scholarly journals Pollination Potential in Portugal: Leveraging an Ecosystem Service for Sustainable Agricultural Productivity

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 431
Author(s):  
Caroline Wentling ◽  
Felipe S. Campos ◽  
João David ◽  
Pedro Cabral
Keyword(s):  
Land Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Pollination Services ◽  
Pollinator Abundance ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Administrative Boundary

As urbanization and agriculture increase worldwide, habitats and food sources for wild pollinators are often fragmented or destroyed. As wild pollinators contribute both resilience and variety to agricultural fields, it is desirable to implement land management practices that preserve their well-being and ability to contribute to food production systems. This study evaluates continental Portugal for its change in suitability to host bee’s pollinator species (Apis mellifera) from 1990 to 2018. It uses the InVEST crop pollination modeling tool and CORINE Land Cover, as well as parameterization to produce pollinator abundance and supply maps. These are generalized to municipality boundaries to provide actionable insights to farmers and policymakers and strengthen land management practices. It finds that the potential for pollination services is growing, with averages of both pollinator abundance and supply indices improving by 8.76% across the continental territory in 28 years. The study results are validated using another pollination index derived from a study that is based on expert opinion and field sampling in a sub-region of Portugal. This method of aggregation of model results and comparison of the percent difference by administrative boundary has the potential to better inform both policymakers and farmers about the pollination potential on a local level, as well as inspire interventions for future productivity.

scholarly journals The Perception of Overtourism from the Perspective of Different Generations

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (24) ◽  
pp. 7151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam R. Szromek ◽  
Beata Hysa ◽  
Aneta Karasek
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Road Map ◽  
Intergenerational Differences ◽  
Study Results ◽  
The Times ◽  
The Impact

The problem of overtourism, i.e., tourist congestion in visited places, and the negative impacts of tourists on the environment and residents, are increasingly noticeable with the increase in popularity of tourism. In addition, human impact on the environment is often negative in relation to the assumptions of the concept of sustainable development. However, the attitude of tourists to the problem of overtourism may vary depending on their ages, because, as in every aspect of life, there are intergenerational differences arising from the political, economic or technological development of the times in which a given generation grew up. The main purpose of the article is to examine the public awareness of the phenomenon of overtourism in the context of intergenerational differences, as well as to determine the impact of tourists on the places visited and the local community. The study was conducted on a sample of 386 respondents representing the X, Y, and Z generations. The study results showed that there is awareness among all generations of respondents about the problem of overtourism, although indifference to this phenomenon was demonstrated by the youngest respondents (Z generation). The respondents also agreed on individual elements of their own impact on the environment and residents, but with different determinations. The article ends with recommendations on the introduction of various management practices that should be implemented in order to make tourism more responsible and sustainable in the future. It is proposed that a road map should be compiled at the local level for sustainable tourism development.

Optimising solar park design and management to boost pollinator abundance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hollie Blaydes ◽  
Alona Armstrong ◽  
Duncan Whyatt ◽  
Simon Potts ◽  
Emma Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Floral Resources ◽  
Suitable Habitat ◽  
Pollination Services ◽  
Pollinator Abundance ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Park Design ◽  
The Uk

<p>Solar photovoltaics (PV) is projected to become the dominant renewable, with much capacity being installed as ground-mounted solar parks. Land use change for solar can affect ecosystems across various spatial scales and solar parks offer a unique opportunity for ecological enhancement. One compelling potential benefit put in practice by the solar industry is management for insect pollinators. Specifically, solar parks can provide refuge for pollinators through the provision of suitable habitat, potentially contributing to halting and reversing widespread declines recorded in a number of pollinator groups. There is scope to both manage and design solar parks for pollinators, but understanding is limited. Using a combination of GIS and a process-based pollinator model, we explore how solar park size, shape and management could affect ground-nesting bumblebee abundance inside solar parks and surrounding landscapes in the UK. We show that within solar parks, the floral resources provided by different management practices is a key factor affecting bumblebee abundance, but the impacts are dependent on landscape context. In comparison, solar park size and shape have a lesser impact. Moreover, the effects of both solar park management and design extend into the surrounding landscape, affecting bumblebee abundance up to 1 km away from the solar park. If designed and managed optimally, solar parks therefore have the potential to boost local pollinator abundance and pollination services to surrounding land. Our results demonstrate how incorporating biodiversity into solar park design and management decisions could benefit groups such as pollinators and contribute to the wider environmental sustainability of solar parks.</p>

scholarly journals 121 The impact of changing consumer preferences on production and management practices at cow-calf level

2020 ◽  
Vol 98 (Supplement_3) ◽  
pp. 49-49
Author(s):  
Robbi H Pritchard
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Consumer Preferences ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Herd Size ◽  
Major Step ◽  
Cow Calf ◽  
Calving Season ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Changes in cow-calf operations and management need to be deliberate and focus on consumer preferences that are substantive and enduring. For the sake of argument these preference changes could include: 1) continued erosion of the image of the cattle industry; 2) growth in demand of high quality grade beef, likely branded, and available at an affordable price; 3) production systems that yield improvements in cattle health, have a lesser environmental impact, and demonstrate prudent animal care and well-being; 4) Specification systems that may or may not include stipulations such as grass fed or non-implanted. At the ranch level there will be continued pressure to pursue rapid, efficient growth, marbling, structural soundness, and immunocompetence via genetic selection. A major step to reduce health problems is to reduce co-mingling. To achieve this goal breeding programs will change to improve the genetic and phenotypic uniformity and possibly the heterosis of the calf crop on each ranch. The National calving season needs to be more uniformly distributed throughout the year. New, more relevant cattle performance metrics will be developed. Calves that fit a branded production stream will have more value. Production streams that require Verified processes will be inequitably distributed across herd size because of associated costs, forcing smaller herds to either coop, vertically integrate, or accept generic cattle prices. Because of the diversity of environments and corresponding compatible bio-types of cows, identifying the profitable combination of specific branded systems with the genetics, calving season, labor, resource management and nutrition program of the ranch is very complicated. It will be increasingly necessary to put incremental response assessments in the context of the greater production-product system. Successful adaptors will place a much greater reliance on strong technical support in the areas of genetics, nutrition, growth, animal handling, documentation, and branded production streams.

Perceptions of wild bees and farm characteristics associated with the uptake of pollinator-supporting land management practices among Canadian apple growers

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Rachel A. Nalepa ◽  
Graham Epstein ◽  
Jeremy Pittman ◽  
Sheila R. Colla
Keyword(s):  
Land Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Wild Bees ◽  
Pollination Services ◽  
Wild Bee ◽  
Policies And Programs ◽  
Bee Communities ◽  
Perceived Costs

Abstract Pollination services are critical for food production. Although domesticated honey bees are important pollinators in agriculture, there is growing interest in supporting naturally occurring wild bees. Diversifying pollination management strategies by encouraging healthy wild bee communities may be especially useful for growers of insect-pollinated crops, such as apples. Although research has identified several land management practices that can enhance local pollinator communities on farms, there are few studies on the factors that influence growers to adopt pollinator-supporting actions on their land. Here, we surveyed 75 Canadian apple growers and used regression models to explore the influence of farm characteristics and perceptions about bees on the likelihood of adopting 15 unique pollinator-supporting practices. We also provide a descriptive analysis of growers' pollination management practices and self-assessed resourcefulness on the ability to improve habitat for wild pollinators on the farm. We found that an increase in three variables: awareness of wild bees, perception of the severity of threats facing wild populations, and the perception of the benefits provided by wild bees is associated with more pollinator-supporting practices on the farm. Overall, growers were less likely to adopt pollinator-friendly practices as the fraction of rented land increased and as the perceived costs of implementing these practices rose. We found ‘low-hanging fruit’ (i.e., pollinator-supporting practices that could be easily and inexpensively implemented) were adopted by less than one-third of growers and that the majority of those surveyed had little to no knowledge on what actions to take if they wanted to improve their farms for wild bees or where to go for that knowledge. Our results suggest that policies and programs that focus on raising grower awareness of wild bees, increasing grower perception of their benefits, and reducing the perceived costs of implementing pollinator-supporting practices may positively affect their uptake. A deeper understanding of grower perceptions will provide essential insight into how growers may contribute to wild pollinator conservation while potentially increasing agricultural production and reducing vulnerability borne of heavy reliance on managed pollinators.

scholarly journals The global problem of land degradation: A review

2021 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-231
Author(s):  
Sangita Mahata ◽  
◽  
Vishwambhar Nath Sharma ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Land Management ◽  
Land Degradation ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Climatic Factors ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Sustainable Land Management ◽  
The World ◽  
Major Factors

Land degradation has been a subject of academic research all across the world and still an important global issue in the twenty-first century. Land is an essential resource that is degraded day by day through some major factors like natural, anthropogenic and climatic factors. It is the principal basis for human well-being and livelihood as it provides us food, shelter, and multiple other ecosystem services. Land degradation has become a severe environmental problem. It is observed that a complex interplay between a variety of interrelated processes leads to what we defined as land degradation. It occurs in the form of deforestation, desertification, rapid changes in climatic conditions, waterlogging, salinization, erosion, and loss of organic matter components, etc. But we can save our land or manage our land from degradation by identifying sustainable land management practices and by adopting a precise methodology for assessing land degradation. The major objectives of this study are to address the problems of land degradation and to explore sustainable land management practices through different researches. This paper surveys the research works done on this theme and points out the key drivers of land degradation across the world, the social, economic and environmental costs of land degradation, the extent and severity of global land degradation and the appropriate methods for assessment of land degradation at global level and opportunities for improvement.

scholarly journals Spatiotemporal Variation in Pollination Deficits in an Insect-Pollinated Dioecious Crop

Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 1273
Author(s):  
Helena Castro ◽  
Catarina Siopa ◽  
Vinícius Casais ◽  
Mariana Castro ◽  
João Loureiro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Pollen Limitation ◽  
Fruit Weight ◽  
Pollination Services ◽  
Opposite Pattern ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Market Values ◽  
Pollinator Abundance ◽  
Production Values ◽  
Set Up

Inadequate quantity and quality of pollen reaching the stigmas decreases the sexual reproductive output of plants, compromising yield. Still, the current extent of pollen limitation affecting yield (i.e., pollination deficits) is poorly quantified. This study is aimed at quantifying pollination deficits in kiwifruit orchards, a dioecious plant with a fruit caliber and market value largely dependent on pollination services. For that, we set up a pollination experiment and quantified services and yield provided by current pollination vectors, and under optimal pollination, over two years in a total of twenty-three orchards covering the kiwifruit production range in Portugal. We characterized nine fruit traits and used: (1) fruit weight to calculate pollination deficits and relate them with pollinator diversity and abundance, and environmental variables; and (2) production values, fruit caliber, and market values to calculate economic impact of pollination deficits. Results showed that pollination deficits were variable in time and space and were significantly and negatively correlated with pollinator abundance, while the opposite pattern was obtained for production, supporting the notion that a higher pollinator’s abundance is related to lower pollination deficits and higher yields. Understanding the factors affecting pollination deficits is crucial to depict the need for nature-based solutions promoting pollinators and to resort to management practices assisting pollination.

scholarly journals Land Management Strategies and their Implications for Mazahua Farmers’ Livelihoods in the Highlands of Central Mexico

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Belina García-Fajardo ◽  
María Estela Orozco-Hernández ◽  
John McDonagh ◽  
Gustavo Álvarez-Arteaga ◽  
Patricia Mireles-Lezama
Keyword(s):  
Land Management ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Rural Livelihoods ◽  
Central Mexico ◽  
Cultural Conditions ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Farmer Typology

Abstract This paper presents a case study from a Mazahua indigenous community in the rural Highlands of Central Mexico. It analyses Mazahua farming livelihoods characterised by subsistence agriculture, marginality, poverty and severe land degradation. Mazahua farmers face constrained environmental, socioeconomic and cultural conditions, which influence their local decisions on natural resource management. The results describe the capital assets base used, where land, livestock and crop production are imperative assets to support farmers’ livelihood strategies. It analyses local management practices to achieve livelihood outcomes in the short/long term, and to improve or undermine land characteristics and other related assets. It also presents a farmer typology constructed by local perceptions, a controversial element to drive sustainable development strategies at the local level. Finally, it discusses how local land management practices are adopted and their importance in developing alternatives to encourage positive trade-offs between conservation and production in order to improve rural livelihoods.

Managing Horses on Small Properties

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Myers
Keyword(s):  
Land Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Routine Care ◽  
Manure Management ◽  
Property Management ◽  
Pasture Management ◽  
Natural Behaviour ◽  
Selection Property ◽  
Health And Well Being

A dream shared by many is to run a few horses on a small property on the fringes of a city or town. This book shows how to combine sustainable land management practices with a style of horse keeping that will protect the health and well-being of your horses, as well as the land and its wildlife. Good property management does not need to be an expensive undertaking. Improved pasture means less feed bills, reduced mud or dust improves a horse's health and reduces vet bills, better manure management turns a liability into an asset. The reader is first introduced to the horse's natural behaviour as expressed in body language, intelligence, ability to learn, grazing, herd instincts and social behaviour. The book then goes on to cover all the basics of safe handling, routine care and common health problems. Property selection, property design, water supply, pasture management, horse facilities, fencing, trees and plants, manure management and equipment and tools are comprehensively dealt with in separate chapters. This is a practical book written with a minimum of jargon especially for those who are new to horse ownership and small properties. It will deliver real benefits to the landholder, including reduced horse keeping costs, better welfare of horses, increased productivity, and improved land management practices.

ANIMAL AGRICULTURE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

1989 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 847-856 ◽  
Author(s):  
ERIC BRADFORD
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Research And Development ◽  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Crop Residues ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Abiotic Factors ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Population Increase ◽  
Pastoral Systems

Livestock play a very important role in the agriculture of most developing countries, accounting on average for an estimated half of agricultural output through their direct and indirect contributions. Major functions include: production of human-edible food from human-inedible forages, crop residues and by-products; concentrating nutrients, thus increasing the quality of food and producing high-value products for sale; serving as a source of savings and income for producers who lack access to banks or credit; recycling plant nutrients and improving soil fertility; serving as a food reserve; and providing draft power. Crop-livestock systems are in general more stable and more productive than cropping systems alone. A perceived problem due to livestock is overgrazing and environmental degradation, but these are usually the result of human mismanagement of the animals. Traditional pastoral systems can be not only persistent, but ecologically sound. The currently observed problems associated with pastoral systems in arid and semi-arid lands are more likely to result from breakdown of traditional management practices due to human population increase and external intervention or social changes, or from abiotic factors such as climatic variation, than from flaws in the traditional system. Research and development programs can increase the contributions of animals to the well-being of their owners and to the economies of developing countries. Some areas with high potential include: evaluation of local genetic resources; assessment of feed resources and design of economical, efficient supplementation strategies; and reduction of costs of disease control by development of multivalent vaccines. There are opportunities for large increases in efficiency of resource utilization and animal productivity. However, a more thorough understanding of social and economic as well as biological aspects of production systems than has usually existed in development projects is essential for interventions, where they are indicated, to be effective. Key words: Food quality, efficiency, production systems, sustainability, genetic resources, animal traction

scholarly journals Features of land management in the decentralization conditions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Voloshyn ◽  
◽  
A. Vitrovyi ◽  
R. Rozum ◽  
M. Buriak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Management ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Land Protection ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Land Relations ◽  
Comprehensive Plans ◽  
Rational Organization ◽  
Administrative Units ◽  
Decentralization Reform ◽  
Administrative Structures

It is established that the decentralization reform in Ukraine along with the administrative reform provided the formation of a new administrative-territorial system. This led to changes in land management, which primarily affected the improvement of land relations, setting the new administrative structures, and planning sustainable management of land protection on a local level. It is determined that certain provisions of land management in decentralization terms require proper institutionalization, in particular: establishing new boundaries for administrative units on the ground, consolidation of land management systems for united territorial communities, improving the management of agricultural lands outside the localities that are transferred to territorial communities’ ownership. It is emphasized on the need to adapt the cadastral numbers system to the new codifier of administrative-territorial units, and on the urgency of developing new comprehensive plans for the spatial development of the community, which would ensure rational organization of UTC territory in accordance with the mutual interests of all localities. It is determined that the study results may serve as a basis for justification of further institutionalization of changes in the land management.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document