Claude A. Garcia

• PhD
• Professor at Bern University of Applied Sciences

"Landscape approaches" seek to provide tools and concepts for allocating and managing land to achieve social, economic, and environmental objectives in areas where agriculture, mining, and other productive land uses compete with environmental and biodiversity goals. Here we synthesize the current consensus on landscape approaches. This is based on...

We use games in the classroom to allow students to embrace the complexities of ecosystem management, and to foster adaptation and creativity. The experience of gaming will ensure the lessons drawn during the game and the after-action discussions will not be easily forgotten. With a skilled team of facilitators, few other approaches to teaching can...

The future of the tropical forests depends on our capacity to foster transitions in the way humans interact with these ecosystems. One of the largest challenges is to get insights in the different interests of the various stakeholders and the process by which it is possible to come to joint solutions. We have developed models that couple ecological...

The FSC Congo Basin Program organised a workshop to define rules for the integration of Intact Forest Landscapes in the management of FSC certified logging companies. The participants used MineSet, a role-playing game designed by CIRAD/ETH Zurich to explore landscape impacts of logging in the Congo Basin. The group established a joint motion with 4...

An increasing share of Madagascar’s population is dependent on artisanal and small-scale mining (AMS) as a source of livelihood. However, this unregulated activity has numerous repercussions on the miners themselves and on neighboring communities. This study explores the perception of mining of those indirectly affected by its growing presence. Far...

Can something new be said about forest landscape management? We think so, in view of the difficulties we face in stopping and reversing the trend of deforestation and tree forest loss. Something must be missing, and therefore something new must be written.

Preserving and restoring terrestrial ecosystems is crucial to halting the collapse of life on Earth. To guide global conservation and restoration efforts, we present a comprehensive map, encompassing all ecosystems, revealing the Earth's potential tree, short vegetation, and bareground cover accounting for various land management scenarios such as...

Public perceptions and knowledge of forestry institutions are key for effective governance. Drawing from research among landholders in Chile through structured questionnaires, we examine the role that knowledge of forest regulations and agencies plays in relation to public perceptions of the forestry agency, and how tenure of forest land affects th...

The way forests are defined, using terms such as ancient, old-growth, primary, sacred, or intact forest landscapes , has far-reaching impacts on how, why, and where forests are conserved and managed. Definitions of terms such as ''old-growth forests'' have been discussed individually but not collectively assessed. Here, we review the definitions an...

Wälder sind als zentrales Element der Landschaft (Waldlandschaften) von grosser Bedeutung für die Erreichung der Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung (SDGs) und spielen eine wichtige Rolle für die lokale Wirtschaft und die soziale Identität. Sie stehen aber gleichzeitig vor grossen Herausforderungen, indem sie durch Landnutzungsänderungen, steigende H...

Forest education plays a crucial role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and promoting sustainable forest management amidst global challenges. However, existing programs struggle to keep pace with rapidly evolving crises and uncertainties that contribute to deforestation and forest degradation. To tackle these challenges, integrating in...

Integrated landscape approaches (ILA) aim to reconcile multiple, often competing, interests across agriculture, nature conservation, and other land uses. Recognized ILA design principles provide guidance for implementation, yet application remains challenging, and a strong performance evidence-base is yet to be formed. Through a critical literature...

Forest education is pivotal for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and promoting sustainable forest management in the face of global challenges. However, existing programs struggle to keep up with rapidly changing crises and uncertainties that contribute to deforestation and forest degradation. To address these challenges, integrating inno...

Multiple-use protected areas (PAs) aim to safeguard biodiversity and contribute to human well-being, making them key instruments in meeting the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) goals. However , it is currently unclear what evidence exists on the impacts of human activities performed within them. This limits our understanding of...

Climate Change and Environmental Footprint, Degraded soils Abstract This study conducted in southeastern Togo, specifically within 10 km radius of the Donomade model farm, assessed the vegetation health of ecosystems and agrosystems in the context of high demand for plant biomass for mulching to increase farmers' resilience face declining agricultu...

Die Ukraine liegt mit mehr als neun Millionen Hektar Wald im europäischen Vergleich nur hinter Deutschland, obwohl sie ein waldarmes Land ist. Die Waldbewirtschaftung fokussiert sich auf Produktivität durch Kahlschläge und künstliche Aufforstung. Die Waldgesundheit wird durch Klimawandel, Landnutzungsänderungen und Landflucht beeinträchtigt, was Wa...

Farming systems are key to achieving the Sustainable Development goals of Zero Poverty and Zero Hunger. Yet, more than half of food-insecure people live in rural areas. Persistent yield gaps, poverty traps, disinterest in investing in agricultural activities, and population growth put pressure on agricultural landscapes, threatening food security a...

Restitution des résultats de recherches appliquées projet (Y a-t-il un avenir pour l’agriculture de conservation au Togo? Une approche globale intégrant les contextes biophysique et socio-économique locaux) soutenu par la SNF (Swiss Programme for International Research by Scientific Investigation Teams (SPIRIT)).

Der «IDANE Wald+ Science-Policy Dialogue» ist eine erweiterte Diskussionsplattform zu internationalen waldpolitischen Themen mit spezifischen Beiträgen aus der Schweizer Wissenschaft. Im Dezember 2021 organisierte die Abteilung Wald des Bundesamts für Umwelt (BAFU) die erste Sitzung des IDANE Wald+. Die zweite Sitzung findet im Oktober 2022 zum The...

Integrated landscape approaches (ILA) aim to reconcile multiple, often competing, interests across agriculture, nature conservation, and other land uses. Recognized ILA design principles provide guidance for their implementation, yet application remains challenging, and a strong performance evidence-base is yet to be formed. A comprehensive literat...

While the scientific community documents environmental degradation and develops scenarios to identify the operational margins of system Earth, less attention is given to how decisions are made that steer the system in one direction or the other. We propose to use strategy games for this purpose, increasing the representation of human agency in scen...

While the scientific community has focused on documenting environmental degradation and developing scenarios that help identify the operational margins for system Earth, less attention has been given to the mental models of decision-makers that underpin environmental policies. We suggest that global efforts to stop deforestation and biodiversity lo...

Forests are defined in many different ways. Apart from ecological and structural factors, associated values and provided ecosystem services are an important part of forest definitions. Typically, forest types are differentiated based on climatic regions and on degrees of human modification. A better understanding of how to distinguish different for...

Africa is forecasted to experience large and rapid climate change1 and population growth2 during the twenty-first century, which threatens the world’s second largest rainforest. Protecting and sustainably managing these African forests requires an increased understanding of their compositional heterogeneity, the environmental drivers of forest comp...

The establishment of protected areas is central to biodiversity conservation strategies. However, they often fail in meeting their expectations, especially in the tropics. One core reason for their failure is human pressure. Protected area transgression has tremendous impacts on biodiversity, but also on persecuted rule-breakers whose necessities a...

We present a new framework that allows understanding those we deem irrational in the climate debate. Realizing if the issue is one of information, beliefs, values or means opens the door for more constructive dialogue. Decision-makers diverge in their responses to the urgent need for action on climate and biodiversity. Action gaps are fueled by the...

A growing number of people are entering the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector worldwide. In Madagascar, millions of individuals depend on this informal activity. Through a case study in the Alaotra-Mangoro region of Mada-gascar, our research aimed to understand the "bottom-up" dynamics and ripple effects of the sector, by looking at the...

Leclère et al.1 have outlined the possibility of a biodiversity transition for the 21st century, a line of thinking equivalent to the Forest Transition theory and what it says about forest cover globally2. The authors use a suite of global models to explore the impacts on global biodiversity of interventions on land-use, consumption and production...

Forests across the world stand at a crossroads where climate and land-use changes are shaping their future. Despite demonstrations of political will and global efforts, forest loss, fragmentation, and degradation continue unabated. No clear evidence exists to suggest that these initiatives are working. A key reason for this apparent ineffectiveness...

Deforestation and biodiversity loss in agroecosystems are generally the result of rational choices, not of a lack of awareness or knowledge. Despite both scientific evidence and traditional knowledge that supports the value of diverse production systems for ecosystem services and resilience, a trend of agroecosystem intensification is apparent acro...

Understanding landscape change starts with understanding what motivates farmers to transition away from one system, shifting cultivation, into another, like plantation crops. Here we explored the resource allocation strategies of the farmers of the Karbi tribe in Northeast India, who practice a traditional shifting cultivation system called jhum. T...

Forests across the world stand at the crossroad with climate and land use changes shaping their future. Despite the demonstration of political will and global efforts, forest loss, fragmentation and land degradation continue unabated. No clear evidence exists that these initiatives are working. Why are policies designed to halt deforestation and in...

Leaders are failing to respond to the climate and environmental urgency the world is facing. A growing action gap, clearly visible during the recent CoP25, has been fueled by leaders' inability to respond efficiently to the mounting threats scientists—and increasingly society—are concerned about. Bridging this gap and tackling the growing polarizat...

Our study quantified the global tree restoration potential and its associated carbon storage potential under existing climate conditions. Skidmore et al . dispute our findings, using as reference a yearly estimation of carbon storage that could be reached by 2050. We provide a detailed answer highlighting misunderstandings in their interpretation,...

Our study quantified the global tree restoration potential and its associated carbon storage potential under existing climate conditions. We received multiple technical comments, both supporting and disputing our findings. We recognize that several issues raised in these comments are worthy of discussion. We therefore provide a detailed common answ...

The potential for global forest cover The restoration of forested land at a global scale could help capture atmospheric carbon and mitigate climate change. Bastin et al. used direct measurements of forest cover to generate a model of forest restoration potential across the globe (see the Perspective by Chazdon and Brancalion). Their spatially expli...

The hunger gap (the annual period of hardship when most crops are growing but not yet ready for harvest) remains a reality for many smallholder farmers throughout the globe. With a population largely relying on agriculture, and high poverty and malnutrition rates continuously afflicting the country, farmers in Madagascar are particularly vulnerable...

The IUCN Red List has downgraded several species from "endangered" to "vulnerable" that still have largely unknown extinction risks. We consider one of those downgraded species, the giant panda, a bamboo specialist. Massive bamboo flowering could be a natural disaster for giant pandas. Using scenario analysis, we explored possible impacts of the ne...

Despite growing industrialization, the shift to a cash economy and natural resource overexploitation, indigenous people of the Amazon region hunt and trade wildlife in order to meet their livelihood requirements. Individual strategies, shaped by the hunters' values and expectations, are changing in response to the region's economic development, but...

1. Understanding landscape change starts with understanding what motivates farmers to transition away from one system, shifting cultivation, into another, like plantation crops, given that they often have limited labour and money available. In this study we explored the resource allocation strategies of the farmers of the Karbi tribe in Northeast I...

Identifying drivers behind biodiversity recovery is critical to promote efficient ecological restoration. Yet to date, for secondary forests in China there is a considerable uncertainty concerning the ecological drivers that affect plant diversity recovery. Following up on a previous published meta-analysis on the patterns of species recovery acros...

Companion Modelling (ComMod) is a support method for natural resource management that emerged in response to top-down approaches. Used by practitioners to support stakeholders in conflict resolution, it is also used by researchers to generate with stakeholders’ involvement, knowledge about complex socio-ecological systems (SES). The approach is wel...

Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) is a widely used approach aimed at involving those utilizing resources in their management. In Madagascar, where forest decentralization has been implemented since the 1990s to spur local resource users’ involvement in management processes, impacts remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate f...

Deforestation and biodiversity loss in agroecosystems are generally the result of rational choices, not of a lack of awareness or knowledge. Despite both scientific evidence and traditional knowledge that supports the value of diverse production systems for ecosystem services and resilience, a trend of agroecosystem intensification is apparent acro...

Abstract The attribution of community forests to local populations has emerged as a new participative management system of plant biodiversity in Cameroon. Further to the intensification of anthropogenic activities in these forests, the logging impact on this biodiversity remains poorly known. This study was conducted in two different community fore...

Conservation conflicts represent complex multilayered problems that are challenging to study. We explore the utility of theoretical, experimental, and constructivist approaches to games to help to understand and manage these challenges. We show how these approaches can help to develop theory, understand patterns in conflict, and highlight potential...

In 2014, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) added a new criterion to its principles that requires protection of intact forest landscapes (IFLs). An IFL is an extensive area of forest that lacks roads and other signs of human activity as detected through remote sensing. In the Congo basin, our analysis of road networks in formally approved concess...

The viability of coffee farming in East Africa is endangered by multiple factors including climate change, population pressure, low yields, and coffee price volatility. Sustainable intensification (SI) through intercropping and/or agroforestry has been suggested to improve farmers' livelihoods, facilitate adaptation of coffee production to climate...

Outcome Statement of strategic impact of MineSet “role playing game” and the role of facilitation within the Forest Stewardship Council HCV-RWG (High Conservation Value-Regional Working Group)

A growing literature on collective action focuses on exploring the conditions that might help or hinder groups to work collectively. In this paper, we focus on community-based forest management in the inner Terai region of Nepal and explore the role of community and user attributes such as group size, social heterogeneities, forest user’ perception...

Dans une lettre cosignée par 30 chercheurs et publiquement adressée au ministère norvégien du Climat et de l’Environnement, le Pr Simon Lewis (University of Leeds) et ses collègues dénoncent l’impact potentiellement négatif de l’exploitation forestière sur les vastes marécages de la cuvette congolaise, abritant en partie des tourbières. Cette lettr...

The Supplementary Material S1–8 contains all necessary files to be able to play the Alaotra Wetland Game after printing the game components. The game is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, i.e., you can use, share and adapt the material under the condition that you indicate changes and give appropriate credit; we rec...

This paper presents how we combined the MineSet role-playing game with facilitation techniques to support the negotiations of the Regional Working Group on High Conservation Values of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Congo Basin Program, creating a shared understanding of the system and facilitating their decision-making process thanks to the e...

There is considerable uncertainty concerning changes in plant diversity of Chinese secondary forests, particularly with respect to diversity recovery following anthropogenic disturbance. Here we present a meta-analysis of the recovery of woody plant species richness in secondary forests in China, with nearby primary forests as a reference. A total...

The composition of agro‐ecological landscapes is thought to have important implications for the production of major crops through its effects on pollinator abundance and behaviour. We explored the roles of land cover and land cover heterogeneity on bee nest distribution for the giant honeybee Apis dorsata , a key species for coffee pollination, in...

A majority of Madagascar's rural people depend on the primary sector. The country's agricultural hub, the Alaotra-Mangoro region, is mainly tied to fisheries and rice production. Increasing human population and decreasing output from fisheries and agriculture are pushing the rural resource users further into the protected marshlands. Understanding...

Highlights • Reactive adaptation measures are largely adopted as opposed to proactive ones. • The great majority of changes affecting farmers are stresses as opposed to shocks. • Close to a quarter of participants have no contingency plan should a shock occur. • Five attitudes towards coping with change were identified. • Farmers place most importa...

We propose to create the conditions for a meaningful discussion between key agencies engaged in forest smart policies, the "no net loss" agenda, including the zero deforestation debates, the implementation of jurisdictional approaches to deforestation, and the use of financing schemes to steer economies in tropical landscapes towards more sustainab...

Increased demand for agricultural products, the aspirations of rural communities and a growing recognition of planetary boundaries outline the complex trade-offs resource users are facing on a daily basis. Management problems typically involve multiple stakeholders with diverse and often conflicting worldviews, needs and agendas, in an environment...

This study of values placed on wildlife by Bantu and Yaka Pygmy forest dwellers (n = 200) in Northern Congo identified and analyzed two wildlife value orientations - “anthropocentric” and “biocentric.” The former, strongly displayed across all segments of both societies, was likely motivated by heavy reliance on bushmeat and human–wildlife conflict...

Description du jeu de rôles Water Distribution Game” (WaDiGa) pour la simulaiton des effets de différentes modalités de gestion collective de l’eau sur la transition horticole marchande dans un petit sous-bassin versant d’Asie du Sud-Est montagnarde.

In a letter jointly signed by 30 researchers and addressed publically to the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment, Professor Simon Lewis (University of Leeds) and his colleagues denounced the potentially negative impact of logging in the vast swamplands of the Congolese Cuvette, which partly comprises peatlands. The letter requested that N...

Against the backdrop of the competing demands of agricultural productivity and biodiversity conservation, understanding land-use changes is critical. We studied the past, current and future landscape–dynamic scenarios for coffee and rice-coupled crops at a village scale in the Western Ghats (southern India) by integrating three levels of organizati...

Agroforestry systems usually include a high density and diversity of shade trees. Such systems often have a large diversity of fauna and flora and provide local and regional ecosystem services. Shade trees are, however, being removed to increase crop production in many tropical regions. There is little knowledge on the effect of shade trees on crop...

Conservation initiatives are designed to address threats to forests and biodiversity, often through partnerships with natural-resource users who are incentivized to change their land-use and livelihood practices to avoid further biodiversity loss. In particular, direct incentives programmes that provide monetary benefits are commended for being eff...

Drivers of deforestation in the Congo basin tropical forest. A review. Description of the subject. The forests of the Congo Basin are among the best preserved areas on Earth. Nevertheless, the factors causing deforestation around the world are also present in this subregion. This document presents a literature review of the direct causes and underl...

Background and Aim. It is often assumed in natural resources management that communication helps with solving the ‘tragedy of the commons’ by way of shared knowledge and better coordination. ReHab is a role-playing game, both cooperative and competitive, exploring the role of knowledge production and communication for the conservation and managemen...

Tropical forests are crucial in terms of biodiversity and ecosystem services, but at the same time, they are major sources of revenue and provide livelihoods for forest-dependent people. Hopes for the simultaneous achievement of conservation goals and poverty alleviation are therefore increasingly placed on forests used for timber extraction. Most...

Key points • Under Colombian law, the sale of game to cover basic needs (e.g. housing, health, education) or to buy other food items is not allowed, since this is considered commercial hunting and does not fall under provisions allowing for subsistence bushmeat hunting. • Law 611 (2000) opened the path to legal commercial use of wildlife. In practi...

Description of the subject. The forests of the Congo Basin are among the best preserved areas on Earth. Nevertheless, the factors causing deforestation around the world are also present in this subregion. This document presents a literature review of the direct causes and underlying factors of deforestation in the tropical areas and highlights the...

The phyto- or zoogeographical classification proposed during the 20th century describe the contemporary distribution of taxa or types of forests but they do not consider the conditions under which the ecosystems evolved, nor do they take into account the substantial shifts of ecosystems during recent paleoclimate oscillations. Within the last mille...

Problems of natural resources management are often wicked problems. They involve multiple stakeholders with different worldviews, different needs and agendas, in a world with pervasive uncertainties. The answers to such problems are not technical fixes but political processes that engage the stakeholders in problem solving iterative loops. In many...

The dry forests in Madagascar represent a remarkable tropical forest ecosystem, occupying almost the entire west slope of the island up to the very northern tip, especially on substrates associated with sedimentary formations. These forests span several woody vegetation types of the island, including (i) the southwestern coastal bushland, (ii) the...

Dry forests today are managed following the standards of scientific forestry imported in the tropics in the XIXth century by the colonial empires. The model proved efficient to control deforestation and regulate production but its evolution even after decolonization increased the segmentation between forests and agriculture and the lack of consider...

En mars 2015, sous l'egide du projet CoForSet, 15 experts reunis a Yaounde realisent un modele conceptuel autour de la question : Quels sont les impacts du developpement minier dans la region du Tridom. L'equipe utilise l'approche ARDI (Acteurs, Ressources, Dynamiques et Interactions) pour construire un premier modele d'interactions qui aboutira un...

For indigenous populations, schooling and local knowledge systems may be at odds. Understanding indigenous learning systems can help mitigate conflicts between acquisition of local ecological knowledge and academic knowledge. Among boys and men of the Jenu Kuruba of South India, we compare levels of schooling and local knowledge related to wild hon...

Subjective well-being is determined by several types of sources of satisfaction, defined as forms of capitals. Most of research has been focused on the links between economic capital and well-being, neglecting the contribution of other forms of capital as source of satisfaction. Here, we bring natural capital into the equation and explore the relat...

The Water distribution Game (WaDiGa) simulates an agricultural transition from self-subsistence food crops (maize and upland rice) to commercial plantation crops (litchee and green tea) in a highland catchment of peninsular southeast Asia. Three categories of farmers having different sets of productive resources cultivate the catchment and have to...