under climate and human pressure
BIOSERF
Nowadays, it is established that tropical forests are disappearing or being degraded at worrying rates. The main threat for these forests is deforestation. Yet, more than just logs, forest ecosystems produce many other services of prime importance to man (the so-called ecosystem services or ES). Agroforestry, hunting or collection of plant products furnish numerous resources to man and contribute a lot to his well-being and livelihood. Excessive consumption of ES constitutes another major threat to forest survival owing to shifts in traditional practices. Indeed, socioeconomical conditions are changing due to increases in population, demand for forest products by cities (bushmeat, ivory, medicinal plants, etc.), road constructions to facilitate trade, etc. These changes induce increased pressure on forest. Canopy cover becomes fragmented; soils lose their fertility; animal density and plant diversity decrease. These conditions might ultimately lead to the disappearance of some ES and to the rarefaction of other ones beyond threshold under which they can no longer regenerate.
BIOSERF is a multidisciplinary project of the Primatology Research Group (ULg), the Unit for Modelling of Climate and Biogeochemical Cycles (ULg), the Laboratory for Tropical and Subtropical Agronomy and Ethnobotany (UGent), the Department of Geography (FUNDP) and the Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences. It studies the conditions of ES sustainability in the northwest forests of RD Congo by the combination of field studies and mathematical models. The Belgian Science Policy Office finances BIOSERF.
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