5,062 research outputs found

    Wildlife trade in Latin America: people, economy and conservation

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    Wildlife trade is among the main threats to biodiversity conservation and may pose a risk to human health because of the spread of zoonotic diseases. To avoid social, economic and environmental consequences of illegal trade, it is crucial to understand the factors influencing the wildlife market and the effectiveness of policies already in place. I aim to unveil the biological and socioeconomic factors driving wildlife trade, the health risks imposed by the activity, and the effectiveness of certified captive-breeding as a strategy to curb the illegal market in Latin America through a multidisciplinary approach. I assess socioeconomic correlates of the emerging international trade in wild cat species from Latin America using a dataset of >1,000 seized cats, showing that high levels of corruption and Chinese private investment and low income per capita were related to higher numbers of jaguar seizures. I assess the effectiveness of primate captive-breeding programmes as an intervention to curb wildlife trafficking. Illegal sources held >70% of the primate market share. Legal primates are more expensive, and the production is not sufficiently high to fulfil the demand. I assess the scale of the illegal trade and ownership of venomous snakes in Brazil. Venomous snake taxa responsible for higher numbers of snakebites were those most often kept as pets. I uncover how online wildlife pet traders and consumers responded to campaigns associating the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic. Of 20,000 posts on Facebook groups, only 0.44% mentioned COVID-19 and several stimulated the trade in wild species during lockdown. Despite the existence of international and national wildlife trade regulations, I conclude that illegal wildlife trade is still an issue that needs further addressing in Latin America. I identify knowledge gaps and candidate interventions to amend the current loopholes to reduce wildlife trafficking. My aspiration with this thesis is to provide useful information that can inform better strategies to tackle illegal wildlife trade in Latin America

    Conscience and Consciousness: British Theatre and Human Rights.

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    This research project investigates a paradigm of human rights theatre. Through the lens of performance and theatre-making, this thesis explores how we came to represent, speak about, discuss, and own human rights in Britain. My framework of ‘human rights theatre’ proposes three distinctive features: firstly, such works dramatise real-world issues and highlights the role of the state in endangering its citizens; secondly, ethical ruptures are encountered within and without the drama, and finally, these performances characteristically aspire to produce an activist effect on the collective behaviours of the audience. This thesis interrogates the strategies theatre-makers use to articulate human rights concerns or to animate human rights intent. The selected case-studies for this investigation are ice&fire’s testimonial project, Actors for Human Rights; Badac Theatre; Jonathan Holmes’ work as director of Jericho House; Cardboard Citizens’ youth participation programme, ACT NOW; and Tony Cealy’s Black Men’s Consortium. Deliberately selecting companies and performance events that have received limited critical attention, my methodology constellates case-studies through original interviews, durational observation of creative working methods and proximate descriptions of practice. The thesis is interested in the experience of coming to ‘consciousness’ through human rights theatre, an awakening to the impacts of rights infringements and rights claiming. I explore consciousness as a processual, procedural, and durational happening in these performance events. I explore the ‘éffect’ of activist art and examine the ways in which makers of human rights theatre aim to amplify both affective and effective qualities in their work. My thesis also considers the articulation of activist purpose and the campaigning intent of the selected theatre-makers and explores how their activism is animated in their productions. Through the rich seam of discussion generated by the identification and exploration of the traits of a distinctive human rights theatre, I affirm the generative value of this typological enquiry

    Evaluating the readiness of three States in the Northeastern United States to adapt important natural resources systems to climate change: practical and theoretical considerations

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    In the last decade, governments have made advances in the development and adoption of climate adaptation programs. With the rise of these programs, scholarly efforts have emerged to assess and evaluate their effectiveness and quality. Thus, researchers have developed and applied a range of climate adaptation evaluation approaches to gauge adaptation progress. In this thesis, a climate adaptation evaluation approach developed by Ford and King (2015) — the adaptation readiness framework — was applied to assess the readiness of three Northeastern US States – Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine – to adapt the natural resources systems located within their boundaries to climate change. To enable the adaptation readiness evaluation, the indicators in the adaptation readiness framework were revised to fit the context of this study shaped by scale and governmental system. Systematic reviews of the scholarly and grey literature were pursued. The revised indicators were used for the coding of documents. Indicators were then scored based on ordinal rankings. Results demonstrated that Massachusetts had the highest level of climate adaptation readiness, New Hampshire the second highest and Maine the lowest climate adaptation readiness. It was found that political leadership – one of the factors in the framework – strongly correlates with climate adaptation readiness, and that high levels of climate adaptation readiness are associated with government centralization. The conceptual strengths of the framework include its ability to illuminate adaptation deficits, and adaptation policy patterns and structures. Its weaknesses stem from the vagueness of the underlying definition of adaptation. Rather than measuring adaptation progress, the adaptation readiness framework measures the extent to which governments have established programs that fall under the category of adaptation as “adjustments”

    Hunting Wildlife in the Tropics and Subtropics

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    The hunting of wild animals for their meat has been a crucial activity in the evolution of humans. It continues to be an essential source of food and a generator of income for millions of Indigenous and rural communities worldwide. Conservationists rightly fear that excessive hunting of many animal species will cause their demise, as has already happened throughout the Anthropocene. Many species of large mammals and birds have been decimated or annihilated due to overhunting by humans. If such pressures continue, many other species will meet the same fate. Equally, if the use of wildlife resources is to continue by those who depend on it, sustainable practices must be implemented. These communities need to remain or become custodians of the wildlife resources within their lands, for their own well-being as well as for biodiversity in general. This title is also available via Open Access on Cambridge Core

    Industry 4.0: product digital twins for remanufacturing decision-making

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    Currently there is a desire to reduce natural resource consumption and expand circular business principles whilst Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is regarded as the evolutionary and potentially disruptive movement of technology, automation, digitalisation, and data manipulation into the industrial sector. The remanufacturing industry is recognised as being vital to the circular economy (CE) as it extends the in-use life of products, but its synergy with I4.0 has had little attention thus far. This thesis documents the first investigating into I4.0 in remanufacturing for a CE contributing a design and demonstration of a model that optimises remanufacturing planning using data from different instances in a product’s life cycle. The initial aim of this work was to identify the I4.0 technology that would enhance the stability in remanufacturing with a view to reducing resource consumption. As the project progressed it narrowed to focus on the development of a product digital twin (DT) model to support data-driven decision making for operations planning. The model’s architecture was derived using a bottom-up approach where requirements were extracted from the identified complications in production planning and control that differentiate remanufacturing from manufacturing. Simultaneously, the benefits of enabling visibility of an asset’s through-life health were obtained using a DT as the modus operandi. A product simulator and DT prototype was designed to use Internet of Things (IoT) components, a neural network for remaining life estimations and a search algorithm for operational planning optimisation. The DT was iteratively developed using case studies to validate and examine the real opportunities that exist in deploying a business model that harnesses, and commodifies, early life product data for end-of-life processing optimisation. Findings suggest that using intelligent programming networks and algorithms, a DT can enhance decision-making if it has visibility of the product and access to reliable remanufacturing process information, whilst existing IoT components provide rudimentary “smart” capabilities, but their integration is complex, and the durability of the systems over extended product life cycles needs to be further explored

    Investigative Methods: An NCRM Innovation Collection

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    This Innovation Collection on investigative methods brings together investigators working in different domains, sectors, and on different topics of interest to help capture the breadth, scope and relevance of investigative practices over 10 substantive chapters. Each of the papers presents a different investigative method or set of methods and, through case studies, attempts to demonstrate their value. All the contributions, in different ways and for different purposes, seek to reconstruct acts, events, practices, biographies and/or milieux, to which the researchers in question lack direct access, but which they want to reconstruct via the traces those phenomena leave behind, traces themselves often produced as part of the phenomena under investigation. These include reports of methods used in investigations on: - The use of force by state actors, including into police violence, military decisions to attack civilians, the provenance of munitions used to attack civilians, and the use and abuse of tear gas; - Networks of far-right discourse, and its links to criminal attacks and state-leveraged misinformation campaigns; - Archives to establish the penal biographies of convicts and the historical practices of democratic petitioning; - Corporate structures and processes that enable tax avoidance and an avoidance of legal responsibilities to workers and the environment. A working principle of the collection is that investigative methods may be considered, alongside creative, qualitative, quantitative, digital, participatory and mixed methods, a distinct yet complementary style of research

    Homes of the future: unpacking public perceptions to power the domestic hydrogen transition

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    Decarbonization in several countries is now linked to the prospect of implementing a national hydrogen economy. In countries with extensive natural gas infrastructure, hydrogen may provide a real opportunity to decarbonize space heating. While this approach may prove technically and economically feasible in the long-term, it is unclear whether consumers will be willing to adopt hydrogen-fueled appliances for heating and cooking should techno-economic feasibility be achieved. In response, this paper develops an analytical framework for examining hydrogen acceptance which links together socio-technical barriers and social acceptance factors. Applying this framework, the study synthesizes the existing knowledge on public perceptions of hydrogen and identifies critical knowledge gaps which should be addressed to support domestic hydrogen acceptance. The paper demonstrates that a future research agenda should account for the interactions between acceptance factors at the attitudinal, socio-political, market, community, and behavioral level. The analysis concludes that hydrogen is yet to permeate the public consciousness due to a lack of knowledge and awareness, owing to an absence of information dissemination. In response, consumer engagement in energy markets and stronger public trust in key stakeholders will help support social acceptance as the hydrogen transition unfolds. Affordability may prove the most critical barrier to the large-scale adoption of hydrogen homes, while the disruptive impacts of the switchover and distributional injustice represent key concerns. As a starting point, the promise of economic, environmental, and community benefits must be communicated and fulfilled to endorse the value of hydrogen homes.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC): EP/T518104/1 and Cadent Gas Ltd

    Power struggles: An exploration of the contribution of renewable energy to sustainable development, decent work and the “just transition” through a case study of wind farm development outside Loeriesfontein, Northern Cape Province (2011-2020)

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    Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2022.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Through a case study of the development of two linked wind farms outside Loeriesfontein, a small town in the Northern Cape Karoo, this dissertation explores the contribution of renewable energy to sustainable development, “decent work” and the “just transition” to a lowcarbon economy in South Africa. In considering how the just transition can be realised in Loeriesfontein and the wider Hantam Local Municipality, this dissertation draws on an understanding of sustainable development that rests on three non-negotiable moral imperatives: satisfying human needs, enhancing social equity and respecting environmental limits. It also locates the political struggles around the introduction of renewable energy into South Africa’s energy mix within an analysis of the Minerals-Energy-Complex (MEC) and the continued influence of this complex in South Africa’s political economy after the democratic transition of 1994. This dissertation thus broadens the focus on the plight of workers and their communities in the coal sector in current debates on the just transition, to include communities in the Northern Cape. This province is currently home to over half the projects in the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP). Since the introduction of the REIPPPP in 2011, studies have highlighted the programme’s potential for community development and job creation in the “host” communities located within a 50km radius from where renewable energy projects are constructed. However, there has been little research on actual developments within these sites and, as a result, the voices of the marginalised people living in these communities have been missing in the debates. My study utilised a case-study research design involving semi-structured in-depth interviews with key informants and former workers employed during the construction of the two wind farms, along with policy and documentary analysis, observation and primary data from a household survey. Main findings were the following. Firstly, the jobs created during the construction of the wind farms satisfied some but not all of the criteria of “decent work”: while wages and work conditions were generally better than those offered by other local employers, training opportunities were neglected. Furthermore, very few local workers could be absorbed into the workforce once the wind farms began operating. Company claims around the number of (short-term) jobs created were also misleading. Secondly, the community development projects initiated in terms of the REIPPPP’s local economic development scorecard were introduced in a piecemeal, top-down fashion and mired in local patronage politics. While targeting certain community needs, they fell short of advancing holistic sustainable development. The Community Trust established as part of the ownership structure of the two wind farms may have potential in alleviating household poverty once it becomes operational, but that will require strong, democratic management and ensuring that impoverished households in the municipality are targeted as beneficiaries. This dissertation confirms the importance of harnessing the investment in renewable energy towards sustainable development in host communities and broadening the understanding of what the just transition to a low-carbon economy entails in South Africa. It concludes with certain policy and research recommendations in this regard.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis verken die bydrae van hernubare energie tot volhoubare ontwikkeling, behoorlike werk en die ‘billike oorgang’ na Ɖ laekoolstof-ekonomie in Suid-Afrika deur middel van Ɖ gevallestudie van die ontwikkeling van twee gekoppelde windplase buite Loeriesfontein, Ɖ klein dorpie in die Noord-Kaapse Karoo. Die tesis neem in oenskou hoe die ‘billike oorgang’ in Loeriesfontein en die groter Hantam Plaaslike Munisipaliteit verwerklik kan word, en steun in hierdie oorweging op Ɖ begrip van volhoubare ontwikkeling wat op drie ononderhandelbare morele noodsaaklikhede berus: voldoen aan menslike behoeftes, versterk maatskaplike billikheid en respekteer omgewingsperke. Dit plaas ook die politieke stryd oor die toevoeging van hernubare energie tot Suid-Afrika se energiemengsel binne Ɖ ontleding van die mineraleenergie- kompleks (MEK) en die voortgesette invloed van hierdie kompleks op Suid-Afrika se politieke ekonomie na die demokratiese oorgang in 1994. Hierdie tesis verbreed dus die fokus op die posisie van werkers en hulle gemeenskappe in die steenkoolsektor, binne die huidige debat oor ‘billike oorgang’, om gemeenskappe in die Noord-Kaap in te sluit. Hierdie provinsie huisves tans meer as die helfte van die projekte in die program vir die verkryging van onafhanklike kragprodusente vir hernubare energie (Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, of REIPPPP). Sedert die bekendstelling van die REIPPPP in 2011, het studies die program se potensiaal vir gemeenskapsontwikkeling en werkskepping in die “gasheer”-gemeenskappe binne Ɖ omtrek van 50 km van waar hernubare-energieprojekte gebou word, uitgelig. Daar is egter nog min navorsing oor werklike ontwikkelings binne hierdie terreine gedoen en dus word die stemme van die gemarginaliseerde mense in hierdie gemeenskappe nie in die debat gehoor nie. My studie het ‘n gevallestudie- navorsingsontwerp gebruik, wat semigestruktureerde, diepgaande onderhoude met hoofinformante en voormalige werkers, wat tydens die konstruksie van die twee windplase in diens was, tesame met beleids- en dokumentere ontleding, waarneming en primere data uit Ɖ huishoudelike opname, behels. Die hoofbevindings was die volgende: Eerstens het die werk wat tydens die konstruksie van die windplase geskep is, aan sommige van die kriteria van ‘behoorlike werk’ voldoen, maar nie aan almal nie – hoewel lone en werkstoestande oor die algemeen beter was as enigiets wat deur ander plaaslike werkgewers aangebied is, het opleidingsgeleenthede agterwee gebly. Voorts kon baie min van die plaaslike werkers in die werksmag opgeneem word nadat die windplase in werking gestel is. Die maatskappy se bewerings oor die aantal (korttermyn-) werke wat geskep is, is ook misleidend. Tweedens is die gemeenskapsontwikkelingsprojekte wat ingevolge die REIPPPP se telkaart vir plaaslike ekonomiese ontwikkeling begin is, stuksgewys, hierargies ingestel en was dit vasgevang in plaaslike patronaatskapspolitiek. Hoewel sekere gemeenskapsbehoeftes geteiken is, het die projekte nie daarin geslaag om holistiese volhoubare ontwikkeling te bevorder nie. Die gemeenskapstrust, wat as deel van die eienaarstruktuur van die twee windplase gestig is, het dalk die potensiaal om huishoudelike armoede te verlig wanneer dit in werking tree, maar dit sal sterk demokratiese bestuur vereis en daar sal seker gemaak moet word dat verarmde huishoudings in die munisipaliteit as begunstigdes geteiken word. Hierdie tesis bevestig hoe belangrik dit is om die belegging in hernubare energie ten bate van volhoubare ontwikkeling in gasheer-gemeenskappe in te span en die begrip van wat die ‘billike oorgang’ na Ɖ laekoolstof-ekonomie in Suid-Afrika behels, te verbreed. Dit sluit af met sekere beleids- en navorsingsaanbevelings in hierdie verband.Doctora
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