The environmental dimension to security issues

Summary Citing topical international instances the author demonstrates that environmental impoverishment is a major cause for tension and hostilities between nations. He makes a strong case that an assessment of security concepts should include a measure of environmental and resource-based stability.Few threats to peace and survival of the human community are greater than those posed by the prospects of cumulative and irreversible degradation of the biosphere on which human life depends. In a global context, true security cannot be achieved by mounting buildup of weapons (defense in a narrow sense), but only by providing basic conditions for solving non-military problems which threaten them. Our survival depends not only on military balance, but on global cooperation to ensure a sustainable biological environment.Report of the Brandt Commission, 1980Dr Norman Myers is a consultant in environment and development. He is a prolific author and served as the General Editor toThe GaiaAtlas of Planet Management (1985). In 1983, Dr Myers was awarded the World Wildlife Fund Gold Medal for his work on conservation.     

The biodiversity crisis and the future of evolution

A large proportion of existing species — possibly half, conceivably even more — may be lost within the foreseeable future. But this may not prove to be the most consequential outcome of the current biodiversity crisis. More significant could be the disruption and degradation of several basic processes of evolution. It appears likely that for mass extinction episodes (MEEs) in the geological past, the recovery period usually lasted at least five million years. Because of certain unique features of the present MEE — notably the near elimination of biomes such as tropical forests, wetlands and coral reefs, which have served as powerhouses of evolution in the past — the bounce-back phase could extend several times longer than five million years. Among distinctive features of future evolution could be; in the short term, homogenization of biotas, a proliferation of opportunistic species, an outburst of speciation among particular taxa, and a pest-and-weed ecology; and, in the long term, a decline of biodisparity, the elimination of megavertebrates, an end to speciation among large vertebrates, and multiple constraints on origination, innovation and adaptive radiation. These disruptive phenomena would rank among the most prominent departures in the entire course of evolution. Full knowledge and understanding of what may characterize future evolution remains largely a black hole of research. As a consequence, conservation policies fail to reflect a further problem of the biodiversity prospect, perhaps exceeding the better recognized problem of the mass extinction of species.Professor Norman Myers is an Editorial Board member and regular contributor toThe Environmentalist. He is an Honorary Visiting Fellow at Green College, Oxford. This paper is a greatly expanded version of a preliminary probing in a popular magazine a decade ago (Myers, 1985). It has been prompted by a major international conference organized by the US National Academy of Sciences, scheduled for late 1996.     

The biodiversity challenge: Expanded hot-spots analysis

Summary This paper aims to throw light on the mass extinction that is overtaking Earth's species. Using an analytic methodology developed for an earlier partial assessment, it focuses on a series of hot-spot areas, these being areas that (a) feature exceptional concentrations of species with high levels of endemism, and (b) face exceptional threats of destruction. The paper identifies another eight such areas, four of them in tropical forests and four in Mediterranean-type zones. The analysis reveals that the four tropical-forest areas contain at least 2,835 endemic plant species in 18,700 km², or 1.1 percent of Earth's plant species in 0.013 percent of Earth's land surface; and that the four Mediterranean-type areas contain 12,720 endemic plan: species in 435,700 km², or 5.1 percent of Earth's plant species in 0.3 percent of the Earth's land surface. Taken together, these eight hot-spot areas contain 15,555 endemic plant species in 454,400 km², or 6.2 percent of Earth's plant species in 0.3 percent of Earth's land surface. This is to be compared with the earlier hot-spots analysis of 10 tropical-forest areas, with 34,400 endemic plant species in 292,000 km², or 13.8 percent of Earth's plant species in 0.2 percent of Earth's land surface.Taking all 18 hot-spot areas together, we find they support 49,955 endemic plant species, or 20 percent of Earth's plant species, in 746,400 km², or 0.5 percent of Earth's land surface. This means that one fifth of Earth's plant species are confined to half of one percent of the Earth's land surface — and they occur in habitats that are mostly threatened with imminent destruction.By concentrating on these hot-spot areas where needs are greatest and where the pay-off from safeguard measures would be greatest, conservationists can engage in a more systematised response to the challenge of large scale impending extinctions.Dr Norman Myers is a consultant in environment and development, a member of this journal's Advisory Board, and a regular contributor to the journal. He is a Senior Fellow of World Wildlife Fund — US. This paper enlarges on an important theme developed by Dr Myers in a contribution which appeared inThe Environmentalist,8(3), 187–208. The research for this paper has been supported by the MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, USA.     

Threatened biotas: "Hot spots" in tropical forests

Summary The mass-extinction episode underway is largely centred on tropical forests, insofar as they contain at least half of all Earth's species and they are being depleted faster than any other biome. But species distributions and depletion patterns are anything but uniform throughout the biome. This paper identifies 10 areas that, a) are characterised by exceptional concentrations of species with high levels of endemism and b) are experiencing unusually rapid rates of depletion. While these "hotspot" areas comprise less than 3.5 percent of remaining primary forests, they harbour over 34 000 endemic plant species (27 percent of all plant species in tropical forests and 13 percent of all plant species worldwide). They also feature 700 000 endemic animal species and possibly several times more. Unfortunately, they appear likely to lose 90 percent of their forest cover as soon as the end of the century or shortly thereafter, causing the extinction of almost 7 percent of Earth's plant species and at least a similar proportion of animal species, this occurring in only 0.2 percent of Earth's land surface. By concentrating on such areas where needs are greatestand where the pay-off from safeguard measures would also be greatest, conservationists can engage in a more systematised response to the challenge of largescale extinctions impending in tropical forests.Professor Norman Myers is a consultant in environment and development. He is author of many important environmental books, an Advisory Board Member, and a regular contributor toThe Environmentalist.     

The first world conservation lecture

Summary This, The First World Conservation Lecture, was presented at the Royal Institution, London, UK, on 12 March 1981. The Lecture celebrated the 20th anniversary of the World Wildlife Fund, and the first anniversary of the World Conservation Strategy. The Lecture was organized by the World Wildlife Fund, UK.Published with the kind permission of the World Wildlife Fund, UK.Edward Max Nicholson, CB, CVO, Commandeur (Netherlands), Order of the Golden Ark, holds honorary doctorates from the University of Aberdeen, and The Royal College of Art London. He was educated at the University of Oxford, and was a member of the University's expeditions to Greenland (1928) and to British Guiana (1929). He was General Secretary (until 1940), later Chairman of PEP (Political and Economic Planning): now Vice-President of its successor body, the Policy Studies Institute. From 1945 to 1952 he was Secretary of the Office of the Lord President of the Council, then Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He was member of the Advisory Council on Scientific Policy from 1948–1964. In 1952 he was leader of the joint UN/FAO Development Team in Baluchistan. Charter Member from 1949, and Director-General (1952–1966) of the Nature Conservancy, London, UK. From 1963 to 1974 he was Convenor of the Conservation Section of the International Council of Scientific Unions' International Biological Programme. President of the IUCN Technical Meeting in Edinburgh in 1956, concerned with rehabilitation of areas biologically devastated by human disturbance, and relation of ecology to landscape planning. Member, Panel on Landscape Action Program, The White House Conference (USA) on Natural Beauty (1965). Secretary, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh's Study Conference on The Countryside in 1970 (1963 and 1965). Council and Board Member of IIED. Godman-Salvin Medallist British Ornithologist Unions. Phillips Medallist and Member of Honour IUCN, Geoffroy St. Hilaire Gold Medal, Société Nationale de Protection de Nature de France, Premio Europeo Cortina-Ulisse (1971), Europa Preis für Landespflege (1972), Hon Member of World Wildlife Fund, Chairman Ecological Parks Trust, President RSPB, 1980. Principal Consultant and Chairman of Land Use Consultants Ltd (London) since 1966. Author of many books,Birds and Men (1951);Britain's Nature Reserves (1958),The System (1967);The Environmental Revolution (1970).     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: Individual On-site Wastewater Systems, Nina I. McClelland (Editor). Proceedings of the Fifth National Conference 1978. Ann Arbor Science, Ann Arbor, Michigan. 1979. 303 pages. $24.50. Modeling of Rivers, Hsieh Wen Shen (Editor). John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Somerset, New Jersey. 1977. $39.95. The Hudson River Basin: Environmental Problems and Institutional Response, Volume I, Kalpli W. Richardson, Jr. and Gilbert Tauber (Editors). Academic Press, New York, New York. 1070. $1’).SO. Fish and Invertebrate Culture, Water Management in Closed Systems (2nd ed.), Stephen Spotte. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Somerset, New Jersey. $1 3.95. Seepage, Drainage, and Flow Nets (2nd ed.), Harry R. Cedergren. Wdey-Interscience Publication, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Somerset, New Jersey. 1977. 534 pages. Water: Will There Be Enough?, compiled by Marian Smith; Robin Murphy (Editor), Water Foundation, Santa Barbara, California. 1979. 110 pages. $6.00 softbound, $12.95 clothbound. The NALCO Water Handbook, NALCO Chemical Company, Frank N. Kemmer and John McCallion (Editors). McGrawHill Book Co., New York, New York. 1979. 799 pages. 607 illustrations. $28.50. Porous Media, Fluid Transport, and Pore Structure, F. A. L. Dullien. Academic Press, New York, New York. 1979. $42.00. Project Data, Water and Power Resources Service, US. Department of the Interior. 1981. 1,461 pages. $21.00.     

The moist tropical forest: Its conversion and protection

Summary Though strong concern over the rapid conversion of moist tropical forests may justifiably arise from any discipline, a growing interdisciplinary tide of voices is expressing its alarm over a particularly disturbing consequence of forest alteration and destruction: the reduction of species diversity through the extinction of numerous plant and animal species. Consequently, an array of ecologists land-use planners, botanists, zoologists and conservationsts are searching for means to enhance the protection and preservation of tropical forests' biotic diversity. Management schemes aimed at achieving this particular end are being investigated, particularly by UNESCO's Man and Biosphere (MAB) Project 8 of Biosphere Reserves Projects, by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) tropical forests conservation program (UNEP, 1980) and by the World Wildlife Fund. In addition, many countries with a significant area of moist tropical forest (MTF) are beginning to pursue some form of conservation strategy. Currently Robert T. Perry is a full-time teacher of biology at a private school for a cademically gifted students in the Brooklyn area. In addition he has designed and is teaching courses in environmental chemistry and ethology to advanced high-schoolers. He is also an adjunct instructor for the City College of the City University of New York, where he is teaching graduate students in the Environmental Studies Programme. He graduated in Environmental Conservation from Cornell University, and has a Masters Degree in Environmental Biology from City University, New York.     

Transnational environmental problems — The United States,Canada, Mexico

Summary The paper examines the problems associated with transboundary environmental pollution. While briefly recording the efforts of international organizations in this area, the main content of the paper is concerned with an analysis of problems arising between the United States and Mexico, and between the United States and Canada. The paper also discusses new organizational forms that have been developed to bring transboundary issues to a higher policy-making level.Professor Wilcher entered the academic profession after a career in government service. He holds Masters Degrees from West Virginia University and the University of Pittsburgh and a Doctoral Degree from West Virginia University. He is currently Assistant Professor of Political Science at The Pennsylvania State University, New Kensington Campus. He is the author ofEnvironmental Cooperation in the North Atlantic Area published by the University Press of America.     

Environmental education in third world schools: Rhetoric or realism?

Summary Approaches to teaching about environmental concerns that have been successful either in Western schools or in non-formal Third World projects are unlikely to be effectively implemented in Third World schools. The perceptions of schooling in the Third World, together with the economic, political and social context in which it is conducted, present constraints that are very different. Unless these constraints are recognized, attempted reforms by environmental educators will, at best, remain only at the rhetorical level and, at worst, prove counter-productive. The paper discusses three broad categories of constraint: arising from the socio-political context of schooling, the educational system itself, and issues concerning school-village transfer. The argument is illustrated by reference to research in developing countries on similar educational reforms, such as community schooling, and with examples from the author's research in Papua New Guinea. The paper concludes with some positive lessons for those wishing to see a concern for environmental issues pervade the curriculum of schools in the Third World. The danger of making such reforms over-ambitious is stressed. To be successful, such work must be given high status in the eyes of students and teachers and examination reforms should be introduced to reinforce this.Dr Graham Vulliamy lectures in Sociology in the Department of Education at the University of York. Following field research trips to Papua New Guinea in 1979–1980, 1982 and 1986, he has a special interest in the implementation of educational reforms in developing countries. He is an executive editor of theBritish Journal of Sociology of Education and of theInternational Journal of Educational Development.     

Impact of selective herbicide right-of-way vegetation treatment on birds

Power line rights-of-way provide a major portion of the shrub habitat in New York. Since this habitat type is on the decline, many of the birds dependent on shrub habitat are also declining. The methods used to control right-of-way vegetation could therefore have serious impacts on several birds of conservation concern. Since New York is increasingly using selective herbicide treatments in vegetation management, we sought to investigate the potential impacts of these treatments on nesting birds. The study looked at plots in two adjacent rights-of-way before and after a selective herbicide treatment in one of the rights-of-way. We investigated three bird species: alder flycatcher (Empidonax alnorum), chestnut-sided warbler (Dendroica pensylvanica), and gray catbird (Dumetella carolinensis). All three species exhibited a preference for shrub vegetation around nest sites. The selective herbicide treatment did not significantly decrease that shrub vegetation, and neither the density nor the nesting success of the three species declined following the treatment. We conclude that selective herbicide vegetation management encourages the development of shrub habitat without negatively impacting the birds nesting in the habitat.     

Book reviews

Cost Benefit Analysis of Environmental Change

Per‐Olov Johansson

Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993, 232 pp., £13.95

Computerised Environmental Modelling: A Practical Introduction using Excel

J. Hardisty, D. M. Taylor & S. E. Metcalfe

Chichester, Wiley, 1993, 204 pp., £14.95

Keeping Pace with Science and Engineering: Case Studies in Environmental Regulation

Washington DC, US National Academy of Engineering, 1993

World Without End: Economics, Environment and Sustainable Development

D. W. Pearce & J. J. Warford

Oxford University Press, New York, 1993, 440 pp., £35.95     

Reviews

DESIGN ON THE LAND: the development of Landscape Architecture Norman T. Newton Belknap Harvard

COMMUNITY CENTERS AND STUDENT UNIONS Eugene D. Sternberg and Barbara E. Sternberg Van Hostrand Reinhold Company, New York.

DECISION AND CONTROL by Stafford Beer, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 1966 (3rd printing, 1970)

INDUSTRIAL DYNAMICS by Jay W. Forrester, M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1961. S.1O.5O.

PRINCIPLES OF SYSTEMS by Jay W. Forrester. Wright‐Allen Press, Inc., Cambridge, Mass., 1968.

PUBLIC INQUIRIES AS AN INSTRUMENT OF GOVERNMENT R.E. Wraith and G.B. Lamb George Allen & Unwin Ltd. for the Royal Institute of Public Administration, London 1971, £4.50.

SYSTEMS APPROACH AND THE CITY M.D. Mesarovic and A. Reisman (eds.) North‐Holland Publishing Co., Amsterdam and London, 1972.

SIMULATION IN THE CLASSROOM John L. Taylor and Rex Walford Penguin Books, London, 1972. 45p.

DEVELOPMENT BUILDING: THE TEAM APPROACH C.W. Griffin John Wiley & Sons, Inc. for the American Institute of Architects, New York, 1972.     

Structure and function of environmental programmes

Summary In this article, the need for integrated curricula in environmental science/studies programmes is reviewed. The required competencies/outcomes for understanding and solution of environmental problems, the requirement for interdisciplinarity and incorporation of innovative skills/methods into environmental curricula, examples of ways to integrate curricula, teaching methodologies and their rationales, impacts of environmental programmes, and academic support for programmes, are also examined in this context.Dr John Lemons is Professor of Biology and Environmental Science, and Chairperson of the Department of Life Sciences at the University of New England. He is also Editor-in-Chief ofThe Environmental Professional, the official journal of the National Association for Environmental Professionals.     

The politics of preserving natural areas in Third World States

Summary Any attempts to preserve Third World ecosystems must recognize that the ultimate decisions lie with the governments of these sovereign states, which have to deal with widespread demands for higher living standards as well as growing populations. To deal with the powerful pressures of economic growth, the most promising strategy for conservationists is to press the Western industrialized states, where the conservation movement is relatively strong, to join with the Third World in an international agreement whereby the latter would preserve portions of threatened ecosystems in exchange for compensation provided from the industralized countries, most plausibly through an agreement to reduce Third World countries' debt. To reinforce this protection, the industrialized states could agree to purchase tropical ecosystem products only from those states which agree to preserve certain portions of their ecosystems. While there would be great problems both in working out the levels of compensation and in persuading the industrialized states to participate in such a scheme, intensive lobbying by conservation groups might be enough to bring it to fruition.Dr. John Cartwright, who teaches courses in environmental politics and African politics at the University of Western Ontario, took degrees from Queen's University in Kingston, Canada, and the University of Toronto. From 1963 to 1966 he taught at the University of Sierra Leone in Freetown. He has produced three books on African politics, his most recent beingPolitical Leadership in Africa (1983). He has also been interested for many years in natural history and conservation issues, which have taken him on several visits to Latin America as well as to Africa.     

Planning for environmental project implementation and development: as exemplified by the songklha lake basin planning study,Thailand

Summary This paper describes use of the economic-cumenvironmental regional development planning process (as differentiated from regional economic planning and regional environmental planning) for its first application in the Asia-Pacific region, for The Songkhla Lake Basin Planning Study, in southern Thailand. The study project was carried out, with Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan financing, as a joint venture of the national economic and national environmental planning agencies. Because of its pioneering nature, in both technical and institutional aspects, numerous lessons were learned from the project. These are described, and yield guidelines valuable for future studies of this type.Dr Harvey F. Ludwig, Chairman of Seatec International Consulting Engineers in Bangkok, has a unique record of distinguished experience in environmental engineering. This includes, in addition to his present role, experience as a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, in research (four USA national awards), in government (as Assistant Chief Engineer of the US Public Health Service Engineering Group, the predecessor to USEPA), and with numerous international assistance agencies including the World Bank, ADB, and many UN affiliates. Dr Ludwig moved to live in Bangkok in 1973 and has since been a continuing adviser to the National Environment Board of Thailand and to the Institutes of Water Resources Research of Indonesia. He is the author/coauthor of some 160 professional publications and the senior author of a textbook onEnvironmental Technology in Developing Countries, now being printed by CRC Press of Boca Raton, Florida. His work record includes projects in more than 30 Developing countries.     

Ecological effects of the frog's legs trade

Summary The author reviews the trade in frogs from India, conducted to provide a culinary delicacy in frogs' legs for the West. Excessive harvesting of frogs upsets the ecological balance in their natural habitats and increases the need for extensive use of insecticides, with consequent additions to both pollution and costs.Dr G.M. Oza is Reader in Botany in the Faculty of Science at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. He is also General Secretary of the International (formerly Indian) Society of Naturalists (INSONA), and Founding Editor ofEnvironmental Awareness. He serves as a Member of the Commission on Ecology and the Commission on Education and Training of IUCN — the World Conservation Union. This paper was first submitted for publication in 1986.     

Environmental quality management in the united states in the 1980s and beyond: An appraisal

Summary This paper presents an overview of: (1) the institutional context of the environmental pollution sector of environmental quality management; (2) accomplishments and problems in some representative subsectors; and (3) prospects. The author describes levels of government within the US federal system and lists types of organizational structures, explains the division of responsibilities for managing environmental quality among legislative bodies/executive agencies, state and federal courts, and state public utility commission, and notes the significant role of nongovernmental environmental groups. In order to assess both the past performance and present status of environmental quality management in the United States, Bower cites some specific and generic problems in such subsectors as water quality, soil erosion, air quality, and hazardous wastes. He goes on to characterize recent approaches and their results using these observations as a basis for an appraisal of future prospects in the context of intermedia impacts and multiple modes of impact on various species. Remarks prepared for presentation at theColloque International, Les Politiques de l'Environnement Face à la Crise, Paris, 10–12 January, 1984. Blair T. Bower, a Registered Civil Engineer, is a Consultant in Residence at Resources For the Future in Washington, DC. He has worked extensively in the US and abroad on environmental quality management with such international organizations as the UN, WHO, OAS, and OECD. His current involvements include consultancies with the US National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration, Strategic Assessments Branch/Oceans Assessment Division; as Leader for Utilization of Coastal Water Problem Areas/Analyzing Biospheric Change Programme, International Federation of Institutes for Advances Study; and with the Office of Policy Analysis/US Environmental Protection Agency. An early supporter of integrated approaches to natural resource/environmental planning and management and to residuals disposal, Mr Bower is the author of many publications on a wide range of environmental topics and management options.     

Food Aid and the Famine Relief Argument (Brief Return)

Recent publications by Pogge (Global ethics: seminal essays. St. Paul: Paragon House 2008) and by Singer (The life you can save: acting now to end world poverty. New York: Random House 2009) have resuscitated a debate over the justifiability of famine relief between Singer and ecologist Garrett Hardin in the 1970s. Yet that debate concluded with a general recognition that (a) general considerations of development ethics presented more compelling ethical problems than famine relief; and (b) some form of development would be essential to avoiding the problems of growth noted by Hardin. Better than renewing the debate, we should recognize two points. First, food needs do indeed evoke a moral response that is more direct and compelling than the philosophical positions often generated to rationalize a duty to bring aid. As such the argument for feeding hungry people cannot be generalized into a paradigm for development ethics without distortions that undercut the morally valid elements in Singer’s original argument. Second, contrary to prevailing assumptions in present day development ethics, food aid and famine relief continue to be important priorities for international agencies, notably the World Food Program. Emergency food assistance, the nominal topic of Singer’s original article, thus is an important issue for agricultural as well as development ethics, though one that should indeed be seen as distinct from more complex duties to address the conditions of chronic poverty and underdevelopment.     

GLOBAL WATER ISSUES AND THE WORLD WATER COUNCIL1

ABSTRACT: The key events and the process that led to the creation of the World Water Council on World Water Day 1996 are reviewed and its characteristics summarized. The development of this new organization is discussed in the context of the major global trends in water and water-related issues, viz. growing water scarcity with its links to limits on food production and demographic patterns. In response to the need to find solutions to these pressing water issues, the development of a Technical Program based on the deliberations of the founding member organizations and a number of short-term activities have been outlined to demonstrate the evolution of the Council in this first year of its existence. Given the importance of complementarity between the Council and the Global Water Partnership, an attempt has been made to articulate the mutually-reinforcing roles of the two organizations.     

Desertification around Hirakud reservoir

Summary A comparative study of Survey of India topo-maps of 1929 and land satellite imageries in False Colour Combination (FCC) of 1975 indicates a loss of 43% and 46% of the reserved forest around Sambalpur and Jharsuguda respectively, besides other forest types in a radius of twenty miles. Deforestation is found to be an accelerating process where the rate of loss is estimated to be more during 1970–75 and 1960–70 in comparison to 1950–60 from a semilogarithmic trend curve between 1929 and 1975. This curve also fits to a hypothesis that the rate of deforestation is faster after 1950 (after developmental plan periods came into force). An analysis of the climatic data indicates a decrease in rainfall and number of rainy days, and morning relative humidity. The mean minimum and maximum temperature, evening relative humidity and atmospheric pressure show increasing trends. Relationships between forest loss and climatic parameters are significant for morning relative humidity, rainy days, maximum temperature and atmospheric pressure. Considering the loss of storage capacity of the Hirakud reservoir due to severe deforestation in the catchment area, suggestions are given for natural forest preservation. Arttabandhu Mishra graduated in Science (Zoology Honours) and Education from Utkal University; postgraduated from Berhampur University, India. At present he is a Lecturer in School of Life Sciences, Sambalpur University and Secretary of Orissa Environmental Consciousness Society. His fields of interests are Productivity and Energetics of Forest Ecosystems, Environmental Education and Community Education. He has published seven papers on the above fields and a number bf popular articles. He tries to use folk literature as media to carry scientific messages. Madhab C. Dash, obtained his B.Sc. (Hens), M.Sc. from Utkal University, India and Ph.D. from University of Calgary, Canada. At present he is Professor and Head, School of Life Sciences, Sambalpur University, a fellow of the Zoological Society of India, the National Institute of Ecology and the National Academy of Sciences, India. His major areas of research and writing are on the functional role of soil organisms in the decomposer subsystem of ecosystems, He has published seventy-five papers on taxonomy, biology, population ecology, metabolic functions, energy flow modelling, role in soft fertility and waste conditioning ability of Oligochaetes, nematodes, protozoa and soil microorganisms. Professor Dash has contributed specialised chapters in major treaties published by Cambridge University Press, UK; John Wiley and Sons, USA; and Academic Press, New York, USA.