Religious narratives and their implications for disaster risk reduction

The role of religious factors in the disaster experience has been under‐investigated. This is despite evidence of their influence throughout the disaster cycle, including: the way in which the event is interpreted; how the community recovers; and the strategies implemented to reduce future risk. This qualitative study examined the role of faith in the disaster experience of four faith communities in the Hawaiian Islands of the United States. Twenty‐six individuals from the Bahá'í, Buddhist, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‐day Saints (LDS), and United Methodist Church communities participated, including 10 faith leaders and 16 laypersons. The results suggest that religious narratives provide a framework for interpretation of, preparedness for, and responses to disasters. Preparedness varied widely across faith communities, with the LDS community reporting greater levels of preparedness than other communities. Recommendations include the development of collaborative efforts between disaster managers and faith leaders to increase preparedness within faith communities, which may facilitate community‐wide disaster risk reduction.     

The Role of Faith-based Organizations in Environmental Governance: the Case of Forestry in Solomon Islands

Faith-based organizations (FBOs) have played a significant role in environment-related forms of development and governance in Melanesia, including the Solomon Islands. Yet despite their centrality, there remain significant gaps in understandings of processes and outcomes associated with FBO engagement in environment-related development interventions. This paper addresses this gap by analysing the place of the Christian Fellowship Church (CFC), an indigenous FBO active in plantation forestry (and other activities) in the Western Province in the Solomon Islands. We find that the CFC possesses impressive income-generating potential and political networks; however this does not always translate into positive social, economic or environmental outcomes at the village level. While FBOs such as CFC are often championed as playing an important role in environmental governance in an under-resourced nation state, the reality is that they can fall well short in delivering appropriate outcomes for poor communities or the environment despite, and because of, their close ties to target communities.     

Isolates identification and characteristics of microorganisms in biotrickling filter and biofilter system treating H2S and NH3

A combination system of biotrickling filter （BTF） and biofilter （BF）, adopting surfactant-modified clinoptilolite and surfactant- modified wood chip as the media respectively, was applied to treat H2S and NH3 simultaneously. The identification and sole carbon sources utilization patterns of isolates in the combination system were studied by Biolog system. The isolates were identified as Bacillus sphaericus, Geobacillus themoglucosidasius （55℃） and Micrococcus luteus （ATCC 9341） in BTF, and Aspergillus sydowii （Bainier ＆ Sartory） Thom＆ Church in BE Among 95 substrate classes supplied by Biolog system, the carboxylic acids and methyl esters had the highest utilization extent for the four species, followed by the amino acids and peptides. The descending sequence of carbon sources utilization capability of isolates was A. sydowii （52.6%）, M. luteus （39.5%）, B. sphaericus （21.6%）, and G. thermoglucosidasius （17.7%）.