This article explores evidence of deforestation and forest management practices in the Maya lowlands during the pre-Columbian period. In the early twentieth century, scholars first began to examine the role of the environment in the rise and collapse of the great southern Maya polities of the Classic period, proposing that deforestation was an important factor in their political fragmentation and depopulation between the eighth and tenth centuries. In the last twenty-five years, this hypothesis has gained broad acceptance largely due to research at the ancient city of Copan, Honduras.

This paper explores deforestation and asset accumulation among small scale farmers in tropical forests. In a two-state variable control model, forest clearing is an investment in land holdings and the productivity of forest clearing is a function of non-land assets like chainsaws.

In this paper we investigate the potential production and implications of a global biofuels industry. We develop alternative approaches to consistently introduce land as an economic factor input and in physical terms into a computable general equilibrium framework. The approach allows us to parameterize biomass production consistent with agro-engineering information on yields and a "second generation" cellulosic biomass conversion technology.

During the last few decades, land use changes have largely affected the global warming process through emissions of CO₂. However, C sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems could contribute to the decrease of atmospheric CO₂rates. Although Mediterranean areas show a high potential for C sequestration, only a few studies have been carried out in these systems. In this study, we propose a methodology to assess the impact of land use and land cover change dynamics on soil organic C stocks at different depths.

This paper is a critical synthesis of the causes, effects and challenges of the Sahelian droughts. The results show that the four main causes of the Sahelian droughts are as follows: sea surface temperature changes, vegetation and land degradation, dust feedbacks and human-induced climate change. However, human-induced climate change is seen as the major drought-determining factor because it controls sea surface temperatures, dust feedbacks and vegetation degradation.

An accurate estimate of carbon fluxes associated with tropical deforestation from the last two decades is needed to balance the global carbon budget. Several studies have already estimated carbon emissions from tropical deforestation, but the estimates vary greatly and are difficult to compare due to differences in data sources, assumptions, and methodologies. In this paper, we review the different estimates and datasets, and the various challenges associated with comparing them and with accurately estimating carbon emissions from deforestation.

Bangladesh, with a forest cover estimated at 17.08% of all land surface area, has experienced massive degradation of its natural resources and a conside­rable change in its land cover. While deforestation in Bangladesh is obviously a complex issue, one important aspect emerges from previous research findings in explaining deforestation: industrialization. This study focuses on the causes of deforestation in Bangladesh, particularly in tropical moist deciduous Sal forests, using multi levels factor analysis framework.

• CONTEXT : An inequitable distribution of the costs and benefits of carbon forestry could undermine its role in tackling climate change, but safeguarding local livelihoods could undercut its effectiveness. • AIMS : We simulate a reforestation program in a densely populated locality in central Mexico to analyze indirect land-use change, or leakage, associated with the program and its implications for local livelihoods. • METHODS : An agent-based, general equilibrium model simulates scenarios that deconstruct the sources of leakage and livelihood outcomes.

Temporal variations in land-atmosphere water vapor exchange are more pronounced in seasonal environments, especially grass-dominated savannas (known as campo sujo Cerrado) of the southern and eastern Amazon Basin. Recent work in campo sujo indicates that rates of canopy conductance (gc) were directly and indirectly affected by a variety of meteorological variables, which limited our understanding of how seasonal variation in meteorology affected rates of gc. Thus, our overall objective here is to determine how individual meteorological variables affect seasonal variations in gc.

The Zagros region of western Iran has been affected by the recent changes both in amount and in structure of forest cover. We evaluated the influence of several driving forces on forest cover and structure, including socioeconomic (urban and rural population and rural income) and climatic (mean annual rainfall and mean annual temperature) variables. We acquired all time series Landsat images of a study site from 1972 to 2009. The images were classified to produce a land cover map of each year.

This article presents a system dynamics (SD) method to examine the problem of forest degradation. The model developed takes a system-oriented view of forest management, embracing both social and biophysical factors affecting deforestation. Social factors examined are socio-economic variables or elements that influence behaviour and decision-making choices at the household level. Biophysical factors are four sub-components that are considered major land uses namely, the paddy field component, rattan plantations, coffee plantations and forest stands.

Recognized as one of the richest and most extensive savannas in the world, the Cerrado region, the second largest biome in South America, presents an intense and continuous human-induced land-cover change, which has already affected around 40% of its original area. In the pursuit of orientation and planning for current and long-term occupation, in this work we present plausible deforestation scenarios for the entire Cerrado biome, to 2050.