Wildlife population changes across eastern europe after the collapse of socialism

When political regimes fall, economic conditions change and wildlife protection can be undermined. Eastern European countries experienced turmoil following the collapse of socialism in the early 1990s, raising the question of how wildlife was affected. We show that the aftermath of the collapse changed the population growth rates of various wildlife taxa. We analyzed populations of moose (Alces alces), wild boar (Sus scrofa), red deer (Cervus elaphus), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), brown bear (Ursus arctos), Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), and gray wolf (Canis lupus) in nine countries. Population growth rates changed in 32 out of 49 time series. In the countries that reformed slowly, many species exhibited rapid population declines, and population growth rates changed in 83% of the time series. In contrast, in countries with fast post- socialism reforms, many populations increased rapidly, and growth rates changed in only 48% of time series. Our results suggest that the direction and frequency of the changes were associated with socioeconomic conditions, and that wildlife populations can be greatly affected by socioeconomic upheavals

Emissions savings from wind power generation: evidence from Texas, California and the upper midwest, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists: Summer Conference

ABSTRACT Wind power has the potential to reduce emissions associated with conventional electricity generation. Using detailed, systemic hourly data of wind generation and emissions from plants in ERCOT (Texas), CAISO (California), and MISO (Upper Midwest), we estimate the SO 2 , NO x and CO 2 emissions offset by wind generation in those territories. Our estimation strategy implicitly captures both the marginal unit of generation displaced by wind on the electrical grid, and the marginal emissions reduction from that displaced unit. Our results reveal substantial variation in emissions reduction by territory, which appear to be strongly driven by differences in the existing generation mix. While the environmental benefits from emissions reductions in the Upper Midwest roughly cover government subsidies for wind generation, environmental benefits in Texas and California fall short

Characterizing European cultural landscapes: Accounting for structure, management intensity and value of agricultural and forest landscapes

Almost all rural areas in Europe have been shaped or altered by humans and can be considered cultural landscapes, many of which now are considered to entail valuable cultural heritage. Current dynamics in land management have put cultural landscapes under a huge pressure of agricultural intensification and land abandonment. To prevent the loss of cultural landscapes, knowledge on the location of different types of cultural landscapes is needed. In this paper, we present a characterization of European cultural landscapes based on the prevalence of three key dimensions of cultural landscapes: landscape structure, management intensity, and value and meaning. We mapped these dimensions across Europe at a 1-km resolution by combining proxies on management intensity and landscape structure with new indicators such as social media usage and registered traditional food products. We integrated the three dimensions into a continuous “cultural landscape index” that allows for a characterization of Europe’s rural landscapes. The characterization identifies hotspots of cultural landscapes, where all three dimensions are present, such as in the Mediterranean. On the other hand, Eastern and Northern European cultural landscapes are mostly characterized by only one of the dimensions. Our paper can help to identify pressures to cultural landscapes and thus to target measures for the conservation of these landscapes, to link similar landscapes in different regions, and to inform policy design on the most important characteristics of cultural landscapes at a regional scale