Monitoring and information reporting for sustainable forest management: a regional comparison of forestry stakeholder perceptions

Since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) [1992, Agenda 21: programme of action for sustainable development. United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), 3-14 June 1992. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 294pp.], the management of information has become central to the management of forest resources. In the cases of North America and Europe, similar issues have been challenging policy makers as they determine the information suitable for monitoring progress towards sustainable forest management (SFM). Using an 'online' survey, this research explored multiple stakeholder perspectives on monitoring and information reporting for SFM in different jurisdictions. The research was based on the premise that an analysis of the variation in stakeholder observations across a range of SFM 'issue areas' could provide valuable insight into the perceived need for SFM-related monitoring and information reporting in the regions of Europe, Canada and the USA. Despite the traditional limitations associated with exploratory survey research, the results indicate a demand for more information on SFM-related issues. The results also highlight the degree to which the perceptions of a sample of stakeholders can differ between Europe, USA and Canada. While these results cannot be generalized beyond the present study, they do suggest that further studies are needed to understand stakeholder perspectives on forestry-related monitoring and information reporting in different jurisdictions.     

How robust is public support for unilateral climate policy?

Most governments emphasize the need for reciprocal (“give and take”) international commitments in global climate policy. Nonetheless, existing public opinion polls indicate strong support by individual citizens for unilateral climate policies as well. This raises the question of whether governments could, without risking electoral punishment, afford to pursue more ambitious unilateral climate policies, or whether surveys may have overestimated support for unilateralism due to measurement problems. Based on conjoint and framing experiments embedded in representative surveys in the world's two largest democracies, India and the United States, we engage in a critical re-assessment of earlier survey results. We find robust public support for unilateral climate policy in both countries. Such support declines with increasing costs and increases with growing co-benefits and problem solving effectiveness. We also find, however, that policy conditionality and possible institutional design mechanisms against free-riding by other states (which make the policy “less unilateral” by providing for reciprocation) play no significant role when citizens form their preferences with respect to climate policy. Neither is public support affected by whether policies focus on adaptation (which limits benefits to the investing country) or mitigation (which benefits all countries globally). Overall, these findings suggest that, in view of very slow progress in global climate policy, governments of rich and poor countries could politically afford to push ahead with more ambitious unilateral climate policies.     

Distribution of some trace metals and their fluxes in the Genesee River,NY

Total and particulate metal concentrations, measured during intensive synoptic studies of the Genesee River, NY, correlated with suspended-sediment concentration and river discharge. Dissolved metal concentrations, on the other hand, showed little systematic variation over the length of the river. Metal and sediment fluxes for two elevated-discharged periods peaked at a midbasin sampling site. For most metals at most sampling sties particulate materials comprised over one-half of the total material. Comparison of particulate material metal concentrations, normalized to the measured suspended-sediment concentrations had with basinwide average values shows that sites having low suspended-sediment concentrations had high particulate material metal contents relative to the basin averages, while sites with high suspended-sediment concentration had low metal contents. These results are consistent with a metal transport mechanism in the Genesee River involving (1) a nearly constant dissolved component, (2) a fine acid-soluble component, and (3) a coarse component that is effectively a neutral diluent in the sediment. Chemical factors, such as sediment organic content, also appear to affect metal transport in the Genesee River.     

建立省级环境与健康调查及风险评估体系研究思路——以江苏省探索实践为例

以环境与健康调查及风险评估研究为出发点,江苏省于2018年设立了"江苏省环境与健康调查与风险评估体系建设"环保科研重大技术攻关类项目,根据江苏省行业、地区、流域特点以及江苏省环境与健康调查及风险评估工作基础,结合国内环境与健康研究现状,深入开展典型行业、地区、流域环境与健康调查、环境与健康问题分析、环境健康风险评价,建设环境与健康重点实验室,探索并实践环境与健康理念融入环境保护管理的研究任务,为全面开展环境与健康监测业务化运行以及环境健康风险评估进行技术实践和储备,为江苏省环境与健康管理工作提供支撑。     

Safety,reliability and worker satisfaction during organizational change

The research presented in this paper was carried out in four process industry plants in the Netherlands, to identify factors that have the potential to increase safety and reliability while maintaining or improving job satisfaction. The data used were gathered as part of broader trajectories in these firms, aiming at the simultaneous improvement of productivity and safety, while maintaining or improving worker satisfaction. The results show that participative leadership is crucial for combining an increase in safety and reliability with job satisfaction. Participative leadership has a positive effect on job satisfaction and through proper maintenance also on the prevention and absence of disturbances and on the reliability of the production process. The results of this research show the importance of participative leadership for safety, reliability and worker satisfaction, especially during organizational change. Other important factors are operator competences, teamwork, proper handling of variance and disturbances, and proper maintenance. It also confirms that apart from technological factors associated with proper maintenance, people and team related factors are important for increasing safety and reliability in the process industry, especially for being prepared for disturbances and to be able to cope adequately with them.     

Responses of community to the possible use of recycled water for washing machines: A case study in Sydney, Australia

Recycled water is a valuable resource that has potential to free up potable water supplies and recharge systems while improving the environment. Recycled water for washing machine could be one of the options as new end use of recycled water to alleviate the demand on existing and limited water supplies. This paper summarizes the findings of a research survey in Sydney, Australia to explore the attitudes and opinions of community towards the use of recycled water for different purposes, especially for the washing machine. The survey showed that 97% of the respondents were aware of the persisting water shortage problem while more than 60% of the respondents supported the use of recycled water for washing clothes. This paper exposes the basic concern of participants for using recycled water in washing machine. Health issue was found as the most concerns of the community. The survey also presents the further conditions to be considered for using recycled water for washing machine according to the participants’ opinions. Correlation between knowledge and attitudes of respondents was also found in this survey.     

船舶污染事故的调查取证与处罚原则

本文根据船舶防污监督管理的内容、特点，系统地提出了船舶·违章排污造成污染事故的调查取证程序、方法、内容、综合分析方法．还阐述了作出处罚决定的内容，防治措施的要求和依法处罚的原则．     

水泥池高密度养殖鳗鲡水环境的调查

通过对两个养鳗场的水源和三口池的水环境理化因子的周年监测，表明水源pH值、总碱度、S‰、COD、NO^-2N、NH3－N含量，地下水地匀较水库水低且稳定，养殖池水中央水质劣于跑道，池塘水质优劣与养殖管理方法密切要关。     

Results from the first year of the Swedish dioxin survey

PCDD/F levels are presented for food baskets, raw and fried herring, wolf muscle and moose tallow collected from the same area, three burbot liver samples, a sediment core from the Baltic Sea and leach water from three garbage dumps. Levels in food baskets were at or below detection limits making the estimation of intake via the diet difficult. Frying herring produces no net change in PCDD/F levels. Moose have lower PCDD/F levels than wolf from the same area. Levels in burbot liver samples are much higher near industrial discharges than in a more undisturbed area. The top 4 cm of the sediment core contain the highest levels of PCDD/F. Thereafter the levels drop and reach a low level. This low level is probably caused by contamination during sampling and is not evidence of PCDD/F presence far back in time. Leach water from city dumps contains low levels of PCDD/F but that from a dump that takes industrial wastes had higher levels and a different congener pattern.     

A Case Study of Landholder Attitudes and Behaviour Toward the Conservation of Renosterveld,a Critically Endangered Vegetation Type in Cape Floral Kingdom,South Africa

The attitudes and behaviours of private landholders toward the conservation of a highly transformed and critically endangered habitat, Overberg Coastal Renosterveld (OCR) (a grassy shrubland of the Cape Floral Region, South Africa) are described. Personal, semistructured interviews were conducted with landholders, representing 40 properties in the Overberg region, on topics such as management and utilisation of OCR, the depth of their knowledge of its conservation importance, what they perceive its value to be, and the extent of their willingness to conserve it. General attitudes toward conservation incentives and provincial conservation authorities were also investigated. Farmers more willing to conserve were younger, did not necessarily have a better education, and owned larger farms (>500 ha) with a greater amount of remnant renosterveld (>300 ha) than those less willing to conserve. Attitudes toward the OCR were largely negative, related to associated problem plants and animals and the fact that it is believed not to be economically advantageous to retain it. However, farmers are of the opinion that provision of incentives and increased extension support will provide practical positive inducements for conservation. Landholder education is paramount to prevent further transformation of critically endangered habitats. The success of private-conservation programs depends on the attitudes of landowners toward (1) the particular habitat or species to be conserved (which can vary depending on the type of land use practised and the associated benefits and disadvantages of that habitat type); (2) the conservation agency or extension officers responsible for that area; and (3) willingness of landowners to participate in a conservation program, which is influenced by landowner age, farm size, and the amount of natural habitat left to conserve.