Procedures for ensuring community involvement in multijurisdictional river basins: a comparison of the Murray-Darling and Mekong river basins

Community involvement is fundamental to the management of multijurisdictional river basins but, in practice, is very difficult to achieve. The Murray-Darling basin, in Australia, and the Mekong River basin in Southeast Asia are both cooperatively managed multijurisdictional river basins where the management authorities have expressed an aim of community involvement. In the Murray-Darling basin vigorous efforts have promoted a culture of community consultation throughout each of the state jurisdictions involved, although true participation has not necessarily been achieved. In the Mekong basin the community is much more diverse and the successes so far have been largely at the local level, involving action in subsections of the basin. These case studies suggest that community involvement in the form of community consultation across large multijurisdictional river basins is achievable, but more comprehensive participation is not necessarily possible.     

Phylogeography of the pipefish, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Urocampus carinirostris</Emphasis>, suggests secondary intergradation of ancient lineages

We assayed the pattern of mitochondrial DNA evolution in the live bearing, seagrass specialist pipefish, Urocampus carinirostris, in eastern Australia. These life history attributes were predicted to result in strong phylogeographic structure in U. carinirostris. Phylogenetic analysis of cytochrome b sequences detected two monophyletic mtDNA clades that differed by 8.69% sequence divergence - a large level of intraspecific divergence for a marine fish. The geographical distribution of clades was non-random and resembled clinal secondary intergradation over a 130-km stretch of coastline. Contrary to phylogeographic predictions, this large phylogeographic break does not occur across a traditionally recognised biogeographic boundary. Analyses of historical demography suggested that individuals belonging to the most widespread clade underwent a population expansion from a small refuge population during the Pleistocene.     

Differences in rural landscape perceptions and preferences between farmers and naturalists

A long history of human–nature interactions mediated by agriculture, resulted in high biodiversity in Japanese rural landscapes. This diversity faces drastic decline due to the changes following the socioeconomic circumstances regarding agriculture. Rural conservation will require cooperation among major stakeholders, and knowing how preferences for and perceptions of rural landscapes differ among them can help crafting and implementing effective conservation measures. This study investigated how perceptions of rural landscapes in the Arai-Keinan region, Niigata, Japan differ among people having very different relationships to them. In a photograph-based semantic differential survey, farmers and naturalists, major stakeholders in rural conservation, rated both rice paddy and woodland landscapes. In determining preferences for rice paddy landscapes, perceptions of stewardship and openness were significantly more important for farmers, whereas those of naturalness and biodiversity were significantly more important for naturalists. Such group differences were not found for woodland landscapes. Analysis of perceptions for landscape changes suggested that farmers may have higher normative criteria for rural landscapes than naturalists. Group preferences for intensified rice paddies on sloped topography may conflict, and any rural conservation planning effort should carefully consider that farmers and naturalists consider different aspects of landscapes as important.