Exporting natural capital: the foreign eco-footprint on Costa Rica and implications for sustainability

As the world economy ‘globalizes’, trade has become a major mechanism by which much of the human population supports its needs. While trade in resource commodities (natural income) can increase the well-being of people in both exporting and importing countries, it can also lead to depletion of natural capital and the loss of ecosystems integrity. In recent years, various researchers have attempted to address this problem using a consumption-based perspective on ecological change. Their work shows that the loss of ecosystem integrity in almost any region of the world can be attributed to both local and international consumer demand. This paper illustrates the utility of modified eco-footprint analysis in assessing export-related ecological change in Costa Rica. We quantify ecological footprint of consumers around the world on the productive ecosystems of Costa Rica, document the changing character of this footprint and highlight some of the linkages between production for export in Costa Rica and ecological degradation. We then discuss the implications of the increasing trade-based entanglement of nations for ecosystems and global sustainability.     

Mixing Processes in Geophysical and Astrophysical Flows – A Conference Report

The Third ERCOFTAC conference on `Mixing in Geophysical and Astrophysical Flows' was held at the University of Sheffield over the period 12–14 April 2000. The meeting attracted over forty participants from ten different countries. Some delegates had travelled from as far as U.S.A., Venezuela, Australia, Russia and Sweden to attend the conference. Nine invited papers were presented along with twenty-seven contributed oral presentations and six posters. The main topics discussed included stratified and rotating flows, gravity waves, turbulence and mixing. The presentations are summarised in this report, which aims to provide a broad account of current topics of interest related to mixing processes in geophysical and astrophysical flows.     

Recreational waters and Health-swimming against the tide

This paper addresses the complex issue of recreational exposure to sewage contaminated waters. The types of hazard encountered are discussed and contextualised. Microbial measures of sewage contamination prove to be extremely unreliable. The links between microbial indicators and water quality and between water quality and demonstrable health effects are variable at best. The outcomes of epidemiological studies agree in general terms-exposed populations exhibit more symptoms-but rarely agree in specifics, such as threshold levels for particular indicator organisms. The drive to improve Europe's bathing beaches initiated by the European Union in its bathing water directive has been a temendous force for change. However, the investment of huge sums of money based on compliance with flawed microbiological standards is entirely inappropriate. Instead a holistic approach based on the assessment of all factors likely to promote risk to recreators is proposed. Such a beach registration scheme would remove the necessity to comply with fundamentally flawed and meaningless numerical standards.     

The Monitoring of UK Sewage Sludge Disposal Sites

In recent years there has been an increase in the intensity and frequency of environmental monitoring surveys at UK sewage sludge disposal sites. These have been carried out by the regulatory authorities and by the licensees. in order to ensure maximum efficiency, a coordinated and harmonised programme of monitoring has been developed. the programme concentrates on sediment chemical and biological quality but also includes assessments of water and fish quality

In England and Wales the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food is the regulatory authority and the Water Authorities are the licensees. the Ministry's first priority is the collection of samples for temporal trend analysis but in addition, infrequent surveys are made to check the status of the disposal site and surrounding areas. in the periods between status surveys, regular spatial surveys designed to define the area of impact are carried out by the Water Authorities.     

The anti-predator function of ‘eyespots’ on camouflaged and conspicuous prey

Animals utilise various strategies to reduce the risk of predation, including camouflage, warning colours and mimicry, and many of these protective signals promote avoidance behaviour in predators. For example, various species possess paired circular ‘eyespots’, which startle or intimidate predators, preventing or halting an attack. However, little is known of how the efficacy of such signals relates to the context in which they are found, and no studies have tested the relative effectiveness of anti-predator signals when on otherwise camouflaged and conspicuous prey. We find that the protective value of conspicuous wing spots, placed on artificial moth-like targets presented to wild birds in the field, is strongly affected by the attributes of the prey ‘animal’ on which they are found. Wing spots reduced predation when on conspicuous prey but were rendered ineffective when on otherwise camouflaged targets, indeed they increased the risk of predation compared to non-marked camouflaged controls. These results demonstrate how different anti-predator strategies may interact, and that protective signals can switch from being beneficial to costly under different contexts.     

Power,responsibility and justice: a review of local stakeholder participation in European flood risk management

Over the past few decades, there has been an increasing interest in the active involvement of local stakeholders in the management of floods in Europe. Such involvement is seen as necessary as the management of floods becomes more complex. Management approaches now seek to include a range of potential measures to reduce risk (e.g. structural defence, spatial planning and property-level protection measures). Local stakeholder involvement is seen to be important because governments lack the capacities such as knowledge and funding required to deliver all these measures alone. This paper focuses on the implications that more participative approaches have on the fairness of European flood risk management (FRM). Studies of environmental justice are well placed to address this question because they are interested in who is included and excluded from decisions related to the distribution of environmental goods (resources) and bads (risks). Existing literature suggests that fair decision-making processes (procedural justice) can lead to fair distribution or resources and risks (distributive justice). This literature review of 30 peer-reviewed papers provides an analysis of justice and FRM by assessing practices of participation which are presented in the recent literature on local stakeholder involvement in FRM in England, Germany and the Netherlands. It was found that participation in practice generally focuses on transferring responsibility to the local level at the expense of power. This paper discusses the implications that this finding has for justice and synthesises potential ways forward based on recommendations of the reviewed literature.     

Sub-professional training in the field of the environment

Summary The need for trained technical personnel to monitor environmental systems is emphasised and detailed. Coincident with this need is a virtual absence of appropriate training schemes. The philosophy behind and development of such a course in Farnborough College of Technology is described. This course is a multidisciplinary Higher Diploma in Environmental Analysis and Monitoring aimed specifically at training technicians to deal with pollution and its effects. The paper details course aims and objectives and outlines the programme structure. As the staff at Farnborough have initiated such a training programme, we propose to act as a resource exchange centre in this sphere. Thus our experience could aid in the curriculum development of other schemes. Gareth Rees is Lecturer in Microbiology at Farnborough College of Technology. He has a first degree in Marine Zoology and an M.Sc. in Biodeterioration of Materials. He has recently completed Ph.D. studies into ecological aspects of marine fungi. At Farnborough he is leader of the Environmental Research Group, involved in several applied environmental microbiological projects.