Dataset Information

Lessons about parks and poverty from a decade of forest loss and economic growth around Kibale National Park, Uganda.

ABSTRACT: We use field data linked to satellite image analysis to examine the relationship between biodiversity loss, deforestation, and poverty around Kibale National Park (KNP) in western Uganda, 1996-2006. Over this decade, KNP generally maintained forest cover, tree species, and primate populations, whereas neighboring communal forest patches were reduced by half and showed substantial declines in tree species and primate populations. However, a bad decade for forest outside the park proved a prosperous one for most local residents. Panel data for 252 households show substantial improvement in welfare indicators (e.g., safer water, more durable roof material), with the greatest increases found among those with highest initial assets. A combination of regression analysis and matching estimators shows that although the poor tend to be located on the park perimeter, proximity to the park has no measureable effect on growth of productive assets. The risk for land loss among the poor was inversely correlated with proximity to the park, initial farm size, and decline in adjacent communal forests. We conclude the current disproportionate presence of poor households at the edge of the park does not signal that the park is a poverty trap. Rather, Kibale appears to provide protection against desperation sales and farm loss among those most vulnerable.

SUBMITTER: Naughton-Treves L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3161567 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Lessons about parks and poverty from a decade of forest loss and economic growth around Kibale National Park, Uganda.

Naughton-Treves Lisa L Alix-Garcia Jennifer J Chapman Colin A CA

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20110822 34

We use field data linked to satellite image analysis to examine the relationship between biodiversity loss, deforestation, and poverty around Kibale National Park (KNP) in western Uganda, 1996-2006. Over this decade, KNP generally maintained forest cover, tree species, and primate populations, whereas neighboring communal forest patches were reduced by half and showed substantial declines in tree species and primate populations. However, a bad decade for forest outside the park proved a prospero ...[more]

PMID: 21873178

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Project description:African non-human primates (NHPs) are natural hosts for simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIV), the zoonotic transmission of which led to the emergence of HIV-1 and HIV-2. However, our understanding of SIV diversity and evolution is limited by incomplete taxonomic and geographic sampling of NHPs, particularly in East Africa. In this study, we screened blood specimens from nine black-and-white colobus monkeys (Colobus guereza occidentalis) from Kibale National Park, Uganda, for novel SIVs using a combination of serology and "unbiased" deep-sequencing, a method that does not rely on genetic similarity to previously characterized viruses.We identified two novel and divergent SIVs, tentatively named SIVkcol-1 and SIVkcol-2, and assembled genomes covering the entire coding region for each virus. SIVkcol-1 and SIVkcol-2 were detected in three and four animals, respectively, but with no animals co-infected. Phylogenetic analyses showed that SIVkcol-1 and SIVkcol-2 form a lineage with SIVcol, previously discovered in black-and-white colobus from Cameroon. Although SIVkcol-1 and SIVkcol-2 were isolated from the same host population in Uganda, SIVkcol-1 is more closely related to SIVcol than to SIVkcol-2. Analysis of functional motifs in the extracellular envelope glycoprotein (gp120) revealed that SIVkcol-2 is unique among primate lentiviruses in containing only 16 conserved cysteine residues instead of the usual 18 or more.Our results demonstrate that the genetic diversity of SIVs infecting black-and-white colobus across equatorial Africa is greater than previously appreciated and that divergent SIVs can co-circulate in the same colobine population. We also show that the use of "unbiased" deep sequencing for the detection of SIV has great advantages over traditional serological approaches, especially for studies of unknown or poorly characterized viruses. Finally, the detection of the first SIV containing only 16 conserved cysteines in the extracellular envelope protein gp120 further expands the range of functional motifs observed among SIVs and highlights the complex evolutionary history of simian retroviruses.

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Dataset Information

Lessons about parks and poverty from a decade of forest loss and economic growth around Kibale National Park, Uganda.

Publications

Lessons about parks and poverty from a decade of forest loss and economic growth around Kibale National Park, Uganda.

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