Marta Ceroni

Non-timber forest products have often been held out as potential tools for conservation and sustainable development, but sustainability assessments are frequently difficult and time-consuming, especially in conflict areas. Thus, rapid assessments can be useful in providing a broad overview of the harvesting system in order to generate meaningful conservation or development recommendations. Here, we use rapid assessment methodology, including semi-structured interviews and direct observations, to examine the frankincense harvesting system in Somaliland in 2010 and again in 2016 and 2017. We identified significant levels of overharvesting, driven by a breakdown of the traditional management system. Demand for resin and resin prices increased dramatically from 2010 to 2017, at the same time as the tree populations were declining, resource tenure security was weakening, drug use was increasing, and the supply chain was becoming more complex. These factors combine to incentivize short-te...

The closely related Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) and Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) provide monetised estimates of societal well-being based on economic, social and environmental criteria. Although the first ISEW/GPI estimates were completed at the national scale, there has been recent interest in applying GPI locally and regionally. Similar to national policy decisions, local fiscal, environmental and land use choices can strongly influence well-being. Local GPI estimates present several challenges, including data quality and availability, interpretation of certain components and appropriate application of results. We present a case study from seven counties in northern Vermont, USA from 1950 to 2000. This case study facilitates comparison between county, state and national GPI, and across a small urban–rural gradient. The case study illustrates both the difficulties and value of applying GPI/ISEW at local scales. We find that for recent years in an industrialised...

1. This study aimed to link basic ethnobiological research on local ecological knowledge (LEK) to the conservation of Brazilian streams, based on two case studies: original data on LEK of fishermen about freshwater fish in the Negro River, Amazon, and previously published data about LEK of farmers on the ecological relationship between forest and streams in the Macabuzinho catchment, Atlantic Forest. 2. Information was obtained from fishermen through interviews using standard questionnaires containing open-ended questions. Informants for interview were selected either following some defined criteria or applying the 'snowball' method. 3. Fishermen's LEK about the diets and habitats of 14 fish species in the Negro River provided new biological information on plant species that are eaten by fish, in addition to confirming some ecological patterns from the biological literature, such as dependence of fish on forests as food sources. 4. In the Atlantic Forest, a comparison be...