9,314 research outputs found

    The Economic Case for Landscape Restoration in Latin America

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    Degraded lands—lands that have lost some degree of their natural productivity through human activity—account for over 20 percent of forest and agricultural lands in Latin America and the Caribbean. Some 300 million hectares of the region's forests are considered degraded, and about 350 million hectares are now classified as deforested. The agriculture and forestry sectors are growing and exerting great pressure on natural areas. With the region expected to play an increasingly important role in global food security, this pressure will continue to ratchet up. In addition, land degradation is a major driver in greenhouse gas emissions in the region. Forest and landscape restoration can offer a solution to these increasing pressures

    Identifying and prioritising services in European terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems

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    Ecosystems are multifunctional and provide humanity with a broad array of vital services. Effective management of services requires an improved evidence base, identifying the role of ecosystems in delivering multiple services, which can assist policy-makers in maintaining them. Here, information from the literature and scientific experts was used to systematically document the importance of services and identify trends in their use and status over time for the main terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems in Europe. The results from this review show that intensively managed ecosystems contribute mostly to vital provisioning services (e.g. agro-ecosystems provide food via crops and livestock, and forests provide wood), while semi-natural ecosystems (e.g. grasslands and mountains) are key contributors of genetic resources and cultural services (e.g. aesthetic values and sense of place). The most recent European trends in human use of services show increases in demand for crops from agro-ecosystems, timber from forests, water flow regulation from rivers, wetlands and mountains, and recreation and ecotourism in most ecosystems, but decreases in livestock production, freshwater capture fisheries, wild foods and virtually all services associated with ecosystems which have considerably decreased in area (e.g. semi-natural grasslands). The condition of the majority of services show either a degraded or mixed status across Europe with the exception of recent enhancements in timber production in forests and mountains, freshwater provision, water/erosion/natural hazard regulation and recreation/ecotourism in mountains, and climate regulation in forests. Key gaps in knowledge were evident for certain services across all ecosystems, including the provision of biochemicals and natural medicines, genetic resources and the regulating services of seed dispersal, pest/disease regulation and invasion resistance

    Financing Marine Conservation: A Menu of Options

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    This guide describes over 30 mechanisms for financing the conservation of marine biodiversity, both within and outside of MPAs. Its main purpose is to familiarize conservation professionals i.e., the managers and staff of government conservation agencies, international donors, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) with a menu of options for financing the conservation of marine and coastal biodiversity. A number of economic incentive mechanisms for marine conservation (as contrasted with revenue-raising mechanisms) are also presented in section 5 (on Real Estate and Development Rights) and section 6 (on Fishing Industry Revenues). Each section provides a description of the financing mechanism and examples showing how the mechanism has been used to finance marine conservation. In some cases, even though a mechanism may have only been used to finance terrestrial conservation, it has been included in this guide because of its potential to also serve as a new source of funding for marine conservation. This guide is not intended to provide detailed instructions on how to establish and implement each of the different conservation financing mechanisms. Instead references are provided at the end of each section for sources of additional information about each of the mechanisms described. Citations to specific references are also included in the text in parentheses

    Understanding preferences for nature based and sustainable tourism. The role of personal values and general and specific environmental attitudes

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    This paper reports the results of a study which investigated the social psychological correlates of people’s preferences for sustainable and unsustainable tourism activities. Two-hundred-eighty-two participants from two Italian cities responded to a questionnaire which recorded their tourism preferences, their general pro-environmental attitudes and values, and their specific attitudes towards sustainable tourism. Results showed positive correlations among the constructs considered. Groups of participants differing in their tourism preferences were also identified and the paper discusses the way in which the social psychological variables considered here may be used to plan adequate strategies and management instruments able to address crucial issues of sustainability in tourism, including, for example, tourists’ ecological behaviors “on site” and their educational needs

    Minimizing Vessel Strikes to Endangered Whales: A Crash Course in Conservation Science and Policy

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    The North Atlantic right whale is one of the most endangered of all large whales: about 350-400 individuals remain. Species recovery is, in part, contingent on reducing vessel-strike mortality. Our science-based conservation program resulted in three efforts specifically designed to minimize the risk of lethal vessel-strikes of endangered baleen whales without compromising vessel navigation and safety. In Atlantic Canada, the Bay of Fundy Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) was relocated to reduce the risk of lethal vessel strikes by 90% where the original outbound lane of the TSS intersected the Right Whale Conservation Area, and an Area To Be Avoided (ATBA) adopted for Roseway Basin has demonstrated an 82% reduction in the risk of lethal vessel-strikes. In the Gulf of Maine, the Boston TSS through the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary was relocated to reduce the overlap between vessels and endangered baleen whales by ~81% and by ~58% for right whales alone. This rerouting of vessels for whale conservation, as sanctioned by the International Maritime Organization, sets a precedent for national and international marine conservation policy by providing vessels with direct actions they can take to protect endangered whales – both regulated (TSS) and voluntary (ATBA). This demonstrate that despite contentious conditions, effective science-driven policy tools for conservation can be identified, made available, and implemented. The science also provides the quantitative means to measure policy efficacy through monitoring of vessel compliance and, in some cases, can increase compliance through improved real-time communications regarding whale locations in high-risk areas

    Economic valuation of forests and nature : a support tool for effective decision making

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    Included are several case studies, like: The Leuser ecosystem, Sumatra; The Borivili National Park, India; Tropical rain forests, Costa Rica; Mangrove forests, Philippines. This document has been prepared by: IAC and EC-LN
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