bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Tourism and Short-term Behavioural Responses of Nesting Masked, Red-footed, and Blue-footed, Boobies in the Galápagos
Authors: Burger Joanna , Gochfeld Michael 
Published: August 2009

Increasingly, seabirds nesting on islands are exposed to tourists who view, photograph, and study, them for variable periods of time. The escalating frequency of human-seabird contacts on heretofore undisturbed nesting islands raises questions and concerns about the effects of human disturbance, and of the continued preservation of nesting colonies of marine birds. We examined short-term changes in behaviour of Masked (Sula dactylagra), Redfooted (S. sula), and Blue-footed (S. nebouxii), boobies when tourists walked by, and examined display station and nest placement as a function of distance from a regularlytraversed tourist path on Tower (Genovesa), Hood (Espanola), and North Seymour, Islands, Galápagos.Whether displaying boobies walked, flew, or remained on their station, when tourists passed, was related to their distance from the trail. Boobies displaying at stations on or up to 2 m from the trail, walked or flew from their station 62 to 95% of the time, depending on the species. All species of boobies performed more head and body turns, and gave-out more calls, after tourists passed than before, while the rate of preening did not differ. All three species of boobies avoided nesting right along the trail, despite similarities of habitat.These data suggest that boobies respond to tourists in subtle ways often related to their species, and that further studies should delineate impacts operating over longer periods—including reproductive success variation as a function of disturbance.
Reflections on the Principles of Sustainable Agricultural Development
Authors: Otzen Uwe 
Published: August 2009

Of the renewable resources of The Biosphere, agricultural land, including its water resources, is very high among the most important, because it is elemental for human and domestic-animal life. The stability and sustained fertility of the soil largely depend on both prevailing soil–climate conditions and on anthropogenic influences.There are strict limits to the human interference which soil substrates, ground, soil, and surface water, flora, fauna, and microorganisms, can tolerate under moderate, let alone subtropical and tropical, soil–climate conditions. Economic, social, and aesthetic, yield of agricultural resources is limited even where economically and technically optimal use is made of capital and labour. A ‘maximum sustainable yield’ varies as a function of the soil–climate location, the established land-use system, and the technology applied, but only as long as this yield is not exceeded is the enduring availability of the resource ensured.With the demand for land and energy to produce food and agricultural raw materials rising throughout the world, per caput food production continuing to fall (especially in Africa), and the cultivated area per caput declining worldwide, the urgent question for the long term is how to preserve the natural resources of water, soil, and vegetation cover, and how to arrest desertification, deforestation, salinization, soil degradation, and soil erosion.These reflections centre on the call for farming systems which are suited to given locations and do no harm to the environment, and also for sustainability of agricultural production—two aspects which have been badly neglected in the past. The necessary simultaneous tasks of developing farming systems and preserving resources, can be tackled only in relation to specific locations and in a conducive development ‘climate’, where appropriate general conditions prevail. As a rule, the microeconomic development options for coping with these tasks can be improved only at a supra-farm and community level, and require new, environmentally oriented national agricultural and rural development policies.
Impoverishment, Population, and Environmental Degradation: The Case for Equity
Authors: Lonergan Stephen C. 
Published: August 2009

The discussion above sought to clarify some of the key aspects of the relationships among impoverishment, population, and environmental degradation, and to pose a conceptual framework for addressing the issue. At various times, impoverishment has been identified: as a root cause of environmental degradation; as a proximate cause; and as a contributing factor, merely reinforcing the linkage between environmental degradation and poverty often caused by wealth and greed. Despite an abundance of recent literature on the topic, it is not clear how environmental degradation and impoverishment are linked. What is apparent is that the relationship amongst these elements is complex, multidimensional, conditional and, at present, indeterminate. Although much of the evidence linking impoverishment and environmental degradation is anecdotal, it appears that the key issue is one of equity. Considerations of international equity, national equity, and intergenerational equity, must form the cornerstone of any strategy to confront the joint issues of environmental degradation and impoverishment.Promoting equity as a key principle or strategy, however, does not reduce the complexity of the issue; equity has an economic dimension, a political dimension, and a social dimension; numerous case-studies can be found to illustrate these dimensions, and a few are noted in our above discussion. This framework is also tied to the goal of sustainable livelihood security, which recognizes that security has both political and environmental components. Despite the complexity of these issues, it is still possible to develop general recommendations to be used as a guide to the design of intervention strategies by agencies providing development assistance. Accordingly, five such recommendations are noted last above.The conceptual framework developed in this paper sought to extend the work on the impoverishment, population, and environment, issue begun by Leonard (1989), Holmberg (1991), and others. It is clear, however, that much more study of these complex interrelationships is needed before the linkages amongst them are well identified and understood. In addition, it is not enough to accept the importance of equity as a key principle of sustainable livelihood security; development agencies must be willing to act on this principle, and to design intervention strategies which aim at reducing and eliminating the inequities which are a major cause of environmental degradation.
Environmental Conservation and Sustainable Development Require a New Development Approach
Authors: Upreti Gopi 
Published: August 2009

Designing appropriate policies and strategies that lead to environmental conservation (of biological diversity and natural ecosystems) and ecologically sustainable development, is not an option but a necessity. Nevertheless, it requires an appropriate developmental paradigm that can provide a more relevant perceptual and interpretive framework from which such strategies may emerge. The prevailing dominant social paradigm has ignored the following problems:the present level of resource consumption in the developed industrialized countries, the acute poverty and inequitable development pattern in the Third World, the massive capital flight from ‘global’ South to ‘global’ North, and the massive population growth-rates in poor Third World countries, for political or ideological reasons. This paradigm will ultimately lead to environmental destruction and collapse of The Biosphere if ‘business’ continues ‘as usual’.There has been unwillingness on the part of the politicians to admit this truth, but the development philosophy that does not include the strategies which can induce changes in our consumption and behavioural patterns, attitudes towards Nature, environmentally sound conservation and management practices and principles, elimination of poverty and inequity, and reduction of global population growth, will achieve nothing more than, as Morowitz (1991) calls it, a ‘Sisyphus's Myth’.Only a development paradigm that is deeply rooted in the principle of cooperation, social synergism, equity, and the understanding of ecological and social sustainability of resource uses, allocation, and management, can offer hope and engender optimism. The sooner humanity realizes and acts on this, the greater will be the chance for environmental conservation and the lesser will be the cost of human adaptation.
Environmental Management in Jordan: Problems and Recommendations
Authors: Abu-Taleb Maher F. , Salameh Elias 
Published: August 2009

Jordan faces a wide variety of environmental problems, most of which are attributable to the inherent water supply–demand imbalance. This paper has examined the broad range of environmental problems experienced by Jordan, including local, regional, and global, environmental threats. Economic costs of ignoring environmental problems are presented, with examples showing how expensive and how complicated decontamination may be. The paper then discusses current policymaking to counter the existing problems and recommended that future decision-making mechanisms be flexible, robust, and timely enough to be able to cope effectively and rapidly with the evergrowing environmental problems.In conclusion, the paper offers some suggestions for how the process of environmental policymaking may be improved and accelerated in order to cope with the wide range of environmental problems facing Jordan. The paper recommends that scientists and researchers become more involved in governmental decision-making, to be able to establish more technically-informed policies than hitherto. In addition, some type of concessional financing may be necessary from multilateral and bilateral lending organizations to assist in overcoming some of the more threatening environmental problems, such as water quality, and to provide economic impetus to a depressed economy.
Peninsular Malaysia's Protected Areas' Coverage, 1903–92: Creation, Rescission, Excision, and Intrusion
Authors: Aiken S. Robert 
Published: August 2009

As in other former British colonies, the earliest protected areas in Peninsular Malaysia were game reserves. There were twenty protected areas at the end of the colonial period (1957), and twenty-five in 1992. The outstanding achievement of the colonial period was the creation of King George V National Park (now Taman Negara), but unfortunately too much reliance was subsequently placed upon it. Protected areas were established in economically undesirable or (formerly) remote areas, largely on anad hocbasis and mainly as a kind of ‘residual’ land-use. The protected areas have long suffered from rescissions, excisions, and encroachments, primarily for three reasons: because commercial interests have always prevailed; because of insecurity of land tenure; and because ordinary people have been denied a stake in such areas.I estimate that the ‘effective’ protected-area coverage in 1992 was probably no greater than that of about AD 1940 (when, unlike the situation today, most of the Peninsula still remained forested). The Malaysian states have been reluctant to create new protected areas, and the federal government has been unwilling to invoke certain of its constitutional powers in order to acquire state lands for national parks. Consequently, proposals for additional protected areas have produced few results. Yet owing to the rapid pace of anthropogenic forest change, the Peninsula is running out of potential sites for new protected ares.Reserved forests comprise virtually all of the Peninsula's remaining forest cover (seeFig. 1). Set aside mainly for productive and protective purposes, it is these forests, not the protected areas, that harbour most of the region's wildlife. This being the case, and keeping in mind that almost all of the wild species are forest-dwelling, it follows that wildlife conservation must come to rely more and more heavily on the reserved forests. Studies conducted by Johns (e.g.1983, 1986, 1987) at Sungai Tekam, Pahang, on the impact of logging on wildlife, reveal that most species can adapt to the altered conditions of logged forests; or, more precisely, that this appears to be the case following asinglelogging operation. But this topic, interesting and important as it is, takes us beyond the scope of this paper.The matter of species adaptability, however, brings to mind a more general theme, which is the need to implement the principles of conservation everywhere, not just in specially protected areas. There is, in short,no effective alternative to rational land-use planning and to making conservation an integral part of all production processes.
Population, Desertification, and Migration
Authors: Westing Arthur H. 
Published: August 2009

It is noted that the number of more or less permanently displaced persons throughout the world (now of the order of 1% of the total human population) continues to increase at a rate of approximately 3 millions per year; the situation in Africa is especially grave, with the number of displaced persons there (now of the order of 3% of the African population), continuing to increase at a rate of approximately 1.5 million per year. Human displacement — which can be seen to originate largely in rural areas — results primarily from one or more of three factors, namely escape from persecution, escape from military activities, or escape from inadequate means of subsistence. A number of examples from Africa are provided of the social and political consequences of human displacement, with emphasis on conflict situations at the sites of relocation.It is further noted that the numbers of displaced persons continue to grow relentlessly despite there being no discernible rise in persecution or military activities, and despite the long-sustained ameliorative efforts and financial assistance by intergovernmental agencies and others.It is accordingly suggested that the major cause of the continuing increase in the numbers of displaced persons is an ever-growing imbalance between population numbers and the human carrying capacity of the land. Population increases lead to smaller per caput natural resource bases, a predicament exacerbated by over-use — and thus degradation — of the land and its natural resources. In the arid and semi-arid regions of Africa, over-use of the land most often takes the form of overgrazing, leading to land degradation that is severe enough to be referred to as desertification. It is concluded that to achieve sustainable utilization of the land and its natural resources will necessitate the integrated attainment of environmental security and societal security — the latter inter alia requiring participatory governance, non-violent means of conflict resolution, and especially population controls.
An Attempt to Predict Which Amazonian Tree Species May be Threatened by Logging Activities
Authors: Martini Adriana M. Z. , Rosa Nelson de A. , Uhl Christopher 
Published: August 2009

The impacts of logging on Amazonian ecosystems has been the focus of considerable attention both within and outside of Amazonia. However, the impacts of logging on individual timber species has not been at all adequately investigated. Logging affects timber species by: (1) removing mature individuals that are important sources of seeds; (2) damaging seedlings and saplings (i.e future generations of canopy adults); and (3) creating conditions that favour fire by opening the canopy and leaving slash as fuel on the forest floor.In this study we summarize information on the ecological characteristics of 305 timber species in Brazilian Amazonia. We identify seven ecological parameters that are useful in evaluating a species' ability to resist the negative impacts of logging. These characteristics are: (1) effective long-distance dispersal ability; (2) abundance of saplings in forest regeneration; (3) rapid growth; (4) ability to resprout; (5) capacity to withstand fire; (6) broad geographic distribution; and (7) high density of adults. We hypothesize thai species with characteristics opposed to these parameters and subjected to intense logging pressure will have difficulty in maintaining their populations in logging regions.We use a simple scoring system to rank species with regard to their hypothesized ability to withstand logging impacts. Among the species that are potentially susceptible to logging impacts are Euxylophora paraensis (‘Pau Amarelo’) and Swietenia macrophylla (American Mahogany). The sawn lumber from these two species goes principally to European and North American buyers, revealing a direct link between First World consumption and possible biodiversity impoverishment in the Brazilian rain-forest. These two species, and others that might experience population reductions as a result of logging, merit special study.
Ecological Problems in the Conservation of Plant Communities, with Special Reference to Central Europe
Authors: Medwecka-Kornaś Anna 
Published: August 2009

Exclusion of human interference from national parks and nature reserves commonly results in undesirable successional changes in the vegetation. First of all the semi-natural plant communities, which have been formed and maintained by traditional methods of extensive land-use—mowing, grazing, burning, etc.—are affected. In Poland this has happened, for example, to the halophytic meadows on the Baltic coast, the secondary xerothermic (‘steppe’) grassland in the southern highlands, and the mesic hay-meadows of the forest zones in the Carpathian Mountains. When neither mown nor grazed, they all lose more and more of their typical components, and finally disappear. Many such communities originated hundreds or thousands of years ago and include a number of native plant species which cannot be found in any of the natural vegetation types.The problems of conservation of semi-natural plant communities have been studied by the Author in three representative areas of Southern Poland: in the Gorce Mountains (Western Carpathians), the Niepolomice Forest, and the Ojców National Park near Cracow. In the Gorce Mountains about half the existing major plant communities belong to the semi-natural category and exhibit a much higher species-diversity than the natural forest vegetation (Table I). Similarly, in the northern part of the Niepolomice Forest, many more species are concentrated in the semi-natural, non-forest communities than in natural ones (Table II). For the Ojców area two maps, one of the actual vegetation and another of the expected or ‘potential natural’ vegetation, were compared and the topographic arrangement and successional trends of plant communities established (Table III). It became evident that, if all human impact were to be excluded from the Park, the rich semi-natural plant communities would completely disappear and many of their interesting components would become extinct at least locally.These data, as well as similar observations reported by other authors, explicitly demonstrate that very often the existing vegetation diversity in national parks and nature reserves may be maintained only when the ecological situation has been rightly understood and the proper management adopted.
An Energy Budget for a Rainbow Trout Farm
Authors: Pitcher Tony J. 
Published: August 2009

An industrial energy-budget for a Rainbow Trout farm shows that 93% of the energy costs of production are incurred in feeding the fish, seven-tenths of which is due to fishnieal incorporated in the food pellets. Only one-tenth of the input energy is converted into fish, but the energy subsidy of the farming operation compares favourably with conventional fishing and is 423 input megajoules per kg of output fish protein (55 MJ per kg wet-weight of fish landed). However, if the Trout could be fed on a diet composed of suitable vegetable protein, this performance would be improved to an overall conversion efficiency of one-third, and a subsidy of about 160 MJ per kg. A smaller but similar improvement could result if the Peruvian anchovy fishery regained its former production level.As these improved energy-costs are comparable with those of crops of potatoes, and with those of bread and milk production, a 2-men Rainbow Trout farm yielding 25 tonnes per year on one hectare would become an attractive protein-producing enterprise in localities where the necessary water-supply is available.
Animal Life and Desertification
Authors: Cloudsley-Thompson John L. 
Published: August 2009

Ecological interrelationships are far less complex in the desert biome than they are in grassland or forest but, even so, they are little understood. Some of the better known are described, but none of them is relevant to desertification. Harmful insects, such as locusts, grasshoppers, and termites, are unlikely to be responsible for extension of desert, except when they intensify environmental changes that have already been initiated by Man. Similarly, mammalian herbivores, even if protected and allowed to attain far greater population sizes than at present, are most unlikely to cause harm, as they are highly nomadic and always on the move.These relationships hold true despite the fact that the natural predators of desert mammalian herbivores have largely been eliminated by human activities.
Optimal Policies for Conservation of Large Mammals, with Special Reference to Marine Ecosystems
Authors: Eberhardt L. Lee 
Published: August 2009

Among the larger mammals, marine types offer some unique insights and problems for management. United States laws require that they be managed ‘to maintain the health and stability of the marine ecosystem.’ The relevant statute (Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972) requires maintenance of an ‘optimal sustainable population’, which is being interpreted as a range between the level giving a maximum sustainable yield (MSY) and asymptotic levels. Emerging evidence pertaining to marine mammals, and perhaps applicable to a larger class of vertebrates, indicates that the MSY point may be well above the logistic-curve 50% point.‘Reproduction curves’ of various sorts are used in management as operational representations of population self-regulation (density-dependence). A variety of theories and hypotheses concerning such regulation now exists, though none is adequately supported as yet. A general model for self-regulation in long-lived species is suggested as being comprised of stages of regulation. Immature mortality is postulated as the first stage, followed by age of first reproduction and then reproductive rates of adult females. The fourth and last stage, as populations reach maximum sustainable levels, is assumed to involve changes in adult survival.Although a model of the kind suggested here offers some useful insights as to harversting strategies, a more quantitative (functional) basis will be needed for actual management applications.
Conservation of Natural Vegetation in Nigeria
Authors: Ola-Adams Bunyamin A. , Iyamabo Dominic E. 
Published: August 2009

The need to conserve representative samples of natural vegetation was recognized in Nigeria over thirty years ago. Before 1950 only two conservation areas had been laid down but at present there are seven in operation. Most of them are between 60 ha (ca 1/4 sq. mile) and 350 ha (ca 12/5 sq. miles) in area, and together they include at least one example of each major ecological type occurring in the country.There are difficulties in constituting and safeguarding conservation areas, particularly outside State Forest Reserves. While it is to be hoped that legislation will soon be introduced to facilitate protection, a comprehensive survey has recently been carried out with a view to substantially increasing the number of conservation areas in Nigeria, and to make them more fully representative of the different vegetation zones of Nigeria.Work is also proceeding towards determining the optimum size for each area within the different vegetation types. It is hoped to be able to establish up to 40 conservation areas within the next 2 years, and ultimately as many as 110 may be designated.