resource mechanisms), people's responses (reasoning mechanisms), and the results in terms of forest conservation and people's livelihoods (outcomes). Second, we develop a middle-range theory of how, for whom, and under what conditions PES in the Amazon achieve these results. After screening 972 articles in the SCOPUS, Scielo, and WorldCat databases, we reviewed 13 articles in-depth that contained all the elements (context-mechanism-outcomes) needed to identify these configurations. Our results show that PES in the Amazon generate positive environmental and social outcomes when they: (a) combine cash and in-kind incentives, (b) raise environmental awareness through capacity building, (c) engage socially and ethnically diverse stakeholders through equitable and inclusive approaches, (d) apply transparent spatial targeting, (e) guarantee strong conditionality through robust monitoring of compliance, and (f) guarantee stable delivery of payments.

The persistence of the woody vegetation of the Sahelian savannas, and their supported ecosystem functions, have been questioned since the great drought of 1970s–1980s. To assess the resilience of this vegetation to drought and grazing, we undertook a trait-based approach using field inventory, historical survey databases, and traits data literature. Using a hierarchical clustering approach, we gathered the species present from 1970 to 2015 into functional groups according to their effect traits related to primary productivity and biogeochemical cycles. First, we studied the evolution of functional redundancy (FRe) and response diversity (RDiv) of the functional effect groups to drought and grazing, two indicators of resilience, since the 1970s. Second, we looked at the spatial variation of these two indices in 2015, according to local topography. FRe and RDiv of 80% of the functional groups examined declined since 1970, endangering the persistence of the studied functions. Local topography strongly influenced current FRe and RDiv, with depressions presenting higher values. Finally, by examining species' abundances, their regeneration, and the functional group to which they belong, we determined some key species that could benefit from protection to ensure the persistence of the ecosystem functions supported by the woody vegetation. This study has expanded knowledge about the savanna's response to pressures and has shown how a functional traits-based approach could be an effective tool to guide the management of tropical savannas.

The consistent monitoring of trees both inside and outside of forests is key to sustainable land management. Current monitoring systems either ignore trees outside forests or are too expensive to be applied consistently across countries on a repeated basis. Here we use the PlanetScope nanosatellite constellation, which delivers global very high-resolution daily imagery, to map both forest and non-forest tree cover for continental Africa using images from a single year. Our prototype map of 2019 (RMSE = 9.57%, bias = −6.9%). demonstrates that a precise assessment of all tree-based ecosystems is possible at continental scale, and reveals that 29% of tree cover is found outside areas previously classified as tree cover in state-of-the-art maps, such as in croplands and grassland. Such accurate mapping of tree cover down to the level of individual trees and consistent among countries has the potential to redefine land use impacts in non-forest landscapes, move beyond the need for forest definitions, and build the basis for natural climate solutions and tree-related studies.

Innovative agri-environmental contracts are increasingly studied in the literature, but their adoption has been relatively slow and geographically scattered. Action-based agri-environmental measures remain the predominant policy mechanism across Europe. A three-round Policy Delphi study was conducted with policy makers, scientific experts, farmers' representatives, and NGOs from across 15 different European countries, to investigate how and under which circumstances novel contractual solutions could be implemented more widely. The expert panel perceived result-based and collective contractual elements as the most promising. Although considered beneficial from several aspects, value chain contracts were perceived less relevant to the policy environment. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Pillar 2 measures were highlighted by the experts as the key policy area to implement novel contracts by national or regional authorities, but Pillar 1 eco-schemes, being launched in the CAP 2023–2027, were also considered as a potentially suitable framework for testing and implementation. The Delphi panel envisaged innovative contracts should be adopted by governments in iterative steps and not as a complete substitute for current payment schemes, but rather as an additional incentive to them. Such an incremental approach allows contractual innovations to capitalise on existing best practices. But it also implies the risk that innovative contracts could remain marginal and fail to substantially change farmers' behaviour, resulting in a failure to improve environmental conditions.

Aim: Central Africa shelters diverse and iconic megafauna, which is threatened by climate and land-use changes and increased hunting-induced defaunation. Though crucial for coordinating regional conservation actions, how species assemblages are spatially structured remains poorly understood. This study aims to fill this knowledge gap for mammals across central African forests. Location: Tropical moist forests from Nigeria to the Albertine Rift. Methods: An extensive compilation of forest-dwelling mammal species lists was made from wildlife and bushmeat-related surveys across central Africa. A beta-diversity approach enabling the clustering of surveys composed of similar species was implemented to identify and delimit zoogeographic districts, separately for three well-documented mammal orders: carnivores, primates and artiodactyls. Random forest classification models were then used to identify the environmental determinants of the district's distribution and to produce a continuous zoogeographic map (and associated uncertainties) critical to assess the conservation status of each district and their ongoing threats. Results: While carnivores do not present a clear spatial structure within central African forests, our findings highlight the structuring role of rivers on both primate and artiodactyl assemblages' distributions. We retained eight and six spatially congruent districts for primates and artiodactyls, respectively. These districts were shaped by the Ubangi-Congo River system, and the Cross and Sanaga Rivers, with a secondary role of insularity and precipitation identified for primates. Highly threatened districts were highlighted, especially in Nigeria and in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the latter including vast areas that are understudied and poorly represented in the protected area network. Main Conclusions: Beyond refining our understanding of the diversity and uniqueness of mammalian assemblages across central African forests, our map of zoogeograph

Agri-environmental and climate schemes are an important policy instrument in the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union to maintain biodiversity and safeguard ecosystem services provision for human wellbeing. In the presented dataset, we analyzed 19 innovative contracts for agri-environmental and climate schemes from six European countries, representing examples of four different contract types: result-based, collective, land tenure, and value chain contracts. Our analytical approach comprised three steps: In the first step, we used a method mix combining literature review, web search, and expert consultation to identify potential case examples for the innovative contracts. In the second step, we employed a survey, which was structured in accordance with Ostrom's institutional analysis and development framework to collect detailed information on each contract. The survey was either filled in by us authors, based on information retrieved from websites and other data sources, or by experts directly involved in the different contracts. Based on the collected data, in the third step, an in-depth analysis was conducted on the public, private, and civil actors involved from different governance levels (local, regional, national, or international) and the roles these actors perform in contract governance. The dataset generated through these three steps contains 84 data files, which includes tables, figures, maps, and a text file. The dataset can be re-used by all interested in result-based, collective, land tenure, and value chain contracts for agri-environmental and climate schemes. Each contract is characterized in great detail by 34 variables making the dataset suitable for further institutional and governance analysis.

Calling on the concept of environmental justice in its distributive, procedural and recognition dimensions, we implemented a coelaborative scenario building approach to explore sustainable livelihoods pathways in four sites belonging to two Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) in southern Africa. Grounded on participation and transdisciplinarity, as a foundation for decolonised anticipatory action research, we aimed at stimulating knowledge exchange and providing insights on the future of local livelihoods engaging experts living within these TFCAs. Our results show that wildlife and wildlife-related activities are not seen as the primary drivers of local livelihoods, despite the focus and investments of dominant stakeholders in these sectors. Instead, local governance and land use regulations emerged as key drivers in the four study sites. The state of natural resources, including water, and appropriate farming systems also appeared critical to sustain future livelihoods in TFCAs, together with the recognition of indigenous culture, knowledge and value systems. Nature conservation, especially in Africa, is rooted in its colonial past and struggles to free or decolonise itself from the habits of this past despite decades of reconsideration. To date, the enduring coloniality of conservation prevents local citizens from truly participating in the planning and designing of the TFCAs they live in, leaving room for limited benefits to local citizens and often limiting Indigenous people's capacity to conserve. A practical way forward is to consider environmental justice as a cement between the two pillars of the TFCA concept, that is, nature conservation and socio-economic development of local or neighbouring communities, as part of a more broadly and urgent need to rethink the relationships between people in, and with, the rest of nature.

Biodiversity offsets aim to compensate the negative residual impacts of development projects on biodiversity, including ecosystem functions, uses by people and cultural values. Conceptually, ecosystem services (ES) should be considered, but in practice this integration rarely occurs. Their consideration would improve the societal impact of biodiversity offsets. However, the prioritisation of ES in a given area is still limited. We developed a framework for this purpose, applied in rangelands landscapes in Kazakhstan, in the context of uranium mining. We assumed that different landscapes provide different ES, and that stakeholders perceive ES according to their category (e.g., elders and herders) and gender. We performed qualitative, semi-structured interviews with a range of stakeholders. Using the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services, we identified 300 ES in 31 classes across 8 landscape units. We produced a systemic representation of the provision of ES across the landscapes. We showed a significant link between ES and landscape units, but not between ES and stakeholder categories or gender. Stakeholders mostly identified ES according to the location of their villages. Therefore, we suggest that the biodiversity offsets should target ES provided by the landscape unit where mining activities occur and would be most interesting in the landscapes common to all villages. By performing a systemic representation, potential impacts of some offset strategies can be predicted. The framework was therefore effective in determining a bundle of ES at a landscape scale, and in prioritising them for future biodiversity offset plans.

The intensification of crop production is widely recognized to negatively affect the agrobiodiversity in smallholder systems. This trend can also be observed in Quinoa production systems, where few varieties are commercialized while maintaining traditional varieties of quinoa remains a key agricultural activity in the high-Andes landscape. In recent decades, the “boom” of quinoa production has given rise to national projects intended to ensure that farmers benefit from their agricultural heritage, including the development of a collective trademark. However, little is known about the opinions of smallholder farmers regarding quinoa varieties cultivation, farming practices, market choices, or the development of a collective trademark as a tool to safeguard a position in the booming international quinoa market. To address these questions, we developed our research in three villages in the Puno region of Peru, quinoa's center of origin. We applied a novel combination of participatory methods: the Q methodology to interpret the perceptions of smallholder quinoa farmers concerning the activities that are important on their farms, and the Four-Square Analysis workshops to explore quinoa biodiversity management. The results of our Q-analysis revealed three types of opinions emerging among farmers: (Type 1) Conservationist, (Type 2) Intensification sustainer, and (Type 3) Collaboration seeker. Type 1 assigns importance to maintaining and promoting quinoa biodiversity through collective practices and markets. Type 2 focuses on developing export-oriented production based on certified and improved varieties, combined with efficient ways of storing quinoa. Type 3 appears to value the collective aspects of organizations and cooperation among stakeholders. According to the results of the Four-Square Analysis, most landraces of quinoa are threatened by genetic erosion, as they are cultivated in situ in small plots and on few farms. Our results are an important baseline for further

Human pressure on the environment is increasing the frequency, diversity, and spatial extent of disease outbreaks. Despite international recognition, the interconnection between the health of the environment, animals, and humans has been historically overlooked. Past and current initiatives have often neglected prevention under the One Health preparedness cycle, largely focusing on post-spillover stages. We argue that pandemic prevention initiatives have yet to produce actionable targets and indicators, connected to overarching goals, like it has been done for biodiversity loss and climate change. We show how the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response framework, already employed by the Convention on Biological Diversity, can be repurposed to operationalize pandemic prevention. Global responses for pandemic prevention should strive for complementarity and synergies among initiatives, better articulating prevention under One Health. Without agreed-upon goals underpinning specific targets and interventions, current global efforts are unlikely to function at the speed and scale necessary to decrease the risk of disease outbreaks that might lead to pandemics. Threats to the environment are not always abatable, but decreasing the likelihood that environmental pressure leads to pandemics, and developing strategies to mitigate these impacts, are both attainable goals.

Using 2.046 botanically-inventoried tree plots across the largest tropical forest on Earth, we mapped tree species-diversity and tree species-richness at 0.1-degree resolution, and investigated drivers for diversity and richness. Using only location, stratified by forest type, as predictor, our spatial model, to the best of our knowledge, provides the most accurate map of tree diversity in Amazonia to date, explaining approximately 70% of the tree diversity and species-richness. Large soil-forest combinations determine a significant percentage of the variation in tree species-richness and tree alpha-diversity in Amazonian forest-plots. We suggest that the size and fragmentation of these systems drive their large-scale diversity patterns and hence local diversity. A model not using location but cumulative water deficit, tree density, and temperature seasonality explains 47% of the tree species-richness in the terra-firme forest in Amazonia. Over large areas across Amazonia, residuals of this relationship are small and poorly spatially structured, suggesting that much of the residual variation may be local. The Guyana Shield area has consistently negative residuals, showing that this area has lower tree species-richness than expected by our models. We provide extensive plot meta-data, including tree density, tree alpha-diversity and tree species-richness results and gridded maps at 0.1-degree resolution.

Nowadays, satellite image time series (SITS) are commonly employed to derive land-cover maps (LCM) to support decision makers in a variety of land management applications. In the most general workflow, the production of LCM strongly relies on available GT data to train supervised machine learning models. Unfortunately, these data are not always available due to time-consuming and costly field campaigns. In this scenario, the possibility to transfer a model learnt on a particular year ( source domain ) to a successive period of time ( target domain ), over the same study area, can save time and money. Such a kind of model transfer is challenging due to different acquisition conditions affecting each time period, thus resulting in possible distribution shifts between source and target domains. In the general field of machine learning, unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) approaches are well suited to cope with the learning of models under distribution shifts between source and target domains. While widely explored in the general computer vision field, they are still underinvestigated for SITS-based land-cover mapping, especially for the temporal transfer scenario. With the aim to cope with this scenario in the context of SITS-based land-cover mapping, here we propose spatially aligned domain-adversarial neural network, a framework that combines both adversarial learning and self-training to transfer a classification model from a time period (year) to a successive one on a specific study area. Experimental assessment on a study area located in Burkina Faso characterized by challenging operational constraints demonstrates the significance of our proposal. The obtained results have shown that our proposal outperforms all the UDA competing methods by 7 to 12 points of F 1-score across three different transfer tasks.