Agricultural certification as a complementary tool for environmental law compliance

Abstract Agricultural sustainability standards are an important way of reducing commodity expansion’s pressures on biodiversity. Despite the increase of global area under certification and mounting evidence of positive socioeconomic outcomes, certification-derived conservation benefits are less clear. We applied a robust counterfactual approach with a difference-in-difference methodology to quantify the environmental consequences of certification in one of the largest coffee-producing areas in the world, in southern Brazil, within the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado biomes.

Nine actions to successfully restore tropical agroecosystems

Abstract Well-designed approaches to ecological restoration can benefit nature and society. This is particularly the case in tropical agroecosystems, where restoration can provide substantial socioecological benefits at relatively low costs. To successfully restore tropical agroecosystems and maximise benefits, initiatives must begin by considering ‘who’ should be involved in and benefit from restoration, and ‘what’, ‘where’, and ‘how’ restoration should occur. Based on collective experience of restoring tropical agroecosystems worldwide, we present nine actions to guide future restoration of these systems, supported by case studies that demonstrate our actions being used successfully in practice and highlighting cases where poorly designed restoration has been damaging.

Private reserves suffer from the same location biases of public protected areas

Abstract Setting aside private land is an essential component of the biodiversity crisis response. In Brazil, landowners are required to have Legal Reserves (LR) (20%–80% of their property set aside for native vegetation) which, if degraded, need to be restored. Alternatively, landowners can compensate for an LR deficit by purchasing surplus credits. Each landowner can define the location and spatial arrangement of their LR, affecting the reserve’s ability to maintain biodiversity and provide ecosystem services (ES).

Lack of evidence of edge age and additive edge effects on carbon stocks in a tropical forest

Abstract Despite the importance of tropical forest fragmentation on carbon balance, most of our knowledge comes from few sites in the Amazon and disregard long-term underlying processes related to landscape configuration. Accurate estimation of fragmentation effects should account for additive edge effects and edge age. Here we investigated those effects on C stock and forest structure (density, height, basal area) in fragments (13 to 362ha) of forest with≥70years old, surrounded by pasture, in the Brazilian Atlantic forest region.

Gaps and limitations in the use of restoration scenarios: a review

Abstract The use of scenarios to evaluate restoration effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services (ES) is fundamental to improve restoration practices. Here we developed a systematic review to verify the existence of gaps and limitations in the use of scenarios for environmental restoration, and assess the state of the science of “restoration scenarios” and implications for future research. From 419 studies reviewed, most were held in developed countries, using exploratory scenarios at the regional scale, actively restoring ES and habitat at “habitat, ecosystems or communities” at landscape level, targeting forests and fragmented landscapes.