Exploring the impacts of woodland management on ecosystem services - a deliberative method

There is a need for operational decision-making methodologies applicable at local management scales which are inclusive and enable the integration of plural values, knowledges and perspectives of co-produced ecosystem services. Here we describe a deliberative scenario analysis method using ‘management intervention bundles’ as distinct scenarios to assess the perceived impact of changing management on woodland ecosystem services. We used three hypothetical future management scenarios, Biodiversity Conservation, People Engagement and Austerity, alongside scenarios of the Past, Present and an existing Management Plan. We assessed the perceived impacts of these scenarios on 11 ecosystem services using local expert workshops in six sites across Scotland. The experts were chosen to represent a range of different perspectives, from biodiversity to the local economy, community concerns and recreation. Overall, Management Plan, Biodiversity Conservation and People Engagement scenarios performed significantly better than Past, Present and Austerity scenarios. Further quantitative and in-depth qualitative analysis revealed trade-offs and noteworthy patterns. We explore some of these key trade-offs and patterns and argue that our methodology has potential to be an effective tool for local managers to support local decision-making at management scales for co-produced ecosystem services. Our methodology enabled a diverse group of local experts to express and deliberate a range of values, experiences and viewpoints. This knowledge sharing and collective learning allowed the development of shared values and perspectives, which are thought to be critical in more equitable and inclusive decision-making

Mainstreaming biodiversity and nature's contributions to people in Europe and Central Asia: insights from IPBES to inform the CBD post-2020 agenda

Recent global and regional assessments of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) show that Nature's Contributions to People (NCP) are under an alarming threat due to the continuing loss of biodiversity. These assessments call for increasing conservation efforts and a more sustainable use of biodiversity to enhance the chances of halting biodiversity loss and reversing current trends. One of the strategies to achieve change is to mainstream biodiversity into sectoral policies. Mainstreaming, a concept that can be traced back to the Brundtland report, promotes the integration of the environment into political, societal, and economic planning and decision-making. Based on the review of key studies undertaken during the regional assessment for Europe and Central Asia, we develop a stepwise approach to analyze the current status of mainstreaming of biodiversity and NCP. The approach can be used both for policy design purposes and diagnostic evaluations. It demonstrates that mainstreaming has the potential to improve the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity as well as the sustained provision of NCP. However, based on the status of implementation across Europe and Central Asia, we conclude that mainstreaming needs to be pursued and implemented in a stronger and more systematic way. The results of our assessment provide important input to national strategies and policies but also to the ongoing process of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity while developing the post-2020 global biodiversity framework

Microscope and spectacle : on the complexities of using new visual technologies to communicate about wildlife conservation

Acknowledgments We thank our interviewees for granting us access to data and permission to use images; dot.rural Digital Economy Hub, the University of Aberdeen, and the James Hutton Institute for funding and support; Gina Maffey, Tony James, Katrina Myrvang Brown, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of the manuscript; and JP Vargheese for technical assistance.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

New Technological Interventions in Conservation Conflicts : Countering Emotions and Contested Knowledge

RCUK Digital Economy programme Grant number EP/G066051/1 Open access via Springer Compact AgreementPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Violent Encounters at Ostend, 1601–1604: patiality, Location, and Identity in Early Modern Siege Warfare

Die Belagerung von Ostende (1601–1604) mag kein großes Thema aktueller Historiographiesein, doch sie erregte im Europa des frühen 17. Jahrhunderts immense Aufmerksamkeit. VerschiedenstePublikationsformate widmeten sich der Operation als bedeutendem Teil des niederländischenAufstands gegen die Habsburgermonarchie und präsentierten eine blutigeKonfrontation von bislang ungekannter zeitlicher Länge. Illustrierte Flugblätter und ausführlichegedruckte Berichte trugen dazu bei, dass Ostende zu einem symbolträchtigen Ort fürdie Formierung einer neuen niederländischen Identität werden konnte – wenngleich die Spanieres einnahmen. Die Geschichte der Belagerung illustriert so einerseits Michel de Certeausmetaphorische Überblendung zwischen Krieg und Erzählung als Raumpraktiken. Andererseitserinnert sie auch an die physische, existenzielle Dimension von Kriegsgewalt. Gewaltpraktikenund -repräsentationen formten gemeinsam eine „Kriegslandschaft“ (Kurt Lewin) mit Orten, andenen neue Grenzen zwischen Eigenem und Fremdem geschaffen wurden. Die schlammigenGräben von Ostende wecken heute Reminiszenzen an die Felder von Flandern des Ersten Weltkriegs,was zu vergleichenden Betrachtungen dieser „Gewalträume“ (Jörg Baberowski) anregt.Zugleich können die Belagerungsoperationen, die tausende von Menschen mobilisierten, imLichte neuer Ortskonzepte betrachtet werden, die eher hervorheben, wie spezifische Orte sichan den Kreuzungspunkten individueller Bewegungsbahnen formen. Durch die Verbindungdieser unterschiedlichen Konzeptionen von Raumkonstruktion ist es möglich, die physischenAspekte der gewaltsamen Begegnung und des Alltagslebens in der Belagerung mit der Entstehungdes neuen niederländischen Staates in Beziehung zu setzen.While the siege of Ostend (1601-4) is not overly prominent in modern historiography, it did raise immense attention across Europe in the early 17th century. The operation, which formed part of the Eighty Years’ War of the rebellious Netherlands against the Spanish Habsburg monarchy, was represented as a bloody encounter of inconceivable length in various published formats. Contemporary sources such as broadsheets and printed siege accounts contributed to Ostend’s becoming one of the iconic places of the formation of a new Dutch identity – in spite of its capture by the Spanish. The story of the siege thus substantiates Michel de Certeau’s metaphorical likening of warfare and story-telling as spatial practices. Yet, it is also a reminder of the physical, existential dimension of war. Practices and representations of violence contributed to the making of a “war landscape” (Kurt Lewin), of places, in which new boundaries of identity and alterity were produced. As the muddy trenches of Ostend call to mind early-20th-century war experiences in Flanders, they invite comparative approaches to the general characteristics of “spaces of violence” (Jörg Baberowski). Yet, as will become clear, this massive siege operation, which mobilized thousands of people, can also be regarded in the light of new conceptions of “place,” which emphasize particularities created in the crossing of individual trajectories. An analysis that unites these different concepts of spatial constructions is able to link the physicality of violent encounters and the daily life of the siege to the emergence of the new Dutch state within early modern Europe

Chronic cough due to occupational factors

Within the large variety of subtypes of chronic cough, either defined by their clinical or pathogenetic causes, occupational chronic cough may be regarded as one of the most preventable forms of the disease. Next to obstructive airway diseases such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which are sometimes concomitant with chronic cough, this chronic airway disease gains importance in the field of occupational medicine since classic fiber-related occupational airway diseases will decrease in the future. Apart from acute accidents and incidental exposures which may lead to an acute form of cough, there are numerous sources for the development of chronic cough within the workplace. Over the last years, a large number of studies has focused on occupational causes of respiratory diseases and it has emerged that chronic cough is one of the most prevalent work-related airway diseases. Best-known examples of occupations related to the development of cough are coal miners, hard-rock miners, tunnel workers, or concrete manufacturing workers. As chronic cough is often based on a variety of non-occupational factors such as tobacco smoke, a distinct separation into either occupational or personally -evoked can be difficult. However, revealing the occupational contribution to chronic cough and to the symptom cough in general, which is the commonest cause for the consultation of a physician, can significantly lead to a reduction of the socioeconomic burden of the disease

Who decides? The governance of rewilding in Scotland ‘between the cracks’:Community participation, public engagement, and partnerships

Rewilding is a conservation approach which seeks to restore natural processes and ecosystem functionality. However, it also has a strong social dimension, characterised by a recently increasing emphasis on the place of people in rewilding. The role of local communities and the need for public engagement have become a specific concern for many contemporary rewilding efforts. Research on the role of participation in rewilding is however lacking, with rewilding governance in general being under-explored. Our examination of understandings and practices of rewilding governance, through semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in Scotland, illustrated a range of conceptualisations and approaches. It became apparent that governance and participatory practices were very variable and selective, highlighting an interaction between land ownership and degrees of empowerment which underpinned rewilding activity and decision-making. Approaches ranged from relatively ubiquitous advocacy for public engagement with a pre-prescribed rewilding agenda, through the circumscribed participation of defined communities (mainly of interest) in specific activities, to much more involved and empowering but self-selecting partnerships (with other landowners) to achieve impact at scale. Key challenges to more participatory approaches in rewilding identified included: i) a strong conservation imperative; ii) concentrated ownership, and power and control over land; and iii) emerging ideas about the public interest. These influenced perceptions about the value, and the practice of greater representation in rewilding decisions, ultimately bounding and limiting the participation of communities and the public

(De)legitimising hunting – discourses over the morality of hunting in Europe and eastern Africa

et al.Hunting is an activity that appears to provoke – often immediate and strongly pronounced – moral assessments, i.e., judgments of what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. A large body of literature explores these moral arguments, often from a philosophical or normative perspective, focusing on specific types of hunting. However, studies that ground such explorations in empirical, systematically analysed, yet contextualised data seem to be missing. We argue that such an approach is essential to understand conflicts over hunting and wildlife management, and present data from focus group discussions and interviews with hunters, non-hunters and hunting critics across six countries in Europe and eastern Africa. Our findings suggest that moral arguments play an extremely important role in the legitimation and delegitimation of hunting practices through discourse. In particular, study participants referred to the motives of hunters as a factor that, in their eyes, determined the acceptability of hunting practices. Moral argumentations exhibited patterns that were common across study sites, such as a perceived moral superiority of the ‘moderate’ and ‘measured’, and a lack of legitimacy of the ‘excessive’. Implicit orders of hunting motives were used to legitimise types of hunting that were suspected to be contested. On the basis of these findings, we discuss how the moral elements of hunting discourses relate to broader discourses on environmental management, and how these are used to establish (or dispute) the legitimacy of hunting . Our analysis also suggests that there might be more overlap between moral arguments of hunters, non-hunters and hunting critics than popularly assumed, which, where required, could be used as a starting point for conflict management.This work was conducted as part of HUNT-Hunting for Sustainability (http://fp7hunt.net/) and funded by the European Union’s Framework Programme 7 as well as the authors’ organisations.Peer reviewe

Expanding arenas for learning hunting ethics, their grammars and dilemmas: An examination of young hunters’ enculturation into modern hunting

Although hunting is declining in western countries, the number of people taking the hunting exam in Sweden are stable, and new demographic groups are becoming hunters. Through interviews done in Sweden with both new and experienced hunters, as well as focus groups with young hunters at agricultural colleges, we investigate how they navigate praxis and ethical frameworks taught in hunting. Using theories on moral learning, as well as Walzer's thick and thin moral argument, we contrast the views of these young hunters with the ethical principles outlined in the educational literature for the hunting exam. We then present how young hunters reasoned around issues regarding hunting ethics, animal welfare and the place of hunting in modern society, both inside and outside the classroom. The young hunters we spoke to acted as moderators of modern trends in hunting, often bringing 'destabilising' influences like social media and female hunters. Young hunters are enculturated into traditional hunting structures and, in the process, caught in a dialectic between modern influences and traditional hunting culture. Our findings highlight challenges such as 'false consensus' and 'ethical trade-offs' in the learning of hunting ethics, which emerge potentially due to a lack of space for deliberation on hunting ethics