scholarly journals Logging impact on Amazonian white-sand forests: perspectives from a sustainable development reserve

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 316-323
Author(s):  
Layon Oreste DEMARCHI ◽  
Veridiana Vizoni SCUDELLER ◽  
Livia Carvalho MOURA ◽  
Aline LOPES ◽  
Maria Teresa Fernandez PIEDADE

ABSTRACT Overexploitation is one of the main causes of biodiversity loss and local extinction. In the Brazilian Amazon, the intensive use of high-value timber species is leading to a decline in their populations. When in decline, these species can be replaced by less valuable and more common ones that are more feasible to exploit. We conducted interviews with residents of two communities in a sustainable development reserve in central Amazonia, and used free lists and the cognitive salience index (S) to assess the perceptions of residents regarding the occurrence and purpose of timber exploitation, and to identify possible endangered species in white-sand and terra-firme forests. In addition, to infer possible consequences of logging, we assessed the current population status of timber species cited by residents in forest-plot inventories carried out within the reserve. S-index values and interviewee reports suggested an intensive use of terra-firme timber species and an apparently recent increase in the exploitation of white-sand species, which did not use to be exploited because of their relatively low commercial value. The inventories showed that the white-sand timber species have high relative densities and low S values in contrast to the terra-firme species, which mostly have low relative densities and high S values. Our results highlight the need to identify and monitor relevant timber species in both terra-firme and white-sand forests, and to increase the involvement of the local community in the development of logging management practices.

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Ahmad Khlaifat ◽  
Hala Abu Taleb ◽  
Zeyad Makhamreh ◽  
Deya Qtiashat

The urbanization processes and the accelerated growth in the Arab countries, during the last five decades, have resulted in negative social impact represented in the high rates of unemployment and poverty. This was accompanied with problems related to the provision of infrastructure and social facilities, inadequate housing for low-income persons and other environmental problems. Therefore, there is a need to apply and activate the role of decentralization processes to manage the cities under emerging modern urban services and activities, in order to identify policies and cope with innovative plans that suit for sustainable urban development. Incorporations of local people and decision makers in improving social, economic and environmental conditions, and participation of local people in decision making can lead to find the appropriate solution that can promote sustainable urban processes, and facilities the implementation of the local communities’ activities. Consequently, this will lead to improve the urban services in appropriate quality and economic visibility and sustain social consistency and environmental resources in the cities. In order to achieve a sustainable development practices in the municipalities, it is recommended to focus on local community resources, increase financial income, develop local human resources proficiency, and finally empower the local people authority and decision –making process, which can be achieved by the application of decentralization governance system.


2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marinela Nižić ◽  
Saša Ivanović ◽  
Danijel Drpić

Challenges to Sustainable Development in Island Tourism Every participant in the life of a local community, hence the local community of the island of Krk as well, must develop an awareness of how they can cooperate in the improvement of quality, environmental protection and safety. This awareness can be achieved through constant education, and the improvement and perfection of all the destination factors for the island of Krk. With the preventive measures of environmental protection and optimal resources usage in the construction projects and management of the island of Krk, as well as waste management practices (the system known as "The Eco Island of Krk"), the island of Krk has to become an example, aware of its responsibility for future generations and the need for sustainable development. Open communication and partner relations with the social community and all interested parties, primarily those related to environmental protection and tourist and visitor safety, must be main factors in the future sustainable development of the island. The adoption of an environmental management system as one of the strategic baselines of the sustainable development of the island provides it with a comparative advantage on the tourism market, thus defining it as an "eco island" with the fulfillment of all legal and other obligations, and satisfying the demands of tourists, the local community and the public, all with the goal of more successful environmental protection.


2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edyta Rudawska ◽  
Sanda Renko

Abstract Dynamic environment forces companies to develop new approaches to establishing objectives and to develop management practices. Apart from doing profit-making activities, companies are forced to undertake activities aiming at their long-term sustainable development. As a result of deregulation and globalization, the banking sector had to accept the postulations of sustainable development and to keep their position on the market through establishing lasting relationships with customers, environment organizations, employees and a local community. The main goal of this paper is to explore implications of sustainability on the banking sector. Based on the research on the sample of 33 bank managers, the paper is trying to find out whether there are similarities in sustainability aspects in the banking sectors of Poland and Croatia. The findings of the papers suggest that banks in Poland express stronger need to take into account the environmental, social and economic concerns comparing to banks in Croatia.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Randall Myster

The importance of unflooded forests in the Amazon and the need to investigate how their soils affect their floristics and stand structure, lead me to set up and sampled trees in four plots in terra firme forest, in white sand forest and in palm forest at the same site in the Peruvian Amazon. I found (1) the white sand forest plot had 15 families with Clusiaceae, Malvaceae and Myrtaceae the most common and Pachira brevipes the most common species, (2) the palm forest plot had 6 families with Arecaceae, Clusiaceae and Fabaceae the most common and Socratea exorrhiza the most common species, and (3) the terra firme forest plot had 47 families with Myristicacea, Fabaceae and Bombacace the most common and Otoba parvifolia and Astrocaryum murumura the most common species. For the stand structure of these forests, (1) terra firme had more stems and larger stems than white sand and palm, and while palm had more stems than white sand, white sand had larger stems than palm, (2) species richness was greatest in terra firme and decreased by a factor of three in white sand, and by a factor of five in palm, (3) basal area decreased from terra firme to white sand, but white sand and palm were comparable, (4) white sand had the greatest above-ground biomass, followed by terra firme and palm, and (5) white sand and palm were much more open forests than terra firme. Results strongly suggest that soils are a significant causal factor in determining floristic and structural differences among these Amazon forests, where the richer soil of terra firme forest helps produce both more structure and a richer floristics compared to the poor soil of palm forests and the even poorer soil of white sand forests.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Alice A. Oluoko-Odingo ◽  
Evaristus Makuyi Irandu

The seventeen (17) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) form a firm foundation for livelihoods and ecologi-cal sustainability in biodiversity conservation. Of the 17 SDGs, five of them focus on promoting sustainable consumption and production patterns (SDG 12), promotion of actions at all levels to deal with climate change (SDG 13), protecting and restoring all terrestrial ecosystems to end biodiversity loss (SDG 15), achieving peaceful and inclusive societies, the rule of law, effective and capable institutions (SDG 16) and strengthening and enhancing the means of implementation and global partnership for sustainable development (SDG 17) form the bond within which other SDGs coalesce with the goal of attaining sustainability of planetary ecosystems. The Kenyan and Tanzanian constitutions also are aligned to the achievement of livelihood sustainability. The fragmentation of the Mau-Mara ecosystem and consequent loss of wildlife habitat, the occurrence of droughts due to fluctuating rainfall patterns, loss of woody vegetation, commercial agricultural land use, population growth, increase in human settlement, and associated poaching are some of the factors responsible for shrinking wildlife resources in the Mara. Climate change poses a serious challenge for the Mara due to its adverse effects on temperature and rainfall patterns. Several recommendations have been suggested in this paper regarding different ways of addressing these human-wildlife conflicts. They include growing wildlife as a cash crop with a bonus to the local community and collaboration with the private sector to enhance the free movement of livestock while also freeing space within wildlife corridors, among others. This paper attempts to examine how the Maasai pastoral livelihoods are changing and the strategies adopted to cope with climate change and competing land uses in the Mara ecosystem. Suggestions are also made on some practical solutions that could contribute to sustainable pastoral livelihood systems in the area if implemented. This paper relies on literature search and review of various research works carried out in the Mara-Serengeti to highlight key issues involving livelihoods’ sustainability in the Mara ecosystem. The research revealed the threat posed by climate change and underlined the need for adaptation ensure livelihood sustainability.  


2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (10) ◽  
pp. 2350-2357
Author(s):  
George Ungureanu ◽  
Gabriela Ignat ◽  
Eduard Boghita ◽  
Luiza Costuleanu ◽  
Catalin Razvan Vintu ◽  
...  

The importance of sustainable development has started to be acknowledged in Romania as well, once the various pollution sources and the restrictions affecting industrial and agricultural pollution were identified, from an economic and ecological standpoint. Sustainable development represents the need of raising awareness about environmental protection and educating people, and this aspect is reflected by the evolution of communal policies in recent years, policies marked by a shift from an approach based on constraints and sanctions to a higher level of flexibility, based on incentives. The purpose of this paper is to make a recommendation for improving existing policy by making an assessment of economic incentives in order to stimulate farmers to adopt sustainable farming systems of a viable, sustainable agriculture, capable to apply the newest technologies and lead to profit and efficiency, to the economical and organizational consolidation. To analyse the effects of different zone packages on income of farmers and the environment a linear programming model is developed for a typical, 192 ha mixed farm in the Iasi region plain pilot area. The major activities of the farm is keeping dairy cattle, growing fodder (grass, alfalfa, silage maize) and cash crops (winter wheat and maize).


Author(s):  
R.S.S. Nehru

Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large” According to World Business Council for Sustainable Development, In globalization era education plays a crucial role in building the society and Nation. India is the highest country in a number of universities which constitute more than seven hundred universities, including private, public and semi sectors. Despite India have more institutions and strategies for education still Indian education is not competitive and performing infancy stage as compared to world class level. Education has pivotal role in nation building and molding superb wings of human recourse. In globalized economy and the privatization the education have been transformed into rural or root level of sustainable development in all sorts of human life. Adopting a businesslike approach which emphasizes a strategic CSR is important to survival in this increasingly competitive arena. It does not appear as a surprise to see universities and colleges discover the opportunity to move the focus beyond the classrooms into their own institutional operations. Universities, colleges and schools are the centers of knowledge generation and sharing perform a very important role in addressing the Triple Bottom Line of the world’ socioeconomic and environmental issues by promoting sustainable solutions. This paper discusses the good CSR practices and some suggestions that can boost up the CSR management and make invites on education sector.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 4277
Author(s):  
Matthias Winfried Kleespies ◽  
Paul Wilhelm Dierkes

The UN's sustainable development goals (SDGs), which aim to solve important economic, social, and environmental problems of humanity, are to be supported by education for sustainable development (ESD). Empirical studies on the success of the implementation of the SDGs in the field of education are still pending. For this reason, using the loss of global biodiversity as an example, this study examined the extent to which high school students, teacher trainees in biology, and biology bachelor students can identify the causes of the global biodiversity loss. A new questioning tool was developed and tested on 889 participants. In addition, the relationship between connection to nature and the personal assessment about biodiversity threats was examined. The factor analysis of the scale used showed that 11 out of 16 items were assigned to the intended factor. The comparison between high school students, teacher trainees in biology, and biology bachelor students showed no significant difference in overall assessment of the reasons for global biodiversity loss. When comparing the three risk levels in which the risk factors for biodiversity could be divided, across the three student groups, only minor differences were found. Therefore, a specific education of prospective teachers is necessary, as they have to pass on the competence as multipliers to their students. No significant difference could be found when examining the relationship between connection to nature and the overall scores of the assessment scale for the reasons of biodiversity loss. However, it was found that people who felt more connected to nature were more capable of assessing the main causes of risk for global biodiversity, while people who felt less connected to nature achieved better scores for the medium factors.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 942
Author(s):  
Isabela Freitas Oliveira ◽  
Fabricio Beggiato Baccaro ◽  
Fernanda P. Werneck ◽  
Thamara Zacca ◽  
Torbjørn Haugaasen

Amazonia comprises a mosaic of contrasting habitats, with wide environmental heterogeneity at local and regional scales. In central Amazonia, upland forest (terra firme) is the predominant forest type and seasonally flooded forests inundated by white- and black-water rivers (várzea and igapó, respectively) represent around 20% of the forested areas. In this work, we took advantage of a natural spatial arrangement of the main vegetation types in central Amazonia to investigate butterfly assemblage structure in terra firme, várzea and igapó forests at the local scale. We sampled in the low- and high-water seasons, combining active and passive sampling with traps placed in both the understory and canopy. Terra firme supported the highest number of butterfly species, whereas várzea forest provided the highest number of butterfly captures. The high species richness in terra firme may reflect that this forest type is floristically richer than várzea and igapó. Várzea is a very productive environment and may thus support a higher number of butterfly individuals than terra firme and igapó. Most butterfly species (80.2%) were unique to a single forest type and 17 can be considered forest type indicator species in this landscape. Floodplain forest environments are therefore an important complement to terra firme in terms of butterfly species richness and conservation in Amazonia.


Author(s):  
Katina Popova ◽  
◽  
Miroslava Malcheva ◽  

Tourism in Bulgaria is a cross cutting sector of particular importance for unemployment and poverty eradication. As a source of foreign exchange earnings and direct investments it ensures viable medium and long-term economic benefits for both the destination and the local community. In recent years, the sustainable development of tourism on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast is seriously threatened, mainly due to the consequences of mass sea tourism, the short-sighted use of available resources and the territorial concentration of accommodation facilities. The aim of the present study is to establish the achievements of the hospitality business on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast in terms of sustainability and environmentally friendly lifestyle.


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