Nataly L Ascarrunz

Instituto Boliviano de Investigación Forestal | IBIF

The formalization of community forest tenure rights is expected to promote sustainable community forest management, and is seen as a way to combine objectives related to environmental conservation, livelihood improvement, and local self-determination. However, the formalization of forest tenure rights by itself, does not automatically result in the...

A typical case of multiple-use forest management (MFM) in Southwestern Amazon is the commercial harvesting of Amazon or Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) seeds and of timber of other tree species. Although the Amazon nut is the most important non-timber forest product (NTFP) in the Amazon basin, the species is under serious threat due to deforestat...

The activities related to the International Nitrogen Initiative (INI) Latin America Regional Centre started in the early 2000s, in association with the international actions within the nitrogen (N) field. The office in Latin America was proposed in the context of broad global and local environmental changes and the agricultural need for nutrient ad...

Forest biomass is an essential indicator for monitoring the Earth’s ecosystems and climate. It is a critical input to greenhouse gas accounting, estimation of carbon losses and forest degradation, assessment of renewable energy potential, and for developing climate change mitigation policies such as REDD+, among others. Wall-to-wall mapping of abov...

Forest biomass is an essential indicator for monitoring the Earth’s ecosystems and climate. It is a critical input to greenhouse gas accounting, estimation of carbon losses and forest degradation, assessment of renewable energy potential, and for developing climate change mitigation policies such as REDD+, among others. Wall-to-wall mapping of abov...

Forest biomass is an essential indicator for monitoring the Earth's ecosystems and climate. It is a critical input to greenhouse gas accounting, estimation of carbon losses and forest degradation, assessment of renewable energy potential, and for developing climate change mitigation policies such as REDD+, among others. Wall-to-wall mapping of abov...

Forest biomass is an essential indicator for monitoring the Earth's ecosystems and climate. It is a critical input to greenhouse gas accounting, estimation of carbon losses and forest degradation, assessment of renewable energy potential, and for developing climate change mitigation policies such as REDD+, among others. Wall-to-wall mapping of abov...

Around 30 Mm3 of sawlogs are extracted annually by selective logging of natural production forests in Amazonia, Earth's most extensive tropical forest. Decisions concerning the management of these production forests will be of major importance for Amazonian forests' fate. To date, no regional assessment of selective logging sustainability supports...

Old-growth tropical forests harbor an immense diversity of tree species but are rapidly being cleared, while secondary forests that regrow on abandoned agricultural lands increase in extent. We assess how tree species richness and composition recover during secondary succession across gradients in environmental conditions and anthropogenic disturba...

Ecosystem service (ES) models can only inform policy design adequately if they incorporate ecological processes. We used the Lund-Potsdam-Jena managed Land (LPJmL) model, to address following questions for Mexico, Bolivia and Brazilian Amazon: (i) How different are C stocks and C sequestration quantifications under standard (when soil and litter C...

Large trees in the tropics are reportedly more vulnerable to droughts than their smaller neighbours. This pattern is of interest due to what it portends for forest structure, timber production, carbon sequestration and multiple other values given that intensified El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events are expected to increase the frequency and...

Tropical forests account for a quarter of the global carbon storage and a third of the terrestrial productivity. Few studies have teased apart the relative importance of environmental factors and forest attributes for ecosystem functioning, especially for the tropics. This study aims to relate aboveground biomass (AGB) and biomass dynamics (i.e., n...

The Bolivian Amazon holds a complex configuration of people and forested landscapes in which communities hold secure tenure rights over a rich ecosystem offering a range of livelihood income opportunities. A large share of this income is derived from Amazon nut (Bertholletia excelsa). Many communities also have long-standing experience with communi...

Contribution from forest (timber, Amazon nut, other NTFPs and hunting), husbandry (agriculture, agroforestry and livestock) and off-farm income (salary, business and gifts) incomes to the total net income of community households in the Bolivian Amazon. The upper and lower quartiles in the boxplots explain 25% of the variation in the median net inco...

Studies that combine socioeconomic and biological surveys in their methodological approach to determine the socioeconomic and biophysical drivers of forest resources use. (DOCX)

Collaboration agreement signed between the researcher and community leader enabling to carry this research, and consent to interview participating households. Includes Spanish version, the original language in which the agreement was signed upon. (DOCX)

Hypothesized socioeconomic and biophysical factors determining the income derived from (a) Amazon nut and (b) timber by community households in the Bolivian Amazon. A description of the hypothesized factors of the different attributes can be found in Table 2. Solid arrows indicate significant effects of a variable on another, whereas, dotted arrows...

Median net income of the different sources of income derived by community households in the Bolivian Amazon. The upper and lower quartiles in the boxplots, each explain 25% of the variation in the median net income derived by participating households. Empty circles are the outliers. (TIF)

Annual household survey (modified from PEN Questionnaires): Socioeconomic determinants of household wealth and forest use in Bolivian Amazonian communities. Includes Spanish version, the original language in which the survey was carried out. (DOCX)

List of timber species sampled in 72 (2 ha) research transects established at community-based household forests in the Bolivian Amazon. These 17 species represent the 10 main timber species harvested in the region according to country-level forestry reports from 2002 to 2012 (ABT, 2002–2012). We ended up with 17 species because the reports only use...

Results of the structural equation (SEM) models built for incomes of Amazon nut and timber at community-based household forests. DF = Degrees of freedom. (DOCX)

br/>1. Tropical fores ts play an important role in the global carbon cycle, but the drivers of net forest biomass change (i.e. net carbon sequestration) are poorly understood. Here, we evaluate how abiotic factors (soil co nditions and disturbance) and biotic factors (forest structure, diversity and community trait composition) shape three importan...

Parameters posterior distribution.Columns are the 2.5%, 10%, 50%, 90% and 97.5% quantiles of the posterior distribution of the model parameters (rows).DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.21394.006

When 2 Mha of Amazonian forests are disturbed by selective logging each year, more than 90 Tg of carbon (C) is emitted to the atmosphere. Emissions are then counterbalanced by forest regrowth. With an original modelling approach, calibrated on a network of 133 permanent forest plots (175 ha total) across Amazonia, we link regional differences in cl...

Tropical forests have long been thought to be in stable state, but recent insights indicate that global change is leading to shifts in forest dynamics and species composition. These shifts may be driven by environmental changes such as increased resource availability, increased drought stress, and/or recovery from past disturbances. The relative im...

Tropical forests are globally important, but it is not clear whether biodiversity enhances carbon storage and sequestration in them. We tested this relationship focusing on components of functional trait biodiversity as predictors.Data are presented for three rain forests in Bolivia, Brazil and Costa Rica. Initial above-ground biomass and biomass i...

Aim Tropical forests store 25% of global carbon and harbour 96% of the world's tree species, but it is not clear whether this high biodiversity matters for carbon storage. Few studies have teased apart the relative importance of forest attributes and environmental drivers for ecosystem functioning, and no such study exists for the tropics. Location...

This deliverable, (D3.1.4) is the last deliverable in a series of deliverables that have responded to these broad objectives of the WP. Specifically, this deliverable presents a multi-scale approach to said objectives of the WP by presenting: 1) the participatory development of policy options selected by stakeholders in participatory stakeholder wo...

Pragmatic methods to assess the status of biodiversity at multiple scales are required to support conservation decision-making. At the intersection of several major biogeographic zones, Bolivia has extraordinary potential to develop a monitoring strategy aligned with the objectives of the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network...

La modelación de servicios ecosistémicos ha sido tema de interés académico desde hace varias décadas, siendo frecuente el uso de los mapas en el diseño de políticas públicas en años recientes. A pesar del avance en enfoques metodológicos y herramientas para modelar a los servicios, falta integrar el proceso dinámico por el cual se producen los serv...

Climate change adaptation is about risk management to secure water, food, fiber, timber and other means of livelihood. Although the management of climate risks is a long‐term undertaking, recent climate change trends underline the urgency for active measures in order to improve the resilience of people and landscapes to adverse effects of a changin...

Ecosystem services modeling has been a subject of academic interest for several years, but has recently matured to the point that further progress in the models must integrate the dynamic process by which services are produced and how they benefit human populations. Despite the proliferation of methods and tools to conduct integrated ecosystem ser...

EcoAdapt (www.ecoadapt.eu) is an ambitious, complex and demanding action-research project about water security in a context of climate change. The issues the project deals with are also complex and demanding. A central challenge is how to get the investigators, the project partner Model Forest local teams and the relevant local actors in the territ...

Prefacio El desarrollo de cadenas productivas es muy importante para generar las entradas económicas y financieras de los pequeños productores. La cadena de la madera enmarca la producción en el bosque, el pre-financiamiento de la cosecha, la venta de los productos en sus consecutivos eslabones y los destinos finales. Por el otro lado, engloba el f...

Prefacio El desarrollo de cadenas productivas es muy importante para generar las entradas económicas y financieras de los pequeños productores. La cadena de la madera enmarca la producción en el bosque, el pre-financiamiento de la cosecha, la venta de los productos en sus consecutivos eslabones y los destinos finales. Por el otro lado, engloba el f...

English abstract below: El sector forestal contribuye en la economía de muchas regiones de Bolivia, lo que ha promovido importantes avances en temas normativos, tecnológicos, industriales e institucionales en torno al aprovechamiento y manejo de recursos forestales, principalmente madera y castaña. Para viabilizar el aprovechamiento, las normativ...

Human impacts on the N cycle require sustainable ecological solutions to preserve ecosystem and human health.

Tropical forest ecosystems are hotspots for biodiversity and represent one of the largest terrestrial carbon stocks, making their role in climate change mitigation (CCM) programmes increasingly important (e.g. REDD+). In Latin America these ecosystems suffer from high land use pressures that have resulted in a dramatic biodiversity loss. Little is...

Tropical forest ecosystems are hotspots for biodiversity and represent one of the largest terrestrial carbon stocks, making their role in climate change mitigation (CCM) programmes increasingly important (e.g. REDD+). In Latin America these ecosystems suffer from high land use pressures that have resulted in a dramatic biodiversity loss. Little is...

Background/Question/Methods Few studies have examined the biogeochemical consequences of selective logging in tropical ecosystems, specifically the effects of this disturbance on carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Nevertheless, desired forest management practices must simultaneously sustain forest productivity as well as maintain biodiversity and ec...

Past work in recently deglaciated soils demonstrates that microbial communities undergo shifts prior to plant colonization. To date, most studies have focused on relatively 'long' chronosequences with the ability to sample plant-free sites over at least 50 years of development. However, some recently deglaciated soils feature rapid plant colonizati...

Background/Question/Methods The fragmentation of steep, tropical montane landscapes due to anthropogenic activity has increased in recent years, and our ability to predict the significance of these disturbances relies upon an understanding the consequences of these activities on the sustainability of these ecosystems. Effective management and conse...