Governance, equity and the green list: developing a multi-stakeholder and participatory governance assessment methodology for protected areas

"Governance of PAs and associated development activities is about who defines the overall objectives and how, and the allocation of responsibility and accountability for delivering on these objectives. An important distinction should be made between PA governance type and PA governance quality (commonly referred to as good governance). PA governance type concerns who has the legal authority to govern the PA, and there are four main types:• Governance by government, Shared governance by two or more actors working in collaboration, Private governance by private organisations or individuals, Community governance by Indigenous Peoples and/or local communities. Governance quality is typically described by principles. IIED have condensed IUCN’s 40 key considerations on good governance (as detailed in Governance of Protected Areas: From understanding to action) to 11 good governance principles that are relevant to site-level governance assessment. The IIED good governance principles were presented to attendees alongside IUCN’s five broad good governance principles...Equity is a core issue for PA management and governance both in terms of the ethics of conservation and in terms of the effectiveness and sustainability of conservation outcomes. Equity has three distinct dimensions – recognition, procedure, and the distribution of benefits and costs and their ultimate impact on human well-being (social impacts). A social impact (of a protected area and associated conservation and development activities) is a good or bad thing that in some way affects human well-being. A positive social impact is a benefit, while a negative social impact is cost, burden or harm from the PA and associated development activities.

Governance, equity and the green list: developing a multi-stakeholder and participatory governance assessment methodology for protected areas

"Governance of PAs and associated development activities is about who defines the overall objectives and how, and the allocation of responsibility and accountability for delivering on these objectives. An important distinction should be made between PA governance type and PA governance quality (commonly referred to as good governance). PA governance type concerns who has the legal authority to govern the PA, and there are four main types:• Governance by government, Shared governance by two or more actors working in collaboration, Private governance by private organisations or individuals, Community governance by Indigenous Peoples and/or local communities. Governance quality is typically described by principles. IIED have condensed IUCN’s 40 key considerations on good governance (as detailed in Governance of Protected Areas: From understanding to action) to 11 good governance principles that are relevant to site-level governance assessment. The IIED good governance principles were presented to attendees alongside IUCN’s five broad good governance principles...Equity is a core issue for PA management and governance both in terms of the ethics of conservation and in terms of the effectiveness and sustainability of conservation outcomes. Equity has three distinct dimensions – recognition, procedure, and the distribution of benefits and costs and their ultimate impact on human well-being (social impacts). A social impact (of a protected area and associated conservation and development activities) is a good or bad thing that in some way affects human well-being. A positive social impact is a benefit, while a negative social impact is cost, burden or harm from the PA and associated development activities.

Chrysanthemum species used as food and medicine: Understanding quality differences on the global market

Background: Chrysanthemum flowers [Ch. x morifolium (Ramat.) Hemsl. and Ch. indicum L.] are a globally used and pharmacologically interesting botanical drug, however, with variable product quality. Objective: We aim at understanding the chemical variability of primary material available commercially based on different origins and associated quality problems like contamination with heavy metals. This needs to be assessed in the context of the current regulations for this botanical drug and associated problems. Material and Methods: 15 C. indicum L. and 50 C. x morifolium (Ramat.) Hemsl., including a range of geographical cultivars recognized in China, samples from the USA, Europe and China were analyzed using High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) to compare their general chemical profile. Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) was used to quantify heavy metal contamination. Results: The: HPTLC fingerprints of C. indicum samples are clearly distinguishable from C. x morifolium. Fingerprints of samples from the same cultivars collected from markets in different countries (USA and China) show different patterns. Large variance of fingerprints within each cultivar group was observed. The heavy metal analysis showed excessive amounts of some harmful heavy metal in some commercial products with excessive cadmium being the most frequent problem. Conclusions: The Chinese medicinal cultivars vary. Differences between samples sourced from the USA and China might be ascribable to geographical factors (e.g. soil composition), degradation during transport/storage or adulteration, but geographical differences should also be taken into account. Importantly, a much more detailed definition of the drug are needed for better quality control. In addition, with continuous contamination problem observed, a more widespread regulation is an essential requirement for better quality

Why gender matters for biodiversity conservation

Addressing gender inequality in biodiversity conservation is fundamental to meeting the goals and targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, and building synergies with the Sustainable Development Goals. There are positive outcomes for nature, equity and sustainability, and for overall community wellbeing when women access and control biodiversity and natural resources, can benefit equally from nature, and participate meaningfully in biodiversity-related decision making. This briefing provides evidence of the value of integrating gender into conservation interventions, suggesting that Parties to the CBD should therefore prioritise the gender-responsive implementation of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, using the Gender Plan of Action as a guiding mechanism. It identifies key avenues for effective action on the ground, based on evidence from successful interventions

Pd-Catalyzed Cascade Reactions of Aziridines: One-step Access to Complex Tetracyclic Amines

The combination of palladium catalysis and thermal cycloaddition is shown to transform tricyclic aziridines into complex, stereodefined tetracyclic products in a single step. This highly unusual cascade process involves a diverted Tsuji–Trost sequence leading to a surprisingly facile intramolecular Diels–Alder reaction. The starting materials are accessible on multigram scales from the photochemical rearrangement of simple pyrroles. The tetracyclic amine products can be further elaborated through routine transformations, highlighting their potential as scaffolds for medicinal chemistry

Is it just conservation? A typology of Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ roles in conserving biodiversity

As conservation initiatives expand in response to biodiversity loss, there remains limited understanding about what forms of governance and roles for different actors produce the best ecological outcomes. Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ (IPs & LCs) roles extend beyond participation to more equitable governance based on relative control and recognition of their values and institutions, but the relationship with conservation outcomes remains unclear. We review 648 empirical studies to develop a typology of IP & LC roles in governance and, for a subsample of 170, analyze relationships with reported ecological outcomes. Findings reveal that more equitable governance, based on equal partnership or primary control for IPs & LCs, are associated with significantly more positive ecological outcomes. This carries important implications, including for actions towards the Global Biodiversity Framework targets, suggesting a need to elevate the role of IPs & LCs to conservation leaders, while respecting their rights and customary institutions

Ultralight vector dark matter search using data from the KAGRA O3GK run

Among the various candidates for dark matter (DM), ultralight vector DM can be probed by laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors through the measurement of oscillating length changes in the arm cavities. In this context, KAGRA has a unique feature due to differing compositions of its mirrors, enhancing the signal of vector DM in the length change in the auxiliary channels. Here we present the result of a search for U(1)B−L gauge boson DM using the KAGRA data from auxiliary length channels during the first joint observation run together with GEO600. By applying our search pipeline, which takes into account the stochastic nature of ultralight DM, upper bounds on the coupling strength between the U(1)B−L gauge boson and ordinary matter are obtained for a range of DM masses. While our constraints are less stringent than those derived from previous experiments, this study demonstrates the applicability of our method to the lower-mass vector DM search, which is made difficult in this measurement by the short observation time compared to the auto-correlation time scale of DM

Search for eccentric black hole coalescences during the third observing run of LIGO and Virgo

Despite the growing number of confident binary black hole coalescences observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that were already identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total mass M>70 M⊙) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz orbital frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place an upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities 0<e≤0.3 at 0.33 Gpc−3 yr−1 at 90\% confidence level