Involving indigenous peoples in protected area management: comparative perspectives from Nepal,Thailand, and China

Despite over two decades of efforts towards involving indigenous and traditional peoples in protected area management, there are few successful examples. Several international principles and guidelines on indigenous peoples' involvement in protected areas exist. However, because of the lack of evaluation of whether or not these principles and guidelines have been put into practice, there is hardly any information that indicates the actual involvement of indigenous peoples in protected areas. This paper attempts to compare efforts in partnership between indigenous peoples and protected area authority in three Asian countries: Nepal, Thailand, and China. It shows that the involvement of indigenous peoples is more successful where park planning is participatory and where political and socioeconomic reforms are underway. Indigenous peoples are in conflict with park authorities where park management is centralized and nonparticipatory. Unless concrete efforts are made to address livelihood issues of indigenous peoples living in and around protected areas, park management aimed to protect wildlife will rarely succeed. Participatory park management that involves indigenous peoples and that addresses livelihood issues of indigenous communities will ultimately succeed in its efforts toward wildlife conservation.     

Evaluating Visitor-Monitoring Techniques: A Comparison of Counting and Video Observation Data

Two visitor-monitoring methods, video monitoring and counts by human observers, were compared in order to identify and evaluate their respective advantages and disadvantages. The analysis considered user numbers, user type (walkers, dog walkers, bicyclists, and joggers) and group size of visitors. Remarkable differences were found between the two methods for user type and use levels. At low use levels, evaluations based on video monitoring resulted in fewer single bicyclists compared to counts by human observers, whereas at high use levels, human observers counted fewer walkers and bikers than video-interpreters. Based on this comparative analysis, we derive recommendations for more effective visitor-monitoring approaches. All data were collected during a visitor-monitoring project in the Danube Floodplains National Park in Austria between 1998 and 1999.     

Integrated Protected Area Selection in Australian Biogeographic Regions

/ This paper reports on the development of abiogeographic-based protected area selection procedure (PASP) that addresseslimitations of current reserve selection methods such as inflexibility,restrictive criteria structures, and disregard of social criteria. We arguethat selection criteria are legitimately identified through the politicalprocess and can therefore have both social and biological content. PASPprovides a systematic, flexible and efficient procedure for identifying anetwork of protected areas that satisfies a given set of selection criteria.PASP has 11 steps divided into three main stages: compilation, selection, andvalidation. A selection algorithm is used into which criteria specific to thebiogeographic region under study can be incorporated. The procedure is ableto accommodate both nominal and ranking criteria and gives the analyst theopportunity to specify thresholds and targets for each criterion. Otherfeatures of PASP include the minimization of data collection effort,consideration of reserve design principles, and inclusion of a networkevaluation as a check to ensure that politically determined objectives havebeen met.KEY WORDS: Land use; Protected area networks; Selection algorithms     

Decision Support System for Managing Oil Spill Events

The Mediterranean environment is exposed to various hazards, including oil spills, forest fires, and floods, making the development of a decision support system (DSS) for emergency management an objective of utmost importance. The present work presents a complete DSS for managing marine pollution events caused by oil spills. The system provides all the necessary tools for early detection of oil-spills from satellite images, monitoring of their evolution, estimation of the accident consequences and provision of support to responsible Public Authorities during clean-up operations. The heart of the system is an image processing–geographic information system and other assistant individual software tools that perform oil spill evolution simulation and all other necessary numerical calculations as well as cartographic and reporting tasks related to a specific management of the oil spill event. The cartographic information is derived from the extant general maps representing detailed information concerning several regional environmental and land-cover characteristics as well as financial activities of the application area. Early notification of the authorities with up-to-date accurate information on the position and evolution of the oil spill, combined with the detailed coastal maps, is of paramount importance for emergency assessment and effective clean-up operations that would prevent environmental hazard. An application was developed for the Region of Crete, an area particularly vulnerable to oil spills due to its location, ecological characteristics, and local economic activities.     

重庆的国家重点保护植物研究

基于《中国植物红皮书》第一、二册名录，重庆有国家重点保护植物７７种，隶属于４７科，７１属。根据第一批公布的国家重点保护植物，重庆有５２种４９属３２科；其中一级５种，二级２４种，三级２３种，濒危６种，稀有２１种，渐危２５种。水平分布有三个中心，即大巴山南缘地区、武陵山区、大娄山北缘地区。论文最后提出了珍稀濒危植物的保护措施。     

A review of criteria for evaluating natural areas

Environmental Management - Methods for evaluating natural areas have evolved in the last couple of decades to assess the importance of natural areas for the purposes of land-use planning,...     

秦皇岛市生态农业模式分析

本文根据秦皇岛市的地理条件,气候资源和土壤资源,分析了该地区的农业生产总环境和自然经济条件,提出了因地制宜,合理利用各地的自然资源,建立科学合理又相近相趋的生态农业模式和实施方案。     

东北自然保护区压力威胁影响因子及趋势

论文运用世界自然保护区委员会(WCPA)和世界自然基金会(WWF)推荐的自然保护区管理快速评估和优先性确定方法(RAPPAM),对东北地区部分自然保护区面临的压力和威胁及其发展趋势进行了调查分析。结果显示,在保护区所面临的14种威胁因子中,火灾、林木砍伐、偷猎、非林木产品采集(NTFP)、旅游、放牧6个因子的影响范围较广、影响程度较高、影响时间较长,是保护区应重点控制的威胁因子。因此,今后的保护区管理应加强对火灾、林木砍伐和非木质林产品采集等因素的监控,同时通过制定相关政策、采取适当措施有效控制并减少保护区生态旅游对保护对象产生的负面影响,提高保护区管理的有效性。     

Global gains at local costs: Imposing protected areas: evidence from central India

With the ever-increasing understanding about the Earth as a living network of interdependent ecosystems, there seems to be a growing consensus that the whole planet is a global common. This feeling, however, is not bereft of severe complications arising from conflicting interests of different nations placed at varying levels of development. While developed countries are more concerned about environmental quality which is a global public good, less developed countries can hardly afford to make land use decisions that keep such wider futuristic concerns in mind while they are presently struggling with very basic problems of poverty and starvation. The actors at the global level prescribe, monitor, and enforce the global level collective choice through persuasive, and at times coercive, methods. At the national level, various legal provisions in the form of legislation reflect the collective choice at that level through creation of protected areas devoid of humans. A simple fact is overlooked, that it is impossible to achieve conservation goals without making local people equal participants in decisionmaking and benefit sharing.     

Trace element concentration levels in three bird species in Hormod Protected Area,Larestan, Iran

The objective of the present study was to investigate the levels of Cd, Pb, Co, and Cu, in A. chukar, A. griseogularis, and Columba livia, in order to (1) examine the age- and gender-related variation in trace metal accumulation and (2) to determine the significance between metal concentrations in the kidney, liver, and pectoral muscle. Mean concentrations of Cd and Pb in the kidney of A. chukar, A. griseogularis, and C. livia were 3.7, 4.1, and 3.9?µg/g and 15.9, 13.6, and 15.5?µg/g, respectively. In the liver, they were 4.8, 4.3, and 3.9?µg/g and 21.4, 21.3, and 21.1?µg/g, and in the pectoral muscle, 2.3, 2.3, and 2.2?µg/g and 7.1, 7.1, and 7.8?µg/g, respectively. Metal concentrations in three bird species were decreased in the sequence of liver?>?kidney?>?pectoral muscle. Trace metal concentrations in the three species were higher in females than in males. The mean concentrations of Cd in the kidney and liver were higher than the background levels, as well as Pb concentrations in the liver were higher than the toxic level.