Knowledge,Gender, and Resources in Small-Scale Fishing: The Case of Honda Bay,Palawan, Philippines

The coastal zone is a place of intense activity where resources, users, and resource-use practices interact. This case study of small-scale fisheries in Honda Bay, Palawan, Philippines shows that resources, space, and gender are intertwined. The study was conducted between June 1997 and July 1998. The data were gathered using free listing, pile sort, ranking, resource mapping, and key informant interviews. The results showed that women's knowledge about fishery resources and their fishing activities are associated with the intertidal zone whereas men's knowledge is associated with coral reefs. In classifying fishery resources, appearance is the main consideration for women whereas a combination of appearance, habitat, and type of fishing gear is the consideration used by men. Market price is very important because of its dependence on the demand of the export market as well as the local market. Women dominate the buying of fishery products. Many women market their husband's catch, process fish, or gather shells and sea cucumber for sale. Among the fishing households, type of fishing gear provides an indication of socioeconomic standing. This paper concludes that access to resources is shaped by gender and age. The differences in resource knowledge possessed by men and women lead to differential access to fishery resources. In addition, the differences in socioeconomic status also influence resource access. The socialization of children into fishing reinforces the gender division of labor and space in the coastal zone.     

Utility of non-timber forest products in a small watershed in the Indian Himalayas: the threat of its degradation

This study discusses the use of non-timber forest products (NTFP), especially medicinal plants, by traditional communities in the western Himalaya, India. The great socio-cultural diversity and ecological complexity of the region is also matched by an unusually large variety of forest species being used. A wide range of plants, comprising herbs, shrubs and trees are used for different domestic purposes, such as food, fodder, materials for construction and handicrafts. Wild plants also play a vital role in providing primary health care in the region. In earlier times, forest products were harvested only on a subsistence basis. However, in recent decades, factors such as rising market demand, increasing population pressure, and changes in socio-cultural and socio-economic values have led to overharvesting. It is now estimated that most of the useful wild herbs in the region are overexploited and some of them have become locally extinct. Government forestry policies have, in the past, exclusively emphasized plantation and management of trees and have, unfortunately, ignored non-timber products, as these are usually of comparatively lesser economic importance. However, it is suggested that proper management of NTFP will help upgrade rural economies. Recommended policies to this effect include empowerment of local communities and their involvement in development plans as well as strengthening of indigenous knowledge. To foster sustainable use of NTFP, the following steps are also suggested: integrating traditional and scientific knowledge; safeguarding regeneration potential; cultivating wild species, making appropriate changes to extraction processes used; and establishing more transparency in prices and marketing channels.     

干旱地区发展有机农业的探索——节水技术在淖毛湖晚熟哈密瓜的应用

哈密伊吾淖毛湖是一个干旱缺水地区,生态环境十分脆弱.干旱缺水地区如何提高水的利用效益,如何发展有机农业？伊吾县淖毛湖农场通过多年研究探索,采用膜下滴灌技术种植有机晚熟哈密瓜,较好地解决了这一问题.将节水灌溉技术与发展有机食品有效结合,节约了宝贵的水资源,扩大了灌溉面积.提高了有机哈密瓜的品质,改善了生态环境.对加快缺水地区的农业产业化、推进干旱区域的高效农业、提高水的利用率方面有积极示范推广作用.     

Land-Use Planning in the Chaco Plain (Burruyacú, Argentina): Part 2: Generating a Consensus Plan to Mitigate Land-Use Conflicts and Minimize Land Degradation

The Burruyacú district (Tucumán province, Northwest Argentina) has been traditionally an area with rural activities based on the exploitation of the Chaco forest for timber and livestock browsing. Since the 1960s, local institutions started promoting soybean due to favorable land conditions and good market prices. Soybean extension, as from the 1970s, has resulted in important reduction of the Chaco forest and also caused physical soil degradation, especially soil compaction and erosion. A land-use-planning exercise was carried out using the Land-Use Planning and Information System (LUPIS) as a spatial decision support system. LUPIS facilitates the generation of alternative land-use plans by adjusting the relative importance attributed by multiple stakeholders to preference and avoidance policies. The system leads to the allocation of competing land uses to land map units in accordance with their preferred resource requirements, conditional upon the resource base of the area and the stakeholders' demands. After generating a land use plan for each stakeholder category identified in the study area, including commercial farmers, conservative/conventional farmers, and conservationists, a consensus plan was established to address the land-use conflicts between mechanized agriculture, traditional agriculture and forest conservation, and to mitigate soil degradation caused by extensive dry-farming. Although the planning exercise did not directly involve the stakeholders, the results are sufficiently practical and realistic to suggest that the approach could be extended to the entire Chaco plain region.     

The Wild Kangaroo Industry: Developing the Potential for Sustainability

Wildlife resources the world over have long been subject to harvest and management. As wildlife uses have grown, so too have the need and desire to ensure their sustainability. This new context of sustainability presents opportunities to merge ecological, economic and social elements to foster development. This paper presents the management and harvesting of wild kangaroos as an example of the potentially sustainable use of a natural resource. Some comparisons are drawn between the use of other wild living resources, deer in Europe and crayfish in Western Australia. However, sustainability of kangaroo species and the industry is not just a matter of market economics and ecology, it must also be socially sustainable. The public policy instrument of a statutory advisory board with a marketing function is proposed in order to integrate the cultural and social aspects of kangaroo management with the economic and ecological aspects. Through such integration, full sustainability of a wild resource then might be achieved.     

Managing Drought Through Water Markets: Farmer Preferences in the Rio Grande Basin1

Abstract: Managing drought in agriculture has taken on growing importance as population growth and environmental concerns place increasing pressures on agricultural water use. One alternative for agricultural water resource management in areas of recurrent drought is allocation through market mechanisms. While past research has aimed to explain why farmers are reluctant to participate in already established water markets, this research seeks to identify the appropriate market mechanism given farmers’ preexisting attitudes toward water markets. Statistical analysis of survey data from 166 farmer interviews in the Rio Grande Basin indicate that farmers are significantly more likely to participate in short‐term water mechanisms, such as spot water markets and water banks than in permanent transfer mechanisms, particularly those that fully separate water rights from land. In sharp contrast to expectations, the choice of market mechanism did not differ significantly between farmers based on their a priori intention to buy, sell or both buy and sell in these markets. Choice of market mechanism also did not differ among farmer types although small, lifestyle or hobby farmers clearly preferred spot water markets to other types of short‐term mechanisms. Evaluating these attitudes a priori may help to design more suitable water market mechanisms for the basin.     

Continuing Issues in the Limitations of Pesticide Use in Developing Countries

The rationale for pesticide use in agriculture is that costs associated with pesticide pollution are to be justified by its benefits, but this is not so obvious. Valuing the benefits by simple economic analysis has increased pesticide use in agriculture and consequently produced pesticide-induced “public ills.” This paper attempts to explore the research gaps of the economic and social consequences of pesticide use in developing countries, particularly with an example of Nepal. We argue that although the negative sides of agricultural development, for example- soil, water, and air pollution; pest resistance and resurgence; bioaccumulation, bio-magnification; and loss of biodiversity and ecosystem resilience caused by the use of pesticides in agriculture, are “developmental problems” and are “unintentional,” the magnitude may be increased by undervaluing the problems in the analysis of its economic returns. Despite continuous effort for holistic system analyses for studying complex phenomena like pesticides impacts, the development within the academic science has proceeded in the opposite direction that might have accelerated marginalization of the third world subsistence agricultural communities. We hypothesize that, if these adversities are realized and accounted for, the benefits from the current use of pesticides could be outweighed by the costs of pollution and ill human health. This paper also illustrates different pathways and mechanisms for marginalization. In view of potential and overall negative impacts of pesticide use, we recommend alternative ways of controlling pests such as community integrated pest management (IPM) along with education and training activities. Such measures are likely to reduce the health and environmental costs of pesticide pollution, and also enhance the capabilities of third world agricultural communities in terms of knowledge, decision making, innovation, and policy change.     

Conservation of indigenous plants to support community livelihoods: the MGU – Useful Plants Project

Through the MGU – Useful Plants Project (2007–2015) led by the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, high-quality seed collections and research information have been gathered on useful indigenous plants selected by communities in Botswana, Kenya, Mali, South Africa, and Mexico. Local communities were trained in seed conservation, plant propagation, and planting activities, while revenue generation was promoted directly through the sustainable use of plants and plant products and indirectly through wider environmental and cultural services. The success of this project was determined by its participative approach, involving local communities in plant conservation activities and using plant research to support it. However, the promotion of sustainable use and income generation highlighted issues that confirmed the importance of using a ‘holistic approach’ to address the objective of poverty reduction and contribute to improved livelihoods in the communities.     

The medicinal and aromatic plants business of Uttarakhand: A mini review of challenges and directions for future research

The medicinal and aromatic plants resources of Uttarakhand, India offer significant opportunities of employment and livelihood for rural communities and contribute a large share in the medicinal and aromatic plants trade of India. With the growing trade of medicinal and aromatic plants resources in the global market, the medicinal and aromatic plants business of Uttarakhand is also continuously growing in terms of trade volume, value and market reach. But, considering the ecological importance as well as unregulated exploitations of these resources, the growing business activities in this sector appear incompatible to the sustainability agenda. Through a mini review, this study assesses the medicinal and aromatic plants sector of Uttarakhand and identifies key challenges that seem incompatible for resource and business sustainability and offers some prospective research directions essential for identifying pragmatic solutions to support sustainability in the sector. This review identifies nine key challenges to sustainability in Uttarakhandʼs medicinal and aromatic plants sector. It is therefore pertinent that future research focus on the prevailing challenges of the medicinal and aromatic plants sector of Uttarakhand to develop strategies for sustainable business prospects.     

An ecological planning model

In this article a model is proposed that could be used as a basis for ecological planning of natural resources. The role of people as part of the ecosystem is emphasized, and the various factors that should be considered in such planning are discussed. An understanding of ecological planning is dependent on the study of human activities in, and the nature of, natural ecosystems. It also depends on the fact that people are a part of nature, and as a result nature is of value to humans. Realizing the importance of this principle is a prerequisite to studying nature and also for an understanding of the various steps in the ecological planning approach. Realization of these values is often through a series of activities that may result in a negative environmental impact. Nature is described as an interacting group of natural features and processes. In this study both the features and processes are described as natural resources. The use of these natural resources obviously affects them, and if this use is to continue over a long period, both the activity and the resource must be understood if they are to be maintained in a productive state. In order to limit impact and maintain value, a planning aid called zoning is used to assist in the understanding of the processes involved.     

Agriculture in the Slovenian Transitional Economy: The Preservation of Genetic Diversity of Plants and Ethical Consequences

Slovene agriculture is going throughdrastic changes. Most of the land is stillowned by small farmers. The production isoriented to the market and is based on modernWestern technology. It is associated withincreasing pollution and is becoming a seriousthreat to biodiversity. Many of the wild plantsare endangered due to genetic erosion withinspecies. The traditional crops and varietiesare being replaced by imported materials andthe use of chemicals has been increasing. Manyof the traditional varieties have beenneglected and/or lost. The existing germplasmcollections are incomplete and frequently donot include traditional varieties. There areonly a few breeding organizations with limitedcapacities and collections. The legislation isnot efficient enough to protect the environmentand biotic diversity. Schools, media,religious, sport, tourist, and otherorganizations should be more active inpromoting the respect for biodiversity.     

发达国家（地区）农业现代化进程中农户与市场对接模式比较

通过对美国、日本、法国、我国台湾地区农户与市场对接模式的比较,发现依靠中间组织——农协、企业、农业合作组织等实现了农业流通现代化。基于此,结合我国农业现状和具体国情,提出从政府引导、农产品流通的组织建设、加强市场监管力度三个方面来实施我国农户与市场的对接,从而加快我国农业流通现代化进程和农业经济的可持续发展。     

西藏农村能源消费及环境影响研究

西藏农村人口现有220多万，占全区总人口80％以上，农村经济落后，城乡差距很大。西藏农村能源资源主要有水力、地热、太阳能、风力、林木和畜粪等，煤炭、石油、天然气等高热值的优质能源很少。在这种经济发展水平及能源资源基础条件下，农村能源消费中高热值的现代能源比重很低，主要以生物质能如薪柴、牛粪、草皮等为主。这种低水平的能源消费结构已经对西藏脆弱的生态环境造成了巨大的破坏，西藏未来的能源发展战略迫切需要改变农村目前的消费结构，应发展太阳能、风能、农村小水电及输入高热值的化石能源替代目前生物质能的消费，减少因能源消费对西藏生态环境的破坏。     

Conservation of biodiversity within Canadian agricultural landscapes: Integrating habitat for wildlife

Industrialized agriculture currently substitutes many of the ecological functions of soil micro-organisms, macroinvertebrates, wild plants, and vertebrate animals with high cost inputs of pesticides and fertilizers. Enhanced biological diversity potentially offers agricultural producers a means of reducing the cost of their production. Conservation of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes may be greatly enhanced by the adoption of certain crop management practices, such as reduced pesticide usage or measures to prevent soil erosion. Still, the vast monocultures comprising the crop area in many Canadian agricultural landscapes are often of limited conservation value, thus the inclusion of appropriate wildlife habitat in and around arable lands is a fundamental prerequisite for the integration of wild species within agricultural landscapes. This review of current literature considers the potential for non-crop areas within agricultural landscapes to be reservoirs of agronomically beneficial organisms including plants, invertebrates, and vertebrate species. Non-crop habitats adjacent to crop land have been identified as significant for the maintenance of plant species diversity, for the conservation of beneficial pollinating and predatory insects, and as essential habitat for birds. A key component for enhancement of biodiversity is the reintroduction of landscape heterogeneity by (1) protection and enhancement of key non-crop areas, (2) smaller fields and farms, and (3) a greater mixture of crops, through rotation, intercropping and regional diversification. The benefits of increased biodiversity within arable lands are reviewed for various species groups. In the Canadian context, any serious attempt to derive significant agronomic benefit from increased biodiversity will require considerable changes in the agricultural programs and policies which shape mainstream industrialized agriculture. The problems of crop depredation by vertebrate species, weed and insect competition, which still represent significant impediments to the creation and proper management of wildlife habitat, are also discussed.     

The Effects of Local Ecological Knowledge, Minimum-Impact Knowledge, and Prior Experience on Visitor Perceptions of the Ecological Impacts of Backcountry Recreation

An on-site visitor survey instrument was developed to examine visitor perceptions of resource impacts resulting from backcountry hiking activities. The survey was conducted in the Bear Lake Corridor of Rocky Mountain National Park, CO and examined visitor characteristics that may influence visitor perceptions of specific resource conditions. Findings indicate that visitors are more perceptive of recreation-related resource impacts that are the result of undesirable behavior and, while visitors do perceive resource impacts, visitors tend to be more affected by crowding. Factors such as local ecological knowledge and knowledge of minimal-impact practices positively influence visitor perceptions of resource impacts. These findings support the use of visitor education on ecological knowledge and minimum-impact as a means of increasing visitor awareness of recreation impact issues.     

Political Modernization in China's Forest Governance? Payment Schemes for Forest Ecological Services in Liaoning

Payment for environmental services (PES) schemes are increasingly being introduced in developed and developing countries for the ecological conservation of forests also. Such payment schemes resemble a new mode of forest governance labelled political modernization, in which centralized and state-based command-and-control policies make room for market dynamics, non-state actors, and decentralization. In entering the new Millennium, China has massively started using payment schemes to conserve its forests. An analysis of the implementation of the Forest Ecological Benefit Compensation Fund Programme in Liaoning Province is used to investigate whether China's PES schemes resemble notions of political modernization. It is concluded that Liaoning Province introduced market dynamics and farmer participation in the implementation of its PES scheme, but in a way different from that theorized by political modernization scholars. Hence, it should rather be seen as a ‘Chinese style’ political modernization process.     

安徽休宁县中药材资源现状与开发利用

为了更好地开发黄山市中草药资源,结合农业产业结构调整及山区综合发展,分析了休宁县中药材资源现状。采取野外调查和室内分析相结合的方法,对安徽休宁县自然概况进行初步分析,并统计了县境内主要中药材的种类、蕴量。结果显示,休宁县中药材共计有243科816种,其中植物类165科677种,动物类78科136种,药用矿物3种。研究表明,休宁县中草药种类繁多、资源丰富,具有较好的开发和利用前景。     

WASTE WATER REUSE IN PHOENIX-HOW VIABLE IS IT?1

ABSTRACT: The Phoenix metropolitan area has a unique combination of circumstances which makes it one of the prime areas in the Nation for waste water reuse. Overriding all of these conditions is the long-term inadequacy of the existing water supplies. The Salt River Valley has a ground water overdraft of about 700,000 acre feet per year. To help alleviate this situation, the Corps of Engineers in conjunction with the MAG 208 is looking at ways to reuse a projected 2020 waste water flow of 340,000 acre feet per year. Reuse options identified include ground water recharge, agricultural irrigation, turf irrigation, recreational lakes, fish and wildlife habitats, and industrial cooling. These look nice on paper but before they can be implemented, some hard questions have to be answered, such as: How acceptable are local treatment plants when 15 years ago there was a major push to eliminate local plants; is the Phoenix area ready for reuse in urban areas; what are people willing to pay for water; who benefits if a city goes to ground water recharge; how much agriculture will be left in the area by 2020? These and other questions must be resolved if reuse is to become a viable option in water resource planning in the Phoenix area. Summary. Large scale reuse of waste water conforms with the national goal of better resource management through recycling. The Phoenix metropolitan area has a unique combination of circumstances which makes it one of the prime areas in the nation for waste water reuse. Some of the most notable conditions are: the existence of a large and rapidly growing urban area which is in the process of planning for future waste water management systems; the existence of agricultural areas which are projected to be farmed well into the future, and the existence of constructed and planned major recreational systems such as Indian Bend Wash which can use recycled waste water; the existence of extensive depleted ground water aquifers; the need for a dependable source for the cooling of the Palo Verde Nuclear reactors; and finally, overriding all of this, the long-term inadequacy of the existing water supplies. Given this, one would expect to find total reuse within the Phoenix metropolitan area. Reuse is taking place with irrigation and nuclear power cooling to the west but there is no long term plan which looks at the Valley as a whole and considers waste water as part of the Valley's water resources. The Corps 208 plan is looking at waste water in this manner but initial analysis shows that although reuse is technically feasible there are many financial, social, institutional, and political questions still to be answered. These include: determining the value of existing diminishing water sources and what people are willing to pay for the next source of water; are people willing to identify priority uses of water for the area so that water of varying quality is put to its highest and best use; will the present institutional boundaries remain to create water-rich and water-poor areas; and will legislation be forthcoming to simplify the complex surface and ground water laws that presently exist? The Corps 208 study will not be able to answer these questions, but the goal at the moment is to identify feasible reuse systems along with decisions the public, owners, agencies, and politicians must make to select and implement them. If some sort of logical process is not developed and public awareness not increased, the chance for a long-term plan to utilize waste water as a major element in the Phoenix area water resource picture, may be missed.     

Global localism: Recentering the research agenda for biodiversity conservation

Global environmental crisis narratives about biodiversity loss promote conservation research on how human activities impact natural resources and link scientific findings to protectionist policies. This paper critiques how local knowledge, over space and through time, is constructed for these studies and integrated with ecological measures and qualitative interpretations of biodiversity conditions. As a case example, we describe how ethnoecological research at Mt. Kasigau, a biodiversity hot spot in Southeastern Kenya, changes ‘scientific’ views on human–resource relations. Species richness in woody plants and local knowledge about trees show resource continua on the mountain that question the designation of diverse undisturbed forests and degraded human‐utilized lands. Local narratives document spatially dynamic and adaptive relationships between the Kasigau Taita and their plant resources as they moved up and down the mountain in response to environmental conditions and extra local forces. We argue that greater ‘local learning’ about local places is important to hypothesizing and potentially guiding ‘global action’ for biodiversity conservation.     

Efficacy of Standards vs. Incentives for Managing the Environmental Impacts of Agriculture

The environmental impacts of agriculture depend on both the longrun and shortrun production decisions of farmers. In the longrun, technologies and quasi-fixed factors are selected and put in place through investment. In the shortrun, production plans are made and implemented conditionally upon available technologies and quasi-fixed factors. An important implication is that the environmental effects of agricultural activities result from an integration of economic decisions, private good production practices and biophysical processes. Viewed from a system perspective, these processes transform a set of private and environmental inputs into a set of private good and environmental outputs. It follows from this logic that the environmental impacts or performance of agriculture result not only from the nature of available technologies, but also how those technical opportunities are exploited in response to market and public policy incentives and constraints. This paper presents results of an application of such an integrated model of biophysical and economic processes to evaluate the potential responsiveness of water quality impacts of agricultural field crop practices to changes in economic incentives.