PCDD/Fs, PCB and HCB Emissions from Rural Wood Stoves: A Preliminary Evaluation in Mexico

The Stockholm Convention (SC) on POPs obliges its parties to compile national emission inventories for unintentionally reseased POPs. In order to fill existing gaps what regards emission factors (EFs) for development country (DC) specific processes, an experiment on different kind of woodstoves was executed in a co-operattion berween the secretariate of the SC, UNEP, the National institute for Ecology in Mexico and the JRC. The experiment aimed at evaluating POPs emissions from different types of stoves that are being introduced in DCs in order to replace cooking on open fire, thereby reducing the impact on indoor air quality. The EFs were in a range of 120 ug PCDD/F/PCB TEQ per TJ and confirmed the range of 100 ug PCDD/F/PCB TEQ per TJ virgin wood as assumed in the existing toolkit for more sofisticated stoves as applied in developed countries.JRC.DDG.H.5-Rural, water and ecosystem resource

Chemical and radiochemical characterization of depleted uranium in contaminated soils

The main results of chemical and radiochemical characterization and fractionation of depleted uranium in soils contaminated during the Balkan conflict in 1999 are presented in the paper. Alpha-spectrometric analysis of used depleted uranium material has shown the presence of man-made radioisotopes 236U, 237Np, and 239, 240Pu traces. The fractionation in different soil types was examined by the application of a modified Tessier's five-step sequential chemical extraction procedure, specifically selective to certain physical/chemical associations. After ion-exchange-based radiochemical separation of uranium, depleted uranium is distinguished from naturally occurring uranium in extracts on the basis of the isotopic activity ratios 234U/238U and 235U/238U and particular substrates for recently present uranium material in soils are indicated

Institutional challenges in putting ecosystem service knowledge in practice

The promise that ecosystem service assessments will contribute to better decision-making is not yet proven. We analyse how knowledge on ecosystem services is actually used to inform land and water management in 22 case studies covering different social-ecological systems in European and Latin American countries. None of the case studies reported instrumental use of knowledge in a sense that ecosystem service knowledge would have served as. an impartial arbiter between policy options. Yet, in most cases, there was some evidence of conceptual learning as a result of close interaction between researchers, practitioners and stakeholders. We observed several factors that constrained knowledge uptake, including competing interests and political agendas, scientific disputes, professional norms and competencies, and lack of vertical and horizontal integration. Ecosystem knowledge played a small role particularly in those planning and policy-making situations where it challenged established interests and the current distribution of benefits from ecosystems. The factors that facilitated knowledge use included application of transparent participatory methods, social capital, policy champions and clear synergies between ecosystem services and human well-being. The results are aligned with previous studies which have emphasized the importance of building local capacity, ownership and trust for the long-term success of ecosystem service research