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• 1. [Article] Mapping Meaningful Places on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula: Toward a Deeper Understanding of Landscape Values

  Landscape values mapping has been widely employed as a form of public participation GIS (PPGIS) in natural resource planning and decision-making to capture the complex array of values, uses, and interactions ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Mapping Meaningful Places on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula: Toward a Deeper Understanding of Landscape Values Author: Cerveny, Lee, Biedenweg, Kelly, McLain, Rebecca J. Year: 2017 Landscape values mapping has been widely employed as a form of public participation GIS (PPGIS) in natural resource planning and decision-making to capture the complex array of values, uses, and interactions between people and landscapes. A landscape values typology has been commonly employed in the mapping of social and environmental values in a variety of management settings and scales. We explore how people attribute meanings and assign values to special places on the Olympic Peninsula (Washington, USA) using both a landscape values typology and qualitative responses about residents’ placerelationships. Using geographically referenced social values data collected in community meetings (n = 169), we identify high-frequency landscape values and examine how well the landscape values are reflected in open-ended descriptions of place-relations. We also explore the various interpretations of 14 landscape values used in the study. In particular, we investigate any overlapping meanings or blurriness among landscape values and reveal potentially emergent landscape values from the qualitative data. The results provide insights on the use of landscape values mapping typologies for practitioners and researchers engaged in the mapping of social values for PPGIS. Title: Mapping Meaningful Places on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula: Toward a Deeper Understanding of Landscape Values Author: Cerveny, Lee, Biedenweg, Kelly, McLain, Rebecca J. Year: 2017 Landscape values mapping has been widely employed as a form of public participation GIS (PPGIS) in natural resource planning and decision-making to capture the complex array of values, uses, and interactions between people and landscapes. A landscape values typology has been commonly employed in the mapping of social and environmental values in a variety of management settings and scales. We explore how people attribute meanings and assign values to special places on the Olympic Peninsula (Washington, USA) using both a landscape values typology and qualitative responses about residents’ placerelationships. Using geographically referenced social values data collected in community meetings (n = 169), we identify high-frequency landscape values and examine how well the landscape values are reflected in open-ended descriptions of place-relations. We also explore the various interpretations of 14 landscape values used in the study. In particular, we investigate any overlapping meanings or blurriness among landscape values and reveal potentially emergent landscape values from the qualitative data. The results provide insights on the use of landscape values mapping typologies for practitioners and researchers engaged in the mapping of social values for PPGIS. Close

• 2. [Article] Strengthening the Resiliency of Dryland Forest-Based Livelihoods in Ethiopia and South Sudan: A Review of Literature on the Interaction Between Dryland Forests, Livelihoods and Forest Governance

  Dry forests account for nearly half of the world’s tropical and subtropical forests and provide a multitude of ecological services. They contribute to hydrological cycles and livestock and wildlife provisioning; ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Strengthening the Resiliency of Dryland Forest-Based Livelihoods in Ethiopia and South Sudan: A Review of Literature on the Interaction Between Dryland Forests, Livelihoods and Forest Governance Author: Lawry, Steven, McLain, Rebecca J., Kassa, Habtemariam Year: 2015 Dry forests account for nearly half of the world’s tropical and subtropical forests and provide a multitude of ecological services. They contribute to hydrological cycles and livestock and wildlife provisioning; and host pollinators and wild plants. They are also important ecological zones for dryland agriculture and pastoral livelihood strategies that support hundreds of millions of people around the world. Dry forests cover large areas and their biomass stores carbon and helps mitigate climate change. Dry forests are particularly important to people in Africa. They provide wood for construction and energy, contribute to local diets with wild fruits, vegetables, nuts, edible insects and bushmeat. Wild, edible plants provide essential nutrients, particularly during times of food scarcity. Yet dry forests are subject to high rates of deforestation and degradation driven mainly by agricultural expansion and growing energy demands. Other challenges include limited information on dry forests (their inventories, changes over time, major drivers of deforestation and recovery, etc.), their biophysical aspects and ecosystem services and the potential roles they could play in increasing the sustainability of crop and livestock farming. Governments, development partners and communities are looking for options to better manage these resources at the landscape level. Dry forests are complex ecosystems that are not fully understood. Scientific knowledge to better manage dry forests and sustain the livelihoods of people that depend on these ecosystems remains scanty as research to inform policy and practice is still very limited. The knowledge gap is even more pronounced in northeastern Africa, notably Ethiopia and South Sudan where these forest types are important in terms of areas coverage and in supporting rural livelihoods. Ethiopia and South Sudan share histories of political unrest and conflict that have contributed to famines; large-scale land acquisition for investment and agricultural expansion by smallholders are resulting in major and rapid land-use changes in their dry forested areas. Ethiopia’s two decades of peace and stability and its experience in managing its natural resources could inform post-conflict intervention measures in South Sudan. This study was conducted as an effort to help fill the knowledge gap in dry forest-based livelihoods through a critical review of the available literature. It used publications from CIFOR’s work on dry forests and product marketing in Ethiopia and from other sources, including gray literature. The study assessed the socio-ecological context, including relevant laws and strategies, with an emphasis on the biophysical characteristics of the dryland forests of Ethiopia and South Sudan and the major causes of deforestation and forest degradation. Using livelihood systems as an analytical framework, it examined (i) major livelihood strategies; (ii) the contribution of dry forests to livelihoods; (iii) forest product markets and value chains; and (iv) forest and land governance with an emphasis on the relationship between political, economic and resource management policies and the level of degradation of dry forests and their contributions to the livelihoods of forest-dependent communities in Ethiopia and South Sudan. It also identified major threats to dry, forest-based livelihoods and key issues for policy, research and practice that need to be addressed to maintain the multifunctionality of dryland forests while also ensuring the well-being of communities dependent on these landscapes. Title: Strengthening the Resiliency of Dryland Forest-Based Livelihoods in Ethiopia and South Sudan: A Review of Literature on the Interaction Between Dryland Forests, Livelihoods and Forest Governance Author: Lawry, Steven, McLain, Rebecca J., Kassa, Habtemariam Year: 2015 Dry forests account for nearly half of the world’s tropical and subtropical forests and provide a multitude of ecological services. They contribute to hydrological cycles and livestock and wildlife provisioning; and host pollinators and wild plants. They are also important ecological zones for dryland agriculture and pastoral livelihood strategies that support hundreds of millions of people around the world. Dry forests cover large areas and their biomass stores carbon and helps mitigate climate change. Dry forests are particularly important to people in Africa. They provide wood for construction and energy, contribute to local diets with wild fruits, vegetables, nuts, edible insects and bushmeat. Wild, edible plants provide essential nutrients, particularly during times of food scarcity. Yet dry forests are subject to high rates of deforestation and degradation driven mainly by agricultural expansion and growing energy demands. Other challenges include limited information on dry forests (their inventories, changes over time, major drivers of deforestation and recovery, etc.), their biophysical aspects and ecosystem services and the potential roles they could play in increasing the sustainability of crop and livestock farming. Governments, development partners and communities are looking for options to better manage these resources at the landscape level. Dry forests are complex ecosystems that are not fully understood. Scientific knowledge to better manage dry forests and sustain the livelihoods of people that depend on these ecosystems remains scanty as research to inform policy and practice is still very limited. The knowledge gap is even more pronounced in northeastern Africa, notably Ethiopia and South Sudan where these forest types are important in terms of areas coverage and in supporting rural livelihoods. Ethiopia and South Sudan share histories of political unrest and conflict that have contributed to famines; large-scale land acquisition for investment and agricultural expansion by smallholders are resulting in major and rapid land-use changes in their dry forested areas. Ethiopia’s two decades of peace and stability and its experience in managing its natural resources could inform post-conflict intervention measures in South Sudan. This study was conducted as an effort to help fill the knowledge gap in dry forest-based livelihoods through a critical review of the available literature. It used publications from CIFOR’s work on dry forests and product marketing in Ethiopia and from other sources, including gray literature. The study assessed the socio-ecological context, including relevant laws and strategies, with an emphasis on the biophysical characteristics of the dryland forests of Ethiopia and South Sudan and the major causes of deforestation and forest degradation. Using livelihood systems as an analytical framework, it examined (i) major livelihood strategies; (ii) the contribution of dry forests to livelihoods; (iii) forest product markets and value chains; and (iv) forest and land governance with an emphasis on the relationship between political, economic and resource management policies and the level of degradation of dry forests and their contributions to the livelihoods of forest-dependent communities in Ethiopia and South Sudan. It also identified major threats to dry, forest-based livelihoods and key issues for policy, research and practice that need to be addressed to maintain the multifunctionality of dryland forests while also ensuring the well-being of communities dependent on these landscapes. Close

• 3. [Article] Environmental Reviews and Case Studies: Mapping Landscape Values: Issues, Challenges and Lessons Learned from Field Work on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington

  In order to inform natural resource policy and land management decisions, landscape values mapping (LVM) is increasingly used to collect data about the meanings that people attach to places and the activities ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Environmental Reviews and Case Studies: Mapping Landscape Values: Issues, Challenges and Lessons Learned from Field Work on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington Author: Besser, Diane, McLain, Rebecca J., Cerveny, Lee, Biedenweg, Kelly, Banis, David Year: 2014 In order to inform natural resource policy and land management decisions, landscape values mapping (LVM) is increasingly used to collect data about the meanings that people attach to places and the activities associated with those places. This type of mapping provides geographically referenced data on areas of high density of values or associated with different types of values. This article focuses on issues and challenges that commonly occur in LVM, drawing on lessons learned in the US Forest Service Olympic Peninsula Human Ecology Mapping Project. The discussion covers choosing a spatial scale for collecting data, creating the base map, developing data collection strategies, the use of ascribed versus assigned values, and the pros and cons of different mapping formats. Understanding the common issues and challenges in LVM will assist policy makers, land managers, and researchers in designing a LVM project that effectively balances project goals, time and budgetary constraints, and personnel resources in a way that ensures the most robust data and inclusive public participation. Title: Environmental Reviews and Case Studies: Mapping Landscape Values: Issues, Challenges and Lessons Learned from Field Work on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington Author: Besser, Diane, McLain, Rebecca J., Cerveny, Lee, Biedenweg, Kelly, Banis, David Year: 2014 In order to inform natural resource policy and land management decisions, landscape values mapping (LVM) is increasingly used to collect data about the meanings that people attach to places and the activities associated with those places. This type of mapping provides geographically referenced data on areas of high density of values or associated with different types of values. This article focuses on issues and challenges that commonly occur in LVM, drawing on lessons learned in the US Forest Service Olympic Peninsula Human Ecology Mapping Project. The discussion covers choosing a spatial scale for collecting data, creating the base map, developing data collection strategies, the use of ascribed versus assigned values, and the pros and cons of different mapping formats. Understanding the common issues and challenges in LVM will assist policy makers, land managers, and researchers in designing a LVM project that effectively balances project goals, time and budgetary constraints, and personnel resources in a way that ensures the most robust data and inclusive public participation. Close