Development and application of a new Forestation Index: global forestation patterns and drivers

Deforestation has long been heavily studied; several proximate and underlying causes behind the global decrease of forest extent have been discussed. However, systematic analyses of positive examples are sparse, even if forestation is happening in almost 70 countries (on approximately 40% of the world forested area). This study focuses on countries where forest cover increased between 1990 and 2010. As "forests" is a heterogeneous group, a biodiversity-corrected Forestation Index is also introduced to distinguish between different forms of "environmentally valuable" new forests (that are expected to have positive impact on biodiversity) and monocultures (that are debatable with that respect). OLS regression is used to reveal factors that may influence the observed patterns. Our results present some evidence to support the existence of an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). Direct conservation investments appear to have negative effect on forestation which implies substitution of measures. Several traditional factors, which are important in deforestation (such as corruption, economic freedom, etc.) seems to have no impact from forestation perspective. Results show that refinement is needed during the modelling of forestation and different types should be acknowledged - treatment of forests as a homogenous category is an oversimplification

Miért választják a termelők a rövid ellátási láncokat?

Az esettanulmány célja, hogy azonosítsa azokat a tényezőket, amelyek a rövid ellátási láncokban – elsősorban a „hagyományos” és a termelői piacokon – részt vevő kisléptékű élelmiszertermelők árusítást meghatározó döntéseit befolyásolják. Jelen (nem reprezentatív) kutatás eredményei megerősítik azokat a korábbi megfigyeléseket, amelyek szerint a piacokat elsősorban a kisebb gazdálkodó szervezetek választják. Magyarország nagyvárosaiban a hagyományos és a termelői piacok eltérő gazdálkodói kört vonzanak: előbbi választásában a magasabb ár, az azonnali készpénzfizetés és a megszokások játszanak motiváló szerepet, míg utóbbi esetében e tényezők hatása kevésbé egyértelmű. A termelői piaci árusítás valószínűbb olyan gazdálkodóknál, akik nagyobb birtokmérettel, szélesebb termékválasztékkal és további beruházási tervekkel rendelkeznek. A választott piaci forma melletti hosszabb távú elköteleződésre a tapasztalatok alapján elsősorban inkább a hagyományost preferáló gazdálkodók hajlandók. A szövetkezeti tagság és (kisebb mértékben) az informális együttműködésekben (például gépcserében) történő részvétel, bár hatással van a piaci árusításra vonatkozó döntésekre, nem jellemző

Off to market: but which one? Understanding the participation of small-scale farmers in short food supply chains—a Hungarian case study

The research described in this paper was designed to identify the factors that influence the importance small-scale farmers place on different marketing channels of short food supply chains. The focus concerns two entirely different types of market that are present in the bigger cities in Hungary: 'conventional' markets where there are no restrictions on locality but the farmer-market relationship is based on binding contracts, and newly-emergent farmers' markets at which only local growers can sell ad hoc, using their own portable facilities. Results are based on a survey that was conducted in 2013 among 156 Hungarian market oriented farmer-vendors at different types of market and confirm that different markets are visited by different types of farmers. Farmers who favour conventional markets are typically less educated, operate on smaller scales and are more committed to their chosen markets via long-term contracts (which reduce the probability of their trying other outlets). The preference for farmers' markets is stronger with farmers who are more open to cooperation, have specific investment plans for developing their farms and among those who are specifically looking to directly interact with their customers to avoid middlemen. The relevance of the findings is highlighted by the ongoing Short Food Supply Chain Thematic Sub-programme in the present European Union financing period; farmers' profiles in any given marketing channel must be understood if short food supply chains are to be effectively promoted. Different types of small-scale farmers will benefit from different supporting frameworks, interventions, and initiatives

Analysis of Grasshopper, a Novel Social Network De-anonymization Algorithm

Social networks have an important and possibly key role in our society today. In addition to the benefits, serious privacy concerns also emerge: there are algorithms called de-anonymization attacks that are capable of re-identifying large fractions of anonymously published networks. A strong class of these attacks solely use the network structure to achieve their goals. In this paper we propose a novel structural de-anonymization attack called Grasshopper. By measurements we compare Grasshopper to the state-of-the-art algorithm, and highlight its enhanced capabilities, such as having negligible error rates and accessing yield levels that was not possible before: in cases when there is greater noise in the background knowledge. We furthermore evaluate an anonymity measure for the Grasshopper algorithm which enables the approximate ranking of nodes according to their re-identification rates. Finally, we characterize the robustness of Grasshopper in tackling identity separation, a privacy-enhancing technique that facilitate hiding of structural information

Differences of small-scale farmers and the related short agri-food value chains : An empirical evidence from Hungary

Recently, short food supply chains have been thoroughly studied in some countries; however, data are sparse from others. In Hungary, the local food movement has been developing very fast and an outburst in the number of farmers markets has happened, due to the changes of the legal environment. The paper addresses the question whether farmers selling at various short food supply chains are different based on their socio-demographic, farm- and production-related characteristics, expectations and motivations. Employing survey data our results confirm that short supply chains are different in terms of farmers’ profiles. The outcomes are important in the light of the coming EU funding schemes as different small-scale farmers require different supporting frameworks and solutions. | Az elmúlt időszakban a rövid ellátási láncokat alaposan kutatták egyes országokban, míg máshol a téma nem került a szakmai érdeklődés homlokterébe. Magyarországon igen dinamikusan fejlődik a helyi élelmiszer-mozgalom, a jogszabályi környezet változásának következtében a termelői piacok száma folyamatosan nő. Jelen tanulmány fő kérdése az, hogy mennyire eltérőek a különböző rövid ellátási láncok mentén értékesítő gazdálkodók demográfiai, gazdaság- és termelésspecifikus jellemzőik, várakozásaik és motivációik alapján. Kérdőíves felmérésünk eredményei alapján különböző típusú rövid ellátási láncok különíthetők el a résztvevő gazdák profilja alapján. A tapasztalatok a következő időszakban várható Európai Uniós támogatások fényében különösen fontosak, mivel a különböző kisléptékű gazdálkodók esetében különböző támogatási rendszerek és megoldások lehetnek célravezetők