A contribution towards a revision of the aquatic oligochaeta of Africa

Zoologica Africana 2(2): 131-16

Community-Investor Negotiation Guide 1: Preparing in Advance for Potential Investors

Deciding whether or not to allow an investor to use community lands and natural resources is one of the most important decisions a community can make. If an investment project is carried out in a respectful and inclusive way, it may help community members to achieve their development goals, which may include creating jobs and local economic opportunities. But investments come with risks. Investment projects may make the land that community members need for farming and other livelihood activities unavailable for some time. They may pollute local rivers, lakes, air, and soils, or block access to sacred areas or water sources. Investment projects may even violate community members’ human rights, or result in communities completely losing their lands. Given these challenges, CCSI partnered with Namati, a legal empowerment organization, to produce two guides aimed at supporting communities and their advisors in their interactions with land-based investors. This Guide (Guide 1) sets out practical guidance to help communities and their advisors to prepare before potential investors arrive, and after an investor has approached a community. It covers topics and activities such as visioning a community’s desired future, understanding how valuable the land is for the community, and ensuring the inclusion of all voices within community decision-making, as well as pointers on meaningful consultation, information access, and knowing the community’s rights. A related publication, Guide 2, provides practical guidance on the issues to consider when a community has decided to negotiate a contract with an investor. Using example clauses, and guidance boxes for community discussion and seeking legal advice, it describes all of the various sections and clauses that should be in a contract, advises what protective language to try to include in the contract to make it enforceable, and warns against types of problematic contractual language that should be avoided. The guides are designed to apply to agriculture and forestry projects, although may have some applicability to agreements reached in other contexts, such as around mining or renewable energy projects

Community-Investor Negotiation Guide 2: Negotiating Contracts with Investors

Deciding whether or not to allow an investor to use community lands and natural resources is one of the most important decisions a community can make. If an investment project is carried out in a respectful and inclusive way, it may help community members to achieve their development goals, which may include creating jobs and local economic opportunities. But investments come with risks. Investment projects may make the land that community members need for farming and other livelihood activities unavailable for some time. They may pollute local rivers, lakes, air, and soils, or block access to sacred areas or water sources. Investment projects may even violate community members’ human rights, or result in communities completely losing their lands. Given these challenges, CCSI partnered with Namati, a legal empowerment organization, to produce two guides aimed at supporting communities and their advisors in their interactions with land-based investors. This Guide (Guide 2) provides practical guidance on the issues to consider when a community has decided to negotiate a contract with an investor. Using example clauses, and guidance boxes for community discussion and seeking legal advice, it describes all of the various sections and clauses that should be in a contract, advises what protective language to try to include in the contract to make it enforceable, and warns against types of problematic contractual language that should be avoided. An earlier guide, Guide 1, sets out practical guidance to help communities and their advisors to prepare both before potential investors arrive, and after an investor has approached a community. It covers topics and activities such as visioning a community’s desired future, understanding how valuable the land is for the community, and ensuring the inclusion of all voices within community decision-making, as well as pointers on meaningful consultation, information access, and knowing the community’s rights. The guides are designed to apply to agriculture and forestry projects, although may have some applicability to agreements reached in other contexts, such as around mining or renewable energy projects

Common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.) alters its feeding niche in response to changing food resources: direct observations in simulated ponds

We used customized fish tanks as model fish ponds to observe grazing, swimming, and conspecific social behavior of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) under variable food-resource conditions to assess alterations in feeding niche. Different food and feeding situations were created by using only pond water or pond water plus pond bottom sediment or pond water plus pond bottom sediment and artificial feeding. All tanks were fertilized twice, prior to stocking and 2 weeks later after starting the experiment to stimulate natural food production. Common carp preferred artificial feed over benthic macroinvertebrates, followed by zooplankton. Common carp did not prefer any group of phytoplankton in any treatment. Common carp was mainly benthic in habitat choice, feeding on benthic macroinvertebrates when only plankton and benthic macroinvertebrates were available in the system. In the absence of benthic macroinvertebrates, their feeding niche shifted from near the bottom of the tanks to the water column where they spent 85% of the total time and fed principally on zooplankton. Common carp readily switched to artificial feed when available, which led to better growth. Common carp preferred to graze individually. Behavioral observations of common carp in tanks yielded new information that assists our understanding of their ecological niche. This knowledge could be potentially used to further the development of common carp aquaculture

Ovaries of Tubificinae (Clitellata, Naididae) resemble ovary cords found in Hirudinea (Clitellata)

The ultrastructure of the ovaries and oogenesis was studied in three species of three genera of Tubificinae. The paired ovaries are small, conically shaped structures, connected to the intersegmental septum between segments X and XI by their narrow end. The ovaries are composed of syncytial cysts of germ cells interconnected by stable cytoplasmic bridges (ring canals) and surrounded by follicular cells. The architecture of the germ-line cysts is exactly the same as in all clitellate annelids studied to date, i.e. each cell in a cyst has only one ring canal connecting it to the central, anuclear cytoplasmic mass, the cytophore. The ovaries found in all of the species studied seem to be meroistic, i.e. the ultimate fate of germ cells within a cyst is different, and the majority of cells withdraw from meiosis and become nurse cells; the rest continue meiosis, gather macromolecules, cell organelles and storage material, and become oocytes. The ovaries are polarized; their narrow end contains mitotically dividing oogonia and germ cells entering the meiosis prophase; whereas within the middle and basal parts, nurse cells, a prominent cytophore and growing oocytes occur. During late previtellogenesis/early vitellogenesis, the oocytes detach from the cytophore and float in the coelom; they are usually enveloped by the peritoneal epithelium and associated with blood vessels. Generally, the organization of ovaries in all of the Tubificinae species studied resembles the polarized ovary cords found within the ovisacs of some Euhirudinea. The organization of ovaries and the course of oogenesis between the genera studied and other clitellate annelids are compared. Finally, it is suggested that germ-line cysts formation and the meroistic mode of oogenesis may be a primary character for all Clitellata

The rate of colonization by macro-invertebrates on artificial substrate samplers

The influence of exposure time upon macro-invertebrate colonization on modified Hester-Dendy substrate samplers was investigated over a 60-day period. The duration of exposure affected the number of individuals, taxa and community diversity. The numbers of individuals colonizing the samplers reached a maximum after 39 days and then began to decrease, due to the emergence of adult insects. Coefficients of variation for the four replicate samples retrieved each sampling day fluctuated extensively throughout the study. No tendencies toward increasing or decreasing coefficients of variation were noted with increasing time of sampler exposure. The number of taxa colonizing the samplers increased throughout the study period. The community diversity index was calculated for each sampling day and this function tended to increase throughout the same period. This supports the hypothesis that an exposure period of 6 weeks, as recommended by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, may not always provide adequate opportunity for a truly representative community of macro-invertebrates to colonize multiplate samplers. Many of the taxa were collected in quite substantial proportions after periods of absence or extreme sparseness. This is attributed to the growth of periphyton and the collection of other materials that created food and new habitats suitable for the colonization of new taxa. Investigation of the relationship between ‘equitability’ and length of exposure revealed that equitability did not vary like diversity with increased time of exposure.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72073/1/j.1365-2427.1979.tb01522.x.pd

Importance of exposure route for behavioural responses in Lumbriculus variegatus Müller (Oligochaeta: Lumbriculida) in short-term exposures to Pb

Abstract Goal, Scope and Background Lumbriculus variegatus Müller (Oligochaeta), a common freshwater sediment-dweller, has frequently been used in toxicokinetic studies, although has been less used in ecotoxicity tests. Methods For the first time the Multispecies Freshwater Biomonitor® (MFB) was applied in a short-term whole-sediment toxicity test. The MFB automatically and quantitatively recorded the spontaneous locomotory behaviour of Lumbriculus variegatus in exposures with two compartments, water and sediment. The study questioned, whether the animals altered their locomotion depending on the compartment which was spiked with lead (Pb). Results and Discussion As in the exposures to Pb-contaminated water/clean sediment, the animals exposed to Pb-contaminated sediment/clean water showed higher activities in intermediate Pb-concentrations. This indicates, that spontaneous locomotory activity is affected by Pb-concentrations at sublethal levels regardless of whether the Pb-concentration is found in the water or in the sediment, because these animals use both environmental compartments simultaneously. However, within the same Pb-levels, the animals showed higher locomotory activity in contaminated water compared with contaminated sediment. This indicates a possible tendency to withdraw from (‘avoidance’) contaminated water into the clean sediment compartment, whereas there was no withdrawal from contaminated sediment into clean water. The latter might be explained by the fact that withdrawal from sediment to water might increase the risk of predation and drift in nature, whereas retracting to sediment might provide shelter. Conclusions The study showed that spontaneous locomotory responses of L. variegatus to Pb depend on whether the water or sediment is contaminated. The study also concluded that the Multispecies Freshwater Biomonitor® can be applied effectively in sediment toxicity testing. Recommendations and Perspectives More emphasis should be given to the interactions of water/sediment in sediment ecotoxicity tests to better simulate field conditions and increase ecological realism in risk assessment, especially as quantitative recording methods exisit

Implementing and operationalising integrative approaches to sustainability in Higher Education: The role of project-oriented learning.

Higher education institutions across the world are increasingly placing an emphasis on students’ acquisition of a broader range of skills or attributes within the taught curriculum, which should lead to a widening of their chances of academic success, in particular in the employment market. Among other issues, matters related to sustainable development are playing a key role, but many universities do not yet cater for integrative approaches, which may help them to approach sustainability issues in a transformative way. It is therefore necessary to develop new approaches and methods, which may address this gap. Based on the importance of meeting this perceived research need, this paper defines the role of project-oriented learning, also designated as Project Based Learning, as a tool to support integrative approaches to sustainability in a higher education context. The scientific value of the paper lies in the provision of some examples of successful approaches to Project Based Learning and the identification of some of the trends that characterise it. The paper makes clear why project-oriented learning should be more widely used in support of integrative approaches to sustainability, and why it needs to become part of the routine of higher education institutions. The outline of some of the initiatives recently and currently being undertaken may inspire others and assist in the implementation of Project Based Learning