bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Conservation Problems and Progress in Northern and Southern Africa
Authors: Curry-Lindahl Kai 
Published: August 2009

Northern Africa is rather poor in national parks and nature reserves in comparison with equatorial and southern Africa. The remaining populations of nomadic ungulates in the Saharan region are difficult to protect within the boundaries of national parks, if only because they are nomadic and move over great areas in an irregular pattern owing basically to the erratic rainfall. It ought, however, to be a conservation priority for many countries of northern Africa to make an effort to conserve desert and subdesert antelopes of various species before it is too late, because these animals are so productive and thrive in areas with meagre vegetation and no surface water for long periods. They are an excellent renewable resource of the deserts!In northern Africa only a fraction of the former herds of wild ungulates still survive in declining numbers, whereas in southern Africa a semi-desert country such as Botswana still harbours important herds of many herbivorous species. But also in Botswana their numbers are declining drastically in comparison with the situation only about fifteen years ago, though, fortunately, several large reserves have been established in that country during recent years. This is also the case in most other countries of southern Africa.Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands also share similar conservation problems with continental Africa, but in these areas with a high proportion of endemic plants and animals the human overexploitation tends to have more serious and immediate effects on the biota than is the case on the African mainland.The present conservation needs of Africa include more national parks and other protected areas. These are of fundamental importance for environmental conservation, being in effect in many regions the only major areas where the environment of today and even of the past may be preserved.
Environmental Ranking of Amazonian Development Projects in Brazil
Authors: Goodland Robert J. A. 
Published: August 2009

The premise of an Amazonia full of immensely rich potentialities awaiting development to yield copious and abundant profit and lasting benefit, has only recently emerged as being tragically false. The most important environmental consideration in Amazonian discussions has been to convince the controllers of the enormous risks of the prevailing course of development.People in Brazil and elsewhere who were concerned with various foreseeable dangers, intensified efforts to persuade the Government about them when the Transamazonian Highway programme was announced in June 1970. This programme, and the associated colonization scheme in 100-km strips on either side of the road network, subsequently was largely abandoned or postponed, as the harvests failed and roads deteriorated. The next development thrust—agro-industrial livestock—was even more damaging, and so the environmental movement in Brazil grew. Almost simultaneous announcements towards the end of the Geisel Government, of accelerated emancipation of Amerindians and risk-contracts to extract timber on unprecedented scales with no limit placed on area, were shelved with the change in government early in 1979 (cf. Schmithusen, 1978).
Evaluation and Management of Ambient Air Quality, with Special Reference to China
Authors: Zhi-Qi Yao 
Published: August 2009

Monitoring and evaluation of air quality in urban and industrial areas are essential for air quality management. For evaluating the composite air-quality in the concomitant presence of several pollutants in the atmosphere, many air quality indices have been developed. This paper presents two indices, the ‘composite air-quality index (I1)’ and ‘the standard-exceeding index of air pollution (I2)’ together with their respective sub-indices, for the pollutants monitored and for use in combination.The first index, I1, is based on the annual average concentration measured in a year for each pollutant; it measures the overall composite air-quality. By relating the annual average concentration (Ci) of each pollutant to its hygienic standard (Si), as many (Ci/Si) values as the number of pollutant parameters monitored are found, whereupon I1 is computed as the geometric mean of the maximum and average of all (Ci/Si) values. A greater value of I1 means worse composite air-quality. It is simpler to compute than those more sophisticated ones in the literature, and holds the unique characteristic of considering, and yet not overemphasizing as formula (3) does (Nemerow, 1974), the maximum (Ci/Si) value.
Photochemical Air-pollutants—a Threat to Mediterranean Coniferous Forests and Upland Ecosystems
Authors: Naveh Z. , Steinberger E. H. , Chaim S. , Rotmann A. 
Published: August 2009

Photochemical smog in the densely-populated coastal region of Israel often results in temporary atmospheric ozone concentrations in excess of 0.1 ppm. In view of the rapid growth in urban—industrial development, energy consumption, and motorized traffic, these concentrations are increasing from year to year and the same is presumably true for other Mediterranean countries suffering similar conditions.Moreover, as in California, these photochemical air pollutants can be transported inland under suitable meteorological conditions and may lead to ozone concentrations well above 0.05 ppm even in remote mountain regions with forested slopes. This is the case in the Shaar Hagai canyon leading to Jerusalem, where more than 0.2 ppm oxidant concentrations have been measured and where widespread decline and mortality of Pinus hale-pensis is occuring, accompanied by severe infestation by Matsucoccus josephi scales and Scolytidae beetles. Earlier stages of this decline can also be observed in other planted pine forests in Israel.
Methodological Problems in Evaluating Sustainability
Authors: Cocklin Christopher R. 
Published: August 2009

To embody the concept of sustainability in environmental management and development planning has latterly become recognized internationally as a priority for the future. Governments in many countries have consequently dedicated substantial funds to the task of defining planning and management strategies that are sustainable. Somewhat surprisingly, however, there has been very little attention given so far to establishing appropriate frameworks within which to evaluate the implications of planning and policy alternatives for sustainability.One of the most important questions to be addressed in evaluation exercises relates to the conflicts among different systems – economic, social, and biophysical – that may be realized in pursuing development options that may be sustainable. It is also important to establish whether the pursuit of sustainability may compromise the capability to fulfil other important societal goals and objectives. If the potential for these various conflicts can be discerned, then it may also be possible to identify development strategies that minimize conflict, while simultaneously achieving sustainability.
The Politics of Ecology: Dredge-mining in South Africa
Authors: Preston-Whyte Robert A. 
Published: August 2009

The objective of interest-groups is to influence policy. Conflict is inevitable when two or more interest-groups are in competition for scarce resources. It then becomes the responsibility of the state to accommodate or resolve the conflict. However, an additional complexity occurs if the state agencies are themselves undergoing transformation, as has recently occurred in South Africa.These issues are explored, using as a case-study the conflict that occurred between environmental interestgroups and a mining company over an application to dredge-mine the sand dunes that line the eastern shores of Lake St Lucia in Natal. The nature and objectives of these groups is discussed, and the role of the press in the controversy is analysed. The interests of black settlers who wish to return to their ancestral lands following the collapse of apartheid are shown to complicate further the dilemma that confronts state policymakers. The changing nature of the ‘decision environment’ in South Africa is addressed, and group theory is used to explain the relationship between state agencies and the mining, environmental, and black settler group, interests. Stages in the policy environment to match the modes of change over the period of political transformation in South Africa are identified by levels of conflict and ambiguity in a contingency model.
Measuring Tropical Deforestation: Development of the Methods
Authors: Downton Mary W. 
Published: August 2009

Estimates of the rate and extent of tropical deforestation differ widely. The accuracy of the estimates for many countries has improved greatly during the last decade, especially with increased use of satellite data and advancements in analysis techniques. A good basis for ongoing global monitoring of tropical forests has been established by the FAO in its Forest Resources Assessment for 1990 (though data for some countries are still inadequate). The FAO assessment estimates that over one million km2of the Earth's tropical rain-forest and moist deciduous forest was destroyed during 1981–90, representing an annual deforestation rate of 0.75% of such forests throughout the decade.This paper traces the controversy over measurements of deforestation in Brazil's Legal Amazon and the resulting confusion and exaggeration of research findings (in both directions). Some widely-cited estimates are highly inaccurate, indicating a need for critical evaluation of any estimates that are used. A substantial narrowing of the range of estimates is found in recent studies. Landsat data indicate that the deforestation rate in the Legal Amazon declined considerably from 1988 to 1991.
Local Communities and Protected Areas: Attitudes of Rural Residents Towards Conservation and Machalilla National Park, Ecuador
Authors: Fiallo Elba A. , Jacobson Susan K. 
Published: August 2009

Economic and social problems facing many developing countries jeopardize the effectiveness and very existence of their national parks and protected areas. Rural poverty exacerbates the need for access to natural resources in protected areas and increases public conflict with protected-area management. A prerequisite for the long-term sustainability of parks and protected areas is public involvement and support for the conservation of natural resources.Towards the above ends, the present study analyses local residents' attitudes, knowledge, and concept of values concerning conservation and the management of natural resources in Machalilla National Park, Ecuador. A survey was administered of 90 households in three villages located within the Park boundaries and two villages adjacent to the Park. Survey results indicated that local residents living either within or adjacent to Machalilla National Park hold a variety of negative attitudes towards the Park. Positive attitudes tended to increase with respondents' level of education (X2 = 19.001, df = 2, p < 0.0001) and knowledge about conservation issues (X2 = 26.616, df = 1, p < 0.0001). Younger residents (X2 = 12.960, df = 2, p = 0.002), respondents perceiving benefits from the Park (X2 = 14.292, df = 2, p = 0.001), and respondents reporting good relations with the Park staff (X2 = 5.514, df = 1, p = 0.019), were more positive towards the Park. Factors influencing public attitudes are compared with study results in other countries.
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.
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.
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.
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.