European trade of forest products in the presence of EU policy

Increasing the share of renewable energy is of principal concern for the EU energy policy. A number of policies have been adopted, and, in part, been implemented by the EU member countries. An increasing share of renewable energy implies an increasing utilisation of biofuels in general and of forest-based biomass in particular. However, in the EU, the endowment and uses of forest-base biomass are diverse suggesting that an increasing trade would become necessary in order to cost effectively increase the utilisation of forest-based biomass. The purpose of this study is to, in the presence of EU energy policy, quantify and analyse possible trade levels for forest fuels in the EU. Particularly, the consequences on trade after implementing the White Paper and the RES-E Directive are analysed. Investigating the European trade in forest fuels is important for understanding how industry sectors in the EU will be affected by the policies. The results suggest that the implementation of the White Paper and the RES-E Directive will increase the trade in forest fuels, resulting in total trade increases of up to 67 percent. Furthermore, the national net trading levels are possible to derive. Depending on policy implementation the results differ – a country that was net importing given the White Paper implementation can instead be net exporting when applying the RES-E Directive. The fact that the policy implementations will increase the trade may mitigate potential industry problems to secure the needed inputs. On the other hand, the integration of countries increases the possibility for some industries to increase their production even more, possibly strengthening any input scarcity problems. It is therefore not possible to generally conclude if a more integrated European forest fuel market, and hence an increased European forest fuel trade, will mitigate industry problems to secure their needed inputs or not.     

Quantifying species recovery and conservation success to develop an IUCN Green List of Species

Stopping declines in biodiversity is critically important, but it is only a first step toward achieving more ambitious conservation goals. The absence of an objective and practical definition of species recovery that is applicable across taxonomic groups leads to inconsistent targets in recovery plans and frustrates reporting and maximization of conservation impact. We devised a framework for comprehensively assessing species recovery and conservation success. We propose a definition of a fully recovered species that emphasizes viability, ecological functionality, and representation; and use counterfactual approaches to quantify degree of recovery. This allowed us to calculate a set of 4 conservation metrics that demonstrate impacts of conservation efforts to date (conservation legacy); identify dependence of a species on conservation actions (conservation dependence); quantify expected gains resulting from conservation action in the medium term (conservation gain); and specify requirements to achieve maximum plausible recovery over the long term (recovery potential). These metrics can incentivize the establishment and achievement of ambitious conservation targets. We illustrate their use by applying the framework to a vertebrate, an invertebrate, and a woody and an herbaceous plant. Our approach is a preliminary framework for an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Green List of Species, which was mandated by a resolution of IUCN members in 2012. Although there are several challenges in applying our proposed framework to a wide range of species, we believe its further development, implementation, and integration with the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species will help catalyze a positive and ambitious vision for conservation that will drive sustained conservation action.     

Challenges,strategies and opportunities for wind farm incorporated power systems: a review with bibliographic coupling analysis

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Wind power is a rapidly developing energy source. Many nations use wind power to meet a considerable amount of their energy needs. Moreover, the...     

Germination,root elongation,and photosynthetic performance of plants exposed to sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES): an emerging contaminant

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The anionic surfactant SLES (sodium lauryl ether sulfate) is an emerging contaminant, being the main component of foaming agents that are increasingly...