Behind the fog: Forest degradation despite logging bans in an East African cloud forest

Teucher, Mike; Schmitt, Christine B.; Wiese, Anja; Apfelbeck, Beate A.; Maghenda, Marianne; Pellikka, Petri; Lens, Luc; Habel, Jan Christian

doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01024

Cited by 36 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…The Taita Hills in southern Kenya (3° 25′ S, 38° 20′ E) consists of a mosaic of ecosystems, with near-natural forest blocks, small and degraded forest fragments, plantations of exotic trees (with representatives of the genus Pinus, Cypressus and Eucalyptus), agricultural land (crop fields with gardens), and settlements (Capitani et al 2019;Teucher et al 2020). The cloud forest cover of Taita Hills had been widely transformed into anthropogenic landscapes since the pre-colonial era (about 200 years ago), and continues until today, despite intense effort to protect the natural vegetation (Brooks et al 1998;Lehouck et al 2009;Teucher et al 2020). The remaining natural cloud forest consists of 12 forest fragments, which differ in size (ranging from 1 to 200 ha), geographic isolation, and habitat quality (Lehouck et al 2009;Callens et al 2011).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A major driver leading to current biodiversity loss is the destruction of natural habitats and their transformations into agricultural land, settlements and plantations (Jantz et al 2015;Maxwell et al 2016). Tropical ecosystems are particularly affected by these threats, which are mainly driven by high human demographic pressure, weak governance structures and poor land management (Williams 2013;Nzau et al 2020;Teucher et al 2020). As a consequence, many remaining tropical ecosystems exist today as small and isolated remnants (Haddad et al 2015) which provide comparatively low habitat quality (Sala et al 2000;Wilkie et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bird communities in a degraded forest biodiversity hotspot of East Africa

et al. 2021

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Tropical forests suffer severe habitat destruction. Thus, tropical forests frequently consist today of only a few small remnants that are often embedded within a matrix of agricultural fields and tree plantations. Forest specialist species have experienced severe population declines under these circumstances. We studied bird communities based on census plots set up in a near-natural forest block, as well as degraded forest patches, tree plantations, and agricultural fields, across the Taita Hills in southern Kenya. We classified each bird species according its ecology and behavior. We quantified the land cover and landscape configuration around each census plot. Typical forest species were mainly observed in the near-natural forest block, and to a lower extent in degraded forest patches. Plantations were almost devoid of birds. Bird communities of small forest fragments were more similar to that of agricultural land than the near-natural forest block. Most frugivorous, insectivorous and nectarivorous birds occurred in forest habitats, while granivorous bird species dominated the bird communities of agricultural land. The surrounding landscape had a marginal impact on bird species composition at local sites. Our study showed that the preservation of near-natural cloud forest, including small forest patches, is essential for the conservation of forest-dependent species, and that plantations do not serve as surrogate habitats.

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Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bird communities in a degraded forest biodiversity hotspot of East Africa

et al. 2021

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“…Environmental indices and indicators based on GIS analysis of land use/land cover are usually based on qualitative values of different parameters assigned to the different plots into which the study area has been divided [68,83,84,86,88]. In these situations, the number of soil categories is usually small (between five to eleven), and it is easy to make comparisons between corresponding maps from different years.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In China, national databases are also used to study environmental aspects based on land use/land cover changes [85]. The continuous acquisition of images by orbital satellites also provides enough information to be able to evaluate land cover change and habitat configuration from the visual comparison of the generated maps [86][87][88].…”

Section: Environmental Indicators Based On Land Usementioning

confidence: 99%

Land Use/Land Cover Assessment over Time Using a New Weighted Environmental Index (WEI) Based on an Object-Oriented Model and GIS Data

Rodrigo-Ilarri¹,

Romero²,

Rodrigo-Clavero³

2020

Sustainability

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For the first time, this paper introduces and describes a new Weighted Environmental Index (WEI) based on object-oriented models and GIS data. The index has been designed to integrate all the available information from extensive and detailed GIS databases. After the conceptual definition of the index has been justified, two applications for the regional and local scales of the WEI are shown. The applications analyze the evolution over time of the environmental value from land-use change for two different case studies in Spain: the Valencian Region and the L’Alcora municipality. Data have been obtained from the Spanish Land Occupation Information System (SIOSE) public database and integrate GIS information about land use/land cover on an extensive, high-detailed scale. Results demonstrate the application of the WEI to real case studies and the importance of integrating statistical analysis of WEI evolution over time to arrive at a better understanding of the socio-economic and environmental processes that induce land-use change.

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“…In addition, there are numerous small fragments of indigenous forest vegetation, many of them at sites regarded by the local people as sacred, and which therefore are afforded protection [78]. Despite the efforts to conserve remaining forest patches and to reforest degraded areas with indigenous trees, the cover of montane forest further decreased between 2003 and 2018 [79].…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Vocalization Analyses of Nocturnal Arboreal Mammals of the Taita Hills, Kenya

et al. 2020

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Three poorly known nocturnal mammal species from the montane forests of the Taita Hills in Kenya, were studied via vocalization analysis. Here, their acoustic behaviour is described. The studied animals were the tree hyrax (Dendrohyrax sp.), the small-eared greater galago (Otolemur garnettii), and the dwarf galago (Paragalago sp.). High-quality loud calls were analysed using RAVEN PRO, and compared to calls of presumed closest relatives. Our findings include the first detailed descriptions of tree hyrax songs. Moreover, our results suggest that the tree hyrax of Taita Hills may be a taxon new to science, as it produces a characteristic call, the ‘strangled thwack’, not previously known from other Dendrohyrax populations. Our data confirms that the small-eared greater galago subspecies living in the Taita Hills is Otolemur garnettii lasiotis. The loud calls of the elusive Taita Hills dwarf galago closely resemble those of the Kenya coast dwarf galago (Paragalago cocos). Thus, the population in the Taita Hills probably belongs to this species. The Taita Hills dwarf galagos are geographically isolated from other dwarf galago populations, and live in montane cloud forest, which is an unusual habitat for P. cocos. Intriguingly, two dwarf galago subpopulations living in separate forest patches in the Taita Hills, Ngangao and Mbololo, have clearly different contact calls. The Paragalagos in Mbololo Forest may represent a population of P. cocos with a derived call repertoire, or, alternatively, they may actually be mountain dwarf galagos (P. orinus). Hence, differences in habitat, behaviour, and contact call structure suggest that there may be two different Paragalago species in the montane forests of the Taita Hills.

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Behind the fog: Forest degradation despite logging bans in an East African cloud forest

Cited by 36 publications

References 55 publications

Bird communities in a degraded forest biodiversity hotspot of East Africa

Bird communities in a degraded forest biodiversity hotspot of East Africa

Land Use/Land Cover Assessment over Time Using a New Weighted Environmental Index (WEI) Based on an Object-Oriented Model and GIS Data

Vocalization Analyses of Nocturnal Arboreal Mammals of the Taita Hills, Kenya

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