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Local stakeholder perceptions of forest degradation: Keys to sustainable tropical forest management

  • Tackling Risks through the Sustainable Development Goals
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Abstract

Land use policies and planning in Latin America have been partially successful in halting deforestation yet have not stopped forest degradation. Here, we study the different stakeholders’ perspectives of the drivers of forest degradation. We use Colombia as a case study for understanding synergies and trade-offs of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and analyzed what the most important causes are, to whom it matters, and their regional contribution. We identified a common perception, but miscommunication and misunderstandings occur between local- and national-level actors in terms of their views on responsibilities and rates of change. The results are a call for action. Cross-scale governance is necessary to improve the design and implementation of policies for forest management at the subnational and local levels and to ensure that we move toward sustainable development without worsening existing inequalities. It is essential that countries provide the enabling conditions to develop a coherent governing framework.

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  1. http://leyes.senado.gov.co/proyectos/images/documentos/Textos%20Radicados/proyectos%20de%20ley/2021%20-%202022/PL%20128-21%20Incendios.pdf.

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Acknowledgements

First of all we would like to thank all the participants from community-based organizations (farmers and indigenous and Afro-descendants), foresters, public entities, natural resource management authorities, municipalities, regional governments, academics and professionals from non-profit organizations (NGOs) that kindly answered the surveys. This work is a continuation of the information collected through the contract No. 2302831 2016 between UNAL and the United Nations for Food and Agriculture – FAO, and as such we would like to thank the Colombia UN-REDD programme and the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies of Colombia – IDEAM who initially supported part of this research. We are grateful to A. Yepes from FAO and E. Cabrera from IDEAM. We finally thank Sam Staddon for her comments on an early draft and Thomas Defler for the English revision of the manuscript.

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  1. Grupo de Ecología del Paisaje y Modelación de Ecosistemas ECOLMOD, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Edificio 421, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Cra. 30 # 45-03, Bogotá, D.C., CP 111321, Colombia

    Dolors Armenteras, Tania Marisol González-Delgado, Juan David González-Trujillo & María Constanza Meza-Elizalde

  2. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, José Gutiérrez Abascal, 2, 28006, Madrid, Spain

    Juan David González-Trujillo

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  1. Dolors Armenteras
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Correspondence to Dolors Armenteras.

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Armenteras, D., González-Delgado, T.M., González-Trujillo, J.D. et al. Local stakeholder perceptions of forest degradation: Keys to sustainable tropical forest management. Ambio 52, 733–742 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-022-01797-x

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