Locally managed marine areas: implications for socio - economic impacts in Kadavu, Fiji

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a widely used marine conservation tool designed to preserve marine biodiversity and improve fisheries management. Although the environmental benefits of MPAs are well established, evaluating the social and economic impacts of MPAs is challenging. In this paper we quantitatively identify the economic and social differences between communities based on whether or not the community has a tabu area in their local fishing ground. This is an area permanently closed to fishing within a locally managed marine area (LMMA), a form of MPA in the Pacific region. To do this we analyse survey data at both the household and village level in Kadavu, an administrative province of Fiji. We find there are differences in economic activity and diet between the communities but little difference in overall income and wealth. Our study shows that villages with an active tabu area have more positive social outcomes in terms of perceptions of LMMAs. However, there are some notable negative social outcomes as well. In particular, we find that households not engaged in commercial fishing perceive conflict around the management of marine resources. We also find that households engaged in commercial fishing believe penalties for violating LMMA rules are high. Together, these results could potentially impede the adoption of LMMAs and tabu areas. Overall, our survey results do not indicate that tabu areas are detrimental or beneficial on the whole, either economically and socially

Honey bee colony loss rates in 37 countries using the COLOSS survey for winter 2019–2020: the combined effects of operation size, migration and queen replacement

Publication history: Accepted - 12 July 2022; Published online - 6 September 2022.This article presents managed honey bee colony loss rates over winter 2019/20 resulting from using the standardised COLOSS questionnaire in 37 countries. Six countries were from outside Europe, including, for the first time in this series of articles, New Zealand. The 30,491 beekeepers outside New Zealand reported 4.5% of colonies with unsolvable queen problems, 11.1% of colonies dead after winter and 2.6% lost through natural disaster. This gave an overall colony winter loss rate of 18.1%, higher than in the previous year. The winter loss rates varied greatly between countries, from 7.4% to 36.5%. 3216 beekeepers from New Zealand managing 297,345 colonies reported 10.5% losses for their 2019 winter (six months earlier than for other, Northern Hemisphere, countries). We modelled the risk of loss as a dead/empty colony or from unresolvable queen problems, for all countries except New Zealand. Overall, larger beekeeping operations with more than 50 colonies experienced significantly lower losses (p<0.001). Migration was also highly significant (p<0.001), with lower loss rates for operations migrating their colonies in the previous season. A higher proportion of new queens reduced the risk of colony winter loss (p<0.001), suggesting that more queen replacement is better. All three factors, operation size, migration and proportion of young queens, were also included in a multivariable main effects quasi-binomial GLM and all three remained highly significant (p<0.001). Detailed results for each country and overall are given in a table, and a map shows relative risks of winter loss at the regional level.Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (BO-43-011.03-005); Republic of Serbia, MPNTR-RS, through Grant No. III46002; Slovakia the project "Sustainable smart farming systems taking into account the future challenges 313011W112"; Slovenian Research Program P1-0164; Danish Beekeepers Association for their funding and support of the international LimeSurvey platform used by many participating countries; “Zukunft Biene 2” (grant number 101295/2) in Austria; University of Graz for open access

Honey bee colony loss rates in 37 countries using the COLOSS survey for winter 2019–2020 : the combined effects of operation size, migration and queen replacement

This article presents managed honey bee colony loss rates over winter 2019/20 resulting from using the standardised COLOSS questionnaire in 37 countries. Six countries were from outside Europe, including, for the first time in this series of articles, New Zealand. The 30,491 beekeepers outside New Zealand reported 4.5% of colonies with unsolvable queen problems, 11.1% of colonies dead after winter and 2.6% lost through natural disaster. This gave an overall colony winter loss rate of 18.1%, higher than in the previous year. The winter loss rates varied greatly between countries, from 7.4% to 36.5%. 3216 beekeepers from New Zealand managing 297,345 colonies reported 10.5% losses for their 2019 winter (six months earlier than for other, Northern Hemisphere, countries). We modelled the risk of loss as a dead/empty colony or from unresolvable queen problems, for all countries except New Zealand. Overall, larger beekeeping operations with more than 50 colonies experienced significantly lower losses (

Heterogeneity in climate change beliefs across New Zealand’s rural sector

In this paper we present novel evidence about heterogeneity in climate beliefs using a large-scale survey of farmers, foresters, growers, and lifestyle block owners in New Zealand. Using a flexible, conditional-moments approach, we estimate the interpersonal dispersion in climate change beliefs conditional on individual characteristics, which provides a direct measure of the heterogeneity in beliefs about climate change. Our results show that women, younger respondents, farmers with less family farming history, higher educated respondents, and those respondents who are less trusting in social media are more likely to believe in climate change. Further, beliefs are more heterogeneous among males (young and old), the less educated, and those who trust social media. Our results offer new insights allowing governments and NGOs to design and communicate policies to reduce the heterogeneity in climate change beliefs, which should support the uptake of climate change actions

Improving the Representation of Climate Change Adaptation Behaviour in New Zealand&rsquo;s Forest Growing Sector

To provide the forest industry with a better understanding of alternatives to simulate future adaptation pathways under evolving climatic and socio-economic uncertainty, we review the literature on how adaptation decisions are modelled in the context of plantation forests. This review leads to the conclusion that the representation of adaptation behaviour and decision-making remain very limited in most of the agent-based models in the forestry sector. Moreover, theoretical frameworks used to understand the adaptation behaviour of forest owners are also lacking. In this paper, we propose the application of protection motivation theory (PMT) as a framework to understand the motivation of forest owners to reduce the negative impacts of climate change on their forest plantations. Furthermore, the use of PMT allows factors affecting the maladaptive behaviour of forest owners to be examined. A survey of New Zealand foresters showed that less than 10% of smallholder forest owners adopted adaptation strategies. This result highlights the importance of addressing the research question &ldquo;what motivates forest owners to take risk reduction measures?&rdquo; Exploring this question is crucial to the future success of the New Zealand forestry sector and we suggest that it can be addressed by using PMT. This paper proposes a conceptual framework for an agent-based model as an alternative to simulating adaptation pathways for forest plantations in New Zealand

Improving the Representation of Climate Change Adaptation Behaviour in New Zealand’s Forest Growing Sector

To provide the forest industry with a better understanding of alternatives to simulate future adaptation pathways under evolving climatic and socio-economic uncertainty, we review the literature on how adaptation decisions are modelled in the context of plantation forests. This review leads to the conclusion that the representation of adaptation behaviour and decision-making remain very limited in most of the agent-based models in the forestry sector. Moreover, theoretical frameworks used to understand the adaptation behaviour of forest owners are also lacking. In this paper, we propose the application of protection motivation theory (PMT) as a framework to understand the motivation of forest owners to reduce the negative impacts of climate change on their forest plantations. Furthermore, the use of PMT allows factors affecting the maladaptive behaviour of forest owners to be examined. A survey of New Zealand foresters showed that less than 10% of smallholder forest owners adopted adaptation strategies. This result highlights the importance of addressing the research question “what motivates forest owners to take risk reduction measures?” Exploring this question is crucial to the future success of the New Zealand forestry sector and we suggest that it can be addressed by using PMT. This paper proposes a conceptual framework for an agent-based model as an alternative to simulating adaptation pathways for forest plantations in New Zealand

Integrating across knowledge systems to drive action on chronic biological invasions

Designing and implementing long-term management strategies for chronic biological invasions is amongst the most vexing ecological research problems. Two key challenges to resolving this problem are: (a) integrating science-based and values-based (e.g. spiritual, cultural, economic and ethical) knowledge sources and (b) developing durable knowledge generation and curation platforms to co-ordinate long-term research efforts. We begin by identifying knowledge sources (stakeholder values, forecasts of invader spread and impacts, management technologies and operational logistics) to guide the high-level actions (governance framework design, selection of ethical management technologies, definition of long-term objectives, design of management strategies and operational plans implementing strategies) required for management of chronic invasions. We use exotic conifer invasions in New Zealand as an example. Next, we propose a transdisciplinary knowledge ecology framework where each knowledge source is represented by a separate knowledge generation and curation platform (i.e. knowledge ecosystem) and linked through high-level actions. We detail the structure and function of a single knowledge ecosystem (forecasting spread and impacts), and document two case studies to illustrate how knowledge ecosystems might (a) increase participation of individual researchers within long-term research efforts, and (b) facilitate inclusion of non-researchers in developing a common knowledge base. Finally, we propose a set of guidelines for combining science-based and values-based reasoning in decision-making via localised governance structures. We suggest that viewing knowledge ecologies as an integrated collection of distinct knowledge ecosystems offers a promising approach for identifying, generating, curating and integrating the knowledge sources needed to improve management of chronic biological invasions