Collaborative Research Centre 990: Ecological and Socioeconomic Functions of Tropical Lowland Rainforest Transformation Systems (Sumatra, Indonesia) (Phase 3: 2020 – 2023)


A major strength of EFForTS is that it integrates ecological and scioeconomic perspectives, investigating biota, ecosystem services and human dimensions in a comprehensive way. With this approach, research in Phase 3 builds on extensive experience in studying ecological and socioeconomic impacts of rainforest conversion and follow-up land-use changes of Phases 1 and 2. This integrative approach will allow achieving the overall goals of EFForTS. Pursuing the overall research questions, the ecological and socioeconomic groups jointly investigate four Foci that form the backbone of EFForTS:

Assessment of ecological and socioeconomic functions, synergies and trade-offs across different land-use systems.
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Quantifying the effects of spatial, temporal and social heterogeneity on ecological and socioeconomic functions.
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Scaling-up of ecological and socioeconomic functions from local to landscape and broader scales.
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Towards more sustainable land use in lowland tropical regions.
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The four Foci and the overarching joint hypotheses complement each other as they integrate the general aims of the CRC. They form a natural series from more basic ecological and socioeconomic work (Focus 1), via consequences of these settings at the landscape scale (Focus 2) and integration of ecological and socioeconomic studies at landscape and regional scales (Focus 3), up to policy issues and feedbacks to the ecological and socioeconomic settings (Focus 4).
Fig - Foci
Contribution of individual SPs to the four Foci of EFForTS. The three Project Groups are shown in different colours.