Editorial: ecological and social factors influencing biodiversity management at different scales

Earlier this year, Volume 7 of the International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management started off with an interesting overview of how all-round contributions to our journal can be (de Groot 2011). This second issue, however, mainly deals with the third key topic of the journal, namely the link between biodiversity and management. Some years ago, Buijs et al. (2008) already illustrated that people often have excellent but starkly varying understandings of what biodiversity is and how we benefit from it. This could perhaps explain the large variety of approaches towards biodiversity conservation and management, as recent examples from China (Asai et al. 2010) and Poland (Blicharska and Angelstam 2010) have shown. The papers in this issue not only provide us with new insights from three different continents (Europe, Africa and Asia) but also illustrate at how many different scales and locations studies are being conducted. This once again underlines the versatility and large geographical range of this journal’s authors. Nagaraja et al. (2011) present results from a large-scale study into the regeneration of native woody species in the numerous tree plantations in southern India, thereby comparing the effect of nearby human settlements and natural forest. How biodiversity in western Europe can be valued is a timely, yet scarcely investigated topic. Garcia et al. (2011) present a novel method to do so. Two articles deal with more social aspects of biodiversity conservation and management, and both studies incidentally were carried out in Western Africa. Ansong and Røskaft (2011) reveal interesting determinants of why key stakeholders living near a nature reserve in Ghana would be willing to participate in forest conservation. Feka et al. (2011) provide an answer to a seemingly inappropriate, yet highly relevant question for people living in western Africa and other mangrove regions in the world. In Cameroon, a study was undertaken into the differences between mangrove wood harvesting practices by men and women, which may have a cumulative, negative impact on mangrove conservation. Next, we remain in Africa, but go south towards the Serengeti in Tanzania. Hassan and Rija (2011) conducted a study on the influence of fire history and current fire management on the grazing behaviour of large herbivores. Finally, Lohani et al. (2011) illustrate the potential of Polygonatum cirrhifolium Royle, a herb with medicinal, cultural and ethnobotanical importance in the Himalayas in India. The authors compared organic treatment methods to determine the optimal conditions and factors for the ex situ cultivation of this threatened species. Finally, we would like to announce that the next issue (Volume 7, Issue 3) will focus on challenges in ecosystem services research and trade-offs in ecosystem services management. Contributions to this thematic issue are mostly provided by participants of the Third International Conference of the Ecosystem Services Partnership on ‘Solutions for Sustaining Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services’ (www.es-partnership.org), which was held in Salzau and Kiel, Germany, in June 2010. We wish you enjoyable reading and encourage you to submit the results of your research, or your views on the linkages between biodiversity, ecosystem services and management.