Anwendbarkeit des Social Return On Investment (SROI) als Messmethode für den Mehrwert der Sozialen Landwirtschaft

Ist die Bestimmung des "Social Return On Investment (SROI)" ein geeignetes Werkzeug, den sozialen, ökologischen und gesellschaftlichen Mehrwert Sozialer Landwirtschaft zu messen? Auf Grundlage einer Literaturauswertung wurden Experteninterviews durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen sieben Felder relevanter Informationen: die Auswirkungen Sozialer Landwirtschaft, ihr Einfluss, besondere Merkmale, die Durchführung der SROI-Analyse, Identifizierung von Indikatoren, die Anwendung von SROI auf Soziale Landwirtschaft sowie Herausforderngen, Probleme und Erfolgsfaktoren. In Bezug auf die Anwendbarkeit von SROI auf Soziale Landwirtschaft konnten viele Vorteile, hohe Relevanz und Anwendungsfelder identifiziert werden. In der praktischen Anwendung zeigen sich jedoch Hindernisse. Bisher ist die Methode nur eingeschränkt geeignet zur Darstellung des sozialen, ökologischen und gesellschaftlichen Mehrtwerts Sozialer Landwirtschaft. Bestimmte Erfolgfaktoren müssen sichergestellt sein, um ein aussagekräftiges SROI-Ergebnis zu erhalten. Für eine erfolgreiche Anwendung besteht weiterer Forschungsbedarf in Standardisierung und Ergebnistransparenz

Livelihood and Conservation Aspects of Non-wood Forest Product Collection in the Shaxi Valley, Southwest China1

Livelihood and Conservation Aspects of Non-wood Forest Product Collection in the Shaxi Valley, Southwest China. The Shaxi Valley in Yunnan Province, P.R. China, is inhabited by Tibeto-Burman ethnic groups. We found a clear dichotomy between household strategies in the valley bottom and the mountain areas, with significantly lower household income in the mountains. The majority Bai people live predominantly in the fertile valley floor and cultivate rice, keep livestock, and commonly pursue off-farm work. Other ethnic groups live in more remote mountainous areas of the Shaxi Valley, where the collection of non-wood forest products, especially wild mushrooms, plays an important role in securing livelihoods. However, only households in the valley's central villages engage in the profitable non-wood forest product trade. Mushroom populations appear to be less vulnerable to commercial harvest than the rapidly declining wild medicinal plant populations. Due to this decline, local farmers have gained interest in cultivating medicinal plants, but only if risks are low and if financial and technical support is provided. Encouraging the cultivation of medicinal plants appears to be an appropriate means of sustainable community developmen

Folkbotanical classification: morphological, ecological and utilitarian characterization of plants in the Napf region, Switzerland

Background: Discussions surrounding ethnobiological classification have been broad and diverse. One of the recurring questions is whether classification is mainly based on the “inherent structure of biological reality” or on cultural, especially utilitarian needs. So far, studies about ethnobotanical classification have mainly been done in indigenous societies. Comparable data from industrialized countries are scarce. In this paper, folkbotanical classification data from the Napf region in central Switzerland is analysed and cross-culturally compared. Methods: Structured and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 60 adults and children chosen by random sampling. Descriptive statistics, t-tests and cultural domain analysis were used to analyze the data. Results: Close to 500 folk taxa have been documented during field work. As life-form taxa appeared tree, bush, grass, herb, flower, and mushroom. Intermediate taxa mentioned regularly were sub-categories of the life form tree and bush, i.e. conifer, deciduous tree, fruit tree, stone fruits, pomaceous fruits, and berry bush. The rank of the folk generic was by far the largest with 316 taxa (85.4% monotypical). The specific rank contained 145 taxa, the varietal 14 taxa. The 475 generic, specific and varietal folk taxa could be assigned to 298 wild growing plant species, which make up 28.13% of the local flora, and to 213 cultivated plant species, subspecies and cultivars. Morphology, mainly life-form, fruits, leaves, and flowers, was the most important criterion for classifying plants. Other important criteria were their use (mainly edibility) and habitat (mainly meadow, forest and garden). The three criteria emerged spontaneously out of open questioning. Conclusion: The classification system of the Napf region is comparable to classification systems of indigenous societies, both in its shallow hierarchical structure and in the amount of recognized taxa. The classification of plants was mainly guided by morphology, habitat and use. The three aspects seem to be mutually linked for certain plant groups, which results in always the same groups, independent from the different sorting criteria. Sensory perception allows for a broader explanation of the known coincidence of morphology and use groups.(VLID)90705

Plant knowledge of the Shuhi in the Hengduan Mountains, Southwest China

The Shuhi are a Tibeto-Burman ethnic group of around 1,500 people living exclusively in the Shuiluo Valley, southwest China. We documented their plant knowledge concerning wild collected species, and analyzed food, medicine, and ritual uses. Overall, uses, collection sites, and use frequencies of 136 plant species were documented. The plants were divided in fodder (46 spp.), food (43 spp.), medicine (27 spp.), ritual plants (20 spp.), fuelwood (17 spp.), plants used for construction (8 spp.), ornamentals (2 spp.), and "others" (34 spp.). Food plants mainly consist of fruits and leafy vegetables, and the uses are comparable with those of other ethnic groups in the area. Knowledge about medicinal plants is relatively limited, since traditional Shuhi healers use ritual and other healing methods instead of medicinal plants. Ritual plants play an important role relative to human well-being. Villagers and ritualists use them to keep the environment clean of malevolent spirits and to maintain a good relationship with the deities. All habitats, from the dry shrub vegetation at the valley bottom up to the alpine shrub, are used for plant collection, but 87% of all species are collected in the near vicinity of the villages around the fields and in the dry shrub vegetation. Finally, we postulate two main factors influencing wild plant use among the Shuhi: cultural values and accessibilit

Определение нижней границы оценки компактности для топологических разбиений

Вводится понятие компактного множества объектов распределенной системы и предлагается эффективный алгоритм формирования таких множеств. На основе компактных множеств предложено два способа определения нижней границы оценки компактности топологического разбиения. Приводится пример работы программного средства, реализующего алгоритм определения нижней границы разбиения

Trophonema arenarium (Nematoda: Tylenchulidae) and its junior synonyms.

Peer reviewe

On Effects of Indentation and Underlining in Reference Work

An experimental study with 252 10- to 12-year-old pupils as subjects investigated the effects of indentation and underlining of keywords in reference work. It was assumed that indentation and underlining would make it easier to recognize word shapes, and that this effect would be stronger with the familiar shapes of meaningful words than with nonsense words. Results showed that only indentation made recognition faster, but not underlining; and that this effect was equally strong with meaningful and nonsense words. In total, nonsense words were recognized 17% slower than meaningful material