Watson, J. E. M. et al. The exceptional value of intact forest ecosystems. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 2, 599–610 (2018).
Persha, L., Agrawal, A. & Chhatre, A. Social and ecological synergy: local rulemaking, forest livelihoods, and biodiversity conservation. Science 331, 1606–1608 (2011).
Bennett, E. M. et al. Linking biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human well-being: three challenges for designing research for sustainability. Curr. Opin. Environ. Sustain. 14, 76–85 (2015).
Berkes, F. Sacred Ecology (Routledge, 2017).
Brockerhoff, E. G. et al. Forest biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and the provision of ecosystem services. Biodivers. Conserv. 26, 3005–3035 (2017).
Rametsteiner, E. & Whiteman, A. State of the World’s Forests: Enhancing the Socio-economic Benefits from Forests (FAO, 2014).
Miller, D. C. & Hajjar, R. Forests as pathways to prosperity: empirical insights and conceptual advances. World Dev. 125, 104647 (2020).
Agrawal, A. et al. Economic Contributions of Forests (United Nations Forum on Forests, 2013).
Newton, P., Kinzer, A. T., Miller, D. C., Oldekop, J. A. & Agrawal, A. The number and spatial distribution of forest-proximate people globally. One Earth 3, 363–370 (2020).
Erbaugh, J. T. et al. Global forest restoration and the importance of prioritizing local communities. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 4, 1472–1476 (2020).
Angelsen, A. et al. Environmental income and rural livelihoods: a global-comparative analysis. World Dev. 64, S12–S28 (2014).
Hajjar, R. et al. A global analysis of the social and environmental outcomes of community forests. Nat. Sustain. 4, 216–224 (2021).
Howe, C., Suich, H., Vira, B. & Mace, G. M. Creating win–wins from trade-offs? Ecosystem services for human well-being: a meta-analysis of ecosystem service trade-offs and synergies in the real world. Glob. Environ. Change 28, 263–275 (2014).
Isbell, F. et al. High plant diversity is needed to maintain ecosystem services. Nature 477, 199–202 (2011).
Cole, L. E. S., Bhagwat, S. A. & Willis, K. J. Recovery and resilience of tropical forests after disturbance. Nat. Commun. 5, 3906 (2014).
Cardinale, B. J. et al. Biodiversity loss and its impact on humanity. Nature 486, 59–67 (2012).
Oliver, T. H. et al. Biodiversity and resilience of ecosystem functions. Trends Ecol. Evol. 30, 673–684 (2015).
van der Plas, F. Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in naturally assembled communities. Biol. Rev. 94, 1220–1245 (2019).
Hooper, D. U. et al. Effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning: a consensus of current knowledge. Ecol. Monogr. 75, 3–35 (2005).
Balvanera, P. et al. Quantifying the evidence for biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning and services. Ecol. Lett. 9, 1146–1156 (2006).
Arneth, A. et al. Post-2020 biodiversity targets need to embrace climate change. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 117, 30882–30891 (2020).
Reich, P. B. et al. Influence of logging, fire, and forest type on biodiversity and productivity in southern boreal forests. Ecology 82, 2731–2748 (2001).
Tallei, E., Rivera, L., Schaaf, A., Vivanco, C. & Politi, N. Post-logging changes in a neotropical dry forest composition and structure modify the ecosystem functioning. For. Ecol. Manag. 537, 120944 (2023).
Bremer, L. L. & Farley, K. A. Does plantation forestry restore biodiversity or create green deserts? A synthesis of the effects of land-use transitions on plant species richness. Biodivers. Conserv. 19, 3893–3915 (2010).
Battles, J. J., Shlisky, A. J., Barrett, R. H., Heald, R. C. & Allen-Diaz, B. H. The effects of forest management on plant species diversity in a Sierran conifer forest. For. Ecol. Manag. 146, 211–222 (2001).
Fischer, H. W., Chhatre, A., Duddu, A., Pradhan, N. & Agrawal, A. Community forest governance and synergies among carbon, biodiversity and livelihoods. Nat. Clim. Change 13, 1340–1347 (2023).
Chhatre, A. & Agrawal, A. Trade-offs and synergies between carbon storage and livelihood benefits from forest commons. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 17667–17670 (2009).
Norström, A. V. et al. Principles for knowledge co-production in sustainability research. Nat. Sustain. 3, 182–190 (2020).
Alroy, J. Effects of habitat disturbance on tropical forest biodiversity. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114, 6056–6061 (2017).
Newton, P., Oldekop, J. A., Brodnig, G., Karna, B. K. & Agrawal, A. Carbon, biodiversity, and livelihoods in forest commons: synergies, trade-offs, and implications for REDD. Environ. Res. Lett. 11, 044017 (2016).
Betts, M. G. et al. Global forest loss disproportionately erodes biodiversity in intact landscapes. Nature 547, 441–444 (2017).
IFRI Data Collection Methods (IFRI, 2021); http://ifri.forgov.org/resources/methods/
Chhatre, A. IFRI Multiple Benefits from Forest Commons (IFRI, 2019).
Powell, K. I., Chase, J. M. & Knight, T. M. Invasive plants have scale-dependent effects on diversity by altering species–area relationships. Science 339, 316–318 (2013).
Ibáñez, I. et al. Combining local, landscape, and regional geographies to assess plant community vulnerability to invasion impact. Ecol. Appl. 33, e2821 (2023).
Jost, L. Entropy and diversity. Oikos 113, 363–375 (2006).
Hill, M. O. Diversity and evenness: a unifying notation and its consequences. Ecology 54, 427–432 (1973).
Agrawal, A. et al. From environmental governance to governance for sustainability. One Earth 5, 615–621 (2022).
Guo, W.-Y. et al. High exposure of global tree diversity to human pressure. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 119, e2026733119 (2022).
Ferraro, P. J. & Simorangkir, R. Conditional cash transfers to alleviate poverty also reduced deforestation in Indonesia. Sci. Adv. 6, eaaz1298 (2020).
Fischer, J. et al. Land sparing versus land sharing: moving forward. Conserv. Lett. 7, 149–157 (2014).
Barrett, C. B., Reardon, T. & Webb, P. Nonfarm income diversification and household livelihood strategies in rural Africa: concepts, dynamics, and policy implications. Food Policy 26, 315–331 (2001).
Coomes, O. T., Takasaki, Y. & Rhemtulla, J. M. Land-use poverty traps identified in shifting cultivation systems shape long-term tropical forest cover. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 13925–13930 (2011).
Specht, M. J., Pinto, S. R. R., Albuquerque, U. P., Tabarelli, M. & Melo, F. P. L. Burning biodiversity: fuelwood harvesting causes forest degradation in human-dominated tropical landscapes. Glob. Ecol. Conserv. 3, 200–209 (2015).
Christensen, D., Hartman, A. C. & Samii, C. Citizen monitoring promotes informed and inclusive forest governance in Liberia. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 118, e2015169118 (2021).
Humphrey, J. W. & Patterson, G. S. Effects of late summer cattle grazing on the diversity of riparian pasture vegetation in an upland conifer forest. J. Appl. Ecol. 37, 986–996 (2000).
Proulx, M. & Mazumder, A. Reversal of grazing impact on plant species richness in nutrient-poor vs. nutrient-rich ecosystems. Ecology 79, 2581–2592 (1998).
Persha, L., Fischer, H., Chhatre, A., Agrawal, A. & Benson, C. Biodiversity conservation and livelihoods in human-dominated landscapes: forest commons in South Asia. Biol. Conserv. 143, 2918–2925 (2010).
Edwards, D. P. et al. Conservation of tropical forests in the anthropocene. Curr. Biol. 29, R1008–R1020 (2019).
Choksi, P., Kotian, M., Burivalova, Z. & DeFries, R. Social and ecological outcomes of tropical dry forest restoration through invasive species removal in central India. Ecol. Indic. 155, 111054 (2023).
Rana, P., Fischer, H. W., Coleman, E. A. & Fleischman, F. Using machine learning to uncover synergies between forest restoration and livelihood support in the Himalayas. Ecol. Soc. 29, 32 (2024).
MacNeill, T. & Drummond, C. Green basic income: evaluating the Bolsa Verde project in the Brazilian Amazon. Basic Income Stud. 20, 125–149 (2025).
Community Forest Management Portal (IFRI, accessed 10 November 2025); http://ifri-commfor.forgov.org/
Wieczynski, D. J. et al. Climate shapes and shifts functional biodiversity in forests worldwide. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 116, 587–592 (2019).
Francis, A. P. & Currie, D. J. A globally consistent richness–climate relationship for angiosperms. Am. Nat. 161, 523–536 (2003).
Cadotte, M. W., Carscadden, K. & Mirotchnick, N. Beyond species: functional diversity and the maintenance of ecological processes and services. J. Appl. Ecol. 48, 1079–1087 (2011).
Dickie, I. A., Schnitzer, S. A., Reich, P. B. & Hobbie, S. E. Spatially disjunct effects of co-occurring competition and facilitation. Ecol. Lett. 8, 1191–1200 (2005).
Yin, J. et al. The effects of light, conspecific density and soil fungi on seedling growth of temperate tree species. For. Ecol. Manag. 529, 120683 (2023).
Bruun, H. H. et al. Effects of altitude and topography on species richness of vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens in alpine communities. J. Veg. Sci. 17, 37–46 (2006).
Oldekop, J. A. et al. Evaluating the effects of common-pool resource institutions and market forces on species richness and forest cover in Ecuadorian indigenous Kichwa communities. Conserv. Lett. 6, 107–115 (2013).
Fung, T. et al. Temporal population variability in local forest communities has mixed effects on tree species richness across a latitudinal gradient. Ecol. Lett. 23, 160–171 (2020).
Munishi, P. K. T., Philipina, F., Temu, R. P. C. & Pima, N. E. Tree species composition and local use in agricultural landscapes of west Usambaras Tanzania. Afr. J. Ecol. 46, 66–73 (2008).
Hajjar, R. et al. Research frontiers on forests, trees, and poverty dynamics. For. Policy Econ. 131, 102554 (2021).
Dorrough, J., Moxham, C., Turner, V. & Sutter, G. Soil phosphorus and tree cover modify the effects of livestock grazing on plant species richness in Australian grassy woodland. Biol. Conserv. 130, 394–405 (2006).
Osuri, A. M. et al. Tree diversity and carbon storage cobenefits in tropical human-dominated landscapes. Conserv. Lett. 13, e12699 (2020).
Arrhenius, O. Species and area. J. Ecol. 9, 95–99 (1921).
Hsieh, T. C., Ma, K. H. & Chao, A. iNEXT: an R package for rarefaction and extrapolation of species diversity (Hill numbers). Methods Ecol. Evol. 7, 1451–1456 (2016).
Plummer, M. JAGS: a program for analysis of Bayesian graphical models using Gibbs sampling. In Proc. 3rd International Workshop on Distributed Statistical Computing 1–10 (DSC, 2003).
Pradhan, N. & Ibáñez, I. JAGS code for species–area relationship (SAR) analysis. Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18685850 (2026).
Benítez, Á, Prieto, M., González, Y. & Aragón, G. Effects of tropical montane forest disturbance on epiphytic macrolichens. Sci. Total Environ. 441, 169–175 (2012).
Biswas, S. R., Mallik, A. U., Braithwaite, N. T. & Biswas, P. L. Effects of disturbance type and microhabitat on species and functional diversity relationship in stream-bank plant communities. For. Ecol. Manag. 432, 812–822 (2019).
Lolila, N. J., Shirima, D. D. & Mauya, E. W. Tree species composition along environmental and disturbance gradients in tropical sub-montane forests, Tanzania. PLoS ONE 18, e0282528 (2023).
Khuc, Q. V., Tran, B. Q., Meyfroidt, P. & Paschke, M. W. Drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in Vietnam: an exploratory analysis at the national level. For. Policy Econ. 90, 128–141 (2018).
Bobo, K. S. et al. From forest to farmland: species richness patterns of trees and understorey plants along a gradient of forest conversion in southwestern Cameroon. Biodivers. Conserv. 15, 4097–4117 (2006).
Naughton-Treves, L., Alix-Garcia, J. & Chapman, C. A. Lessons about parks and poverty from a decade of forest loss and economic growth around Kibale National Park, Uganda. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 13919–13924 (2011).
Nerfa, L. & Rhemtulla, J. M. Changes in tree species diversity, composition and aboveground biomass in areas of fuelwood harvesting in miombo woodland ecosystems of southern Malawi. For. Trees Livelihoods 28, 176–193 (2019).