Social Value of Marine and Coastal Protected Areas in England and Wales.

The U.K. government is committed to establishing a coherent network of marine protected areas by 2012 and the recentMarine and Coastal Access Act, 2009 will designate marine conservation zones and provide wider access rights to the coast. To fulfill these goals, this article argues the need for a clearer, shared understanding of the social value of protected areas in creating new designations and managing existing ones. Although marine and coastal environments attract many people and are vitally important in terms of realized and potential social value, the majority of the public in the United Kingdom lacks understanding and awareness regarding them. Combined with this, the social value of marine and coastal protected areas (MCPAs) have been largely ignored relative to conservation and economics, with the latter invariably taking precedence in environmental policymaking. Social value reflects the complex, individual responses that people experience in a given place. Many reasons determine why one area is valued above another, and this research investigates the social value of MCPAs from a practitioner’s perspective through a series of interviews. Understanding why we “socially” value MCPAs will ultimately equip managers with an informed understanding of these spaces, influence management decisions, and, potentially, policymaking. This article defines social value in the context of MCPAs in England and Wales from a practitioner perspective, explores key concepts, and suggests possible improvements in decision-making

Untangling the imprints of climate, geography and land use/cover on bird diversity in the South American Gran Chaco

To evaluate the structure of bird communities throughout the South American Gran Chaco determining the effects of climate, geography and land use/land cover in bird beta diversity, as well as to understand the beta diversity processes underlying land use changes across broad spatial ranges. Location: South American Gran Chaco. Taxon: Birds. Methods: We constructed a site-by-species matrix with occurrence probabilities of 293 bird species across 2,669 spatial units tiling completely the study area. Based on this matrix, we calculated pairwise dissimilarities scores and performed a hierarchical cluster analysis for describing the spatial configuration of dissimilarities. The clustering result was spatially represented through an original venation map with boundaries between sites widened in the function of their distance in the dendrogram. We used the Generalized Dissimilarity Modelling approach to model beta diversity, using geographic distance, climatic and land use/land cover information as predictors. We mapped beta diversity patterns using colour theory and the HSV colour model. We identified two main clusters of sites across the Gran Chaco, which represent environmentally different sites and harbour very distinct assemblages of species. These main groups are separated by two natural delimiters: The Bermejo-Pilcomayo interfluvium and the Lower Paraná floodplain. Overall, we observed that the percentage of cropland and climatic variables were important shapers of bird beta diversity. Main conclusions: We provide the first area-wide assessment of land use/land cover effects on bird beta diversity for the Gran Chaco. The distribution of croplands has a marked influence on bird beta diversity at regional scale highlighting the role of anthropic changes in reshaping bird beta diversity within the ecoregion. Taking into account the global increasing conversion of forests into croplands, a growing footprint of land use changes over geographical patterns of bird diversity in forest biomes can be anticipated.Fil: Nazaro, María Gabriela. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional; ArgentinaFil: Dos Santos, Daniel Andrés. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Biodiversidad Neotropical. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e Instituto Miguel Lillo. Instituto de Biodiversidad Neotropical. Instituto de Biodiversidad Neotropical; ArgentinaFil: Torres, Ricardo Marcelo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal; ArgentinaFil: Baumann, Matthias. Humboldt-universitat Zu Berlin. Geography Department.; AlemaniaFil: Blendinger, Pedro Gerardo. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional; Argentin

近現代ヨーロッパ思想に見る，神，自然，人間，社会，歴史に関するアイデアの変遷─経営学の根底思想としての把握─

まえがき1．本書のねらいと分析視角 2．17世紀の思想：「生成」に対する「存在」の優位 2．117世紀の思想の概要 2．2五つの考察対象への影響 3．18世紀の思想：「存在」と「生成」の混在 3．118世紀の思想の概要 3．2五つの考察対象への影響 4．19世紀の思想：「存在」に対する「生成」の優位 4．119世紀の思想の概要 4．2ロマン主義思想の台頭とその影響 4．3新啓蒙主義思想とその影響 4．4進化論の世界とその影響 4．5世紀末思想とその影響 5．20世紀（1950年まで）の思想：「生成」の勝利 5．1比類なき思想革命 5．2主要考察対象に見られる変化 あとがき研究ノー

AGENDA: Community-Owned Forests: Possibilities, Experiences, and Lessons Learned

Community-owned forests may be the answer for some U.S. communities now confronting unanticipated and unwanted large scale land use changes – changes that could irrevocably change their local landscapes and quality of life. Across the country, millions of acres of private forest lands are being put up for sale as the forest products companies who own them find other, cheaper sources of supply. If, as is likely, purchasers divide and convert the forests to residential or other development uses, nearby communities face losing the critical economic, environmental, recreational, social, cultural, and aesthetic values and benefits those forests have traditionally provided. Affected localities are urgently seeking alternatives, such as government acquisition of the land and its addition to existing state or federal forests, identification of private purchasers who will maintain forest uses and/or limit development intensity, the purchase of development rights on the properties, or negotiation of conservation easements. Increasingly, however, forward thinking communities are pursuing a more exciting – and challenging – option: acquiring the lands to manage them as community forests, now and for the future. Community-owned and –managed forests can be found around the world, and are not a new concept. Some New England “town forests,” for instance were established nearly a century ago. The recent surge of interest in community forests in the U.S., however is unprecedented. In response, a three-day national conference was held in Missoula, Montana, in 2005, to bring together practitioners from around the country to explore issues, options, and experiences in community forest establishment, governance, management, and use. Through presentations, group discussions, poster sessions, and field tours to proposed community forests in the nearby Blackfoot and Swan Valleys the conference addressed: Understanding the issues Current and historic community forests in North America Corporate forest land divestiture – issues and opportunities for companies and communities Exploring the possibilities Assessing local readiness and capacity to establish a community forest Forest land acquisition and financing; options, tools, and techniques Costs and revenues: doing the calculations, making the choices Making it work Developing and sustaining a collective vision for a community forest Forest management models that have worked – and some that haven’t Building needed social, financial, institutional, and technical capacity Community learning: multiparty monitoring and participatory science Facing the challenges Defining the “community” Dealing with issues of property, tenure, responsibility, risk, and governance Managing a forest for multiple public and private values Ensuring effective community leadership, investment, and control over the long term The missing pieces: needed new or revised laws, policies, and financing too

Artificial drainage of peatlands: hydrological and hydrochemical process and wetland restoration

Peatlands have been subject to artificial drainage for centuries. This drainage has been in response to agricultural demand, forestry, horticultural and energy properties of peat and alleviation of flood risk. However, the are several environmental problems associated with drainage of peatlands. This paper describes the nature of these problems and examines the evidence for changes in hydrological and hydrochemical processes associated with these changes. Traditional black-box water balance approaches demonstrate little about wetland dynamics and therefore the science of catchment response to peat drainage is poorly understood. It is crucial that a more process-based approach be adopted within peatland ecosystems. The environmental problems associated with peat drainage have led, in part, to a recent reversal in attitudes to peatlands and we have seen a move towards wetland restoration. However, a detailed understanding of hydrological, hydrochemical and ecological process-interactions will be fundamental if we are to adequately restore degraded peatlands, preserve those that are still intact and understand the impacts of such management actions at the catchment scale

Assessing habitat requirements of Asian tapir in forestry landscapes: Implications for conservation

The iconic large-bodied Asian tapir (Tapirus indicus) is endemic to Southeast Asia and is currently listed as endangered. To date, little is known about how tapir respond to habitat fragmentation in forestry landscapes. This study aimed to assess tapir occurrence in eight forestry reserves, outside the main protected areas in Peninsular Malaysia, using non-intrusive camera trapping methods. These reserves include logged or unlogged, contiguous or fragmented, peat swamp forest and lowland dipterocarp forest. Out of 345 camera-trapping locations, over six years, we detected tapir at 39 locations, represented by 960 images. An assessment of vegetation structure and landscape variables was conducted to identify the key factors associated with their tapir presence. We found that tapir occurrence significantly increased with the number of trees with a DBH of 5–45 cm, number of saplings, percentage of canopy cover, trees with a DBH of more than 45 cm and distance from the nearest road. While, tapir detection decreased with the number of dead fallen trees and number of palms. Our data highlights the importance of conserving these remaining fragmented forest reserves, particularly peat swamp forests and ways in which suitable habitat conditions may be created to support tapir populations. We conclude by discussing intervention approaches such as relocation, reintroduction and restocking and restoration to improve the structural attributes of vegetation utilised by tapirs

Broadening out and opening up technology assessment: Approaches to enhance international development, co-ordination and democratisation

Technology assessment (TA) has a strong history of helping to identify priorities and improve environmental sustainability, cost-effectiveness and wider benefits in the technology policies and innovation strategies of nation-states. At international levels, TA has the potential to enhance the roles of science, technology and innovation towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, effectively implementing the UN Framework on Climate Change and fostering general global transitions to ‘green economies’. However, when effectively recommending single ostensibly ‘best’ technologies or strategies, TA practices can serve unjustifiably to ‘close down’ debate, failing adequately to address technical uncertainties and social ambiguities, reducing scope for democratic accountability and co-ordination across scales and contexts. This paper investigates ways in which contrasting processes ‘broadening out’ and ‘opening up’ TA can enhance both rigour and democratic accountability in technology policy, as well as facilitating social relevance and international cooperation. These methods allow TA to illuminate options, uncertainties and ambiguities and so inform wider political debates about how the contending questions, values and knowledges of different social interests often favour contrasting innovation pathways. In this way TA can foster both technical robustness and social legitimacy in subsequent policy-making. Drawing on three empirical case studies (at local, national and international levels), the paper discusses detailed cases and methods, where recent TA exercises have contributed to this ‘broadening out’ and ‘opening up’. It ends by exploring wider implications and challenges for national and international technology assessment processes that focus on global sustainable development challenges.ESR

The geography of Chinese science

Chinese scientific output has increased dramatically in recent years, but its internal spatial structure has received scant attention. Estimated gravity models of intercity scientific co-authorships show that there are two types of spatial political bias in China, apart from the expected mass and distance effects. Intercity co-authorships involving Beijing are more common than Beijing’s output volume and location would imply, and this Beijing bias is increasing over time. The second type of spatial political bias is greater intra-provincial collaboration than is accounted for by size and distance. The geography of Chinese science is thus not only monocentric as regards overall scientific output, but also exhibits unusually hierarchical collaboration patterns. Unlike in Europe and North America, national and regional capitals are becoming ever more important as scientific coordination centers