scholarly journals Mitigating the Impacts of Development Corridors on Biodiversity: A Global Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Juffe-Bignoli ◽  
Neil D. Burgess ◽  
Jonathan Hobbs ◽  
Robert J. Smith ◽  
Christine Tam ◽  
...  

Development corridors are extensive, often transnational and linear, geographical areas targeted for investment to help achieve sustainable development. They often comprise the creation of hard infrastructure (i.e., physical structures) and soft infrastructure (i.e., policies, plans, and programmes) involving a variety of actors. They are globally widespread, and likely to be a significant driver of habitat loss. Here, we describe the development corridors phenomenon from a biodiversity perspective and identify the elements of best practice in biodiversity impact mitigation. We use these to carry out a review of the peer reviewed literature on corridors to respond to three questions: (i) how impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services are assessed; (ii) what mitigation measures are discussed to manage these impacts; and (iii) to what extent do these measures approximate to best practice. We found that of 271 publications on development corridors across all continents (except for Antarctica) mentioning biodiversity or ecosystem services, only 100 (37%) assessed impacts on biodiversity and 7 (3%) on ecosystem services. Importantly, only half of these (52, 19% of the total 271 articles) discussed mitigation measures to manage these impacts. These measures focused on avoidance and minimisation and there was scant mention of restoration or ecological compensation illustrating a deficient application of the mitigation hierarchy. We conclude that the academic literature on corridors does not give sufficient consideration to comprehensive mitigation of biodiversity impacts. To change this, impact assessment research needs to acknowledge the complexity of such multi-project and multi-stakeholder initiatives, quantify biodiversity losses due to the full suite of their potential direct, indirect and cumulative impacts, and follow all the steps of the mitigation hierarchy impact framework. We suggest a series of research avenues and policy recommendations to improve impact assessments of corridors towards achieving better biodiversity outcomes.

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 122
Author(s):  
Teodoro Semeraro ◽  
Benedetta Radicchio ◽  
Pietro Medagli ◽  
Stefano Arzeni ◽  
Alessio Turco ◽  
...  

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) can support decision-makers in constructing more sustainable plans, programs, and policies (PPPs). To be more coherent with new frontiers of sustainable cities, PPPs need to include conservation objectives and to increase ecosystem service (ES) strategies. The ES concept is not intrinsic to the SEA process; therefore, it is necessary to develop an approach and methodology to include it. In this paper, we propose a methodology to integrate the concept of ecosystem services in all phases of the SEA process for a sub-urban plan, including the design of mitigation measures. The case study is represented by a peri-urban development plan in the municipality of Gallipoli in South Italy, characterized by a strong tourism economy and valuable agro-ecosystems. The analysis shows the priority ecosystem services that are selected considering the sustainable development and environmental goals, the context of referment, and the aims of the peri-urban plan. After, we highlight the potential ecosystem services developed considering the design of mitigation actions like green infrastructure, which could be implemented in the peri-urban plan. The capacity to develop green infrastructure in SEA processes can configure the SEA as a tool for ecological urban design that is integrated with urban planning. This requires the ability to transfer ecological and planning theories into practical actions and the capacity of different disciplines to work in a transdisciplinary approach.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 414
Author(s):  
Huiqin Li ◽  
Cuimei Lv ◽  
Minhua Ling ◽  
Changkuan Gu ◽  
Yang Li ◽  
...  

As an effective means to coordinate cost–benefit allocation of ecological protection between upstream and downstream cities, ecological compensation is often used to improve collaborative basin-wide freshwater resources management. Yet, due to the complex relationships between upstream and downstream ecosystem services, calculating eco-compensation is not an easy task. We used ecological spillover (the amount of local ecosystem services not used in the region and thus flows to downstream areas) and emergy analysis to determine the amount of eco-compensation that the city of Xuchang should pay to the upstream city of Xinzheng (Qingyi River Basin, China) from 2010 to 2014. Eco-compensation was determined by deducting the emergy of the local, self-supplied ecosystem services of Xuchang City, calculated using an ecological-water-footprint-based analysis, from the emergy of the total ecosystem services used in Xuchang, and monetized accordingly. The results showed that the self-supplied ecosystem services decreased from 2010 to 2014 and, thus, Xuchang relied more on the ecological spillover services flowing from Xinzheng. As a result, eco-compensation increased from 990 million Chinese Yuan (¥) in 2010 to ¥509 billion in 2014, mostly due to increased demands for water purification and reduced precipitation around Xuchang. This method can be further enhanced by introducing larger datasets and can be replicated elsewhere to accurately determine ecological compensation, ensuring basin-wide collaboration towards the sustainable management of freshwater resources.


Author(s):  
Sabine Vogler ◽  
Nina Zimmermann ◽  
Zaheer-Ud-Din Babar ◽  
Reinhard Busse ◽  
Jaime Espin ◽  
...  

AbstractThe 4th PPRI Conference, held in Vienna in October 2019, addressed issues related to equitable and affordable access to medicines. A multi-stakeholder audience from around the globe discussed solutions and best practice models for current challenges such as high-priced medicines, limitations of current pricing and reimbursement policies and tight budgets for health technologies. A multi-faceted approach (so-called balance, evidence, collaboration and transparency/BECT strategy) was also discussed. This includes an improved balance of different interests and policy areas, generation of relevant evidence, collaboration between countries and stakeholders, and transparency, and was considered as the most promising pathway for the future.


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-11
Author(s):  
Kamrul Islam ◽  
Sharmin Sultana

Bangladesh safety regulations and practice is at nascent stage. Safety distance regulation for LPG installation does not match with prescriptive standard API 2510 or other international standards. No detail technical basis is available publicly for such decision making by authority. The present study focuses on risk based design best practice in industries and gap in Bangladesh safety regulations. World LPG industry faces major accidents with fatalities and huge damages. Setting up bigger safety distance with conventional firefighting equipment is not the only mitigation measures to solve complex safety issues of LPG facilities. These two parameters do not ensure whether facility risk is tolerable and ALARP. Apart from this, safety distance and protection system design varies with facility layout, wind flows, systems reliability and site ambient conditions. For accident cases, hazards consequence modeling is carried out to calculate safety distances. Industry best practice is to apply risk based design that quantify complex risk level of a facility, propose mitigation measures and thereby risk acceptance criteria in the early phase of the project for authority approval. Many countries follow such detail regulation. Regulations of API, ISO, HSE UK and NORSOK, petroleum authority Norway have been utilized as basic standards in this paper. Gap in Bangladesh safety regulations are identified. This need to be further assessed based on industry best practice risk based design standards and practices. Without appropriate regulation, Bangladesh LPG industry and society remains in enormous intolerable personnel, environmental and economic risk.Journal of Chemical Engineering, Vol. 30, No. 1, 2017: 8-11


Oryx ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 316-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Phalan ◽  
Genevieve Hayes ◽  
Sharon Brooks ◽  
David Marsh ◽  
Pippa Howard ◽  
...  

AbstractThe mitigation hierarchy is a decision-making framework designed to address impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services through first seeking to avoid impacts wherever possible, then minimizing or restoring impacts, and finally by offsetting any unavoidable impacts. Avoiding impacts is seen by many as the most certain and effective way of managing harm to biodiversity, and its position as the first stage of the mitigation hierarchy indicates that it should be prioritized ahead of other stages. However, despite an abundance of legislative and voluntary requirements, there is often a failure to avoid impacts. We discuss reasons for this failure and outline some possible solutions. We highlight the key roles that can be played by conservation organizations in cultivating political will, holding decision makers accountable to the law, improving the processes of impact assessment and avoidance, building capacity, and providing technical knowledge. A renewed focus on impact avoidance as the foundation of the mitigation hierarchy could help to limit the impacts on biodiversity of large-scale developments in energy, infrastructure, agriculture and other sectors.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (S1) ◽  
pp. 72-72
Author(s):  
Susan Myles ◽  
Ruth Louise Poole ◽  
Karen Facey

IntroductionEvidence supporting the use of pacemakers is well established. However, evidence about the optimal use of pacemaker telemonitoring for disease management in heart failure is not. Health Technology Wales (HTW) held a national adoption event to encourage implementation and best practice in use of pacemaker telemonitoring in the National Health Service (NHS) Wales to improve patient outcomes in heart failure.MethodsMulti-stakeholder national adoption workshop using a mixture of expert presentations, case studies and interdisciplinary group and panel discussions to agree key actions to understand the value and promote optimal use of pacemakers for remote disease monitoring in patients with heart failure in Wales.ResultsThe workshop was attended by forty-five senior professionals with an interest in improving care of patients with heart failure. Actions to progress included: providing a centralized Welsh system to support technical issues that arise with telemonitoring; considering interoperability with other NHS Wales systems; encouraging value-based procurement with collection of a core outcome set; agreeing implementation issues with both professionals and patients; audit to understand experience, resource use and outcomes; and sharing manufacturer evidence on the accuracy of telemanagement algorithms. It was suggested that these actions be progressed via an All-Wales multi-stakeholder approach, led by the Welsh Cardiac Network.ConclusionsDeveloping a more agile, lifecycle approach to technology appraisal is currently advocated; recalibrating the focus from technology assessment to technology management across the complete technology lifecycle. HTW will endeavour through regular adoption events to facilitate such a paradigm shift that aims to understand value and optimise use of evidence-based technologies.


Author(s):  
Carola Ricci

The scope of the present research is to understand to what extent a recent and fruitful private initiative sponsoring a safe alternative legal pathway ‘par avion’ recently spread from Italy and called “humanitarian corridors”, may in a future become a general and uniform alternative model for other European Union States. Such a best practice, which represents currently an exceptional route for vulnerable migrants mostly from Lebanon and Eritrea to enter the country without harm after a security screening and to be materially supported by the same sponsors in the crucial initial phase of integration, could potentially be extended to other EU States. Its legal basis should not be restricted to Article 25 of the Visa Code (recently interpreted by the EU Court of Justice as posing no obligation on Member States to grant humanitarian visa). There already exist clear obligations to grant humanitarian assistance to vulnerable people at risk stemming out from international law (both general and conventional) that do constitute the adequate legal basis both for States and civil society, to act in a “multi-stakeholder alliance” in order to find solutions to the challenges and opportunities deriving from international migration, as indicated in the 2016 New York Declaration.


2013 ◽  
Vol 726-731 ◽  
pp. 1194-1198
Author(s):  
Na Zhong

The evaluation of the Marine Nature Reserve-ecosystem services is the key to set the criterion of the Marine Nature Reserve ecological compensation. Therefore, this paper identified and classified the Marine Nature Reserve-ecosystem services first. It pointed out that the Marine ecosystem services referred to the products and services that gained from the Marine Nature Reserve ecosystem, and were necessary for human to survive and develop, including the supplying services, regulating services, cultural services and supporting services. After that, this paper discussed the problems to evaluate ecosystem. Finally, it studied the evaluation methods and models of the Marine Nature Reserve-ecosystem services.


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