Towards a governance of sustainable consumption transitions: how institutional factors influence emerging local food systems in Belgium

System innovations and transitions in the realm of sustainable consumption policies will seldom emerge automatically from the present socio-political and socio-technical contexts. This paper explores a set of perspectives related to the governance of transitions and develops their application to the relatively unexplored governance of sustainable consumption transitions. Empirical material stems from an extensive case study which analyses a food consumption niche in the form of collectively organised local food systems (LFS) in Belgium. More specifically, we analyse and discuss the institutional contexts and socio-political configurations within which the investigated system innovation cases are embedded. The results explore the role of governmental interplay in fostering innovative consumption practices for a transition towards a more sustainable, autonomous, citizen-based, LFS.     

Conceptualizing the human use of wild edible herbs for conservation in South African communal areas

The importance of wild edible herbaceous species to resource poor households in most rural economies within savannas has been little studied. This is because most of the herbs grow in impoverished species communities and lands, often referred to as 'marginal lands'. The aim of this paper is to conceptualize how the economics of wild edible herbs to households can be used to add value to total livelihoods and conservation within traditional communal areas of South Africa. Analysis of the economics of the consumption of wild edible herbs in Thorndale (Bushbuckridge district) of the Limpopo province is presented. The majority of households consumed wild edible herbs, averaging 15.4 kg dried weight per household per year and valued at $167 per household. The herbs were mostly harvested from uncultivated areas of farms, and rangelands. There was little correlation between household characteristics and the dependence on wild herbs for food. The local people noted a decline in the availability of the species, although not much is known about attempts to cultivate them. The only reasons attributed to the decline were nutrient poor soils and insufficient rains. With this background, developing a local strategy to sustain the species through cultivation by households was found to be feasible. A multiple-use system for the herbs, their improvement and value addition towards commercialization and increased household usage may result in wider acceptance and subsequent cultivation. Species diversity will be enhanced whilst conserving the land on which they grow. This multiple use system may include species roles in soil and water conservation.     

A Call for Urgent Monitoring of Food and Water Security Based on Relevant Indicators for the Arctic

This perspective paper argues for an urgent need to monitor a set of 12 concrete, measurable indicators of food and water security in the Arctic over time. Such a quantitative indicator approach may be viewed as representing a reductionist rather than a holistic perspective, but is nevertheless necessary for actually knowing what reality aspects to monitor in order to accurately understand, quantify, and be able to project critical changes to food and water security of both indigenous and non-indigenous people in the Arctic. More relevant indicators may be developed in the future, taking us further toward reconciliation between reductionist and holistic approaches to change assessment and understanding. However, the potential of such further development to improved holistic change assessment is not an argument not to urgently start to monitor and quantify the changes in food and water security indicators that are immediately available and adequate for the Arctic context.     

Modeling the exposure of children and adults via diet to chemicals in the environment with crop-specific models

Exposure to chemicals via diet is a major uptake pathway for many compounds but is often estimated in a rather generic way. We use a new model framework (NMF) with crop-specific models to predict the dietary intake by 4-5-year-old children and 14-75-year-old women of three environmental compounds from their background concentrations in soil and air. Calculated daily intakes of benzo(a)pyrene and 2,3,7,8-TCDD are in good agreement with measured results from diet studies. The major source of both compounds in human diet is deposition from air. Inhalation of air and ingestion of soil play a minor role. Children take up more than twice the amount than adults per kg bodyweight, due to higher consumption per kg bodyweight. Contrary, the methods for indirect human exposure suggested in the Technical Guidance Document (TGD) for chemical risk assessment in the EU lead to overprediction, due to unrealistic consumption data and a false root model.     

Domestic or imported? An assessment of carbon footprints and sustainability of seafood consumed in Australia

The distance between where food is produced and consumed is increasing, and is often taken as evidence of an unsustainable global food system. Seafood is a highly traded commodity yet seafood sustainability assessments do not typically consider the impacts of the movement of products beyond the fishery or farm. Here we use life cycle assessment to examine the carbon footprint of the production and distribution of select seafood products that are consumed in Australia and determine differences in the sustainability of imports and their domestically produced counterparts. We found that the distance food is transported is not the main determinant of food sustainability. Despite the increased distance between production and consumption, carbon footprints of meals from imported seafood are similar to meals consisting of domestically produced seafood, and sometimes lower, depending on the seafood consumed. In combining LCA with existing seafood sustainability criteria the trade-offs between sustainability targets become more apparent. Carbon ‘footprinting’ is one metric that can be incorporated in assessments of sustainability, thereby demonstrating a broader perspective of the environmental cost of food production and consumption.     

国外气候变化对旅游业影响的定量研究进展与启示

加强气候变化对旅游业影响的定量研究,有助于旅游业在气候变化背景下实现可持续发展。基于SCI/SSCI文献数据库,梳理分析国外气候变化对旅游业影响的定量研究进展。结果显示,30余年来国外主要采用指标方法、需求模型与选择分析方法开展相关研究。20世纪80年代末出现的指标方法是运用最早、最广泛的方法,主要用于旅游资源环境变化等研究,呈现由单项指标转向综合指标的应用趋势;20世纪90年代末兴起的需求模型主要用于天气状况对旅游需求的影响等研究,呈现由时间序列模型转向累计需求模型的应用趋势;21世纪兴起的选择分析主要用于气候变化背景下的行为意愿等研究,呈现由描述统计转向离散选择模型的应用趋势。这些给我国研究的启示是：在研究方法与研究领域上,重点加强累计需求模型在旅游流相关研究中的运用,加强离散选择模型在旅游市场结构相关研究中的运用,加强系统科学方法与大数据技术在相关研究中的运用;在研究对象上,丰富中国境内气候敏感型旅游活动的相关研究,加强“一带一路”沿线国家、地区及青藏高原的相关研究。     

规模化养猪场生命周期环境影响评价

利用生命周期评价(LCA)方法建立规模化养猪场系统能源消耗和污染物排放清单,对系统生命周期不同阶段环境影响进行评价,通过评价找出降低环境影响的方法。研究了四个环境影响类型：能源消耗、富营养化、全球变暖和环境酸化,得出各类型环境影响指数分别为8.38×10^-3,1.91×10^-3,9.80×10^-3和2.01×10^-2;将系统生命周期分成饲料原料生产、生猪饲养和废物处理三个环节,得出各环节环境影响综合指数分别为2.52×10^-2,1.23×10^-2和2.71×10^-3。结果表明,饲料原料生产环节的环境影响最大,因此,减少氮肥的使用量并在生产过程中实施节能和清洁生产,是控制规模化养猪场生命周期环境影响的关键。     

京津冀臭氧污染特征、气象影响及基于神经网络的预报效果评估

基于生态环境监测和气象观测数据,分析了2016~2020年京津冀13个城市臭氧（O₃）浓度特征,讨论了O₃污染高发月份日最高温度（T_max）、日均地面气压（p）、日均地面相对湿度（RH）和日均地面风速（v）等气象要素对O₃-8h浓度和O₃-8h超标情况的影响规律,并采用AQI级别预报准确率、O₃浓度范围预报准确率和O₃级别预报准确率等方法,评估了基于神经网络的O₃统计预报效果.结果表明,2016~2020年期间京津冀13城市ρ（O₃-8h-90per）分别为157.4、177.2、177.3、190.6和175.6μg·m^-3,区域臭氧浓度5a上升了11.6%,2016~2019年期间总体呈波动上升趋势,2020年环比下降;2020年与2016年相比,除北京、张家口和承德略有下降外,其他10个城市ρ（O₃-8h-90per）上升了6~45.5μg·m^-3.O₃-8h月均值呈现"两头低,中间高"现象,ρ（O₃-8h）在4~9月的月均值超过了100 μg·m^-3,在6月最高,为158.10 μg·m^-3.城市O₃-8h超标率范围为8.6%~19.2%,97.8%的O₃-8h超标情况发生在4~9月.区域尺度上O₃-8h浓度与日最高温度相关性最强,当T_max在25~28℃区间时,所有城市开始出现O₃-8h超标.O₃-8h浓度与日均地面气压呈负相关关系;当RH在60%以下时,大部分城市O₃-8h浓度随相对湿度上升缓慢增长;当RH在61%~70%以上时,大部分城市O₃-8h浓度随日均相对湿度上升而下降.O₃-8h超标时的地面主导风向主要为偏南风,大部城市O₃-8h浓度高值易集中出现在2~3m·s^-1及以下低风速区间.OPAQ统计模式提前1~9 d预报相关系数范围为0.72~0.86,AQI级别预报平均准确率为67%~86%,O₃-8h浓度范围预报平均准确率为63%~84%.在O₃-8h超标情况多发的4~9月,模式对O₃轻度污染和O₃-8h超标情况提前3 d预报准确率分别为69%和66%,可为O₃-8h超标管控提供参考依据.     

Use of historical and contemporary distribution of mammals in China to inform conservation

A systematic understanding of dynamic animal extinction trajectories for different regions in a nation like China is critically important to developing practical conservation strategies. We explored historical and contemporary changes in terrestrial mammalian diversity to determine how diversity in each of the 5 regions in China has changed over time and to examine the conservation potential of these regions. We used records from databases on Pleistocene mammalian fossils and historical distribution records (1175–2020) for Primates (as a case study) to reconstruct evolutionary and historical distribution trajectories of the 11 orders of terrestrial mammals and to predict their prospective survival based on the national conservation strategy applied. The results indicated that since the Pleistocene, 4–5 mammalian orders have been lost in the northeast, 3 in central China, 2 along the coast, and 1 in the northwest. In the southwest, all 11 orders were maintained. Contemporarily, the coast and southwest had the highest and second-highest species densities. The southwest region and southeastern sections of the northwest region were the most historically and contemporarily diverse areas, which suggests that they should be the first priority for protected area (PA) designation. The central and coastal areas should be secondarily prioritized. In these 2 regions, conservation should focus on human coexistence with nature. Less attention should be paid to the PA in the northeast and western northwest because in these areas ecosystems are depauperate and the climate is harsh. Conservation in these areas should focus principally on avoiding further human encroachment on natural areas. Article impact statement: Historical and contemporary patterns of extinction can be a basis for mammalian conservation strategies.     

Untangling unexpected terrestrial conservation challenges arising from the historical human exploitation of marine mammals in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean

Intensive human exploitation of the Antarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella) in its primary population centre on sub-Antarctic South Georgia, as well as on other sub-Antarctic islands and parts of the South Shetland Islands, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries rapidly brought populations to the brink of extinction. The species has now recovered throughout its original distribution. Non-breeding and yearling seals, almost entirely males, from the South Georgia population now disperse in the summer months far more widely and in higher numbers than there is evidence for taking place in the pre-exploitation era. Large numbers now haul out in coastal terrestrial habitats in the South Orkney Islands and also along the north-east and west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula to at least Marguerite Bay. In these previously less- or non-visited areas, the seals cause levels of damage likely never to have been experienced previously to fragile terrestrial habitats through trampling and over-fertilisation, as well as eutrophication of sensitive freshwater ecosystems. This increased area of summer impact is likely to have further synergies with aspects of regional climate change, including reduction in extent and duration of sea ice permitting seals access farther south, and changes in krill abundance and distribution. The extent and conservation value of terrestrial habitats and biodiversity now threatened by fur seal distribution expansion, and the multiple anthropogenic factors acting in synergy both historically and to the present day, present a new and as yet unaddressed challenge to the agencies charged with ensuring the protection and conservation of Antarctica’s unique ecosystems.