Institutionalizing sustainability: an empirical study of corporate registration and commitment to the United Nations global compact guidelines

Drawing upon institutional and stakeholder theories, we explore the ‘causal’ mechanisms of institutionalization and their influence on Sustainable Development initiatives. To test our arguments, we study the registration patterns of 394 large corporations from 12 Western European and Latin American countries into the United Nations Global Compact. Results indicate that the normative and mimetic mechanisms of institutionalization (i.e., academe and peer influence) are better indicators of Sustainable Development initiatives than the coercive one (i.e., government regulation). The implications of these findings are consequential if SD practices continue as an ethical choice, and not a mandated obligation, for corporate decision makers.     

Two-stage estimation of ungulate abundance in Mediterranean areas using pellet group count

A design-based strategy for estimating wildlife ungulate abundance in a Mediterranean protected area (Maremma Regional Park) is considered. The estimation is based on pellet group count (clearance count technique) in a set of plots, whose size and number is established on the basis of practical considerations and available resources. The sampling scheme involves a preliminary stratification and subsequent two-stage sampling. In the first stage, large strata (defined through habitat features) are partitioned into spatial units and a sample of units is selected by means of a sampling scheme ensuring inclusion probabilities proportional to unit size, but avoiding the selection of contiguous units. Then, the abundances of the selected units are estimated in a second stage, in which plots are located using a random scheme ensuring an even coverage of the units. In small strata, only the second stage is performed. Unbiased estimators of abundance and conservative estimators of their variances are derived for each strata and for the whole study area. The proposed strategy has been applied since the Summer of 2006 and the estimation results reveal substantial improvement with respect to the previous results obtained by means of an alternative strategy.     

The changing state of contamination in the Lagoon of Venice. Part 2: heavy metals

In order to verify whether pollution is increasing or decreasing, in 25 locations uniformly distributed in the central part of the Lagoon of Venice, a transitional environment suffering from man's urban and industrial activities, the same sampling scheme was repeated three times (in 1987, 1993 and 1998) over a 12-year period during which the lagoonal environment underwent substantial changes. Superficial sediments were sampled and analysed for heavy metals and total organic carbon contents, grain size and density. In general heavy metal contents were found to be correlated, with concentrations above the background level, e.g., for Hg, a concentration factor of 24 was observed in 1987. A temporal decrease in concentrations was observed for most of the metals. Detailed analysis on a smaller spatial scale showed that contamination significantly decreases from the inner border of the lagoon seawards, as highlighted in contour maps. The role of the Porto Marghera industrial zone as a source of pollutants at the border of the Lagoon was confirmed. The decrease in contamination could not be attributed only to a decrease in the intensity of sources, but also to erosion processes, worsened by intensive harvesting of clams with hydraulic dredges.     

Integrated biomonitoring assessment of the Lesina Lagoon (Southern Adriatic Coast, Italy): preliminary results

An integrated biomonitoring program for marine and coastal ecosystems quality assessment combines the chemical characterization of a site with the evaluation of the possible structure alterations of its living communities. This can be considered an useful tool for better identifying the summarized effects of all the components interacting with the biota. Such an integrated procedure was carried out for the assessment of the quality of the Lesina Lagoon (Southern Adriatic Coast, Italy). The water parameters levels showed a high primary production (2-6 μg l^-1); the sediment and pore water toxicity bioassays recorded a low or moderate diffused toxicity. Besides, the benthic meiofauna community structure was characterized by prevalent Nematoda taxa with a homogeneous spatial distribution. On these basis, the Lesina Lagoon seems to be characterized by a prevalent organic pollution mainly related to agricultural and zootechnical activities which, due to the lagoon's conformation, presents a homogeneous spatial distribution.     

CORINE land cover and floristic variation in a Mediterranean wetland

The aims of the present study were to: (1) investigate whether CORINE land cover classes reflect significant differences in floristic composition, using a very detailed CORINE land cover map (scale 1:5000); (2) decompose the relationships between floristic assemblages and three groups of explanatory variables (CORINE land cover classes, environmental characteristics and spatial structure) into unique and interactive components. Stratified sampling was used to select a set of 100-m(2) plots in each land cover class identified in the semi-natural wetland surrounding a lake in central Italy. The following six classes were considered: stable meadows, deciduous oak dominated woods, hygrophilous broadleaf dominated woods, heaths and shrublands, inland swamps, canals or watercourses. The relationship between land cover classes and floristic composition was tested using several statistical techniques in order to determine whether the results remained consistent with different procedures. The variation partitioning approach was applied to identify the relative importance of three groups of explanatory variables in relation to floristic variation. The most important predictor was land cover, which explained 20.7% of the variation in plant distribution, although the hypothesis that each land cover class could be associated with a particular floristic pattern was not verified. Multi Response Permutation Analysis did not indicate a strong floristic separability between land cover classes and only 9.5% of species showed a significant indicator value for a specific land cover class. We suggest that land cover classes linked with hygrophilous and herbaceous communities in a wetland may have floristic patterns that vary with fine scale and are not compatible with a land cover map.     

Variance decomposition in two-stage plot sampling: theoretical and empirical results

The statistical properties of two-stage plot sampling estimators of abundance are considered. In the first stage, some spatial units are selected over the whole study area according to a suitable sampling design, while in the second stage, the selected units are surveyed with floating plot sampling to estimate the abundance within. Some insights into the accuracy of the resulting estimators are obtained by splitting the sample variance into the first and second-stage components, while performance is empirically checked by means of a simulation study. Simulation results show that, in most situations, a relevant amount of the overall variance is due to the second stage sampling.     

Design-based spatial interpolation with data driven selection of the smoothing parameter

Environmental and Ecological Statistics - In the inverse distance weighting interpolation the interpolated, value is a weighted mean of the sampled values, with weights decreasing with the...