bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Environmental Imperative of Nuclear Disarmament
Authors: Tolba Mostafa K. , Westing Arthur H. , Polunin Nicholas
Published: August 2009

The world is threatened as never before by an insane buildup of nuclear weapons some five hundred times as strong in their explosive capacity as the latest estimate of all the chemical explosives that have ever been used throughout history. Leaders in major countries probably know the awful consequences of a nuclear war too well to start one, but the world has still to reckon with possible acts of aggression by other nations or flaring-up through technological failure, mechanical or other accident, malfunctioning or faulty feeding of computers, misinformation, neglect of machines or of constructional faults, terrorist or lunatic action, organized banditry, or the outcome of mere ‘acts of God’!
Land-use Trends in the Brazilian Amazon Region as Factors in Accelerating Deforestation
Authors: Fearnside Philip M.
Published: August 2009

In Amazonia, land-uses requiring large inputs of labour and other resources per hectare, such as annual and perennial crops, can be expected to decrease in relative importance as compared with uses such as cattle ranching and forest cutting for timber and charcoal. Cattle ranching has already claimed the largest share of cleared areas in the region, even in comparatively fertile areas including Rondônia in southwestern Amazonia where crops such as cacao account for most credit disbursement and official fanfare. The trend to cattle pasture includes expansion within small-farmer settlement zones—a process spurred by turnover in the colonist population. In other areas of the region, the trend to ranching stems from continued proliferation and expansion of large concerns which profit both from speculative gains and various governmental subsidies.
Extensive ‘Bleaching’ and Death of Reef Corals on the Pacific Coast of Panamá
Authors: Glynn Peter W.
Published: August 2009

Recent ‘bleaching’ and death of hermatypic (reef-building) corals has occurred extensively in Pacific Ocean waters of Panamá (Gulf of Chiriquí), near the Panamá-Costa Rica border. All hydrocorals (Millepora spp.) and scleractinian corals (5 genera) have been affected to some degree in the non-upwelling environment of Chiriquí. No other members of the macrobenthos showed signs of stress (lowered activities, morbidity) or reduced abundance. The affected area, including the mainland, nearshore and offshore islands, and adjacent waters, is about 10,000 km2. Further surveys in the Gulf of Chiriquí may reveal even more extensive mortality.

This disturbance began in the dry season (January–April 1983), during a period of clear skies, low rainfall, and minimal river drainage. I first observed large, ‘bleached’ coral patches (up to 100 m2 in area) in mid-March, and observations by others indicate that coral ‘bleaching’ occurred in February and possibly as early as mid-January. Normal and ‘bleached’ corals observed in mid-March were ‘bleached’ and dead, respectively, by the end of April, suggesting that the disturbance is protracted. By the end of the dry season, 80 to 95% of all corals in the affected areas were severely ‘bleached’ or dead.
Air Pollution Threats to US National Parks of the Great Lakes Region
Authors: Armentano Thomas V. , Loucks Orie L.
Published: August 2009

The Great Lakes region of the interior of North America supports a large human population, a major industrial base, and recreational and scenic amenities of unusual contrast and quality. To protect portions of this landscape and meet national recreational needs, the US Federal Government has established 10 National Parks, Monuments, and Lakeshores, in the region, extending from northern Minnesota to the southern shore of Lake Erie. However, air pollutant sources from the industrial Midwest, and large-scale coal combustion for electricity along the Ohio Valley, show evidence of significantly threatening the resource qualities protected in these parks.

A review of the natural resources and amenities in each of the National Parks, Monuments, and Lakeshores, in the region shows that scenic vistas are of primary significance, with unique biota (largely northern coniferous species and associated bird-life) and clear water also prominent. Pollutant concentrations in the southern sites, however, are above the thresholds that are known to produce stress, foliage damage, and altered growth-rates on many sensitive species, including the coniferous trees. These pollutants include gases such as sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides (NOX) that are primary emissions of relatively local origin, as well as pollutants such as sulphate particulates, ozone, and acidic deposition, produced by chemical transformations during long-distance atmospheric transport. The particulates, in combination with the high average summer humidity, produce a reduction of visibility at the southern sites, and hence the partial loss of an important amenity.
Combating Desertification: Evaluation of Progress
Authors: Dregne Harold E.
Published: August 2009

Despite all that has been accomplished with an uncoordinated global programme, the exaggerated expectations following UNCOD have not come close to being realized. Land degradation continues widely, even though in places dunes are being stabilized, trees planted, and there is some success in reducing salinization of irrigated land. Too little effort is directed towards field control of desertification. All of the indirect contributions to desertification control (education, research, training, increasing awareness, assessments, etc.) will, presumably, assist in combating desertification in the field at some time in the future. It appears certain, however, that there will be no dramatic improvement by the year 2000 unless there is far more focusing of efforts on field projects than at present. Here the activities of NGOs and some governmental agencies are to be appauded but should also be multiplied and strengthened—wherever possible with community involvement and adequate incentives.
The Ogallala Aquifer and Carbon Dioxide: Comparison and Convergence
Authors: Glantz Michael H. , Ausubel Jesse H.
Published: August 2009

Much attention within the scientific community has focused on the effects of a possible increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. The impact of the increase in the CO2 content of the atmosphere is usually discussed in terms of global averages. Little information has been presented on what the regional effects of a CO2-induced global warming might be. Recent attempts at identifying local effects of such a warming suggest that, as the atmospheric CO2 content continues to rise, there will be an increase in the frequency, duration, and severity, of droughts in the United States Great Plains.

Agricultural activities in the Great Plains today are highly dependent on water drawn from the underlying Ogallala Aquifer. Yet, there is great concern that the water is being drawn out at rates that far exceed its natural rates of recharge. While the Aquifer's thickness and rates of drawdown differ at different parts of the Great Plains, some regions are already in precarious positions because of the depletion of their portion of the Aquifer.
Widespread Coral Mortality and the 1982–83 El Niño Warming Event
Authors: Glynn Peter W.
Published: August 2009

The massive ‘bleaching’ (loss of zooxanthellae) and death of reef corals that occurred in one area (Gulf of Chiriquí) on the Pacific side of Panamá and in the Galápagos Islands during February—April 1983 continued in these areas until September—October 1983, resulting in a catastrophic disturbance. Similar episodes have been reported subsequently throughout much of the tropical eastern Pacific region (Costa Rica, the entire Pacific coast of Panamá, and Colombia), in the central and western Pacific Ocean, in parts of the western Atlantic Ocean (Caribbean coasts of Costa Rica, Panamá, and Colombia), and in the Florida Keys and Bahama Islands.
Trace-metals and Chlorinated Hydrocarbons in Birds' Eggs from the Delta of the Danube
Authors: Fossi Cristina , Focardi Silvano , Leonzio Claudio , Renzoni Aristeo
Published: August 2009

Trace-elements (Hg, Se, Cd, and Pb) and chlorinated hydrocarbons (HCB, α-HCH, γ-HCH, DDTs, and PCB) were analysed in eggs of seven species of birds (White Pelican, Common Cormorant, Pygmy Cormorant, Glossy Ibis, Grey Heron, Night Heron, and Mallard) collected in the Danube Delta. The species are at various levels of the food-chain.

Trace elements:—cadmium and lead occurred in very low concentrations (Cd<0.025 μg/g dw; Pb<0.250 μg/g dw) as is usually the case; mercury reached high levels in predatory birds (4.9 ppm in the Common Cormorant); selenium concentrations were quite high but homogeneous in the different species. No correlation between selenium and mercury concentrations was found, suggesting that the possible protective action of selenium enters into effect only when a certain threshold of mercury concentration has been reached.

Chlorinated hydrocarbons:—DDTs (particularly pp'DDE) occured at very high levels in the first three species; PCB levels are lower than those of DDTs; the PCB/DDE ratio is about 0.3–0.8 (such values are described as typical of agricultural zones and quite different from those found in the Mediterranean and in the East Atlantic); Lindane is present in amounts greater than those found in the two above-mentioned areas; α-HCH and HCB levels are similar to those of other areas. The possible pathway of these toxicants within the body and their impact on reproductive success is discussed, albeit somewhat conjecturally.
The Arctic as a Regional Sea
Authors: Nelson J. Gordon , Needham Roger D.
Published: August 2009

Although many people still view the Arctic as little affected by human activity, the region has been the home of Man for thousands of years and its wildlife and ecology have been changed in many ways in the last four hundred years as a result particularly of the commercial and technical activities of western industrial nations. Three forces are, however, now bringing more and more attention to the use and conservation of arctic lands and seas: (a) arctic petroleum exploration and development, which is becoming increasingly extensive offshore in Alaska, Canada, and Norway; (2) The Law of the Sea Convention, which is leading to the division of the formerly open Arctic into large spheres of national jurisdiction through the declaration of Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ); and (3) the World Conservation Strategy, which is providing the conceptual basis for the international cooperation and comprehensive management that is clearly needed to introduce sustainable development in the Arctic.

It is suggested that one promising means of planning and implementing balanced use and conservation in the waters and adjacent lands of the Arctic is through the UNEP Regional Seas Programme. This institutional arrangement is already being used in similar resource-management circumstances in eleven other regions of the world. The Regional Seas Programme is action-oriented and includes four basic elements: (1) promotion of international and regional conventions, guidelines, and activities; (2) assessment of marine pollution and related effects; (3) coordination in protection, development, and management; and (4) support through training, education, and other means.
Effects of Human Activities on Zambia's Kafue Flats Ecosystems
Authors: Sheppe Walter A. , Allan Donald
Published: August 2009

Hydroelectric dams have markedly altered the extensive floodplain of Zambia's Kafue River Flats. Before the dams were built in the 1970s, some 6,000 km2 of floodplain were under water for several months each year, permitting a dense growth of grasses and forbs that supported large populations of ungulates and waterbirds. Now a dam at the lower end of the Flats has permanently inundated parts of the floodplain, and a dam at the upper end has reduced the seasonal flooding, so that much of the floodplain is now probably permanently dry. When the Flats was revisited in 1983, the effect of the dams was obscured by the effects of drought, hunting, and human use.

In 1983, plant growth in most places was much less luxuriant than it had been before impoundment. Bird populations seemed much smaller than formerly, and populations of at least some ungulates had declined. The most abundant ungulate, the Lechwe (Kobus leche), is reported to have declined by about half in the last eight years.
Four Decades of Environmental Change and Their Influence upon Native Wildlife and Fish on the Mid-Columbia River, Washington, USA
Authors: Rickard William H. , Watson Donald G.
Published: August 2009

The Hanford Reach of the Columbia River has experienced a great deal of human-imposed environmental change within the past 40 years, as has much of the adjacent land. The major disturbances have been from hydroelectric dams' construction and an intensive expansion of irrigated agriculture. A notable exception to the steady expansion of agriculture and dam-building has been the 1,400 km2 Hanford Site, which was established in 1943. Today, the Hanford Site consists mostly of undeveloped land that still supports native vegetation. It is free from agricultural practices, and has also been essentially free from livestock grazing and the shooting of animal wildlife. This conservative land-use has favoured populations of native wildlife that use the riverine habitats of the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River—e.g. Mule Deer, Canada Goose, and Great Blue Heron, are notable instances.

The Hanford Reach supports the only mainstem Chinook Salmon spawning habitat on the Columbia River. This population is maintained by a combination of natural spawning and artificial propagation in concert with a regulated harvest of returning adults. Numbers of mainstem spawning Salmon have increased markedly in the past 10 years, and this has attracted increasing numbers of wintering Bald Eagles to the Hanford Reach.
Institutional Arrangements for a System of Environmentally Significant Areas: The Case of the East Beaufort Sea Area, Canada
Authors: Nelson J. Gordon , Smith Paul G.R.
Published: August 2009

A method is described of matching environmentally significant areas (ESAs) with the most appropriate form of management for each, selected from all the available forms. This involves comparing the purpose, reasons for significance, existing uses, and tenure, of each ESA, with the characteristics of agencies, protected area categories, legislation, and non-statutory arrangements for management, as well as examining agency coordination mechanisms or other means of implementation. The method was formulated for ESAs in the Northwest Territories (NWT) of Canada, but is considered to have wide applicability. It is illustrated with a test application to seven proposed ESAs in what is termed the eastern Beaufort Sea region.
Reducing Negative Effects of Introduced Animals on Native Biotas in Hawaii: What is Being Done, What Needs Doing, and the Role of National Parks
Authors: Stone Charles P. , Loope Lloyd L.
Published: August 2009

The endemic Hawaiian biota, having evolved in nearly complete isolation from continental organisms, and lacking as it does many major continental groups, is highly vulnerable to introduced ungulate herbivores, vertebrate predators, predacious and parasitoid insects, predacious snails, and yet other animal and plant groups. Although most of the Hawaiian lowland biota has been obliterated by Man and his introductions, relatively intact ecosystems survive at higher elevations in Hawaii's national parks and elsewhere. Long-term survival of these native ecosystems will depend largely upon the quality, intensity, and endurance, of continuing active management.
The Use of Crop Residues for Board-making
Authors: Chow Poo
Published: August 2009

The current environmental pollution problems created by burning and dumping agricultural residues, together with concern for the conservation of future forest resources, have engendered interest in finding utilization outlets in building-board manufacture for the large amounts of crop residues that are produced annually. Experimental boards were made from corncobs, corn-stalks (Zea mays), peanut-hulls (Arachis hypogaed), sunflower seed-hulls (Helianthus annuus), and spent instant coffee-grounds (Coffea arabica). In general, most of the residues alone, and mixtures of either a wood waste and a crop residue or two different crop residues, produced composite boards having properties comparable with or better than those of boards made from conventional wood materials. However, boards made from spent coffee-grounds or sunflower seed-hulls can only be used as vertical, installed decorative items.

The utilization of crop residues for the production of useful board products will not only provide an acceptable disposal method for those who produce the residues, but will also reduce pressures on future forest resources. In looking to the future, it seems clear that the reasons for improving the environment and for extending the future wood supply, will soon outweigh the objection to using crop residues for board production which involve high collecting and handling costs.
Environmental Implications of Oil-shale Development
Authors: Kilburn Paul D.
Published: August 2009

Certain areas of the Piceance Creek Basin are important, not only for their beauty and other amenities but also for their unusual ecosystems. Stoecker (1974) has suggested maintaining one of the larger boxcanyons in the southern portion as a nature reserve. Knutson & Boardman (1973) have suggested preserving a ‘green belt’ to involve the magnificient bluffs adjacent to the Colorado River. Preservation of the Cathedral Bluffs running north and south in the western portion has also been suggested. It is clear that a movement is growing to provide a system of natural areas throughout the Basin. Such a system would maintain important examples of representative vegetation types, wildlife habitat, geological and archaeological features, and other areas of particular ecological interest. This preserve system would maintain natural (or semi-natural) areas both as ecological baselines and as nuclei for obtaining biological ‘seed’ for rehabilitation of disturbed areas. A study to delineate suitable areas that could be included in such a system is surely needed.

Man is viewing vast resources in the Piceance Creek Basin, which probably has the world's largest known hydrocarbon deposit, and his use thereof seems inevitable. The magnitude of the deposit certainly demands a major planning effort. One can even speculate into the future, as Knutson & Boardman (1973) have done, to visualize a concerted or systems approach to obtaining and processing this resource.

Nevertheless, until commercial activity begins and monitoring procures actual data, predictions will remain speculative. Operation of a few commercial plants, mines, and rehabilitation activities, is needed in order that precise predictions can be made for better delineation and quantification of the environmental impacts of a major shale-oil industry.
The World Meteorological Organization's Statement on Climatic Change
Authors:   World Meteorological Organization
Published: August 2009

Several controversial statements on climatic change have been issued in recent years by various bodies and individuals, and some governments have expressed concern about the grave implications, for global food and population policies, of possible climatic changes. It was accordingly decided by the Seventh World Meteorological Congress (Geneva, April–May 1975) that WMO should take the lead in promoting studies of climatic changes, and should issue authoritative statements on the subject. The first such statement has been approved by the WMO Executive Committee which recently concluded its annual session in Geneva. This statement, and the technical report on which it is based, are now published below. The technical report was prepared by the Executive Committee Panel of Experts on Climatic Change.
The Hong Kong Sea-shore — an Environment in Crisis
Authors: Morton Brian S.
Published: August 2009

Hong Kong comprises an area of some 400 square miles (1,036 km2) and a population of 4.5 million people largely living in an urban and city complex centred around a magnificent natural harbour. Such an urbanized community, hemmed in by mountains, is separate from the hitherto rural remainder of Hong Kong.

The geographical position of Hong Kong, lying as it does on the borders of the temperate and tropical zoogeographic regions, when correlated with a local diversity of geomorphological and hydrological eccentricities, creates a fascinating assemblage of littoral biotic communities within a small area. The expanding urban area, however, resulting from a population growth that is confidently expected to reach 5.5–6.5 millions by 1991, is encroaching into the rural and coastal areas.

The demand for low-lying flat land has resulted in official and unofficial reclamations, initially of soft shores which are of significant archaeological and ethnological interest. The same shores constitute Hong Kong's countryside, but people bathe in waters that are grossly polluted by human and agricultural effluents, so that coliform bacterial counts in excess of 106 per 100 ml have been recorded. Squatter huts still dot Hong Kong's coastline despite massive rehousing projects, and shellfish are widely collected. Moreover, oysters are cultivated and not cleansed prior to resale.

No coastal parks, conservation areas, reserves, or even a coastal code, actually exists. The sea-shore is not used as an ‘open-air laboratory’, nor as an educational tool except at the tertiary level.

In such a community the sea-shore demands special attention, and in a world that is approaching urbanization as a way of life, Hong Kong, as a microcosm of south-east Asia, offers a case in point and a lesson in survival.
The Regional Seas Programme of UNEP
Authors: Bliss-Guest Patricia A. , Keckes Stjepan
Published: August 2009

Regional marine programmes are by no means a new phenomenon, the first such activity (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, ICES) having been in operation since 1902. While in most cases early regional activities began as research programmes, they frequently provided a foundation for the management of marine living resources and, approaching the 1970s, for the control of marine pollution.

The 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm) outlined a ‘master-plan’ for protecting the world's environment which linked environmental assessment, environmental management, and supporting measures, as basic and inseparable elements—also recognizing the advantages of a regional approach in contributing to the solution of global problems. The development of UNEP's Regional Seas Programme, since the Action Plan for the Mediterranean was adopted in 1975, demonstrates that the basic concepts formulated at Stockholm can effectively foster regional cooperation among interested States, and that such cooperation can and does benefit greatly from the support of the United Nations system as a whole.

The viability of any long-term regional programme lies with the political and financial commitment of the Governments concerned. Within the UNEP Regional Seas Programme this commitment is usually formalized through binding regional legal agreements, and is manifested concretely through an agreed set of activities that are revised periodically by the Governments involved. It is expected that these activities will be adequately supported by financial resources put at the disposal of each of the regional programmes primarily by the Governments concerned.

Although the degree of coordination and cooperation achieved generally within the regional programmes reviewed in this paper appears to be satisfactory, it would be surprising if some difficulties did not arise. This is especially true because of the complexity of the venture and the fact that, in many cases, an entirely new type of cooperation is called for and new activities are required in geographical areas with often little experience, limited facilities, and weak infrastructures. For the most part the Governments, their national institutions, and the international, intergovernmental, and regional, organizations involved, are doing their best to work together effectively. Their resources are, however, often very limited, and so it is essential that they be utilized to the best possible advantage.

UNEP, as the major financial contributor to the initial phases of the action plans developed in the framework of the Regional Seas Programme, and as their overall coordinator, has a difficult task to perform if it is to see its early successes in the Mediterranean Region matched elsewhere with real action and positive results.
Solutions to the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’: Sea-urchin Management in St Lucia, West Indies
Authors: Smith Allan H. , Berkes Fikret
Published: August 2009

Possible solutions to the commons problem have rarely been investigated systematically by the use of biological data on the status and sustainability of the resource. The edible White-spined Sea-urchin (Tripneustes ventricosus) resource of St Lucia, West Indies, is highly prized and vulnerable to exploitation, as is indicated by recent declines in its stocks. In the south-east of St Lucia the resource was almost entirely depleted in an area in which access was free and open. It was not depleted in the other two areas in which there were access controls. In one case, the area was under government control as a marine reserve; in the other, there was a locally practised ‘closed season’ and community-based management of access into a bay.

The results of our study indicated that both government controls and informal, community-level controls can lead to successful resource-management outcomes. These findings challenge the ‘conventional wisdom’ that commonly-owned resources are destined to be overexploited.
Solar–Hydrogen Energy System: The Choice of the Future
Authors: Veziroglu T. Nejat , Barbir Frano
Published: August 2009

As a result of the foregoing study, the following conclusions are reached: (A) The solar–hydrogen energy system is environmentally far more compatible than the fossil-fuel system; it is actually the only solution for the carbon-dioxide-induced ‘greenhouse’ effect and its threatening consequences. (B) The utilization efficiencies of hydrogen are greater than those of fossil and synthetic fossil fuels; therefore, in the hydrogen-energy system, less energy will be required to perform the same services. (C) The solar-hydrogen energy system is the most cost-effective system if effective costs (the costs which society pays for the energy services) are taken into account. It is not only more cost-effective than the synthetic fossil-fuel system—it is even more cost-effective than the present fossil-fuel system. (D) Clean coal technologies could be used for thermal-energy generation, satisfying approximately 30% of the world's total energy needs. Such a system, which employs coal for thermal-energy generation, and hydrogen from renewable energy sources in electricity generation and transportation sectors, would be the least-cost energy system for the transition period. (E) Transition to the solar–hydrogen energy system could help to save our economy and our planet.

The fuels that are being most favourably considered for the post-petroleum and natural-gas era, namely hydrogen (both gaseous and liquid) and coal and coal-derived synthetic fluid fossil-fuels, have been compared in this paper by taking into account production costs, external costs, and utilization efficiencies. The results show that hydrogen is a much more cost-effective energy carrier than coal or synthetic fossil-fuels. At the same time, and most importantly by far from our viewpoint, it is the most environmentally compatible of all.
Variations in Reproduction Parameters of Black-headed Gulls (Larus ridibundus) Living in Different Conditions in the Czech and Slovak Republics
Authors: Guthová Zuzana
Published: August 2009

Significant differences in embryonic mortality and occurrence of structural developmental defects between three separated populations of the Black-headed Gull were examined. Growth retardation was not studied.

Population ‘C’ (average 2.78 eggs per nest), living in Western Slovakia, exhibits in three-egg clutches relatively low mortality (7%) as well as a low occurrence of developmental defects (2.8%). In population ‘B’ (2.6 eggs per nest, living in Southern Moravia), breeding in a region that is intensively exploited for agriculture, the mortality is still very low (3%) but the proportion of malformed embryos increases to 15%. In population ‘A’ (2.6 eggs per nest, living in Southern Bohemia) the highest mortality was found (13%) but only 4.3% of embryos were malformed, though there was a broader spectrum of developmental defects. In this population the eggs were significantly smaller and had thinner shells.

In all the populations which were examined, the mortality and occurrence of developmental defects were higher in one-egg clutches, which were more frequent in populations ‘B’ and ‘A’ than in ‘C’.

Except for mercury, it does not seem that concentration of toxic substances in eggs could be responsible for the observed differences in reproductive success. An increase in embryonic mortality at locality ‘C’ is probably evoked by malnutrition in garbage specialists.
The Design of an Urban Open-space Network for the City of Durban (South Africa)
Authors: Roberts Debra C.
Published: August 2009

Global urbanization is proceeding at an alarming rate and is threatening the long-term survival of many important biological resources. Planners in the City of Durban (South Africa), cognizant of this impending environmental crisis, have designed an urban open-space network aimed at preserving a representative and functional example of the previous indigenous landscapes now under threat as a result of development.

Biogeographical principles have been used to produce for Durban a system characterized by maximized reserve size, continuity, and overall minimized system linearity with the lowest edge-to-area ratio possible. Emphasis has also been placed on economic viability and on the importance of community acceptance and participation within the system.
Conservation in the Sikkim Himalaya: Traditional Knowledge and Land-use of the Mamlay Watershed
Authors: Rai Suresh Chand , Sharma Eklabya , Sundriyal Rakesh Chandra
Published: August 2009

The ecological problems, including degradation of fragile ecosystems, of the Himalaya are quite conspicuous. A rapid depletion of forest resources is the main cause of environmental degradation and economic deterioration. Watersheds are considered as a unit for natural resource management and development in hilly areas; therefore a case-study of Mamlay watershed of Sikkim is presented in this paper.

The Mamley watershed presents a viable system having a gradient of altitude where almost all types of land-uses that are common in the eastern Himalaya are found. All the ethno-cultural groups of Sikkim are present in this watershed, although the agricultural sector provides the main land-use, followed by forestry. Most of the forested areas in the Himalaya have been purportedly destroyed for the expansion of agricultural land. A similar situation was experienced in the Mamlay watershed, where an increase of 12.79% of the land-area used for agriculture has been recorded in the past 40 years. The watershed being fragile, 62% of the area is under intensive agricultural practice. Land-use and spatial relationships in the perspective of conservation are presented in this paper.

Great genetic diversity of agricultural crops and trees has been recorded in this small watershed. Conservation ethics of optimum utilization/production of the resources, following traditional practices without much degrading of the system which is believed to be sustainable, was practised earlier in the watershed. But recently, due to population pressure and fragmentation of farm-owning families, the balance of land-use, natural resource utilization, and conservation, has become perturbed. Examples of traditional adaptation, indigenous knowledge, and perception of conservation amongst farm-owning families, are also presented in the paper.
Some Perspectives on Land Restoration in the United States
Authors: Liverman James L.
Published: August 2009

Rapid achievement of energy independence has become an urgent national goal in the United States. However public opinion, reinforced by general environmental legislation and specific energy-related legislation, demands that the development of energy alternatives will not be at the expense of the environment. One area of strong concern regards landscape restoration.

This subject is highly controversial, and responsibility for research and regulation is currently scattered among a number of Federal and state agencies and bureaux. Examination at the programme level indicates that many groups are working in closely related scientific areas. The Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) is making a detailed project and task analysis to determine whether true duplication rather than complementation of effort exists. From this analysis and a subsequent interagency effort, an integrated and fully coordinated restoration research programme can be designed. The size of this programme will need to be commensurate with the size of the problem. Hence, reclamation activities must be geared to the great diversity of ecological systems that are present in the United States, with due consideration of the full array of alternative energy-development possibilities.

Clearly, energy development involves a process of trade-offs. Thus it is the responsibility of ERDA to ensure that energy options, proposed for the future, are accompanied by a complete assessment of environmental costs—so that energy-environmental tradeoff decisions can be made early in the development of the technology, and can be based on a solid foundation of ecological knowledge. In order to carry out this mandate we shall need to establish sites for longterm energy impact research (in every major ecosystem), help design a coherent national land-reclamation programme, support an adequate amount of basic and imaginative applied research, and develop public demonstration areas where citizens, industrialists, and professional specialists, can observe longterm results of energy-environmental effects.

Prompt action demands that we capitalize upon past studies and develop a programme to learn as rapidly as possible about basic reclamation processes, so as to provide the best available knowledge to society's decision-makers. Follow-on studies must be conducted to validate and improve our reclamation predictions and management activities. The Argonne National Laboratory, which will provide a central focus for the ERDA land-reclamation research, will gather and collate all pertinent data, so that models and generic statements regarding reclamation techniques can be developed to guide us.

In order to have an adequate supply of clean, safe, and environmentally accepted energy, we will need the full cooperation of all. Only by moving together can we ensure for posterity an environmental heritage as rich as that which we ourselves have enjoyed.
Systems Analysis Applied to Water Management in Developing Countries: Problems and Prospects
Authors: Biswas Asit K.
Published: August 2009

During the last decade or so, the use of systems analysis and the application of computer technology for planning water resources development and management processes have increased significantly in many developed countries. The progress in most Third World countries, however, has not been commensurate and leaves much to be desired. Water management in recent years has become increasingly complex, and there is every indication that it will continue to do so in the future. Therefore, it is essential to utilize all the techniques which are available in order that the appropriate strategies and viable alternatives can be properly analysed, and the consequences of possible policy-decisions can be evaluated.

Systems analysis, if used properly, can significantly improve the management process; but whether, in spite of its great potential, it will actually be used for these purposes in Third-World countries, is another question, though it seems more likely to be adopted in those that are really developing than in the others.

Few models fail because technical expertise or state-of-the-art computer technology is inadequate, of because they are improperly implemented from a technical standpoint; they fail more often because too much concentration is placed on the technical issues and not enough on the managerial ones.

There seems no room for doubt that systems analysis has now advanced sufficiently to be of decisive use in water management for developing countries. This paper outlines the principal reasons as to why such a situation has developed, and what steps can be taken to increase the use of systems analysis for more rational and effective management of the often limited water resources that are available to Third World countries. Admittedly, some of our current models in this field are rather crude and liable to be dependent on the experience and judgement of the analysts; but in the final analysis, the issue is very definitely on the side of having a model—even a crude one—rather than on having no model at all.
Environmental Impact of Nuclear Warfare
Authors: Westing Arthur H.
Published: August 2009

Uncertainty may exist about the future likelihood of nuclear war. On the other hand, no doubt exists that nuclear weapons must be eliminated from the arsenals of the world. Even the most modest and restrained nuclear initiative by one belligerent could well be countered in kind, this in turn perhaps leading to an escalating exchange. Even the very limited attacks by the USA during World War II had a profound impact on the enmeshed humans and their artefacts, the medical and social ramifications of which continue to haunt the survivors and their offspring. However, the present paper does not dwell on the effects of nuclear weapons on humans*, but rather upon the natural environment. It summarizes the foreseeable environmental impact in quantitative terms with respect to damage from the blast-wave, the thermal pulse, and the nuclear radiation—doing so, by way of example, for a 20-kiloton atomic bomb and a 1-megaton hydrogen bomb (and also with passing mention for a 1-kiloton neutron bomb).

The effects of a nuclear war—a war in which scores to hundreds, if not thousands, of nuclear bombs might be expended—is summarized in relation to affected portions of the geosphere, the atmosphere, and the Biosphere. A nuclear attack would kill wildlife and destroy the vegetation over a large area through a combination of blast, heat, and nuclear radiation. Wildfires could well extend the zone of immediate destruction. Surface disruption and the loss of vegetation would lead to greatly accelerated wind and water erosion and ‘nutrient dumping’.

It is concluded nevertheless that an area devastated by nuclear warfare would in time recover by the natural processes of ecological succession, but far more slowly and more unpredictably than following other forms of ecological disruption.
Foreseeable Effects of CO2-induced Climatic Change: Freshwater Concerns
Authors: Coutant Charles C.
Published: August 2009

Freshwater environments are expected to be particularly responsive to temperature rises and changed precipitation régimes that are anticipated to result from progressive increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel combustion. Recognition of potential impacts on aquatic systems should strengthen research and management planning for the future, and provide more confident estimates of the risks from CO2elevation than those at present available. This report briefly evaluates those aquatic impacts that are believed to be important and worthy of investigation and quantitative forecasting.

Priorities for additional research have been suggested for the issues discussed herein. These priorities vary according to the use of pertinent data, the credibility of presumed risk (which may change as, for example, climatic models are better refined), the timing in relation to prerequisite information, current efforts already under way, and the feasibility of obtaining the desired data. The ranking remains subjective, however, and debatable.
Obstacles to Effective Management of Conflicts Between National Parks and Surrounding Human Communities in Developing Countries
Authors: Hough John L.
Published: August 2009

Conflicts between national parks and their surrounding human communities are apparently disfunctional for both. Both groups would appear to have incentives to resolve or at least reduce these conflicts. A major difficulty is the achievement of ready communication and trust between the powerful urban-based park authorities and the rural, possibly illiterate, local human populations who may have suffered at the hands of the park authorities in the past. Because of their greater power, the national park authorities are in the best position to take the first steps towards establishing trust—by making some positive concessions, and binding themselves in some way to real, rather than token, local participation in decision-making.

Local elected officials with responsibilities both to their local electorate and to the objectives of central government, might be suitable agents for bringing the various parties together. When once effective communication is established, the early identification of areas of common interest, and positive actions to promote these, will continue the trust-building process and enable more difficult issues to be addressed. The identification, in advance, of options or alternatives that appear to be mutually beneficial, ‘positive sum’ solutions, will facilitate this and provide incentives for the initial participation of all parties.

This approach to protected areas management will require new skills and training for park staff—in social and political as well as biological skills. It will also require a shift in the ruling paradigm of protected areas. The concept of national parks as inviolate havens of untouched Nature, controlled by an all-powerful central government agency, will have to give way to concepts of conservation through careful manipulation to achieve both conservation and local human development objectives. Although this approach is being hailed by conservation leaders through such worthy devices as Biosphere Reserves (Batisse, 1982), these concepts do not yet seem to have the international status that is required for their extensive adoption, nor do they necessarily build conflict-management processes into the management regime.

The approach suggested above is not without risk both to park authorities and to the local human communities; but clarification of both conservation and development objectives should reduce such a risk and help to identify the information and analytical needs for working towards a mutually beneficial solution.
The Black-headed Gull's Adaptation to Polluted Environments: The Role of the Mixed-function Oxidase Detoxication System
Authors: Fossi Cristina , Leonzio Claudio , Focardi Silvano , Renzoni Aristeo
Published: August 2009

This study was conducted to explore the role of the mixed-function oxidase (MFO) detoxication system in the ‘adaptation’ process of gulls to polluted environments. In two different populations of Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus), feeding in one case in a lagoon and in the other on an inland rubbish-dump, MFO hepatic activities (aldrin epoxidase, 7-ethoxyresorufin o-deethylase, NADPH-cytochrome c reductase, NADH-cytochrome c reductase, and NADH-ferrycianide reductase) and chlorinated hydrocarbon residues were determined. All the enzymatic activities detected, and the PCB residues, were higher in the Gulls feeding on the inland dump than in the gulls feeding in the lagoon.

The results obtained suggest that the development of a strong detoxication system constitutes an important ‘survival mechanism’ for these birds when feeding customarily in polluted environments.
Environmental Priorities for Financing Institutions
Authors: Goodland Robert J.A.
Published: August 2009

The reasons which recently forced the World Bank into environmental improvements are discussed, so that other financial institutions can profit from this experience. The reasons include due recognition that environmental abuse is constraining economic development, that environmental damage has now assumed massive proportions, and that such abuse is intensifying. The electorates of the World Bank's industrial shareholding nations began to pressure their representatives. Advocates of the poor, and of people affected by environmentally-bungled development projects, joined forces with environmental NGOs and added to the pressure for environmental reform.

The World Bank's positive response led to a series of major institutional, procedural, and policy, reforms, which are provided as examples and suggestions to other financial bodies that need or at least desire to improve their environmental stance. The Bank's environmental policies are outlined, and the most powerful — Environmental Impact Assessment — is treated in detail.

Based on this experience, the environmental opportunities available to other financiers are discussed. The case is presented that financiers becoming environmentally prudent in the ways suggested will out-compete their environmentally imprudent colleagues. The latter will go bust or be prosecuted. The paper ends with a rich menu of ideas through prosecution of which environmental responsibility can be sought by financiers.