The living environment and children's fears following the Indonesian tsunami

The tsunami that struck South-east Asia on 26 December 2004 left more than 500,000 people in Aceh, Indonesia, homeless and displaced to temporary barracks and other communities. This study examines the associations between prolonged habitation in barracks and the nature of fears reported by school-age children and adolescents. In mid-2007, 30 months after the tsunami, the authors interviewed 155 child and parent dyads. Logistic regression analysis was used to compare the fears reported by children and adolescents living in barracks with those reported by their peers who were living in villages. After adjusting for demographic factors and tsunami exposure, the data reveals that children and adolescents living in barracks were three times more likely than those living in villages to report tsunami-related fears. The study demonstrates that continued residence in barracks 30 months after the tsunami is associated with higher rates of reporting tsunami-related fears, suggesting that barracks habitation has had a significant impact on the psychological experience of children and adolescents since the tsunami.     

Displacement as a predictor of functional impairment in tsunami‐exposed children

Thirty months after the Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004, thousands of families in Aceh Province, Indonesia, remained in temporary barracks while sanitation conditions and non‐governmental organisation support deteriorated. This study sought to determine the factors associated with functional impairment in a sample of 138 displaced and non‐displaced Acehnese children. Using multivariate linear regression models, it was found that displacement distance was a consistent predictor of impairment using the Brief Impairment Scale. Exposure to tsunami‐related trauma markers was not significantly linked with impairment in the model. Paternal employment was a consistent protective factor for child functioning. These findings suggest that post‐disaster displacement and the subsequent familial economic disruption are significant predictors of impaired functioning in children's daily activities. Post‐disaster interventions should consider the disruption of familiar environments for families and children when relocating vulnerable populations to avoid deleterious impacts on children's functioning.     

Conservation and social outcomes of private protected areas

Government administered protected areas (PAs) have dominated conservation strategies, discourse, and research, yet private actors are increasingly managing land for conservation. Little is known about the social and environmental outcomes of these privately protected areas (PPAs). We searched the global literature in English on PPAs and their environmental and social outcomes and identified 412 articles suitable for inclusion. Research on PPAs was geographically skewed; more studies occurred in the United States. Environmental outcomes of PPAs were mostly positive (89%), but social outcomes of PPAs were reported less (12% of all studies), and these outcomes were more mixed (65% positive). Private protected areas increased the number or extent of ecosystems, ecoregions, or species covered by PAs (representativeness) and PA network connectivity and effectively reduced deforestation and restored degraded lands. Few PPA owners reported negative social outcomes, experienced improved social capital, increased property value, or a reduction in taxes. Local communities benefited from increased employment, training, and community-wide development (e.g., building of schools), but they reported reduced social capital and no significant difference to household income. The causal mechanisms through which PPAs influence social and environmental outcomes remain unclear, as does how political, economic, and social contexts shape these mechanisms. Future research should widen the geographical scope and diversify the types of PPAs studied and focus on determining the casual mechanisms through which PPA outcomes occur in different contexts. We propose an assessment framework that could be adopted to facilitate this process.