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Six Danish paper recycling plants were included in an assessment of exposure to chemicals. A questionnaire on processes was completed, and in-plant industrial hygiene measurement data collected 1982-1994 were examined. The assessment of chemicals did not reveal a major use of possible carcinogens, but acrylamide may have been released in the work environment in one plant. A total of 197 hygiene measurements were recorded: 126 in the largest plant. Airborne concentrations of dust, microorganisms, and endotoxins varied widely between plants. High concentrations of dust were recorded in the paper machine area in one plant and in the repulping unit in another plant. In general, endotoxin levels were low, but endotoxin levels were increased in one plant when reuse of process water was intensified. Changes in procedures should be assessed by industrial hygiene measurements.

Habitat loss and fragmentation are major threats to the conservation of nonhuman primates. Given that species differ in their responses to fragmented landscapes, identifying the factors that enable them to cope with altered environments or that cause their extirpation is critical to design conservation management strategies. Howler monkeys (Alouatta spp.) are good models for studying the strategies of tolerant arboreal taxa and how they cope with spatial restriction, because they live in habitats ranging from vast pristine forests to small disturbed fragments and orchards. While some aspects of their ecology and behavior are conserved, others vary in predictable ways in response to habitat shrinking and decreasing resource availability. We argue that the ability of individual howler monkeys to inhabit low-quality environments does not guarantee the long-term persistence of the small populations that live under these conditions. Their local extirpation explains why few forest fragments below a given area threshold are frequently inhabited in landscapes where recolonization and gene flow are compromised by long isolation distances or less permeable matrices. In sum, howlers' ability to cope with habitat restriction at the individual level in the short-term may mask the inevitable fate of isolated populations, thereby compromising the persistence of the species at a regional scale in the long-term if howlers' need for protection in large forests is undervalued., (© 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Niche differentiation has long been identified as an essential stabilizing mechanism for the coexistence of sympatric species. Using camera trapping data obtained during 2012-2016, we identified Macaca leonina and M. mulatta as the dominant macaque species in the Naban River Watershed National Nature Reserve (NRW-NNR), a tropical forest in southwestern China. In general, M. leonina exhibited a wider distribution and greater niche breadth than co-occurring M. mulatta. According to a fitted maximum entropy model (MaxEnt), M. leonina was predicted to predominantly occur in forest at higher elevation, whereas M. mulatta was predicted at lower elevation; the broadleaved evergreen forest was predicted as the most suitable vegetation for both species to inhabit, while the unsuitable area was bordered by rubber plantation, in which both food scarcity and human disturbance restricted the movement of macaques. Although the niches of these two species highly overlapped across space and time, we also found evidence for their spatiotemporal niche differentiation. When the two species inhabited independent areas with different elevations and vegetation, they maintained a similar activity pattern; however, in the zones of overlap, their activity patterns differed significantly. Further comparative field studies of these two macaques, considering other niche dimensions, are required to ensure their coexistence and long-term conservation., (© 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

The ability to predict which areas of conservation importance are most vulnerable to transformation and to rank the relative damage that transforming land uses could cause to biodiversity are important components of an effective and realistic conservation planning process. We used the South African grassland biome as a case study to illustrate the assessment of vulnerability to land-use transformation through the construction of a “threat map.” We identified the dominant transforming land uses and created suitability models based on area appropriateness for each. Land uses were scored according to their expected relative impacts on biodiversity, with a framework that included compositional, structural, and functional components. This information, once combined, resulted in a map that highlighted the areas most vulnerable to transformation in terms of the likelihood of their transformation and the impact on their biodiversity. We propose that such an analysis of the threat of transformation, in combination with species-representation approaches, will aid the integration of conservation planning theory and decision making. This approach can be applied at any scale and in any region with a robustness and accuracy dependent on data quality, resultant suitability models, and comprehension of how land uses affect an area's biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using radiotelemetry, we discovered that the Three-wattled Bellbird (Procnias tricarunculata ), one of Central America's largest frugivorous birds, has the most complex migratory pattern yet recorded for a tropical species. The annual migration cycle included 2- to 5-month stopovers in four distinct life zones: two middle-elevation and two lowland sites separated by as much as 200 km. We captured and radio-tagged bellbirds during 4 years between July and September in middle-elevation forest fragments of the Pacific slope, 6 km from Monteverde in the Tilaran mountain range of north-central Costa Rica. These habitats, which exist almost exclusively as small, isolated fragments on private farms, are poorly represented (<2%) in Costa Rica's system of protected areas. During September and October, the bellbirds migrated from this site to the northeast into the lowland Atlantic forest of southeastern Nicaragua and northeastern Costa Rica. In Costa Rica these habitats have been heavily fragmented. In Nicaragua they remain intact but are highly threatened. In November and December, the bellbirds migrated from these Atlantic forests to heavily modified, little-protected forests along the Pacific coast of southwestern Costa Rica, where they remained until March. Here, most individuals utilized forest remnants and second growth on private property. In March the Bellbirds moved from the coastal areas to middle-elevation (1000–1800 m) moist forest on the Atlantic slope of the Tilaran mountains sites, where they bred. In June and July, they left the breeding area and moved back across the continental divide of the Tilaran Mountains to return to the middle-elevation Pacific slopes where they had been captured. Our findings demonstrate the complicated ecological integration of geographically dispersed tropical ecosystems and the need for comprehensive conservation strategies that include representation of the full array of regional habitats and a greater emphasis on maintaining connectivity. The bellbird's migratory pattern reveals serious inadequacies in protected-area networks of Costa Rica, a country that is considered to have one of the best systems of national parks and reserves in the Neotropics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information about the recycled paper used by the Ecological Society of America for publishing the journal "Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment." From August 2005, the Society have started to print the journal on 100% recycled, 10% post-consumer waste, acid-free, processed chlorine-free paper. The new paper is manufactured by American Eagle, a small mill which makes only recycled paper. The cover page of the journal also uses a 50% recycled, 15% post-consumer sheet, treated with an aqueous glaze, and it is also fully recyclable.

Although green training has been shown in past research to promote environmentally responsible behaviors at work, scholars have paid less attention to its influence on employees' eco‐friendly behaviors outside of work. This omission is critical because confining green training research to the work domain obscures its benefits in promoting employees' pro‐environmental behaviors beyond the workplace, and thus its role in supporting organizational efforts to conserve the natural environment. To address this gap, we examine the direct and indirect (via connectedness to nature) relationships between green training and employees' eco‐friendly behaviors outside of work, including consumption of eco‐friendly products, reuse of items and materials, and reduced consumption of resources such as water, electricity, and paper. We also examine the moderating influence of intrinsic spirituality on the direct link between green training and connectedness to nature, as well as the indirect link between green training and eco‐friendly behaviors beyond the workplace. Using time‐lagged, multisource data, we find support for our hypotheses. Our findings advance knowledge on the important yet largely overlooked role of green training in shaping employees' environmentally responsible behaviors outside of the workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Conservation Biology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper, we use the InVEST model and five periods of land use data from 1980 to 2020 to assess the habitat quality of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in Western China, which has characteristics of a typical fragile ecosystem. We further analyse the spatial and temporal characteristics of habitat quality evolution and its relationship with land use and landscape pattern indices to explore the close relationship between regional habitat quality changes and human natural resource conservation and utilization. The research results show that the overall habitat quality of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region was stable and at a moderate level (0.57–0.60) during the 40 years from 1980 to 2020; Habitat patches (2020) with low (24.89%), high (22.45%) and very high (29.81%) quality occupy a larger proportion of the area, followed by very low (13.31%) and moderate levels (9.54%). Over the past 40 years, there have been 275 sample sites in Ningxia where habitat quality has deteriorated, 1593 sample sites where the habitat quality has remained stable, and 184 sample sites where the habitat quality has increased. From 1980 to 2020, the Mean Patch Area of landscape types in Ningxia decreased by 25.9 hm2. The Patch Density increased by 0.06 /hm2. The Largest Patch Index decreased by 15.69%. The Edge Density increased by 2.5 m/hm2. The Contagion Index decreased by 2.99%. The Area‐Weighted Mean Patch Fractal Dimension remained basically unchanged (0.01). The Landscape Shape Index showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing, increasing by 13.94. The Area‐Weighted Mean Shape Index has been reduced by 9.45. The Shannon Diversity Index and Shannon Evenness Index both show an increasing trend, but the amplitude is relatively small, with 0.09 and 0.04, respectively. There was a significant spatial aggregation of high and low habitat quality in Ningxia, with high values usually distributed in the northern and southern areas with good natural conditions and low values distributed in areas with frequent human activities and poor natural conditions. The decrease in habitat quality in Ningxia was mainly due to the expansion of cultivated land and construction land, the increase in landscape fragmentation and the resulting decrease in connectivity. On the other hand, due to the implementation of ecological protection measures, such as the project of returning farmland to pasture and grass to forest, the quality of habitats in Ningxia increased. The conclusions of this study support the idea that the conservation of habitat quality in ecologically fragile areas should fully preserve the original natural habitats and reduce the interference of human activities to increase the habitat suitability of the landscape and the habitat connectivity between patches. At the same time, targeted ecological protection policies should be developed to restore the areas where the habitat quality has been damaged and ultimately maintain the stability of biodiversity and ecosystems in ecologically fragile areas. Meanwhile, for ecologically fragile areas with similar ecological characteristics to those of Ningxia, our research supports the idea of increasing the protection of the stability of the original habitats, increasing the proportion of ecological restoration projects, financial investment and seeking cooperation with local community managers and residents will help to improve the quality of the regional habitats and the enrichment of the biodiversity, and ultimately promote the harmonious coexistence of human beings and nature in the modernized sense of the word. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a request for the submission of reports on sustainable development and identity. The increasing rate of consumption negatively affected the ecological system. Sustainability needs to be contextualized in terms of identities. Identities are influenced by social reality. The papers should examine the aesthetic, emotional. communicative and social aspects of consumption and organizing in different social and cultural contexts. The papers could either be based on empirical findings or be conceptual.

This paper explores the concept of community engagement, aligned with President Jokowi's mission to promote social enterprises, as a means to support the development of a re‐generative circular green economy in Tarumajaya, West Java. The primary focus is on enhancing farming, fishing, and forestry activities with villagers. The Covid‐19 pandemic presented significant challenges for the villagers, particularly in marketing their goods, resulting in financial hardships and an increased vulnerability to debt traps, particularly affecting women. Additionally, a major obstacle to achieving regenerative living is the limited access to land, with approximately 80% of the villagers either landless or owning small plots. Moreover, fishing restrictions imposed by the military to protect the Citarum River have further curtailed access to common grazing land for cattle. Preliminary analysis indicates that adopting intensive farming methods, such as rabbit breeding, mushroom cultivation, and fertiliser production, holds promise for reducing the community's carbon footprint. Overcoming these challenges and mapping pathways towards regenerative living are central objectives of this case study, providing insights and practical strategies to foster sustainable economic and environmental progress in Tarumajaya. Key components of the approach include finding markets for village products, extending access to common resources such as rivers, forests, and hillside terraces to villagers, and providing mentorship to women for supporting their small enterprises. The ongoing partnership with the village involves a community of practice consisting of universities and nongovernmental organisations, while private sector entities, including a gas company and tea and coffee plantations, are engaged in negotiations with the village head to secure additional land access. This study highlights the combination of challenges arising from the lack of access to common resources, limited market opportunities, and the influence of predatory financial institutions during the pandemic. By working closely with the villagers, the case study aims to identify opportunities and support the transition towards a green circular economy that moves away from business as usual and promotes regenerative living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Council on Systems Engineering has long declared a wish to extend the scope of application of systems engineering from its traditional sphere of complex technical systems to more complex sociotechnical systems. The Segura River reclamation project was a successful systems engineering project, involving water treatment and management and environmental regeneration, which falls squarely into the latter category. Taking lessons from this project, the paper sets out to understand the circumstances in which systems engineering can be successful in guiding and managing interventions in nontraditional domains such as transportation, housing, infrastructure, health and environmental systems. This involves an analysis using critical systems thinking. The paper also seeks to suggest how systems engineering must change to ensure success in circumstances that are less propitious for its theory and practice than in the Segura case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper proposes an alternative cyclical economy based on eco‐villages supporting urban hubs to regenerate rural–urban balance based on public education to support eco‐facturing, to use Gunter Pauli's concept. The paper sketches an alternative cyclical economy based on eco‐villages supporting urban hubs to regenerate rural–urban balance based on eco‐facturing. Australia lost over 40 million acres of habitat and at least a billion creatures during the 2019–2020 bushfire season. Africa and Asia are also rapidly urbanizing and rapidly losing habitat. The paper outlines the way in which we could live differently by understanding that production, consumption and regeneration need to follow a natural ecological approach, rather than the current approach to extracting profit at the expense of future generations. Production and regeneration need to be conducted in ways that do not exploit people and the environment. Exchange practices need to ensure that the interests of the few are not expended at the expense of the many. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article assesses whether the papers published in "Conservation Letters" have had an impact on conservation policy and practice.

Societal Impact Statement: We have entered a monumental era in terms of realizing the impact of biodiversity loss on our everyday lives. We suffer from the consequences of biodiversity loss due to overexploitation of natural resources as we continue failing to restore biodiversity. One of the major consequences of biodiversity loss is the emergence of global pandemics. We are in urgent need of realizing the full potential of all of the international legal instruments on creating incentives for biodiversity conservation. Access and benefit‐sharing or ABS is an international legal framework implemented with the hopes that it would provide such incentives. Therefore, a legal analysis on whether ABS is designed to achieve biodiversity conservation is of crucial importance in achieving international conservation targets. Summary: The international ABS regime was put in place with the hope that it would aid the international community in conserving biodiversity and thereby attaining its international conservation targets.This paper conducts an empirical analysis of all of the relevant documents generated during the negotiations of the Nagoya Protocol, the major international legal instrument on ABS, to determine whether the design of the regulatory mechanisms do indeed lead to creating such incentives for conservation.Throughout the negotiations for the Nagoya Protocol, many suggestions were made by the Parties and relevant stakeholders regarding how ABS would result in creating incentives for biodiversity conservation. While some presuppose that benefit‐sharing will inherently result in biodiversity conservation, others specify some economic incentives which would then generate such incentive that would result in governments directing the received benefits into conservation activities.The paper then moves on to analysing the adopted text of the Nagoya Protocol with the aim of mapping the obligations of Parties to channel benefits into conservation. It is concluded that the design of the Nagoya Protocol does not intrinsically lead to biodiversity conservation but benefit‐sharing is a tool that can be directed towards biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an outline of a new research project, funded through UKRI's 'Transforming UK food systems' programme. The H3 project (Healthy soil, Healthy food, Healthy people) aims to transform the UK food system 'from the ground up', through an integrated programme of research at lab, farm, landscape, local, regional and national scales. This article introduces the H3 project with a particular emphasis on those parts of our work that have most direct relevance in terms of improving human diet and nutrition. Specifically, we seek to make early interventions in the food system through biofortification and other measures that reduce the need for costly interventions at later stages. Focusing on low‐income populations and using a 'health by stealth' approach, we also seek to increase fibre consumption among the UK population by reformulating foods that are already an established part of people's diet. The paper concludes by assessing the likely impact of these interventions and the significance we attach to working with stakeholders in business, government and civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few years, the Lean 4.0 concept has emerged and gained prominence on the world stage for waste and efficient natural resources management, once including the Lean thinking philosophy for management and technologies from Industry 4.0 for supporting and sharing data and information among the actors in the supply chain. This new management technic allows reorganizes the business process and stimulates the circular supply chain based on intelligent services and sharing data, information and know‐how among the actors in production systems. However, it is not clear in the current literature that the opportunities are linked to the relationship between Lean 4.0 and the efficient use of resources in the agro‐industrial environment. Based on the exposure, this paper intends to show an agenda for future research linked to Lean 4.0 in the value co‐creation in agro‐industrial services. We identified five topics for future research that are related to Lean 4.0 for efficient resource use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social innovation projects commonly refer to operationalized theories of change to inform strategy and to deliver intended outcomes. Community‐based sustainability campaigns, as one example, emphasize the elicitation of pro‐environmental activities and decision‐making among members of a host community, drawing on mainstream psychological theories of behaviour, motivation and cognitive (mental) processes. Locating an argument within the neurobiological base of structure determinism, this paper explores how theories of change for sustainability campaigns might be reimagined through the lens of enactive theory. Following a brief introduction to the enactive model of embodied cognition, implications associated with trying to operationalize the model to inform how theories of change are mapped out and used in sustainability initiatives are discussed. The paper concludes by drawing on insights from approaches to psychotherapy, which also endeavoured to apply this model of mind, and considers these within the strategic context of sustainability initiatives and public engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article announces the call for papers on the sustainable development in Africa, which will be issued by the United Nations Department of Economic and published by Blackwell in May 2008. The topics include combating desertification, educational promotion, poverty eradication, food security and health and post-conflict development. An overview of the article requirements are offered together with its submission deadline which is on October 15, 2007. The focus of the future issue's theme will be considered by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development in its 16th and 17th sessions.

Tropical coral reefs are highly diverse and globally threatened. Management to ensure their persistence requires sound biological knowledge in regions where coral reef biodiversity and/or the threats to it are greatest. This paper uses a novel text analysis approach and Google Maps™ to examine the spatial coverage of scientific papers on coral reefs listed in Web of Science. Results show that research is highly clumped spatially, positively related to per capita gross domestic product, negatively related to coral species richness, and unrelated to threats to coral reefs globally; indicating a serious mismatch between conservation needs and the knowledge required for effective management. Greater research effort alone cannot guarantee better conservation outcomes, but given some regions of the world (e.g., Central Indo-Pacific) remain severely understudied, priority allocation of resources to fill such knowledge gaps should support greater adaptive management capacity through the development of an improved knowledge base for reef managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of the demand for hunting licenses in Alberta from 1968 to 2004. Regression analysis was used to estimate the effects of some of the commonly thought reasons for the decline in hunting participation in Alberta; specifically, the effects of changes in wildlife certificate prices, species license prices, income levels, and the proportion of the population living in urban areas. I found that hunting appears to be an inferior good since the income elasticity of demand was elastic—as provincial income levels increase, it is expected that less people will participate in hunting. In addition, the price elasticity of demand was inelastic indicating that raising license prices could theoretically generate increased revenues for wildlife management. I further hypothesize that if hunting participation needs to be increased for wildlife management purposes, it can be accomplished by decreasing the prices of licenses without directly affecting the revenue generated. Ultimately, we must realize that many of the hypothesized reasons for the decline in hunting participation in Alberta are qualitative and non-economic in nature and are thus difficult to include in most analyses. Whereas price and income are important determinants of hunting demand, they are only part of the story. In an attempt to increase household expenditure on shell eggs, producers have differentiated production to offer consumers a multitude of specialty egg varieties. These varieties lie in one of two general classifications; eggs which are nutritionally enhanced, and those which are produced under alternate production techniques yet are otherwise nutritionally equivalent to their generic counterparts. This study uses two surveys developed in 2005 and 2006 focusing on consumer attitudes, potentially impacting egg preferences. The data were then analyzed with a multinomial logit regression utilizes attitude factor scores and demographic characteristics. This study reveals what consumer attitudes and demographic traits are associated with preferences for vegetarian, free-run, organic, vitamin-enhanced and omega-3-enhanced egg types with two significant conclusions. It is first shown that consumers have a strong preference for free-run eggs and second that there appears to be confusion surrounding egg attributes. This is revealed by the result that health conscious consumers show a greater willingness to pay (WTP) for free-run, vegetarian or organic eggs, while revealing a negative WTP for nutritionally enhanced varieties (omega-3 and vitamin-enhanced). Deciphering consumer attitudes towards egg varieties is an important aspect of developing marketing strategies, predicting policy change implications and in understanding consumer views towards industry directions. Proliferation of differentiated products may not increase demand in the targeted segments, it may confuse consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Biotropica is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The post-2015 moment is a moment in time in which multiple efforts are being made to envision a better long-term future for humanity and to forge, post-2015, a new and different global development trajectory. There is a need for not only new global goals but also a new global development paradigm. The papers in this special issue assess the Sustainable Development Goals in the making and offer constructive suggestions to further a paradigm shift that would bring the post-2015 development agenda to life in a transformative way rather than sustain business as usual. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Rees et al. (2014b), we reviewed the current status of environmental DNA ( eDNA) to monitor aquatic populations. Our aim was to focus on discussion of methodologies used, application of eDNA analysis as a survey tool in ecology, and to include some innovative ideas for using eDNA in conservation and management., Roussel et al. (2015) claim that analysis of Rees et al. (2014b) and other publications highlights the downsides of the method, and they suggest that some conclusions should be toned down. Many of their arguments were covered in our original paper (Rees et al., 2014b); however, they make the point that modelling approaches should be encouraged, and we fully agree with this suggestion., Roussel et al. (2015) also claim that we neglected to recognize that there are two sources of imperfect detection (at the field level and at the laboratory level). We feel that our review paper implies this point., Synthesis and applications. Roussel et al. (2015) reiterate many of the points made in the original paper but do cover some additional areas that improve the debate on the use of environmental DNA ( eDNA). Both the comment (Roussel et al., 2015) and our rebuttal clearly highlight that detailed laboratory protocols and rigorous field sampling design are crucial factors which require sufficient reporting in the literature to allow for experimental comparison and replication. Any development of a new method for eDNA detection should be compared directly with established 'gold standard' methods for the detection of the species or habitat under investigation. None of the issues raised in Roussel et al. (2015) would alter our main conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A list of books and literature related to wildlife conservation is presented. These include "Applying Nature's Design: Corridors as a Strategy for Biodiversity Conservation," by A.B. Anderson, "Endangered Species Act at Thirty: Conserving Biodiversity in Human-Dominated Landscapes," vol. 2, by J.M. Scott, D.D. Goble and F.W. Davis, and "Scaled Quail in Texas: Their Biology and Management," by R. Cantu, D. Rollins and S.P. Lerich.

Recent years have seen a continued critical reflection on the "post" or "more‐than" representational landscape as well as a related critique of nature which centres on this concept as a deployment of meanings and their effects. In this paper, I want to explore the possibilities and challenges of widening access to these more entangled and performative understandings of nature and landscape through the example of winter roosting starlings and the spectacle of the starling mumuration. In doing so, the paper also explores the dominant educational constructions of nature as utilised in conservation work and informal educational television, the consideration of the latter taken up through my own work on a forthcoming BBC television series. The focus of this exploration is the RSPB Ham Wall nature reserve on the Somerset Levels, widely regarded as one of the prime locations in Britain for observing murmurations, and where the number of visitors coming specifically to view roosting starlings on a winter's evening can reach 1,000 people. While in many ways the reserve maintains conventional roles of warden‐led stewardship and observational education of nature "in its place," I also want to suggest that the spectacle of the starling murmuration affords an opportunity to convey humans and non‐humans as embedded in a more performative understanding of conservation which challenges the predominant conventions of conservation practice. In this more reflexive educational context, the possibility exists to frame an accessible and illustrative understanding of the geographies of a more entangled human–non‐human nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology advancements in fisheries science can provide useful tools to support natural resource management and conservation. However, new technologies may also present challenges for decision makers due to the lack of a standardized process to assess technologies for consideration within management plans. Future technology development in fishery and water resources could benefit from a framework that assigns an appropriate technology development stage and defines the readiness for implementation. Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) are one established research and development scale used throughout engineering and related disciplines that could be applied to natural resource management tools. The TRL assess the maturity of a technology from nascent idea through a fully developed technology. Steps within this scale could provide a general framework for researchers to follow when planning and conducting studies, while similarly providing a standard scale for resource managers to assess readiness for technology transfer and implementation. The goal of this paper is to describe TRL in the context of natural resource management tools and offer this existing framework as one option to facilitate communication between researchers and managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managing water and food systems in South Africa is complex given the factors involved in sustainably managing the sector. To ensure sustainable management of water and agricultural systems, equal access to natural resources, and economic equality, the government has implemented policies to regulate the systems and ensure economic growth. However, the unintended consequences of these policies on the sustainability of water and agricultural systems have not been fully understood in South Africa. This paper identified and analysed four system archetypes believed to have implications for current water and agricultural development policies in South Africa. These are 'Limits to Growth', 'Fixes that Fail', 'Shifting the Burden', and the 'Attractiveness Principle'. The results show that policies implemented by the government ensure inclusiveness, equal access to natural resources, and improve productivity in the short‐term; the unintended consequences will ultimately undermine sustainability and food security over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Providers of potable water to households and businesses are charged with conserving water. Addressing this challenge requires accurate information about how water is actually being used. So smart meters are being deployed on a large scale by water providers to collect medium resolution water use data. This paper presents water use signature patterns, the first technique designed for medium resolution meters for discovering patterns that explain how households use water. Signature patterns are clusters (subsets) of water meter readings specified by patterns on volumes and calendar dates. Four types of signature pattern are introduced in this paper: continuous flow days; exceptional peak use days; programmed patterns with recurrent hours; and normal use partitioned by season and period of the day. Signature patterns for each household are calculated using efficient selection rules that scale for city populations and years of data collection. Data from a real-world, large-scale, smart metering trial are analyzed using water use signature patterns. The results demonstrate that water use behaviors are distinctive, for both individuals and populations. Signatures can identify behaviors that are promising targets for water conservation. Pattern discovery can be automated with an efficient and scalable computer program. By identifying relevant consumption patterns in medium resolution meter data, water use signature patterns can help to achieve the water conservation potential of large-scale smart metering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conservation groups are always challenged with assigning limited resources to interventions they assume will have the most effective impact in addressing threats to their conservation targets. These decisions are often made based on experience and perceived outcomes, rather than evidence. In the past decade, multiple public awareness and proactive law enforcement activities have been initiated in the Congo Republic to address the illegal wildlife trade. This paper presents the challenges faced and lessons learned in shifting from experience to evidence-based program evaluation related to the effectiveness of billboards in informing and inspiring local populations to support positive conservation behavior with regard to great apes., (© 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Despite large investments of funding into great ape conservation in Africa, wild populations of gorillas (Gorilla ssp), chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes ssp) and bonobos (Pan paniscus) continue to decline. Causes for this decline fall into three broad categories: habitat loss, illegal hunting, and disease. Contributing factors to all of these causes are linked to pressure from the expanding human population competing for forest resources. We have moved beyond the time of debating the pros and cons of including human engagement activities in conservation. If humans are part of the problem, they must also be part of the solution. To move our understanding of which human engagement activities are effective, what methodologies are being used and best practices for setting up a successful framework, we interviewed practitioners representing 53 projects working in great ape habitat in Africa. The interviewees represented almost 900 years of experience with African great ape conservation. We found that all practitioners agreed that for conservation to succeed, projects must engage with humans utilizing resources from great ape habitats. However, evaluation of such work was elusive. Projects that employed at least one person designated as an educator were more likely to have structured programs, regular engagement activities, and to evaluate their work. To date, little information on the success or failure of the activities has been published, thus perpetuating the problem of relying on personal experience rather than evidence when developing new engagement programs. Additionally, linking human engagement activities to biological impact remains a challenge. The results presented in this paper demonstrate the importance placed on human engagement activities to effectively conserve great apes in Africa while at the same time identifies gaps in our understanding on the link between such activities and project success., (© 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Conservation biogeography involves the application of biogeographical principles, theories, and analyses to problems regarding biodiversity conservation. The field was formally defined in 2005, and considerable research has been conducted in the ensuing 5 years. This editorial sets the context for 16 contributions in a special issue of Diversity and Distributions on developments and challenges in conservation biogeography. Papers are grouped into the following main themes: species distribution modelling; data requirements; approaches for assigning conservation priorities; approaches for integrating information from numerous disparate sources; special challenges involving invasive species; and the crucial issue of determining how elements of biodiversity are likely to respond to rapid climate change. One paper provides a synthesis of requirements for a robust conservation biogeography for freshwater ecosystems. Conservation biogeography is well poised to make a significant contribution to the process of providing policy makers with objectively formulated scenarios and options for the effective management of biodiversity. The editorial, and the papers in the special issue, deliberate on many of the exciting developments in play in the field, and the many complex challenges that lie ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We detail the known and anticipated consequences of the current COVID-19 pandemic for conservation, sourced from the emerging peer-reviewed literature and six conservation case studies, which were drawn from our collective experiences as conservation scientists, practitioners and leaders from government and non-governmental authorities, charities and research institutions. Envisioning a resilient future for biodiversity conservation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic Opportunities for biodiversity conservation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic The outcomes of COVID-19 on biodiversity conservation are still emerging, but have the potential to be severe and wide-ranging (Corlett et al., 2020; Lindsey et al., 2020; CS1-CS6). Cross-cutting issues for biodiversity conservation as identified from the COVID-19 pandemic We identified five cross-cutting conservation issues that were being caused, or were likely to be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic (Table 2; Figure 2). Keywords: coronavirus; human-wildlife interactions; SARS-CoV-2; shocks; social-ecological systems; sustainability; tourism; zoonotic transmission EN coronavirus human-wildlife interactions SARS-CoV-2 shocks social-ecological systems sustainability tourism zoonotic transmission 990 1013 24 10/11/21 20211001 NES 211001 Postscript note It is with great sadness that we note the death of one of our co-authors, Yunsiska Ermiasi, from COVID-19 on 5 August 2021, 2 days before this paper was accepted for publication. [Extracted from the article]

Purpose: To highlight ongoing and emergent roles of nurses and midwives in advancing the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 at the intersection of social and economic inequity, the climate crisis, interprofessional partnership building, and the rising status and visibility of the professions worldwide. Design: Discussion paper. Methods: Literature review. Findings: Realizing the Sustainable Development Goals will require all nurses and midwives to leverage their roles and responsibility as advocates, leaders, clinicians, scholars, and full partners with multidisciplinary actors and sectors across health systems. Conclusions: Making measurable progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals is critical to human survival, as well as the survival of the planet. Nurses and midwives play an integral part of this agenda at local and global levels. Clinical Relevance: Nurses and midwives can integrate the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals into their everyday clinical work in various contexts and settings. With increased attention to social justice, environmental health, and partnership building, they can achieve exemplary clinical outcomes directly while contributing to the United Nations 2030 Agenda on a global scale and raising the profile of their professions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the author talks about the mapping of invasive species, conservation of natural resources, and management of ecosystems.

Estimation of the infiltration/natural recharge to groundwater from rainfall is an important issue in hydrology, particularly in arid regions. This paper proposes the application of The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) mass balance model to develop infiltration (F)–rainfall (P) relationship from flash flood events. Moreover, the NRCS method is compared with the rational and the Ф‐index methods to investigate the discrepancies between these methods. The methods have been applied to five gauged basins and their 19 sub‐basins (representative basins with detailed measurements) in the southwestern part of Saudi Arabia with 161 storms recorded in 4 years. The F–P relationships developed in this study based on NRCS method are: F = 39% P with R2 = 0.932 for the initial abstraction factor, λ = 0.2. However, F = 77% P with R2 = 0.986 for λ = 0.01. The model at λ = 0.01 is the best to fit the data, therefore, it is recommended to use the formula at λ = 0.01. The results show that the NRCS model is appropriate for the estimation of the F–P relationships in arid regions when compared with the rational and the Ф index methods. The latter overestimates the infiltration because they do not take λ into account. There is no significant difference between F–P relationships at different time scales. This helps the prediction of infiltration rates for aquifer recharge at ungauged basins from monthly and annual rainfall data with a single formula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing a clear understanding of the links between poverty and natural resources degradation remained a vital task in the poverty reduction and sustainable resources conservation process. Accordingly, this paper explores the poverty and natural resources degradation linkages in Lake Tana Basin of Ethiopia. With the application of simultaneous order probit econometric model, this paper argues that a one-sided argument of poverty that causes natural resources degradation is challenged, as poverty not only contributes to natural resources degradation but also natural resources degradation contributes to poverty along with other factors. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely acknowledged that ecosystems often cannot be considered as separated from social systems, but that they should rather be seen as interacting, cross‐scaled, coupled systems operating on multiple temporal and spatial scales. Humans have an increasing impact on ecosystems worldwide, while at the same time ecosystems are of critical importance for the functioning of human systems through ecosystems services. Often the term “social ecological systems” is used in approaches that consider ecological and social systems as integrated systems. This paper aims to contribute to clarification of the different relationships between social and ecological systems. The focus is on the social side of ecological restoration and conservation, in particular on participation, indigenous knowledge, governance, and ethics. It is concluded that in restoration and conservation of social ecological systems more attention should be paid to the role of social systems and conditions on which ecosystems depend. It implies awareness of the importance of engaging stakeholders and fostering public debate and deliberation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about several papers discussed at the Easter meeting of the British Ecological Society held in London, England from April 3-4, 1951 is presented. Topics include the ecology of Hydropsychideae, or Tricoptera, the localization of Cladocera in lakes and ponds and the relationship between the natural habitat preferences of a particular animal and the choice of alternative ones' in towns. A topic on nature conservation was also discussed.

While traditional academic accounts of activism emphasise vocal, antagonistic and demonstrative forms of protest, geographers have begun to expand the category of activism to include modest, quotidian acts of kindness, connection and creativity. This paper outlines 'quiet activism' as small, everyday, embodied acts, often of making and creating, that can be either implicitly or explicitly political in nature. This concept is explored with seed savers, gardeners who cultivate fruits and vegetables and then select and save seed to provide future generations of plants for themselves and others. It draws on ethnographic research with individuals involved in a national seed conservation network (The Heritage Seed Library) and a local seed swap event (Seedy Sunday, Brighton) in the UK. These organisations connect individual seed savers and frame their quiet acts of growing and sharing as part of a broad movement to conserve biodiversity and challenge the corporate control of food and seed systems. The paper unpicks the implications of embodied activisms performed at varying volumes, and it highlights the need for scholars to attend to the differing embodiments called for by various modes of activism in order to trace their particular impacts, emotions and affects. The experiences of seed savers elucidate the particular power of small and quiet acts of making and doing to critique, subvert and rework dominant modes of production and consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the post-positivist turn in the 20th century, many scholars and philosophers have argued for the importance of Other Ways Of Knowing - including local, embodied, situated, partial, and indigenous knowledges - in developing a better understanding of the world. This argument has been further stressed by a large subset of scholars working in the fields of geography, policy, planning, natural resource management, and community development, yet in practice, positivism retains its epistemological dominance. Drawing from a case study of a dam proposal at Traveston Crossing, Queensland, Australia, this paper will explore these epistemological tensions from the perspective of those whose first/primary ways of knowing about the issue were marginalised, namely the local activists who opposed the proposal. Using data gathered from document analysis and interviews, the paper will explore how these activists implicitly understood this epistemological marginalisation, how they adopted and employed positivist knowledge and language to further the exposure and credibility of their campaign, how this credibility was mediated by their identities, how they strategically deployed different forms of knowledge at local, national, and international scales, and how their successful navigation of these epistemological tensions was critical to the ultimate success of their campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change threatens endangered species and challenges current conservation strategies. Effective conservation requires vulnerability assessments for species susceptible to climate change and adaptive strategies to mitigate threats associated with climate. In this paper, we used the Maxent to model the impacts of climate change on habitat suitability of Sichuan golden monkey Rhinopithecus roxellana. Our results showed that (i) suitable habitat for Sichuan golden monkey was predicted to decrease by 37% in 2050s under climate change; (ii) the mean elevations of suitable habitat in the 2050s was estimated to shift 160 m higher; (iii) nature reserves protect 62% of current suitable habitat and 56% of future suitable habitat; and (iv) 49% of current suitable habitat was predicted to be vulnerable to future climate change. Given these results, we proposed conservation implications to mitigate the impacts of climate change on Sichuan golden monkey, including adjusting range of national park, establishing habitat corridors, and conducting long-term monitoring., (© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Threats to the national parks in the United States are many and varied. These range from climate changes, animal/fish population cycle variations, invasive species introduction, and cultural affects of indigenous peoples to problems associated with natural disasters, oil spills, land development, and criminal enterprises. The U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service (NPS) has issued a Natural Resource Challenge to pursue the preservation of the many diverse national parks in all 50 states and U.S. territories. According to the NPS National Park Service Action Plan for preserving natural resources, a focused methodology is necessary to achieve this challenge. By investigating the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve (WRST) in Southeastern Alaska as a specific illustration of a complex U.S. national park environment, this paper proposes a solution for national park protection in the 21st century via the application of a network-enabled effects-based requirements approach married with a well-defined extended enterprise architecture. The interconnection of planning systems, monitoring sensors, visualization tools, and other information sources will allow for knowledge instantiation and quick reaction to national park threats. This paper further discusses some command systems in use by U.S. forestry agencies and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) that could be used to form an initial realization of a network-enabled, effects-based approach to national park protection. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper engages critically with the monolithic presentation of whale watching as the antithesis of whale hunting. It begins by tackling the reductive and homogenized portrayal of whale watching in mainstream environmental discourse as diametrically opposite to whale hunting and argues that such discourse likely obscures the existence of bad whale watching conduct. Next it reveals significant continuities between whale hunting and whale watching, especially the fetishized commoditization of cetaceans and the creation of a metabolic rift in human–cetacean relations. In both contexts nature is produced first and foremost according to capitalist principles, which problematizes the pervasive assumption that whale watching correlates primarily and directly with conservation. Finally, the paper examines two different business models and the production of distinct ecological and community development effects. The results of the comparison justify the need for more critical and effective environmental non-governmental organization approaches to cetourism vis-à-vis nature conservation goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) emerged as a popular concept in the water sector in the 20th century. From a highly techno-centric approach in the past, it has taken a new turn embracing Habermasian communicative rationality as a place-based nexus for multiple actors to consensually and communicatively integrate decisions in a hydrological unit. The ‘how to integrate’ approach had remarkable appeal worldwide in promoting authentic participation of all stakeholders. However, critics argue that the domain of water resource management is a political process of contestation and negotiation; the emphasis is on complexities, contextuality, power dynamics and the importance of analysing real world situations. They demonstrate ‘how integration cannot be achieved’ given the power dynamics in social interactions. These apparently contradictory discourses draw on different theoretical paradigms and polarise the discourse on IWRM, without offering constructive alternatives. To this end, this paper offers an option to complement this polarised discourse by examining ‘how integration actually does take place’ in a strategic context thereby facilitating consensual decisions to integrate water management for a sustainable future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change impacts to ocean ecosystems are altering the distribution and abundance of fish populations and impacting the people whose health, well-being, and livelihoods depend on them. Thousands of published papers make it very clear that fish are on the move, alterations in productivity are occurring, and natural and human ecosystems are responding to climate variability and change. Across the globe, numerous high-level strategies have been developed to provide guidance for managing fisheries in the face of climate change, but specific examples of implementation and actionable decision making in real-world situations to address climate change impacts are generally lacking. Here we present a review of tangible actions that have been undertaken to reduce, mitigate, and confront climate change impacts to fisheries at a range of levels from individual choice to federal governance. Actions fall into seven general categories covering conservation of natural marine resources, emerging fisheries, reference points, future planning, integrated monitoring and management, and increasing adaptive capacity across all levels. We found that diverse fishery actors around the globe, including managers, scientists, and industry, are taking actions to address climate impacts, but given the scale of the problem there are relatively few intentional, well-documented examples of tactical responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]