Common Ground: Solutions for reducing the human, economic and conservation costs of human wildlife conflict

This report deals with the conflicts between wildlife and human development. Three cases studies are included, in Namibia, Nepal and Indonesia, respectively. Each location has different problems and contexts, but in all three countries, human lives and economic livelihoods are at stake, as well as the loss of habitat of threatened species. The authors advocate a species conservation approach based on land use planning integrated with human needs in order continue sustainable development

Vanishing Kingdom: The Melting Realm of the Polar Bear

The Polar Bear – Ursus maritimus – Bear of the Sea. King of the seemingly pristine arctic realm - but subject to the ravages of global warming

Getting Back in the Game: U.S. Job Growth Potential from Expanding Clean Technology Markets in Developing Countries

This report highlights a significant, but rarely discussed, economic angle to the Senate’s deliberations on the American Power Act. Unlike the House-passed climate bill, which set aside one percent of revenues from emissions auctions for international clean technology investments, the American Power Act contains no such dedicated funding stream nor a program to guide these public investments. This lack of secure, long-term funding would limit the job-creating potential of the legislation by limiting the opportunities for American companies to export their energy technology to global markets

Getting Ready for REDD: Toward an Effective and Equitable Policy on International Forest Carbon

“Getting Ready for REDD” is one in a series of papers examining in more detail some of the issues raised in the Greenprint

The Circle

The Circle is a magazine produced by the WWF Global Arctic Programme. The Circle is published four times a year, and each issue will focus on one specific Arctic-related topic. e

WWF - The Energy Report - 100% Renewable Energy

The WWF, World Wildlife Fund, has a vision of a world that is powered by 100% renewable energy resources by 2050. This report has recomendations and information on how this institution sees this transition possible

Plan de restauración a nivel de Paisaje del Corredor Ecológico Llanganates Sangay, Ecuador

Constituye el Plan de Restauración del Paisaje del Corredor Ecológico Llanganates Sangay, como resultado del proyecto se comparte una propuesta de monitoreo y evaluación del plan de restauración, sustentada en el seguimiento continuo de los avances a nivel de finca, el planteamiento de implementar parcelas permanentes de monitoreo con variables e indicadores para las distintas prácticas de restauración; y, un sistema cartográfico a nivel de CELS para el monitoreo quinquenal del estado de la cobertura y uso del suelo, de tal manera de permitir el establecimiento de comparaciones en este período de tiempo

Impacts of riverine sand mining on freshwater ecosystems: a review of the scientific evidence and guidance for future research

Sand mining (used here as a generic term that includes mining of any riverine aggregates regardless of particle size) is a global activity that is receiving increasing media attention due to perceived negative environmental and social impacts. As calls grow for stronger regulation of mining, there is a need to understand the scientific evidence to support effective management. This paper summarizes the results of a structured literature review addressing the question, “What evidence is there of impacts of sand mining on ecosystem structure, process, and biodiversity in rivers, floodplains, and estuaries?” The review found that most investigations have focused on temperate rivers where sand mining occurred historically but has now ceased. Channel incision was the most common physical impact identified; other physical responses, including habitat disturbance, alteration of riparian zones, and changes to downstream sediment transport, were highly variable and dependant on river characteristics. Ecosystem attributes affected included macroinvertebrate drift, fish movements, species abundance and community structures, and food web dynamics. Studies often inferred impacts on populations, but supporting data were scarce. Limited evidence suggests that rivers can sustain extraction if volumes are within the natural sediment load variability. Significantly, the countries and rivers for which there is science‐based evidence related to sand mining are not those where extensive sand mining is currently reported. The lack of scientific and systematic studies of sand mining in these countries prevents accurate quantification of mined volumes or the type, extent, and magnitude of any impacts. Additional research into how sand mining is affecting ecosystem services, impacting biodiversity and particularly threatened species, and how mining impacts interact with other activities or threats is urgently required

Protected-Area Monitoring Dilemmas: a New Tool to Assess Success

Understanding factors that influence the success of protected areas in curbing unsustainable resource consumption is essential for determining best management strategies and allocating limited resources to those projects most likely to succeed. I used a law-enforcement and monitoring game-theory model from the political science literature to identify three key variables useful in predicting the success of a protected area: costs of monitoring for rule breakers, benefits of catching a rule breaker, and probability of catching a rule breaker if monitoring. Although assigning exact values for each of these variables was difficult, the variables had a strong predictive capacity even when coded as coarse ordinal values. A model in which such values were used correctly predicted the outcome of 88 of 116 protected areas sampled from the peer-reviewed literature. The model identified a critical zone of common mismatch between protected-area circumstances and management policies. In situations where the costs of monitoring were greater than the product of the probability of catching a rule breaker and the benefit of doing so, conservation was unlikely to succeed. Control of illegal use of protected resources was reported in only 8% of such cases, regardless of strategies to motivate potential users to cooperate with conservation. My model does not prescribe a best management policy for conserving natural resources; rather, it can be used as a tool to help predict whether a proposed management policy will likely succeed in a given situation.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73781/1/COBI_1203_sm_AppendixS2.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73781/2/COBI_1203_sm_AppendixS1.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73781/3/j.1523-1739.2009.01203.x.pd