Institutional, Legal, and Economic Instruments in Ghana's Environmental Policy

The environmental situation in Ghana is characterized by desertification, land degradation, deforestation, soil erosion, and inadequate water supply in the northern regions of the country. The population as a whole is growing at a rate of 3% per annum, with even greater urban growth rates, due to rural out-migration. Large parts of the coastal zone in the south are rapidly developing to become one large suburbanized area. Water quality is particularly threatened in the urban and industrialized areas, which are mainly located in the southern part of the country. The coastal lagoons and coastal waters are moderately to heavily polluted. Erosion extends along the whole Ghanaian coast with excesses, for example, in the Keta area, where during the last century over 90% of the original buildings have been washed awayby the sea. The obvious environmental consequences of the mining sector are illustrative of the environmental threats caused by a fast growing industry and industrializing agriculture, in a country where environmental policy is only in its formative years. Desertification, food insecurity and coastal erosion all contribute to an increasing number of environmental refugees. Environmental policy in Ghana is a post-Rio phenomenon. Environmental laws, a Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, an advisory National Committee for the Implementation of Agenda 21, and a fully mandated environmental administration have been established. This administration advocates a progressive attitude towards environmental legislation and points out the specific utility of economic and legal instruments in environmental management in this relatively fast developing country. The choice of instruments for environmental management is increasingly influenced by the specific state of African environmental and technological capacity and by a call for the recognition of the role of traditional customs in nature conservation. This African perspective on environmental management is further intensified by an unmet need for regional, transboundary cooperation in the West African subcontinent. This specific West African context calls for an elaboration of an effective capacity-building program for environmental management in the area.     

COLD-SHOCK RESISTANCE TO LARGEMOUTH BASS,BLUEGILL, AND CHANNEL CATFISH1

ABSTRACT: Juvenile specimens of largemouth bass, bluegill, and channel catfish were tested to determine their ability to withstand abrupt temperature decreases simulating the environmental impact from a sudden shutdown of a nuclear reactor during the winter. Temperature reductions were administered over 2-hour and 24-hour periods to assess the importance of the rate of temperature change and hence the mitigative value of having a holding pond with a one-day retention time between the proposed cooling tower discharge and the receiving stream. Temperature decreases administered over a 2-hour period resulted in much greater mortality than decreases of the same magnitude administered over a 24-hour period. Thus, the value of a pond for mitigation from cold shock was substantiated. Results also indicated that adherence to the U.S. EPA temperature criteria for freshwater fish should provide adequate protection from cold shock.     

ESTIMATED STREAM FLOW REQUIREMENTS FOR FISHES OF THE WASHITA RIVER BELOW FOSS RESERVOIR,WESTERN OKLAHOMA1

Velocity and depth preference curves for juvenile and adult red shiners (Notropis lutrensis) were developed for each season of the year. The incremental methodology, developed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for quantifying the amount of physical habitat available for fish, was applied as a basis for recommending minimum stream flows for life stages of red shiners and channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) in the Washita River below Foss Reservoir. The minimum stream flow required to support populations of red shiners and channel catfish was estimated to be 0.60 m³/s during all months except April and May, during which flushing flows of 3.0 m³/s were recommended. Under drought conditions a contingency flow of 0.18 m³/s was recommended for August through March, a flushing flow of 2.4 m³/s for April and May, and a flow of 0.30 m³/s for channel catfish spawning in June and July. Standing crop of adult red shiners per weighted usable area averaged 2.73 g/m² (27 kg/ha) for two sites on the Washita River. A positive relation between standing crop and weighted usable area was suggested. Use of the incremental methodology on the study reach below Foss Reservoir required 96 person-hours of labor, excluding training, travel, and developing preference curves, and a total cost of $1,762, of which $1,200 was for the purchase of equipment.     

三峡库区重庆段鲶鱼和鲤鱼体内持久性有机污染物分析

为了了解三峡库区重庆段水体中持久性有机污染物的生物富集情况,对该水体部分鱼类样品进行了分析。分析结果显示三峡库区重庆段水体中的部分持久性有机污染物已经在鲶鱼和鲤鱼体内形成富集,其检出浓度较之水体中对应浓度要高出2~4个数量级。     

DIFFERENTIAL ACCUMULATION OF SELENIUM AMONG AXIAL MUSCLE,REPRODUCTIVE AND LIVER TISSUES OF FOUR WARMWATER FISH SPECIES1

Bluegill (Lepotmis macrochirus), largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), white catfish (Ictalurus catus), and channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus), collected from an electric power plant cooling reservoir and a municipal water supply reservoir near Roxboro, North Carolina, were analyzed for selenium concentrations in axial muscle, reproductive and liver tissues. Fishes from the municipal water reservoir had lower selenium concentrations (≤0.2-2.1 μg/g - wet weight) than found in the cooling reservoir fishes (1.6-70.0 μg/g - wet weight) but similar distributions of concentrations among the tissues was evident. Selenium was differentially accumulated, with higher concentrations in liver tissues (0.7-70.0 μg/g - wet weight), followed by female reproductive tissues (0.7-25.0 μg/g - wet weight), axial muscle tissues (≤0.2-23.0 μg/g - wet weight) and male reproductive tissues (0.2-7.2 μg/g - wet weight).     

Identification of policies for a sustainable legal trade in rhinoceros horn based on population projection and socioeconomic models

Between 1990 and 2007, 15 southern white (Ceratotherium simum simum) and black (Diceros bicornis) rhinoceroses on average were killed illegally every year in South Africa. Since 2007 illegal killing of southern white rhinoceros for their horn has escalated to >950 individuals/year in 2013. We conducted an ecological–economic analysis to determine whether a legal trade in southern white rhinoceros horn could facilitate rhinoceros protection. Generalized linear models were used to examine the socioeconomic drivers of poaching, based on data collected from 1990 to 2013, and to project the total number of rhinoceroses likely to be illegally killed from 2014 to 2023. Rhinoceros population dynamics were then modeled under 8 different policy scenarios that could be implemented to control poaching. We also estimated the economic costs and benefits of each scenario under enhanced enforcement only and a legal trade in rhinoceros horn and used a decision support framework to rank the scenarios with the objective of maintaining the rhinoceros population above its current size while generating profit for local stakeholders. The southern white rhinoceros population was predicted to go extinct in the wild <20 years under present management. The optimal scenario to maintain the rhinoceros population above its current size was to provide a medium increase in antipoaching effort and to increase the monetary fine on conviction. Without legalizing the trade, implementing such a scenario would require covering costs equal to approximately $147,000,000/year. With a legal trade in rhinoceros horn, the conservation enterprise could potentially make a profit of $717,000,000/year. We believe the 35‐year‐old ban on rhinoceros horn products should not be lifted unless the money generated from trade is reinvested in improved protection of the rhinoceros population. Because current protection efforts seem to be failing, it is time to evaluate, discuss, and test alternatives to the present policy.     

Evaluating Rapid Participatory Rural Appraisal as an Assessment of Ethnoecological Knowledge and Local Biodiversity Patterns

Abstract:  There is a pressing need to find both locally and globally relevant tools to measure and compare biodiversity patterns. Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is important to biodiversity monitoring, but has a contested role in preliminary biodiversity assessments. We examined rapid participatory rural appraisal (rPRA) (a tool commonly used for local needs assessments) as an alternative to surveys of vascular plants conducted by people with local knowledge. We used rPRA to determine the local-knowledge consensus on the average richness, diversity, and height of local grasses and trees in three habitats surrounding Boumba, Niger, bordering Park-W. We then conducted our own vascular plant surveys to collect information on plant richness, abundance, and structure. Using a qualitative ranking, we compared TEK-based assessments of diversity patterns with our survey-based assessments. The TEK-based assessments matched survey-based assessments on measures of height and density for grasses and trees and tree richness. The two assessments correlated poorly on herb richness and Simpson's D value for both trees and grasses. Plant life form and gender of the participant affected the way diversity patterns were described, which highlights the usefulness of TEK in explaining local realities and indicates limitations of using TEK as a large-scale assessment tool. Our results demonstrate that rPRA can serve to combine local-knowledge inquiry with scientific study at a cost lower than vascular plant surveys and demonstrates a useful blunt tool for preliminary biodiversity assessment.     

Females learn from mothers and males learn from others. The effect of mother and siblings on the development of female mate preferences and male aggression biases in Lake Victoria cichlids, genus Mbipia

While species-assortative behaviour is often observed in sympatrically occurring species, there are few examples where we understand the extent to which development of assortative behaviour is genetically or environmentally determined, for instance, through learning. However, the majority of mate choice theory assumes genetic recognition mechanisms. Knowledge about the development of species recognition is important for our understanding of how closely related species can coexist and how this coexistence may have arisen. The ontogeny of female mate choice, for instance, may critically influence the degree of assortative mating under many circumstances. Also, male assortative aggression behaviour may affect fitness and the possibility for coexistence of two closely related species. Here, we test whether male aggression biases and female mate preferences of two Lake Victoria rock cichlid species, Mbipia mbipi and Mbipia lutea, are affected by experience. With an interspecific cross-fostering experiment, we test for the effect of experience with the phenotype of the mother and that of the siblings on species-assortative mate preferences and aggression biases. We demonstrate that female mate preferences are strongly influenced by learning about their mothers’ phenotype but not by experience with their siblings, despite ample opportunity for interactions. Male aggression biases, in contrast, are affected by experience with siblings but not by learning about their mothers’ phenotype. We suggest that the development of assortative behaviour of females, but not of males, creates favourable conditions for sympatric speciation in Lake Victoria cichlids.     

How dynamics and drivers of land use/land cover change impact elephant conservation and agricultural livelihood development in Rombo,Tanzania

Land use/land cover (LULC) change affects the provision of ecosystem services for humans and habitat for wildlife. Hence, it is crucial to monitor LULC particularly adjacent to protected areas. In this study, we measured LULC change in Rombo, Tanzania, an area with high-potential agro-ecological zones that is dominated by human–elephant conflicts (HECs). We used remote sensing and geographical information system techniques, questionnaires and village meetings to assess spatio-temporal patterns of the LULC changes in the study area. Using Landsat imagery, digital elevation model (DEM) and ground truthing, we classified and monitored changes in LULC from the years 1987 to 2015. We found that within Rombo, settlements were increasing, while agricultural and agroforestry lands were decreasing and respondents’ perceptions varied along the altitudinal gradient. Patterns of HEC and LULC were observed to change along the gradient and the later threatened the agricultural land and ecological integrity for elephant habitat, leading to high tension and competition between elephants and people. This research offers baseline information for land use planning to balance wildlife conservation with livelihood development in Rombo and highlights that managing the impacts of LULC changes on HEC and elephant habitat loss is a matter of urgency.