Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > Deciphering African tropical forest dynamics in...

Electronic data

  • ANTHROPOCENE-D-19-00036R1(1)

    Rights statement: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Anthropocene. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Anthropocene, 27, 2019 DOI: 10.1016/j.ancene.2019.100214

    Accepted author manuscript, 3.84 MB, PDF document

    Available under license: CC BY-NC-ND: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

Links

Text available via DOI:

View graph of relations

Deciphering African tropical forest dynamics in the Anthropocene: how social and historical sciences can elucidate forest research and management

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
  • Gretchen Walters
  • James Fraser
  • Nicholas Picard
  • Oliver Hymas
  • James Fairhead
Close
Article number100214
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>1/09/2019
<mark>Journal</mark>Anthropocene
Volume27
Number of pages7
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date9/07/19
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

Forests bear the historical legacies of human activities over thousands of years, including agriculture, trade, disease and resource extraction. Many of these activities may represent indices of the proposed geological epoch of the Anthropocene. Modifications to soil, topography and vegetation evidence anthropogenic influences. Yet studies of vegetation change throughout the humid tropics tend to occlude these by focusing on forest dynamics, timber, and biodiversity through permanent sample plots or forestry inventory plots. We highlight how history and social science can be combined with ecology to help better understand human signatures in forest dynamics. We (1) critically review
ecological methods in the light of the environmental and social history of the Afrotropics; (2) map current plot networks for West and Central Africa in relation to the Human Footprint Index; (3) using two case studies, demonstrate how history and social science bring new insights and inferences to plot-based studies; all leading to (4) novel forms of interdisciplinary collaboration for sustainable forest conservation, management and restoration.

Bibliographic note

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Anthropocene. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Anthropocene, 27, 2019 DOI: 10.1016/j.ancene.2019.100214