Reaching over the gap: A review of trends in and status of red panda research over 193 years (1827-2020).

The red panda is a unique species taxonomically known for its peculiar biological and ecological characteristics, and extreme attractiveness. Despite being highly significant from conservation, scientific and economic perspectives, this species has experienced a declining population in the wild. Thus, to direct further research priorities and conservation actions and assess gaps in the current research trend of this species, a systematic literature review was conducted covering 175 journal articles published in English over 193 years (1827-2020). This review revealed that (1) the biological aspect was highly studied compared to other thematic areas of red panda (2) captive-based studies are relatively higher than the studies based in wild populations (3) China is leading the red panda studies amongst all red panda range (4) The universities were found contributing more to red panda studies than other institutions. Surprisingly, we found that the researchers from the non-range country were leading red panda study than those from range countries. Our review highlighted the need of prioritising studies in underrepresented locations and understudied thematic areas focusing on the assessment of climate change impact, bamboo distribution status, ecosystem services of red panda habitat, behavior and movement ecology, population estimation, and metapopulation dynamics. We urge landscape-level studies and long-term population monitoring. Besides, we also suggest the documentation and evaluation of the effectiveness of ongoing red panda-focused conservation programs. We also stress the need for strengthening the capacity of institutions and people from range countries.

Synergizing community-based forest monitoring with remote sensing: a path to an effective REDD+ MRV system.

BACKGROUND: The reliable monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of carbon emissions and removals from the forest sector is an important part of the efforts on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+). Forest-dependent local communities are engaged to contribute to MRV through community-based monitoring systems. The efficiency of such monitoring systems could be improved through the rational integration of the studies at permanent plots with the geospatial technologies. This article presents a case study of integrating community-based measurements at permanent plots at the foothills of central Nepal and biomass maps that were developed using GeoEye-1 and IKONS satellite images. RESULTS: The use of very-high-resolution satellite-based tree cover parameters, including crown projected area (CPA), crown density and crown size classes improves salience, reliability and legitimacy of the community-based survey of 0.04% intensity at the lower cost than increasing intensity of the community-based survey to 0.14% level (2.5 USD/ha vs. 7.5 USD/ha). CONCLUSION: The proposed REDD+ MRV complementary system is the first of its kind and demonstrates the enhancement of information content, accuracy of reporting and reduction in cost. It also allows assessment of the efficacy of community-based forest management and extension to national scale.