The Living Planet Index (LPI) for migratory freshwater fish:Technical Report

Migratory freshwater fish (i.e. fish that use freshwater systems, either partly or exclusively) occur around the world and travel between critical habitats to complete their life cycle. They are disproportionately threatened compared to other fish groups but global trends in abun-dance, regional differences and drivers of patterns have not yet been comprehensively described. Using abundance information from the Living Planet Database, we found widespread declines between 1970 and 2016 in tropical and temperate areas and across all regions, all migration categories and all populations. Globally, migratory freshwater fish have declined by an average of 76%. Average declines have been more pronounced in Europe (-93%) and Latin America & Caribbean (-84%), and least in North America (-28%). The percentage of species represented was highest in the two temperate regions of Europe and North America (almost 50%). For the continents of Africa, Asia, Oceania, and South America, data was highly deficient, and we advise against making conclusions on the status of migratory freshwater SUMMARYfish in these areas. Potamodromous fish, have declined more than fish migrating between fresh and salt water on average (-83% vs -73%). Populations that are known to be affected by threats anywhere along their migration routes show an average decline of 94% while those not threatened at the population level have increased on av-erage. Habitat degradation, alteration, and loss accounted for around a half of threats to migratory fish, while over-exploitation accounted for around one-third. Protected, regulated and exploited populations decreased less than unmanaged ones, with the most often recorded actions being related to fisheries regulations, including fishing restrictions, no-take zones, fisheries closures, bycatch reductions and stocking (these were most com-mon in North America and Europe). Recorded reasons for observed increases tended to be mostly unknown or un-described, especially in tropical regions. This information is needed to assemble a more complete picture to assess how declines in migratory freshwater fishes could be reduced or reversed. Our findings confirm that migratory freshwater fish may be more threatened throughout their range than previously documented

MULTIATTRIBUTE EVALUATION OF ORGANIC AND INORGANIC AGRICULTURAL FOOD INVESTMENTS USING FUZZY TOPSIS

Since people well know the threats of inorganic agriculture to their health, they are more interested in organic agriculture than ever. Organic agriculture is expected to play a major role for a healthy world in the future whereas inorganic agriculture nowadays increases the volume of agricultural production and presents lower priced foods but causes health problems. The agricultural investments are generally evaluated by using linguistic terms since most of the evaluation criteria are intangible and inherently require imprecise data to be used. In this paper, we analyze six types of agricultural investment alternatives using eight different criteria based on linguistic data. One of the most-used multi-criteria decision-making methods, TOPSIS is used under fuzziness for the solution of this problem. A sensitivity analysis is also given to examine the robustness of the decision

The impacts of bottled water: an analysis of bottled water markets and their interactions with tap water provision

The phenomenal recent growth of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottled water is distinctively different from previous bottled mineral water markets that have been around for centuries. Plastic bottled water (hereafter BW) has been marketed as a fast moving consumer good, as a healthy drinking choice and, increasingly, as a safer alternative to existing drinking water. BW markets emerged in response to several key factors: changes in consumer drinking practices; opportunistic strategies on the part of beverage companies to diversify into water; the development of PET bottles; the intensification of sophisticated branding techniques; and various drinking water scares ranging from state failure to water quality controversies. In many cities with safe drinking water BW has faced significant opposition. While this opposition appears to have done little to halt market growth it has prompted a whole new terrain of drinking water politics. These politics foreground the effects of representing and delivering drinking water as an individualized good versus distribution via reticulated networks in which consumers gain access to a collective service. However, activist critiques of BW can sometimes miss the subtle ways in which bottles are ontologically interfering with the political and public health values of safe tap water. These impacts are complex and highly variable according to the specific context of existing drinking water provision and hydrocultures and the ways in which bottles interact with these. Understanding these interactions could help limit the capacity of bottled water markets to undermine the ongoing commitment to safe collective water provision in the interest of the common good