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Open research questions in Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management

84 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 2,508 Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • © Martin Harvey / WWF 55 In conclusion, the Congo Basin’s biodiversity is a treasure trove of ecological wealth, hosting a vast array of species and ecosystems that are vital for global biodiversity. To preserve this natural heritage, it is recommended that: 1. Conservation should be intensified, with increased funding and resources allocated to protected areas by key stakeholders.

    Persistence and Perceptions: Forest Elephants and Farmer Attitudes in the Democratic Republic of Congo · 2026 · DOI

  • (2017), can be a response to political pressure, but it can also be limited by the power these organizations have to resist this political pressure.

    Making knowledge and making wilderness: The politics of introducing the social sciences into conservation in the Manu National Park, Perú · 2026 · DOI

  • In addition, it has been observed that the viral phenomenon on social media in Indonesia has become a critical catalyst for changes in political dynamics and power relations among collaborating groups that are not well defined in the IFCG framework.

    Community partner viewpoints on forest partnership: why does it matter? · 2024 · DOI

  • Challenges encountered included lack of data on small-scale and subsistence production, mismatches in the classification of landcover and government production statistics, unreliable measures of ecosystem condition, the large scale of hydrological modelling and lack of centralised data organisation relating to hydrological services.

    Accounting for ecosystem services and asset value: pilot accounts for KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa · 2022 · DOI

  • There are ongoing concerns surrounding wildlife management in the LGCA including an acute lack of community involvement in the wildlife management planning and decision-making process, poorly defined property rights, and the unequitable distribution of the economic benefits generated from the ecotourism and trophy hunting schemes being implemented.

    Joint venture wildlife management of the Loliondo Game Controlled Area in Tanzania: a multi-criteria analysis · 2022 · DOI

  • By interviewing local people, we came to understand that insufficient knowledge regarding the law gathers with a lack of concern towards ecological or environmental matters and with the need of seeing basic needs satisfied; all this in a context in which different stakeholders’ responsibilities and negotiational terms are often misunderstood.

    People’s Voices on the Sustainable Forest Reform in the Democratic Republic of Congo · 2021 · DOI

  • Results suggest that CAR implementation is still too limited to adequately reflect the heterogeneity and complexity of reducing deforestation in the Eastern Amazon.

    Understanding institutional bricolage: What drives behavior change towards sustainable land use in the Eastern Amazon? · 2019 · DOI

  • Further investigation of the timber products market showed that US demand for Chinese‐made furniture was positively correlated with Chinese timber imports from the Congo Basin.

    Assessing the impact of China's timber industry on Congo Basin land use change · 2018 · DOI

  • Although critical scholars have scrutinized CBFM initiatives, how and why agroforestry has emerged as a concept, strategy, and practice in changing forest governance regimes remains underexplored.

    Rooted in Place? The Coproduction of Knowledge and Space in Agroforestry Assemblages · 2017 · DOI

  • We find that despite the rhetoric of community-based conservation (CBC), the wildlife industry remains heavily under state control, while the promises of CBC remain elusive.

    Decentralized Environmental Governance: A Reflection on its Role in Shaping Wildlife Management Areas in Tanzania · 2015 · DOI

  • The KnETs process served as a vehicle to structure a large volume of empirical data, to identify the most salient drivers of decision-making amongst different actors, to uncover tacit knowledge and to make recommendations about which strategic interventions should be further explored in a social simulation and by local organizations planning interventions.

    Identifying Salient Drivers of Livelihood Decision-Making in the Forest Communities of Cameroon: Adding Value to Social Simulation Models · 2015 · DOI

  • Abstract Many I ndigenous communities in A ustralia are well situated to provide greenhouse gas abatement and carbon sequestration benefits, but little is known about the factors affecting the capability of A ustralia's I ndigenous organisations to participate in climate change mitigation strategies.

    <scp>A</scp>ustralia's <scp>I</scp>ndigenous Carbon Economy: A National Snapshot · 2014 · DOI

  • Without longitudinal studies of community forests to demonstrate how community forests build wealth, the paper presents some preliminary information on capital that has been preserved or created and suggests opportunities for further research on and analysis of the role and potential of community forests as a wealth creation strategy.

    Community forests as a wealth creation strategy for rural communities · 2014 · DOI

  • Retracting investment in relevant research and development, notably the termination of Land and Water Australia in 2009, has severely limited knowledge creation and sharing to inform and strengthen the regional model.

    ‘Crying for our Country’: eight ways in which ‘Caring for our Country’ has undermined Australia's regional model for natural resource management · 2011 · DOI

  • This study explores policy framework on current JFM programme, which secures traditional right of local need subject to the carrying capacity of forest, but face moral hazard problem in which Government cannot legally monitor actions against JFM householdswhich live below poverty line and that extract TFPs for their livelihood, and thereby threatening to sustainability of forest, whereas the incentive work opportunities that Government provides them is insufficient for their subsistence.

    Moral hazard problem for poor under joint forest management programme evidence from West Bengal in Indian context · 2011 · DOI

  • It demonstrates that little is known about the basic capacity‐related characteristics of NRM regions, despite the lengthy and elaborate process of regionalism that Australia has embarked upon, with its associated and substantial devolution of responsibilities and resources.

    NRM Regions in Australia: the ‘Haves’ and the ‘Have Nots’ · 2007 · DOI

  • The second project, targeted at the Yuquí and carried out by the USAID-funded forestry project BOLFOR (Bolivia Sustainable Forest Management Project), was a minor part of this large-scale and complex project, and the staff was lacking in knowledge of the indigenous culture, carried out little planning, and provided virtually no monitoring or oversight.

    One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: The Sirionó and Yuquí Community Forestry Projects in the Bolivian Amazon · 2006 · DOI

  • Thus, several questions need to be asked: which particular uses of the forest are associated with the Gujar way of life? to what extent are they dependent on these? and in which way do these conflict with other uses of these forests? Unfortunately, no studies have been carried out to date among the Gujars in this area.

    Gujars in the Pakistani Hindu Kushhimalayas: Conflicts and Dilemmas about Lifestyles and Forest Use · 2002 · DOI

  • Three periods are analyzed: the “laissez-faire period” when high rates of deforestation were largely unrestrained; the “interventionist period” when state policies created protection for some wildlands, especially with the creation of parks and reserves, but when many regulatory policies produced mixed results at best; and the current “hybrid period” featuring major policy changes and mixing market-oriented and interventionist approaches but not always in a coherent design.

    State Policies and the Preservation of Forest Cover: Lessons from Contrasting Public-Policy Regimes in Costa Rica · 2002 · DOI

  • Despite numerous NIPF owner surveys, ownership and management motivations remain poorly understood, thus hampering design of effective NIPF policy and programs.

    Identity and private forest management · 1988 · DOI

  • , dispute) over the resource in ques- tion—essentially where nonviolent means have not succeeded in resolving the issue—we have provided some indication that even where institutions are insufficient to resolve disputes, a reduction in resources does not add to the risk of violence.

    The limits of resource scarcity and poverty as drivers of support for violence: evidence from rural Tanzania and Kenya · 2026 · DOI

  • , 2024; Zhu & Lo, 2021) report negative or mixed findings. Transaction costs are rarely reported in detail Luttrell et al.

    Governing Low-Carbon Landscapes: A Systematic Review of Incentives, Spatial Planning, and Community Forest Management · 2026 · DOI

  • Despite these limitations, the study’s value lies in establishing an expert-informed baseline for a critically under-researched domain, identifying coordination gaps (e.

    Funding options for climate change adaptation in forestry: a five-country expert survey in Southern Africa · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should examine the ecosystem service benefits derived from the Mat Forest Watershed and evaluate the cost-effectiveness of different incentive mechanisms for sustaining community participation.

    Community participation in Mat Forest Watershed conservation at Meung Kham District, Xieng Khouang Province, Lao PDR · 2026 · DOI

  • Moreover, no single conservation actor can implement all of these principles alone, especially given that conservation possibilities are limited by the global realities of power relations, resource constraints, and current conflicts.

    Emerging design principles for environmental, economic, and equity successes in land conservation · 2026 · DOI

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84 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 2,508 Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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