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Climate change is a major issue for all levels of government, global, national and local. Local authorities' responses to climate change have tended to concentrate on their role in reducing greenhouse gases. However, the scientific consensus is that we also need to adapt to unavoidable climate change. Spatial planning at a local level has a critical anticipatory role to play in promoting robust adaptation. This paper reviews the shift in local authorities' planning policies for climate change adaptation in the UK since 2000, and provides evidence of underlying attitudes amongst planning professionals to climate change. It shows that, while the issue of climate change is becoming recognized with respect to flood risk, the wider implications (for instance, for biodiversity and water resources) are not yet integrated into plans. The reasons for this lie in lack of political support and lack of engagement of the planning profession with climate change networks. But the paper also argues there are difficulties in acknowledging the need for adaptation at the local level, with the short-term horizons of local plans at odds with perceptions of the long-term implications of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban gardens are important sources of sustenance for communities with limited access to food. Hence, this study focuses on food production in gardens in the Toledo metropolitan area in Northwest Ohio. We administered surveys to 150 garden managers from November 2014 to February 2015 in our attempt to better understand how neighbourhood racial composition and poverty levels are related to staffing and voluntarism, food production and distribution, the development of infrastructure, and the adoption of sustainability practices in urban gardens. The results from 30 gardens are presented in this paper. We used Geographic Information Systems to map the gardens and overlay the map with 2010 census data so that we could conduct demographic analyses of the neighbourhoods in which the gardens were located. Though the gardens were small – two acres or less – up to 46 varieties of food were grown in a single garden. Gardens also operated on small budgets. Food from the gardens was gifted or shared with friends, family, and neighbourhood residents. Gardens in predominantly minority neighbourhoods tended to have fewer institutional partners, less garden infrastructure, and had adopted fewer sustainable practices than gardens in predominantly White neighbourhoods. Nonetheless, residents of predominantly minority and high-poverty neighbourhoods participated in garden activities and influenced garden operations. Volunteering and staffing were racialised and gendered. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Biodiversity offsets are voluntary conservation activities that are designed to offset residual, unavoidable damage to biodiversity caused by development activities. The concept is also known by terms such as setasides, compensatory habitat, and mitigation banks. Recent legislation in New South Wales (Australia) provides an additional legislative tool in the attempt to counter balance biodiversity loss due to expanding urbanisation. A key role is played by the consultant ecologist who is at the interface between other vested interests: governments, the legal system, developers, and landholders wishing to trade biodiversity credits. In this paper we reflect on the role of the consultant ecologist in the biodiversity offset (“BioBanking”) process, and touch on some of the pitfalls including the lack of knowledge of the function and components of most ecosystems, the immaturity of the scientific disciplines that underpin decision making, and problems on ensuring integrity of objectivity and independence in such schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the political process for handling an outbreak of an insect causing human allergic reactions. In the southern part of the Swedish island Gotland in the Baltic Sea, an outbreak of the northern pine processionary moth, Thaumetopoea pinivora, has occurred. With regard to the human nuisance and long-term effects on the tourist industry, demands have been raised for intervention to reduce and control the insect population. At the same time, there have been warnings against treating the insect population because there are knowledge gaps concerning the wider ecological consequences, including effects on biodiversity. This paper analyses the political process and its problem-solving efforts. Of particular interest is how it dealt with the issue of uncertainty. It was found that the uncertainty associated with the issue hindered the development of a shared understanding of the problem and a possible solution. There seems to be a growing need in society to develop the institutional capacity to handle complex issues that cross different sectors, regulatory frameworks and policy targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Democratising environmental governance is sometimes presented as if it would necessarily yield desirable environmental outcomes. This is in contradistinction to authoritarianism that is seen as inimical to sound biodiversity management. This paper examines the possibility that democratisation of environmental governance may not always produce the outcomes that are desirable by the conservationists. The tension between promise and liability embodied in democratisation of environmental governance is captured by the following quotations: The explosion of a non-governmental movement and a democratic society … is really fundamental to environment. (Michael Wright, US Sub-committee, 1996 ) Fortress conservation was an inherently authoritarian approach. By contrast, community conservation is undermined by much more democratic ideas; once the floodgate is opened the fortress may be swept away! ( Adams & Hume, 1998 , p. 23) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban fringe has been described as 'planning's last frontier'; a zone of transition and interface between town and country where a broad variety of land uses and activities come together, and where development pressure is often intense. In this paper, we argue that the urban fringe possesses special characteristics, making it more than simply a transitional landscape. These characteristics centre on patterns of land use, biodiversity and leisure/development opportunity which are unique to the urban edge and to land extending away from built-up areas. The uniqueness, diversity and particular dynamics of the urban fringe demands a special brand of planning and management response. Therefore we suggest that the principle of 'multi-functionality' provides a framework for action, showing how diversity can be managed and supported. Through brief case studies, we demonstrate how functional interactions at the urban fringe might be promoted in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses two typically separate issues contributing to urban quality of life: increasing noise levels and declining quality of public green space. Drawing from environmental psychology, ecology and acoustical methods, this interdisciplinary research studied the soundscapes of three green spaces in a UK city through interviews with 70 park users, the measurement of habitat and recording of sound levels. The data reveal a prevalence of mechanical sounds and a hierarchy of preference for natural over people and mechanical sounds. There was a link between sound levels, both objective and perceived, and the type of sounds heard. The presence of these sounds varied across sites in part due to the ecological qualities of the place, specifically the presence of birds and shrub vegetation. The results suggest that people's opportunity to access quiet, natural places in urban areas can be enhanced by improving the ecological quality of urban green spaces through targeted planning and design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Myriad projects have been introduced in recent decades in tropical forest and forest-edge ecosystems to slow or reverse the rapid loss of biodiversity, deterioration of livelihood resources, and deepening of rural poverty - with markedly mixed results. This paper reports the results of a critical review of the literature and four case studies of community-based forest management (CBFM) in Malawi, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, analysed in terms of sustainable livelihoods dimensions, participation and social institution strengthening, governance and linkages with external institutions, and outcomes assessment. Derived from the literature review and confirmed in the case studies, our central finding is that sustainable positive effects of CBFM can be achieved only through integrated approaches that simultaneously enhance social capital of households and local institutions, improve the productivity of forest-edge landscape resources, and foster livelihood diversification and increase incomes while reducing economic vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity planners increasingly recognise the need for delivering action on a ’wider countryside’, rather than on a purely site-centred, basis. Ecological processes often take place at the ’landscape scale’ and are not sufficiently accommodated within reserves, and a failure to reflect this in biodiversity planning has been one of the contributors to species and habitat decline. However, there are generally few powers to enforce compliance with spatial rural land-use strategies, and biodiversity plans at the landscape scale must rely heavily on incentives, advice and goodwill. Not surprisingly, this results in a substantial gap between policy and implementation. One way of analysing the causes of and potential solutions to, implementation failure is to examine the barriers to plan uptake. This paper addresses barriers to biodiversity action in three case-study areas in terms of ’force fields’, depicting the nature and strength of negative and positive influences on land managers and conservation staff. It is concluded that a clearer understanding of the nature of ’barriers’ can lead to improved targeting on potential ’bridges’ to a better future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regions of high biodiversity often coincide with regions of poverty and conservation can imply economic and social costs for poor resident populations. Environmental compensation is considered a tool to reduce socio-environmental conflict, improve the equity of conservation and promote sustainable development. The intricacies of specific socio-ecological systems may determine how compensation payments are interpreted locally to produce outcomes. This research examines the social perceptions of an ecological fiscal transfer which intends to compensate the local public administration for the substantial costs of conservation in a hotspot of biological and social diversity in the Brazilian Atlantic forest. In this context we explore whether financial compensation (1) influences local perceptions of the conservation regime, (2) contributes towards the reconciliation of human-conservation conflicts and (3) triggers any meaningful socio-economic improvement that would counter the local costs of conservation. Results show that environmental compensation is not widely recognised as effectively benefiting the community. Local authorities consider compensation insufficient to enact a sustainable development agenda. Environmental compensation could play an important role in a policy mix for socially equitable conservation by being explicitly linked to community benefits, especially to fostering local livelihoods. The collaboration of actors operating across multiple governance levels may improve the institutional capacity of local actors to produce effective outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a risk that climate change will cause an increase of mosquito populations in Europe. Due to their nuisance to humans, there are demands to combat mosquitoes, mainly through spraying. These interventions, however, are expensive and associated with uncertainties concerning effects on biodiversity. This poses a dilemma for policy-makers, which makes it important to gain knowledge on what people’s nuisance comprises. Thus, the aim of this study is to explore what factors are associated with this risk perception of mosquitoes. Theories about place identity, social norms, environmental concern and values were used to identify relevant factors. A questionnaire was distributed to 317 persons in a Swedish community where mosquitoes have increased radically. The items concerning risk perception fell out as a unidimensional scale in a principal component analysis and the internal consistency of the scale was good. Risk perception was positively related to place identity, descriptive social norms, and self-oriented environmental concern and negatively related to ecocentric values. The most important predictor was descriptive social norms, but the other factors and gender also contributed uniquely in explaining risk perception. Results are discussed in relation to the theory of social amplification of risks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Australian environment and agriculture is suffering from land degradation and declining biodiversity. Laws protecting native vegetation are aimed at addressing these problems but have been resisted by farmers, compromising the social agreement necessary for regulatory success. A case study drawing on farmer interviews in central northern New South Wales reveals that the laws are considered to be under-achieving environmental outcomes since they are ill-suited to local conditions. The low feasibility of the rules is also undermining rule and state legitimacy. Regulatory resistance is due to the lack of recognition of place-specifics by government and laws that impose universal requirements. There is an epistemic distance between the bureaucratic knowledge held by government and the vernacular knowledge (place-based knowledge) of heterogeneous environments held by farmers. Incorporating vernacular knowledge so that laws are more geographically sympathetic may close vernacular disjunctures and cure regulatory failure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

International obligations in nature conservation policy demand for decentralisation and co-management. Co-management arrangements are increasingly seen as forms of governance, which opens up for the critique that accountability becomes blurred when public-private relations are characterised by informality and negotiations. The purpose of this article is to examine the issue of accountability by comparing co-management theory and the decentralisation framework of Agrawal and Ribot, and by empirically analysing the designation of Fulufjallet National Park. This case constitutes a blueprint for Swedish efforts to adhere to the international obligations for decentralisation and is thus an example of their implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between biodiversity and the housing value of residential areas in downtown Tokyo, and reviews the history of green space planning and surveys of present residential attitudes towards green space in the metropolitan area. Throughout the research, biodiversity is operationally represented by a "green coverage ratio", while standardised data on land and rent prices are used to assess the value of residential areas. The results confirm that the green coverage ratio and housing value are correlated. The study concludes that there is a need for development of a more accurate and integrated policy database that will provide explicit definitions of management targets, locations and clients for promotion of green space in Tokyo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forests of Nepal, which in the past were at least nominally under the direct control of the state, are today increasingly entrusted to local people in the name of community forestry (CF). CF is considered a successful endeavour in managing forest resources, conserving biodiversity and supplying people with basic economic needs. In order to assess to what extent the two goals of biodiversity conservation and meeting economic needs of people have been integrated through CF, four community forestry user groups (CFUGs) were studied in the Mid-hills ecological zone. Based on a participatory survey and a critical review of the statutes and operational plans of these CFUGs, it was found that integration of biodiversity conservation was still insufficient, and that improvements in the policy and management regimes of CF are necessary to achieve a balance between biodiversity conservation and economic use of the forest resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The local private sector currently plays an important role in the protection of biodiversity of the Tonle Sap Lake. Large parts of the lake and surrounding floodplain - so-called fishing lots - are auctioned for private exploitation of the rich fisheries. The owners of fishing lots go to great lengths to ensure that there is a maximum amount of fish inside the lot by protecting the area from disturbance and poaching. The core areas of the Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve are situated inside such fishing lots. Although it is unintended, the fishing lots and the protective measures taken by their owners to maximize extraction of fish provide effective protection for the large colonies of water birds nesting inside the core areas on the floodplain and possibly for other elements of biodiversity. Plans to end the fishing lots system in the core areas and to replace it by more effective, public-sector management and protection are prepared. Will they be counterproductive and put the core areas and their biodiversity further at risk? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]