Applicability of Public Participation for the Finnish Forest and Park Service

Under what circumstances and in what ways can public participation be utilized in managing Finland's national forests? In the first chapter, a framework for answering this question is set by analyzing Finnish legal, cultural, historical and political background. The frame defines the Finnish Forest and Park Service's (FPS) decision making space within Finnish society. After the frame is set up, the needs, premises and requirements for participatory decision making within national forest management are evaluated. In the second chapter, literature is reviewed on how public participation is currently being applied within natural resource decision making in the US and Canada. First, the usefulness and necessity of public participation is analyzed from a natural resource agency perspective. Then, the most salient bathers for effective public participation are identified along with strategies suggested for effective public participation. Based on this literature review, criteria for effective public participation in Finnish Forest and Park Service are defined. In the third chapter, a public participation model is presented for the Finnish Forest and Park Service. The proposed public participation model integrates the current multiple use planning approach with the participatory planning system. The model is organized into four phases suggesting a clear temporal flow for the decision making process: (1) defining the planning situation, (2) direction setting, (3) implementation and (4) evaluation. Based on phase one, public participation will either be initiated or the conventional multiple use forestry planning approach will be applied. The assessment of recommended level of shared decision making authority is the single most important factor in differentiating between these approaches. The step by step process described includes identifying the key attributes and making recommendations to approach constructively unique planning situations. In addition, information exchange and participatory planning techniques are analyzed and categorized. Some promising participation techniques for the Finnish context are described in more detail, and a model for infonnation exchange is presented. hi the fourth chapter, implications of the Finnish Forest and Park Service's current approach to forest plamung are assessed. Then the likely benefits from implementing a participatory planning system are explored. In light of these results, it is recommended that the Finnish Forest and Park Service continue strengthening its voluntary approach to institutionalizing public participation as an integral part of the agency's natural resource decision making. This might be done by initially adopting the public participation model developed by the author

Localism in Finland : The changing role and current crisis of the Finnish municipal system

Peer reviewe

Peripheral Blood Signatures of Lead Exposure

BACKGROUND: Current evidence indicates that even low-level lead (Pb) exposure can have detrimental effects, especially in children. We tested the hypothesis that Pb exposure alters gene expression patterns in peripheral blood cells and that these changes reflect dose-specific alterations in the activity of particular pathways. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDING: Using Affymetrix Mouse Genome 430 2.0 arrays, we examined gene expression changes in the peripheral blood of female Balb/c mice following exposure to per os lead acetate trihydrate or plain drinking water for two weeks and after a two-week recovery period. Data sets were RMA-normalized and dose-specific signatures were generated using established methods of supervised classification and binary regression. Pathway activity was analyzed using the ScoreSignatures module from GenePattern. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The low-level Pb signature was 93% sensitive and 100% specific in classifying samples a leave-one-out crossvalidation. The high-level Pb signature demonstrated 100% sensitivity and specificity in the leave-one-out crossvalidation. These two signatures exhibited dose-specificity in their ability to predict Pb exposure and had little overlap in terms of constituent genes. The signatures also seemed to reflect current levels of Pb exposure rather than past exposure. Finally, the two doses showed differential activation of cellular pathways. Low-level Pb exposure increased activity of the interferon-gamma pathway, whereas high-level Pb exposure increased activity of the E2F1 pathway

Local Government Efficiency: Evidence from the Czech Municipalities

We measure cost efficiency of 202 Czech municipalities of extended scope in period 2003-2008. The study is the first application of overall efficiency measurement of the local governments in the new EU member states, and the second in post-communist countries. We measure government efficiency through established quantitative and qualitative indicators of the provision of education, cultural facilities, infrastructure and other local services. First, we employ non-parametric approach of the data envelopment analysis and adjust the efficiency scores by bootstrapping. Second, we employ the stochastic frontier analysis and control for effects of various demographic, economic, and political variables. We compare scores under our preferred specification, i.e. pseudo-translog time-variant stochastic-frontier analysis with determinants, with alternative scores. The determinants that robustly increase inefficiency are population size, distance to the regional center, share of university-educated citizens, capital expenditures, subsidies per capita, and the share of self-generated revenues. Concerning political variables, increase in party concentration and the voters' involvement increases efficiency, and local council with a lower share of left-wing representatives also tend to be more efficient. We interpret determinants both as indicators of slack, non-discretionary inputs, and unobservable outputs. The analysis is conducted also for the period 1994-1996, where political variables appear to influence inefficiency in a structurally different way. From comparison of the two periods, we obtain that small municipalities improve efficiency significantly more that large municipalities

Finnish food production chain involved in LCA data production : towards transparent information of environmental quality of products

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