Game conservation in Africa: Horns, claws and the bottom line | The Economist

Game conservation in Africa: Horns, claws and the bottom line | The Economist: "Some environmental economists contend that the failure of conservationists to take local cost-benefit analysis seriously has accelerated the loss of biodiversity. They feel strongly that the private sector should step in. “Private management structures are a lot more effective in capturing the economic value of biodiversity,” says Wolf Krug, a German environmental economist. He also criticises some animal-rights groups for campaigning against hunting; that tactic, he says, devalues the animals they are trying to save. When pressed, and in private, a surprising number of conservationists say they would like to see limited hunting to provide an income stream for local communities."

ScienceDirect - Environmental Modelling & Software : Challenging beliefs through multi-level participatory modelling in Indonesia

ScienceDirect - Environmental Modelling & Software : Challenging beliefs through multi-level participatory modelling in Indonesia

A critical challenge for science in times of increasingly depleted natural resources is how policy and management can be improved to attain a pathway to sustainability. This paper argues that facilitating a learning experience for decision makers by employing participatory modelling and explicitly considering multiple tiers of governance can effectively contribute to achieve sustainable outcomes. Decision makers operate on different scales and respond to decisions made on other scales. However, shared beliefs can vary and policy interventions from different levels can be incompatible due to a lack of cross-sectoral and cross-scale coordination. Sustainability is determined by conditions defined by this process of interactive decision-making, and across various tiers of governance.

ScienceDirect - Ecological Complexity : Long-term socio-ecological research (LTSER) for biodiversity protection – A complex systems approach for the study of dynamic human–nature interactions

ScienceDirect - Ecological Complexity : Long-term socio-ecological research (LTSER) for biodiversity protection – A complex systems approach for the study of dynamic human–nature interactions

Regarding biological diversity we explore, in particular, the advantages for improving: (1) ecological-economic modelling, a powerful technique for analysing complex human–nature interaction, (2) the design of choice experiments, a rather new evaluation method for assessing the benefits of conservation and (3) the understanding of biodiversity as complex social dilemma. Regarding the issue of research collaboration, we focus on the geographical scale of LTSER sites and, on a more general level, on the demands of research management in terms of project design, common knowledge and organisation of research teams.

ScienceDirect - Journal for Nature Conservation : Post-normal science and the art of nature conservation

ScienceDirect - Journal for Nature Conservation : Post-normal science and the art of nature conservation

Nature conservation may be considered a post-normal science in that the loss of biodiversity and increasing environmental degradation require urgent action but are characterised by uncertainty at every level. An ‘extended peer community’ with varying skills, perceptions and values are involved in decision-making and implementation of conservation, and the uncertainty involved limits the effectiveness of practice. In this paper we briefly review the key ecological, philosophical and methodological uncertainties associated with conservation, and then highlight the uncertainties and gaps present within the structure and interactions of the conservation community, and which exist mainly between researchers and practitioners, in the context of nature conservation in the UK.

ScienceDirect - Ecological Economics : Bridging ecological and social systems coevolution: A review and proposal

ScienceDirect - Ecological Economics : Bridging ecological and social systems coevolution: A review and proposal

"Social and Natural sciences have, for the most part, ignored the existence of interlinked/interdependent evolutionary processes between cultural and biotic systems, both embedded in an overall dynamic biophysical environment. In this paper, we explore the potential of filling this gap by further developing a common coevolutionary framework based on earlier work in ecological economics. Our main concern is to contribute to the understanding of socioecological coevolution in two ways: (1) to find a general framework that accommodates advances in the explanation of sociocultural evolution in social sciences and, (2) to identify the specific mechanisms that could link this knowledge to what is known in the biological sciences."

BioOne Online Journals - Landscapes Shaped by People and Place Institutions Require a New Conservation Agenda

BioOne Online Journals - Landscapes Shaped by People and Place Institutions Require a New Conservation Agenda: "Landscape patterns provide a multiscalar “theater” in which humanecological interactions play out. The regional landscape context in which a new conservation agenda might be developed recognizes the fragmented matrix as a variety of patterns of not just ecosystems but human communities with various private lands or resource tenures, including agricultural and other working landscape elements. Each element of the mosaic influences other elements. Scientists from diverse disciplines are now recognizing that human history and policy are critically entwined with ecosystems and should be examined as social-ecological systems."

Game conservation in Africa: Horns, claws and the bottom line | The Economist

Game conservation in Africa: Horns, claws and the bottom line | The Economist: "The value of rhino horn in China, ounce for ounce, is higher than gold. It is likely to keep rising with an ageing population; in Chinese medicine the horn is ground into a powder to alleviate fevers and pain, particularly for terminally ill patients. With more Chinese contractors working in Africa, the risk of poaching seems to have increased. Market forces are insistent. Even at Ol Pejeta, which is protected by electric fences and armed guards, the horns of the four northern whites have had to be filed down to limit the risk of poaching. An inside job at one private ranch in Kenya last Christmas saw a rhino killed and its horns hacked off. The Kenya Wildlife Service later tracked down the culprits and recovered the horns, along with $8,500 in cash the poachers had been paid, with the balance payable on delivery. Sold in 10g increments in Guangzhou, the seven kilos of horn would be worth $250,000."

CDC - PHIN Communities of Practice - Resource Kit - Home

CDC - PHIN Communities of Practice - Resource Kit - Home: "Communities of Practice (CoPs) are working to strengthen the exchange of electronic information as members collaborate, share, and focus on issues prioritized by the public health community. The Communities provide a participatory environment for members to learn, share expertise, and develop solutions to improve public health’s capacity to use and exchange information electronically.

The Communities of Practice Program (CoPP), in its role of supporting the public health community, developed this Resource Kit to provide members and interested parties with information about CoPs and their function within the public health. The Resource Kit offers a program overview, templates, and guides that can be used to develop a new community or enhance an existing community. Within this kit, you will find guidance for all stages of CoP development—from planning to evaluation!"

ScienceDirect - Ecological Economics : Applying methodological pluralism to wildlife and the economy

ScienceDirect - Ecological Economics : Applying methodological pluralism to wildlife and the economy

Methodological pluralism is important when we study complex systems. We aim to show that methodological pluralism yields additional insight by applying it to a specific question: how are the economy and wildlife related in developed and developing countries? We identify three possible ingredients of methodological pluralism: (1) using both qualitative and quantitative information; (2) tapping the potential of history to illuminate slow-moving variables; and (3) explicitly synthesizing either individually or in groups, by thinking about the corresponding system. We illustrate with examples.

ScienceDirect - Encyclopedia of Ecology : Socioecological Systems

 

Few ecosystems are free of extensive human influence. Landscapes change constantly from natural and anthropogenic drivers, and land use and land cover changes by humans have been identified as a primary effect of humans on natural systems. These changes underlie fragmentation and habitat loss, which are the greatest threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services. The complex interactions between development decisions and ecosystems, and how the consequences of these decisions may then influence human values and subsequent decisions is an important area of study.

ScienceDirect - Encyclopedia of Ecology : Socioecological Systems