The sentinel landscape framework has been developed to collect baseline data on people’s livelihoods, cropping systems and utilization of tree and forest resources for monitoring purposes using a set of standardized variables – both socio-economic as well as biophysical – to assess the relationship between livelihoods and land health in forested landscapes, which have been exposed to various forms of land-use change. Several types of research instruments have been prototyped based on existing survey instruments including, IFRI, stages of progress methodology and the Land Degradation Surveillance Framework:

The Central Africa Humid Tropics Transect sentinel landscape (CAFHUT) represents a dynamic socioecological gradient of forest and land use in the Congo Basin.

Focused on Cameroon, the sites demonstrate a gradient where forest and tree-based livelihoods are and will become prevalent means of poverty alleviation. Read More

Western Borneo sentinel landscape: The three regencies covered by this sentinel landscape are Kapuas Hulu, Sintang and Ketapang.

These regencies represent a gradient of forest degradation balanced by traditional agroforestry systems, which are impacted by the development of monoculture plantations, mainly oil palm. The potential impact of the growth of oil palm plantations remains unclear and presents a major challenge to these regencies.

Sumatra sentinel landscape: This transect includes large parts of Sumatra’s National Parks and protected areas alongside globally significant biodiversity, where local use of very rich flora and fauna is extensive.

Hilly and lowland areas are mosaics of dynamic land use by smallholder farmers. Read More

In the last two decades, Mekong economies have grown much faster than before.

Large infrastructure development has caused, and will continue to cause, dramatic changes in forest cover, land-use patterns and regional ecosystem services. Read More

Agroforestry systems (coffee, tea, rubber, pepper, arecanut and cardamom) shape much of the Western Ghats in India.

Commercial agriculture in this area has existed for centuries. Now, these commercial crops have reached the margins of protected areas. In many cases, the only forests left are small sections which are either community-managed (i.e. sacred forests) or privately owned. Read More

The Nicaragua-Honduras sentinel landscape is characterized by a variety of land uses.

Tree cover is therefore diverse, competition for land is high, and speculation and renting land are common, but these arrangements drive deforestation, hinder long-term investments and exacerbate land degradation.Read More

The Iniciativa de Monitoreo Socio-ecológico de la Amazonía Occidental (IMSAO) sentinel landscape covers the tri-national frontier region of Madre de Dios and Ucayali (Peru), Acre (Brazil), and Pando (Bolivia).

A broad range of development conditions can be found within this landscape. Acre is situated further along the economic development x-axis (higher economic development) and further down the forest cover y-axis (smaller area of forest cover) of the forest transition curve than the other three locations. Read More

These are: Mt Elgon (Uganda) and the South-West Mau Forest (Kenya), Lake Kivu (Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo) and Gishwati (Rwanda).

It represents forest and tree cover transitions along the socioecological degradation gradient, from protected forest margins to purely agricultural landscapes. Read More

The Tropical-managed Forests Observatory (TmFO) assesses the impact of logging on managed-forest dynamics, carbon storage and tree species composition at a regional level in the Amazon Basin, the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia. Read More