bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The United Nations Environment Programme and the Ecological World
Authors: Thacher Peter S. 
Published: August 2009

By these several citations from the topics before this Second International Congress of Ecology, I have tried to suggest the need and the feasibility for this discipline to play a more active role in the continuing development and improvement of the quality of human life on this planet.The international system which is now preparing for the Development Decade of the 1980s, and the developing countries which seek their own paths—as many as are needed to match their varying environmental, social, economic, and cultural, endowments—are open to advice as to what to do in the general scientific, and most particularly in the ecological, context in which all continuing life must operate.
The Present Status and Future Prospects of Tropical Moist Forests
Authors: Myers Norman 
Published: August 2009

Tropical moist forests (TMFs) of ‘primary’ status, whether rain-forests or ‘seasonal’ biomes, are currently undergoing widespread conversion—including disruption, degradation, impoverishment, depletion, and outright destruction. These are forms of conversion that range in degree from marginal modification to fundamental transformation—at rates that are anticipated to leave large parts of the biomes involved in grossly altered states, if not eliminated altogether, by the end of the present century. The remaining portions could well undergo similar patterns of conversion within the first two or three decades of the next century.This would mean the virtual end of the biomes that are ecologically more complex, biotically far richer, and scientifically less known, than any others on Earth. It would precipitate some ultimate shifts in the course of evolution. It would also entail the irreversible loss of many unique natural resources that offer multiple utilitarian benefits—inter alia through modern agriculture, medicine, and industry—to human society now and for ever.
National Parks and Other Protected Areas: Some Reflections on the Past and Prescriptions for the Future
Authors: Eidsvik Harold K. 
Published: August 2009

The World Conservation Strategy stresses the maintenance of essential ecological processes and life-support systems, preservation of genetic diversity, and sustainable use of species and ecosystems—in brief, the integration of conservation with development. The present paper traces shifts in conservation policy, which originnally saw national parks as islands isolated from their surrounding communities, through to the evolving concept of protected areas integrated with development programmes. It stresses the need for protected areas, and notes that only about 2% of the world's continental land-mass can be so classified. It is thereofre imperative for the survival of Nature and Man that a closer linkage be established between protection and development functions in such a way that both are seen as essential from a social and economic viewpoint.The continuing exploitive pressures on living natural resources are noted, and suggestions are made towards mitigating the impact of armed conflict and increasing financing for protected areas in order to achieve conservation and development objectives.
A New Look at the Plight of Tropical Rain-forests
Authors: Meijer Willem 
Published: August 2009

While developed countries of the world are expressing growing concern about the plight of tropical rain-forests, it is necessary to understand the issues involved. They are not merely populaton growth, the world food problems, and the ever-growing demand for natural resources, but also environmental ethics and the attitudes of resource managers and other decision-makers. These last issues might be even more important in the long run than purely demographic and socio-economic problems.The Author of this essay attempts to build up a case for the need of a global environmental ethic which would incorporate existing values of respect for living creatures, sacred groves, and sacred animals—such as still survives among the cultures of the less-developed parts of the tropical world. It might well be that the life-styles of strongly vegetarian societies, and the intensive tropical lowland agriculture as practiced in and around irrigated rice-fields in Southeast Asia, could be used as a model for wiser use of renewable natural resources in the lessdeveloped tropical areas.
Visitor Management in Recreation Areas
Authors: Jim Chi Yung 
Published: August 2009

The ever-increasing demands for outdoor recreation have caused widespread ecological damages in many parts of the world, so that methods to contain deleterious impacts and maintain the quality of recreational experience must be earnestly sought. Besides the commonlyprescribed preventive and ameliorative actions on the resource-base, visitor management which can provide cost-effective and long-term solutions deserves more attention than hitherto. This paper evaluates a spectrum of relevant options including the subtle (influencing userbehaviour), through the intermediate (redistributing use), to the regulatory (rationing use).The reduction ofper caputimpact can, naturally, raise the capacity of an area to accommodate continuing use. Minimum impact techniques can substantially curtail the largely inadvertent damage due to ignorance rather than malice, while recreational planning and management can take into account the changing user preference. Appropriate data to guide management decisions can be acquired through innovative non-contact approaches, including visitor observation, to solicit candid and spontaneous responses. Good-quality information, conveyed through different channels in ample time before a visit, can effectively modify user behaviour and perception. Formal and informal education, to inculcate a responsible attitude towards the natural environment, can bring long-range benefits. Citizen participation can furnish diversified and useroriented perspectives that are important for successful programmes.
Man and Forests: A Case-study from the Dry Tropics of India
Authors: Singh V.P. , Singh J.S. 
Published: August 2009

The present study analyses the energy-budget of ‘village ecosystems’ in a dry tropical environment. These systems depend to a great extent on the surrounding natural forest/savanna ecosystems. Accordingly the objectives of the study were to quantify (i) the energy efficiency of rain-fed agriculture at the ecosystem level, and (ii) the indirect impact of agricultural activity on the surrounding forest/savanna ecosystems.Agronomic output from farming is not sufficient to meet the food-energy requirements of the villagers, hence 27.0 to 51.0% of the requirement is met from outside markets. Operation of the agro-ecosystems involved requires a considerable amount of subsidy from the surrounding forest/savanna ecosystems in terms of fodder and fuel-wood. About 81 to 100% of the fuel needs, and 80–87% of the fodder needs, are met from the natural forest/savanna ecosystems. Thus, for each unit of energy obtained in agronomic yield (including milk), 3.1 units of energy are expended from the surrounding natural ecosystems in the form of fodder and fuel-wood.The erratic and ill-distributed nature of monsoon rains results in moisture deficit which affects the crop production in dry-land farming, causing partial or total failure of the crops. For achieving increased and stable agronomic production under rain-fed conditions, improved dry-land farming techniques have to be applied. Some of these techniques are: (1) introduction of crops and varieties that would be capable of maturing in a period of 90–100 days, and adequate use of appropriate fertilizers; (2) planned rain-water management including storage of surface runoff; and (3) practices of intercropping with crops of longer duration than those currently grown, having slow growth-rates in the early part of their life-cycles.
Atmospheric Pollution in Beijing, China, as Recorded in Sediments of the Summer Palace Lake
Authors: Zhou Mao Mei , Yi Liu Jing , Bertine Kathe K. , Koide Minoru , Goldberg Edward D. 
Published: August 2009

The fluxes of heavy-metals, and the fly-ash component magnetite from coal-burning, to sediments of the Lake of the Summer Palace in Beijing, China, have increased measurably over the last fifty years. The excess metal contents and the magnetite are attributed to the combustion of coal.Even with a doubling of coal usage by the year AD 2000. the anthropogenic metal fluxes in Beijing, China, will still be less than those recorded for recent times in metropolitan Tokyo and US lakes. In principle, these fluxes can be reduced by the installation of appropriate emission controls at the coal-burning facilities.
Management of the Lake Kariba Inshore Fishery and Some Thoughts on Biodiversity and Conservation Issues, Zimbabwe
Authors: Sanyanga Rudo A. 
Published: August 2009

This paper deals with conservation issues and threats faced by the inshore fishery of Lake Kariba, where human actions such as poaching and introduction of alien species are threatening the indigenous species. Lake Kariba is a Man-made Lake that was created in 1956–58 and has undergone a number of changes from a eutrophic stage in its early years to the present oligotrophic state. Tied up with this were changes in hydrology, the initial filling phase being marked with high fish-yields, then the booming of the pestiferous Salvinia molesta, until 1971 marked the end of evolutionary changes and the beginning of the decline in nutrient status of the Lake.One of the two fisheries of Lake Kariba is described: the inshore fishery, which is the richer and more interesting in terms of diversity and conservation. This fishery is exploited by artisanal fishermen who use ‘primitive’ means. The fish species involved are vulnerable, as they take a long time to grow and have generally a low fecundity as compared with the ‘sardines’. The famous sport-fish Hydrocynus vittatus (Tigerfish) is, in particular, threatened by human activities.Fishery regulations and management laws are implemented by LKFRI — a Zimbabwe Government institute under the Department of National Parks & Wildlife Management. Whereas the regulations appear sound and reasonable, economic hardships and human population growth in the hinterland have caused changes in the attitudes of people. Fishing is an easy source of revenue, but policing it has become costly and difficult.
Artisanal Fishing and Environmental Change in a Nigerian Floodplain Wetland
Authors: Thomas David H.L. 
Published: August 2009

Floodplain wetlands are of major importance in semi-arid Africa, providing agricultural, livestock, forestry, and fisheries, products as well as many other goods and services. Through a case-study of a floodplain wetland in northern Nigeria, it is demonstrated that the factors determining the characteristics of floodplain fishermen, defined in terms of how they fish, where they fish, and when they fish, are spatially and temporally very complex and may best be analysed within a simple systems framework.Despite the important values and functions that floodplains provide, many have been degraded owing to the construction of dams within their catchments. Studies of the social and economic impact of these developments tend to have adopted an ‘ecosystem’ approach to analysis that conceals the socio-economic complexity of the floodplain. However, if proposals to manage the water resources of river basins effectively are to be successfully implemented, it will be essential to understand the complexity of socioeconomic relations of floodplain users and their interaction with the environment. In conclusion, there is a need for much more detailed socio-economic studies that explore the ways in which floodplain inhabitants use the system in space and time.
Traditional Practices of Inland Fishery Resources Management in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka: Implications for Sustainability
Authors: Ulluwishewa Rohana 
Published: August 2009

Fishery in the village irrigation-tanks has long played an important role as a source of food in the traditional villages in the Dry Zone comprising two-thirds of the area of Sri Lanka. Therefore, the villagers have traditionally developed various management practices which lead to sustainable utilization of fishery resources. This study is an attempt to explore such practices pertaining to fishery in the irrigation systems in the traditional villages and to investigate their relevance to designing appropriate resource-management systems leading to ecologically sustainable development. The study indicates that the traditional practices which contribute to the sustainable utilization of fishery resources are fourfold: (1) ecological, (2) technological, (3) institutional, and (4) cultural.The ecological set-up of the irrigation system of any given traditional village has evolved in such a way that it could facilitate the survival of fishes during the dry season, which is the major threat to their continuous survival. Though all small tanks dry out during the dry season, small amounts of water remain in some big tanks. As all tanks in any given catchment area are interconnected, the fishes remaining in the big tanks can migrate to the small tanks at the beginning of the rainy season and so re-colonize them. While the buffalo wallow which is located at the lower end of the paddy tract acts as a drought refugium, the natural vegetation-cover associated with the irrigation system provides food, a favourable microclimate, and materials required for the construction of nests by those fishes that make them.
Issues in Biodiversity Conservation Including the Role of Local Communities
Authors: Tisdell Clement A. 
Published: August 2009

Although many publications have appeared in recent years purporting to address the economics of conservation of biodiversity, most do not address the diversity issues as such. This shortcoming appears only to have been recognized recently. Furthermore, from the literature it is clear that natural living areas — apart from conserving biodiversity — jointly give rise to other conservation benefits, and therefore, their conservation needs to be evaluated holistically.It is suggested that when constraints are placed on available resources for biodiversity conservation, some criteria for species preservation such as those associated with SMS (safe minimum standard) may exhibit unsatisfactory features. While imperfection of knowledge is a serious limitation on rational decision-making about conservation of biodiversity, we have some knowledge and we may be able to use that to determine rational probabilities. In addition, it is important to scrutinize ecological claims about biodiversity. For example, ecosystems containing greater biodiversity may not be more sustainable than those with less diversity. It is also argued that the SMS criterion needs further development because there may be no standard which ensures the survival of any species.
An Economist's Critique of the World Conservation Strategy, with Examples from the Australian Experience
Authors: Tisdell Clement A. 
Published: August 2009

The World Conservation Strategy aims to foster ‘sustainable development through the conservation of living resources’. While this is an admirable goal, the definition of conservation given in the Strategy document seems too imprecise to be operational.The framers of the Strategy hope to convince developers and others that conservation is needed if development is to be sustained, contending that in the absence of conservation, development may be short-lived and uncertain. Possibly in order to give it greater political appeal, the Strategy takes a Man-centred approach to conservation. Nevertheless little attention is given to the ultimate ends of Mankind, that is, the type of issues raised by Daly (1980).However, even if more immediate goals of mankind are considered, there is a strong case for conservation. In order to achieve living-resource conservation, the World Conservation Strategy suggests that it is necessary: (1) to maintain essential ecological processes and life-support systems; (2) to preserve genetic diversity; and (3) to ensure the sustainable utilization of species and ecosystems. Detailed recommendations are made for achieving each of these three conditions.
The Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources
Authors: Brown William Y. 
Published: August 2009

Recognizing the recency of establishment of the conservation principles in Article II of the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, and that no current analysis can be definitive or should pretend to be, the following preliminary conclusions stem from this paper:1. The three principles of Article II of the Convention should be read as complementary guides in pursuing the overall goal of preserving the natural marine ecosystems of the Antarctic while also allowing some degree of harvest.2. Sound implementation of the principles requires subdivision of the Convention area. The six baleen whale Areas designated by the International Whaling Commission are one possibility, but poorly justified ecologically. Priority should be given to identifying geographic divisions that rest upon a more sound and more finely-constructed ecological foundation.3. Management indicator species and depleted species should be identified as soon as possible, and sampled periodically for appropriate life-history statistics in each agreed-upon subdivision of the Antarctic marine complex of ecosystems. The statistics appropriate for such monitoring are likely to vary with different species, and should generally be those parameters that are least sensitive to environmental fluctuations in general and most sensitive to changes in resource availability.4. A substantial portion of each ecologically differentiated area should be completely protected from harvest and associated activities.5. Harvest effort in portions of such areas open to exploitation should be regulated differentially, in order to facilitate assessment of the effects of harvest pursuant to an agreed-upon experimental design.6. Harvest of krill and other species should be so regulated in any open area that the harvest is consistent with the maintenance or restoration of the harvested species, indicator species, and depleted species to levels of greatest net annual increment or above, defined with respect to initial population size.7. Article II's principle of reversibility should address adaptive change resulting from artificial selection as well as ecological change. A methodology for correlating harvest practices with rates of reversal of the effects of harvest should be developed for harvested species, indicator species, and depleted species. No alien species should be introduced into Antarctica unless its existence there can be easily terminated.8. As soon as possible, a limit should be placed on the allowable annual rate of increase of krill harvest by Man.9. Basic research on Antarctic marine ecosystems should be enhanced, even though the research may have no obvious application to stable recruitment or to reversibility of change.
Hydroelectric Development and Wilderness Conflict in South-West Tasmania
Authors: Dragun Andrew K. 
Published: August 2009

The hydroelectric developments portended in South-West Tasmania would inundate tracts having major wilderness and archaeological values as well as threaten a much larger area of wilderness. The development of the region is ‘justified’ by the construction authority, in terms of an expected high rate of electricity demand towards the year 2000. However, a range of independent demand analyses suggest that the demand for electricity in Tasmania will not approach the Hydro-Electric Commission's expectations. Thus a lag in demand may be identified which should provide time for a rigorous evaluation of the wilderness value of the region together with an appraisal of the alternative electricity-generation options.Currently, it appears that a cost advantage exists for the favoured ‘Gordon-below-Franklin’ project. However, the opportunity-cost differential of this project relative to several less-damaging alternatives is slight, at least when the growth in wilderness and electricity demands are considered. The opportunity-cost tradeoff appears quite trivial when current tourist and recreational impacts are accounted for.
Recent Trends of Desertification in the Maowusu Desert, China
Authors: Luk Shiu-Hung 
Published: August 2009

In the Maowusu Desert—which in the south-east encompasses part of the Yulin Region, Shaanxi Province, and in the north-west the Ih Ju League, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region—desertification trends in relation to the impact of droughts and land-use changes were investigated. Data derived from Earth resources technology satellites (LANDSAT I and LANDSAT II, 1974–1978), and Chinese documentary sources, were used for the analysis. It was found that desert ‘expansion’ occurred during 1953–76, but the rates of expansion varied over time and space, relatively rapid desertification being observed for 1959–63 and 1971–76. The bulk of the expansion was located in the more arid Ih Ju League. The mean annual rate of areal expansion was 6.4% during 1958–71. By comparing the desertification rates with precipitation and land-use information, it was established that droughts have only accentuated the desertification process. The primary cause of desert expansion is the excessive clearing of land for rain-fed agriculture as well, of course, as overgrazing. Another contributory factor was culling of vegetation for fuel and raw materials for handicraft industries.Efforts have been expended on desert control since the mid-1950s, resulting in the arresting of desertification in some local areas. The individual success stories demonstrate that, with mass participation, effective desert control can be achieved by using low-level technology. However, the Chinese programme of desert control was not conceived as a comprehensive programme. Control activities relied almost exclusively on vegetational methods, and they were seldom coordinated with land-use policies as well as with the planning of energy supplies. The negligence of the fundamental conflict between expanding agricultural activities and desert control has led to a net desert expansion in the last 30 years. Recognition of this fundamental conflict and implementation of mitigative land-use policies, would be a major step towards resolving the desertification problem in the Maowusu Desert.
A Restored Seagrass (Thalassia) Bed and Its Animal Community
Authors: McLaughlin Patsy A. , Treat Sara-Ann F. , Thorhaug Anitra , Lemaitre Rafael 
Published: August 2009

Quarterly sampling of animals in a restored seagrass (Thalassia) area in south Biscayne Bay, Florida, was undertaken to determine whether the recolonizing animal community would be similar in structure to a Thalassia community that had never been impacted by thermal effluents or restored. Samplings by 1 m bottom trawl (⅛ inch = 3.2 mm stretch-mesh), 3 replicates at each of 9 stations, and a 15-cm2 grab (5 replicates at 9 stations) were sorted as to species for most groups and quantified. Strong seasonal differences were found. The results were compared with data from previous work in the area which had been done during thermal emissions from a power-plant.Significant differences were found between the abundance and species of animals in restored areas and a nearby barren area that had never recovered from impact, though differences in species and abundances between the restored Thalassia sites and an unaffected control site were not statistically different. Populations of certain groups such as the commercial Pink Shrimp (Penaeus duorarum), caridean shrimps, and juvenile fishes, were numerically far higher in the restored area than in control or naturally reestablishing successional seagrasses, and at least an order of magnitude higher than in barren areas that had never recovered from impact.