bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Fertilizer Use and Environmental Policy in Agriculture: A Socio-economic Study in Greece
Authors: Fanariotu Ioanna N. , Skuras Dimitrios G. 
Published: August 2009

The growing interest in environmental impacts of agriculture calls for effective agricultural policies to confront the expanding use of chemical fertilizers. Environmental policies in agriculture should be based on evidence concerning the factors influencing fertilizer usage.A hierarchical loglinear analysis of some social and economic factors showed that age, education, farm size, and employment status, all exert an independent effect on fertilizer usage. In addition, age and education exert a joint effect on fertilizer usage. It is found that the categories most likely to use high rates of application of fertilizer, at least in Greece, are full-time farmers 56 to 65 years old, well-educated or with small-sized holdings.The EEC's socio-structural policy for agriculture is examined in the light of the above findings. It is concluded that the policy could form the core for an effective environmental policy in agriculture. However, areas are pointed out for the formulation of improved policy with avoidance of mistakes.
Nitrogen and Phosphorus Removal-capacity of Four Chosen Aquatic Macrophytes in Tropical Freshwater Ponds
Authors: Tripathi Brahma D. , Srivastava Jaya , Misra Kiran 
Published: August 2009

The nutrient removal-capacity of four chosen aquatic macrophytes was tested in both natural and laboratory conditions. Laboratory experiments were performed under controlled conditions using ‘microcosm’ methods wherein the plants were grown in three different nutrient concentrations. For field experiments, three ponds were selected that had different levels of plant nutrient concentrations and accordingly were treated as polluted, moderately polluted, and relatively unpolluted, respectively, the object being to study the nutrient removal-capacity of chosen aquatic macrophytes living in ‘natural’ conditions. For the present investigation, four common and widespread aquatic plants growing in all three ponds were chosen: Water-hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes [Mart.] Solms), Water-lettuce (Pistia stratiotes L.), Round-leafed Water-fern (Salvinia rotundifolia Willd.), and Lesser Duckweed (Lemna minor L.). These plants were selected also because of their frequent presence in aquatic bodies in the region and their high reproductive capacity.From the results it is revealed that, during the summer and rainy seasons, the highest content of nitrogen was removed by the Eichhornia, followed by the Pistia > Lemna > Salvinia, while during winter the highest content of nitrogen was removed by the Eichhornia followed by the Lemna > Pistia > Salvinia. Higher phosphorus removal was found in summer than in the rainy or the winter season. Phosphorus removal by the macrophytes was in the order of the Eichhornia > Pistia > Lemna > Salvinia, during the summer and rainy seasons, whereas the highest content of phosphorus was removed by Lemna in the winter months.The nutrient removal-capacity was rated to be highest by the Water-hyacinth, followed by the Pistia, then the Lemna, and lowest by the Salvinia. It was also evident that the nutrient removal increased with increasing nutrient concentration in the wastewater. The removal of nitrate by the selected macrophytes ranged from 42.0% to 96.2%, while phosphate removal ranged from 36.3% to 70.2%. A positive and significant correlation was obtained between the concentration of nitrate and phosphate in the waters and plant tissues that were studied, and it is thought that a useful strategy to employ might be to grow the Eichhornia and the Lemna together at least where winter temperatures were likely to be low enough to favour the Lemna at that season, though at other times it is apt to be a nuisance.
Philippine Tubbataha Reef National Marine Park: Status, Management Issues, and Proposed Plan
Authors: White Alan T. , Palaganas Vergilio P. 
Published: August 2009

Historically, remote islands and marine resources have been free for those willing to venture into their areas. Until recent years, many such islands have been effectively managed by their remote locations and any native humans. But nowadays, under-use is turning into destructive over-fishing and plundering, because there is no surveillance. Many marine parks in South-east Asia are facing the same problems as Tubbataha (White, 1989; Arquiza, 1990). Sustainable management in these areas is a challenge, especially where there are no local authorities or communities to take immediate control.Field surveys at Tubbataha Reef in 1984 and 1989 have revealed a dramatic decline in the coral-reef quality from the incidence of dynamite fishing, the use of sodium cyanide for the aquarium and live-food fish trades, and the dropping of large anchors. Sea-turtles and seabirds are also endangered.Solutions in areas such as Tubbataha will require organization beyond the grasp of local residents in the islands, who have traditionally had little formal government. Although they are aware of the problem, they are faced with outsiders and intruders who do not respect their conservatism. National government and/or nongovernment organizations can play a role in management, while being careful not to alienate the positive force and management control of the local communities (White, 1988a). Such issues require sensitive planning and community-based approaches that are directed at education, organization, and the involvement and building of local responsibility.The management plan for Tubbataha Reef National Marine Park should have three thrusts and concomitant strategies: (1) to curtail immediate resource-destruction through the deployment of a team of educators, community organizers, and law-enforcement officers; (2) to articulate and implement a Park zonation plan which includes traditional fishing areas, sanctuaries, and buoys for anchoring; and (3) to implement a community development programme which will systematically integrate the adjacent fishing community into the Park management efforts and give the fishermen due responsibility in this process.
Environment and Development: Attitudinal Impediments to Policy Integration
Authors: Gale Robert J.P. 
Published: August 2009

Attitudes towards the concept of sustainable development—an approach to development which integrates economic, social, and environmental, considerations in development planning and decision-making—are evaluated according to six sectors of public interest: the private sector, the general public, government, the academic and research sector, labour, and the voluntary sector.The study is empirical. Attitudinal data are gathered from a content analysis of public briefs submitted in 1983 and 1984 to the Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects for Canada. For each sector, attitudes towards development planning are assessed, with particular attention given to attitudes affecting the integration of economic and environmental considerations in development planning.The study shows that a commitment to private-sector views is strongly, although negatively, related to environmental concern. Private-sector interventions are not only the least sympathetic of all six sectors towards the integration of economic and environmental policies, but the majority of interveners in this sector are opposed to the very concept. Given this, there are major attitudinal obstacles to the acceptance of the concept beyond the rhetorical level.
Environmental Economics: Can Economics Help Mother Earth?
Authors: Shaw W. Douglass 
Published: August 2009

Ecologists and environmentalists have long been at odds with economists over whether economic theory and practice helps or hinders environmental protection and improvement. This paper suggests that the specific field of environmental economics has contributed a great deal to the potential for environmental improvement, particularly with recent improvements in techniques which attempt to value environmental goods. The basic tenets of environmental economics are reviewed, including the tradable emissions-permits approach, and then specific recent applications of the permit system in the United States of America are presented.The two basic valuation techniques, travel cost and the contingent valuation method (CVM), are briefly discussed, along with the shortcoming of the travel cost approach in obtaining ‘intrinsic’ values for environmental goods. This paper describes results from experimental economics which support the use of the CVM in estimating intrinsic values for environmental resources. In a new study, subjects in a laboratory experiment pay to prevent the destruction of a plant. This finding should appeal to the environmentalist and ecologist. Lastly, recent developments in macroeconomics and general equilibrium models which incorporate pollution and resource degradation variables, are shown to contribute positively to the goal of global environmental improvement.
Problems Related to Conservation of Coniferous Forest in Norway
Authors: Korsmo Harald 
Published: August 2009

In this paper, it is argued that the Norwegian Government must tackle the problems related to the conservation of coniferous forests more seriously and urgently than hitherto, and not let this important task be governed by commercial interests. A national plan based on political, non-scientific motives will not safeguard these ecocomplexes and their component ecosystems and the endangered species found in them.A practical way to solve the time-consuming disagreements between environmental authorities and forest owners would be to guarantee full compensation, and to start paying for sites of high conservation interest immediately. This compensation must ensure that the forest owners can fulfil such financial commitments as they already have. An alternative would be the exchange of privately-owned forest for public forest land, including forests owned by ‘The Educational Fund’.The Ministries involved must learn to cooperate in such work. If they do not, Norway's credibility in environmental matters may suffer. Solutions must be reached which do not put sectorial interests before national or international environmental values, and which guarantee the protection of a representative selection of coniferous forests according to scientific principles.
Conservation and Management of Rivers in India: Case-study of the River Yamuna
Authors: Gopal Brij , Sah Malavika 
Published: August 2009

The River Yamuna, originating in the Himalayas, is the largest tributary of the River Ganga (Ganges) into which it flows at Allahabad. Its drainage basin covers about 42% of the Ganga River basin and about 11% of India's total land area. The area of the Yamuna drainage basin is densely populated and under intensive agriculture, while industrial activity is also rapidly growing in it. Climatically, a large part of the basin is semi-arid, and the river-flow depends upon highly erratic monsoonal rains. Therefore, the River and its tributaries have been regulated for over a century by dams and barrages for domestic water-supply and irrigation.Besides increased flow-regulation, the River's system has been under increasing anthropogenic stress from discharge of—mostly untreated—domestic and industrial wastewaters, and from other activities in the basin. River Yamuna is severely polluted by domestic and industrial effluents especially from Delhi down to Agra. Water extraction and consequently low flow has affected the selfpurification capacity of the River. The greater inflow of River Chambal helps River Yamuna to recover to some extent after their confluence near Etawah.Studies of water quality and biota of the River Yamuna along its course during the past 30 years show rapid deterioration of water-quality, loss of fisheries, and significant changes in the biotic communities. In the manner of River Yamuna, its tributaries have also become increasingly polluted during the same period. There has, however, been little attention paid to the management of the River system and conservation of its resources, except for some efforts at the treatment of sewage effluents but emphasizing only water-quality. Ignoring the river-flood-plain interactions which play significant roles in the ecology of a river, most of the floodplain has been reclaimed by constructing high levees.We emphasize that the Yamuna River basin should be treated as one ecocomplex in developing appropriate management strategies, and that the conservation of waterquality and biota can be achieved through protection and better management of floodplains than has been practised to date.
Simulating Past and Forecasting Future Climates
Authors: Bryson Reid A. 
Published: August 2009

Climatic change is not a new phenomenon, nor is it random, as most of the variation can be explained in terms of variations in the sunlight reaching the surface of the Earth. The solar energy reaching the surface is modified by the aerosols in the atmosphere, however, and that means primarily aerosols of volcanic origin.The climatic history of the Earth is divided up into episodes with abrupt beginnings and ends. Rapid changes from one climatic state to another are normal. The fluctuations within this century do not appear to be unusual in any respect.To the Author's knowledge there is no evidence that past climatic changes, including those of the last decades, are related to changes in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere—except perhaps for warmer nights in the North American mid-west. It is not possible to simulate past climates using carbon dioxide content as the main variable, but it is possible to do so using calculated solar radiation as modified by volcanic aerosols. This strongly suggests that forecasts of the climatic future based on carbon dioxide increases are suspect.Computerized models of the climate that can simulate decadal and century-long variations of climate as well as variations on the millennium scale, suggest that the climate will not warm dramatically in the next fifty years, but will, rather soon after that, begin a rather rapid change towards the next glacial climate.Changes in our global array of cultures, sufficient to affect the global climate in a way which we perceive as beneficial, probably are not possible within centuries without massive physical conflict. There are both winners and losers when the climate changes in a non-uniform pattern, as it always does. It is a well-known fact that a global change of 0.5°C in mean temperature, such as has happened in recent years, might produce some regions of 10°C change in either direction and some regions with no change at all, and additionally an array of rainfall changes of various magnitudes. Russians would welcome warming of their climate!The problems with attempting to modify the global climate in a particular direction are enormous and would be incredibly costly. This is compounded by our not knowing what the climate would do without intervention. Only one thing is truly clear, and it is that the present knowledge of the climatic effect of changing carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere is totally inadequate as a basis for initiating any global attempt to change the climate.The indicated action would appear to be to engage in some high-quality climatic research based on sound science before taking global risks greater than those that might arise from the putative ‘global warming’.
Economic Value of Desert Plants: Acacia Trees in the Wadi Allaqi Biosphere Reserve
Authors: Springuel Irina , Mekki Abdel Moneim 
Published: August 2009

Acacia trees form a principal element of desert plant communities in Egypt's Southeastern Desert. They are widespread in remote desert areas but sparse near settlements and urban areas as a result of human impact. However, sustainable use of Acacia trees remains an important component in the livelihood of nomadic people living in remote desert areas.The present paper discusses the economic and ecological value of Acacia trees in the Wadi Allaqi basin. The total population of Acacia trees in this area is estimated at approximately 13,000 trees. What will be the fate of this population, from which the annual production of charcoal amounts to 10–15 tons? The present work attempts to answer this question by analysing the economic system of the local nomadic population and the ecological characteristics of Acacia trees, coming to reasonably optimistic conclusions.
Barriers to Establishment of Invading, Non-forest Plants in Deciduous Forest Nature Reserves
Authors: Reader Richard J. , Bricker Bradlay D. 
Published: August 2009

A field experiment was conducted to define minimum values of irradiance (i.e. light reaching the forest floor) and exposed mineral soil required for non-forest species to become established in deciduous forest in Southern Canada. Three logging intensities (0%, 33%, and 66%, of tree basal-area removed) were combined with three plot sizes (0.01, 0.05, and 0.20 ha) to create a range of values of irradiance and exposed mineral soil. The total number of non-forest species that became established during the first three years after logging was recorded.Non-forest species invaded experimental plots only when irradiance was at least 8% of incident light. There was no single minimum area of exposed mineral soil required for invasion. A few non-forest species became established even in the absence of exposed mineral soil where penetrating irradiance was 8% or greater. More non-forest species became established as irradiance and the amount of exposed mineral soil increased.Logging increased both irradiance and the amount of exposed mineral soil. Only a small amount of logging (e.g. 33% removal of tree basal-area from a 0.01 ha plot) would be compatible with the conservation objective of preventing invasion by undesirable non-forest species.
Predictions for Cairo: A Reaffirmation, A Reversal, A Realignment, and A Refusal
Authors: Najam Adil 
Published: August 2009

This paper analyses the preparatory process for the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), to see what it might suggest about the direction that the population debate has taken since the 1974 World Population Conference at Bucharest and its successor conference held at Mexico City in 1984. Given the insights obtained from the ICPD preparatory process, and the legacy of the preceding two UN population conferences, what can we say about the directions that the evolving population agenda may take at Cairo?In an attempt to answer this question we make four predictions: (i) the linkage between population and development will be reaffirmed; (ii) United States' ‘Mexico City Policy’ will be formally reversed as the US will seek to recapture the leadership role in the field that it conceded in 1984; (iii) women's health issues will take centre-stage as a new focus in the ongoing debate on the larger ‘population question’ as the agenda is again realigned; and (iv) nations will once again refuse attempts by the population establishment to adopt quantitative population targets.
Environmental Deterioration Resulting from Ski-resort Construction in Japan
Authors: Tsuyuzaki Shiro 
Published: August 2009

Ski slopes are commonly established following clearcutting of areas of well-developed forests, scraping off the surface soil, and seeding the entire ground-surface, as forests widely remain in mountainous regions where skiing is developed in Japan. The ski slopes are then sown with seeds of exotic plants in an attempt to prevent soil erosion. However, many bare areas remain, or develop, on ski slopes. Due to this landscape fragmentation, not only deterioration of Nature but also environmental problems develop, including those of water, garbage, and traffic, pollution.The ski-resort concentration occurs mainly in regions of high-quality landscape around urbanized areas, and derives mostly from economic benefits. Yet any regulation of ski-resort construction has unfortunately been delayed. Areas where ski-resorts have been concentrated have a high risk of damage, and further studies of the situation are overdue. We should reconsider the construction, enlargement, and distribution patterns, of skiresorts, and any further development should be based on sound ecological and conservational knowledge rather than mere transient economic considerations.
Margrethe-Kog and the Artificial Saltwater Lagoon: Evaluation of a Habitat Restoration Project in the Danish Wadden Sea
Authors: Falk Knud , Nøhr Henning , Rasmussen Lars Maltha 
Published: August 2009

Across the Danish–German border in the Wadden Sea, a new dike was completed in 1981, enclosing formerly productive tidal flats and marsh areas which were most important as feeding grounds to breeding and migrant waterbirds. The bird populations responded immediately by a 50% or more reduction in numbers of resting birds and breeding pairs of most species. This paper reviews the management of the enclosed areas, comparing the differences in approach in the Danish and German areas involved.Most importantly, a saline environment was re-established (a Saltwater Lagoon) in parts of the Danish area by actively pumping in water from the Wadden Sea. Despite sometimes drastic fluctuations in environmental conditions in the Lagoon, an infauna of species important in the birds' diet was maintained, and the Lagoon to some extent counteracted the negative effects of the dike construction.The former marsh areas on the Danish side are drained and partly cultivated. In addition, the land areas are separated from the Lagoon by a dike, preventing a saline environment from being maintained outside the designated Saltwater Lagoon. Overall, the land areas in the Danish part are too dry and intensively used to be optimal to the breeding birds.After construction of the dike, the breeding bird populations shifted more towards the German areas. Here, the land-use is much more beneficial to the breeding birds, because no cultivation has taken place, and a generally high water-level in the marsh areas is preserved. Furthermore, in Germany the new dike was placed closer to the original coastline than in Denmark, but a small area of the original foreland remained outside the dike, providing good breeding sites for colonial waterbirds.It is concluded that, due to the creation of the Saltwater Lagoon, the Danish part of the area again sustains waterbirds in numbers of international importance. But an integrated approach to the Nature management of the enclosed areas — combining the solutions adopted for land management in the German part with the technical solution of re-establishing a saline environment behind the dike as in the Danish part — would have rendered a better compensation for the damage caused by the dike construction and related activities.