In 2002, mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) was listed on Appendix II of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species). This requires that all producing countries define and implement sustainable production systems for mahogany, the most commercially important neotropical timber, which is still harvested from natural forests. The only serious efforts to produce mahogany sustainably from managed natural forests are those of communities in Quintana Roo, Mexico, which control 800,000 of natural production forests.

The coastal polders of Bangladesh are characterized by extremes in terms of both challenges and opportunities. The polders are home to about 8 million people, where 85% of rural householders live under the national poverty line. The polders are subjected to flooding during the rainy season; drought and salinity during the dry season, and cyclones. In addition, the impacts of climate change, especially sea level rise, will be most severe in this region.

In the Brazilian savannas, or Cerrados the rapid advance in agriculture and cattle ranching is affecting soils through, for example, accelerated erosion and depletion of soil organic matter (SOM). Changes in soil microbial biomass are good indicators of changes in SOM. We therefore assessed the effects of agricultural and pastoral use of a clayey Oxisol in the Cerrados on soil microbial biomass, and evaluated the usefulness of this parameter in studying SOM dynamics in savanna ecosystems.