Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD+) is a policy mechanism now agreed under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from developing countries through the sustainable management of forests, while providing co‐benefits of biodiversity conservation and livelihood support. Implementation challenges include linking remote sensing and national forest inventories of carbon stocks, to local implementation and measuring carbon loss from forest degradation. Community‐based forest monitoring can help overcome some of these challenges. We show that local people can collect forest condition data of comparable quality to trained scientists, at half the cost. We draw on our experience to propose how and where local REDD+ monitoring can be established. Empowering communities to own and monitor carbon stocks could provide a rapid and cost‐effective way of absorbing carbon dioxide emissions, while potentially contributing to local livelihoods and forest biodiversity conservation.

The rapid global growth of conservation schemes designed to incentivize local communities to conserve natural resources has placed new importance on biological monitoring to assess whether agreements and targets linked to payments are being met. To evaluate competence in natural resource monitoring, we compared data on status and trends collected independently by local-community members and trained scientists for 63 taxa and five types of resource use in 34 tropical forest sites across four countries over 2.5 years. We hypothesized that the results would vary according to differences in the education and value systems of the monitors. We found that, despite considerable differences in countries, cultures, and the types of natural resources monitored, the community members and the scientists produced similar results for the status of and trends in species and natural resources. Our findings highlight the potential value of locally based natural resource monitoring for conservation decisionmaking across developing countries.

Lac Alaotra is Madagascar's largest lake and a recognized wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. It supports several Critically Endangered species, including the Alaotran gentle lemur Hapalemur alaotrensis. A principal threat facing the remaining Alaotran wetland is anthropogenic burning of the vegetation during the dry season; a practice now officially banned. A number of reasons have been given to explain this but to date no attempt has been made to investigate the principal motivations for the burning. We present the results of semi-structured interviews (n = 27) and questionnaires (n = 122) in a lakeside town. Seventy-eight percent of interviewees stated wetland burning was performed only or mainly to gather an introduced fish, the Asian snakehead Channa maculata, which buries into the underlying substrate during the dry season. Sixty-eight percent of questionnaire respondents provided a similar explanation. These data provide valuable insights into the reasons for the ongoing burning and should inform the management actions that are required to protect this globally important wetland.

The central Menabe region still holds the largest remnant of dry forest in western Madagascar. These forests are home to high floral and faunal diversity including a number of local and regional endemics. The forests of the central Menabe have been classified as conservation hotspots. However, pressure on these forests is strong and deforestation continues on a large scale. To quantify recent forest loss, we used a series of satellite images (1973–2010) for estimating annual deforestation rates. The overall rate was 0.67 %, but it accelerated during certain periods to over 1.5 % with a maximum of 2.55 % per year between 2008 and 2010. Not all areas within the forest block of the central Menabe are affected similarly. Areas surrounding existing clearings show the highest losses of largely undisturbed forest. If deforestation continues at the same rate as during the last years, 50 % of the 1973 forest cover will be gone within the next 11–37 years.