scholarly journals Conhecimento botânico e representações ambientais em uma comunidade rural no Domínio Atlântico: bases para conservação local

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustavo Taboada Soldati ◽  
Reinaldo Duque-Brasil ◽  
Taline Cristina Da Silva ◽  
France Maria Gontijo Coelho ◽  
Ulysses Paulino De Albuquerque

This paper aimed to contribute to building conservation strategies, evaluating specific realitiesand knowledge of the local communities that manage the landscape. In this ethnobotanical study, the knowledge of a ruralcommunity and the local concerns about an Atlantic Forest fragment, currently under legal protection, at Viçosa, MinasGerais, are presented. Data from 26 participants was collected using a series of ethnobotanical methods, such as semistructuredinterviews, free lists, guided tours and cognitive maps. A total of 134 species were recognized. Apuleialeiocarpa (Caesalpinaceae), Xylopia sericea (Annonaceae), Myrcia fallax (Myrtaceae), Ocotea odorifera (Lauraceae) andPiptadenia gonoacantha (Mimosaceae) were the most recorded. Resources were divided into six use categories, andconstruction was the most important. The Collective Subject Discourse analysis about environmental concerns revealeda detailed knowledge of a variety of ecological processes, such as the diversity of plants, animals and vegetation types,plant interactions and the presence of bioindicators. The results provide an initial description of the relationship betweenthe local community research partner and the forest fragment that was studied, being a starting point for the proposals tothe biodiversity conservation considering the local reality.

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. e51485
Author(s):  
Luana Alencar ◽  
Edson Guilherme

Seed dispersal is one of the principal ecological processes that determine the richness and distribution of plants in tropical forests. Birds play an important role in the zoochoric dispersal of seeds in these forests. The present study investigated the bird-plant interactions involving the ingestion and dispersal of seeds by the birds found in the edge habitat of an isolated forest fragment on the Catuaba Experimental Farm in eastern Acre, in southwestern Brazilian Amazonia. The birds were captured using mist nets, and the seeds were collected from fecal samples obtained during the handling of the animals. These seeds were sorted and identified. The bird and the plant species identified during the study were used to calculate the connectivity and nestedness of the bird-plant interactions. We captured 82 species of birds, with a total sampling effort of 203,180 h.m². Fecal samples obtained from 19 of the bird species contained a total of 2,086 seeds, representing 23 plant species. The interaction network had an intermediate connectance, and significant nestedness. Ramphocelus carbo had the highest importance index and was the bird with the largest number of plant interactions, while Cecropia latiloba was the plant with the highest importance index, followed by Schefflera morototoni. Most of the seed-dispersing birds identified in the present study are generalists found in both the forest core and its edge. The results of the study indicated that the community of generalist-frugivore birds interacts extensively with the plant community of the fragment, providing seed dispersal services that include the deforested areas adjacent to the fragment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingrid Vigna ◽  
Angelo Besana ◽  
Elena Comino ◽  
Alessandro Pezzoli

Although increasing concern about climate change has raised awareness of the fundamental role of forest ecosystems, forests are threatened by human-induced impacts worldwide. Among them, wildfire risk is clearly the result of the interaction between human activities, ecological domains, and climate. However, a clear understanding of these interactions is still needed both at the global and local levels. Numerous studies have proven the validity of the socioecological system (SES) approach in addressing this kind of interdisciplinary issue. Therefore, a systematic review of the existing literature on the application of SES frameworks to forest ecosystems is carried out, with a specific focus on wildfire risk management. The results demonstrate the existence of different methodological approaches that can be grouped into seven main categories, which range from qualitative analysis to quantitative spatially explicit investigations. The strengths and limitations of the approaches are discussed, with a specific reference to the geographical setting of the works. The research suggests the importance of local community involvement and local knowledge consideration in wildfire risk management. This review provides a starting point for future research on forest SES and a supporting tool for the development of a sustainable wildfire risk adaptation and mitigation strategy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (5) ◽  
pp. 419-427
Author(s):  
Nehru Prabakaran

AbstractThe inter-specific resilience among mangrove species to sea level rise (SLR) is a key to design conservation strategies for this economically important ecosystem that is among the most vulnerable to SLR. Tectonic processes can cause sudden increases or drops in sea level due to subsidence or uplift of the land surface, which can also provide insights for the mangrove community responses to rapid sea level change. This study aimed to investigate the responses of mangrove species to rapid SLR caused by land subsidence of 1.1 m during the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake at Car Nicobar Island. The Rhizophora spp. showed remarkable resilience to this rapid SLR, while the landward mangrove vegetation comprising Bruguiera spp., Lumnitzera spp., Sonneratia spp. etc., were unable to survive. Also, Rhizophora spp. establishment in the previous landward mangrove zones was more rapid than the landward mangrove species establishment in the previous terrestrial zones. The observed resilience of Rhizophora spp. may be due to the local specific geological legacy and species-specific ecological processes. However, further studies focusing on microcosm experiments to understand the Rhizophora spp. resilience to rapid SLR at the study site is required to strengthen these observations.


Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 567
Author(s):  
Misty Stevenson ◽  
Kalynn L. Hudman ◽  
Alyx Scott ◽  
Kelsey Contreras ◽  
Jeffrey G. Kopachena

Based on surveys of winter roost sites, the eastern migratory population of the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) in North America appears to have declined in the last 20 years and this has prompted the implementation of numerous conservation strategies. However, there is little information on the survivorship of first-generation monarchs in the core area of occupancy in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana where overwinter population recovery begins. The purpose of this study was to determine the survivorship of first-generation eggs to third instars at a site in north Texas and to evaluate host plant arthropods for their effect on survivorship. Survivorship to third instar averaged 13.4% and varied from 11.7% to 15.6% over three years. The host plants harbored 77 arthropod taxa, including 27 predatory taxa. Despite their abundance, neither predator abundance nor predator richness predicted monarch survival. However, host plants upon which monarchs survived often harbored higher numbers of non-predatory arthropod taxa and more individuals of non-predatory taxa. These results suggest that ecological processes may have buffered the effects of predators and improved monarch survival in our study. The creation of diverse functional arthropod communities should be considered for effective monarch conservation, particularly in southern latitudes.


2001 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-317
Author(s):  
Sudhir Venkatesh

Chicago is amythic city. Its representation in the popular imagination is varied and has included, at various times, the attributes of a blue-collar town, a city in a garden, and a gangster's paradise. Myths of Chicago “grow abundantly between fact and emotion,” and they selectively and simultaneously evoke and defer attributes of the city. For one perduring myth, social scientists may be held largely responsible: namely, that Chicago is “one of the most planned cities of themodern era,” with a street grid, layout of buildings and waterways, and organization of its residential and commercial architecture that reveal a “geometric certainty” (Suttles 1990). The lasting scholarly fascination with Chicago's geography derives in part from the central role that social scientists played in constructing the planned city. In the 1920s,University of Chicago sociologist Ernest Burgess worked with his colleagues in other social science disciplines to divide the city into communities and neighborhoods. This was a long and deliberate process based on large-scale “social surveys” of several thousand city inhabitants.Their work as members of the Local Community Research Committee (LCRC) produced the celebrated Chicago “community area”—that is, 75 mutually exclusive geographic areas of human settlement, each of which is portrayed as being socially and culturally distinctive.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Moysés Barbanti ◽  
Rosley Anholon ◽  
Izabela Simon Rampasso ◽  
Vitor William Batista Martins ◽  
Osvaldo Luiz Gonçalves Quelhas ◽  
...  

Purpose This paper aims to evaluate the adoption of sustainable procurement practices adopted by Brazilian manufacturing companies in supplier selection; additionally, it is aimed to understand which of these practices enable a better differentiation of the analysed companies. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review was performed to compose the theoretical base of this research. In addition, a detailed study of ISO 20400 standard was conducted. The guidelines of ISO 20400 were used as a base to structure a questionnaire used in a survey with professionals working in procurement sphere of manufacturing companies in Brazil. The data were analysed via frequency and CRITIC (Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation) method. Findings A moderate dispersion in the adoption level of sustainable procurement practices in supplier selection process of the manufacturing companies was observed; in practices associated with social aspects, the dispersion is greater. A negative issue to be highlighted is that almost 20% of analysed companies did not even considered in their supplier selection process if their candidates accomplish philanthropic activities, generate jobs in local community and fulfill the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of United Nations (UN). Those two last practices are the ones with the best capacity to differ the companies in the sample. Originality/value There are few studies that focuses on understanding the adoption of sustainable procurement practices in manufacturing companies' supplier selection process. The main contribution of this study to the literature is to evidence that social requirements in supplier selection process are considered in a clear and well-structured form only by few Brazilian manufacturing companies. Despite the sample size, companies analysed in this research are prominent organisations in manufacturing sector. Thus, if this situation occurs in these companies, a more critical scenario will be evidenced in other organisations. This study has implication for practice and academy. For companies' managers, information present here can be used to debate the theme in the organisational context and the nine practices and scale can be used to perform a critical analysis of company's practices. For researchers, the information present here can be used as starting point for futures studies.


Author(s):  
Agnieszka Jaszczak ◽  
Gintarė Vaznonienė ◽  
Bernardas Vaznonis

Insufficient analysis of green infrastructure spaces benefit to youth activity promotion in Lithuanian social sciences discourse enabled to formulate scientific problem – what can be possibilities of using green infrastructure spaces while strengthening youth integration and participation in local community? The aim of the article – after analyzing social benefit of green infrastructure spaces to youth, to determine their usage possibilities for strengthening youth integration and participation in local community. Research methods: scientific literature, document analysis and synthesis, abstraction and comparison methods. Šiauliai district Kuršėnai town environmentally directed school’s projects were analysed for the case study. For youth, green infrastructure spaces are the areas for environmental education, health improvement, strengthening of their integration and participation in local community through various activities. Youth gradually become involved into social activity where their status of a passive participant changes into the status of an active participant. Case study can be used by various local actors (other schools, community, teachers, parents etc.) strengthening integration and participation of youth in local community by using GI spaces.


Author(s):  
Anna Sokołowska

AbstractThis paper is an attempt to analyze the necessity of defining and extending the protection of the child’s creative process. The starting point for consideration is the key role of artistic instruction in the child’s education and development which justifies providing appropriate framework for that process. The present text defines artistic output as a personal good covered by legal protection and specifies relevant legal regulations underlying the subject. It also reveals the position of the child as a creator with his/her specific characteristics and possible dangers arising from those characteristics. Another issue discussed here is the creative process and its components. In a further part, legal aspects of the child’s situation in the context of creative activity are analyzed with references to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), the (Polish) Family and Guardianship Code (1964), the UN Declaration on Rights of the Child (1959) and other legal acts. Finally, the paper addresses objectives of arts education in the light of the discussed issues. Conclusions include an indication of certain similarity between some areas of interest in pedagogy and in law. The main conclusion comes down to a statement that in the education process we should take into consideration so-called creative integrity which constitutes a personal good of both the adult and the child, and which is covered by legal protection.


2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (43) ◽  
pp. 91-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Łukasz Damurski ◽  
Jacek Pluta ◽  
Karel Maier ◽  
Hans Thor Andersen

AbstractLocal service centres play a vital role in shaping the quality of life in urban neighbourhoods. They offer access to essential everyday services (shops, education, healthcare, personal services) and to public spaces. If they are properly planned and managed, they can bring particular added values to a local community, such as social integration and territorial identification. The history of urban planning has produced several patterns of local service centres (ancient agora, mediaeval market square, neighbourhood unit, modern agora) but today a question arises: how can a local service centre be successfully planned and organised in post-modern political practice? How can its potential be realised and the ever-changing needs, expectations and preferences of local communities be met? Who should be involved in those processes? To answer those questions in this paper we refer to citizen participation and public communication concepts, where selecting the appropriate stakeholders emerges as a necessary starting point for effective urban governance. We present the results of in-depth interviews with local actors (local authorities, municipality officials, town planners, non-governmental organisations, local leaders) in Poland (Wrocław, Siechnice, Ostrów Wielkopolski, Warszawa and Zabierzów), Czech Republic (Prague) and Denmark (Copenhagen). Depending on the specific local context, various stakeholders are perceived as essential to the decision-making process. The power relations and problems encountered in implementing public policy in particular locations have been summarised in three sections: relationships between stakeholders, leadership, and good practices. The paper concludes with a list of typical actors who should be involved in planning, building and managing a local service centre in an urbanised neigh-bourhood.


Author(s):  
Luminița MUNTEANU

The article is the result of a complex research activity. The starting point was to make a diagnosis of the Iasi community on the needs of social assistance. The interest of local authorities is to ensure optimal conditions for the provision of quality social services, leading to an improvement in the quality of life of people at social risk. This article makes a complex assessment of the social problems faced by the local community in Iasi, using the analysis of documents, questionnaires and focus groups. The special contribution is given by the development strategy of the resulting local social assistance system, with emphasis on the category of elderly beneficiaries.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document