Plant diversity and conservation status of Nanda Devi National Park and comparison with highland National Parks of the Indian Himalayan Region

Geranium rubifolium (Geraniaceae) has been rediscovered while conducting floristic sampling for the monographic studies on the genus Geranium from Indian Himalayan region. The species was described 179 years ago by John Lindley by using Iconotype, serving as the type and the only known material of the taxon. The locality of Lindley’s collection (collection made by Dr. Royle) is imprecisely described, as he only mentioned ‘the Himalaya’ where the taxon is found. Therefore any search attempt would require an extensive exploration of the Indian Himalayan region. Morphological variation of G. rubifolium has been poorly understood because of the non-availability of representative specimen. Consequently, after rediscovering the taxon, we provide here the detailed taxonomic description, notes on habitat, distribution and its conservation status.

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The occurrence and conservation status of Ceratogyrus bechuanicus and C. brachycephalus in the Transvaal, South Africa.

Koedoe ◽

10.4102/koedoe.v34i2.423 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 34 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

J.I. De Wet ◽

H.J. Schoonbee

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

National Parks ◽

National Park ◽

Nature Reserve ◽

Conservation Status ◽

Species Conservation ◽

Nature Reserves ◽

Conservation Priority ◽

Conservation Area ◽

Conservation Plans

In South Africa, Ceratogyrus is presently protected by the Transvaal Provincial Nature Conservation Ordinance. Owing to the demand for these spiders as pets they are classified as Commercially Threatened in terms of the ILJCN system. It was found, however, that the two known species in the Transvaal are well represented in protected areas which include nature reserves and national parks. Ceratogyrus bechuanicus is well represented in the Kruger National Park, Messina, D'nyala and Atherstone provincial nature reserves, as well as in the Klaserie and Sabi Sand private nature reserves in the Transvaal. The only conservation area in which C. brachycephalus has been located is the Messina Provincial Nature Reserve. With its much smaller distribution, C. brachycephalus has a higher conservation priority than C. bechuanicus. Applied ecological work needs to be done so that comprehensive species conservation plans for both species can be compiled.

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From Competition to Cooperation: A History of Canada–US National Park Relations

Environment and History ◽

10.3197/096734019x15631846928783 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Terence Young ◽

Alan MacEachern ◽

Lary Dilsaver

Keyword(s):

National Parks ◽

National Park ◽

The United States ◽

The Us ◽

Park Service ◽

Settler Societies ◽

History Of ◽

Relationship Of ◽

Flow Of Information ◽

The Relationship

This essay explores the evolving international relationship of the two national park agencies that in 1968 began to offer joint training classes for protected-area managers from around the world. Within the British settler societies that dominated nineteenth century park-making, the United States’ National Park Service (NPS) and Canada’s National Parks Branch were the most closely linked and most frequently cooperative. Contrary to campfire myths and nationalist narratives, however, the relationship was not a one-way flow of information and motivation from the US to Canada. Indeed, the latter boasted a park bureaucracy before the NPS was established. The relationship of the two nations’ park leaders in the half century leading up to 1968 demonstrates the complexity of defining the influences on park management and its diffusion from one country to another.

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Into Russian Nature

10.1093/oso/9780190914554.001.0001 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Alan D. Roe

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

Environmental Protection ◽

National Parks ◽

International Organizations ◽

National Park ◽

World War ◽

Nature Protection ◽

Soviet Government ◽

History Of ◽

Development Goals

Into Russian Nature examines the history of the Russian national park movement. Russian biologists and geographers had been intrigued with the idea of establishing national parks before the Great October Revolution but pushed the Soviet government successfully to establish nature reserves (zapovedniki) during the USSR’s first decades. However, as the state pushed scientists to make zapovedniki more “useful” during the 1930s, some of the system’s staunchest defenders started supporting tourism in them. In the decades after World War II, the USSR experienced a tourism boom and faced a chronic shortage of tourism facilities. Also during these years, Soviet scientists took active part in Western-dominated international environmental protection organizations, where they became more familiar with national parks. In turn, they enthusiastically promoted parks for the USSR as a means to reconcile environmental protection and economic development goals, bring international respect to Soviet nature protection efforts, and help instill a love for the country’s nature and a desire to protect it in Russian/Soviet citizens. By the late 1980s, their supporters pushed transformative, and in some cases quixotic, park proposals. At the same time, national park opponents presented them as an unaffordable luxury during a time of economic struggle, especially after the USSR’s collapse. Despite unprecedented collaboration with international organizations, Russian national parks received little governmental support as they became mired in land-use conflicts with local populations. While the history of Russia’s national parks illustrates a bold attempt at reform, the state’s failure’s to support them has left Russian park supporters deeply disillusioned.

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Values of Travel Time for Recreational Trips under Different Behavioural Rules

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13126831 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (12) ◽

pp. 6831

Author(s):

Rosa Marina González ◽

Concepción Román ◽

Ángel Simón Marrero

Keyword(s):

Travel Time ◽

National Parks ◽

Traffic Congestion ◽

National Park ◽

Revealed Preference ◽

Discrete Choice Models ◽

Model Specification ◽

Regret Minimization ◽

Random Regret Minimization

In this study, discrete choice models that combine different behavioural rules are estimated to study the visitors’ preferences in relation to their travel mode choices to access a national park. Using a revealed preference survey conducted on visitors of Teide National Park (Tenerife, Spain), we present a hybrid model specification—with random parameters—in which we assume that some attributes are evaluated by the individuals under conventional random utility maximization (RUM) rules, whereas others are evaluated under random regret minimization (RRM) rules. We then compare the results obtained using exclusively a conventional RUM approach to those obtained using both RUM and RRM approaches, derive monetary valuations of the different components of travel time and calculate direct elasticity measures. Our results provide useful instruments to evaluate policies that promote the use of more sustainable modes of transport in natural sites. Such policies should be considered as priorities in many national parks, where negative transport externalities such as traffic congestion, pollution, noise and accidents are causing problems that jeopardize not only the sustainability of the sites, but also the quality of the visit.

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The Wadden Sea as a National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site: Students’ Word Associations with These Two Conservation Designations

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13148006 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (14) ◽

pp. 8006

Author(s):

Till Schmäing ◽

Norbert Grotjohann

Keyword(s):

National Parks ◽

National Park ◽

Wadden Sea ◽

World Heritage ◽

World Heritage Site ◽

Unesco World Heritage ◽

Word Associations ◽

Heritage Site ◽

Unesco World Heritage Site ◽

Significant Difference

The Wadden Sea ecosystem is unique in many respects from a biological perspective. This is one reason why it is protected by national parks in Germany and by its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In biology didactics, there are only a few studies that focus on the Wadden Sea. This work investigates students’ word associations with the two stimulus words “national park” and “UNESCO World Heritage Site”. The survey was conducted among students living directly at the Wadden Sea and among students from the inland. The analysis of the identified associations (n = 8345) was carried out within the framework of a quantitative content analysis to be able to present and discuss the results on a group level. A statistically significant difference was found between the two groups. Overall, results showed that the students made subject-related associations as well as a large number of associations to both stimulus words that could be judged as non-subject-related. In some cases, a connection with the region of residence could be found, but this was not generally the case. Even students’ immediate residential proximity to the Wadden Sea is no guarantee that they have knowledge of the two considered protection terms.

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Does a National Park Enhance the Environment-Friendliness of Tourists as an Ecotourism Destination?

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18168321 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (16) ◽

pp. 8321

Author(s):

Eunseong Jeong ◽

Taesoo Lee ◽

Alan Dixon Brown ◽

Sara Choi ◽

Minyoung Son

Keyword(s):

National Parks ◽

Natural Environment ◽

Behavioral Intention ◽

National Park ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Environmental Concern ◽

Equation Modeling ◽

Environment Friendly ◽

Sustainable Environment ◽

The Relationship

Governments have designated national parks to protect the natural environment against ecosystem destruction and improve individuals’ emotional and recreational life. National parks enhance environment-friendly awareness by conducting ecotourism activities and individuals with environment-friendly awareness are inclined to continue to visit national parks as ecotourism destinations. The New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) is a widely used measure of environmental concern, suitable for measuring the environment-friendly attitude and revisit intention of visitors of national parks. Therefore, the study carried out structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate the relationship between the NEP, national park conservation consciousness and environment-friendly behavioral intention. Based on the results, an implication is presented to induce national parks to cultivate individual environment-friendly awareness and for visitors to pursue sustainable, environment-friendly tourism behavior. The findings indicate that national parks are to expand educational programs and facilities for eco-tourists visiting national parks to maintain a balanced relationship between themselves and nature and have a strong environmental awareness to preserve the natural environment.

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Occurrence of the Green Shield-Moss Buxbaumia viridis (Moug.) Brid. in the Bieszczady Mountains of Poland

Forests ◽

10.3390/f12030374 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 374

Author(s):

Piotr Brewczyński ◽

Kamil Grałek ◽

Piotr Bilański

Keyword(s):

National Park ◽

Large Scale ◽

Conservation Status ◽

Natura 2000 ◽

Field Work ◽

Managed Forests ◽

Moss Species ◽

Microhabitat Preferences ◽

Natura 2000 Site ◽

Forest District

The small-sized gametophytes and sporophytes of the green shield-moss Buxbaumia viridis (Moug.) Brid. make it difficult to study. However, in Europe, there has been increasing interest in this species in the past few years, mostly as a result of the implementation of the Natura 2000 network. In Poland, B. viridis has only been reported in isolated studies that have been limited in terms of area and the number of participating workers. One of the Polish regions where B. viridis was recently recorded is the Bieszczady Mountains, but there have been no large-scale surveys of that region to date. The objective of the current work was to describe the B. viridis population in the Bieszczady Mountains in terms of its spatial distribution and abundance, investigate its selected microhabitat preferences, and evaluate the conservation status of this moss species within the Natura 2000 site Bieszczady PLC180001. The studied region encompassed 93,490.44 ha, including 69,056.23 ha of managed forests and 24,434.21 ha of forests belonging to the Bieszczady National Park. A preliminary survey was conducted in the Cisna Forest District (forest area of 19,555.82 ha) on 15–17 November 2017, while the main survey was performed in selected forest subcompartments of four forest districts—Baligród, Komańcza, Lutowiska, and Stuposiany—as well as the Bieszczady National Park from 5 to 16 November 2018. The field work consisted of searching for B. viridis sporophytes and setae and recording selected population and locality characteristics. The study led to the discovery of 353 new B. viridis localities in 202 study areas, with 9197 diploid individuals (sporophytes or setae only) growing in 545 microhabitats. The number of B. viridis localities discovered in the Bieszczady Mountains during 17 days of survey in 2017 and 2018 was two times higher than the combined number of localities previously found in Poland over more than 150 years (159 localities). Additionally, the number of sporophytes and setae identified was two times greater than their overall number in previous records. In addition, this study provides information about selected microhabitat preferences and the conservation status of this moss in the Bieszczady Natura 2000 site.

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Spatiotemporal Heterogeneity of Ecological Policy Compromises Human Well-Being and Giant Panda Habitat Conservation in Giant Panda National Park

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13095013 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (9) ◽

pp. 5013

Author(s):

Dan Zhu ◽

Degang Yang

Keyword(s):

Environmental Factors ◽

Socioeconomic Factors ◽

National Park ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Giant Panda ◽

Conservation Status ◽

Well Being ◽

Habitat Conservation ◽

Spatiotemporal Heterogeneity ◽

Panda Habitat

Identifying how policy, socioeconomic factors, and environmental factors influence changes in human well-being (HWB) and conservation efficiency is important for ecological management and sustainable development, especially in the Giant Panda National Park (GPNP). In this study, we systematically analyzed the differences in the conservation status of the giant panda habitat and changes in HWB over 15 years in the GPNP, which includes six mountain sites, Minshan (MS), Qionglai (QLS), Xiaoxiangling (XXL), Liangshan (LS), Qinling (QL), and Daxiangling (DXL). Redundancy analyses were used to determine the factors contributing (policy, socioeconomic factors, and environmental factors) to HWB and giant panda habitat conservation (HC). In addition, using a structural equation model (SEM), we investigated the relationship between the aforementioned three factors and their direct and indirect effects on HWB and HC. The results indicated that there was spatiotemporal heterogeneity of HWB and HC in our study area. There was an increasing number of plant species as well as an increased number of giant panda in GPNP. Generally, HWB in 2015 showed an increasing trend compared with that in 2000. Socioeconomic factors (23.6%) have the biggest influence on HWB and HC, followed by policy (23.2%) and environmental factors (19.4%). Conservation policy had a significantly positive influence on HWB (0.52), while it negatively influenced HC (−0.15). Socioeconomic factors significantly negatively influenced HWB (−0.38). The formulation and implementation of policies to promote economic development will contribute to the protection of giant pandas and their habitat. Our results provide insight on the conservation status of the giant panda habitat, HWB, and factors influencing them in different mountain sites in the GPNP, as well as having implications for the future management of the GPNP.

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