A novel approach to combine food production with carbon sequestration, biodiversity and conservation goals.

Land use conflict is a major contributor to unsustainable deforestation rates, with agriculture being the primary driver. Demand for agricultural output is forecast to increase for years to come and the associated deforestation is a key driver in global declines of biodiversity. Moreover, deforestation is contributing to instability of agricultural production systems and reduces our ability to mitigate anthropogenically driven climate change. There is urgency in reducing this land use conflict and the cultivation of ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) may provide a partial solution. As an example, here we focus on Lactarius indigo, an edible and historically appreciated species with distribution in the Neotropics and Nearctic. Exploring the geographic spread and associated climate preferences, we describe how cultivation of this species can be combined with forest-based biodiversity and conservation goals. Detailing a full methodology, including mycelium production and how to create trees that may produce the fungus, we explore potential benefits. Combing data from the emerging field of EMF cultivation with nutritional studies, we show that a protein production of 7.31 kg per hectare should be possible, exceeding that of extensive pastoral beef production. In contrast to commercial agriculture, L. indigo cultivation may enhance biodiversity, contribute to conservational goals and create a net sink of greenhouse gases whilst at the same time producing a similar or higher level of protein per unit area than the most common agriculture use of deforested land. With such startling and clear benefits, we call for urgent action to further the development of such novel food production systems.

Revisiting 'rural'.

'Rural' is widely referred to across an array of disciplines. Often used to broadly describe study groups or areas, the definition of 'rural' has been subject to discussion and debate, triggering a diverse set of conceptual and practical meanings of the term. This has resulted in important ambiguity related to the concept of 'rural' and the pressing need to build an integral framework that allows its standardization. Here we assess the current conception from the academic arena through a global survey of researchers. Our results show that 'rural' is widely defined with no clear consensus even about the central components of its definition. We found marked variation in the conception of 'rural' among respondents, but area of expertise showed less influence than region of origin. We suggest a hierarchical, context-dependent, and integrative framework that considers an urban-non-urban dichotomy followed by a trichotomy based on human presence and activities, encompassing all social and ecological systems on Earth.

Tropical secondary forest management influences frugivorous bat composition, abundance and fruit consumption in Chiapas, Mexico.

Most studies on frugivorous bat assemblages in secondary forests have concentrated on differences among successional stages, and have disregarded the effect of forest management. Secondary forest management practices alter the vegetation structure and fruit availability, important factors associated with differences in frugivorous bat assemblage structure, and fruit consumption and can therefore modify forest succession. Our objective was to elucidate factors (forest structural variables and fruit availability) determining bat diversity, abundance, composition and species-specific abundance of bats in (i) secondary forests managed by Lacandon farmers dominated by Ochroma pyramidale, in (ii) secondary forests without management, and in (iii) mature rain forests in Chiapas, Southern Mexico. Frugivorous bat species diversity (Shannon H') was similar between forest types. However, bat abundance was highest in rain forest and O. pyramidale forests. Bat species composition was different among forest types with more Carollia sowelli and Sturnira lilium captures in O. pyramidale forests. Overall, bat fruit consumption was dominated by early-successional shrubs, highest late-successional fruit consumption was found in rain forests and more bats consumed early-successional shrub fruits in O. pyramidale forests. Ochroma pyramidale forests presented a higher canopy openness, tree height, lower tree density and diversity of fruit than secondary forests. Tree density and canopy openness were negatively correlated with bat species diversity and bat abundance, but bat abundance increased with fruit abundance and tree height. Hence, secondary forest management alters forests' structural characteristics and resource availability, and shapes the frugivorous bat community structure, and thereby the fruit consumption by bats.

The effects of governmental protected areas and social initiatives for land protection on the conservation of Mexican amphibians.

Traditionally, biodiversity conservation gap analyses have been focused on governmental protected areas (PAs). However, an increasing number of social initiatives in conservation (SICs) are promoting a new perspective for analysis. SICs include all of the efforts that society implements to conserve biodiversity, such as land protection, from private reserves to community zoning plans some of which have generated community-protected areas. This is the first attempt to analyze the status of conservation in Latin America when some of these social initiatives are included. The analyses were focused on amphibians because they are one of the most threatened groups worldwide. Mexico is not an exception, where more than 60% of its amphibians are endemic. We used a niche model approach to map the potential and real geographical distribution (extracting the transformed areas) of the endemic amphibians. Based on remnant distribution, all the species have suffered some degree of loss, but 36 species have lost more than 50% of their potential distribution. For 50 micro-endemic species we could not model their potential distribution range due to the small number of records per species, therefore the analyses were performed using these records directly. We then evaluated the efficiency of the existing set of governmental protected areas and established the contribution of social initiatives (private and community) for land protection for amphibian conservation. We found that most of the species have some proportion of their potential ecological niche distribution protected, but 20% are not protected at all within governmental PAs. 73% of endemic and 26% of micro-endemic amphibians are represented within SICs. However, 30 micro-endemic species are not represented within either governmental PAs or SICs. This study shows how the role of land conservation through social initiatives is therefore becoming a crucial element for an important number of species not protected by governmental PAs.