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     

Quantifying the human contribution to losses in the chemical industry

Accidents in the chemical industry may have serious effects on the well-being of a number of people, whether in terms of life or limb or in economic terms. Evidence supports the view that the human element may make a significant contribution to such losses but no attempts have been made to clarify the potential involvement of such factors in process safety. Thus no current risk assessment technique attempts to take into account the entire range of human factors which may influence losses. The development of a preliminary technique for this purpose is described, and its future development and potential applications discussed.     

Airborne and surface residues of permethrin after high- and low-volume applications in greenhouses

Thermal pulse, jet, mechanical aerosol and conventional hydraulic sprays containing permethrin were made in commercial greenhouses. Greenhouse air was sampled for permethrin residues after application, and permethrin deposition on glass plates was measured for each application method. Highest airborne residues were found after thermal pulse-jet applications, and lowest after hydraulic sprays. Most airborne residues were detected within 4 hr of application. Surface residues were highest after hydraulic and mechanical aerosol applications. Thermal pulse-jet applications resulted in low surface residues.     

Role of exogenous and endogenous silicon in ameliorating behavioural responses to aluminium in a freshwater snail

Aluminium accumulation by the freshwater snail Lymnaea stagnalis is correlated with behavioural depression which is ameliorated by addition of orthosilicic acid. We hypothesised that Si is relocated to the digestive gland in response to Al, leading to the formation of non-toxic hydroxyaluminosilicates (HAS). Exposure to 500 microg l(-1) Al for 30 days was associated with an initial period of behavioural depression, followed by apparent tolerance and subsequent depression, suggesting saturation of the cellular detoxification pathway during prolonged exposure. Exogenous Si (7.77 mg l(-1)) completely ameliorated all behavioural effects of Al but did not prevent its accumulation. In the presence of added Al, significantly more of this Si was accumulated by the tissues, compared to controls and snails exposed to Si alone. In snails exposed to Al plus Si, Al and Si concentrations were significantly correlated, with a ratio around 3:1 Al:Si, consistent with the presence of the non-toxic HAS protoimogolite.     

Use of lignin degrading fungi in bioremediation

The use of lignin degrading fungi for decomposition of a wide variety of xenobiotics has become an area of intensive research. One distinct advantage of lignin degrading fungi over bacteria is that they do not require preconditioning to a particular pollutant prior to transformation. This degradative ability has been attributed to a nonspecific and nonstereoselective extracellular lignin-degrading enzymatic system (ligninase) which is induced by the fungi under nitrogen or carbon-limiting conditions (Reid, 1979). Ligninases (lignin-peroxidases) are responsible for the initial oxidative attack on lignin and other complex molecules via formation of a free radical thereby leading to depolymerization of complex molecular structures. Potential degradative ability of peroxidases may extend to include (1) sorbed contaminants, (2) high molecular-weight, hydrophobic contaminants, and (3) complex mixtures of chemicals typical of a contaminated site.     

Issues and challenges for forest-based carbon-offset projects: A case study of the Noel Kempff climate action project in Bolivia

The Noel Kempff Climate Action Project in Bolivia, nowin its third year, is breaking ground to establishcredible and verifiable methods to quantify greenhousegas (GHG) benefits of land-use change and forestry (LUCF)projects. Developed under the United Nations FrameworkConvention Climate Change (FCCC) Activities ImplementedJointly pilot phase, the project conserves naturalforests that would otherwise have been subjected tocontinued logging and future agricultural conversion.Carbon (C) monitoring began with a C inventory of theproject area in 1997. The total amount of C in theproject area was 118 Tg (Tg = 10¹²g) ± 4%(95% confidence interval). Periodic monitoring ofrelevant C pools (occurring in 1999 and every 5 yrthereafter) occurs over the 30-year life of theproject to establish the difference between thewith-project and projected without-project scenarios. Permanent sample plots were established both insidethe project area to monitor changes in C pools overtime and in a proxy logging concession near theproject area to determine changes in C pools inforests that have been impacted by logging. Ground-based monitoring is complemented by datacollection on forest industry trends and land-usechange patterns. Remote sensing was used to developa vegetation stratification map of the area, and workis ongoing to investigate the potential application ofdual-camera aerial videography to improve theefficiency of monitoring over time.     

Augmenting Small Populations of Plovers: An Assessment of Cross-Fostering and Captive-Rearing

This study compared the growth and behavioral development of parent-reared, cross-fostered, and captive-reared Killdeer ( Charadrius vociferus ) chicks. Common species were used to test these techniques for possible application to rare endangered forms. Parent-reared chicks were raised naturally in the wild, cross-fostered chicks were raised by Spotted Sandpipers ( Actitis macularia ) in the wild, and captive-reared chicks were raised in captivity by humans. Both hatching and fledging success were significantly increased by captive-rearing, and cross-fostering produced approximately the same number of fledged young as natural parent-rearing. Captive-reared Killdeer chicks spent more time resting and less time feeding and stayed closer to siblings than cross-fostered or parent-reared chicks; these behavioral differences were not seen after release to the wild. Growth rates among the three groups were similar. All of the young Killdeer responded to Killdeer alarm calls. There was no evidence that captive-reared and cross-fostered Killdeer were negatively affected by their early experiences. Captive-rearing is a viable management technique for augmenting small populations of endangered shorebirds, such as the Piping Plover ( Charadrius melodus ). It is recommended over cross-fostering because captive-rearing is more flexible as a technique, produces more young, does not affect another species, and does not produce potential imprinting problems.