Enhancing Conservation,Ecosystem Services,and Local Livelihoods through a Wildlife Premium Mechanism

We propose the wildlife premium mechanism as an innovation to conserve endangered large vertebrates. The performance‐based payment scheme would allow stakeholders in lower‐income countries to generate revenue by recovering and maintaining threatened fauna that can also serve as umbrella species (i.e., species whose protection benefits other species with which they co‐occur). There are 3 possible options for applying the premium: option 1, embed premiums in a carbon payment; option 2, link premiums to a related carbon payment, but as independent and legally separate transactions; option 3, link premiums to noncarbon payments for conserving ecosystem services (PES). Each option presents advantages, such as incentive payments to improve livelihoods of rural poor who reside in or near areas harboring umbrella species, and challenges, such as the establishment of a subnational carbon credit scheme. In Kenya, Peru, and Nepal pilot premium projects are now underway or being finalized that largely follow option 1. The Kasigau (Kenya) project is the first voluntary carbon credit project to win approval from the 2 leading groups sanctioning such protocols and has already sold carbon credits totaling over $1.2 million since June 2011. A portion of the earnings is divided among community landowners and projects that support community members and has added over 350 jobs to the local economy. All 3 projects involve extensive community management because they occur on lands where locals hold the title or have a long‐term lease from the government. The monitoring, reporting, and verification required to make premium payments credible to investors include transparent methods for collecting data on key indices by trained community members and verification of their reporting by a biologist. A wildlife premium readiness fund would enable expansion of pilot programs needed to test options beyond those presented here. Mejora de la Conservación, Servicios del Ecosistema y Calidad de Vida Local Mediante un Mecanismo de Compensación de Vida Silvestre     

Electrification of rural areas by solar PV

More than 2000 million people, mostly in developing countries, live in rural areas without access to grid connected power. Conventional approaches to supplying power, whether through extension of existing grids or through stand-alone 'minigrids' based on diesel generator sets, or even on renewable energy minigrids, require large investments which are unlikely to receive priority in competition with more economically and politically attractive investments in urban areas. Domestic PV lighting and broadcast reception kits (DLKs), comprising, typically, a 30–60 W panel, an automotive battery, a charge indicator, and dc fluorescent lamps can be furnished and installed for about $500. DLKs are now used in the Dominican Republic, Kenya, Sri Lanka and many other countries. DLKs provide a minimum essential service with low overheads. Given the necessary credit facilities, they can give better service at comparable costs in comparison with kerosene lamps and dry cell powered radios. They also permit a substantial degree of local manufacture, thus saving on foreign exchange. This movement is starting in many countries on a purely commercial basis. The process could be greatly accelerated if 'seed money' in the form of revolving funds could be made available.     

Rehabilitation of degraded tropical forest lands

Summary The area of tropical forest lands in high rainfall areas that is already degraded is great and growing rapidly. Rehabilitation of such lands is important so their biological productivity can support people and reduce pressures for degradation of additional tropical forest lands. While further knowledge and experience is needed, there is a sufficient basis for trial programs. The economic and social well-being is far better served by focusing on rehabilitation of degraded lands than by additional incursions into dwindling stocks of natural forest.This position paper emanated from a Workshop of the IUCN Commission on Ecology at the Forest Research Institute, Kepong, Selangor, Malaysia, 29–31 August 1983, supported by the United 0ations Environment Programme (UNEP). Its publication was made possible by the Independent Commission on International Humanitarian Issues (ICIHI) in the context of its work on deforestation.The following persons participated: Dr. Th. E. Lovejoy, Convenor, (USA), P. Ashton (USA), G. Baines (Solomon Islands), M. Bijleveld (Switzerland), J. M. Boyd (U.K.), E. F. Brunig (F.R.G.), Chin S. C. (Malaysia), J. Davidson (Australia), S. Davis (U.K.), F. Duhme (F.R.G.), Gong W. K. (Malyasia), M. Hadley (France), L. S. Hamilton (USA), E. Hegerl (Australia), M. Jenkins (U.K.), K. Kartawinata (Indonesia), K. M. Kochumen (Malaysia), Kuang B. C. (China), N. Kwapena (Papua New Guinea), N. Manokaran (Malaysia), Salleh M. N. (Malaysia), N. Sander (F.R.G.), A. Sasekumar (Indonesia), H. Skeat (Australia), W. Smits (Netherlands), Tho Y. P. (Malaysia), Wang M. H. (China), L. Webb (Australia), Wong K. M. (Malaysia), Yap S. K. (Malaysia), Zhu J. F. (China).     

Importance of heterotrophic planktonic communities in a mussel culture environment: the Grande Entrée lagoon,Magdalen Islands (Québec,Canada)

Mussel culture in coastal environments relies on the availability of food of sufficient quality and quantity. Both to determine this availability and to examine impacts that this aquaculture practice may have on the environment, it is important to have good knowledge of the type of plankton communities present in aquaculture sites. It is usually thought that phytoplankton make up the bulk of mussel diet in many of these sites. Here we show that the Grande-Entrée lagoon [Magdalen Islands, Gulf of St Lawrence (GSL), Canada], where commercial mussel culture has been on-going since 1980, differs from this pattern. Heterotrophic protists dominate for most of the summer-early fall season (apart from short diatom bursts), with a high average biomass of 160 mg C m⁻³. The dominance of small-sized phytoplankton cells (notably green algae), low nutrient concentrations (e.g. 0.3 μM NO₃⁻ on average) and high biomass of heterotrophic protists (mostly naked ciliates and tintinnids) all point to the importance of the microbial food web in this shallow marine environment. Sustained cultivation of suspended mussels in the lagoon suggests that these heterotrophic protists could be an important source of food for the mussels, supplementing the small amount of phytoplankton present.