Scale dependency of conservation outcomes in a forest-offsetting scheme

Offset schemes help avoid or revert habitat loss through protection of existing habitat (avoided deforestation), through the restoration of degraded areas (natural regrowth), or both. The spatial scale of an offset scheme may influence which of these 2 outcomes is favored and is an important aspect of the scheme's design. However, how spatial scale influences the trade-offs between the preservation of existing habitat and restoration of degraded areas is poorly understood. We used the largest forest offset scheme in the world, which is part of the Brazilian Forest Code, to explore how implementation at different spatial scales may affect the outcome in terms of the area of avoided deforestation and area of regrowth. We employed a numerical simulation of trade between buyers (i.e., those who need to offset past deforestation) and sellers (i.e., landowners with exceeding native vegetation) in the Brazilian Amazon to estimate potential avoided deforestation and regrowth at different spatial scales of implementation. Allowing offsets over large spatial scales led to an area of avoided deforestation 12 times greater than regrowth, whereas restricting offsets to small spatial scales led to an area of regrowth twice as large as avoided deforestation. The greatest total area (avoided deforestation and regrowth combined) was conserved when the spatial scale of the scheme was small, especially in locations that were highly deforested. To maximize conservation gains from avoided deforestation and regrowth, the design of the Brazilian forest-offset scheme should focus on restricting the spatial scale in which offsets occur. Such a strategy could help ensure conservation benefits are localized and promote the recovery of degraded areas in the most threatened forest landscapes.     

Mapping legal authority for terrestrial conservation corridors along streams

Wildlife corridors aim to promote species’ persistence by connecting habitat patches across fragmented landscapes. Their implementation is limited by patterns of land ownership and complicated by differences in the jurisdictional and regulatory authorities under which lands are managed. Terrestrial corridor conservation requires coordination across jurisdictions and sectors subject to site-specific overlapping sources of legal authority. Mapping spatial patterns of legal authority concurrent with habitat condition can illustrate opportunities to build or leverage capacity for connectivity conservation. Streamside areas provide pragmatic opportunities to leverage existing policy mechanisms for riverine and terrestrial habitat connectivity across boundaries. Conservation planners and practitioners can make use of these opportunities by harmonizing actions for multiple conservation outcomes. We formulated an integrative, data-driven method for mapping multiple sources of legal authority weighted by capacity for coordinating terrestrial habitat conservation along streams. We generated a map of capacity to coordinate streamside corridor protections across a wildlife habitat gap to demonstrate this approach. We combined values representing coordination capacity and naturalness to generate an integrated legal-ecological resistance map for connectivity modeling. We then computed least-cost corridors across the integrated map, masking the terrestrial landscape to focus on streamside areas. Streamside least-cost corridors in the integrated, local-scale model diverged (∼25 km) from national-scale least-cost corridors based on naturalness. Spatial categories comparing legal- and naturalness-based resistance values by stream reach highlighted potential locations for building or leveraging existing capacity through spatial coordination of policy mechanisms or restoration actions. Agencies or nongovernmental organizations intending to restore or maintain habitat connectivity across fragmented landscapes can use this approach to inform spatial prioritization and build coordination capacity. Article impact statement: Combined mapping of legal authority and habitat condition reveals capacity to coordinate actions along streams for clean water and wildlife.     

半干半湿法烟气脱硫装置中喷雾增湿技术的研究

脱硫塔内喷雾增湿技术是影响燃煤锅炉半干半湿法烟气脱硫效果的一个重要环节。分析了供水量和压力的变化关系 ,通过对脱硫装置喷雾增湿技术的优化 ,实现对增湿系统高压水的压强的精确调节 ,控制脱硫塔内雾滴的颗粒直径在 80 μm左右 ,从而达到理想的增湿效果     

Understanding yields in alley cropping maize (Zea mays L.) and Cassia siamea Lam. under semi-arid conditions in Machakos, eastern Kenya

ＩｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎＯｎｌｙａｂｏｕｔ 2 0 %ｏｆＫｅｎｙａ’ｓｔｏｔａｌｌａｎｄａｒｅａｈａｓｈｉｇｈｐｏｔｅｎｔｉａｌｆｏｒａｇｒｉｃｕｌｔｕｒａｌｐｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎ ,ｔｈｅｒｅｓｔｂｅｉｎｇａｒｉｄｏｒｓｅｍｉ ａｒｉｄ .ＴｈｅａｎｎｕａｌｐｏｐｕｌａｔｉｏｎｇｒｏｗｔｈｒａｔｅｉｎＫｅｎｙａｏｆｃｌｏｓｅｔｏ 4 %ｉｓｏｎｅｏｆｔｈｅｈｉｇｈｅｓｔｉｎｔｈｅｗｏｒｌｄ (ｅ .ｇ .ＵｎｉｔｅｄＮａｔｉｏｎｓＤｅｖｅｌｏｐｍｅｎｔＰｒｏｇｒａｍｍｅ ,1990 ) .Ｔｈｉｓｓｉｔｕａｔｉｏｎｈａｓｌ…     

Response of photosynthesis,morphology and growth of Hedysarum mongolicum seedlings to simulated precipitation change in Maowusu sandland

ＩｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎＭａｏｗｕｓｕｓａｎｄｌａｎｄ ,ａｓｅｍｉ ａｒｉｄａｒｅａｏｆＣｈｉｎａ,ｌｉｅｓｏｎｍｉｄｄｌｅｐａｒｔｏｆＣｈｉｎｅｓｅｎｏｒｔｈｄｅｓｅｒｔ (Ｙａｏ ,1 992 ) .Ａｔｐｒｅｓｅｎｔ,ｄｅｓｅｒｔｉｆｉｃａｔｉｏｎｉｓｂｅｃｏｍｉｎｇｍｏｒｅｓｅｒｉｏｕｓａｎｄｔｈｅｌａｎｄｓｃａｐｅｃｏｍｐｒｉｓｅｓｌａｒｇｅａｒｅａｓｏｆｓａｎｄ ｃｏｖｅｒｅｄｌａｎｄｔｈｅｒｅ(Ｚｈａｎ ,1 994;Ｃｈｉ,1 994) .Ｔｈｅｅｎｖｉｒｏｎｍｅｎｔｉｓｃｈａｒａｃｔｅｒｉｚｅｄｂｙｗａｔｅｒｓ…     

半固态连续触变挤压成形技术

半固态连续触变挤压成形技术是一种新的加工技术 ,将半固态技术、铸造和挤压技术融为一体的连续触变挤压技术 ,是半固态技术在材料制备领域的一个发展 ,文中主要针对复合材料、易偏析材料和脆性材料的制备     

循环流化床脱除氯化氢研究

在直径200mm、高2560mm自制循环流化床上进行了脱除氯化氢的研究。实验结果表明本实验采用的循环流化床尾气净化装置，在士湿两种状况下的净化效率都比周类型装置有较大提高。当喷水活化增湿以后，净化效率可达90％以上，并考察了停留时间、Ca/Cl 当量比、粒径和入口氯 化氢浓度等因素对氯化氢脱除效率的影响。证实延长停留时间、增大Ca/Cl当量比、减 小粒径和增加入口氯化浓度有利于提高氯化氢脱除效率。     

Complementary benefits of tourism and hunting to communal conservancies in Namibia

Tourism and hunting both generate substantial revenues for communities and private operators in Africa, but few studies have quantitatively examined the trade‐offs and synergies that may result from these two activities. We evaluated financial and in‐kind benefit streams from tourism and hunting on 77 communal conservancies in Namibia from 1998 to 2013, where community‐based wildlife conservation has been promoted as a land‐use that complements traditional subsistence agriculture. We used data collected annually for all communal conservancies to characterize whether benefits were derived from hunting or tourism. We classified these benefits into 3 broad classes and examined how benefits flowed to stakeholders within communities under the status quo and under a simulated ban on hunting. Across all conservancies, total benefits from hunting and tourism increased at roughly the same rate, although conservancies typically started generating benefits from hunting within 3 years of formation as opposed to after 6 years for tourism. Disaggregation of data revealed that the main benefits from hunting were income for conservancy management and food in the form of meat for the community at large. The majority of tourism benefits were salaried jobs at lodges. A simulated ban on trophy hunting significantly reduced the number of conservancies that could cover their operating costs, whereas eliminating income from tourism did not have as severe an effect. Given that the benefits generated from hunting and tourism typically begin at different times in a conservancy's life‐span (earlier vs. later, respectively) and flow to different segments of local communities, these 2 activities together may provide the greatest incentives for conservation on communal lands in Namibia. A singular focus on either hunting or tourism would reduce the value of wildlife as a competitive land‐use option and have grave repercussions for the viability of community‐based conservation efforts in Namibia, and possibly other parts of Africa.     

Conservation Planning with Multiple Organizations and Objectives

Abstract: There has been a dramatic increase in the number of conservation organizations worldwide. It is now common for multiple organizations to operate in the same landscape in pursuit of different conservation goals. New objectives, such as maintenance of ecosystem services, will attract additional funding and new organizations to conservation. Systematic conservation planning helps in the design of spatially explicit management actions that optimally conserve multiple landscape features (e.g., species, ecosystems, or ecosystem services). But the methods used in its application implicitly assume that a single actor implements the optimal plan. We investigated how organizational behavior and conservation outcomes are affected by the presence of autonomous implementing organizations with different objectives. We used simulation models and game theory to explore how alternative behaviors (e.g., organizations acting independently or explicitly cooperating) affected an organization's ability to protect their feature of interest, and investigated how the distribution of features in the landscape influenced organizations’ attitudes toward cooperation. Features with highly correlated spatial distributions, although typically considered an opportunity for mutually beneficial conservation planning, can lead to organizational interactions that result in lower levels of protection. These detrimental outcomes can be avoided by organizations that cooperate when acquiring land. Nevertheless, for cooperative purchases to benefit both organizations’ objectives, each must forgo the protection of land parcels that they would consider to be of high conservation value. Transaction costs incurred during cooperation and the sources of conservation funding could facilitate or hinder cooperative behavior.     

Devising Appropriate Policies and Instruments in Support of Private Conservation Areas: Lessons Learned from the Klein Karoo,South Africa

Abstract: The amount of privately conserved land is increasing worldwide. The potential of these areas to contribute to the global conservation of biodiversity is significant, given that statutory protected areas alone will not suffice. Nevertheless, there is still inadequate support for private conservation areas, and further research on appropriate, flexible, and generally applicable incentive measures is necessary. We conducted 25 semistructured interviews with the owners of private conservation areas in the Little Karoo, South Africa, to examine landowner opinions of existing conservation policies and their relationships with the local conservation authority. We also assessed landowner preferences regarding conservation incentive measures. Landowners doubted the conservation authority's capacity to implement its stewardship program and were also discouraged by the bureaucracy of the program. The conservation authority was often viewed negatively, except where landowners had experienced personal contact from conservation staff or where strong social capital had formed among landowners. Landowners did not desire financial rewards for their conservation efforts, but sought recognition of their stewardship role and greater involvement from the conservation authority through personal contact. We conclude that conservation policies for private lands could benefit from the provision of extension services to landowners, promotion of formation of groups of landowners and other stakeholders, and public acknowledgment of the contributions private conservation areas make.