A Management-Orientated Comparative Analysis of Urban and Rural Anglers Living in a Metropolis (Berlin,Germany)

Increased efforts to analyze the human dimensions of anglers are necessary to improve freshwater fisheries management. This paper is a comparative analysis of urban and rural anglers living in a metropolis, based on n = 1061 anglers responding to a mail survey in the German capital of Berlin. More than two thirds of the anglers (71%) had spent most (>50%) of their effort outside the city borders of Berlin and thus were categorized as rural anglers. Compared to the rural anglers, urban anglers (50% of total effort spent inside the city) were younger and less educated. Urban anglers were more avid and committed, less mobile, and more frequently fished from boats and during weekdays. Rural anglers were more experienced, fished for longer times per trip, fished more often at weekends and on holidays, were more often members of angling clubs, and more frequently caught higher valued fish species. The achievement and fish quantity aspects of the angling experience were more important for urban than for rural anglers. Concerning management options, urban anglers more frequently suggested constraining other stakeholders and reducing regulations, whereas rural anglers more often proposed improving physical access to angling sites. Future urban fishing programs should offer ease of access, connection to public transportation, moderate prices, and diverse piscivorous fish stocks. In contrast to rural fisheries, the provision of high ecological and aesthetical quality of the angling waters can be regarded as of minor importance in urban fisheries. Rural fisheries managers need to consider the needs of stakeholders living in Berlin to minimize impacts on the less degraded rural water bodies and potential user conflicts with resident anglers. Ecosystem-based management approaches should guide rural fisheries policy.     

Two paradigms of professional development in environmental education

Summary In environmental education in this information age, it is particularly important to adopt the approach of enquiring critically into the environmental, educational and social values informing environmental, educational and social actions when and where required, rather than to simply adopt the approach of emphasising the acquisition and retention of information of an alleged universal type — information drawn from the stockpile of objective knowledge collected by others. This paper argues that to achieve this aim, environmental education in an information age requires aparadigm shift in the areas of professional development — a shift from a paradigm of information technology to a paradigm of information critique. A perspective on the form of this paradigm shift in the particular field of professional development in environmental education is the subject of this paper.Dr Ian Robottom is Senior Lecturer in the Curriculum Studies Centre of the School of Education, at Deakin University, Australia. His main interests lie in teacher education, educational enquiry, and environmental education. He conducts an off-campus environmental education course (B.Ed level) for practising teachers studying at a distance, is a member of the Council of the Australian Association for Environmental Education., and Editor of theAustralian Journal of Environmental Education.     

Attitudes Toward Wilderness Study Areas: A Survey of Six Southeastern Utah Counties

Southeastern Utah is a region of world-renowned red-rock sandstone formations, large tracts of federal public land, rural communities centered on agriculture and extractive industries, and is often at the epicenter of environmental protection efforts in the western United States. Environmental groups have proposed formal Wilderness designations for much of the regions public land—proposals that have been actively fought by rural community leaders who do not want large areas locked-up from traditional livelihood and recreational uses. The debate over wilderness designation in the region has been characterized in the media as one that is particularly contentious and polarizing. A survey of southeastern Utah residents was conducted in order to better understand this conflict. The survey focused on attitudes toward wilderness designation and management. We found that residents of southeastern Utah have negative attitudes towards the designation and management of Wilderness Study Areas. We propose that these attitudes should be carefully considered and engaged in future policy and management decisions. We suggest that negative opinions expressed by residents of southeastern Utah are not directed primarily at the concept of environmental protection but rather at the strong perception that these programs and initiatives have been carried out in a heavy-handed manner and dominated by outside influences that have overwhelmed local voices.     

An elegant application of appropriate technology: the Sheep Creek Hatchery

Alaska's program for rebuilding salmon stock is calledfishery enhancement. Hatchery technology can produce dramatic increases in numbers of fish homing to selected streams. The Sheep Creek Hatchery is unusually efficient— it increases a fish run by a factor of 3000 and produces salmon at 9–11c/kg by minimizing mechanical energy inputs and human labor. The design harnesses the force of gravity and capitalizes on instinctual behavior of the fish. Since migratory fish collect protein from ocean pasturage, the technology increases the share of this resource collected and concentrated for harvest in a specific country or region. While small seaside hatcheries can solve biological problems of depleted fish stocks, economic and political considerations may preclude efficient utilization of the protein produced. Further, the potential for one state or country to concentrate fish near its shores poses new dilemmas for international regulation of harvests.     

The Colorado,USA, Joint Review Process: an initial evaluation of its success as a permit reform by key participants

Colorado, USA, developed the Joint Review Process (CJRP) in 1978 to coordinate the application and review of permits required for major development projects. Since then, the state has used the process on over 20 projects. This study examined whether the CJRP has achieved its primary goals—enhanced coordination of agencies, enhanced public participation, and strengthened communication between agencies and project sponsors— and several related secondary goals. The success of the process was measured through a survey of 54 key people who had been directly involved with the process. Those surveyed included federal and state agency staff, local agency managers, corporate officers, private consultants, and environmental leaders. All groups, with one exception, agreed that the process achieved its primary goals and that it should be retained. Environmental leaders were neutral about whether the process enhanced public participation and about retaining the process. The report concludes with a review of recommended improvements to and applications of the CJRP.     

A human ecological assessment of air quality management: A convergence in economic and ecological thinking?

Traditional air pollution management practices are examined using the human ecological framework adopted by Boyden and others (1981) in their study of Hong Kong—the biohistorical or biosocial approach. The subsequent analysis of current air quality management practices assesses their effectiveness in protecting the overall health of both humans and the natural environment. The uncertainties inherent in air pollution management practices which emerge highlight the need to reduce emissions rather than rely on scientific knowledge to define clean air. The assessment also clearly defines roles for research in various areas such as atmospheric models, health effects, and environmental damage. The final recommendations emphasize the need for the introduction of such incentives to reduce emissions as economic instruments and warn against using health information to define clean air. Health and environmental damage information can, however, be used in risk assessment strategies together with atmospheric dispersion models.     

Management and valuation of an environmentally sensitive area: Norfolk Broadland,England, case study

Wetlands, like any other environmentally sensitive resource, require very careful evaluation. While it is accepted that all wetlands may be equally valuable in terms of maintaining global life-support systems, individual areas may be ranked according to their uniqueness or the irreplaceability of the resource should the wetland be developed. The various techniques available for evaluating the wetland resource in the development versus conservation conflict situation are critically assessed. Indirect appraisal via the opportunity cost method can generate valuable data which have contributed to the mitigation of such conflict situations.The Broadland, in Norfolk, England, recently designated an environmentally sensitive area (ESA), provides a case study example of wetland management. The search for an acceptable flood alleviation strategy for the ESA is examined in detail. The economic and environmental asset structure of the study area is examined at two levels. A basic screening system is applied to each of the identified flood protection planning units to enable the rank ordering of the units. A more detailed appraisal is then made of the value of selected units so that the cost-effectiveness of any planned expenditure on flood protection works can be assessed. Specific management issues and their likely effect on the environment, in terms of land use for example, are also addressed. The 1986 Agriculture Act marks a potential watershed in British conservation policy. The ESA policy encompasses a dual management strategy that attempts to stimulate compatible agricultural and conservation practices and activities. Other countries that still retain significant unspoiled wetland resources may find that preemptive regulatory government intervention in favor of conservation would help to avoid the worst aspects of the British experience.     

A utopian perspective on ecology and development

Summary Effective communication concerning environmental issues can take a variety of forms. The following essay is offered as a metalogue, a piece of writing in which the writing itself illustrates the principles developed in the writing.International readers will be helped if they know that Jack Armstrong and Sergeant Preston are heroes of moralizing (and often jingoistic) radio dramas popular among children in the United States during the War years and that the Tom Mix Holster Set and the A-bomb Ring were premiums offered to children in boxes of cold cereal in the period after the War. These trivia illustrate the kinds of societal messages directed toward the generation of Americans who presumably will be running the country during the 1980s.The authors are a professor of Psychology and Ethology and a graduate student in International Development. Both attended Harvard University in the late 1950s and the University of California, Berkeley, in the early 1960s. Their autobiographical reflections have something to say about the motivation underlying the environmental movement and where these motivations are likely to lead in the near future.     

Environmental problem-solving and land-use management: A proposed structure for Australia

A three-tiered structure of land-use and environmental management is here proposed for Australia. The structure is based on the idea that environment means the environment of people, and that environmental problems arise when a change in the interaction between people and their environment leads to conflicts about the use of land and resources. The heterogeneity of society means that a range of human aspirations and value systems must be satisfied by environmental managers. Existing methods of environmental management fail to achieve these objectives, due to inadequate perception of environmental problems by decision-makers, and the inability of currently available impact assessment techniques to resolve human conflicts associated with the use of land and resources. The main work of planning and managing land use and the environment would be carried out by regional authorities, supported by federal and state policy. Examples are given of moves towards regional administration in England and Wales, Western Australia, Australia and New Zealand. Community participation in the decision-making process is essential and can be achieved by electoral representation to the authoritative bodies and through procedures that ensure informed public comment on planning proposals.     

The object of environmental ethics

Since the term environmental ethics began to be used a generation ago, it has covered many different kinds of environmental notions, problems, ethical systems, and forms of behavior. A variety of cases are presented and examined under two terms,environmental ethics andecological morality, in an effort to illustrate different kinds of ethical objectives. In order to understand the connections between various strands of environmental ethics, personal and social values and subcultural norms of environmental ethics are examined under Christopher Stone's concept of moral pluralism. G. J. Warnock's notion of the general object of morality is proposed to integrate the variegated purposes of environmental ethics.     

Ecological principles,biodiversity, and the electric utility industry

The synthetic field of conservation biology uses principles derived from many different disciplines to address biodiversity issues. Many of these principles have come from ecology, and two simple ones that seem to relate to many issues involving the utility industry are: (1) Everything is interconnected (and should usually stay that way), and (2) We can never do merely one thing. The first principle can be applied to both the biotic and physical environments that are impacted by industrial activities. Habitat fragmentation and the loss of physical and biotic connectedness that results are frequently associated with transmission rights-of-way. These problems can be reduced—or even turned into conservation benefits—by careful planning and creative management. The second principle applies to the utility industry's programs to deal with carbon released by burning fossil fuels. Ecological knowledge can allow these programs to contribute to the preservation of biodiversity in addition to addressing a pollution problem. Without careful ecological analyses, industry could easily create new problems while implementing solutions to old ones.     

Children's “peace with nature” festival — Assisi

The Festival described in this article won the Golden Ball Award for education of the Italian Academy of Lincei. Dr Maria Luisa Cohen, the author, was honoured with the Tree of Learning Award for 1988, by the Commission on Education and Training of the IUCN, for her services to environmental education and her promotion and participation in the Festival.     

Biosphere II: Meeting ground for ecology and technology

Summary Biosphere II is a new project to build a self-contained ecological system containing humans, plants, and as many other living organisms as necessary for long-term sustenance. Soviet space scientists have already designed Bios 3, simulating conditions on board a flight to Mars. In building Biosphere II, the Institute of Ecotechnics (IE), in collaboration with Space Biospheres Ventures, Decisions Teams Limited, The Environmental Research Laboratory associated with The University of Arizona, and Sarbid Limited, plan to build the prototype of an artificial world in which environmental and ecological processes can be observed closely; An educational, scientific, and ethical laboratory, Biosphere II will raise public consciousness of the interdependence of all life. It will also serve as a control world where possibly harmful environmental effects can be modelled before they reach a crisis stage. Eventually the biospheres are to be marketed and set up in space as the biosphere, no longer in conflict with but aided by human technology, puts forth its young upon other celestial bodies.Dorion Sagan's most recent books areMicrocosmos andOrigins of Sex, both co-authored with Lynn Margulis. He is working onBiospheres, a book on closed ecological systems which is to be published shortly.     

Groundwater quality: Responsible agriculture and public perceptions

The chief sources of groundwater contamination on farms come from point sources and diffuse sources. Possible point sources are feedlots, poorly-sited manure piles, septic sewage-treatment systems—all of which can release nitrate, phosphates and bacteria— and sites of chemical spills. Diffuse sources are typified by excess fertilizer leaching from a number of arable fields. The basis of quality standards for drinking-water is discussed in relation to common contaminants present on farms. Samples of drinking-water were collected in 1991–1992 from wells on about 1,200 farms in order to study the quality of rural groundwater in Ontario. Analysis showed that approximately one third of wells were contaminated with bacteria, 14% were contaminated with nitrate, two wells were contaminated with pesticide, but 40% were considered unsafe because of the presence of at least one contaminant. These values were similar to those reported for similar regions in the U.S. There was no significant effect of agricultural practice on the proportion of contaminated samples. One response of Ontario's farmers to information on water quality has been to initiate their own program, the Environmental Farm Plan, which has 23 modules by which the risk of environmental contamination can be assessed. Government policies for agriculture can be expected to influence farming practices. However, the literature suggests that the consequences of policies aimed at reducing environmental contamination are poorly understood, not least because the instruments used for implementation can have widely differing impacts. The need for discussions on the ethics surrounding the relationship between food producers and consumers with regard to environmental contamination is identified.     

Political Economy of Transnational Water Pollution: What Do the LMB Data (1985–2000) Say?

On the basis of the cross-section and time-series data of the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB)—including large sections of Thailand, Lao PDR, Vietnam, and Cambodia, we find little evidence in support of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. Instead, our regressions support the general views that water pollution had been positively related to income level and that, as a result of the end of the Cold War era, it had been significantly reduced in the 1990s vis-à-vis the 1980s. In most circumstances, water resources were more seriously polluted in the transnational border areas than in the other areas. Specifically, the estimated coefficients on the political boundary dummies show that political influence on transnational water pollution was more significant in areas near the international border along which the river runs (denoted by BORDER2) than in places near the international border across which the river runs (denoted by BORDER1). The estimated coefficients on the ASEAN dummy present some information about the positive role of the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) membership in the reduction of transnational water pollution. Finally, the country-specific dummies are found to present conflicting information about the transnational differences of water pollution, although Thailand is found to have the least water pollution in the LMB.     

Development of synthetic criteria for the ecological evaluation of woodlots and woodlot units

Different criteria have been proposed for the rapid ecological evaluation of wooded areas. It is difficult, however, to determine the criteria most likely to yield results similar to those that would be obtained through detailed surveys and exhaustive evaluation. In order to identify such synthetic criteria, data from a detailed evaluation of Montreal Urban Community woodlots were studied with the help of multivariate analysis. This detailed evaluation was undertaken at two levels—woodlot unit and the woodlots themselves—using 16 different criteria.At the woodlot unit level, area and abundance indices of shade intolerant species in the tree layer could be used as synthetic criteria, while at the woodlot level the ecological value of the constituent units stand out as the first synthetic criterion. These results are compared with criteria proposed in the literature, and the use of multivariate analysis in ecological evaluation is briefly discussed.     

Joint implementation: Biodiversity and greenhouse gas offsets

One of the most pressing environmental issues today is the possibility that projected increases in global emissions of greenhouse gases from increased deforestation, development, and fossil-fuel combustion could significantly alter global climate patterns. Under the terms of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, signed in Rio de Janeiro during the June 1992 Earth Summit, the United States and other industrialized countries committed to balancing greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels in the year 2000. Included in the treaty is a provision titled Joint Implementation, whereby industrialized countries assist developing countries in jointly modifying long-term emission trends, either through emission reductions or by protecting and enhancing greenhouse gas sinks (carbon sequestration). The US Climate Action Plan, signed by President Clinton in 1993, calls for voluntary climate change mitigation measures by various sectors, and the action plan included a new program, the US Initiative on Joint Implementation. Wisconsin Electric decided to invest in a Jl project because its concept encourages creative, cost-effective solutions to environmental problems through partnering, international cooperation, and innovation. The project chosen, a forest preservation and management effort in Belize, will sequester more than five million tons of carbon dioxide over a 40-year period, will become economically selfsustaining after ten years, and will have substantial biodiversity benefits.     

Allocation of River Flows for Restoration of Floodplain Forest Ecosystems: A Review of Approaches and Their Applicability in Europe

Floodplain forests are flood-dependent ecosystems. They rely on well-timed, periodic floods for the provision of regeneration sites and on tapered flood recession curves for the successful establishment of seedlings. These overbank flood events are described as regeneration flows. Once floodplain forest trees are established, in order to grow they also require adequate, although variable, river stage levels or maintenance flows throughout the year. Regeneration flows are often synonymous with flood flows and only occur periodically. There is a disparity between this need for varied interannual flows over the decadal time frame and the usual annual cycle of flow management currently used by most river management agencies. Maintenance flows are often closer to established minimum flows and much easier to provide by current operational practices.A number of environmental flow methodologies, developed in North America, Australia, and South Africa are described in this review. They include the needs of the floodplain environment in the management and allocation of river flows. In North America, these methodologies have been put into practice in a number of river basins specifically to restore floodplain forest ecosystems. In Australia and South Africa, a series of related holistic approaches have been developed that include the needs of floodplain ecosystems as well as in-channel ecosystems. In most European countries, restoration of floodplain forests takes place at a few localized restoration sites, more often as part of a flood-defense scheme and usually not coordinated with flow allocation decisions throughout the river basin. The potential to apply existing environmental flow methodologies to the management of European floodplain forests is discussed.     

Dive Operator Use Patterns in the Designated No-Take Zones of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS)

/ The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS), created by Congress in 1990, addressed the issue of resource protection partly by proposing 26 "no-take" zones. These areas, discussed in the 1995 Draft Management Plan, disallowed all extractive activities, and four of the zones also prohibited diving and snorkeling. Furthermore, the Draft Management Plan considered recreational carrying capacity, proposing that use densities be studied and eventually limited in high-use and sensitive areas. Conducted with 62 commercial dive operators from the Florida Keys in 1995-96, this study uses geographic information systems (GIS) to determine the extent of FKNMS zone use by dive operators, assess the regional importance of FKNMS zones to operators, and compare management strategies by which to allow use while minimizing impacts to the coral reef resource. Dive operators took almost 70% of their total trips and 77% of their total divers to FKNMS zones in 1995. Although zone use is generally related to the proximity of dive locations, dive operators do rely disproportionately on single sites in certain regions. The resulting profiles demonstrate that management strategies need to consider disproportionate use, as well as the average number of users per trip, to effectively protect the region's environmental resources. In addition to implementing a carrying capacity plan, the FKNMS should consider a limited-entry system for dive operators.     

A course in Environmental Planning and Management

Summary This paper describes a 13-weeks, third-year course in Environmental Planning and Management developed and taught by the authors. Initiated in 1969, the course consists of a mix of lectures, seminars, workshop/laboratory sessions and field-based projects. The objectives of the course are for students: to become aware of the need for, and the complexities of, environmental management; to be able to criticise constructively work done by environmental agencies and consultants, managers and decision makers; and to learn and apply some of the methods and techniques used in environmental management.Topics covered by the current syllabus are: concepts of resource and environment; constitutional aspects; international law and the environment; Australian and Canadian environmental legislation and agencies; human manipulation of ecosystems; energy subsidies; modification of biogeochemical cycles; population dynamics and cropping; fisheries; national parks and reserves—policies in different countries; international heritage areas; environmental assessment (including impact assessment, land evaluation, land capability and land suitability assessment); and regional, integrated land-use and environmental planning and management. Techniques taught include: field surveys and interviewing; laboratory analysis of selected water quality, sediment and soil parameters including nutrient concentrations, heavy metal and pesticide residues; and for some students, applications of geographic information systems (GIS) technology following preceding GIS courses.A major problem is selecting the most appropriate mix between the social and natural sciences—appropriate, first in terms of students' heterogeneous skills and backgrounds, and second, in terms of understanding the causes of environmental problems and issues, and devising practicable solutions.