Ecology-based tourism potential of Altindere Valley (Trabzon-Turkey) in regards to the natural,historical and cultural factors

The study was carried out in the Altindere Valley, which is an area appropriate for tourism activities with natural, historical and cultural values through all four seasons, with Yazlik Village in the centre and including the surrounding sites Cosandere village, Altindere village, hamlets (The Hamlets) and plateau areas. In this study, the goal is to set forth the ecological-based tourism potential in line with the concepts of intactness; conservation-use balance; and sustainability at natural, historical and cultural sites through a determined planning approach. In this respect, assessments have been made on the study area on the basis of the ‘Ecological Evaluation Method’, which has been developed for urban areas. Through the determination of quotients, classification and quantitative assessment of unweighted values were found for natural and cultural elements that show percentage (%) dispersion at the area (slope, exposition, soil, forest, vegetation, existing areas use, historical and cultural structure). ‘Weighted values’ were calculated by multiplying the determined factor weights and the unweighted inside grid values of the factors. With the results of grid values obtained, 10.58% Very Good, 48.82% Good, 19.7% Average, 8.82% Weak, and 12.05% Very Weak, ‘Ecological Based Tourism Potential Areas According to Natural, Historical and Cultural Factors’ have been identified.     

A decomposition analysis of CO2 emissions: evidence from Malaysia’s tourism industry

The most important question raised from issues of environmental degradation is how economic activities bring about changes that will result in pollution. In the pursuit of tourism economy, contrary to popular interest, the travel and tourism (T&T) industry may cause environmental damages through the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from energy consumption in areas such as transportation and delivery of amenities. Given this major concern, this paper attempts to investigate the linkage between tourism and CO₂ emissions in Malaysia between 1981 and 2011. In particular, this study fills the knowledge gap by taking a closer look at the impact of international tourist arrivals on CO₂ emissions by sector – electricity and heat generation and transport. Results from the bound test method suggest that there exists a long-run relationship among the variables under consideration when CO₂ emissions become the dependent variable. The original result is similarly robust to alternatives, which are CO₂ emissions from sectors of electricity and heat generation and transport. Furthermore, the vector error correction model causality analysis indicates a causal relationship between tourism and CO₂ emissions by transport and electricity and heat generation. Subsequently, several tourism-related policies are drawn from these findings.     

Sustainability indicators for environmental performance and sustainability assessment of the productions of four fine Italian wines

Increased awareness of the importance of environmental protection and the introduction of international standards like ISO 14001 stimulated development of environmental sustainability indicators as a means to measure systems environmental performance. Here, a thermodynamic approach, emergy analysis (Odum, 1988) was used to obtain sustainability indicators able to analyse and quantify the productive and ecological performance of four famous Italian wine productions: Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino, Nobile di Montepulciano, and Barbera d'hti. The application to agricultural production was motivated by the growing need for productive and environmentally sound development in modern agriculture, in which the resource base, the environment, is preserved. The choice of wines, more precisely, grape production, is due to their importance for Italian agriculture and the economy. All the wines demonstrated a good long-term environmental sustainability, especially in view of their high quality and in comparison with the average Italian wine production. Emergy analysis proved a powerful tool for assessing environmental performance of these systems, and its use could easily be extended to other wine productions to obtain a form of environmental performance classification of this product. Systematic use of emergy analysis to assess environmental performance of different processes and products, not necessarily in agriculture, could be useful for environmental certification.     

Energy transition and its implications for environmentally sustainable development in Africa

SUMMARY

Energy transition is the process whereby there is an increase in the volume and proportion of commercial energy, to the extent that it replaces traditional fuels as the main source of energy and having enormous implications for the physical and biotic environment. This energy-environment process has rarely been the focus of research investigation in Africa. Using cross-national data drawn from the African continent, this paper examines and accounts for intercountry variations in the nature and extent of the energy transition process. The empirical analysis reveals that, for the continent as a whole, the extent to which commercial energy replaces traditional fuels is quite low. It varies between 33% and 39%. However, inter-country variations were found to be as high as 90% in countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and South Africa; and less than 15% for such countries as Benin, Burkina Faso, The Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Lesotho and Uganda. The key factors explaining intercounty variations in the energy transition process are the level of urbanization and the extent of forest and woodland resources. Other factors of secondary importance include economic growth, incidence of poverty, affordability of electrical appliances, energy trade status of the country in question and the price of commercial fuel. Finally, the paper shows that the identification of these key energy transition-inducing variables is a necessary prerequisite to an effective energy and environmentally sustainable development policy formulation in Africa.     

Sustainable development: the challenge of implementation

This paper focuses on efforts to produce an operational definition of the concept of ‘sustainable development’ as articulated by the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). ‘Sustainability’ has become an increasingly significant environmental issue; the problems in articulating a workable concept will differ among nations and international organizations attempting to define the term. Additionally, the term encompasses the varied fields of ecology, philosophy, and economics; every discipline imparts its own bias. Various definitions are provided and the significance and difficulty of developing an operational definition of Sustainable development is discussed. For example, sustainable development has become a ‘needs'-oriented term, an entitlement that priority should be given to the needs of the world's poor. Some argue that living standards which go beyond the basic minimum are sustainable only if consumption standards everywhere have regard for long-term sustainability. Scientifically, sustainability involves replicability and regeneration through an unforeseeable future. When prices reflect social cost and there are no externalities, optimal choices will be made between present and future consumption. Much of the debate involving sustainability involves deep-rooted fears or phobias, e.g. resource depletion, ‘energy crises’ and ‘timber crises’.     

Assessment of opium-based farming systems: a case study in the Nahom area,Oudomxay Province in Northern Laos

SUMMARY

An interdisciplinary team of 10 completed an exploratory one-month survey of villages in Nahom, Oudomxay Province, Laos, an area representative of upland farming systems based on opium and shifting cultivation. The study included investigation of the physical and socioeconomic environments and assessment of the farming systems. Due to the relatively low population density, there is enough land for villagers to practice shifting cultivation with a one year cultivation cycle, followed by 10–12 years of fallow. The soil degradation commonly caused by shifting cultivation was not significant in this area and the soil fertility is still relatively high. However, most of the original forests had been cut down and used for shifting cultivation and some degradation of the vegetation has occurred, showing that the ecological sustainability has been threatened by prevailing practices. Thirty-six percent of the households had food supply problems for more than three months of each year. The extremely low return for labour from upland rice cultivation, only 5.64 kg per labour-day, was the critical factor that caused the food shortage. Because of poor technique, rice yield from paddy fields was also low, thus shifting cultivators have no enthusiasm to expand their paddy fields. Income from opium provided 80.5% of household income. Opium was extremely tempting to local people due to the very high return for labour, 5700 kip (US$6) per labour-day, low investment, and good labour availability (mostly during the off-season of rice cultivation). However, opium was also a ‘two-edged sword’. It did not bring real wealth, health and happiness but instead brings poverty, poor health and disappointment.     

Resource- and eco-effectiveness as a new paradigm of development to prevent resource depletion and environmental imbalance

SUMMARY

The increase in the number of golf courses around the world has been phenomenal, particularly since the 1990s where an estimated 350 new courses were added annually to the more than 25 000 existing ones. In terms of recreational sports spaces, golf arguably uses the greatest amount of land. Using the case study of Singapore, it is argued that the continual expansion of golf courses runs counter to the broad ideal of urban sustainability. The arguments that support golf course expansion viz. reducing the issue to a matter of supply and demand and extolling golfs economic benefits pay scant attention to principles of equity and sustainability. Although existing green spaces risk being converted into golf courses, golf course maintenance itself can be ecologically benign. However, the elitist nature of golf in Singapore ultimately imposes greater and unnecessary demands on resources in general. Given Singapore's land scarcity, golf course expansion is opposed not so much because of its ecological impacts but because of how it compromises spatial equity.     

Integrating livelihoods and conservation in protected areas: understanding the role and stakeholder views on prospects for non-timber forest products,a Bangladesh case study

Protected areas (PAs) represent a key global strategy in biodiversity conservation. In tropical developing countries, the management of PAs is a great challenge as many contain resources on which local communities rely. Collection and trading of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) is a well-established forest-based livelihood strategy, which has been promoted as a potential means for enhanced conservation and improved rural livelihoods in recent years, even though the sustainability or ecological implications have rarely been tested. We conducted an exploratory survey to understand the role and stakeholder views on conservation prospects and perceived ecological feasibility of NTFPs and harvesting schemes in a northeastern PA of Bangladesh, namely the Satchari National Park. Households (n?=?101) were interviewed from three different forest dependency categories, adopting a stratified random sampling approach and using a semi-structured questionnaire. The study identified 13 locally important NTFPs, with five being critically important to supporting local livelihoods. Our study suggests that collection, processing and trading in NTFPs constitutes the primary occupation for about 18% of local inhabitants and account for an estimated 19% of their cash annual income. The household consensus on issues relating to NTFPs and their prospective role in conservation was surprisingly high, with 48% of respondents believing that promotion of NTFPs in the PA could have positive conservation value. The majority (71%) of households also had some understanding of the ecological implications of NTFP harvesting, sustainability (53%) and possible management and monitoring regimes (100%). With little known about their real application in the field, our study suggests further investigations are required to understand the ecological compatibility of traditional NTFP harvesting patterns and management.     

A holistic approach to the development of sustainable agriculture: application of the ecosystem health model

Serious resource depletion has made sustainable agriculture an important and pressing issue for scientists, policy makers, and stakeholders worldwide, particularly in developing countries. Researchers have focused on methods to assess agriculture correctly, and to introduce sound solutions for sustainability, but have reached no agreement. In this paper, we introduce the theoretical framework of the agro-ecosystem health model, a new holistic approach, and apply it at a regional scale using four aspects (4S): sound structure, stable function, safe service, and sustainable development. We examine how 12 indicators of an agro-ecosystem health assessment (AHA) were selected using three dimensions based on this theoretical framework. In an AHA, we used an amoeba approach to examine a high-yield agro-ecosystem in Huantai County, Shandong Province, China. The results indicate that this model of ecosystem health can reflect the complex ecological, economic, and human conditions of an agro-ecosystem and evaluate these conditions using perspectives pertinent to system structure, function, and responses (services).     

Capital structures matrix: a model for public access to project interpretation

A growing demand for transparency and accountability in local decision-making has grown substantially in recent years due to an increasing awareness of finite natural resources. Sustainable development captures the interrelatedness of the economy, the environment and social expectations. In addition, transparency in the decision-making process provides the public a method of accountability for public funds. The Capital Structures Model developed in this paper addresses the demand for accountability by focusing on local development projects classified by type of capital (built, human, social and natural) in order to provide information to the average constituent regarding specific county and community development projects. Local assets are initially categorized according to the type of capital to which they most contribute, and then indicators are employed to measure the contribution of a project with respect to increasing the capacity of each type of capital. These indicators are then cross-referenced with local policy to demonstrate how that policy is implemented in local development projects, and which policies contribute to which type of capital. It is the intention of this model to create an informative tool for planners and constituencies that monitors how development projects contribute to communities in terms of each of the four types of capital.