‘Wild land’: a concept in search of space

This paper sets out the general background context surrounding the issue of wild land in Scotland. It explores definitions of wild land and related concepts, identifies key issues associated with wild land in Scotland, and explores the question of the desirability of designating areas as wild land for Scotland. There is increasing interest in the concept of ‘wild land’, ‘wildness’, or ‘wilderness’ in Scotland, other parts of the UK and Europe. Changes in agricultural policy are leading to land abandonment in several European Union member states and in some cases ‘re-wilding’ is taking place with little or no managerial input from humans. These events have led to renewed interest across Europe in setting aside land with minimal management to create ‘wild’ areas. There has been either interest or activity, not always in the public sector, in Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and the Netherlands in exploring and establishing some form of wild land area. Many of these are relatively small, with evidence of recent human activity, and, as such, are quite distinct from the concept of ‘wilderness’, which has been so influential in certain parts of the world (such as North America) in influencing the designation of areas of land for minimal management. In contrast there are the large areas of northern Scandinavia, which still contain ‘wilderness-like’ qualities, and to some extent are preserved in the wilderness areas and national parks of Finland, Sweden and Norway. Unfortunately, the terms ‘wild land’, ‘wildness’, ‘wilderness’, come with an enormous amount of associated cultural baggage, resulting in argument and conflict over definitions, purpose, and management of potential wild land or wilderness areas. The aim of this paper is to unpack some of that baggage and clarify the key issues in the current discussions on wild land taking place in Scotland

Institutional resilience in marine resource governance

The marine environment is a complex area for commons management requiring multi-level governance to ensure that large numbers of (often conflicting) users can sustain their resource use, and the quality of ecosystems, over the long term. Multi-level governance, however, brings its own problems in term of institutional conflict and inertia, which prove problematic for dynamic ecological, political and socio-economic systems. Although Ostrom (2007) has demonstrated the importance of the need for local input into ‘evolutionary’ rule making, governance of marine resources has increasingly moved away from local communities of resource users to regional, national, and even international institutions. Inshore and deep-sea fisheries around the UK, for example, are under threat from highly centralised policies that manage and control fishing, marine conservation, seabed mineral extraction, and energy generation. Despite the overlapping and complex institutional arrangements to manage fisheries regional management approaches (such as the North Sea Cod Recovery Plan) are not achieving their stated goals; stocks of many species remain low, and numbers of fishermen are declining with negative impacts on local communities and associated supporting service industries. Recent and potential legislative change at UK and EU level suggests there are opportunities for exploring community-based institutional arrangements that may enhance the resilience of a range of institutional structures governing fisheries and a wider range of marine resources. Resilience in a complex marine environment requires capacity for adaptation within the interaction between ecological and socio-economic systems, to enable continued ecological functioning, value creation in the face of change, and effective management. The paper explores the effectiveness of multi-layered governance on marine resource management. In particular, it examines the institutional arrangements influencing the interplay between ecological, political, and socio-economic systems in relation to the marine environment, and their capacity for adaption and resilience

Bachia heteropa

Number of Pages: 10Integrative BiologyGeological Science

Studies on the Contact Sensitization of Man with Simple Chemicals

Dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB) coupled to peripheral blood erythrocytes or leukocytes forms a particulate complex, DNCB-antigen. The addition of DNCB-antigen induced blastogenesis and DNA synthesis in leukocyte cultures from DNCB-sensitized human subjects and not in leukocyte cultures from nonsensitized controls. In general, sensitized subjects who displayed a higher degree of cutaneous reactivity to DNCB, as manifested by duration and intensity of dermatitis, also showed a greater blastogenic response to DNCB-antigen in vitro. This quantitative correlation, however, was not invariant. Certain soluble factor(s), or lymphokines are released following the addition of DNCB-antigen to leukocyte cultures prepared from some sensitive subjects who were rechallenged one or more times with DNCB. These lymphokines induce blastogenesis in secondary target leukocyte populations from nonsensitized subjects. Extended studies are presented which show little or no lymphokine activity in peripheral blood leukocyte cultures during a primary immune response, despite high degrees of blastogenic activity in response to DNCB-antigen. Significant lymphokine activity was observed only following additional rechallenge with DNCB.Blastogenesis and skin reactivity specific for DNCB have been shown to develop at about the same time during a primary immune response. This, along with the quantitative correlation shown in this communication, suggests that both processes probably reflect thymic-dependent cellular immunity. The appearance of lymphokine activity following rechallenge with DNCB suggests that DNCB-induced lymphokines may represent an amplifying mechanism of the cellular immune response that involves recruitment of previously uncommitted lymphocytes