‘The New Harvest’ in Africa: Untapped potential or looming catastrophe? » ILRI News

‘The New Harvest’ in Africa: Untapped potential or looming catastrophe? » ILRI News: "Bunting says: 'Rising food prices and terrible future scenarios of the impact of climate change on food production, are focusing minds on what is perceived as Africa's huge untapped potential for agriculture. This week yet another report from the International Food Policy Research Institute warns that climate change could push prices up by 130%, and calls for unprecedented human ingenuity to meet the challenge of feeding a burgeoning population. . ."

‘The limits of human–and natural systems–adaptations are likely to be exceeded’

‘The limits of human–and natural systems–adaptations are likely to be exceeded’–Climate change researcher Rachel Warren » ILRI News: "Projections of global warming relative to pre-industrial for the A1FI emissions scenario—the one we’re currently on. Dark shading shows the mean ±1 standard deviation for the tunings to 19 AR4 GCMs [IPCC Fourth Assessment General Circulation Models] and the light shading shows the change in the uncertainty range when . . . climate-carbon-cycle feedbacks . . . are included. Published in a Royal Society special issue on climate change, 29 November 2010 (graphic credit: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Series A, Special Issue, 29 November 2010)."

INVASION OF THE NGOs: Nature, Territory, and Anarchy in Tanzania – Wesleying

INVASION OF THE NGOs: Nature, Territory, and Anarchy in Tanzania – Wesleying: "The role of NGOs in development is often assumed as a positive. But what is lost after these “developments” arrive? The rise of national parks and NGOs in Tanzania as protection for wildlife has led to the displacement and exploitation of the Maasai. Come listen and voice your thoughts about the cost of conservation and development."

Uganda Ends Sport Hunting as Wildlife Numbers Decline - NatGeo News Watch

Uganda Ends Sport Hunting as Wildlife Numbers Decline - NatGeo News Watch: "According to The New Vision: 'This follows a resolution from the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) to cancel hunting concessions offered years ago to the wildlife reserves.'We are concerned about the dwindling numbers of wild animals in the wildlife reserves. Hunting is prohibited,' said Mark Kamanzi, the acting director of UWA.'

Kamanzi was reported as saying that the share of benefits of sport hunting were lopsided and unlikely to deter poaching or improve UWA¹s capacity to manage the wildlife reserves."

EDGE Blog

EDGE Blog

The new EDGE mammals list has arrived! Latest research reveals a staggering 49 new species on the EDGE of Existence.

The double challenge of adapting to climate change while accelerating development in sub-Saharan Africa

Cambridge Journals Online - Abstract - The double challenge of adapting to climate change while accelerating development in sub-Saharan Africa: "Accelerating economic growth and social development is necessary to reduce the vulnerability and enhance the adaptive capacity of sub-Saharan Africa to cope with the consequences of predicted unfavorable future climate. This requires major investments and policy reforms to induce a needed radical transformation of the way development is currently pursued to a more climate-sensitive path of low carbon growth. Key gaps in the current knowledge base that call for major investments and urgent attention include the ability to forecast more robust local future climate and to account for the uncertainties associated with climate risks for ecosystems' functions and probable nonconvexities in future impacts to project more plausible scenarios for future development in sub-Saharan Africa"

Functional conservation areas and the future of Africa’s wildlife

Functional conservation areas and the future of Africa’s wildlife - Fynn - 2010 - African Journal of Ecology - Wiley Online Library: "Ungulate populations in African conservation areas (CAs) are in widespread decline, which can largely be attributed to a lack of functionality of the area encompassed by the CAs themselves. We present evidence from a wide range of African CAs showing that they do not encompass both the functional wet- and dry-season resources that ungulates traditionally migrated between."

Some Guiding Concepts for Conservation Biology

Some Guiding Concepts for Conservation Biology - LINDENMAYER - 2010 - Conservation Biology - Wiley Online Library: "The search for generalities in ecology has often been thwarted by contingency and ecological complexity that limit the development of predictive rules. We present a set of concepts that we believe succinctly expresses some of the fundamental ideas in conservation biology. (1) Successful conservation management requires explicit goals and objectives. (2) The overall goal of biodiversity management will usually be to maintain or restore biodiversity, not to maximize species richness. (3) A holistic approach is needed to solve conservation problems. (4) Diverse approaches to management can provide diverse environmental conditions and mitigate risk. (5) Using nature's template is important for guiding conservation management, but it is not a panacea. (6) Focusing on causes not symptoms enhances efficacy and efficiency of conservation actions. (7) Every species and ecosystem is unique, to some degree. (8) Threshold responses are important but not ubiquitous. (9) Multiple stressors often exert critical effects on species and ecosystems. (10) Human values are variable and dynamic and significantly shape conservation efforts."

What Every Conservation Biologist Should Know about Economic Theory

What Every Conservation Biologist Should Know about Economic Theory - GOWDY - 2010 - Conservation Biology - Wiley Online Library: "The last century has seen the ascendance of a core economic model, which we will refer to as Walrasian economics. This model is driven by the psychological assumptions that humans act only in a self-referential and narrowly rational way and that production can be described as a self-contained circular flow between firms and households. These assumptions have critical implications for the way economics is used to inform conservation biology. Yet the Walrasian model is inconsistent with a large body of empirical evidence about actual human behavior, and it violates a number of basic physical laws. Research in behavioral science and neuroscience shows that humans are uniquely social animals and not self-centered rational economic beings."

Modeling as persuasion: the impact of group model building on attitudes and behavior - Rouwette

Modeling as persuasion: the impact of group model building on attitudes and behavior - Rouwette - 2010 - System Dynamics Review - Wiley Online Library: "Client involvement in modeling is expected to change mental models and thereby foster implementation of conclusions. Leading authors have pointed out that a lack of knowledge on the crucial elements of modeling interventions hinders accumulation of research results. There is no clear evidence for the effectiveness of group model building, and a conceptual model linking elements of the modeling process to goals is missing. We propose an integrative conceptual model, drawing on theories of persuasion (mental model change) and the influence of beliefs, attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control on actions. Our study builds on standard operationalizations and a body of research in social psychology."