Variable Irrigation District Action in Water Trading

Irrigation districts (IDs) in the American west are highly diverse in their economic attributes and local water scarcity circumstances. This diversity may affect reallocative action via water transactions as scarcity rises. The institutional background defining and constraining IDs is described here. For a Texas study region the progress of permanent water right transfers involving IDs is documented and examined. An econometric analysis of multiple decades of ID water transfer activities in the Lower Rio Grande Valley finds that IDs with larger initial water right holdings and higher populations in nearby cities are more likely to participate in agricultural‐to‐municipal water transfer activities. The findings suggest that consolidation of smaller water right holding IDs may be an avenue for quickening the pace of reallocation, especially in more populated areas.     

Systematic review of conservation interventions to promote voluntary behavior change

Understanding human behavior is vital to developing interventions that effectively lead to proenvironmental behavior change, whether the focus is at the individual or societal level. However, interventions in many fields have historically lacked robust forms of evaluation, which makes it hard to be confident that these conservation interventions have successfully helped protect the environment. We conducted a systematic review to assess how effective nonpecuniary and nonregulatory interventions have been in changing environmental behavior. We applied the Office of Health Assessment and Translation systematic review methodology. We started with more than 300,000 papers and reports returned by our search terms and after critical appraisal of quality identified 128 individual studies that merited inclusion in the review. We classified interventions by thematic area, type of intervention, the number of times audiences were exposed to interventions, and the length of time interventions ran. Most studies reported a positive effect (n = 96). The next most common outcome was no effect (n = 28). Few studies reported negative (n = 1) or mixed (n = 3) effects. Education, prompts, and feedback interventions resulted in positive behavior change. Combining multiple interventions was the most effective. Neither exposure duration nor frequency affected the likelihood of desired behavioral change. Comparatively few studies tested the effects of voluntary interventions on non-Western populations (n = 17) or measured actual ecological outcome behavior (n = 1). Similarly, few studies examined conservation devices (e.g., energy-efficient stoves) (n = 9) and demonstrations (e.g., modeling the desired behavior) (n = 5). There is a clear need to both improve the quality of the impact evaluation conducted and the reporting standards for intervention results.     

Microtargeting for conservation

Widespread human action and behavior change is needed to achieve many conservation goals. Doing so at the requisite scale and pace will require the efficient delivery of outreach campaigns. Conservation gains will be greatest when efforts are directed toward places of high conservation value (or need) and tailored to critical actors. Recent strategic conservation planning has relied primarily on spatial assessments of biophysical attributes, largely ignoring the human dimensions. Elsewhere, marketers, political campaigns, and others use microtargeting—predictive analytics of big data—to identify people most likely to respond positively to particular messages or interventions. Conservationists have not yet widely capitalized on these techniques. To investigate the effectiveness of microtargeting to improve conservation, we developed a propensity model to predict restoration behavior among 203,645 private landowners in a 5,200,000 ha study area in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed (U.S.A.). To isolate the additional value microtargeting may offer beyond geospatial prioritization, we analyzed a new high-resolution land-cover data set and cadastral data to identify private owners of riparian areas needing restoration. Subsequently, we developed and evaluated a restoration propensity model based on a database of landowners who had conducted restoration in the past and those who had not (n = 4978). Model validation in a parallel database (n = 4989) showed owners with the highest scorers for propensity to conduct restoration (i.e., top decile) were over twice as likely as average landowners to have conducted restoration (135%). These results demonstrate that microtargeting techniques can dramatically increase the efficiency and efficacy of conservation programs, above and beyond the advances offered by biophysical prioritizations alone, as well as facilitate more robust research of many social–ecological systems.     

Effects of amusing memes on concern for unappealing species

There is limited knowledge of the mechanisms that can inspire people's concern and engagement in the protection of unpopular and unappealing species. We analyzed Polish people's interest in themed internet memes featuring the proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) and the consequences of this interest for conservation marketing. We examined Google Trends data, used Google Search, and searched popular media materials to estimate interest in the proboscis monkey in Poland. Photos of the proboscis monkey when presented with humor in internet memes attracted as much interest as usually more popular species (e.g., koala, panda, and orangutan) used in marketing by nongovernmental organizations. Amusing internet memes spread by social media positively correlated with increasing interest in the unappealing species, such as proboscis monkey. Interest in amusing internet memes positively correlated with individuals’ decisions to donate to 6 crowdfunding actions. Thus, conservation marketing that includes amusing memes and social media may provide a worthwhile complement to traditional campaigns and are likely to influence individuals who are unaffected by the usual means.     

现代内部审计营销策略

现代内部审计职业中,内部审计师面临着各种潜在冲突,在组织中的人际环境也很复杂。内部审计有必要借助营销手段,从组织的利益出发,识别、预期各级管理层的管理需求,通过内部审计服务赢得各级管理层的信任和支持,进一步建立各级管理人员甚至所有成员和内部审计师的良好关系,最终形成融洽的内部审计人际环境。内部审计师应设计并执行内部审计营销策略,这些策略包括了解客户对内部审计的看法、对董事会和高级管理层的营销、对整个组织的营销等。     

Green marketing mix: A case study of Brazilian retail enterprises

The challenges posed by the limited availability of resources means that retail operations and methods must be revised and redesigned. Against the current backdrop of changes, companies are seeking to innovate the way in which they market their wares. Within this context, this article discusses the “green marketing mix” from the perspective of Brazilian retail enterprises. In addition, the study described in this article sought to identify and highlight the elements that should be considered when defining strategically each variable within the green retail marketing mix. As part of this work, a case study was carried out on two Brazilian retail companies. The case analysis revealed that despite defining themselves as “green,” when their retail marketing mix was analyzed, the companies presented differing degrees of sustainability. Furthermore, expanding the theoretical framework for the green retail marketing mix is a crucial issue in the services sector, and it has significant, practical repercussions.     

Geographic shifts in the highland cooking banana (Musa spp., group AAA-EA) production in Uganda

Summary

Between 1970 and 1990 Uganda witnessed the decline of the highland cooking banana from traditional growing areas in the central region, coupled with crop expansion in the country's southwest. Apprehension that the factors leading to loss of sustainability in the central region may be replayed in extant production areas has raised concern about the future of the cooking banana in Uganda. Consequently, a multi-disciplinary study was conducted at nine central and six southwestern sites to document shifts in cooking banana production and to elucidate the causes behind these shifts.

Cooking banana production in central Uganda sites fell from 18% of total food crop and 7% of total cash crop production in the 1970s to 4% and 2%, respectively, in the 1990s. Farmers identified reduced labour availability and management, increasing pest pressure and declining soil nutrient status as the major causes of decline. On-farm verification confirmed farmers' observations: weevil levels were the highest yet found in Uganda, while foliar samples indicated deficiencies in magnesium, nitrogen, and potassium. Soil nutrient deficiencies, however, appear to be a direct outcome ofreduced management rather than ‘soil exhaustion’ as postulated by farmers.

In southwestern Uganda, the importance of the cooking banana as a cash crop has quadrupled since 1970. Banana first penetrated the region because of its ease of production and stability of yield. High yields attracted traders and urban market demand drove further crop expansion. With current market incentives, banana management standards have been high. Under current levels of management, it is unlikely that farmers in southwestern Uganda will experience a similar process of decline as that which occurred in the central region. However, concern remains aboqt lack of replenishment of nutrients leaving the farm in the form of fruits sold for market, a nutrient loss which may eventually lead to non-sustainability of the cropping system.     

Fishery resource management in Chilika lagoon: a study on coastal conservation in the Eastern Coast of India

A significant proportion of the fishing population comprises small-scale fishermen and many studies illustrate that these people are exploited by middlemen in the process of fish marketing combined with money lending. The negative dependency gives rise to poverty and triggers indiscriminate fish catch that threatens fishery resources depletion. This article explores the root causes of failures in resource-led development from the viewpoint of coastal resource conservation. The study presents a case study of Chilika lagoon, India and focuses on the interaction between small-scale fishermen and middlemen. The findings reveal that most of the small-scale fishermen have been exploited by specific middlemen and the underlying causes of the present fish marketing structure stem from (i) indebtedness and (ii) the unstable situation because of perpetual conflicts over fishery resources among the fishers across Chilika lagoon. Based on these observations, this article presents some recommendations on fishery resource conservation from the perspective of a fish marketing structure.

峨眉山景区旅游商品的开发与营销模式

通过对旅游商品定义的综述,界定了旅游商品的定义、范围和功能,同时对峨眉山景区旅游商品的开发、需求、购买力等抽取420份问卷作为样本,分析了峨眉山旅游商品的需求现状,并以旅游者需求现状为依据,对峨眉山旅游商品的开发和营销提出了“4P＋4C＋4R”营销策略,以期对其它景区的旅游商品开发和营销具有一定的借鉴意义。     

“Hey Friend,Buy Green”: Social Media Use to Influence Eco-Purchasing Involvement

This study addresses the use of message carriers to convey corporate social responsibility information to promote eco-purchasing involvement. The work tests various media formats transmitted via social media. The effects of corporate vs. peer communication in a corporate social responsibility campaign in stimulating self-reported eco-purchasing involvement are indicated. The research varies communication dimensions of a fictional corporate social responsibility campaign sent through social media. Multiple media formats; new release; article; and advertisement were tested, as was the inclusion of social media persuasive sentiment. The analysis of source/format combinations and source/format/sentiment combinations found statistically significant differences for consumer-to-consumer communication in stimulating eco-purchasing involvement in certain circumstances. This research suggests an emerging role for the consumer communicator as a content co-creator and validates the effective use of articles and news releases instead of advertising on social media, yielding managerial and scholarly implications.