Logging, cattle raising, and agricultural activities have caused the destruction of most forested areas in Costa Rica. In some middle and highlands the abrupt topography delayed the complete destruction of montane forest. Consequently, some fragments of almost pristine forest remain along streams that run in deep canyons. Frequently, these remnants serve as corridors between larger forested are...

Since time immemorial, non-wood forest products (NWFPs), particularly wild forest foods, have played an important role in the diets and health of people living in and outside forests, in both rural and urban areas. Some of these products, such as wild game, fruit, seeds, roots, nuts and fungi, are still used as a source of food, contributing to both food and nutritional security, while others a...

Artificial light at night is one of the most apparent environmental changes accompanying anthropogenic habitat change. The global increase in light pollution poses new challenges to wild species, but we still have limited understanding of the temporal and spatial pattern of exposure to light at night. In particular, it has been suggested by several studies that animals exposed to light pollutio...

Ambiguity in terms of property rights, displacement and livelihood insecurity, among others has been causes of distress among tribal communities, resulting in tribal unrest, social tensions and conflicts in Kerala and other parts of India. In response, forest policies were implemented with the most recent being the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Recognition of Forest Rig...

The diversity, guild structure and succession of dung beetles associated with Indian elephant dung is described in a deciduous forest site in Western Ghats, a hot spot of diversity in India. Dung beetles were collected using baited pitfall traps and from exposed dung pats in the forest at intervals of 1, 3, 5, 7, 15 and 21 days. Twenty-one dung beetle species belonging to the 3 major functional...

Urban trees are a dominant natural element in cities; they provide important ecosystem services to urban citizens and help urban areas adapt to climate change. Many rationales have been proposed to provide a purpose for urban forest management, some of which have been ineffective in addressing important ecological and social management themes. Among these rationales we find a values-based persp...

The definition of coastal forest shelterbelts in urban landscapes is highly complex. Growing of Casuarina equisetifolia as a small shelterbelt on the beach in Hambantotota City was implemented to protect the beautiful natural sand dunes, preserve visual amenity and be a barrier to seawater salt spay. The casuarina shelterbelt has become popular because it was the only undamaged area in Hambanto...

Aims: Despite the current interest in services provided by ecosystems and the role of biodiversity, the relationship among human attitudes, biodiversity and ecosystem services has hardly been investigated. Moreover, few studies have examined attitudes toward nature in cross-cultural comparisons. This study investigates the attitudes of Chinese and Swiss people, both environmental experts and la...

The present paper is a study of the traditional medical practices by the tribes of Uttarakhand Region. Forest and forest products have historically played a significant role in the economy as well as culture and religious in this region since ancient time. Forest has played an important part in history of civilization. They have affected the distribution of mankind over the earth surface and ha...