Mapping the world's dry forests: The extent of forest area in dryland habitats, which occupy more than 40% of Earth's land surface, is uncertain compared with that in other biomes. Bastin et al. provide a global estimate of forest extent in drylands, calculated from high-resolution satellite images covering more than 200,000 plots. Forests in drylands are much more extensive than previously reported and cover a total area similar to that of tropical rainforests or boreal forests. This increases estimates of global forest cover by at least 9%, a finding that will be important in estimating the terrestrial carbon sink. Science , this issue p. 635

Scientists express concern about increasing levels of greenhouse gases mainly due to fossil fuel consumption and deforestation. In response to the latter, policy-makers have introduced a range of policy measures to conserve and enhance forest ecosystems for carbon sequestration. The costs for policy measures to maintain ecosystem services can be calculated easily, but especially non-market/non-use benefits of forests are not easy to estimate. Economics can help designing climate change policies by eliciting public preferences on different attributes of climate change and carbon sequestration. This study was prepared for the purpose of identifying per capita consumer/equivalent surplus or maximum willingness to pay and the total economic value in relation to forests to be established in Turkey to reduce air pollution around cities, to prevent the adverse effects of climate change and to sequester carbon. The data for the estimation of maximum willingness to pay, total economic value and co-benefits of forests were collected with a questionnaire form prepared according to the contingent valuation method. Analyses have been conducted by correlation analysis and regression analysis. According to the analyses, per capita consumer/equivalent surplus or maximum willingness to pay to establish a new forest was estimated at US$ 23.52 on average, while total economic value was estimated at US$ 270,443,962.68.

General Characteristics of Traditional Homegarden Involving Animal Practices in Rural Areas of Isparta Region of Turkey

The observation and monitoring of land use and land use change (LULUC) has made extensive use of remote sensing. However, it is quite difficult for users to classify land cover and determine changes in land use if no satellite images with sufficient temporal and spatial resolution are available. Kyrgyzstan used Collect Earth to assess the historical and present LULUC trends in 2015 and 2019. Nevertheless, the availability of low spatial and temporal resolution satellite images (15%) served as the primary reason for mandatory field verification. Thus, field validation work was conducted to validate the remote sensing assessment in 2019 by visiting selected sample plots in the field, updating the database for current and historical LULUC data, and verifying or revising inconsistent or incorrect sample plots based on the field data. A total of 941 sample plots were visited and 119 misclassified sample plots were detected during the field validation work. Hence, this article reports an updated estimate of LULUC dynamics in Kyrgyzstan, based on the validation of selected sample plots in the field and reassessing and reclassifying 13,414 1-ha sample plots through the visual interpretation of satellite imagery via Collect Earth software and the Google Earth platform. The update of the database resulted in the re-classification of 1073 sample plots in Kyrgyzstan. The results reveal that in 2019, forests occupied 1.81 million ha or 9% of the total land with a 5.33% uncertainty in Kyrgyzstan.

Periodic land use and land use change assessments monitor the total extent and changes in all land use categories and sub-categories over time to generate highly accurate activity data for effective land use planning and management. Collect Earth is a free access software to monitor the land-use trends in land-use categories over time. The study reports forest and other land-use extent estimates in Azerbaijan’s Agdash and Gakh regions, analyzing 2,543 0.5-hectare sample plots using visual interpretation of very high spatial and temporal resolution satellite imagery on the Google Earth platform. Forestlands in Agdash were assessed to be approximately 7,037 ha or 6.9% of the total region area and have declined by 1.3% since 2000. In contrast, grasslands have grown approximately by 2.07%. Tree cover only exists in 20.9% of Agdash, totaling 21,296 ha. More than 67% of tree cover exists in other land-use categories. The study succeeded in identifying disturbances like flooding, fire, logging, and grazing, and found evidence of river erosion types, rainfall surface runoff, and landslides in Agdash. Gakh forests were assessed to be approximately 41,662 ha or 28% of the total region area. No land use changes were observed in forestlands, other lands, wetlands, or settlements in Gakh since 2000, whereas 104 ha of grasslands were converted to croplands. Trees are present on 49.3% of total land, equal to 73,508 ha. Approximately 56.7% of total tree cover exists in forestlands, and 43.3% exists outside of forests. The research detected disturbances such as logging, fire, and grazing, and found signs of wind, river, coastal, rainfall-runoff, and landslide erosion in Gakh.