Hazardous wastes transboundary movement management: a case study in Taiwan

More than 50,000 tons of hazardous waste are imported and exported worldwide each year. Over 50% of hazardous waste is exported to Southeast Asia, of which leather waste is the major component. The exportation quantities of hazardous waste to Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries are decreasing while they are on the increase to non-OECD countries. Some of these wastes are intended for recycling purposes but the usage of some others is not stipulated. The hazardous waste importation quantity kept fairly steady from 1997 to 2000, of which ash or residues containing copper or copper compounds were the major component. Under existing regulations and measures, the transboundary movement of hazardous waste cannot be effectively controlled and monitored. In order to ensure environmentally sound hazardous waste management, EPA-Taiwan revised the Waste Disposal Act in 2001 and cooperated with the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) to promote industrial waste reduction and recycling projects. Strategies were proposed based on evaluation according to the 3Es Principles and the site investigation in this study.     

厌氧-好氧一体化反应器处理高浓度有机废水的运行特性研究

本实验采用新型厌氧—好氧一体化反应器处理高浓度有机废水,主要研究了系统的启动与运行性能,并对系统的NH3 N去除效果作了初步考察。实验结果表明:在16℃～24℃的自然温度下,采用递增负荷、厌氧和好氧分期启动的方式,系统可在38天内达到较好的启动效果;在系统负荷运行期内,当系统总进水COD浓度平均值为3601 8mg/L,总出水COD浓度平均值为384 0mg/L,系统容积负荷平均值为2 54kgCOD/(m3·d),系统总HRT平均值为35 1h时,系统总COD去除率平均值达90 6%。实验还发现:当进水NH3 N浓度为280 3～350 7mg/L,整个系统的NH3 N去除率在68 5%～91 7%,平均为81 0%。由此说明,本反应器具有很好的COD去除性能和NH3 N去除效果,适合于处理COD浓度高且含有中等NH3 N浓度的有机废水。     

磷酸微波活化多孔生物质炭对亚甲基蓝的吸附特性

以甘蔗渣为原料，采用微波辅助H3PO4活化法制备富含含氧酸官能团的中孔生物质炭。通过扫描电子显微镜SEM、傅立叶变换红外光谱FT-IR等技术对生物质炭物理化学性质进行表征，并通过静态实验法，探讨炭样对亚甲基蓝的吸附行为及热力学性质。结果表明，H3PO4活化制备蔗渣生物质炭的适宜条件为浸渍比1：1，烘干时间10h，活化功率900W，活化时间22min，在此条件下制得的生物质炭得率为39．2％，碘值为817mg／g，亚甲基蓝值为229mg／g，为国家一级品标准的1．7倍。红外光谱分析表明，炭样表面以羟基、羰基、羧基等酸性官能团为主。静态吸附实验表明，Freundlich方程与Redlich—Peterson方程能较好地描述等温吸附行为，表现为优惠吸附。热力学研究表明，吸附吉布斯自由能（△G0）〈0，说明吸附反应是自发过程，而吸附标准焓变（△H0）〉70KJ／mol，表明亚甲基蓝在制备炭样上的吸附是吸热反应，升温有利于吸附，且化学反应在吸附过程中发挥了重要作用。     

The role of scientists in statutory interpretation of the U.S. Endangered Species Act

Like many federal statutes, the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) contains vague or ambiguous language. The meaning imparted to the ESA's unclear language can profoundly impact the fates of endangered and threatened species. Hence, conservation scientists should contribute to the interpretation of the ESA when vague or ambiguous language contains scientific words or refers to scientific concepts. Scientists need to know at least these 2 facts about statutory interpretation: statutory interpretation is subjective and the potential influence of normative values results in different expectations for the parties involved. With the possible exception of judges, all conventional participants in statutory interpretation are serving their own interests, advocating for their preferred policies, or biased. Hence, scientists can play a unique role by informing the interpretative process with objective, policy‐neutral information. Conversely, scientists may act as advocates for their preferred interpretation of unclear statutory language. The different roles scientists might play in statutory interpretation raise the issues of advocacy and competency. Advocating for a preferred statutory interpretation is legitimate political behavior by scientists, but statutory interpretation can be strongly influenced by normative values. Therefore, scientists must be careful not to commit stealth policy advocacy. Most conservation scientists lack demonstrable competence in statutory interpretation and therefore should consult or collaborate with lawyers when interpreting statutes. Professional scientific societies are widely perceived by the public as unbiased sources of objective information. Therefore, professional scientific societies should remain policy neutral and present all interpretations of unclear statutory language; explain the semantics and science both supporting and contradicting each interpretation; and describe the potential consequences of implementing each interpretation. A review of scientists’ interpretations of the phrase “significant portion of its range” in the ESA is used to critique the role of scientists and professional societies in statutory interpretation.     

Effectiveness of Africa's tropical protected areas for maintaining forest cover

The effectiveness of parks for forest conservation is widely debated in Africa, where increasing human pressure, insufficient funding, and lack of management capacity frequently place significant demands on forests. Tropical forests house a substantial portion of the world's remaining biodiversity and are heavily affected by anthropogenic activity. We analyzed park effectiveness at the individual (224 parks) and national (23 countries) level across Africa by comparing the extent of forest loss (as a proxy for deforestation) inside parks to matched unprotected control sites. Although significant geographical variation existed among parks, the majority of African parks had significantly less forest loss within their boundaries (e.g., Mahale Park had 34 times less forest loss within its boundary) than control sites. Accessibility was a significant driver of forest loss. Relatively inaccessible areas had a higher probability (odds ratio >1, p < 0.001) of forest loss but only in ineffective parks, and relatively accessible areas had a higher probability of forest loss but only in effective parks. Smaller parks less effectively prevented forest loss inside park boundaries than larger parks (T = ?2.32, p < 0.05), and older parks less effectively prevented forest loss inside park boundaries than younger parks (F_2,154 = ?4.11, p < 0.001). Our analyses, the first individual and national assessment of park effectiveness across Africa, demonstrated the complexity of factors (such as geographical variation, accessibility, and park size and age) influencing the ability of a park to curb forest loss within its boundaries.     

Why social values cannot be changed for the sake of conservation

The hope for creating widespread change in social values has endured among conservation professionals since early calls by Aldo Leopold for a “land ethic.” However, there has been little serious attention in conservation to the fields of investigation that address values, how they are formed, and how they change. We introduce a social–ecological systems conceptual approach in which values are seen not only as motivational goals people hold but also as ideas that are deeply embedded in society's material culture, collective behaviors, traditions, and institutions. Values define and bind groups, organizations, and societies; serve an adaptive role; and are typically stable across generations. When abrupt value changes occur, they are in response to substantial alterations in the social–ecological context. Such changes build on prior value structures and do not result in complete replacement. Given this understanding of values, we conclude that deliberate efforts to orchestrate value shifts for conservation are unlikely to be effective. Instead, there is an urgent need for research on values with a multilevel and dynamic view that can inform innovative conservation strategies for working within existing value structures. New directions facilitated by a systems approach will enhance understanding of the role values play in shaping conservation challenges and improve management of the human component of conservation.     

An interdisciplinary review of current and future approaches to improving human–predator relations

In a world of shrinking habitats and increasing competition for natural resources, potentially dangerous predators bring the challenges of coexisting with wildlife sharply into focus. Through interdisciplinary collaboration among authors trained in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, we reviewed current approaches to mitigating adverse human–predator encounters and devised a vision for future approaches to understanding and mitigating such encounters. Limitations to current approaches to mitigation include too much focus on negative impacts; oversimplified equating of levels of damage with levels of conflict; and unsuccessful technical fixes resulting from failure to engage locals, address hidden costs, or understand cultural (nonscientific) explanations of the causality of attacks. An emerging interdisciplinary literature suggests that to better frame and successfully mitigate negative human–predator relations conservation professionals need to consider dispensing with conflict as the dominant framework for thinking about human–predator encounters; work out what conflicts are really about (they may be human–human conflicts); unravel the historical contexts of particular conflicts; and explore different cultural ways of thinking about animals. The idea of cosmopolitan natures may help conservation professionals think more clearly about human–predator relations in both local and global context. These new perspectives for future research practice include a recommendation for focused interdisciplinary research and the use of new approaches, including human‐animal geography, multispecies ethnography, and approaches from the environmental humanities notably environmental history. Managers should think carefully about how they engage with local cultural beliefs about wildlife, work with all parties to agree on what constitutes good evidence, develop processes and methods to mitigate conflicts, and decide how to monitor and evaluate these. Demand for immediate solutions that benefit both conservation and development favors dispute resolution and technical fixes, which obscures important underlying drivers of conflicts. If these drivers are not considered, well‐intentioned efforts focused on human–wildlife conflicts will fail.     

铁氧化物复合氧化铝催化臭氧化过程中溴酸盐的生成控制

以市售活性炭、硅藻土和氧化铝小球为载体，考察了负载铁基活性组分对催化臭氧化过程中溴酸盐的控制情况，其中，铁基复合氧化铝小球体现出更好的溴酸盐还原特性和催化剂稳定性，证实催化剂中铁氧化物是溴酸盐得到有效控制的主要活性组分。进一步考察了铁基复合氧化铝小球催化臭氧化处理实际原水过程中对溴酸盐的生成控制，以及反应过程中溶解性有机碳（DOC）的去除情况。结果表明，与单独臭氧化相比，该催化剂既能有效去除水中的溶解性有机物，又能明显抑制溴酸盐的生成，反应50h，其活性并没有明显下降。催化剂失活主要归因于吸附位点数量的下降，可以通过负载铁氧化物来实现催化剂的再生。     

Toward reassessing data‐deficient species

One in 6 species (13,465 species) on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List is classified as data deficient due to lack of information on their taxonomy, population status, or impact of threats. Despite the chance that many are at high risk of extinction, data‐deficient species are typically excluded from global and local conservation priorities, as well as funding schemes. The number of data‐deficient species will greatly increase as the IUCN Red List becomes more inclusive of poorly known and speciose groups. A strategic approach is urgently needed to enhance the conservation value of data‐deficient assessments. To develop this, we reviewed 2879 data‐deficient assessments in 6 animal groups and identified 8 main justifications for assigning data‐deficient status (type series, few records, old records, uncertain provenance, uncertain population status or distribution, uncertain threats, taxonomic uncertainty, and new species). Assigning a consistent set of justification tags (i.e., consistent assignment to assessment justifications) to species classified as data deficient is a simple way to achieve more strategic assessments. Such tags would clarify the causes of data deficiency; facilitate the prediction of extinction risk; facilitate comparisons of data deficiency among taxonomic groups; and help prioritize species for reassessment. With renewed efforts, it could be straightforward to prevent thousands of data‐deficient species slipping unnoticed toward extinction.     

Effects of productivity on biodiversity in forest ecosystems across the United States and China

In the global campaign against biodiversity loss in forest ecosystems, land managers need to know the status of forest biodiversity, but practical guidelines for conserving biodiversity in forest management are lacking. A major obstacle is the incomplete understanding of the relationship between site primary productivity and plant diversity, due to insufficient ecosystem‐wide data, especially for taxonomically and structurally diverse forest ecosystems. We investigated the effects of site productivity (the site's inherent capacity to grow timber) on tree species richness across 19 types of forest ecosystems in North America and China through 3 ground‐sourced forest inventory data sets (U.S. Forest Inventory and Analysis, Cooperative Alaska Forest Inventory, and Chinese Forest Management Planning Inventory). All forest types conformed to a consistent and highly significant (P < 0.001) hump‐shaped unimodal relationship, of which the generalized coefficients of determination averaged 20.5% over all the forest types. That is, tree species richness first increased as productivity increased at a progressively slower rate, and, after reaching a maximum, richness started to decline. Our consistent findings suggest that forests of high productivity would sustain few species because they consist mostly of flat homogeneous areas lacking an environmental gradient along which a diversity of species with different habitats can coexist. The consistency of the productivity–biodiversity relationship among the 3 data sets we examined makes it possible to quantify the expected tree species richness that a forest stand is capable of sustaining, and a comparison between the actual species richness and the sustainable values can be useful in prioritizing conservation efforts.